The AI energy and compute arms race is completely unsustainable. Companies are burning billions of dollars on hardware to run artificial intelligence, and they are all using the exact same foundational building block from 1943: the artificial neuron.

Today, Dr. Rorry Brenner, neuroscientist and CEO of Perforated AI, reveals why AI desperately needs a "brain upgrade." Rorry breaks down how introducing biological dendritic technology—essentially the "brain of the neuron"—can make AI models run twice as fast while making them 70% cheaper to operate.

In this episode, we cover:

-- Why the 80-year-old artificial neuron is driving compute costs through the roof.

-- The "Brain Upgrade": What dendritic technology actually is and how it works.

-- How to cut your AI compute and hardware costs by 70% without losing accuracy.

-- The difference between "raising the ceiling" (better accuracy) and "lowering the floor" (cheaper compute).

-- How making AI cheaper will democratize the industry and enable offline edge computing.

-- The massive environmental benefits of moving away from electricity-guzzling server farms.

00:00 Introduction: Why AI Compute is So Expensive

01:47 Welcome Dr. Rorry Brenner & The AI Hardware Arms Race

07:06 The "Brain Upgrade": What is a Dendrite?

08:46 The Metaphor: An Army of Toddlers vs. A Team of Adults

11:14 Lowering the Floor: Making Compute Cheaper

15:30 How Perforated AI is Bringing Dendrites to Market

22:00 Real-World Impact: Cutting AI Costs by 70%

27:11 Will This Solve the AI Hype Cycle Decline?

31:23 Democratizing AI and The Future of Edge Computing

34:07 Lightning Round

38:31 The Green AI Future & Last CallWHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.

Imagine buying a car without test-driving it. If you hate it, you can't return it. That is the unthinkable reality for many of the 2.5 million people in the US living with limb loss.

In this episode of Thought Liters, we sit down with Josh Caputo, CEO of Humotech. Josh explains how his company is revolutionizing the industry by using a robotic system that lets patients test-drive different prosthetic feet before they commit. Instead of being stuck with the wrong fit for 3 to 5 years due to insurance rules, Humotech allows patients to find their perfect fit in minutes.

We dive deep into Josh's journey from a technically curious engineer at Carnegie Mellon University to pioneering a brand-new clinical business model. We also explore the future of wearable robotics, orthotics, and exoskeletons.

Plus, stick around for our brand-new lightning round where Josh shares what keeps him up at night and the hard truths about the marathon of entrepreneurship.

00:00 The Unthinkable Problem in Prosthetics

01:48 Finding the Spark at Carnegie Mellon University

05:29 The Entrepreneur's Dilemma & Finding First Customers

08:18 Creating a "Shoe Store" for Prosthetic Feet

11:10 Moving from R&D into Real-World Clinics

13:38 How the Robotic Emulator Actually Works

15:21 Beating the 3-to-5 Year Insurance Trap

17:39 The $15B Market and the Future of Exoskeletons

21:30 Lightning Round: The Marathon of Entrepreneurship

#businesspodcast #pittsburgh #thoughtliters

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.

Ryan Shazier went from NFL stardom to a career-ending injury in a heartbeat. But his transition to the business world was just as painful. In the first ever live recording of Thought Liters, Ryan reveals post-career losses, the bad mentors he trusted, and the brutal reality of his forced pivots.

Prepare for a raw, unfiltered look at the failures that built the man you see today.

You'll hear more about:

-- The Identity Crisis: How Ryan went from "provider to provided for" overnight.

-- The $0 Mistake: The trucking business failure that drained his bank account.

-- Bad Mentors: How to spot the middlemen who will ruin your business, and properly vet mentors instead.

-- The Turnaround: How he applied the lessons of failure to build the Ryan Shazier Fund.

-- Coach Tomlin's Advice: The one principle Ryan uses to lead his team today.

0:00 Intro: From All-Pro to Forced Pivot

2:15 I Felt Adopted by Pittsburgh

6:14 The Reality Check: Money vs. Skill

14:15 Mourning Your Career vs. Mourning Your Business24:22 The Trucking Business Disaster (Full Story)

33:22 How to Build a Foundation the Right Way

45:04 Leadership: The Difference Between the Field & The Office

51:01 Final Advice: Get Uncomfortable

#businesspodcast #pittsburgh #thoughtliters

Special thanks to Komos for being the beverage partner on this event. Thanks too to Babb, Inc. and VPO for their support.

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.

Join the flight.

It sounds like a script for a reality TV show: You hire a business consultant to help organize your startup, only to discover he’s actually a high-net-worth investor in disguise, testing you for his next massive deal.

