A master-class in personal and professional development, ultra-athlete, wellness evangelist and bestselling author Rich Roll delves deep with the world's brightest and most thought provoking thought leaders to educate, inspire and empower you to unleash your best, most authentic self. More at: https://richroll.com
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Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur, former presidential candidate, and founder of Noble Mobile. This is a conversation about our phones, and what they're doing to us. We get into the machinery engineered to colonize your attention, the cognitive cost of leaning on AI, and why willpower won't save you. Andrew is great. This one is a Trojan horse for a more challenging conversation. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: PlantPower Meal Planner: Get $20 off an a...
Roll On, but enhanced! Adam Skolnick came over to help make sense of the Enhanced Games, the pay-for-PEDs enterprise that just went down behind a Vegas casino. Think Idiocracy meets The Hunger Games, with Bryan Johnson calling the action from under a giant UV umbrella. It veers dystopian: looksmaxxing, narcissism dressed up as self-optimization, and the slow creep toward transhumanism. Ultimately: why train at all? Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Go...
Conservationist Paul Rosolie discusses his relentless efforts with Jungle Keepers to protect the Amazon rainforest, detailing his encounters with uncontacted tribes and the critical threats posed by deforestation, narco-trafficking, and mining. He shares his personal journey, including the infamous "Eating Alive" incident, and emphasizes the importance of local action, fostering hope, and reconnecting with nature's wisdom to save vital ecosystems. The episode highlights how small contributions and dedicated work are creating a national park, transforming lives, and building resilience against overwhelming challenges.
Joe Hudson is an executive coach to people at SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, and Apple. He is also the creator of the Art of Accomplishment. This conversation explores avoidance, emotional fluidity, the Golden Algorithm, the inner critic, and why self-understanding beats self-improvement. At certain points, I become the subject. Joe has some thoughts about my patterns. There's a lot here. We barely tiptoed around the surface. Enjoy! Learn more about Joe & Art of Accomplishment: artofaccomplishment....
Julie Piatt is my wife, my partner, and the person I needed sitting across from me for this one. This conversation explores my recent experience with iboga, the root bark medicine used by the Bwiti people of Gabon for thousands of years. We discuss what led me there after decades of recovery and therapy, the confrontational nature of the ceremony, the rebirthing process, the role of the divine feminine, and what has quietly shifted in the aftermath. Julie also weighs in, sharing what she's witne...
Andy Glaze is a firefighter paramedic, ultrarunner, and the author of “Smile, or You're Doing It Wrong.” This conversation explores the space between falling down and getting back up and how movement becomes a catalyst for emotional healing. We discuss Andy's descent into addiction, the inflection point that rerouted his life, the limits of running as a coping mechanism, the algorithm of transformation, and more. Andy doesn't hold back about how he got here. I'm a fan. Enjoy this one! Show notes...
Dr. Paul Conti is a psychiatrist and author of the new book “What's Going Right.” This conversation flips the script on a field focused on what's wrong, and asks a different question: what's going right? We get into the three human drives, the structure of self, self-sabotage, boundaries, and the simple goodness principle. Paul is a gift, and the new book is a beautiful offering. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Airbnb: Your home might be worth more ...
This episode explores the disciplined mindset behind Rich Roll's 4 AM workouts, highlighting how public accountability, creative constraints, and intentional living combat reactive consumerism. He stresses the "mood follows action" philosophy for overcoming emotional ruts and advocates for consistent "tiny habits" over time. The core message is adopting a "tortoise mindset" to play the long game, demonstrating how sustained, undeterred effort, rather than speed, leads to profound personal transformation.
David Epstein explores how limitations can unlock our best work, contrasting with the pervasive modern belief in productive freedom. Drawing from his new book, "Inside the Box," he delves into the counterintuitive argument that structured constraints enhance creativity, combat information overload, and foster genuine well-being. The conversation also touches on scientific integrity, the perils of endless optionality, and practical strategies like batching work and satisficing decisions for a more focused and fulfilling life.
Dr. Stacy Sims is an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist whose mantra – "women are not small men" – has reshaped how women approach their health. Recorded live with a studio audience, we challenge the conventional wisdom around fasting, cardio, and calorie restriction. In its place, a playbook calibrated for female physiology – heavy lifting, fed-state training, circadian eating, and a new relationship with perimenopause. Stacy is a force. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube News...
