The Dumbest Guy in the Room

Innovation gets harder the older, larger, and more complex an organization becomes. Government agencies that have been around and expanding for hundreds of years are nearly impossible to evolve. And it doesn’t help that modernizing government services seldom grabs big headlines, leading politicians to focus on the biggest problems — even though it could take years before the solutions are felt by the average American..

On this week’s episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Diego Piacentini. Born in Italy, Diego was one of the earliest executives at Amazon. He climbed the ranks there for over 16 years before leaving to bring Amazon’s principles of innovation and customer-obsession to the Italian government. Now he’s back in the private sector as an investor, board member, and advisor. Diego and John talked about how governments can tackle problems, what makes America most unique on the world stage, how adventurous Diego has become at trying new foods, and whether or not he could jumpstart a Ferrari if he had to. 

It's no surprise that CivicScience data show that Americans' levels of stress are still running high after the coronavirus pandemic. So, people are taking matters into their own hands. Acts of self-care, "revenge travel," and splurging of all kinds are hallmarks of U.S. consumerism right now. Nowhere has this trend been more evident than in the beauty and cosmetics industry. Through all the ups and downs of quarantines, supply chain disruptions, and inflation, the beauty category keeps growing, quarter after quarter. 

On this episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell. John and Dave discuss how the pandemic changed the way Ulta customers think about beauty products, Ulta's wildly successful partnership with Target, their investments in minority-owned beauty startups, corporate leadership, and the very best way to eat ketchup with a basket of fries.

How are we supposed to know what really matters anymore? That used to be what the news was for. Reporters would uncover the things we couldn't see, work diligently to surface the truth, and deliver it to us in a newspaper we read cover to cover. But all that changed with the 24-hour news cycle, the internet, and the competition and fragmentation they created. We used to only read or watch what matters. Now, it only matters what we read or watch. 

On this week's episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Christopher Cuomo, the host of CUOMO on NewsNation. Christopher is trying to establish a middle ground in the partisan world of national news. They talk about the uphill battle of winning over a moderate audience – long turned off by the polarizing news of the day – and how to get people focused on the big, meaningful problems that actually matter.

Our elected leaders used to set the tone of political discourse. Today, politicians take cues from their tribe, gleaning their talking points from whatever's trending on social media that day. And because legislation can't be written in 140 characters, there's a huge disconnect between the soundbites that voters want to hear and the substantive policies the country actually needs. That disconnect is particularly pervasive in technology policy — or the extreme lack thereof. The tech industry moves so fast and the nuances are so complex, Congress can't keep up.

Today on The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Congressman Mike Doyle, who's retiring after this term following 28 years in the House of Representatives. Congressman Doyle holds a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and he chairs the subcommittee on communications and technology, where the most important debates on tech policy are happening. The two talk about the changes the congressman has seen over three decades in Washington; how the new breed of politicians is more interested in being social media stars than passing laws; and why tech remains largely unregulated. 

This week on The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Jeff Wilke, who played a major role in building Amazon into the company it is today. After his retirement from Amazon in 2021, Wilke co-founded a company called Re:Build to help revitalize American manufacturing.

John and Jeff talk about how short-term, quarterly earnings-driven corporate decision-making in America has created a host of problems that only corporate America can solve. Jeff also shared the origins of Amazon’s famed leadership principles and why they were so crucial to the company’s success.

It's no secret that the pandemic changed everything that businesses knew about their customers overnight. But old habits – and big systems – are hard to break, especially in big corporations where innovation is expensive and "risk" is a swear word.

On this week's episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Shelley Bransten, Microsoft's corporate vice president for global retail and consumer goods. John and Shelley talk about how COVID became the new "chief innovation officer" in retail, how companies need to be agile and resilient in the face of constant change, and whether it's better to write a grocery list by hand or on a smartphone.

Like many things in our country, media is broken – badly. It's hard to know where to start to fix it. Media outlets who once prided themselves on rigor and objectivity are now forced to pander to the biases of their tribal audiences, lest they lose viewers and advertisers to the countless other things vying for our attention. Algorithms help to promote the most sensational and divisive content possible – all while our private data is collected under murky terms.

On this week's episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes John Battelle, a legendary journalist who helped create Wired magazine 30 years ago and has launched several influential companies since then, including The Recount. The two discuss Twitter, TikTok, the future of privacy, and the role advertisers can play in saving media – and saving us from it.

