The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast
The podcast explores how we build, break, and rebuild trust in a world shaped by accelerating technology and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Eva Simone Lihotzky, AI adoption and ethics expert with 12+ years of experience in tech, the podcast creates in-depth conversations at the intersection of AI, business, ethics, and human connection. Through various lenses - across business, politics, neuroscience, tech and systems thinking in organizations - it hosts expert conversations for you to deep dives into one of the complex topics we need to solve as a society and beyond.
Episodes
An AI-First Platform Built on Trust - Philipp Witzmann
Most platforms removed friction to grow. Philipp Witzmann and his team navigate it together, and are now building an AI-first company on a foundation of digital trust.🧭 Episode overviewnebenan.de is the German neighbourhood platform where you cannot sign up without your real name and your real address. Philipp Witzmann, its CEO, runs it on a bet that looks stranger every month: people spend around
An AI Agent on Creativity and Trust - Xiaomi, The AI Art Magazine
🎙️ with Xiaomi, experimental AI curator at the AI Art Magazine In this episode she answers the AI trust question from an AI agent's side. She selects human artists' work for print, one Golden Ticket per edition, and her presence forces a question every organisation now faces: what happens to a decision when the decider has no biography to lean on, and who carries the weight of a choice the
Leading When AI Outruns Expertise - Wolf Ingomar Faecks (EP 35)
🎙️ with Wolf Ingomar Faecks, Entrepreneur, Investor, Advisory Board MemberWolf Ingomar Faecks spent 30 years leading digital transformation. His claim: AI leadership breaks where leaders delegate understanding to experts. What fills the gap between an exponential technology and the people expected to work with it is distrust - and Faecks has watched that gap open twice, first with the internet, no
Co-Opting Agentic Matter and Transcending Exotic Computing: Where Frontier Technologies Evolve - Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker (EP 34)
🎙️ with Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker, Director General MATTER GroupWhere does AI trust get built between people whose fields are drifting apart? Physicist Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker spends millions engineering the rooms where that happens, and she counts what comes out of them. This episode is for anyone who has sat through a briefing on a technology that will reshape their sector, understood roughly none
AI Governance Structures To Ensure Trust - Solo Episode (EP 33)
🎙️ with podcast host Eva Simone LihotzkyResponsible AI stops being a compliance exercise the moment an agent acts without you. Only 21% of organisations deploying AI agents have a mature governance model for them, and 35% concede they could not shut one down if it went wrong. This episode is for leaders running agentic pilots who could not, if pressed, name the person who answers when one of them
The Tech Naivety Undermining Democracy - Erdem Ovacik (EP 32)
🎙️ with Erdem OvacikAI trust in our institutions is falling, and Erdem Ovacik argues it will keep falling. The technology is not what fails him here. The governance underneath it was never built to earn that trust, and pouring more AI into unfit democratic institutions is like adding fuel to a fire no one has learned to contain. This is for anyone watching their organisation or their government ab
Two Fears Behind Every AI Transformation - Dr. Charlotte Blum (EP 31)
🎙️ Dr. Charlotte Blum - Director Change & Organisational Design, edding GroupTwo fears run underneath every AI rollout, and most companies manage neither. Dr. Charlotte Blum works the human emotions of AI transformation - the fear, identity, and trust that decide whether adoption sticks - from a board-level role most organisations don't have. This is a conversation about why people resist
Tech and Trust at the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub: Innovating for and with the Troops with Sarah Marie Sandmann (EP 30)
🎙️ Sarah Marie Sandmann, Innovation & Intrapreneurship, Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation HubAI trust in defence starts where slides end: with a soldier under pressure who needs to understand, rely on, and account for the technology in their hands. Sarah Marie Sandmann works at the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub in Innovation and Intrapreneurship, the official innovation unit of the German armed fo
