Communication under pressure, examined carefully.
FIR Interviews focuses on the problems communicators are being asked to solve now. Recent conversations move through AI risk, generative search, crisis planning, internal communication, measurement, bot farms, and the fragile mechanics of public trust.
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FIR Interviews is a focused interview series for the communications world. Its recent conversations show a field trying to adapt while the ground keeps moving. AI is the recurring pressure point. It appears in discussions of crisis planning, writing, generative search, internal communication, public trust, measurement, and ethics. The show’s best material comes when broad concern turns into operational detail: how trust is measured, what monitoring misses, where predictive analytics and horizon scanning fit, and why human review still matters when automation enters the workflow. Recent guests bring distinct angles rather than repeating the same AI debate. Josh Bernoff talks about AI and the writing profession. Stephanie Grober frames generative engine optimization through marketing and discoverability. Monsignor Paul Tighe places artificial intelligence beside human dignity and moral responsibility. Richard Bagnall brings measurement, evaluation, and the Barcelona Principles into the same frame as automated summaries and critical thinking. Craig Silverman and Eric Schwartzman push into digital deception, synthetic virality, bot farms, and the business incentives behind manipulated attention. Zora Artis connects AI adoption to internal communication, overwork, trust, and how people experience change inside organizations. Across the run, the show stays close to the practical vocabulary of communicators: stakeholders, credibility, content, measurement, planning, and organizational behavior. It is not flashy. That restraint is part of its value. FIR Interviews gives communication professionals a place to hear how peers and specialists are naming the risks that are already inside their work. The show suits a listener who wants enough strategic context to think clearly, enough detail to challenge assumptions, and enough caution to resist easy answers.
Made for: Suits a listener who works near communications, PR, marketing, internal communication, or organizational trust and wants grounded conversations about AI-era change. It also fits anyone tracking how misinformation, measurement, and automation affect public credibility.
What sets it apart: FIR Interviews stands apart by treating AI and digital disruption as communication problems, not just technology stories. Its conversations keep returning to practice: planning, proof, ethics, trust, and the organizational habits that determine whether messages hold up.
Interviews with business leaders and innovators of interest to communicators
A company's website can vanish from AI answers about its problems; you'll hear why.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical, systems-minded review of why AI risk, trust, and crisis preparedness now sit in the same communications brief.
A climate hazard becomes a blackout, then a data-center crisis, and the episode uses that chain to frame communication risk as a connected system rather than a set of isolated threats.
A clear, grounded review of how AI is changing writers' workloads, credibility, and professional standing.
Josh Bernoff's survey of nearly 1,500 writers gives the AI-and-writing debate a practical pressure check. Communicators are moving faster than journalists, and the reasons sound less like novelty than workload management.
A practical communications view of GEO, fresh content, and legal marketing visibility.
FIR Interviews treats generative engine optimization as a communications problem first: a useful question about whether GEO is really new SEO, a passing label, or the latest name for sound visibility work.
Richard Bagnall makes communications measurement feel practical, disciplined, and still dependent on human judgment.
Richard Bagnall makes a practical case for taking communications measurement seriously, starting with the disarming fact that he came into the field as a PR person who could not use Excel.
["For Immediate Release interview brings Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, and Philippe Boromans into a discussion of AI risk, trust, and crisis preparedness in a polycrisis era.", "Boromans uses the Campbell's email episode to show how negative sentiment hit 70 percent and AI overviews repeated fragments like mechanically separated chicken instead of correcting them.", "His survey of 102 crisis and communications leaders found one out of 87 with full AI implementation, twenty-three-point-five percent naming skills gaps, twenty-six-point-five percent testing annual plans, and twenty-seven-point-five percent with no AI protocol and no plan.", "He argues for segmented audiences, horizon scanning, truth banks, and regular micro-simulations because trust is harder to measure than to discuss."]
["Josh Bernoff joins Shell Holtz and Neville Hobson on Four-Immediate-Release to discuss a survey of nearly 1,500 writers about AI use, trust, and productivity.", "Bernoff says 61% of professional writers use AI, but only 7% use it to generate text and only 1% do that daily.", "The sharpest divide is between non-users who call AI a sociopathic plagiarism machine and heavy users who rely on it for research, background work, and transcript cleanup.", "The conversation lands on a practical rule: use AI behind the scenes, disclose it when needed, and keep human writers responsible for the final copy."]
["Stephanie Grober frames GEO as a PR play because AI overviews pull from authoritative sources, not just search keywords.", "She tells Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson that GEO is complementary to SEO, but it pushes brands beyond their own website into Reuters, AP, Axios, trade press, podcasts, and other external mentions.", "Grober says Reddit is useful for some brands but not for law firms, and she points to a Muck Rack report showing that almost 30% of AI-read sources are journalistic outlets.", "She also argues that press releases, content marketing, and consistent media quotes still matter, but only when they answer a human question and stay current within the last 12 months."]
Monsignor Paul Tai says AI can augment human intelligence, but people still have to decide whether it serves the true good of human beings.
["Shell Holtz and Neville Hobson interview Richard Bagnall, former AMEC chair and current board director, about Barcelona Principles 4.0, first published in 2010 and refreshed every five years.", "Bagnall explains how the new version maps clear objectives, stakeholder audiences, channels, measurement, and ethics into AMEC's framework, backed by a new color-coded graphic and e-book.", "He argues that AVEs remain a \"zombie metric\" because they are quick, easy, and cheap, even though AMEC treats them as invalid and recommends education, support, and alternative metrics.", "The conversation also covers AI, human-in-the-loop review, the UK government's listening work around Brexit, and why qualitative analysis matters alongside dashboards."]
Craig Silverman describes Indicator, a paid newsletter and website focused on digital deception, verification, investigations, and practical resources for professionals.
Eric Schwartzman tells Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz that smartphone bot farms now coordinate likes, comments, shares, and profile activity to manufacture popularity.
Zora Artis, CEO of Artis Advisory, argues that AI should augment human connection and decision-making in internal communication rather than function only as a productivity tool.
Sam Michelson, founder and CEO of Five Blocks, describes digital reputation management as “less like SEO, more like PR,” combining search optimization with narrative and stakeholder goals.
FIR Interviews hosts Neville Hobson and Shell Holtz speak with Steve Rubel about using MuckRack metadata and AI to identify patterns in media coverage.
Stephen Waddington discusses his draft PR framework for tackling fake news, noting that propaganda is nothing new.
Chris Penn and Tom Webster discuss the implications of the 2020 presidential election polling failures for the future of surveys in public relations.
Incoming PRSA Chair Jane Dvorak discusses the organization's 2017-2019 strategic plan, its development process, and goals for member enrichment and industry impact.
Simon Worsfold discusses his background and T-Sheets, a time tracking and employee scheduling software company.
Shell Holtz announces a new sponsor for FIR interviews and introduces an interview with Arthur W.