This Tech Was Made for You and Me

Season three of TechXY Turbo is complete, and it was our most expansive season yet. First, thank you to Dustin Snyder, Nicole Palsa, Jamie Bono, Rachel Eastlack, Ankur Sheth, Dillan Sayers, Nushrat Ahmed, Tucker Holladay, and to our studio ROC Vox for ensuring the sound matched the quality of the conversations.

The concept behind TechXY is simple. For all my professional focus in tech, the truth is that technology is so much more than IT and the tech industry itself. It was made for, and is used by, all of us. Tech is for everyone, especially the people we'd never assume were techy in the first place.

Dustin Snyder kicked off the season with his thesis that organizations aren’t broken so much as built without intentionality. Look closely, and the system reveals itself. Nicole Palsa took us somewhere TechXY had never gone, into country music, genealogy, and the DNA databases holding some of the most personal data we’ll ever share, where AI tools reveal discoveries but only our humanity makes them mean something.

What Jamie Bono learned as a paramedic carried into his work as a data engineer: technology and our insights are only as good as the context we build around them. Ankur Sheth, after 25 years in cybersecurity, reached the same conclusion from the opposite end, noting that the most persistent vulnerability still isn’t technology. It’s us. The human layer.

Rachel Eastlack of TechBuffalo showed what happens when you build access on purpose, through Family Code Nights, youth navigators, and tech programs designed for all. That stretch meant something for the show, too, as “Access Granted” was our first guest-hosted episode, led by Juweria Dahir.

We closed with a roundtable featuring Rust Belt Robotics and Sisterhood of Trades, two remarkable community organizations reshaping what’s possible when you open up wide access to tech and tech education. Better still, we were joined by two of the founders, a mentor who has volunteered with both organizations, and a ninth grader who mastered 3D printing for a robotics competition.

Thanks to everyone who’s become part of TechXY. And the next time you’re doom scrolling about all the ills of AI and tech, remember, much like the refrain from the populist Woody Guthrie anthem “This Land Is Your Land”, tech was made for all of us, including me and you.