The Chad & Cheese Podcast

Before job boards were obvious, before résumés were broken beyond repair, and before “AI in recruiting” was a buzzword, Jeff Taylor was already there building Monster from a dream, a notebook, and a whole lot of pushback. In this special live conversation, Jeff sits down with Joel Cheesman to walk through the real Monster story: the early rejections, the $4M sale that could’ve been billions, the Super Bowl gamble everyone said was a mistake, the LinkedIn deal that never was, and why résumés and job postings are fundamentally failing today. From DJ booths to dot-com booms, from getting humbled by Facebook to getting rebuilt at Bridgewater, Jeff explains why he’s back and why BoomBand might be his most ambitious swing yet. Big ideas. Bigger regrets. Zero nostalgia. And one founder who’s still swinging for the fences.

The latest installment of The Chad & Cheese Podcast kicks off 2026 with a skeleton crew and a surplus of snark. While Chad Sowash is busy plotting his escape to the beach, Joel Cheesman, J.T. O'Donnell, and Lieven dive into a workforce landscape that feels more like a digital battlefield than a job market. The trio explores why today’s entry-level talent might be fundamentally "broken" by recent history and how a new wave of high-tech sabotage—involving hidden AI commands—is forcing platforms like Indeed to overhaul their defenses. Between roasts of industry giants and a deep dive into "agentic" automation, the panel questions if the traditional act of "applying" for a job is officially dead. The chaos doesn't stop at the office door, as the conversation swerves into the bizarre intersection of professional networking and romantic snooping. From high-level CEO shuffles at Oyster and Textio to a major university scandal involving a fake Einstein quote, this episode exposes the growing pains of an AI-saturated world. Whether it’s a "desperate" new ad campaign from ZipRecruiter or the strange rise of job hunting on dating apps, the crew connects the dots between global trends and absolute industry absurdity. Tune in to find out who’s winning the HR tech wars and why 2026 is already off the rails. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and French Fry Debate 02:59 - Impact of COVID on Entry-Level Jobs 05:57 - The Role of AI in Job Applications 09:08 - Leadership Changes in the Industry 11:44 - Indeed's Response to Resume Manipulation 14:55 - The Future of Job Recruitment 17:57 - Wrap-Up and Final Thoughts 28:32 - Leveraging Opportunities in Job Searching 29:57 - The Impact of Quiet Hiring on Job Market 31:29 - Navigating ATS and Job Applications 32:53 - The Evolution of Recruitment Technology 34:41 - LinkedIn's Response to AI and Competition 36:56 - The Future of Agentic Recruiting 39:56 - AI in Job Applications: A New Era 42:56 - The Intersection of Dating and Job Seeking 56:05 - Creative Approaches to Networking and Recruitment

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

AI didn’t kill creativity — it buried it under a mountain of soulless slop. The boys are back with Jim Kukral, recovering politician, cancer survivor, proud Clevelander, and Admiral of the Cleveland Floaters — to torch the algorithmic apocalypse. From Coca-Cola’s AI holiday ads to the coming “Chipotle Effect” (when robots make your burrito so perfect it finally creeps you out), Jim says humanity’s last unfair advantage is… being human. So he quit his job and started throwing wild, screen-free boat parties on Lake Erie to prove it. Meanwhile, Chad asks the uncomfortable question:Are we really ready to fight back — or are we already too comfy with our AI girlfriends and digital cages? Laughter, existential dread, sweaty dance floors, and zero filters.This one hits different.

It's our prediction episode. What else could you possibly need to know to push PLAY? We recap 2025 - what we and our friends got right and wrong - and get our crystal ball out for 2026. This year, friends of the show, Jason Putnam, Quincy Valencia, Emi Beredugu and J.T. O'Donnell join the boys - including Lieven - in guessing what's in store for the world of work in the year to come. The usual suspects, like ZipRecruiter, Indeed, iCIMS and others are highlighted, as well as big trends like automation, A.I. and more are discussed. So what are you waiting for? Get a jump on '26 and hit the ground running.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

Chad & Cheese go full rebel mode with Kim Storin, the marathon-running, transformation-junkie CMO at Zoom, who just unleashed the company's biggest brand campaign ever: "Zoom Ahead." Featuring SNL's Bowen Yang in a hilarious workplace uprising (written and produced by Colin Jost's No Notes agency), the spot is a love letter to frustrated users everywhere—lampooning clunky competitors while reminding the world why people actually love Zoom. Kim dishes on reigniting that pandemic-era passion, pivoting from IT buyers to everyday users, embedding groundbreaking AI into workflows, expanding beyond meetings (hello, contact centers, events, and the fresh Bright Hire acquisition for recruiting), and fighting the short-term "coin-operated" mindset with real long-term brand building. She talks partnering with the C-suite for true ROI, the rise of "human-in-the-loop" over AI slop, empowering employees as brand evangelists, and why trust and customer-centric stories trump CEO monologues every time. Raw, strategic, and packed with insights for anyone in HR tech or marketing—this episode is a masterclass in keeping an iconic brand human in an AI world.