The U.S. economy is absolutely massive. It’s also extremely complex, and that makes it difficult from the political perspective. You can’t thoroughly explain globalization and supply chains in a meme. We need to make economics more approachable and more relatable for the average person, and stop talking about the US economy like it’s one big monolith.

In this episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Michelle Meyer, the chief North American economist for Mastercard and one of the most influential people on Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and CNBC. John and Michelle talk about the rising prominence of women in economics and finance, why Michelle isn’t alarmed about the recent economic chaos, the role of technology in improving productivity, and why you should rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.

It’s almost impossible to keep up with all the crises in America today. There’s inflation, energy costs, drug prices, mental health, supply chains, inequality, and so much more. Even COVID is raging again. Meanwhile, we’ve just kind of accepted the political animosity. Then there are the existential catastrophes on the horizon: climate change, food shortages, geopolitical crises.

But what are we supposed to do about it? Those problems take science, and a boatload of money, and an almost reckless amount of courage to tackle. Thankfully, we also have those in America.

In this episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, host John Dick welcomes Astro Teller, the head of an organization simply called X – the so-called “moonshot factory” of Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube. Astro and John talk about how X is trying to solve seemingly unsolvable problems by failing as quickly and shamelessly as possible.

The health implications of the pandemic are staggering. Tens of millions of Americans got COVID, as many as 1 million may die from it, and countless others will deal with its lasting effects – maybe forever. Then there are the indirect consequences: 35% of U.S. adults are heavier than they were before the pandemic, drinking and smoking are on the rise, and exercise and healthy eating are on the decline. And don’t forget about the mental health effects, particularly among women and teens.

But a return to health is coming – we just don’t know when. CVS Health Chief Marketing Officer Norman de Greve joins host John Dick to talk about pandemic health trends and which will stick, how businesses need to adapt to them, and a passionate disagreement about eggnog.

It’s hard to imagine TV shows or movies captivating our nation the way they used to, which is a shame, because we’ve never needed something to bring us together like we do today. Sure, there are shows like Squid Game and Ted Lasso, but a third of Americans don’t have Netflix and many more don’t have Apple TV+. It makes you wonder if entertainment does more to divide us — both because of how fragmented it is and how it’s deliberately engineered to appeal to specific segments of the population. So where does it all leave us?

In this episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, Axios Media Reporter Sara Fischer and Rich Greenfield of LightShed Partners join CivicScience CEO John Dick to discuss the present and future of everything from the news to the movies to the metaverse — whatever that is.

Of all the questions we ask at CivicScience, the rising value of time over money has been evident in spades during the pandemic. Why? Because we finally learned what it was like to have time. This week on The Dumbest Guy in the Room, Amazon VP of Global Marketing Claudine Cheever joins CivicScience CEO John Dick to discuss how companies can deliver on promises of speed and convenience, and how Amazon is hoping to become the world's best employer at a time when employee expectations are changing fast.

As political tribalism rages across America, supporting brands on social media has gotten more complicated. The brands we align with have to align with our values – because supporting the wrong ones could alienate us from our political tribes. This week, McDonald’s Global Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley joins CivicScience CEO John Dick to discuss how brands can navigate the minefield of politics and cancel culture, and whether it’s possible for a brand to appeal to everyone – or even most of everyone.

Politics used to take a backseat to economics, but at some point that all changed. The average American today is better off financially than they were before the pandemic, but consumer confidence – our economic outlook – is in the tank. Why? It's politics, of course. 

In this episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, Tony Fratto, the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and current partner at Hamilton Place Strategies, joins host John Dick to discuss the friction between political tribalism and economic truth, how government and media have failed in explaining basic policy virtues to the American people, and why bagel sandwiches kind of suck.

CivicScience data show that Americans’ passion for music has been on a steady decline since 2016 — especially among Gen Z.

In this episode of The Dumbest Guy in the Room, legendary music critic Bob Lefsetz joins host John Dick to talk about the state of the music biz mid-pandemic, the effect of streaming, and how the music industry can turn things around.

Welcome to 'The Dumbest Guy in the Room'

In Season 1, CivicScience founder and CEO John Dick will interview some of the most gifted visionaries in business, technology, media, entertainment, and politics.

You’ll meet people who are changing entire industries thanks to the most unexpected insights.

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