I just had the pleasure of traveling to New Orleans to take in the art, music, museums, and culture that the city has to offer. And trust me, it has a lot to offer. A city that old and with so much history has so much to offer on so many levels that it would take a lifetime to explore, let alone even attempt to understand.

During my trip, I chatted with a lot of people who were from there or moved there, talking about what the city is like 20 years after Hurricane Katrina. Parts of the city, like the Lower Ninth Ward, are still reeling from the impacts of the hurricane and flooding. The whole city is still being impacted by the financial mismanagement and theft allegations that happened after the storm. If you ask people (or don’t even ask them) about it, they will tell you about it.

Despite the empty buildings and empty storefronts and empty homes, there is still life in the city, as there has been for centuries. The legacy of New Orleans is full of different moments that define different periods. The more dramatic the hardship, the greater the opportunity for the return.

And it seems like the potential for hardships is only going to increase for all of us given the climate changes we have seen taking place, with Katrina being perhaps an early harbinger of things to come. My guest today on Experience by Design is here to talk about the trajectory we are on, and what it will mean for all of us.

Gerry McGovern has had a career working with organizations to identify customer needs and how to position themselves for digital transformation. Now he is leading with a different message about how we need to address the impacts of techno-capitalism for this generation and future ones as well. His book “99th Day: A Warning about Technology” was published in February 2026. In it, Gerry talks about the impending environmental and social collapse brought on by data centers, AI, and other technologies that take our shared resources for the pursuance of individual greed.

We cover a lot of territory in our conversation. We discuss how we are risking life on Earth to create AI slop. Gerry calls out the promises of a brighter technological future given the actual impacts. His initial explorations of digital waste led to a greater realization regarding the impacts of mining waste and other byproducts of unrestrained profit seeking and growth. As he observes, we are on a fast train to a massive crash unless we start to re-evaluate our priorities, policies, and positions on techno-capitalism.

And we all play a part in terms of our patterns of consumption and the marketing engines that drive it.

Ultimately, Gerry calls for us to give up and grieve for the civilization that we currently have in order to bring into existence the civilization that we need in this moment. But like with New Orleans, the more desperate the situation, the greater the opportunity for the recovery and rebirth. That is, only if we do the work necessary to bring it into being and become Good Ancestors to future generations.

Gerry McGovern website: https://gerrymcgovern.com/

“99th Day” Book: https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/99th-day/

Gerry McGovern Insights: https://gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/

This past weekend, I had the distinct displeasure of participating in an event called “The Muddy Dash,” put on by the company EventLab. I used to put on bike race events, and I have participated in I don’t know how many athletic events. Without a doubt, this was by far the absolute worst experience in almost every way from an event planning standpoint. Way too many participants for the venue, resulting in standstill traffic on single lane roads for over an hour. Not enough staff to process the participants. An unimaginative course with few built obstacles. The “EPIC PARTY” at the end was just a guy in a tent playing music. The whole affair was pretty chaotic and sad, well under what was marketed on the website.

This wasn’t a one-off situation either. If you go online and look at reviews for Muddy Dash, you’ll find many of the same comments. Regardless of the location around the US, it seems that the experience is just as bad. It takes real commitment to continuously go that far below expectations and seemingly do nothing to fix it.

On the other hand, it was a great example of what happens when you get THE UN-WOW wrong.

Another positive from the day was the way in which the participants created a wonderful vibe despite the other short-comings. It was especially great how you had people of different body types, ages, athletic abilities, costumes, all creating this kind of “community of the moment”, laughing and joking with one another. We were all there to have fun through physical activity. There was no timer and no one seemed to care about their speed. We just wanted to be active in a different kind of way than just going to the gym or going for a run. It is amazing how people coming together to exercise can even overcome the greatest attempts to sabotage an experience.

