{"podcast":{"title":"Innovation Storytellers","slug":"innovation-storytellers-3701797","podcast_index_feed_id":3701797,"rss_url":"https://innovationstorytellers.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://susanlindner.com/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/a/7/5/5/a755d4cc9a3cd33116c3140a3186d450/Cover-InnovationStories_1.jpg","author":"Susan Lindner","episode_count":100,"summary":"Did you ever wonder how an innovation got to its finish line? How innovators saw the future, made a product, and created change – in our world and in their companies? I did. Innovation Storytellers invites changemakers to describe how they created their innovation and just as important – THE STORIES – that made us fall in love with them. Come learn how great innovations need great stories to make them move around the world and how to become a better storyteller in the process. I'm Susan Lindner, the Innovation Storyteller. But I wasn't always. I've been a wannabe revolutionary, an epidemiologist at the CDC and an AIDS educator in the brothels of Thailand helping to turn former sex workers into entrepreneurs. Trained as an anthropologist and the Founder of Emerging Media, I've spent the last twenty years working with innovators from 60+ countries. Ranging from cutting edge startups to Fortune 100 companies like GE, Corning, Citi, Olayan, and nine foreign governments, helping their leaders to tell their stories and teaching them how to become incredible advocates for their innovations. Great innovation stories make change possible. They let us step into a future we can't see yet. I…","last_synced_at":"2026-06-16T14:17:09.638531+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/innovation-storytellers-3701797"},"episode":{"title":"242: Are you a Punk or a Pinstripe in Innovation?","slug":"242-are-you-a-punk-or-a-pinstripe-in-innovation","published_at":"2026-01-20T05:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/innovation-storytellers-3701797/242-are-you-a-punk-or-a-pinstripe-in-innovation","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/innovation-storytellers-3701797","url":"https://innovationstorytellers.com/podcasts","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/innovationstorytellers/Greg_Larkin_Interview.mp3?dest-id=2720171","summary":"Are you an innovator who feels caught between disruption and defensibility, wondering whether corporate innovation has lost its way? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I welcome back Greg Larkin, founder of Punks & Pinstripes, for a candid, often uncomfortable conversation about the current state of innovation within large organizations. Greg does not sugarcoat it. He argues that much of corporate innovation today earns a C-minus at best, largely because it fails the ultimate test that matters when markets tighten, and investors lose patience. If an innovation team cannot clearly justify why it deserves funding when earnings miss or a disruption hits, it is already on borrowed time. Drawing on his experience as a former Director of Innovation at Bloomberg and as an entrepreneur with multiple exits, Greg explains why innovation leadership has often been shaped by observers rather than survivors. He challenges familiar frameworks taught in boardrooms and business schools, questioning whether they prepare leaders for activist investors, AI-driven disruption, M&A fallout, or the quiet but relentless brain drain caused by the ongoing Great Resignation. The conversation explores why pitching ideas is rarely enough anymore, why outcomes matter more than vision decks, and why many innovation teams are discovering too late that credibility is earned long before the next technological wave arrives. The episode also moves beyond corporate structures into something more personal. Greg shares why he built Punks & Pinstripes as a community for executives climbing what he calls their second mountain. For many seasoned innovators, success on paper no longer matches purpose in practice. Together, we unpack what happens when wartime innovators are asked to settle i…","meta_description":"Are you an innovator who feels caught between disruption and defensibility, wondering whether corporate innovation has lost its way? In this episode of th…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3156,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/innovation-storytellers-3701797/episodes/242-are-you-a-punk-or-a-pinstripe-in-innovation/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/innovation-storytellers-3701797/242-are-you-a-punk-or-a-pinstripe-in-innovation.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}