Episode #206: Steve Dennis — How to Write Like a Human in the Age of AI
AI can generate endless copy. The new bar is making someone feel something.
This episode is for founders, marketers, and anyone who writes for a living and wants their work to connect.
Steve Dennis is a writer and ghostwriter who has shaped voices the world knows—including Andy Puddicombe at Headspace. Jason and Steve go back to the Headspace days, where Steve helped define the brand voice and coached writers (including Jason) on how to sound human on the page. In this conversation, they cover how to capture someone else’s voice authentically, why vulnerability makes writing believable, and what AI still can’t replicate.
WHAT YOU’LL HEAR
– Why your spoken word is where authenticity lives—stop “writing” and start speaking your story first
– The ghostwriter’s test: can your closest friends read it and think it’s your voice?
– What AI gets wrong: it engineers patterns, not meaning—it has no conscience, memory, or imagination
– The “remembering room” technique for evoking sensory detail and emotional truth
