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This episode of FUTUREPROOF. is different.

My guest is Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was wrongfully detained and abused in a Russian gulag for nearly three years, freed in a high-profile prisoner exchange in 2022—and then made a decision few could comprehend: he voluntarily went to Ukraine to fight against the same system that imprisoned him.

In this conversation, Trevor reflects on what captivity does to the human mind, how survival reshapes your definition of justice, and why freedom—real freedom—can’t be taken for granted once you’ve lost it.

We talk about:

• What daily life inside a Russian penal colony is actually like—and how close he came to dying there
• The mental discipline required to survive prolonged isolation, hunger, and uncertainty
• The emotional toll of being turned into a geopolitical bargaining chip
• Why revenge eventually gave way to a deeper definition of justice
• The surreal contrast between everyday life and active war zones in Ukraine
• Being critically wounded by a landmine—and what it means to survive twice
• How his understanding of freedom, responsibility, and humanity has fundamentally changed

This is not a conversation about politics.
It’s a conversation about power, resilience, moral injury, and what it means to remain human when systems fail you.

Trevor’s memoir, Retribution: A Former US Marine's Harrowing Journey from Wrongful Imprisonment in Russia to the Front Lines of the Ukrainian War, is not an easy read—but it is an important one. And this conversation is not comfortable—but it is necessary.

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For years, we treated emotional intelligence like a cultural add-on.

Nice to have.
Important, maybe.
But not central to performance.

That framing doesn’t survive the AI era.

In this episode of FUTUREPROOF., I sit down with Dr. Bushra Khan, founder of Leading with BK, to examine what actually differentiates leaders as automation compresses the knowledge gap. When AI can draft, analyze, summarize, and even simulate difficult conversations, the advantage shifts. It moves from what you know to how you show up.

Bushra has spent over 15 years helping leaders translate emotional intelligence from buzzword into operating system. We talk about why “soft skills” should be understood as strategic skills, how negativity bias quietly distorts leadership judgment, and why loneliness inside high-performing teams is less about remote work and more about emotional avoidance.

We also explore some uncomfortable tensions:

• If AI amplifies leaders, what exactly is it amplifying?
• When does candor become bluntness — and erode trust instead of building it?
• Why do leaders underestimate the emotional consequences of automation?
• What does bravery look like when decisions are both rational and painful?

Bushra argues that most organizations are still trying to fix people instead of fixing environments. They invest in workshops while ignoring incentives. They push productivity while neglecting psychological safety. They assume proximity equals connection.

But as AI takes over more technical tasks, influence becomes the real differentiator. And influence is emotional before it is analytical.

This conversation isn’t about positivity or platitudes. It’s about leadership under pressure — layoffs, automation, rapid skills shifts — and what it takes to signal trust and authority through noise.

Because the future of work won’t just test our systems.

It will test our emotional maturity.

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What if the most undervalued leadership skill in the AI era isn’t technical fluency—but emotional presence?

This episode of FUTUREPROOF. features Claude Silver, the world’s first Chief Heart Officer and the No. 2 executive at VaynerX, joining the show to unpack why authenticity, empathy, and belonging are no longer “nice-to-haves,” but strategic advantages.

Claude’s 2025 book, Be Yourself at Work, challenges the long-standing belief that professionalism requires emotional distance. Instead, she argues that in a world defined by AI, automation, and burnout, the leaders who win are the ones who lead with heart—intentionally, skillfully, and without performative fluff.

We explore:

• Why “authenticity” has been misunderstood—and how to practice it without oversharing or losing authority
• What leading with heart actually looks like inside a 2,000-person global organization
• How emotional skills become power skills as AI absorbs more technical work
• The difference between fitting in and true belonging—and why that gap is costing companies talent and trust
• How leaders can balance emotional bravery with emotional efficiency in an always-on, high-pressure world

This is a conversation about leadership after the old playbook breaks—and what replaces it when humanity becomes the edge.