If you work in radio, you've heard every flavor of AI anxiety. Some fear it will wipe out jobs. Others treat it like a super-shortcut -- a way to crank out spots, promos, and proposals faster and cheaper. "What Matters Next" lands squarely in the middle of this tension, and its message is one radio people need to hear.

Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker unpacks a deceptively simple idea: Society runs on common knowledge. Not just what people know individually, but what they know OTHERS know-they-know. Radio and television are the most powerful common knowledge machines ever invented. And in an era when media fragmentation has turned audiences into isolated micro tribes, broadcasters who understand Pinker's point gain a strategic advantage.

Consumer trend expert Matt Britton's "Generation AI: Why Generation Alpha and The Age of AI Will Change Everything" [Wiley] lands at a pivotal moment for media, and radio should treat it as a wake up call. His core thesis is simple but seismic: Gen-Alpha is the first cohort raised from birth with AI as a constant. They're growing up with AI tutors, AI friends, AI entertainment, and AI search. Radio's opportunity: Reclaim our role as trusted guide.

These are not just bulletin boards. They are extensions of your station, where listeners expect to be acknowledged and advertisers expect to see results. We need to break down silos between the studio, the stream, and the screen. Michelle Krasniak's 6th Edition really is "9 Books in One."

Radio has mixed emotions about Artificial Intelligence: "Will this replace us?" OR "Look what it can do!" Both miss the point. In "Between You and AI," author Andrea Iorio: AI doesn't just automate tasks -- it commoditizes cognitive skills. When everyone has access to the same machine intelligence, advantage shifts to what remains scarce. That's not just-more information. It's better judgment, trust, empathy, and local savvy...the very things radio has always done best.

Radio programmers and sales managers know the drill: The GM drops an idea, a client makes a request -- or a listener offers feedback -- and the reflex is to jump straight into execution. But what if the real opportunity lies not in what's asked for, but in what's actually needed? That's the premise of Bill Shander's "Stakeholder Whispering: Uncover What People Need Before Doing What They Ask" [Wiley, 2025]. Though written for a broad business audience, its lessons resonate in broadcasting, where competing priorities and fast-moving decisions are the norm. MORE

You probably don't wake up thinking, "We need a digital transformation." You're thinking about why growing revenue feels harder than it did a decade ago. In "Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI" by Eric Lamarre, Kate Smaje, and Rodney Zemmel [Wiley], radio's takeaway is blunt: Treat digital as a side project and you'll underperform. Rewire the operation, and you build lasting advantage.