Raise the Standard
A standard is two things at once: a benchmark, and a banner you carry. We’re raising both.
Raise the Standard is a show about what we should expect — from the technology moving into our homes, the products on our shelves, and the policies being written in our names. Hosted by Luz Reyna.
Why this show exists
Most coverage of artificial intelligence gives you two choices: it’s going to save us, or it’s going to end us. Neither one helps you decide anything on a Tuesday afternoon.
We take a third position. Standards don’t start in boardrooms or committee hearings — they start with what ordinary people are willing to accept. Give someone honest information in plain language and they will raise their own bar, then hold the industries and the lawmakers to it. That process is slower than a headline and far more durable.
So every episode is built to leave you with something usable: a question worth asking, a claim worth checking, or a decision you can now make with more confidence than you had an hour ago.
What we cover
Responsible AI in ordinary life
What these systems actually do, where they reliably fail, and how to use them without handing over more of yourself than you meant to. No mysticism, no doom — just the working knowledge you’d want before letting something new near your family, your money, or your work.
Regenerative products and the businesses behind them
Some companies are designed to put more back than they take out. Most are designed to say so. We look at the difference — supply chains, ownership, what happens to a product at the end of its life — and at whether the good version can actually turn a profit. A model that only works on grant money isn’t a standard, it’s a demonstration.
Policy while it’s still open
Rules about technology, environment, and community get written long before they make the news, and comment periods close quietly. We cover decisions early enough that your voice still counts, and we tell you exactly where to put it — which office, which docket, which meeting, which deadline.
Reading the media you didn’t get from us
How a story gets made: who funded it, what got cut, why the framing landed the way it did. We show our own work for the same reason — a show that teaches media literacy has no business being opaque about itself.
Meet your host
Luz Reyna hosts Raise the Standard.
How the show works
- Format: a mix of solo interviews and panel discussions with AI experts and community stakeholders
- Length: 20 – 30 minutes
- New episodes: 2x per month
- Where to watch: YouTube, Substack
The standard we hold ourselves to
We can’t ask you to raise your standard for other people’s work and not publish our own. Here it is.
- We say when we don’t know. Confidence is easy to perform and expensive to fake.
- Projections are labeled as projections. We don’t quote numbers we can’t source, including our own.
- We correct out loud. Corrections go in the episode description and get read on the next show — not quietly edited away.
- We don’t overstate AI. Overselling what these systems can do is its own kind of misinformation, and it’s the one this genre commits most often.
- Sponsors fund the show, not the script. Every sponsor is disclosed on air and in the description. No one buys a position, a conclusion, or a guest slot.
- We vet before we introduce. If we put an organization in front of you, we’ve checked it against our own alignment criteria first. Being interesting isn’t sufficient.
- Disagreement gets airtime. Guests who think we’re wrong are more useful to you than guests who think we’re brilliant.
Part of something larger
Copernican Patterns
Our Network
Raise the Standard is part of a family of shows built on one idea — that understanding is only worth something once it can be passed on. Our companion series RAISEkidsTV takes the same subjects to the youngest audience: what AI is, how to stay safe around it, and how to tell what’s real. Different vocabulary, identical standard.
Who this is for
People who are neither frightened enough to look away nor sold enough to stop asking. Parents deciding what to allow. Small business owners weighing tools that promise everything. Teachers, organizers, and local officials who get handed technology decisions without being handed the background. If you’ve ever finished an article about AI and thought fine, but what do I do with that — this show is for you.
Come raise it with us
- Watch and subscribe — [ADD: YouTube channel URL]. Subscribing is the whole growth strategy; we’d rather earn it than buy it.
- Bring us a topic — if something in your community deserves a wider look, tell us. Listener questions have a standing place in the show.
- Pitch yourself as a guest — especially if you do the unglamorous version of this work. [ADD: guest pitch email or form link]
- Partner or sponsor — we work with organizations whose actual practice matches their public language, and we check. [ADD: partnerships email link]
Contact: news@occupyai.net · Follow: CommunityInternet on BlueSky
Raise the Standard. Then hold it there.