Technology has increased the speed and scope of our interactions with one another, but the trust gap continues to widen. Companies hoping to thrive in a global marketplace must rely on a network of trusted partners to succeed. Customers are continually asked to turn over more and more information about themselves and trust that it’s being stored safely and used ethically. More and more research shows that many companies overestimate how trusted they actually are by their customers.

In this episode we look at trust as a currency - a two-way street. We’ll discuss the challenges that come along with technological interventions into trust. How do you trust in a fast-changing world?

Insurance may not be a glamorous industry on paper, but it underpins the movement of people, goods, and services around the world. Insurance allows homes to be built, sports to be played, and movies to be filmed. Insurance fraud is thousands of years old, and any claims investigator will bend your ear with wild stories of outlandish crimes. But consumers are becoming increasingly frustrated with what they see as overly adversarial and profit-driven insurers, and sophisticated technologies are changing the landscape, making it easier than ever to commit fraud.

In this episode, we look at cultural shifts in the insurance industry and how reframing insurance as a value-driven industry is helping to narrow the trust gap between insurance companies and consumers.

To understand how fundamental trust is to athletic competition, you only need to look at some of the metaphors we use every day. “Level playing field,” “fair play,” “a good call.” We use sports as a lens for our understanding of what equality looks like.

Sports is also a huge global industry, with billions of dollars in play, and people around the world watching athletes compete in events they believe to be regulated, fair, and honest. How do you keep sports competitive, entertaining, and profitable while making sure everyone is playing fair?

This episode examines risks at the highest level of sport and the role that trust plays for athletes, organizations, and fans.

We tend to think about assessing risk in the largest terms possible - on the battlefield, or when financial decisions have billions of dollars at stake. But risk assessment is something we all do every day, from picking the right jacket for the day’s weather to waiting for the light to turn green before we cross the street.

In this episode, we look at how assessing risks both big and small is at the heart of leadership. How do great leaders know when to move forward and when to hold back? What happens when risk assessment goes wrong? How do you develop the experience and instincts to perform the split-second calculus about what might be behind the next corner?

Every decision we make involves navigating the tension between risk and trust. How do you move forward when risk is at an all-time high, and trust is seen as a rare commodity? Clearspeed exists to narrow the trust gap at scale, enabling leaders to lead more efficiently and effectively.

In this episode, Alex Martin, Clearspeed CEO and co-founder, discusses how his journey from Marine to entrepreneur has shaped his perspective on trust as a valuable and hard-won currency today.

If there's anyone who can speak to measuring something subjective like trust, it's Tonia Ries. She's been the Executive Director of the Edelman Trust Barometer -  the research output from the Edelman Trust Institute - for the last decade. We asked Tonia what it means to trust, how it's built, and how easily it's broken - and the current state of trust between citizens, governments, institutions, and media.

Everyone agrees that trust is important, but the trust gap continues to grow - between government and citizens, employers and employees, and companies and consumers. 

In Trust Faster we unpack how the bonds of trust are built and broken; how risks are identified and mitigated in high-stakes situations; and how emerging technologies are affecting these relationships in brand-new ways.

This season—through conversations with military experts, a pioneer in sports integrity, a farmer turned entrepreneur, and more—we unpack what it means to trust and why it matters more than ever in an increasingly risky world.