At SXSW 2026, AI wasn’t just a theme - it was the air.
In our latest podcast episode and companion article, we unpack the panels, people, and ideas that left us inspired, unsettled, and asking much bigger questions about work, creativity, infrastructure, and the future we’re building in real time.

For years, medicine treated the skin, brain, and gut as separate systems. But emerging research and new tools like causal AI are painting a different picture: the body works as one interconnected ecosystem, and that shift could transform the future of health and beauty.

Allison McNearney, creative career coach and journalist, breaks down how to process being impacted by a layoff - the practical applications and the mindset. Need a checklist? We’ve got it for you.

Allison McNearney is a writer, editor, and creative mindset coach. She has been a journalist for over 15 years, writing for publications including The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and National Geographic. After experiencing a layoff herself in 2024, she brings first-hand experience to conversations about career pivots, identity, and rebuilding. In her coaching work, Allison helps writers, artists, and entrepreneurs discover their purpose and passion, move from stuck to creatively fulfilled, and tell more powerful stories. You can contact her at allison.mcnearney@gmail.com or on her website: allisonmcnearney.com

This is a personal finance story about learning how to invest, harnessing compounding, and building wealth without a traditional finance background.

Why Less Than Expert? Because living life in general is an educational course, but there are some things I wish I’d known along the way. From relationships to pregnancy and pregnancy loss, health issues, money, work, crippling anxiety, aging parents, family trauma drama and all the things in between…I’ve lived it and learned from it.

My hope is to create a relatable, understandable, and (hopefully) entertaining resource that brings some value to you. I am not the expert, but I am resourceful and very good at sharing. Xoxo