That is exactly what happened to Mike Vindler, CEO of Tronix3D.

In this episode of Thought Liters, we explore how that "undercover billionaire" moment became the catalyst for Tronix3D. Mike takes us from the early days of uncertainty to building an industrial empire that prints in grade-five titanium for aerospace and life-saving medical devices.

We also get the story of the "genius in the garage": Mike’s partner, Jason, who was hand-building 4K monitors for Samsung before the rest of the world caught up—and discuss why 99% of people are using 3D printing completely wrong.

In this episode, we cover:

-- The "Undercover Billionaire": The wild true story of the consultant who hid his wealth to test Mike’s character.

-- The "Genius" Partner: How Mike’s co-founder built tech for Samsung and Palmer Luckey out of his garage.

-- Building the Empire: Why Tronix3D isn’t printing cheap plastic toys, but rather replacing supply chains.

-- Sustainability: How they became the only facility in the US recycling 100% of their powder on-site.

-- The CEO’s Burden: The brutal honesty about what actually keeps a founder awake at night.

00:00 Intro

02:15 From Corporate to "The Real World"

08:40 Why Most People Use 3D Printing Wrong

14:54 The "Genius in the Garage": Meeting Jason

21:04 We Are The Only Ones Doing This (100% Recycling)

26:58 Fixing a Medical Device by Accident

34:37 The "Undercover Billionaire" Consultant Story

40:15 The Hardest Part of Scaling a Manufacturing Business

43:44 The Real Nightmare That Keeps CEOs Awake

47:55 The 3D Printing Buzzkill: Stop Printing Plastic Trash

54:10 The Future: Titanium & Aerospace

58:32 Where to Find Mike

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.

Thought Liters has been around for a year now. I dumped a buttload of money into it. Here's what happened, what I made, and where I'm doubling down in 2026.

In this video, you'll get a full picture of a content creator's first year of creation. The good, the money, and the future, all in 11 minutes. Let's get it.

You'll also learn:

• The "Occupational Hazard" of drinking on camera
• How I secured the show's first partnership without a massive subscriber base
• The economics of high-production content, and why I spent $24,204 on it

To all who have tuned in during 2025, this will also serve as the year in review for the show. Thanks a bunch, and see you next year!!

00:00 Intro (it's been a year)

00:22 Stats: views and subscriber growth in 2025 for Thought Liters

01:13 The Good from Thought Liters in 2025

02:09 Thought Liters Ship: an IRL event test for the show

02:30 On Tap: Thought Liters live recordings

03:13 The first partnership for the show ("The Six Pack Series"")

04:10 The money: how much Thought Liters made in 2026

04:46 The money: how much I've spent on Thought Liters in 2026 (and why)

06:10 Plug: where the money comes from (how to help)

06:50 The Plans and To Dos for 2026 for Thought Liters

09:07 Closing: Where This Came From, Early Memories, a Thanks, and small advice

#businesspodcast #pittsburgh #thoughtliters

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.

He helped integrate the Cybertruck. Now, he’s building the machine that will beat gas-powered off-roaders at their own game.

When Polaris refused to sponsor his racing career, Jonathan Powers didn't quit—he decided to become their competition. A former engineer at Honda and Tesla, Jonathan founded Super Powers Mobility (SPM) to prove that the future of off-roading isn't just electric... it's silent, durable, and insanely powerful.

Today, we prove that with a real test drive.

In this episode of Thought Liters, we sip a local flight and discuss:

• Why the Cybertruck is actually an off-road beast (and what he learned from it).
• The "Villain Origin Story" that launched a startup.
• Why hardware startups should launch in Pittsburgh, not Silicon Valley.

Finally, a real life demo in the dirt: watch us take the SPM prototype up a vertical dirt wall.

Connect with Jonathan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancpowers/

PREORDER THE SPM KIT: https://spm.fun/evk

PREORDER THE SPM TURNKEY EPEX: https://spm.fun/epex

00:00 Teaser: Can electric conquer the wild?

01:06 Intro: What is Super Powers Mobility?

02:43 From Dirt Bikes to Formula SAE

07:28 Becoming a Pro Racer (and creating a Villain)

11:37 Learning from Honda & The Tesla Cybertruck

20:10 The "Aha" Moment: Why EVs dominate off-road

24:00 The Strategy: Powertrains & Conversion Kits

30:52 Surviving Stealth Mode & The Launch

33:35 Why Build Hardware in Pittsburgh?

