loader from loading.io

Burn The Map: Book People, Broken Systems, and Why Kids Are Getting Dumber w/ Rae Foote

Burn The Map

Release Date: 11/06/2025

Burn The Map: Book People, Broken Systems, and Why Kids Are Getting Dumber w/ Rae Foote show art Burn The Map: Book People, Broken Systems, and Why Kids Are Getting Dumber w/ Rae Foote

Burn The Map

“If you’re worried your kid hates reading, maybe start by showing them you can sit down with a damn book. Kids do what we do, not what we say.” —Rae Foote In This Episode: We talk to Rae Foote, the unicorn who went from running logistics in military manufacturing (yes, actual missiles) to wrangling the chaos of marketing tech at Hachette Book Group in NYC—all while moonlighting as a champion for children’s literacy. Rae's journey is less “lifelong calling” and more “epic faceplant after faceplant, but make it fashion”—falling into publishing, falling for NYC, and now...

info_outline Burn The Map: Joel McKay Smith — Networking Maestro, Rural Champion, and Master of Community Capital show art Burn The Map: Joel McKay Smith — Networking Maestro, Rural Champion, and Master of Community Capital

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We talk to Joel McKay Smith—a guy whose “Rolodex” literally stress-tested the Wrench platform—about why real power isn’t in the LinkedIn follower count, but in the relationships you actually maintain. From rural Utah dairy farms to industrial parks, Joel’s journey is a hilarious, head-spinning tour straight through the heart of economic disruption and small-town resurrection. You think you’re a “super-connector”? Please. Joel remembers your name, your birthday, and probably your lactose intolerance from a conversation in 1997, all while masterminding a...

info_outline Burn The Map: Ask Me Anything with Dan & Gabi show art Burn The Map: Ask Me Anything with Dan & Gabi

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We sit down with Gabi Barragan—strategic advisor, organizational change whisperer, and the go-to for real talk about taming the AI beast in business. Gabi ditches the ‘thought leader’ theatrics and gets honest about what it really takes for companies to stop talking about AI adoption and actually get their hands dirty—without blowing the lunch budget on useless software. She walks us through the mess and magic of wrangling data chaos, the power of fierce internal experimenters (yes, she thinks your employees are already using ChatGPT behind your back), and how a little...

info_outline Burn The Map: Doors, Data, and Digital Twins with Timber Barker show art Burn The Map: Doors, Data, and Digital Twins with Timber Barker

Burn The Map

In This Episode:  We talk to Timber Barker, founder/CEO of BOOM Interactive, about turning flat floor plans into living, AI-powered digital twins—and the not-so-glamorous reality of building the company that does it. From selling his truck to keep the lights on to landing partnerships with NVIDIA and projects with the NBA, Timber breaks down how CoreSpec3D makes the built world actually usable: chat with your floor plan, drop “sticky notes” that act like tasks, render photorealistic options in seconds, and hand first responders a real-time 3D view when things go sideways....

info_outline Burn the Map: Are You Even Using Your Data? Drew Phillips on the Realities of Content & Chaos show art Burn the Map: Are You Even Using Your Data? Drew Phillips on the Realities of Content & Chaos

Burn The Map

“Don’t tell me about your fancy martech stack if you can’t tell me where your own customer data lives. Spoiler: if your dashboards are a mess, your personalization is, too.” —Drew Phillips In This Episode: We talk to Drew Phillips—part globe-trotting data wrangler, part content whisperer—about what actually moves the needle in enterprise content, data integration, and personalization (hint: it’s not a magic vendor pitch or an AI buzzword bingo). Drew reveals the truth behind making content less painful for brands that have more SKUs than most people have socks—and how chaos...

info_outline Burn The Map: Home Hacks & Human Hacks for building a Healthier, Smarter World w/ Matt Fischer show art Burn The Map: Home Hacks & Human Hacks for building a Healthier, Smarter World w/ Matt Fischer

Burn The Map

“Building the future is messy—so is your garage, probably. But at least the future will breathe better.” —Matt Fischer In This Episode:  We corral Matt Fischer—startup troublemaker, AI obsessive, and the guy who actually uses data for good (no, seriously)—for a whirlwind tour through everything from hacking the smart home to fighting mold, to upending how businesses actually make decisions. Forget the hype-cycle fluff; Matt is deep in the trenches, building tech that might actually keep your kid out of the ER and your boss in business (but hey, don’t get too cozy, bosses:...

info_outline Burn The Map: White Collar Hunger Games with Gabi Barragan show art Burn The Map: White Collar Hunger Games with Gabi Barragan

Burn The Map

In This Episode:  We sit down with Gabi Barragan, Wrench.AI’s Co-Founder and CMO (and, let’s be real, the original “Gabi Filter” for anyone who couldn’t write their way out of a Slack thread). Gabi gets brutally honest about the future of work, why most people are totally unprepared for the AI tidal wave, and the one skillset robots still can’t fake—being a decent human. She and Dan swap war stories about flattening orgs, surviving existential tech dread, and why soft skills are the new power tools. Plus: why your lawyer’s job is toast, how to future-proof your career...

info_outline Burn The Map: Steve Eror — AI Agents, Skydiving, and Why Nap Pods Are Dead show art Burn The Map: Steve Eror — AI Agents, Skydiving, and Why Nap Pods Are Dead

