This bonus episode is all about innovation– that breakthrough that can change individual careers and even entire industries. We’re going back through the Math & Magic archives to hear from top innovators –from Blake Scholl, who is working to revolutionize commercial flights as the CEO of Boom Supersonic, to Gerry Laybourne who changed children’s television forever at Nickelodeon. You’ll also hear how OG influencer Paris Hilton turned the media’s obsession with her life into the first brand o...
May 29, 2025•17 min
From the White House, to Edelman, Microsoft, Nissan and IBM, Jonathan Adashek has had a wide-ranging career. His experiences may span from politics, to the business side of PR, to tech, to automotive, but he has developed core beliefs about corporate culture, work ethic, marketing, and communications. Now as IBM’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Jonathan joins Bob to share incisive thoughts on what a brand is really made of, adept insight on the current landscape and futur...
May 22, 2025•38 min
It can take decades to build breakthrough brands and noteworthy careers, and this bonus episode examines an essential building block to getting there – the college years. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon didn’t get the training you might expect for a leader in investment banking at his small liberal arts college. United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer skipped college altogether, whereas Progressive Insurance CMO Remi Kent was confident about what she wanted to get out of her education. Advertisin...
May 15, 2025•15 min
Bobby Bones has been called “the most powerful man in country music.” Host of the nationally syndicated country music radio program, The Bobby Bones Show, and the podcast, Bobbycast, millions of Americans consider him a friend. Audio is his bread and butter, but he’s also made a name for himself on TV, as a mentor on American Idol , the host of Breaking Bobby Bones on the National Geographic Channel, and as a winner of Dancing With the Stars . He’s from a small town in Arkansas where his youth w...
May 08, 2025•38 min
Ron Howard is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Grammy award-winning film director. With work spanning from comedies like Splash and Parenthood to critically acclaimed dramas like Apollo 13 , Frost/Nixon and A Beautiful Min d, he is one of the most popular and prolific filmmakers of the last 50 years. His first on-screen appearance was at just 18 months old and he was cast as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show at age five. By the time he was 10, adults on set predicted he would make a great ...
Apr 24, 2025•34 min
Corporate culture is a big buzzword these days, but for our guests it’s integral to how they do business. Bill Koenigsberg, CEO of Horizon Media, feels personally accountable for his employees, while Progressive Insurance CMO Remi Kent shares how the pandemic made her bring her values to the workplace during her time at 3M. WPP’s Christian Juhl shares how the power of culture was a differentiator in business at Group M, while General Motors’ Norm de Greve shares why as CMO of CVS he allowed for ...
Apr 17, 2025•25 min
Hugh Howey is an international best-selling author whose work has been published in 40 languages. But he’s not just a writer, he’s an entrepreneur in the purest sense. When Hugh self-published a short story, the world demanded more. Soon enough the income from that one story was enough to quit his job to begin work on what became the now-iconic Silo trilogy. Instead of going the traditional route with a publisher, Hugh stuck with his instinct to self-publish, disrupting an entire industry along ...
Apr 10, 2025•36 min
Fashion designer Norma Kamali has stayed relevant for generations by tapping into culture, creativity, and technology. In the early 60s, she got a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology but didn’t fit in with the style of the time. She abandoned design to work for an airline instead, giving her access to travel. During frequent trips to London, Norma discovered a fashion revolution that hadn’t hit the States yet. Soon she would be at the forefront of New York’s changing style. With her ...
Apr 03, 2025•36 min
When he was 14, Tarang Amin’s family sold their home and bought a motel. They fixed it up and expanded their business, buying one motel after another. Since those days, Tarang’s gotten an MBA, built an impressive resume at Procter & Gamble, Clorox, and Schiff Nutrition, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board and CEO of e.l.f. Beauty. Tarang still credits his days at the family motels for his achievements in the business world. Tarang shares stories about the incredible growth he’s...
Mar 27, 2025•35 min
A billion dollar business born from a $5,000 line of credit seems hard to believe, but so are a lot of Damian Maldonado’s achievements. The co-founder and CEO of American Financing, one of the major national mortgage companies, started selling candy and Avon products door-to-door when he was just 10 years old to help provide for his family. While he didn’t go to college, he was steadfast in his pursuit of learning and his humble origins taught him the value of bootstrapping and determination. He...