2025 didn’t just shake HR and recruiting. Nope, it yanked the curtain back and lit the place on fire. This year-in-review isn’t about press releases and keynote fluff. It’s about what really went down when the doors were closed: job boards locking down your hiring data like it’s nuclear codes, HR tech rivals apparently confusing “competition” with espionage, private equity strip-mining legacy platforms,and founders playing 4D chess while employees got stuck paying the entry fee. From Indeed trying to own the entire hiring pipeline, to the Rippling vs. Deel spy thriller nobody asked for, to Monster France shutting its doors while exec bonuses stayed warm, to Job.com’s bankruptcy unfolding like reality TV — none of this is theoretical. It all happened. Add AI agents ghosting resumes, Slack messages turning into courtroom exhibits, LinkedIn becoming a credibility minefield, and recruiters caught in the blast radius wondering how the hell this became their job. Welcome to 2025's Wrap-Up Show. HR’s messiest season yet. 🍿

In this eye-opening episode, the boys dive deep into the shadowy world of social media algorithms with AI in HR governance expert Martyn Redstone. With over 20 years in recruitment and a focus on ethical AI in HR, Martyn unpacks a viral experiment by Jane Evans and Cindy Gallop that exposed shocking disparities. Is this intentional discrimination? Not quite—it's the insidious "proxy bias" at play. Martyn breaks it down: LinkedIn's algorithm penalizes topics common among women. This creates a vicious cycle where established voices dominate, and emerging ones—often women's—get buried. LinkedIn denies using gender as a factor, but as Martyn argues, the real issue is between the lines. From content visibility traps to calls for transparency, this discussion reveals how tech perpetuates inequality in professional networking. If you're in HR, tech, or just navigating LinkedIn, you won't want to miss these insights on building a fairer digital future.

The Chad & Cheese Holiday Clip Show (aka: HR’s Greatest Hits of 2025) We cracked open the vault and stitched together the smartest, loudest, and most brutally honest moments from this year’s conversations — because nothing says “holiday cheer” like calling BS on broken hiring. This episode delivers a full snack tray of takes from leaders who actually run hiring at scale: 🍿 Fake applicants, AI fraud, and résumé chaos🍿 Why job boards are quietly losing leverage🍿 How companies are cutting spend and improving quality🍿 The real role of AI 🍿 Why owning your candidate data actually matters🍿 Human vs chatbot: where the line really is🍿 What happens when recruiters stop playing defense From Marriott to Domino’s, SmartRecruiters to healthcare, retail, and enterprise — this is the unfiltered stuff people only say when the mics are hot. Consider this your year-end mixtape of truth bombs, hot takes, and “wait… they actually said that?” moments. 🎄 Press play.🎧 Eat the leftovers.🔥 Start 2026 smarter than your competitors.

As the curtains close on 2025, The Chad & Cheese Podcast delivers one of its most explosive episode of the year: the annual Naughty & Nice Lists. Joined by Maureen “Mo” Clough for a dose of holiday chaos, the crew survives Joel’s recent sidewalk wipeout and a round of bourbon-fueled storytelling before diving into the heroes and villains of the industry. On the Nice List, the trio celebrates a small-business CEO’s grit against crushing tariffs, a major tech platform’s "Domino’s moment" of radical honesty that led to a massive acquisition, and groundbreaking data that finally shatters ageist myths in the workforce. They also toast a legendary founder who caught lightning in a bottle twice and an enterprise giant that finally got serious about modernization through an aggressive string of strategic buys. The festive mood shifts quickly as the team unwraps the Naughty List, beginning with a tech titan’s "inhumane" 3:00 AM layoff strategy and a major industry association’s staggering $11.5M legal defeat that exposed some shocking hypocrisy. The drama intensifies with tales of corporate espionage involving a CEO fleeing to Dubai, a global staffing firm accused of stiffing its own people while taking government handouts, and the infamous "Coldplay-gate"—the viral jumbotron scandal that cost two executives their careers and defined the summer of 2025. From industry-shifting pivots to the year’s most cringeworthy memes, you’ll have to listen to the full countdown to find out which brands and leaders earned a crown and who walked away with a lump of coal.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

