The Disruption Lab

95% of It Goes Through China — And We Can't Do Anything About It

The U.S. offshored its critical minerals processing decades ago. Now 95% of the world's nickel runs through China — regardless of where it comes out of the ground. Jamie Andes and William Highsmith from Critical Materials Crossroads break down what that dependency actually means, why Kansas City has the infrastructure and history to lead the reshoring effort, and what a $160 million NSF Engines grant could catalyze for a region sitting on $3-4 billion in economic potential. This is supply chain as national security — and the clock is running.

The #1 Bottleneck in Drug Development Isn’t Science

Why do new drugs and medical breakthroughs take so long to reach real people?
In this episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with Kyle McAllister, founder of trially, an AI-driven clinical trials company, to unpack the uncomfortable truth: the biggest bottleneck in clinical trials isn’t innovation — it’s patient recruitment. And in many hospitals, that process still looks like teams of research staff manually reading patient charts line-by-line to find eligible participants.
Kyle shares how his “lived experience” inside electronic health records (EHRs) and hospital data systems pushed him to build a company that helps research teams identify qualified trial candidates faster — and then actually engage them through AI-powered calling, texting, and email outreach that can screen patients using complex clinical criteria.
But this isn’t a hype episode. We talk about the real friction: trust, data security, procurement, and the fear of change in one of the most regulated industries on the planet. Kyle also gets personal about the emotional whiplash of entrepreneurship, learning not to take rejection personally, and why founder fellowship (and Kansas City’s ecosystem) matters more than people realize.
If you’re interested in AI in healthcare, clinical trials innovation, health tech startups, or how founders sell into high-risk enterprise systems, this conversation will give you a real behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to modernize medicine without breaking trust.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why patient recruitment is the #1 reason clinical trials move slowly
How AI can scan millions of patient records to match trial eligibility criteria
What hospitals struggle to believe when an AI startup claims it can “do it faster”
Where AI helps most — and where precision and error margins still matter
How to build trust in healthcare tech (because “healthcare builds at the speed of trust”)
The founder lessons: feedback, faster decision-making, and imposter syndrome
🎧 Listen now and see why the future of clinical trials might depend less on laboratories… and more on better systems.

The Overlooked Mental Health Barrier No One Talks About: Pets, Trauma & A 100% Return-Home Solutionn

What if one of the biggest barriers to escaping abuse or entering mental health treatment wasn’t money, fear, or access?
In this live episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with the co-founders, Matt Krentz and Andy Bond, of BestyBnB, a fast-growing social impact startup that’s tackling one of the most overlooked barriers in domestic violence, behavioral health, substance use recovery, and houselessness: pet ownership during crisis.
Here’s the staggering truth:
Up to 50% of domestic violence survivors who call a hotline hang up when they learn they can’t bring their pet.
And it doesn’t stop there. Across mental health services, substance use treatment programs, veterans services, and housing agencies, pets are quietly preventing people from accessing care.
So what’s the solution?
Besty BnB built a HIPAA-compliant, highly confidential marketplace platform — often described as an “Airbnb for pets” — that connects crisis service providers with vetted community foster homes. The result? People can enter treatment knowing their pets are safe, anonymous, and guaranteed to be returned.
In this conversation, we explore:
Why pet ownership is a major but underreported barrier to mental health treatment and domestic violence escape
How technology can bridge the gap between human social services and animal welfare
The complexity of building a two-sided marketplace in trauma-informed systems
Why fresh eyes can lead to breakthrough social innovation
How this platform is achieving a 100% return-to-owner rate
The impact on treatment completion, behavioral health outcomes, and shelter systems
What it really takes to build a profitable, mission-driven social enterprise
We also dive into the emotional realities of building a company that operates at the intersection of trauma response, animal welfare, and crisis care — and how purpose-driven entrepreneurship fuels resilience.
This episode is for:
✔ Social entrepreneurs✔ Behavioral health leaders✔ Domestic violence advocates✔ Animal welfare professionals✔ Startup founders building marketplace models✔ Anyone interested in innovation that actually saves lives
If you care about mental health access, domestic violence prevention, crisis care reform, or scalable social impact technology, this conversation will completely shift how you think about barriers to care.
Because sometimes the smallest overlooked barrier is the one keeping people from safety.

Building in Public: How Radical Transparency Is Changing Real Estate, Cities, and Power

What if the fastest way to build better cities wasn’t behind closed doors—but out in the open?
In this episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with Zach Molzer, Founder of Molzer Development, who is challenging every traditional rule of development by building in public—documenting projects in real time, sharing wins and failures openly, and inviting the community into the process instead of shutting them out.
From revitalizing historic buildings to navigating city approvals, investor trust, and public scrutiny, this conversation explores how transparency can become a strategic advantage—not just in real estate, but in entrepreneurship, leadership, and civic innovation.
We unpack:
Why most developers avoid transparency—and why building in public actually reduces risk
How storytelling creates trust with cities, investors, and communities before projects open
What happens when development is done with neighborhoods instead of to them
How startup-style thinking can transform legacy industries like real estate
The real trade-offs founders make when moving fast, staying visible, and leading in public
This episode is for founders, developers, city leaders, and anyone curious about how openness, accountability, and community-first thinking can accelerate progress and reshape power dynamics.
If you’ve ever wondered whether transparency slows things down—or speeds everything up—this conversation might change how you build.

