Our Featured Guest for Sunday, October 19, 2025 is Mark Weinstein

Social networking pioneer and privacy advocate Mark Weinstein—one of the original inventors of social media—joins the show to expose how Big Tech turned our online lives into a marketplace for manipulation. For over 25 years, he has led award-winning social media companies that revolutionized the industry, shaping the way people connect online. Drawing from his new book Restoring Our Sanity Online, he shares how we can reclaim our privacy, protect our kids, and build a healthier, more human internet before it’s too late.

Mark is the founder of MeWe, the ad-free social network with the industry’s first Privacy Bill of Rights, which he grew to nearly 20 million members worldwide and a $200 million valuation — all without a marketing budget. MeWe earned accolades including “Most Innovative Social Media Company” by Fast Company, “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America” by Entrepreneur Magazine, and “Start-Up of the Year Finalist” at SXSW for “Innovative World Technology.” Mark left MeWe in 2022 to focus on writing and thought leadership.

Mark’s new book, Restoring Our Sanity Online (Wiley, 2025), presents a bold and revolutionary framework for an epic reboot of social networking — one that supports mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy. It has been praised by luminaries including Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee (“a vital read”) and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (“a must read”). The book introduces Restoration Networking, Mark’s visionary blueprint for a social web that serves people instead of selling them.

A leading privacy advocate, Mark is the inventor of 13 U.S. patents that disrupt surveillance capitalism’s data-collection model. His landmark TED Talk, “The Rise of Surveillance Capitalism” (2020), exposed Big Tech’s manipulations and called for a privacy revolution. He has been named one of the “Top 8 Minds in Online Privacy” and honored as a “Privacy By Design Ambassador” by the Canadian government.

Mark began his journey as one of the earliest social networking pioneer with SuperFamily and SuperFriends (1998), which were named PC Magazine “Top 100 Sites” for three consecutive years.

Mark is a frequent commentator on topics such as privacy, AI, social media, free speech, antitrust, and protecting kids online. He is regularly featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, NBC, CNBC, BBC, Fox, Fortune, LA Times, and The Hill.

He is also the author of the Habitually Great book series, which won two Indie Book Awards and introduced his “Peak Life Habits” professional improvement program.

Read more at: https://www.markweinsteininventor.com/

Our Entrepreneur Presenters:

Gary B. Cohen is a seasoned executive coach, entrepreneur, and thought leader with over 36 years of experience helping leaders transform themselves, their teams, and their businesses. He is the Managing Partner and Co-founder of CO2 Coaching, an Executive Coaching and Leadership Development firm he launched in 2004. At CO2 Coaching, Gary partners with leaders to accelerate performance, navigate change, and lead with greater clarity and impact. The firm has worked with over 300 businesses and thousands of leaders, using real-world insights and a proprietary Ascent Leadership Model to drive measurable progress.

Gary is best known for his unique coaching approach — one rooted in empathy, authentic presence, and lifelong learning. Famous for asking the right questions, he literally wrote the book on it: Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions (McGraw Hill, 2009). Gary believes that the right questions create breakthroughs, offering clients not just insight but alternative courses of action. He challenges leaders to focus on the destination, clear their minds, and remove artificial obstacles — which often leads to extraordinary results.

Before CO2 Coaching, Gary co-founded ACI Telecentrics in 1989 with just $4,000 and two employees, growing the company 48% compounded annually for 12 years to over 2,200 employees and taking it public on NASDAQ. ACI was recognized as one of Venture Magazine’s Top 10 Best Performing Businesses and Business Journal’s 25 Fastest Growing Small Public Companies. Gary was also a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year. 

Read more at: https://co2coaching.com/

Tim Nealon is the founder and CEO of Ghost City Tours, the world’s #1 ghost tour company, hosting over 600,000 guests per year and nearly 6 million since 2012. What started as a single tour in Savannah, Georgia, has grown into a multi-city empire with tours in more than 25 cities including New Orleans, Philadelphia, Seattle, Flagstaff, Fort Worth, and Chattanooga. Tim has transformed what many consider a seasonal business into a thriving year-round industry, rewriting the playbook for entertainment and tourism companies everywhere.

At Ghost City Tours, Tim and his team go beyond spooky stories — they create immersive cultural experiences that reveal the history, beliefs, tragedies, and triumphs that shaped each city. Working with historians and cultural experts, Ghost City Tours focuses on truth rather than tourist myths, giving guests a deeper understanding of how communities across time have dealt with death, the supernatural, and the unknown.

Tim is also the host of the Ghost City Podcast, where he explores hauntings, history, and the paranormal with guests from around the world.

Beyond the tourism industry, Tim is a former software engineer with over 10 years of experience building systems to improve efficiency, scalability, and user experience. He started his career in marketing at 19, a foundation that continues to influence how he builds brands and connects with audiences.

Outside of tourism and tech, Tim leads a Reptile Conservation Center, one of the world’s leading facilities for rare chameleons and leaf-tailed geckos from Madagascar, advancing breeding programs and conservation efforts.

Read more at: https://ghostcitytours.com/