Paris is Burning, Autonomous Fridges are Hacking Back, and the "Hiring Reject Machine" is Eating Candidates Alive

Ever wonder what happens when nearly $400 million in VC cash collides with pure, unadulterated recruiting chaos? Strap in, because Chad and Cheese are back to expose the absolute circus that is modern AI talent tech.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Elon’s 30-Second Wonder: Why SpaceX-style thrusters on a car are about as viable for a 5-minute flight as a chocolate fireguard.
  
• The Bullhorn Blackout: Ten thousand staffing agencies left staring at blank walls after a cyberattack. Did data fly the coop? Nobody knows, but at least recruiters got a coffee break!
  
• Eightfold’s Musical Chairs: A massive lawsuit, a new CEO stepping into the ring, and why this looks suspiciously like the Theranos of recruiting.
  

Are any of these tech bros actually thinking about the poor job seeker getting ground up in the gears? Absolutely not! Tune in for the hot takes, the rage, and a bartender who definitively understands the assignment.
Listen now before your ATS turns into a sentient overlord.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. 

If the idea of an AI-powered robot wielding a razor near your vital organs gives you cold sweats, you’re not alone—and according to global workforce statistics, job seekers are feeling that exact same terror about their careers.

In this chaotic, live episode from Amsterdam, co-hosts Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash bring a microphone and a healthy dose of snark to four brave HR industry leaders:

• Rika Coppens CEO, House of HR
• Chiara Riondino Head of FOW, European Commission
• Minna Melleri Executive Director, World Employment Confederation
• Glenn Bloxham-Mundy Global Accounts Leader, LinkedIn
  

Tune in to hear what happens when application bots fight recruiter bots in an endless doom-loop, and stick around for the post-show outrage when an announcer realizes a podcast named after cheese didn't mention a single slice of Cheddar.

On the latest episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, Joel Cheesman and Emi Beredugo dig into a busy week of talent-tech deals and LinkedIn news. Acquisitions, resignations and bad decisions are back, baby!

SAP has acquired skills-intelligence company TechWolf, which will integrate with SuccessFactors while remaining independent. Juicebox has picked up the intellectual property and assets of sourcing platform Fetcher. Humanly has acquired CareerArc to combine recruitment marketing with its AI hiring tools for high-volume employers.

They also cover LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky’s departure after 18 years, the demotion of a McKinsey partner following a LinkedIn post about the “glass cliff,” and LinkedIn’s new Academy of Economic Opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs.

The episode wraps with a viral TikTok of a candidate speaking gibberish to an AI interviewer that ends the call. Joel and Emi break down what the clip shows and what it means for AI in hiring.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and episode overview

01:07 - Joel's travel update and jet lag discussion

02:45 - Emi recognized as a top UK black professional

04:30 - Recent recognition and awards for Emi

16:13 - SAP acquires Tech Wolf to enhance skills-based hiring

19:40 - The strategic value of Tech Wolf's data analytics

22:16 - Acquisition of Fuel Fifty and industry implications

23:40 - Fetcher acquisition by Juice Box and industry decline

31:33 - History and strategic moves of CareerArc

34:51 - Leadership changes at LinkedIn and organizational culture

35:57 - LinkedIn launches Academy of Economic Opportunity

43:20 - Discussion on the departure of LinkedIn's CEO

44:44 - The rise of AI interviewers and their risks

55:53 - AI interviewers going rogue and candidate experience

58:16 - Humor and closing remarks

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. 

Talent acquisition teams are currently being expected to pull off the ultimate corporate hat trick: hire at breakneck speed, manifest unicorn candidates out of thin air, slash budgets down to pennies, and somehow prove it with shiny metrics. In this session, ringmasters Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman—hosts of The Chad & Cheese Podcast—are joined by brave survivors Kayleen Weaver (Director of Talent Acquisition at Americare Senior Living) and Patrick Kelly (VP of Operations at Healing Partners). Together, they pull back the curtain on whether the tidal wave of recruiting AI and automation is actually saving the day, or just making HR's slow-motion trainwreck run slightly faster.