On the Chad & Cheese Podcast, hosts Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash welcomed Alexis Meschi, the pasta-making, client-charming co-founder of Ora Marketing — not Aura, because apparently, we’re not glowing with ethereal vibes, but slinging strategic social media for recruiters and staffing agencies. Hailing from California’s Bay Area, Alexis, a former school teacher with three young adult daughters (who occasionally crave Taco Bell over gourmet Italian), dished on her “done-for-you” marketing agency that crafts LinkedIn-centric content like videos, posts, and articles to help recruiters snag clients without breaking a sweat. She’s all about keeping it real on LinkedIn, the recruiter’s digital watercooler, while side-eyeing TikTok as a brain-corrupting time vortex—sorry, no dance videos here! Alexis tackled the AI hype, warning against tools that promise the moon but deliver digital lint, offering a five-point checklist to dodge the fluff: ensure the tool solves a real problem (not just shiny candy), fits your workflow without turning it into a circus, provides actual human support (not just a dusty FAQ), shows clear 30-day results (numbers, not warm fuzzies), and boosts human connection, because nobody wants to recruit via chatbot therapy. With a nod to society’s WALL-E-esque obsession with instant gratification, she insisted humans still crave real connection—unless you’re in the U.S., where Uber Eats and Instacart are apparently our love language. Catch Alexis on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-albright-meschi-8b10a2243/), where she’s serving up marketing wisdom with a side of wit, and skip the TikTok scroll to keep your brain uncorrupted.

This week, the gang kicks things off with LinkedIn’s shiny new 100-million-strong verification army, because nothing says “I’m a real human” like flashing a blue badge that apparently gets you 60% more profile views and 50% more love on posts (fake LinkedIn influencers are sweating bullets right now). Then the trio dissects Findem’s mysterious acquisition, wondering if it's a path to riches for job boards or a one-way ticket to obselescence for the agent phenomenon. Walmart sneaks in as the dark-horse employment hero, proving even the retail behemoth can out-innovate and outsmart the market while competitors are still trying to get their own employee engagement strategies from hallucinating. Additional fireworks come when Chad, J.T. and Joel tackle AI-generated content—specifically OpenAI’s Sora. Joel wonders if we’re about to drown in perfectly polished, soulless videos, JT argues creators can finally clone themselves (hello, 48-hour workdays!), and Chad just wants to know who’s actually going to pay for all this sci-fi wizardry instead of, you know, real revenue. And, naturally, it wouldn’t be Chad and Cheese without Chad recounting his house-selling saga like it’s a Greek tragedy and Joel dropping holiday nostalgia bombs that somehow make like worth living again. Too much? Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and Podcast Overview 02:01 - The Impact of AI on Creativity and Content Creation 05:00 - Personal Updates and Life Changes 07:56 - Nostalgia and Tribute to John Candy 10:59 - Women in Corporate America: Challenges and Changes 14:01 - Engagement and Feedback in the Corporate World 16:06 - The Concept of 'Enshitification' in Platforms 21:07 - Recent Layoffs and Corporate Decisions 22:39 - The Impact of Layoffs and Economic Trends 24:26 - LinkedIn's Verification Program and Its Implications 29:01 - Findem's Acquisition of Getro and Job Market Dynamics 34:11 - Walmart's Transformation and Employee Investment 40:24 - NFL Talent Management and Corporate Parallels

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

Charlene Li joins Chad and Cheese to tackle the messy reality of AI in the workplace, stressing that while the technology is hyped, successful adoption is always about people, not tech. She exposes the painful truth: 95% of AI pilots never scale because leaders treat it like a technology implementation, not a strategic transformation. To win, organizations must form a Minimally Viable Team (MVT) that includes HR and key strategic thinkers, focused on supporting top business objectives. Before any training, leaders must address employee fear and anxiety about job loss, creating a safe space to discuss concerns. According to Li, speed is the new moat, meaning companies must move beyond pilots to adopt a rolling 18-month AI Roadmap, prioritizing clarity and continuously adapting their plans every quarter. The goal is to cultivate integrated intelligence, using AI not just for productivity, but to enhance uniquely human traits like empathy and judgment, ultimately turning employees into "super humans." Chapters00:00 - Intro & Bio02:00 - Book Origin04:00 - 95% Pilot Fail06:00 - MVT & Strategy08:00 - Fluency Mandate11:00 - Fear & Culture14:00 - Speed Moat16:00 - Superhumans22:00 - Roadmap & Messy Middle31:00 - Shadow AI Amnesty34:00 - Teen Advice39:00 - Wrap