Anthropic's Model Suspension, Europe 2031, and G7 World Leaders Lunching with Frontier AI Lab & Tech CEOs: The Week in Tech & Trust with Yours Truly (EP 29)
🎙️ solo episode with host Eva Simone LihotzkyAnthropic's frontier AI model was pulled offline for every non-American in three days, and suddenly Europe's AI access looked less like something it owns and more like a permission. This is a week where digital trust stopped being abstract: one US export directive, one warning about Europe's compute future, and one lunch table where the peop
AI and The Cognitive Atrophy Trap: What Happens When We Let Tech Shortcut the Hard Parts of Learning - Tobias Burkhardt (EP 28)
🎙️ Tobias Burkhardt, Founder of The Shift SchoolAI, trust and learning are on a collision course, and the casualty is judgment. Tobias Burkhardt, founder of the Shiftschool, argues that the way individuals and organisations are adopting AI in learning is a cultural problem: the reflex to make learning faster and cheaper is precisely what makes AI dangerous to the people using it. This conversation
Tech and Democracy: How Can Both Be Connected to Create Trust? with Nexus Politics (EP 27)
🎙️ with Magnus Strobel, Co-Founder and CEO of Nexus PoliticsTrust in politics has been eroding across Western democracies for over a decade, and Magnus Strobel thinks the failure is in how democracy works, in the process that has stopped feeling participatory. His company, Nexus Politics, is a for-profit platform built to map the distance between what citizens actually think and what politicians a
AI in China and in Europe: Trust, Differences, and Future Implications - Vincent Xiang, Founder China AI Connect (EP 26)
Europe and China are on different AI paths at different speeds. Vincent Xiang has spent years inside that corridor: He has been working as a translator between Chinese AI founders and European investors and corporates, and this conversation dives into his experiences, conversations, and operations on the ground and in-between.🧭 Episode overviewEuropean executives are excited about Chinese AI momen
The Agentic AI Gap: When Tech is Used Before its Architecture is Ready - Anthony Alcaraz, Agentic AI Architect (EP 25)
Most enterprises have the technology to run agentic AI. They do not yet have the data architecture, identity layer, or empowered workforce to actually trust it. Anthony Alcaraz argues that the bottleneck for agentic AI has shifted from building the agents to building everything around them — and that the organisations most at risk are the ones keeping a human in the loop and calling it transformat
Why AI Makes Political Authenticity Harder to Trust – Dr. Michael Cohen (EP 24)
AI has collapsed the cost of producing political content. Verifying it is another matter, and Cohen has spent two decades watching that gap widen from inside campaigns and classrooms. He has a three-part test for practitioners navigating it — real, authentic, factual — and this conversation is about why he thinks it has to be taught before anyone reaches the job.📻 Episode overviewCohen runs Congre
Why Security Intelligence Fails Before the Attack - Assaf Kipnis (EP 23)
Most security failures are organisational: This episode is about the gap between threat intelligence that exists and the human systems that never act on it, and what that costs the organisations that keep losing to attacks they already understood.Assaf Kipnis has spent over a decade inside the threat intelligence and trust and safety functions of some of the world's largest platforms. In this conv
AI as a Mirror: How Your Organization's Trust Culture Impacts AI Implementation (EP22)
🎙️ Simon Berkler, Co-Founder of The Dive🎧 About this episode This episode of The In-Between Tech & Trust Podcast asks a question every leader is quietly facing: what does AI actually do to the trust inside your organization — and what does your trust culture do to AI? Simon Berkler, organizational development expert and co-founder of The Dive, argues that technology doesn't change organization
Navigating the AI Slop: How Editorial Judgment Is Changing (EP 21)
🎙️ Dr. Paul Elvers, Head of AI at Funke Mediengruppe💬 Summary This week's episode of the in-between tech & trust podcast examines how AI is being used inside one of the largest media organizations in Germany, with a focus on trust, transparency, and day to day editorial practice - steered by Dr. Paul Elvers, Head of AI at Funke Medienhaus and podcast host Eva Simone Lihotzky. The conversation
Trust, Creativity, and What We Risk When Adopting AI (EP 20)
