patchperfect is officially at episode 21 and legal. Today we dive into the tech landscape shaping 2026, guided by futurist and Forbes columnist Bernard Marr, whose work I genuinely love. We walk through his biggest predictions for the year including AI’s growing energy crisis, the shift to practical quantum computing, and how agentic AI is about to reshape the way we work. We also explore why human nuance, taste and emotional intelligence become real competitive advantages as AI moves from reaction to reinvention.

In the lifestyle segment, we look ahead to 2026 with my friend Liz Cox, a postdoctoral research scientist at Harvard Medical School. We break down the key workwear and wellness trends we expect to see next year and how to stay grounded, stylish and confident heading into January.

A futurist guided tech deep dive, a 2026 lifestyle preview and a full new year glow up in one episode.

This week on patch we kick it off with the 2025 Spotify Wrapped drop. Then, a spotlight on Mira Murati, former OpenAI CTO and now founder of Thinking Machines Labs. Raised in post-communist Albania, she found stability in math and physics before building a career across Goldman Sachs Tokyo, Tesla’s Model X and Autopilot, Leap Motion, and ultimately OpenAI, where she helped shape dialogue-based interfaces like ChatGPT’s. Her new startup’s tool, Tinker, makes fine-tuning models like Llama surprisingly simple, even with minimal code.

In the lifestyle segment, we peek at her crisp personal style, including that clean, minimalist 2024 Met Gala look... to get the human side of one of AI’s most influential builders.

This week on patch: a quick AI update on Google’s “Nano Banana Pro” (thinking partner > pretty pics), then a primer on privacy in 2025 with Canadian lawyer & privacy pro Neil Proudfoot (views expressed on this show are his own).

In this episode, Neil explains what privacy truly means in 2025, how AI systems collect and learn from personal data, and why global regulation is splitting into two competing philosophies: Europe’s rights-first model and America’s innovation-first approach. We also unpack Law 25, Canada’s strongest privacy law to date, and what Canadians should know before trusting any AI tool with their data. Plus Neil's A-D-S checklist: Autonomy, Dignity, Safety. In the lifestyle segment we chat with Neil about how he’s staying grounded as a new dad.

Zoe Seguev did not follow a traditional path into crypto, and that is exactly what makes her perspective so rare. With an MSc in anthropology from the London School of Economics, her career has always focused on understanding people, systems, and the mechanics of trust. That lens carried her through consulting, operations, fintech, and eventually into one of the most demanding areas of modern finance: crypto compliance.

Today she is the Chief Compliance Officer at Tetra Trust, Canada’s first qualified digital asset custodian and the regulated vault responsible for keeping billions in digital assets safe from hacks, loss, or misuse. In this episode Zoe explains what crypto actually means in 2025, why custody sits at the foundation of digital finance, and how stablecoins are quickly becoming the quiet infrastructure behind a new global money system. She brings clarity to a space that often feels chaotic and shows how governance, oversight, and well-designed controls matter far more than hype cycles or price swings.

We also cover what people most misunderstand about regulation, how institutions are driving adoption, and why compliance remains the invisible layer that prevents collapse in an industry defined by speed and risk.

In our lifestyle segment we get Zoe’s take on showing up well at work, including the wardrobe pieces she relies on to stay polished in the C-suite. We also talk about Tetra Digital Group’s recent ten million dollar raise to build a Canadian dollar stablecoin backed by banks, fintechs, and major technology companies. It is a clear signal that stablecoins are moving from the fringe into mainstream financial infrastructure and that Canada is ready to step into the global conversation.

This week, I sit down with Anuj Soni, reverse engineer, cybersecurity expert, YouTube creator, and founder of The Malware Lab at Breakpoint Cybersecurity. We talk about how malware actually works, the difference between viruses, worms, Trojans, ransomware, and phishing, and what really happens when systems get hit. Anuj also breaks down why reverse engineering is one of the most powerful tools in modern defense.

You’ll learn how to spot red flags of an infected device, understand major malware types in plain English, see how phishing turns into real compromise, and why reverse engineering powers better threat intel and products. There’s also a career patch on proving your skills without “required experience.”

In the lifestyle segment, Anuj walks us through the reverse engineer’s uniform, from WFH staples to his go-to Nike sneakers. Plus, a quick headline on Project Concord, South Korea’s AI-run data center and how automated power and workload management could reshape global infrastructure.

This week on patch, we're talking about intentionality in tech, in security, and in your personal power.

First, we discuss the massive new $1.2 billion partnership between Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom. This is more than just a cloud: it's Europe’s first industrial AI power plant, bringing sovereign computing closer to home and changing the game for European businesses.

Then, we dive into quantum readiness. Why are experts saying the time to upgrade your digital security is now? We explain what quantum computers will do to current encryption and why the people who plan ahead will be the ones who stay in control.

On the lifestyle front, we’re sharing two patches: my new obsession with Google's NotebookLM, the AI tool that makes learning feel effortless, and the Fall/Winter 2025 fashion trends to make you feel your best at your next tech event.

I sit down with my former business school classmate Glendon Haas, now a Director at an AI company, to break down why we may still be in the stone age of AI and what it takes for models to move from talking to actually doing. We get into agentic AI, practical tool use, and how deep research is becoming the new search function.

Glendon also explains why reinforcement learning can make models too agreeable and why discernment is the real human edge in the age of AI.

In the lifestyle segment, he shares the simple reset that keeps him grounded as a director and a dad: baking cookies.

When Amazon Web Services went down this week, a small glitch in Virginia knocked major apps and airlines offline around the world. In this solo episode, I break down what actually happened, why AWS is basically the “digital real estate” the internet runs on, and how one DNS error can make everything, from Alexa to Delta, hit pause.

We also zoom out to talk about our growing dependence on the cloud, what resilience really means in tech, and how moments like this are quietly shaping a smarter, more secure internet as we move into the post-quantum era.

In the lifestyle segment, I share a quick fall travel recap from D.C. and Montreal, the Zara long waxed trench coat that became my workwear MVP, and the Victoria Beckham Netflix soundtrack that has officially become my favorite work playlist this season.