Mar 20, 2025•32 min
Jewel–with just that name, you know exactly who she is. With over 30 million albums sold worldwide, four Grammy nominations, and an American Music Award she has all the accomplishments of stardom, but didn’t get there the traditional way. She spent her childhood in Alaska performing in bars with her dad and left home at 15, struggling with homelessness as a young adult. It was performing at a coffee shop that led to a bidding war between four major labels and eventually a hit record. Yet the mos...
Mar 13, 2025•34 min
Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel will go down in history for pioneering the Covid-19 vaccine. He sits down with Bob to recount the story of the pandemic from his perspective, from the moment he knew it would become an international disaster to the decision to throw out Moderna’s playbook and risk everything to help humanity. At the time, Moderna had never sold a product, requiring Stéphane to adapt to a new strategy, scale the business, and sustain seven day work weeks. All of this has set Moderna ...
Mar 06, 2025•34 min
Join iHeartMedia Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman for a new season of Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. How do the most successful minds in marketing, entertainment, business, and even health and science evolve in an ever-changing world? This season, Bob sits down with visionaries across a wide range of industries to hear how they’ve used data, analytics, and creativity to adapt to new technology, lead strong teams, and build successful businesses that will shape our future....
Feb 27, 2025•2 min
Whether it’s a promotion or a pivot, a great pitch or a stroke of luck, behind most successful careers is an improbable jump that unlocks new possibilities. Ryan Seacrest went from small-time broadcast host to breaking big with American Idol . On the other hand, Rob Reilly, the Chief Creative Officer of WPP, shocked his colleagues when he stepped backwards just as his career was about to peak, and IPG’s Jacki Kelley made some moves that surprised even herself. Plus, radio and podcast personality...
Feb 20, 2025•20 min
Over the years Bob has asked dozens of business titans to share their secrets –what’s inspired them, how they’ve exceeded their career goals, and the important lessons they’ve learned along the way. In this bonus episode, we’re highlighting memorable stories and secrets from marketing masters. AT&T CMO Kellyn Smith Kenny is honest about her takeaways from unsuccessful campaigns and Gwyneth Paltrow talks about the piece of feedback that changed everything for Goop. Entrepreneur and filmmaker ...
Feb 13, 2025•20 min
Martha Stewart has been a household name for over four decades and she still isn’t done building her empire. During her rise, the world’s first female self-made billionaire ignored conventional wisdom to become an Emmy Award-winning TV host, best-selling author, and creator of a groundbreaking magazine. Beyond those accolades, her wildly successful merchandising business and multi-channel lifestyle company has established her as an innovative mind in business. Bob sat down with Martha for an int...
Dec 05, 2024•24 min
In honor of the 43rd anniversary of MTV, we’re rereleasing a classic episode: the real story of MTV, as told by the founders. Today MTV is a cultural institution, but people forget what a long shot it was to get the channel off the ground. Bob Pittman led the team that created MTV. In this special episode, he reminisces with co-founders and friends John Sykes, Judy McGrath, Fred Seibert, Tom Freston and Jarl Mohn about what it was like to create the '80s version of a start-up and lead a TV revol...
Aug 01, 2024•53 min
You may know this week’s guest by many names. Mr. 305, Mr. Worldwide, or more likely, the one and only Pitbull. Yes, the Grammy winning superstar, education advocate and entrepreneur sat down with Bob for a live conversation in his native Miami at the POSSIBLE conference. Before gaining all his titles, Pitbull was simply Armando Christian Pérez, a kid soaking up the colorful cultures of his city. Growing up, he was exposed to diverse, bustling, and at times unstable environments on the streets o...
Apr 25, 2024•28 min
Ryan Seacrest is America’s favorite host. He’s been on the radio since he was a teenager, but it wasn’t until he came on all of our TV screens in 2002 as the host of American Idol that he became a constant presence in American households. That big break propelled him to other roles, like hosting E! Red Carpets, Live with Kelly and Ryan , and will soon become the new host of Wheel of Fortune . All the while, he’s been on the radio in Los Angeles, and as the host of the syndicated show On Air with...
Apr 11, 2024•37 min
You’ve probably been entertained by entrepreneur and filmmaker Andrew Jarecki even if you didn’t realize it. He co-founded the business everyone used in the 1990s: Moviefone. His list of accomplishments also include co-writing the theme song for the hit TV show, Felicity , directing the Ryan Gosling film, All Good Things , and directing and producing the documentary, Capturing the Friedmans, which won 18 international prizes and earned an Academy Award nomination. He’s probably best known for di...