Burn The Map

In This Episode: We sit down with Steve Eror—skydiver, AI troublemaker, and the guy who’ll absolutely call out your nap pod culture for what it is: overhyped and overdue for extinction. Steve walks us through his wild career pivot from Wall Street’s soul-sucking grind (hello, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley) to the frontlines of AI at Signals, where he’s busy helping companies hire “cloud employees” instead of more warm bodies. Along the way, we get the unvarnished truth about what it’s really like to swap financial jargon for code, why automation isn’t your enemy (unless...

info_outline Burn The Map: Chasing Chaos, Curating Creativity, and the Relentless Art of AI Video w/ Luka Tisler show art Burn The Map: Chasing Chaos, Curating Creativity, and the Relentless Art of AI Video w/ Luka Tisler

Burn The Map

“Limitations? Please. The only thing that matters now is the idea—because with today’s AI, you can create anything. The rest is just noise.” —Luka Tisler In This Episode: We sit down with Luka Tisler, the Slovenian mastermind who treats AI video tools like his personal playground. Luka’s journey is a whirlwind of reinvention—from post-production purist to VFX wizard to motion graphics innovator to, well, teaching the rest of us how to keep up. He went from wrangling cameras to breaking generative models, turning every “hobby” into a full-blown career, and building Lighthouse...

info_outline Burn The Map: DIY Podcasting Power with Anika Jackson show art Burn The Map: DIY Podcasting Power with Anika Jackson

Burn The Map

“Don’t spend $25,000 building a studio before you’ve recorded your first episode. Please. Use your laptop, a good mic, and just get started.” —Anika Jackson In This Episode: We talk to Anika Jackson about what it actually takes to go from “hey, let’s start a podcast!” to running a slick, sustainable media machine. She walked through her own scrappy journey—launching Brand Amplified out of her PR agency, turning a side hustle into a business, and learning (sometimes the hard way) that you don’t need a $25,000 studio to get started. What you do need: consistency, a clear...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

“If you’re worried your kid hates reading, maybe start by showing them you can sit down with a damn book. Kids do what we do, not what we say.” —Rae Foote

In This Episode:
We talk to Rae Foote, the unicorn who went from running logistics in military manufacturing (yes, actual missiles) to wrangling the chaos of marketing tech at Hachette Book Group in NYC—all while moonlighting as a champion for children’s literacy. Rae's journey is less “lifelong calling” and more “epic faceplant after faceplant, but make it fashion”—falling into publishing, falling for NYC, and now rallying adults to stop outsourcing kids’ education to TikTok.

What We Cover:

  • How military manufacturing makes you chill in a tech “crisis” (spoiler: it’s not that deep, Karen)

  • Rae’s “accidental” road into publishing and why napalming the five-year plan is sometimes the only way forward

  • The literacy crisis no one wants to talk about—adults reading less, kids getting dumber (the stats are brutal, sorry)

  • Why your Kindle obsession doesn’t count if your kid never sees you with a book—and how Hachette’s Raising Readers project is about to call everyone out

  • Life lessons from screwing up, not coddling kids, and why “fuck around and find out” is elite parenting

Guest Bio:
Rae Foote is Senior Manager, Marketing Technology Ops at Hachette Book Group, where she MacGyvers book-selling systems, translates between marketers and engineers, and leads bold new initiatives like Raising Readers. She’s also on the Associate Board for Reading Partners NYC, advocating for kids’ literacy because, frankly, someone has to give a damn. A California native turned New Yorker, Rae is allergic to empty platitudes, swears by paperbacks, and has never met a broken process she couldn’t fix (or roast).

Enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Wrench.ai.

Follow Dan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbaird/

X: https://x.com/mrdanbaird

Follow Rae:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rae-foote/

New York Junior League: nyjl.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenyjl/

 

Reading Partners NYC: https://readingpartners.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rpnewyorkcity/

 

Hachette Book Group: https://hachettebookgroup.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hachetteus/

 

Follow the Pod:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@burnthemappodcast
Twitter/X: https://x.com/BurnTheMapPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burnthemappodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@burnthemappodcast
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/burnthemappodcast.bsky.social

Selected Links From This Episode:

People & Organizations Mentioned:

  • Rae Foote

  • Dan Baird

  • Hachette Book Group

  • Reading Partners NYC

  • Brett Easton Ellis (author, collector’s item in Rae’s dating life)

  • Andy Weir

  • Lois Lowry

  • Mark Danielewski

  • NY Junior League

Show Notes & Timestamps:

  • 00:08 — Welcome, Rae: Dan was a kindergarten teacher in China (no, really)

  • 01:13 — Rae’s convoluted career: “tripping, falling, and stumbling” into publishing

  • 03:37 — How tech “emergencies” are not real emergencies (Military vs. Startup Panic)

  • 07:54 — The myth of the business degree—just start doing the work

  • 10:11 — Publishing’s digital mess, why Rae loves solving problems that shouldn’t exist

  • 13:20 — Are we actually getting dumber? Declining literacy, social media, and how nobody reads anything longer than a LinkedIn post

  • 19:15 — Hachette’s Raising Readers initiative: Kids mimic what you do, not what you tell them

  • 22:13 — Why men read less, and WTF that means for raising boys

  • 23:32 — Book club trauma, lending books to dates, and always getting them back

  • 36:55 — It takes a village: Advocating for kids with New York Junior League & Reading Partners

  • 41:53 — Parenting, participation trophies, and the fine art of failing well

  • 45:46 — Teaching kids they can do hard things and not just whine about it

  • 48:34 — Show up, get wet, don't wait for perfect—life advice, or just podcasting as usual

  • 50:45 — Links Reading Partners, Hachette Book Group, and yes, go read a book, not just this web page