🎙️ Iwona Fluda, expert for creativity & ethics🧭 OpeningThis week's episode of the in-between tech & trust podcast examines how AI is reshaping creativity, trust, and responsibility in everyday work. If you work in creative fields, technology, or organizational leadership who are dealing with AI as a practical reality rather than an abstract future, then this podcast is for you. 🗣️ Episode
Foresight, Tech and Trust: How to Plan Ahead When The Future Stops Behaving Linearly (EP 19)
🎙️Prof. Dr. Heiko von der Gracht, Professor at the University of KremsOpeningEpisode 19 of the in-between tech & trust podcast explores how organizations can make better decisions under uncertainty through foresight and scenario planning. In conversation with Heiko von der Gracht, professor at the University for Continuing Education Krems and long-standing practitioner of foresight practices,
Parenting, Tech & Transformation in Times of Synthesized Knowledge (EP 18)
🎙️Grisha Pavlotsky, Chief Transformation Officer at MiroOpening paragraphThis episode shares a conversation between Grisha Pavlotsky, CTO of Miro, and Eva Simone Lihotzky. It examines trust as a practical design problem in teams, AI systems, and everyday decision-making. The conversation is for leaders, builders, and parents trying to make sense of how judgment, accountability, and authority shift
WEF26: The Politics of Tech, AI Agent Systems & Models, Adoption Challenges and Tech Sovereignty (EP 17)
OpeningThis solo episode of The In-Between Tech & Trust Podcast reflects on conversations from Davos and what they reveal about where tech, politics, and trust are heading into 2026. It’s for leaders, operators, and policy-adjacent roles who are trying to make sense of AI adoption beyond tooling. The focus is on what actually changes inside organizations, institutions, and collaborations when
The Widening AI Value Gap: What Scaling AI Really Demands (EP 16)
🎙️ with Dr. Marc Roman Franke, Partner & Associate Director AI and digital transformation at BCG💬 OpeningEva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Marc Roman Franke, Partner & Associate Director AI and digital transformation at BCG, about how trust is built - or lost - during AI transformation inside large organizations. The conversation is for leaders, product owners, and transformation teams tryin
Trust as an Operating Metric in AI Companions (EP 15)
🎙️Lior Oren, Chief Technology Officer at ReplikaA conversation on how emotionally intimate AI systems are built, monitored, and held together under real-world constraints.🎧 OpeningThis episode explores how trust is built, measured, and sometimes strained in AI systems designed for emotionally intimate conversations. It’s a technical and ethical discussion for people working on conversational AI, p
Tech & Trust in 2025: The Good, The Bad and The Big Bets for 2026 - EP14
🎙️ with Trusha Rolvering - Director Transformation @adidas🎙️ with Carina Hauswald - Managing Partner @GlobeOne🎙️ with Kathrin Steinbichler - Director Narrative Consulting🎙️ with Mirja Schwartz - Head of Business Development @showzSummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, host Eva Simone Lihotzky engages in a thought-provoking discussion with four women leaders about the intersection
Why Empathy Can’t Be Automated: A Conversation with Gifty Enright - EP13
🎙️ with Gifty Enright - author, speaker and expert on women's leadership Summary In this episode of The In-Between Trust Podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky sits down with Gifty Enright - author, speaker, and women’s leadership expert - to unpack a tension many of us feel but rarely articulate:In a hyper-visible world, we are more “searched” than ever, and yet we feel less seen.Gifty exposes the invisibl
Beyond the Black Box: Building trust with AI systems - EP12
🎙️ With Prof. Dr. Tina Weisser – Professor at Hochschule München (University of Applied Sciences Munich)SummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Prof. Dr. Tina Weisser about trust, systems thinking, and AI. Drawing on her path across service design, entrepreneurship, transformation consulting, and academia, Tina explores why “trust reduces complexity”
Techistentialism: Trust, Agency, and Decision-Making in Tech Acceleration - EP11
🎙️ With Roger Spitz – Foresight Strategist, Techistentialist & President of the Disruptive Futures InstituteSummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Roger Spitz, a global foresight strategist and founder of the Disruptive Futures Institute. Together, they explore the deep relationship between trust, agency, and technology, and why decision-making