Apr 04, 2024•40 min
How does one come up with great ideas? Some may think they’re random strokes of genius, but Rob Reilly knows it takes a mix of hard work and creativity–the truest embodiment of math and magic. Now the Chief Creative Officer of WPP, Rob built his stunning reputation on work that is memorable and buzzy, from campaigns for companies like American Express and Burger King to the “Fearless Girl” statue that still stands in Manhattan’s Financial District. These works weren’t strokes of genius. They eme...
Mar 28, 2024•36 min
Country music is the biggest radio music format and Nashville’s Scott Borchetta knows the genre inside and out. He’s the founder, president, and CEO of Big Machine Label Group and the founder of Big Machine Distillery. Scott has signed deals with artists like Tim McGraw, Jewel, Lady A, Zac Brown Band, Thomas Rhett, Florida Georgia Line, and many others. Scott sits down to talk about his impressive career, from how he discovered his place in the music industry to when he knew it was the right tim...
Mar 14, 2024•33 min
Audiences love a spectacle, and Kenneth Feld knows better than anyone how true this is. As the Chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, he’s an acclaimed visionary when it comes to live, family friendly theatrics. He took over the business from his father, who founded it back in 1967 when he discovered the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Kenneth sat down with Bob to describe how he maintains the company’s core principles, from valuing families above all else to championing live entertainm...
Mar 07, 2024•30 min
Kellyn Smith Kenny was born to innovate. From her early years, she was a textbook over-achiever, thriving as both an athlete and a mathlete and joining any additional club she could squeeze her way into. Growing up, she watched her mom run a hospital and her dad contribute to groundbreaking work at Bell Labs, inspiring her to dedicate herself to meaningful work. This well-rounded foundation has taken Kellyn far in the world of marketing. Her resume is stacked with giants of business like Microso...
Feb 29, 2024•37 min
Join iHeartMedia Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman for the new season of Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing, starting Thursday, February 29th. This season, Bob sits down with leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries across music, film, live entertainment, marketing, and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 22, 2024•2 min
Tech pioneer Ted Leonsis is never one to shy away from a challenge. He’s an uncanny trend spotter, from his beginnings at companies like Wang Laboratories and AOL to his current role as Founder and CEO of Monumental Sports and Entertainment. He’s also the ambitious co-founder of investment group Revolution Growth and even did a stint as mayor of a small Florida town. But before college, Ted was a self-described “lazy” student who would just get by. So, what changed? In this conversation, Ted tel...
Jun 08, 2023•37 min
Howard Makler knows how vital small and medium-sized businesses are to the economy. But he also knows not everyone appreciates their value. A successful serial entrepreneur and CEO of Innovation Refunds, Howard is working to make sure smaller businesses are no longer ignored. Innovation Refunds helps small businesses gain access to government funding, along with the knowledge, resources, and technology to succeed. Howard started small too—he founded his first company out of his bedroom at 13 yea...
Jun 01, 2023•27 min
The world of media is ever-changing — and no one has played it quite like Jacki Kelley, CEO of the Americas and Global Chief Client Officer of advertising giant, Dentsu. Jacki has been at the center of media and advertising for the last 25 years, with leadership roles at USA Today , Yahoo , Martha Stewart Living , and Bloomberg . Her deep understanding of the media landscape has put her in a valuable position to both manage Dentsu’s global portfolio of clients and lead a team that is always look...
May 25, 2023•31 min
Jon Bon Jovi is so well known that when his songs play, everyone can sing along – even those born well after they first hit the radio. That kind of success is rare in the music business and a lot of artists would stop there. Yet Jon has tackled a number of ventures, bringing a magic touch to everything he’s involved in, from entrepreneurship to philanthropy. With Hampton Water, he turned a family joke into a top rosé brand. With Soul Kitchen, he created a first of its kind community restaurant f...
May 11, 2023•24 min
At its core, radio is a community service. No one knows that better than Angela Yee. She’s been on the airwaves for over a decade as a founding member of The Breakfast Club , host of her midday show, Way Up , and now the podcast, Lip Service . Angela is a friend and mentor to her listeners and she’s no different off the air. As an entrepreneur, she finds creative ways to help others. From juice bars, to coffee, to open conversations about finance, she spreads the wealth of her successful career ...
May 04, 2023•36 min