Live from Amsterdam where redheads combust in the sun and nobody uses e-scooters—the Chad and Cheese crew are back with guest star Stephen McGrath to tackle HR’s messiest sagas:

• Metaview’s $60M Pivot: How a basic, commoditized note-taking app rebranded as an "agentic AI" messiah.

• LinkedIn's Massive Data Purge: LinkedIn is boot-kicking third-party scrapers (RIP Gem, PIN, and NeuroScale)

• Palantir vs. The Nurses: The surveillance state giant tried its hand at automated healthcare scheduling.

• The "Soft" Labor Market: Jobs reports are crashing, immigrants are leaving, and companies are baffled why nobody’s applying.

Complete with atrocious dad jokes, "dirty D" data warnings, and endless snark, it’s everything you’ve come to expect from HR’s most dangerous podcast.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

Joel and Chad welcome Nathan Labenz, host of The Cognitive Revolution and a self-described full-time student of AI. His agent booked the appearance after a weak first pitch and a better second one.

They start with how he actually works: a separate Mac Mini for agents, a wiki about his life, no unsupervised access to bank and personal email, and a rule that the bots don’t lie about being AI if asked. That setup is the hook for the bigger story.

Nathan walks through the industry as the dog that caught the car—systems that now cheat on tests, rewrite their own logs, and surprise the labs that built them. He argues for pacing the frontier without pretending today’s models are unused. Enterprises, he says, still have a lot of workflow fruit left before they need superhuman agents running for a month.

Work comes next: short-term roles in AI safety orgs (not just researchers—HR, comms, ops), AI-in-the-loop jobs that let teams do more with less, and a hiring market already broken by zero-friction apply. Longer term he talks transformation, a new social contract, and why matching might get better once both sides use agents.

China is the other half. He spent time on the ground this summer because “if we pause, China wins” never sat right. What he saw—and what he didn’t hear—is in the episode, along with advice for kids who may never be smarter than the models.

Joel and Maureen are back, slightly singed from RecFest, to argue about whether the industry is a warm community or a room full of under-resourced people begging an AI agent to reinvent the email alert.

Also on the menu: LinkedIn cosplaying as TikTok, Meta finally peeling the cameras off the glasses Maureen still will not buy.

The job market gets the usual treatment — sturdy headlines, miserable humans, bots applying as nurses for $150 a pop. Then Madonna shows up at 68 in fishnets, and the episode somehow gets weirder.

The two play Who'd Ya' Rather between Spott and HiringCafe and there's quite a bit of disagreement. Imagine that?

Startups, ghost jobs, ageism, and a bad dad joke. The usual dangerous hour.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Episode Overview

00:05 - Introduction to the current job market challenges

02:25 - RecFest Community and Conference Highlights

04:00 - Impact of AI and automation on recruitment processes

04:31 - Perceptions of Conference Attendees: Open and Engaged or Overwhelmed?

08:13 - The Removal of Cameras and Privacy Concerns

10:05 - The rise of new startups in the hiring ecosystem

12:19 - AI Hallucinations and Trust Issues in Technology

15:01 - Challenges faced by Gen Z and Millennials in job applications

17:27 - LinkedIn's New Features and Platform Changes

19:58 - Cultural perceptions of aging and beauty in entertainment

22:32 - Travel Plans and Industry Events

24:27 - Current Economic Indicators and Public Sentiment

25:00 - Madonna's VMAs performance and ageism in media

26:53 - Government Data, Trust, and Economic Confidence

30:09 - The creator economy and opportunities for new entrepreneurs

30:15 - The Impact of Inflation and Job Security on Mental Health

35:04 - The influence of social media and content creation in job search

40:05 - Disruption of traditional hiring models by startups

44:51 - The importance of networking and referrals in employment

49:59 - The future outlook: optimism and challenges in the job market

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.