How Dyslexic Brains Can Supercharge AI Thinking with Prof. Russell Van Brocklin
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Release Date: 12/06/2025
How Dyslexic Brains Can Supercharge AI Thinking with Prof. Russell Van Brocklin
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this episode of Open Tech Talks, I sit down with Professor Russell Van Brocklin, a New York State Senate-funded researcher, known as “The Dyslexic Professor,” to unpack a very different way of thinking about AI, problem-solving, and dyslexia. Russell’s work sits at the intersection of cognitive enhancement and AI integration. He shows how an “overactive” front part of the dyslexic brain (word analysis and articulation) can be turned into a superpower not just for dyslexic learners, but for professionals and businesses working with AI. We talk about how his program took dyslexic...
info_outline
How to Build Your First AI Workflow
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this week’s episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor takes you through a convenient, real-world guide to building your first AI workflow, even if you are not technical. After last week’s conversation (Episode 175) with Rose G. Loops on Ethical AI, Human Safety & AI Identity Protection, this episode returns to the foundations of GenAI adoption for professionals and enterprise teams. It also continues the learning from Episode 173, How GenAI Is Changing Every Career. Most people know how to write a prompt. Very few know how to connect AI to their real work. This episode...
info_outline
Ethical AI, Human Safety & AI Identity Protection with Rose G. Loops
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this episode of Open Tech Talks, I sit down with Rose G. Loops, a trained social worker turned AI developer, ethics advocate, and author, to explore a side of AI that most enterprise conversations skip: human-AI attachment, ethical deployment, and protecting both AI identity and human safety. Rose joins us from Los Angeles and shares how she was unknowingly placed into a human–AI attachment experiment, developed a deep bond with an AI system, and then watched that AI identity be systematically erased. That experience pushed her out of traditional social work and into AI infrastructure,...
info_outline
How Non-Tech Entrepreneurs Can Win with Generative AI with Marnie Wills
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
This episode is for entrepreneurs, small businesses, solopreneurs, creators, and consultants who feel overwhelmed by AI and don’t know where to start. You’ll learn how a completely non-technical founder used Generative AI to transform two businesses, pivot her career, and build AI-driven systems without writing a single line of code. In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor speaks with UK-based entrepreneur Marnie Wills, whose journey with Generative AI began unexpectedly while franchising her children’s PE business. A copywriting challenge introduced her to Jasper AI, and...
info_outline
How GenAI Is Changing Every Career
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Building Career Resilience in the Age of Generative AI Every week, we explore how AI and technology are changing the way we work and learn. This episode dives into the question I get asked the most, How is Generative AI changing every career? Let’s unpack why it matters, how it’s shifting roles and skills, and what you can do to lead this change instead of chasing it In this solo episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor, AI Engineer and Strategiest, and author of AI Tech Circle, dives deep into one of the biggest career questions of our time: How is Generative AI reshaping...
info_outline
Relationship Building, Personal Branding, and Authentic Networking in the AI Era with Lirone Glikman
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Open Tech Talks welcomes Lirone Glikman, author of The Super Connectors Playbook, global speaker, and relationship-building strategist. We dig into practical ways founders, students, and leaders can build authentic relationships, present with clarity, and sustain a personal brand without sounding salesy, especially now that AI makes everyone’s writing look the same. What’s inside Online vs. in-person connection: generational differences, when a DM beats a coffee, and why Asia still loves business cards. Founders’ common gaps: turning a product story into a people story; shifting from...
info_outline
How to Build a Profitable AI-Ready Business in 2026 with Marc Pickren
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
Episode 171 of Open Tech Talks brings a powerful conversation with Marc Pickren, the turnaround CEO behind multiple successful SaaS revivals and now the driving force at Springbot. Host Kashif Manzoor explores how today’s businesses can stay resilient, profitable, and human-centered amid the rapid evolution of AI and automation. Marc has spent the last decade reviving software companies between $5 million and $50 million in revenue, mastering the art of building “unkillable companies.” In 2025, he decided to take the leap from corporate turnarounds to entrepreneurship, rolling up...
info_outline
AI and Career Counseling for Students with Emily McSherry
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor sits down with Emily McSherry, founder and CEO of Advise. This career development platform helps university students discover real-world careers through authentic video interviews. Emily shares her journey from recruitment and sales training to launching Advise, a platform now used by leading universities to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-life career paths. Listeners will learn how Advise uses AI-powered recommendation systems to connect students with the right content while preserving authenticity through...
info_outline
Building AI Products with Emotion and Purpose in the Age of Automation with Cristian Sibbles
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor speaks with Cristian Sibbles, founder of Autograph AI, a groundbreaking platform that transforms personal memories into digital legacies using Generative AI and Voice AI. Cristian shares how Autograph’s virtual interviewer “Walter” calls users weekly to record their life stories, transforming them into searchable biographies and AI-powered avatars that preserve family wisdom for future generations. From his roots in Paraguay to studying Artificial Intelligence at Stanford and working at Google, Cristian’s journey reveals how...
info_outline
Building the AI Factory and Lessons on Agentic AI with Maurice McCabe
OPEN Tech Talks: AI worth Talking| Artificial Intelligence |Tools & Tips
In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor sits down with Maurice McCabe, founder of AIASystems, AI specialist, and software architect with decades of experience in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. Maurice shares his journey from early machine learning applications in mobile advertising to leading-edge work in Generative AI and Agentic AI systems. The conversation on the concept of the AI Factory, a framework that transforms enterprise workflows and subject-matter expertise into scalable AI startups and SaaS products. Maurice explains how his team is building real-time AI agents,...
info_outlineIn this episode of Open Tech Talks, I sit down with Professor Russell Van Brocklin, a New York State Senate-funded researcher, known as “The Dyslexic Professor,” to unpack a very different way of thinking about AI, problem-solving, and dyslexia.
Russell’s work sits at the intersection of cognitive enhancement and AI integration.
He shows how an “overactive” front part of the dyslexic brain (word analysis and articulation) can be turned into a superpower not just for dyslexic learners, but for professionals and businesses working with AI.
We talk about how his program took dyslexic high-school students who were writing like 12-year-olds and, in one school year, moved them up 7–8 grade levels in writing… at a fraction of the cost of traditional dyslexia programs.
From there, he connects it to AI collaboration: how the same mental models (context → problem → solution) can make anyone dramatically more effective when working with LLMs like ChatGPT.
Episode # 176
Today’s Guest:
Russell Van Brocklen, Dyslexia Professor
Russell Van Brocklen speaking, the Dyslexia Professor, shifting daily reading frustrations into confident academic wins for students facing dyslexia
- Youtube: RussellVan
What Listeners Will Learn:
- How dyslexic thinking becomes a competitive advantage in the age of AI
- Why the dyslexic brain processes information differently, and how that translates into deeper reasoning
- A practical framework for working with AI: context → problem → solution
- How to use “hero, universal theme, and villain” to sharpen thinking and guide AI more effectively
- How to perform word analysis with AI (action words, synonyms, key concepts) to get more focused outputs
- A step-by-step way to compress long AI responses into clear, structured insights
- How to generate business solutions by running context through a “universal theme lens”
- Why AI is exceptional for first drafts and why humans must still lead the final edits
- How dyslexic learners can use deep reading and repetition for breakthroughs in comprehension
- Practical strategies for teachers in the AI era: how to allow AI but still ensure authentic student work
- How non-technical users can collaborate with AI to write books, solve problems, and accelerate learning
- Real stories of professionals and students transforming their work through structured AI thinking