Strap in, kids — this week on The Chad & Cheese Podcast, the gang returns from skiing, globetrotting, and loudly judging their Spotify Wrapped to break down a blockbuster week in TA. First up: VONQ drops its biggest launch in years, rolling out its shiny new “Echo” platform like they're gunning for an Apple keynote. Did they finally build something the industry actually needs? Did they actually stick the landing? And is this the opening move in a coming acquisition play? We’ve got thoughts… lots of them. Then: Indeed pulls the ladder up — again. Anonymous job alerts? Gone. New walls? Higher. Data grabs? You bet your ass. We’re diving into why job seekers are about to get screwed and why employers should be panicking yesterday. We’re also hitting Instagram’s five-day RTO mandate (spoiler: it’s not about “saving employees from depression”), Australia’s crackdown on under-16s on social media, and one of the most creative protest videos to hit Home Depot’s parking lot. Plus: whiskey, fantasy football standings, union-staffing détente, and enough holiday chaos to make Santa call HR. It’s spicy. It’s snarky. It’s peak Chad, JT, and Lieven. You’ve been warned.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

In this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, hosts Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash welcome Desiree Throckmorton, senior consultant at OutSolve and former Kaiser Permanente TA manager, for a deep dive into the escalating world of I-9 compliance amid unprecedented ICE enforcement. Desiree breaks down I-9 fundamentals: a decades-old (1980s) federal mandate requiring employers to verify every new hire’s identity and work authorization via Form I-9, regardless of company size. Section 1 is completed by the employee on day one; Section 2 by the employer within three business days using original documents (List A, B, or C). Remote verification via video has been allowed since 2023, but errors—missing fields, wrong dates, or accepting invalid docs—can trigger fines from $281 to $2,789 per form, with knowingly hiring unauthorized workers costing up to $27,894 per violation. The real alarm bell? A $170 billion ICE budget boost, including $30 million to hire 10,000 new agents focused on workplace audits and raids. Desiree notes 15,000 targeted I-9 inspections planned for 2026—more than double pre-COVID levels—shifting from Trump’s first-term focus on arrests to systematic compliance checks. Recent raids (e.g., Hyundai’s Georgia plant detaining ~500 South Korean contractors on wrong visas) highlight risks, while a Colorado case saw $8 million in fines for systemic errors and unauthorized hires. She warns employers to organize I-9s, centralize processes, and audit internally—many don’t even know where forms are stored. The H-1B “genius visa” program takes a hit too: fees jumping from $2,000–$5,000 to $100,000 per sponsorship, pricing out mid-sized firms and favoring tech giants. Desiree and the hosts lament lost innovation, economic contributions ($100 billion in taxes from immigrants last year), and community diversity, especially in industries like healthcare (40%+ immigrant home health aides) and agriculture. With OFCCP effectively defanged, C-suites must redirect compliance resources to ICE readiness. Desiree’s advice: map vulnerabilities, understand your workforce footprint, and treat I-9s like payroll—accurate, auditable, and non-negotiable. “ICE ICE baby could be coming for you" ... Employers ignoring this do so at their peril.

In this turkey-fueled episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, the boys stuff themselves like it’s Thanksgiving every day (because, let’s be honest, their content diet is already 90% gravy) with a little help from their friends - J.T. O'Donnell, Allyn Baily, Mo' Clough, Julie Sowash and Michelle Meehan. They kick things off by swapping heartwarming family traditions—like which uncle still thinks “pass the stuffing” is code for “pass the political hot takes”—before pivoting to the real national religion: soccer finally mattering in America now that Lionel Messi has descended from Mount Olympus to sprinkle GOAT dust on MLS fields. From there, it’s straight into the AI Thunderdome, where the gang swing the banter hammer at every shiny new model like they’re judging a middle-school science fair on bath salts. They roast ZipRecruiter’s podcast so hard you’ll smell burnt Phil from here, expose the shameless corporate-welfare grift masquerading as “HR innovation,” and deliver a fantasy-football update that’s equal parts trash talk and emotional damage. They also review Indeed’s latest product (spoiler: it’s a feature, not a miracle), reenact actual spy-vs-spy drama happening right now in HR tech like it’s a Jason Bourne movie but with worse expense reports, and wrap the whole glorious mess with a Thanksgiving dad joke so corny it should come with its own butter sculpture. Grab a plate, loosen the belt, and hit play—you’ll laugh, you’ll cry (from laughter), and you’ll never look at cranberry sauce the same way again. Chapters 00:00 - Thanksgiving Traditions and Family Gatherings 03:57 - The Rise of Football and Sports Culture 05:13 - AI Innovations and Competitive Landscape 08:40 - Fantasy Football Highlights and Insights 10:11 - Critique of ZipRecruiter's Podcast 13:02 - Jive Turkey Awards and Industry Commentary 14:25 - Introduction and Call to Action 14:50 - Dystopian CEO Behavior and AI Layoffs 15:47 - Corporate Welfare and Job Losses 17:58 - Indeed Connect: A New Product Review 21:57 - The Broken Indeed Model 22:57 - AI's Impact on Job Security 25:12 - Marketing in the Recruitment Space 27:53 - The Jive Turkey Award: A Spy Story 31:48 - C'mon, you know, Dad Joke time!