Episodes

Jacob Sager Weinstein, comedy writer for Dennis Miller and author of How to Remember Everything, shares how growing up in privileged Washington DC where the vice president's daughter was in his debate club gave him confidence...

Hillary Weiss, brand strategist and positioning coach, reflects on growing up in suburban South Florida where attending the same school for 14 years meant everyone remembered who peed their pants in pre-K yet created lifelong...

Gautum Mukunda, Harvard professor and author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, reveals the paradox at the heart of leadership selection: the more effort you put into picking a leader, the less it matters who you p...

Cal Newport, computer science professor and author of Digital Minimalism, argues that the better analogy for social media is not big oil that must be broken up because it's vital to society but big tobacco that must be cultur...

Psychologist and bestselling author Ethan Kross breaks down the science of *chatter*—the internal voice that can either empower or paralyze us. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience and emotion regulation, Kross expl...

Computer science professor and bestselling author Cal Newport explains why cognitive fitness matters as much as physical fitness for elite performance. Drawing from his work with NBA teams and hedge fund managers, Newport bre...

Eric Barker, bestselling author of Barking Up the Wrong Tree and Plays Well with Others, reveals what decades of social science research says about relationships, friendship, love, and meaning. From his journey through Hollyw...

Dylan Beynon, founder of Mindbloom, shares the deeply personal story behind building the first at-home ketamine therapy platform. After losing his mother and sister to severe mental illness, Dylan became determined to bring p...

Brea Starmer, founder of Lions and Tigers, challenges the outdated workplace model that measures face time over impact. Drawing from her experience as a mother of three running a company during COVID-19, she introduces the co...

Douglass Vigliotti, author and creative, explores the tension between doubt and conviction that defines the creative process. Drawing from his parents, his father relentless drive and his mother empathy, Douglass reflects on ...

Donny Jackson, poet and psychologist, reflects on growing up as a working-class black kid in Pittsburgh where his father was a postal worker for 35 years and his mother was a nurse's aide—parents who instilled work ethic, int...

Bjorn Ryan-Gorman, professional snowskater and LGBTQ+ advocate, shares his journey from hiding his sexuality behind aggressive board sports to building a life of authenticity in Portland. Growing up in Montana as a sponsored ...

David Epstein, author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, dismantles the myth that early specialization is the only path to excellence. Drawing from research on elite athletes, musicians, and scientists,...

Daniel Stillman, author of Good Talk: How to Design Conversations That Matter, reveals how conversations are designed—whether we realize it or not. Drawing from his background in design thinking and facilitation, Daniel break...

Ayelet Fishbach, motivation researcher at University of Chicago, dismantles the fantasy-driven approach to New Year's resolutions and goal-setting. Drawing from data spanning multiple years, she reveals that while temporal la...

Dandapani, former Hindu monk who lived monastically for 10 years, shares teachings from his guru on treating the mind as an operating system that must be understood before it can be mastered. He explains the critical distinct...

Cal Newport unpacks his framework for Slow Productivity, built on three core principles: doing fewer things, working at a natural pace, and obsessing over quality. He introduces "pseudo productivity"—the toxic heuristic that ...

Alan Stein Jr, former basketball performance coach to Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, and other NBA superstars, reveals why knowledge without execution is worthless and how the world's highest performers bridge the gap between kno...

Christy Tennery-Spalding, activist and organizer, shares how growing up near Washington D.C. shaped her oppositional stance to power structures and led her to find a “political home” in San Francisco’s activist community. She...

Andrew Yang traces his path from failed entrepreneur to 2020 presidential candidate driven by a single realization: automation has already destroyed millions of American jobs, and the next wave will be exponentially worse. Th...

Former Navy SEAL and leadership strategist Chris Fussell reveals how elite teams operate under pressure—and how those principles can be applied far beyond the battlefield. Drawing from years of operational experience and his ...

Former CIA field operative Andrew Bustamante pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to recruit spies, run intelligence operations, and navigate a life built on secrecy, loyalty, and manipulation. In this riveting and ...

Carlos Adell shares his unconventional path from growing up in a small Spanish town with limited resources to running a six-figure drug dealing business while simultaneously working as a DJ and industrial engineer. After near...

Alison Shcraeger, economist and author of An Economist Walks Into a Brothel, explains how risk really works and why most people misunderstand it. From studying sex workers in Nevada to analyzing probability theory, Alison rev...