What does trust look like in today’s hiring process? In this week's episode, Richard Roman sits down with Michelle Magnetti, HR strategist, founder of Magneaux, and co-host of The WellNest Podcast, to explore how trust is built, broken, and restored in modern talent acquisition.

Drawing from over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition and human resources, Michelle unpacks the evolution of recruiting in the age of AI, remote work, and automation. She offers candid insights on recruiter overwhelm, candidate ghosting, and how to create hiring strategies that are both human-centered and scalable.

This week, we sit down with Dr. Laurie Shanderson, CEO of Accreditation Insights, for a timely and wide-ranging conversation to unpack the misunderstood world of higher education accreditation.

As political scrutiny intensifies and debates over DEI and educational quality deepen, Dr. Shanderson offers an insider’s perspective on what accreditation really is, why it matters, and how it can be a tool, not a hurdle, for institutional improvement.

We explore everything from emerging innovations like the 90-credit bachelor’s degree to how leadership decisions shape accreditation outcomes to the dangerous misconception that rankings say more than rigorous program review ever could.

Looking for more insights? Check us out on Substack! In this episode, we sit down with higher education policy expert Ben Cecil from Third Way to unpack the many-layered challenges (and urgent opportunities)facing America’s colleges and universities today. From Title IV funding and student debt to public trust and institutional transparency, we explore what it will take to rebuild confidence in the value of a degree.

Ben brings policy insight grounded in his frontline experience working with students during COVID-19. He offers a candid view on how higher education can shift from prestige-chasing to purpose-driven outcomes. We discuss the dangers of “some college, no degree,” the limits of the current accountability framework, and what real equity looks like when institutions truly center student success.

We sit down with Dr. Bridget Burns, the founding Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA), a coalition of public research universities transforming how higher education serves its students.

Raised in rural Montana and a first-gen student herself, Dr. Burns shares her journey into higher ed leadership and how her lived experiences continue to fuel her mission: redesigning institutions around students, not systems.

We dive into what it takes to build a high-trust network in a sector wired for competition, how predictive analytics helped UIA campuses graduate over 164,000 more students, and why transparency and career readiness are essential to restoring public trust.

This week, we sit down with Christine Wilson, founder of MtoM Consulting, to explore building trust in a digital landscape overrun with ads, algorithms, and (in)authenticity. Christine shares the journey of launching her agency in the early days of social media, how influencer marketing has evolved since the “mom blogger” era, and why authentic storytelling still wins, especially when it’s unexpected.

Richard and Christine discuss how consumer trust is formed, how AI reshapes content creation, and how small businesses can navigate the digital space without losing their authentic voice. From brand partnerships to employee retention, Christine’s insights will speak to anyone trying to market with meaning.

What does it mean to build trust across institutions that are, by design, slow to change but crucial to public life? In this episode, we chat with Katie Steen-James, Senior U.S. Policy Manager at the Open Source Initiative, for a rich conversation about trust and transformation in higher education and tech.

From her early advocacy work in Missouri’s state legislature to her leadership at SPARC and now OSI, Katie brings a blend of policy expertise, lived experience, and systems thinking. We explore how open-source software reshapes global tech policy, why trust between students and administrators often breaks down, and how AI regulation could be the next frontier for public accountability.

Katie offers a candid, grounded perspective on what it means to meet people where they are and the hidden forces that benefit from mistrust. She also shares how personal storytelling can be a powerful tool for policy change.

Erin Seheult offers a transformative alternative: leadership rooted in trust, authenticity, and shared responsibility in a world that too often equates leadership with authority or personality.

Founder of WITH Leadership, Erin's work bridges research and practice, drawing from experience in higher education and leadership development to guide clients toward clarity and courageous alignment. If you're rethinking what it means to lead or trying to build trust in a fractured space, this conversation will meet you where you are and invite you to step forward with purpose. This is leadership, reimagined.

How do we build trust between farmers, environmental advocates, and policymakers in an era of political and cultural divides? I speak with Rod Snyder, who has over two decades of experience fostering collaboration across the food and environmental sectors. As the former Senior Advisor for Agriculture to the EPA Administrator, Rod led the expansion of the Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, where he worked at the intersection of federal policy, rural communities, and sustainability initiatives. For more on Rod's work, visit https://www.junctionstrategies.com/.