How I'm Using AI to Build This, and Where I Draw the Line
My day job is in AI. Everyone’s arguing about it, here’s my take.
BUILDING IN PUBLIC
6/26/2026
I work in AI professionally… for a couple of years now. So when people ask whether I use AI to build EveryCity Whispers, the answer is yes — and the more interesting question is how.
Let me be direct about what AI does and doesn't do on this show.
What AI doesn't do:
AI doesn't write the episodes. The scripts are mine — the stories, the observations, the specific moment in a São Paulo street that unlocked something about ambition and longing. That material comes from living in these cities, paying attention, and doing the hard work of turning experience into narrative. No prompt produces that.
AI doesn't find the music. Hunting down a Tokyo-based artist whose sound matches the emotional register of a specific scene — that's research, taste, and judgment. Human work.
AI doesn't decide what the show is about. That took a year and a half of living with the question.
What AI does do:
AI is my thinking partner. When I'm wrestling with how to position the show, how to structure a post, whether a tagline is landing — I think out loud with it. It pushes back, offers alternatives, catches when I'm being vague or generic. It's the best editorial sparring partner I've ever had, available at 2am Tokyo time when the ideas won't stop.
AI helps me build the infrastructure. The website copy, the newsletter setup, the promotion system — these are areas where I have good instincts but limited time. AI accelerates the execution without replacing the judgment.
AI surfaces what I already know. The best AI interactions I've had aren't ones where it told me something new. They're ones where it helped me articulate something I already believed but hadn't found language for yet.
That last one matters most for ECW specifically. A show about finding language for things you've always felt but couldn't name — built partly with a tool that helps you find language for things you've always felt but couldn't name. There's something honest about that.
The line I draw: the voice is mine. The thinking is mine. The stories are mine. AI helps me build the container. What goes inside it — that's not something I'm outsourcing.
If it ever starts to sound like a podcast made by AI, I'll have crossed the line. So far, I don't think it does.
You can tell me if I'm wrong.
EVERYCITY WHISPERS
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