Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Derek Willis, a lecturer at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism and affiliate professor at AIM — Maryland's Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute — to explore what happens when the newsroom's most powerful new tool is also its most dangerous.

In this episode, they dig into how journalism schools are preparing the next generation of reporters for a world where AI can draft articles, fabricate quotes, and produce content at a speed no human can match. Derek draws on years inside The New York Times, ProPublica, and The Washington Post to talk about where AI actually helps journalists, why his "Team Luddite" classroom experiment keeps proving human skill still matters, and how educators teach craft during a technological transition where nobody knows the end state.

Podcast Notes & Links

• An AI Upheaval Is Coming for Media. This Journalist Is Already All In – Wall Street Journal
• Union Denounces AI-Generated News Stories as Baltimore Sun Management Predicts More of Them – Baltimore Brew
• AP's Approach to Artificial Intelligence
• Principles for Using Generative AI in the Times's Newsroom – New York Times
• The Baltimore Banner's Approach to AI
• Editor's Note: Retraction of Article Containing Fabricated Quotations – Ars Technica
• Ars Technica Fires Senior AI Reporter After AI-Generated Quotes Scandal – Futurism
• An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – Scott Shambaugh

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Credits

Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producers Sam Bermas-Dawes and Shania Mapson, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.

Gary shares the framework from his book Pivot or Die — the startup pivot, the forced pivot, the failure pivot, and the success pivot — and explains why even the smartest leaders struggle with change. They dig into AI adoption, the Trump administration's new AI policy framework, autonomous vehicles stalling in Maryland, the intensifying tech race with China, and what 35 years of walking the CES floor teaches you about separating the breakthroughs from the flameouts. The conversation closes with Gary's own pivot — stepping from CEO to Executive Chair — and with the question of whether Kinsey Fabrizio will let him get a ticket to next year's show.

• Gary's latest book, laying out his four-type pivot framework, drawn from decades of leading CTA and watching companies rise and fall at CES
• The trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies, the owner and producer of CES
• Waymo's push to bring autonomous ride-hailing to Baltimore stalls as the Maryland legislature ends its session without passing the bill
• A deeper look at the regulatory gap keeping driverless cars parked in Maryland while Waymo expands to Dallas, Nashville, and other cities
• CTA's overview of CES 2026, where robotics and physical AI dominated the show floor
• A humanoid robot named Lightning finished the Beijing half-marathon in 50 minutes, beating the human world record by nearly seven minutes — then crashed into a barricade at the finish line

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Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Shanya Mapson, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.

Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Jason Stanek, Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection, to unpack why Maryland electricity bills keep climbing — and how the structure of the grid itself is at the center of the problem.

Maryland is a net importer — the state produces about 60 percent of the electricity it uses and buys the rest from the regional market. Stanek explains what that actually means: who generates power, who moves it, and who delivers it to your door. He walks through how PJM — the organization that coordinates electricity across 13 states and 65 million people — fits into the system, and why Maryland’s dependence on regional supply has become so expensive as data center demand drives capacity costs sharply higher.

The conversation covers the double squeeze on Maryland ratepayers: BGE’s multi-year infrastructure investment plan pushing distribution costs up at the same time that regional generation costs are rising. Stanek also explains the stalled renewable buildout, the fight over the proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project transmission line, and what a new deal between Entergy Louisiana and Meta suggests about how states can push data centers to pay their fair share. Plus: what regular Marylanders can actually do about their bills, including BGE’s time-of-use rate program that rewards off-peak energy use.

This episode is brought to you by:

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• PJM Interconnection — Who We Are
• EIA State Energy Profiles — Maryland
• WYPR — What Would Happen If Maryland Left the Nation's Largest Power Grid?
• CNS Maryland — As Data Centers Multiply, Maryland's Power Grid Struggles to Keep Up
• BGE Residential EV Programs & Time-of-Use Rate
• TechCrunch — $1B DOE Loan to Restart Three Mile Island
• Anthropic Exposed 512,000 Lines of Its Own Code
• WTCI AGILE: Energy Discussion with Panelists Including Jason Stanek

Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter: jasonmperry.com/newsletter

Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions: jasonmperry.com/contact

Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Shanya Mapson, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.