What Happens to Work When AI Knows Almost Everything? (And What That Means for You)

What happens to work, dignity, and human purpose in a world where AI can write, diagnose, advise, and automate faster than most people ever could?
In this episode, we sit down with Ed, a longtime social enterprise leader and Goodwill CEO, to unpack one of the most urgent questions of our time: How do we prepare people for the future of work without leaving the most vulnerable behind?
Drawing from his lived experience as a Hurricane Katrina survivor, social entrepreneur, and workforce development leader, Ed shares why AI isn’t just a technology shift — it’s a human reckoning.
We explore:
Why AI literacy is becoming as essential as financial and digital literacy
How Goodwill is using AI to expand agency, not eliminate jobs
What “work” means when expertise is democratized
Why co-creation matters more than top-down tech adoption
The ethical lines we shouldn’t cross — even if we can
How AI can restore time, dignity, and mobility for people facing poverty, disability, or reentry after incarceration
This conversation goes far beyond hype. It’s about real people, real systems, and the responsibility leaders have when technology moves faster than policy, culture, or ethics.
If you’re a:
Workforce or nonprofit leader
Entrepreneur navigating AI disruption
Educator or policymaker
Professional wondering how AI will affect your career
Or simply trying to understand what the future holds
This episode will change how you think about AI, work, and what it means to be human.
Because AI isn’t coming. It’s already here — and the choices we make now matter.

Building Autonomy and AI for National Security in Kansas City

Artificial intelligence and autonomy are no longer future concepts in national security—they’re shaping real-world decisions, operations, and outcomes today. But while AI technology is advancing rapidly, the real challenge lies in data, culture, trust, and speed of adoption.
In this special episode of The Disruption Lab, we explore Building Autonomy and AI for National Security in Kansas City, featuring leaders from the U.S. military, academia, advanced manufacturing, and the AI industry. Together, they offer an inside look at how AI and autonomous systems are being developed, tested, and deployed across defense and intelligence—and what’s still holding progress back.
This conversation brings together:
COL Dave Wright, Chief Data Officer, U.S. Army Combined Arms Command at Fort Leavenworth
Col. Chris Hogan, Commander of the 184th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group, Kansas Air National Guard at McConnell AFB
Matthew Hizer, Director of Operations, Global Security at the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC / Honeywell FM&T)
Dr. Michael J. Pritchard, PhD, Senior Faculty in Machine Learning & Autonomous Systems at Kansas State University Salina Aerospace & Technology Campus
Jon Kramer, Chief Technology Officer at Torch.AI
Throughout the episode, the panel discusses:
Why AI in defense is fundamentally a data and systems integration problem
How autonomy is changing intelligence, manufacturing, and battlefield decision-making
The cultural and organizational barriers slowing AI adoption
The importance of human trust, human-in-the-loop systems, and risk tolerance
What the U.S. can learn from global competitors and real-world conflicts like Ukraine
This special episode was presented by AFCEA Kansas City, with a special thank-you to our moderator Molly Christie, Public Sector leader at Unstructured.io, for leading a thoughtful and timely discussion.
If you’re interested in AI in defense, national security innovation, autonomous systems, military AI, or the future of warfare, this episode offers a rare, behind-the-scenes perspective from those building and deploying these systems today.

If Your Team Isn’t Listening, It’s Not Them—It’s This One Leadership Mistake

We have more ways to communicate than ever… so why does it feel like nobody is actually hearing each other?
In this live episode of The Disruption Lab, Kevin sits down with communication strategist and executive coach Eric Morgenstern to break down what’s really going wrong in leadership communication—and how to fix it fast. From workplace trust issues to pitch coaching for startup founders, Eric shares the frameworks he’s used with hundreds of leaders to help them get clearer, sound more confident, and move people to action.
You’ll hear why great communication isn’t about what you want to say—it’s about what the other person needs to hear. Eric explains why listening is the skill most leaders are losing, how trust has shifted in the last 10–15 years, and what it takes to sound authentic when your online presence meets your in-person presence.
Plus: practical tools you can use immediately—like the “What / So What / Now What” message structure, the three magic feedback questions, and the simple word swaps that remove “wimpy language” without coming off arrogant.
If you’re a leader, founder, manager, or anyone who needs to communicate clearly in a noisy world—this episode will change how you show up.
In this episode, we cover:
Why listening (not talking) is the leadership superpower
Recipient-oriented communication: how to say it so they can actually hear it
How to build trust in a world where trust is low by default
Why your written voice and spoken voice must match (or people don’t believe you)
“What / So What / Now What”: the simplest way to explain any initiative
The “wimpy words” that quietly destroy credibility—and what to say instead
A clean feedback framework: what went great, what went poorly, what was missing
Perfect for: leaders, entrepreneurs, startup founders, corporate teams, pitch competition contestants, and anyone trying to communicate with clarity and confidence.