Roll On, al fresco! Adam Skolnick came over. We went outside and let the conversation breathe. No studio walls. No agenda. Just two guys, some birds, and a wide-ranging hang that covers self-obsession as the enemy of growth, the dork problem in modern podcasting, and why 14 years in, we're playing again. Then we roam: Geese, Turnstile, Mike D in a Malibu parking lot, Julie Piatt's Manger debut, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead in a church at SXSW, a joyride through Austin in the Rivian R2, the Dean Potte...
Marcus and Amber Capone are the subjects of the Netflix documentary “In Waves and War” and founders of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions. We discuss Marcus's 13 years in Naval Special Operations, the TBI and suicidal ideation that followed six combat deployments, the marriage that nearly didn't survive, the Stanford research into ibogaine treatment, and the mission they've built for veterans who are out of options. I also share — publicly for the first time — my own experience with iboga, 1...
Nick Bilton is a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, a New York Times bestselling author, and screenwriter. This conversation explores the power of story — how tech titans like Jobs, Dorsey, and Musk wield narrative as a weapon, and why AI may be the first technology capable of wiping us off the face of the planet. It also happens to come from someone currently writing the book and screenplay for Martin Scorsese's upcoming film starring Dwayne Johnson. He also pulls back the curtain on Silico...
This is a solo AMA focused on my diet and fitness routine in the aftermath of spinal fusion surgery. I walk through the specifics — what I ate, how I trained, how I went from 207 pounds and completely atrophied to dropping 37 pounds while building lean muscle — and the salient lessons I've learned about patience, consistency, and approaching reinvention with a beginner's mind. There's also a broader conversation about aging, agency, and what it means to stop trying to get back to who you were. E...
Max Jolliffe is the Moab 240 course record holder, elite ultrarunner, and one of endurance sport's more unlikely origin stories. This conversation explores Max's multi-generational family history with addiction, the opioid crisis, his decade-long battle with heroin, the moment in a jail cell that changed everything, and how the tools of sobriety – surrender, teachability, the daily reprieve – became the foundation of an athletic career. Along the way, we get into what it looks like to take an ob...
Rich Roll delves into Tiger Woods' public struggles with addiction, drawing parallels to his own past and the experiences of other public figures. He argues that addiction obliterates rationality, leading to self-destructive behavior often rooted in unhealed childhood wounds and the pressure of transactional love. The episode calls for empathy over judgment, emphasizing the difficult path to recovery and the critical importance of unconditional love and asking for help.
Arthur Brooks is a Harvard professor, bestselling author, and one of the world's leading authorities on human happiness. This conversation explores what he calls a psychogenic epidemic — a crisis of meaning driven by the very technology we can't put down. We discuss the three macronutrients of happiness, why our brains have been rewired to miss what matters most, the striver's curse, and an ancient escape plan for modern life. Things get personal when he diagnoses my happiness on a scale of one ...
Simon Hill is a nutritionist, physiotherapist, and host of “The Proof” podcast. We dig into the newly released U.S. Dietary Guidelines: what changed, what the evidence actually supports, and how the final document diverged from the advisory committee's recommendations. The fine print reveals a factual error a first-year nutrition student would catch, and a notable omission that raises serious questions about how these guidelines were made. Simon is a trusted guide through difficult terrain. Enjo...
Dr. Tommy Wood is a neuroscientist, physician, associate professor at the University of Washington, and the author of “The Stimulated Mind.” I came into this one with a lot on my mind. My mother has Alzheimer's, and for two years I've been watching this disease dismantle someone I love. What Tommy gave me was something I didn't expect: not more cause for fear, but a genuine roadmap. Cognitive decline is not inevitable. The levers of change are already in our hands. This one is personal. I hope i...
This episode features Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, creators of the "Designing Your Life" course. They discuss applying product design principles to personal development, addressing the contemporary crisis of meaning and loneliness, especially among younger generations. The conversation covers reframing life's challenges, embracing a "becoming" self over a "best self," and utilizing practical tools like radical acceptance, prototyping, and cultivating curiosity to foster a sense of "flow" and aliveness in everyday moments.