My guest today knows a lot about exercise and physical fitness. Justin Roethlingshoefer grew up in Canada playing hockey (as one does). His focus on fitness then extended to his college major in Exercise Science and a masters in Exercise Physiology. From there, he worked with teams such as Washington Capitols, Anaheim Ducks, and the National Hockey League as a performance coach. Today, he is the Director of Performance for The Hockey Summit and the Founder of “Own It,” a health system for high performing leaders.

He also is the author and founder of Holy Health, which is his effort to bridge “Scripture and science, helping individuals, pastors, and churches restore health of body, mind, and spirit.” And the book Holy Health is coming on August 11th.

We talk about his early interest in physical fitness and transformation, leading to his current focus today.

Justin talks about the need to take a more holistic approach to health that incorporates the spiritual with the physical. While there is a growing interest in health and wellness, these messages leave out an emphasis on optimizing the body in order to live one’s calling. Justin also talks about the importance of identity transformation, breaking generational patterns of alcoholism, abuse, poverty, and privilege to embrace the potential of a different life. While that might start with the body, it also has to include the spirit as well.

We also talk about the Canadian band The Tragically Hip, and the importance of coming together whether that be to watch a band on its final tour, to embrace exercise, or to live a spiritually-inspired life.

Justin Roethlingshoefer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-roethlingshoefer/

Own It Coaching: https://ownitcoaching.com/

“Holy Health” Book: https://holyhealthbook.com/

Justin Roethlingshoefer Books: https://justinroethlingshoefer.com/books/

As I have been working on my book “The UN-WOW,” I’ve been talking to a lot of people in experience design and experience management about whether or not my idea for the book makes sense. Two things have emerged from these conversations. First, people generally are very supportive of the principles behind The UN-WOW. It seems that people see a lot of opportunity in exploring more mundane aspects of everyday life for design opportunities. It has been great to hear that vote of confidence as I work on the project, and people being excited to hear more about it as it is coming together.

The second thing to emerge is that on a certain level, none of this experience design work should be that hard because our goals are pretty simple. At its foundation, we ideally are trying to make life better for our design audiences. Whether it is user, customer, patient, employee, student, client, or any other experience design space, we want to improve the experiences that people have (regardless of whether these experiences are mundane or metamorphic).

How we create these experiences, and the scale that it is done, becomes the work of the designers.

What should be easy becomes more challenging when other organizational priorities take over. Organizations can become fixated on outcomes that run counter to the goals of experience designers. Caring about customers, employees, users, and others can be seen as a luxury when the only focus is profitability. Thus, many experience designers feel frustrated when trying to do their work, running into barriers that either minimize the scope of their work, or completely block it from happening. Leaders may want to talk about being human-centered, but don’t necessarily see the need to treat people like human beings.

To talk about the challenges and opportunities, I welcome Tamar Cohen to the Experience by Design studios. Like many people in experience design, Tamar had a very non-linear path to her work. Starting out as an Art History major, she worked in galleries and auction houses. She found herself at Citibank for 16 years, applying the skills she acquired from art history to her work in customer experience. She also shares her work leading other companies like Zoetis as the Head of Global Customer Experience Strategy and at Travelers as VP of Employee Experience.

We talk about the importance of connecting employee experience and customer experience, making your employees your first customers. We also talk about the importance of ethnographic research to understand the full employee and customer journeys.

We also discuss her new project with Michael Lowenstein as well as work with James Killian (both former guests on ExD). She describes what she calls the Halo Effect, which includes conducting qualitative research based on the Four E’s Framework: educate, empower, engage, and energize. Her company HaloEffect works by diagnosing the human system first, working with organizations and leadership to put people first. Again, a simple idea that companies struggle executing, which Tamar tries to help them accomplish.

It was a great conversation about the importance of employee experience (especially in relation to customer experience), how to lead with a people-first strategy, and how even a degree in Art History can lay the foundation for better experience designs.

Tamar Cohen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamarcohen

HaloEffect: https://www.myhaloeffect.com/