The Truth About Gentrification: Can Development Help Without Displacement?

What if gentrification isn’t the real problem?
In this episode of The Disruption Lab, host Kevin McGinnis sits down with Erik Murray, founder of Eastside Innovations, to unpack how we can invest in historically overlooked “east side” communities without pushing people out. From Kansas City, Kansas to Oakland, California, Erik traces how industrialization, segregation, and policy decisions created “east side disparity”—and how clean energy, innovation districts, and community-led development can turn that into east side prosperity.
If you’ve ever wondered how to do real estate development, impact investing, or community revitalization in a way that actually benefits local residents, this conversation is a masterclass.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why “east side communities” exist in so many cities (East Oakland, East Palo Alto, East Kansas City, etc.) and how industrial smokestacks, redlining, and segregation shaped them.
How to invest in underserved neighborhoods without fueling displacement—and why Eric believes everyone deserves “nice stuff,” not just luxury zip codes.
What a P4 model (public–private–philanthropic partnership) is and how blending capital can reduce risk for investors and create better outcomes for communities.
How clean energy and sustainable housing can lower total cost of living, not just rent—think no electric bills, better construction, lower insurance, and access to transit.
Why not all money is good money and how Eric uses a strict “no asshole rule” to choose investors and partners aligned with community-first values.
Erik also shares real stories from projects like Indian Springs / Midtown Station in KCK, his decade in Oakland learning from Black Panther leaders and social justice organizers, and the hard lessons from deals that fell apart—COVID-era hotels, bad capital partners, and policy shifts that pulled millions away from East Side communities.
Whether you’re a developer, impact investor, policymaker, startup founder, or community leader, this episode answers big questions like:
How do you de-risk community development projects for private capital?
Can impact investing still deliver competitive returns?
What does prosperity actually look like for East Side neighborhoods?
How can clean energy and innovation districts be tools for equity, not exclusion?
If you care about city-building, inclusive innovation, and the future of our neighborhoods, you won’t want to miss this one.

From Grants to Growth: How KC GIFT Is Rewriting the Rules of Economic Development

What happens when community capital and culture move in lockstep? In this live episode of The Disruption Lab, we sit down with Brandon Calloway to unpack how KC GIFT is revitalizing Kansas City’s East Side by funding Black-owned businesses—and how his creative venture, Blurred Media, is rewriting who gets represented in anime and manga. It’s a masterclass in practical impact: passion meets logic, storytelling meets metrics, and neighborhood change happens with residents, not to them.
You’ll hear how KC GIFT’s focused model works—51% Black-owned in the target area, at least 3 months of revenue, a clear plan for growth and job creation—plus the rigorous backend: legal and accounting hygiene, quarterly reporting, and a full year of bookkeeping, coaching, and marketing support. We also dive into the power of narrative (“storytelling is our stock price”) and why real economic development is algebra—sometimes even calculus. Along the way: the Troost Avenue 20-mile walk that turned into citywide buzz, the rise of individual giving as a modern philanthropy engine, and what leaders learn when they scale without losing trust.
Why listen (and share):
Proven outcomes: ~$1.96M granted to 79 businesses, 153 new jobs, and ~209% average revenue growth a year after funding.
Playbook you can copy: A repeatable grant + services model that ties dollars to jobs—not just headlines.
Capital x Culture: How media representation and access to capital fight the same systemic barriers.
Actionable leadership: Saying no, building systems, integrating AI into small-biz ops, and keeping focus.
Perfect for founders, funders, ecosystem builders, and anyone serious about inclusive economic development, entrepreneurship in Kansas City, and creative industries that move markets.

AI Isn’t Killing Us—We Are: How to Use Robots Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Community)

Are robots and AI actually making us smarter—or just outsourcing our brains? In this conversation with John McElligott, we unpack why technology isn’t the story—people are. From the first “tech” (domesticated wolves) to today’s cognitive offloading to phones and ChatGPT, we explore how to adopt AI, robotics, and automation without erasing what makes us human: wisdom, empathy, and culture.
You’ll hear how “Artificial Western Intelligence” bakes in our online conflict, why fear stalls innovation in mid-America, and how to flip the script with human-centered automation that creates jobs, connection, and real outcomes. We get practical—covering quick-win community pilots (like an AI art challenge that quietly teaches NLP), the data center jobs myth (and what to negotiate instead), and the next leap: real-time translation that must include cultural context, not just words.
What you’ll learn (answer targets):
How to spot when tech is using you—and how to reset it as a partner
Why fear vs. incentive messaging should change by community—and when to use each
What “Artificial Western Intelligence” means and how to build values-aware AI
The truth about data centers: low jobs, high leverage—what to demand locally
Simple pilots to teach AI skills fast (without jargon) and build public buy-in
If AI is racing ahead, our empathy has to keep pace. This episode shows how to design for human connection at scale—so we don’t automate ourselves out of a future worth having.