# The Power of Stories ✍️ — with Michael "Rands" Lopp

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/refactoring-podcast-7057405/the-power-of-stories-with-michael-rands-lopp
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/refactoring-podcast-7057405/the-power-of-stories-with-michael-rands-lopp.md
Podcast: [Refactoring Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/refactoring-podcast-7057405)
Published: 2026-06-26T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-power-of-stories-with-michael-rands-lopp--72699001
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72699001/426766807_44100_2_9e54ea9c2fff9.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/refactoring-podcast-7057405/episodes/the-power-of-stories-with-michael-rands-lopp
Duration seconds: 2634

## Resource

Today's guest is Michael Lopp, better known as Rands, who is writer of several popular books about engineering management, including "Managing Humans", which is a personal favorite of mine. Live at LDX3, we discussed his lifelong writing habit, the importance of giving feedback through stories and the leverage of leadership experience in the AI era. (00:00) Episode start(00:40) A live chat with Rands at LeadDev(02:10) How to collect and write great leadership stories(03:38) Sponsor break(05:13) Writing as a habit: from journals to 14,000 readers(08:09) The power of naming things(10:20) Using stories to give feedback without being directive(12:40) Introverts, extroverts, and bringing calm to explosive situations(15:09) Tinkering with AI: joy, interns, and daily delight(19:18) "I was wrong" why managers should code again(21:54) Do we still need middle managers in the AI era?(27:40) The accountants analogy: why more productivity creates more jobs(36:25) Managing Robots: the book that's coming - Today's episode is brought to you by Unblocked.Unblocked is the context layer for modern engineering teams.Get a free three-week trial at https://getunblocked.com/refactoring - You can also find this at: • 📬 Newsletter: https://refactoring.fm• 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Luds9dmzZDoDC8Q7EMbSw• 📱 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/refactoring-podcast/id1719137305 —For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, or appearing as a guest, email: luca@refactoring.club

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/refactoring-podcast-7057405/episodes/the-power-of-stories-with-michael-rands-lopp/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/refactoring-podcast-7057405/the-power-of-stories-with-michael-rands-lopp.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.