This is my first solo episode — and honestly, out of my comfort zone. Which is exactly why I needed to do it. The recent Channel 5 interview between Shia LaBeouf and Andrew Callaghan went wildly viral. Most of the discourse has been voyeuristic or vilifying. I wanted to do something different and use it as a lens to examine what addiction actually looks like in real time. As a recovering alcoholic, I know this territory. The grandiosity. The denial. The theater of contrition without any contrary...
Ken Rideout is a masters world champion marathon runner, recovering opioid addict, and the author of the new memoir, “Everything You Want Is on the Other Side of Hard.” This conversation explores the childhood trauma Ken spent decades outpacing, the addiction that nearly destroyed him, his wife Shelby's cancer battle, and the paradox that the very things that propelled him to extraordinary heights became Achilles heels. We discuss his relentless mindset, the role of pain and suffering in ignitin...
Tom Sachs is a contemporary artist and cultural provocateur known for turning branded consumer objects into high art. This conversation explores the paradoxes that define Tom's art and his iconoclastic philosophy of living; why creativity is the enemy, the power of sympathetic magic, consumerism as secular religion, the infamous Barney's nativity scene that launched his career, and why persistence — not talent — is omnipotent. And in doing so, Tom dismantles the intransigent myth that artists ar...
Rich Roll and Adam Skolnick delve into looksmaxxing, a growing subculture where young men pursue extreme physical modifications like bone smashing and steroids to optimize appearance. They explore its roots in social media, incel culture, and the gamification of self-worth, which funnels vulnerable individuals into nihilism and misogyny. The discussion critiques the attention economy and offers antidotes, emphasizing self-transcendence, genuine connection, and character development over superficial aesthetics to find true fulfillment.
Michael Easter is a New York Times bestselling author, UNLV professor, and the mind behind “Walk With Weight.” This conversation explores rucking, the evolutionary movement pattern humans are built for that modern fitness has largely overlooked. We discuss why it affects body composition differently, how GPS navigation impacts cognition, and why optimization culture can undermine resilience. Plus, he challenges my assumptions about comfort zones. Michael's insights are practical, contrarian, and...
Dr. Dawn Mussallem is a Mayo Clinic oncologist who survived stage 4 cancer at 26, heart failure, and a heart transplant—then became the first person to run a marathon within a year of receiving a new heart. This conversation explores the integrative approach to cancer treatment, why exercise might be as powerful as chemotherapy, the self-flagellation patients feel despite doing everything right, and the profound role of mindset in survival. Typically, my guests fall into two buckets—incredible s...
Roll On is here—and this one has teeth. Adam and I unpack the tale of two Alexes—Honnold and Pretti—and what that juxtaposition reveals about the best and worst of human nature. From there: a 9-month surgery milestone (30 lbs down, joy levels up), the Attia-Epstein fallout and the allure of proximity to power, and ICE's authoritarian overreach. Listener questions round us out: finding hope, perfectionism, escaping burnout, and the sacred practice of showing up for someone else. Enjoy! Show notes...
Alex Honnold, the world's most accomplished free solo climber and subject of Oscar-winning Free Solo, just climbed Taipei 101 live on Netflix. In this special live podcast event—our first with a studio audience—we go behind the spectacle to explore what really happened on that building: the unexpected challenges and the mental shift that transformed pressure into joy. We discuss his training philosophy at 40, his evolving relationship with risk and mortality as a father, and why he challenges ou...
James Nestor is an acclaimed science journalist and author of the international bestseller "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art." This conversation explores why so many of us breathe dysfunctionally—and how it may be connected to chronic ailments. We discuss breathing biomechanics, CO2 tolerance, the link between sleep-disordered breathing and ADHD in children, and practical techniques to optimize how you breathe. James also walks us through his Stanford experiment, where breathing only throug...
Bruce Wagner is a novelist, former student of Carlos Castaneda, and author of fifteen books, including his latest, "Amputation." This conversation explores his use of Hollywood as a laboratory for human behavior, crafting transgressive fiction that skewers the desperate while searching for transcendence. We discuss his decade with Castaneda, writing "Amputation" after the LA fires, the relationship between suffering and art, Buddhist and Sufi wisdom, and why fiction is our most potent vehicle to...
