Episodes

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...

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Akshay Nanavati is not your typical adventurer — he’s a former Marine, a survivor of war-induced PTSD, and a seeker of what he calls the “crucible of suffering.” In this deeply introspective and intensely raw conversation, Ak...

New York Times columnist and bestselling author **David Brooks** joins Srini Rao to unpack what it really means to know and see another person — and how our ability to connect deeply has deteriorated in a world dominated by d...

Damon Centola, sociologist and author of *Change: How to Make Big Things Happen*, dismantles the myth of the influencer and introduces a radically different model of how ideas and behaviors actually spread. In this thought-pr...

Jennifer Wallace is a journalist, researcher, and mother of three who set out to answer one of the most pressing questions in modern parenting: *Why do our kids feel like they're never enough — and what can we do about it?* D...

In this powerful and perspective-shifting episode, Harvard Business School professor and author **Laura Huang** shares a deeply human and practical roadmap for transforming disadvantage into advantage. Drawing from her book *...

Emily Fletcher, founder of Ziva Meditation and a former Broadway performer, shares how her journey from the stage to spiritual leadership reshaped her understanding of success, fulfillment, and mental resilience. In this cand...

Courtney Harding, founder of Friends with Holograms and a leading voice in spatial computing, joins Srini to discuss the real-world applications and philosophical implications of immersive technologies like VR and AR. Drawing...

In this mind-expanding conversation, psychiatrist and author Daniel Lieberman unpacks the role of dopamine — the brain's molecule of motivation — and how it shapes nearly every aspect of our lives, from love and ambition to a...

In this powerful third appearance, bestselling author and decision strategist Annie Duke dismantles the myth that grit is always good — and makes the case for why strategic quitting is essential for success. Drawing from cogn...

Psychologist Anders Ericsson, the originator of the concept of deliberate practice, shares the foundational principles behind how experts are made—not born. Drawing on decades of empirical research, he explains how world-clas...

In this episode, Salim Ismail — founding executive director of Singularity University and author of *Exponential Organizations* — maps out what it takes to adapt, lead, and build in a world defined by accelerating change.He u...

Dennis Xu, co-founder of Mem, unpacks the future of personal knowledge and how it’s being reshaped by networked thinking, cognitive design, and human-centered AI. Drawing on his Stanford background, founder journey, and produ...

Cognitive scientist Gloria Mark explains why modern knowledge work sabotages attention — and how to fight back. Drawing from her decades of research, she breaks down internal vs. external distraction, meta-awareness, cognitiv...

Sonkhe Ahrens shares how traditional approaches to knowledge — highlighting, tagging, collecting — fail to support actual thinking. Drawing from Niklas Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method, Ahrens explains why insight isn’t somethin...

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