{"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":"How Discomfort Is the Human Factor Driving Innovation","slug":"how-discomfort-is-the-human-factor-driving-innovation","published_at":"2026-05-12T04:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/innovation-storytellers-3701797/how-discomfort-is-the-human-factor-driving-innovation","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/innovation-storytellers-3701797","url":"https://innovationstorytellers.com/podcasts/","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/innovationstorytellers/Reeves.mp3?dest-id=2720171","summary":"How do great companies stay distinctive when everything around them is pushing them toward sameness? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Anthony Reeves, speaker, consultant, and author of Eat the Donkey: Why Great Companies Embrace Discomfort, for a conversation about creativity, brand identity, AI, and why discomfort may be one of the most valuable forces in innovation. Anthony shares how growing up in the Australian outback shaped his understanding of progress, boredom, resilience, and the creative power of empty space. From LVMH and Amazon to WPP, Nike, Jaguar, Kohler, and Southwest Airlines, he explains why the strongest brands know when to evolve and when to protect what made them matter in the first place. The conversation also moves to the tension leaders face in the age of AI. As companies chase efficiency, optimization, and automation, Anthony warns that many risk becoming average by design. We discuss why human creativity, curiosity, and distinctiveness matter even more as technology pulls everyone toward the same answers. This is a conversation about brand courage, creative restlessness, and the difference between useful discomfort and unsafe pressure. How can companies use AI without losing the very human qualities that make them worth choosing? Listen in, and share your thoughts.","meta_description":"How do great companies stay distinctive when everything around them is pushing them toward sameness? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show,…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2613,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/innovation-storytellers-3701797/episodes/how-discomfort-is-the-human-factor-driving-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/how-discomfort-is-the-human-factor-driving-innovation.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}