41:51 Advice for Hardware Founders

45:48 THE DEMO: Ripping the Electric UTV

49:19 Final Thoughts & Outro

This episode concludes our Six Pack mini-series with Innovation Works, spotlighting the founders and leaders building Pittsburgh's future.

#businesspodcast #pittsburgh #thoughtliters

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.

You might think the final frontier is in space, but the technology getting us there is being built right here in Pittsburgh. In this episode of Thought Liters: Mitch Fogelson, founder of Beyond Reach Labs, discusses "physical intelligence", which is the hardware side of robotics often overshadowed by AI.

Mitch breaks down how his company is creating structures that pack flat (like IKEA furniture) but deploy into massive, rigid infrastructure for lunar habitats, solar arrays, and even disaster relief towers on Earth.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why robots need "Physical Intelligence," not just AI.
• How to fit a skyscraper in a backpack (literally).
• Why Taylor Swift’s tour trucks could be reduced by 90%.
• The future of "Space LEGOs" and artificial gravity stations.
• Why Pittsburgh is the champion city for deep tech founders.

00:00 The Final Frontier is in Pittsburgh

01:35 Flight 1

03:17 The "Googly Eyed Robot" that started it all

04:37 Why Japan loves robots (and the West fears them)

06:33 Talking to robots before LLMs existed

09:42 Flight 2

10:17 What is "Physical Intelligence"?

11:45 Artificial gravity & spinning space stations

13:37 Demo: Hoberman spheres & pop-up trusses

18:42 How to fit a space station in a suitcase

23:04 Flight 3

23:28 Disaster relief: Cell towers in backpacks

27:35 COWs (Cell on Wheels) vs. Cheetahs

29:56 Reducing Taylor Swift's 90-truck tour convoy

33:59 Flight 4

34:21 Space LEGOs & Lunar Homes

37:10 Drug discovery & solar energy in space

39:06 Digital Twins: Solving the James Webb problem

41:28 Surviving the "Vomit Comet" (Zero-G Flight)

43:08 Flight 5

43:49 The Founder Mentality: Working backwards

46:27 Why build Deep Tech in Pittsburgh?

49:35 How to avoid "Shiny Object Syndrome"

52:43 Flight 6

53:04 Vision: Becoming the IKEA of space infrastructure

57:31 Final Advice: Be like a duck

59:12 Outro

This episode is part of our Six Pack mini-series with Innovation Works, spotlighting the founders and leaders building Pittsburgh's future.

#businesspodcast #pittsburgh #thoughtliters

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.

Migraine affects 1 in 6 people globally, yet 95% of patients aren’t getting properly diagnosed. In this episode, we explore how AI is finally giving patients weapons to fight the "Migraine Wars."

Sophia Fang is the founder of Peachy Day, a startup using data to help chronic pain sufferers reclaim their lives. Over a flight from the Pittsburgh Juice Company (no adult bevs today, as they can trigger migraine!), we discuss:

-- The shocking shortage of neurologists in the US.

-- How AI can predict chronic pain attacks before they happen.

-- Why "data privacy" in health tech needs a revolution.

-- How painting murals helps Sophia manage the pain of startup life.

00:00 The "Invisible" Crisis: 1 in 6 Americans

01:07 Meet Sophia Fang & The Juice Flight

02:14 A Family Legacy of Chronic Pain

04:29 The "Ice Pick" Month: Hitting Rock Bottom

05:53 The Shocking Lack of Headache Specialists

08:30 Why Build a Tech HQ in Pittsburgh?

10:36 How Peachy Day Uses AI to Predict Pain

14:59 Managing a Startup While in Chronic Pain

17:25 Art as Pain Management (The Muralist Side)

21:55 Is There an End to the "Migraine Wars"?

26:09 The Problem with Big Tech & Health Data

29:32 Advice for Mission-Driven Founders

31:41 The Final Taste Test

This episode is part of our Six Pack mini-series with Innovation Works, spotlighting the founders and leaders building Pittsburgh's future.

#businesspodcast #pittsburgh #thoughtliters

WHAT IS THOUGHT LITERS?

Thought Liters is a series created and hosted by Adam Conner. On the show, Adam learns from the top of the world through the bottom of their glass. Each episode, we share a flight of local craft with the best and brightest brand minds around – whether it be an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist, or otherwise. The questions evolve as the sip changes.

The show is proudly founded and produced in Pittsburgh, PA.

The whole goal is to have conversations about business with a more lighthearted look and feel. Adam thinks most business content is dry, and wants to change that.

If you’re interested, follow along! If not, that’s cool too. But if you wanna be where the thought leaders are…you’ll tune in to where Thought Liters is.