Rapid Response

Bob Safian

Booking Overview

An interview show focused on business leadership, innovation, and the real-time challenges facing prominent organizations, typically featuring CEOs and other high-profile business leaders with firsthand experience navigating change. Strong pitch candidates include CEOs, founders, senior executives, and recognized experts who can offer distinctive insights on technology, workforce shifts, scaling, or crisis leadership; booking is likely high difficulty.

Metrics

Episodes: 449

Frequency: Multiple_weekly

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Unknown

Location: USA

YouTube: 156.0k subscribers

Instagram: 85.0k followers

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

hello@waitwhat.com

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Host

Bob Safian - Former editor-in-chief of Fast Company and a business journalist who interviews leaders navigating rapid change, innovation, and organizational challenges.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

high

Typical Credentials:

CEOs, founders, and senior executives leading prominent companies or mission-driven organizations, with firsthand experience navigating significant market, technological, operational, or leadership challenges.

Required Achievements:

Leading a prominent company or nonprofit, Scaling an organization through rapid change or crisis, Demonstrated expertise in major business or technology shifts

Recent Guest Discussions

Hayden Brown - Artificial Intelligence's Impact On The Workforce, Changing Skills Demand, Layoffs, And The Gap Between AI Expectations And Workplace Realities.

John Mills - Scaling A Life-saving Nonprofit, Wildfire Response, Expansion Into Flood Monitoring, Operational Tradeoffs, And Growth Without Traditional Investors.

Recent Topics

Leadership, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, Artificial Intelligence

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

Rapid Response

Ford's Jim Farley on beating China, and the storm nobody sees coming

August 25, 2026

This episode originally aired on Rapid Response in April 2026.With the ongoing disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and fuel prices still elevated, few auto executives are feeling the pressure more acutely than Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley. He joins Rapid Response to give a candid account of what the turmoil means for the auto industry, and for an iconic American brand navigating one of the most turbulent moments in its history. Farley gets frank about the China threat reshaping the global...

How Snoop Dogg, Comic-Con, and cold calls are growing USA Fencing

August 21, 2026

Fencing is one of the oldest sports in Olympic history. It's also one of the least watched domestically. Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Fencing, is on a mission to change that, and with the 2028 Los Angeles Games on the horizon, he's running out of time. Andrews joins Rapid Response to reveal how he's building a sports brand with almost no budget and no marketing playbook, cold-calling CMOs, crashing Comic-Con, and convincing Snoop Dogg and Flavor Flav to pick up a sword. He also explains why he ba...

What the jobs report isn't telling you about AI & the workforce, with Upwork’s Hayden Brown

August 18, 2026

Few leaders have a better real-time read on how AI is actually reshaping the workforce than Hayden Brown. As CEO of Upwork, the platform where 18 million freelancers meet the businesses that need them, she sees what the monthly jobs report can't: which skills are surging, which jobs are quietly disappearing, and why 23% of businesses that moved work to AI are already bringing humans back. Brown joins Rapid Response to share what she's actually seeing on the ground, why she refused to blame AI...

Publicly listed emails

hello@waitwhat.com

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