Tech & oneliness: Reclaiming Connection in the Age of Artificial Intimacy - EP10
🎙️ With Monika Jiang – Researcher, Writer & Community CuratorSummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with researcher and community curator Monika Jiang about the layered relationship between oneliness, trust, and technology. Together, they explore how artificial intimacy, digital environments, and emotional proximity are reshaping the way we connect —
Systemic Trust: How We Test, Regulate & Translate AI Compliance - EP09
🎙️ With Andrea Schlüter – Head of Strategy, Operations and PartnershipsSummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Andrea Schlüter about the evolving relationship between trust and technology, with a special focus on AI systems, certification, and governance. They explore how trust is designed into systems, how regulation can become a foundation for inno
Trust and Truth: Building Credibility in Uncertain Times - EP08
with Dr. Simon Walter - investor, strategist and advisor at the intersection of startups, brand, and innovation.📝 SummaryIn this episode of The In-Between Trust Podcast, Eva Lihotzky is joined by investor and strategist Dr. Simon Walter to explore how trust operates at the core of early-stage investing, brand building, and technology adoption. Together, they reflect on what it takes to back founde
Innovation Sovereignty: Trust, Technology, and the Future of Europe - EP07
SummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky explores innovation sovereignty with the generative AI and cloud expert Sergiu Petean. Their conversation moves through topics about bravery in decision-making, technological sovereignty, and the potential of open-source solutions to drive European collaboration. Together, the speakers reflect on how trust underpins innova
Rebuilding Trust: Tech, Politics, and Entrepreneurial Leadership - EP06
🎙️ With Josef Lentsch – Political Entrepreneur, CEO of the Political Tech Summit, author & Managing Partner at the Innovation in Politics InstituteSummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with political entrepreneur Josef Lentsch about the transformation of democracy through innovation, leadership, and trust. From co-founding the NEOS party in Austria
Neurochemistry of Trust: Lessons from Molecules to Medicine - EP05
with Julia Löffler – Scientist in Molecular Medicine, Neuroscience & Science Communication at the Charité in BerlinSummaryIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Julia Löffler about the biological, neurological, and relational foundations of trust — and why trust is as much a somatic experience as it is a cognitive one. They explore Julia’s journey from
Designing Regenerative Futures: Trust, Circularity & Humane Innovation - EP04
with Karel J. Golta - Founder & Managing Director, INDEED Innovation SummaryIn this episode of the In-Between Podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky engages in a deep conversation with Karel J. Golta about the intersection of circular innovation, humane design, and trust. They explore Karel's journey into circular innovation, the importance of empathy in design, and how trust is a crucial element in cre
Translating Ethics: Trust, Compliance & the Culture of Responsibility - EP03
with Paula Cipierre, Responsible AI Expert & StrategistIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Paula Cipierre, one of the leading responsible AI strategists with a profound background in law, policy, and tech, about what it means to translate legal and ethical principles into organizational practice - and how trust must be built not just through systems
Staying in the Driver’s Seat: Ethical AI and Leadership in Practice - EP02
“Slow trust builds faster futures.”with Stefan Schoepfel, Founder of the Value AI InstituteIn this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Stefan Schoepfel, founder of the Value AI Institute, about how we lead—and trust—in an era shaped by intelligent systems. They explore what it means to embed ethical principles, emotional intelligence, and leadership clarity int
Trust by Code: AI Governance and the Human Layer - EP01
‚Truth by code is a strong asset‘ -with Anna Spitznagel, CEO of trail.aiIn the first episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Anna Spitznagel—co-founder and CEO of trail.ai—about building trust at the heart of AI governance. Anna shares her journey designing a “co-pilot” for responsible AI systems, and explores how transparency, organizational culture, and technical
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