Back to Earth with Adam Poe
September 28, 2026
In September, more than 4,000 eighth graders from 14 Upper Cumberland counties filled the Highlands Economic Partnership’s 8th Grade Career Fair. They met robot dogs, a barn owl and employers from nearly every sector. What they said they want to be when they grow up tells a surprising story about the region’s next workforce.
On this episode of Better Together, Kosta sits down with Adam Poe, Vice President of the Highlands Economic Partnership, to unpack it. Adam shares first-look data from this year’s fair, a parable about shovels and spoons, and the three skills he believes will decide who thrives as AI reshapes work.
We’re not faced with a question of if AI will become integrated. It is how AI will become integrated. The communities that win are going to be the ones that embrace and leverage. – Adam Poe
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What you’ll hear
From row crops to recruiting
Adam grew up in West Tennessee, earned an agricultural business degree from Tennessee Tech and planned to farm soybeans, corn and cotton. Then he saw the multimillion-dollar price tag, and defaulted to what his father and grandfather did: ten years selling insurance.
That detour is exactly why the career fair matters, he says. Too many kids in this region default to the family path without ever seeing what else is possible.
This year’s career fair data, heard here first
Adam brought this year’s numbers to the show before sharing them anywhere else:
- Healthcare is still the top interest, but it fell from 37% of students last year to 32% this year.
- Construction and skilled trades climbed from about 3% of student interest three years ago to 19% this year.
- Agriculture came in third at 11%.
- First responders ranked fourth.
Adam credits the region’s CTE programs for the trades surge, and he says retiring plumbers and HVAC techs far outnumber the newcomers replacing them. Kosta points to the twentysomethings he knows running their own concrete, framing and roofing outfits. Together they take on the question every parent of a teenager is asking: is a four-year degree still the safe bet?
What AI already looks like on the job
Kosta gets specific about his own company. A single AI subscription now runs a billing workflow, from insurance remittances to reconciled QuickBooks entries, that once spanned several positions and a $10,000-a-year software package. And it checks its own work.
Adam explains why the real conversation isn’t AI but AGI, and why so few people are having it. He also shares a line from a leadership change that sticks: you’ll either be fired up with enthusiasm, or fired with enthusiasm.
Is local leadership planning for this?
Fresh off the Chamber’s State of Local Government event, Kosta asks the uncomfortable question. The mayors talked water plants, sewer projects, parks and road widenings. So where is the vision for AI, automation and the classroom?
Adam’s answer draws on the difference between working in the business and working on it. He lays out his four pillars of economic development: entrepreneurship, quality of place, opportunity and community. He also notes that companies recruited this year pay, on average, about 1.5 times the area’s median household income.
Purpose, paychecks and coming back to Earth
The conversation goes big: universal basic income, what happens to purpose when work changes, and Kosta’s case that the next frontier is space. Adam brings it back down to Earth, literally, with a point about why so few people get permission to create.
Corporate America and the nine to five job has destroyed more entrepreneurs than anything else. – Adam Poe
Along the way there are detours into faith and technology and a candid back-and-forth on surveillance cameras in a fast-growing county.
Robots or the great outdoors?
The final question: if Adam were in eighth grade today, what would he want to be? His answer splits between the robot dogs and a barn owl from the state parks booth. As he puts it, he doesn’t see an owl landing on a robot anytime soon. Listen to the end for Kosta’s one-line summary of the two paths ahead.
Episode Timestamps
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 01:45 | From farming dreams to economic development |
| 03:00 | What the 8th Grade Career Fair really accomplishes |
| 04:55 | First look at this year’s career fair data |
| 07:20 | Skilled trades vs. a four-year degree |
| 09:45 | The shovels-and-spoons story |
| 11:10 | The three skills that will define the next generation |
| 16:40 | How Kosta’s company uses AI today |
| 22:30 | AI vs. AGI, explained |
| 26:40 | Will people who use AI replace those who don’t? |
| 29:30 | Is local leadership planning far enough ahead? |
| 36:20 | UBI, “universal high income” and purpose |
| 42:30 | The space economy, and coming back down to Earth |
| 44:30 | Where economic development goes from here |
| 48:00 | A rabbit hole on faith and technology |
| 52:15 | The surveillance debate |
| 57:00 | If Adam were in eighth grade today |
About Adam Poe
Adam Poe is Vice President of the Highlands Economic Partnership, a public/private program driving economic and community development in Jackson, Overton, Putnam and White counties. Originally from West Tennessee, he holds an agricultural business degree from Tennessee Tech and spent ten years in insurance before moving into economic development. Read Adam’s bio.
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Listen, subscribe and share
Got an eighth grader at home, or a team wondering what AI means for their jobs? This is the episode to send them. Listen to Back to Earth with Adam Poe, then subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. If it sparked a conversation, leave a review or share it with a friend.
This episode is presented by Miss Sallie’s Market in downtown Gainesboro. Find locally sourced produce, meats, homemade meals and baked goods Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., plus free community tastings every Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. Order online at misssallies.com.
Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media, recorded in Cookeville, Tennessee. Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own and do not represent the show, its producers or its partners.
