Tim Ferriss is a self-experimenter and bestselling author, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been translated into 40+ languages. Newsweek calls him "the world's best human guinea pig," and The New York Times calls him "a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk." In this show, he deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc.), digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can use.
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
This is another jam-packed episode with Coach Chris Sommer, the former US national team gymnastics coach and founder of GymnasticBodies. As a world-renowned Olympic coach, Sommer is known for building his students into some of the strongest, most powerful athletes in the world. While this is a stand-alone episode, you can (and should!) check out his last appearance, which is one of the most popular podcast episodes. We cover a lot in this episode, including: What home equipment should someone in...
My job is usually to deconstruct world-class performers from business, military, entertainment, politics, or athletics, and then to tease out the routines and habits you can use. But in this in-betweenisode, Ryan Holiday, author of the book Ego Is the Enemy, shares a chapter called What's Important to You? This chapter alone is worth the price of the book, and it contains many fundamental truths that can be applied to business and life. (The book is also the newest addition to my book club, whic...
I'm very pleased to welcome Tony Robbins (@tonyrobbins) back to the show. (You can check out our previous in-depth conversations here: Part 1 and Part 2). For those of you that aren't familiar, Tony Robbins is the world's most famous performance coach. He's advised everyone from Bill Clinton to Mikhail Gorbachev to Serena Williams, and Leonardo DiCaprio to Oprah (who calls him "superhuman"). This time around, we discussed a number of topics we didn't get to cover in our previous interviews. I al...
Seth Godin discusses marketing, building tribes, overcoming fear, and redefining education. He emphasizes the importance of contributing to a community, focusing on small achievable goals, and embracing the 'long cut' for lasting impact. Godin also delves into personal branding and the necessity of making work more human.
Mike Birbiglia (@birbigs) is one of the best-known and busiest working comedians in the world, both behind and in front of the camera. His standup blends elements of theater, film, storytelling, and comedy. Mike has been deliberate in studying many crafts and tying them together, which is reflected in a diverse string of successes: sold-out tours as a solo theater act, New York Times bestselling books, off-Broadway shows, feature film, TV, and more. In recent years, his work has appeared on publ...
This episode is a little different. I visited the Googleplex -- the Mountain View-based headquarters of Google -- and had a public chat. I was interviewed and made sure that we covered some ground that has not been discussed before. There were questions such as: What has been the most important Stoic teaching that I've come across? How do I manage the many requests I receive? What are the factors or elements that have led to the success of the podcast? Where do I see myself in five years? If I c...
Nicholas McCarthy (@NMcCarthyPiano) was born in 1989 without his right hand and only started to play the piano at the age of 14. He was told he would never succeed as a concert pianist. Fortunately, the doubters were wrong. His graduation from the prestigious Royal College of Music in London in 2012 appeared in press around the world, as he became the only one-handed pianist to graduate from the Royal College of Music in its 130-year history. Nicholas has now performed extensively throughout the...
Chris Young is an obsessive tinkerer, inventor, and innovator. His areas of expertise range from extreme aviation (world-record goals) to mathematics and apocalyptic-scale BBQs. Above all, he is one of the clearest thinkers I know. In this interview, we discuss a great many things, including his wild story and lessons learned from rainmakers like Bill Gates, Gabe Newell, Neal Stephenson, and many more. More topics we tackle: How he managed to get jobs working for the best in the world...despite ...
Dr. Dominic "Dom" D'Agostino (@DominicDAgosti2) is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, and a senior research scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). He has also deadlifted 500 pounds for 10 reps after a seven-day fast. Many of you sent enthusiastic follow-up questions after the last conversation we had, so Dom took the time to answer your most popular questions...
This is not going to be a long-form interview where I dissect and deconstruct a world-class performer...at least not in the usual fashion. Instead, this is a special edition of The Random Show. I am joined by Kevin Rose (@KevinRose), serial entrepreneur, world-class investor, and all around wild and crazy guy. We discuss a wide range of topics, including new favorite books, memory training, meditation tactics, multiple wives, and bets for or against virtual reality. Enjoy! Show notes and links f...
Shay Carl (@shaycarl) got his first computer at age 27. He was a manual laborer for ages and uploaded his first YouTube video while on break from a granite counter top job. Flash forward to today: His SHAYTARDS channel now has roughly 2.3 BILLION views. Celebs like Steven Spielberg have appeared alongside Shay and his family. He co-founded Maker Studios, which sold to Disney for nearly $1 billion. He has been married 13 years and has 5 kids. He has lost more than 100 pounds since his overweight ...
Ryan Holiday (@RyanHoliday) is a strategist and writer. He dropped out of college at 19 to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, and later served as the director of marketing for American Apparel. His company, Brass Check, has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors. Holiday has written four previous books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, which has been translated into 17 languages and has a cult following among ...
Malcolm Gladwell (@gladwell) is the author of five New York Times bestsellers -- The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He has been named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine and one of the Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers. He has explored how ideas spread in the Tipping Point, decision making in Blink, the roots of success in Outliers, and the advantages of disadvantages in his latest book David and Goliath. In his latest podcast proj...
Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx) returns to the show for a special role-reversal where he interviews me for his radio show. For those of you who didn't hear Jamie's first appearance on the podcast, which was voted 2015 Podcast of the Year by Product Hunt, you can check it out here. In this episode, you'll hear many stories and topics that haven't been discussed before -- including Jamie's exploration of past lives. It goes in many different directions, but I think you'll enjoy it. If you only have 5 m...
This episode is actually a workshop on negotiating. Out of all the resources out there on how to negotiate, 99 percent of them are piss-poor -- but I guarantee you this isn't one of them. The teacher is Ramit Sethi. These lessons are all taken from a multi-day course Ramit taught on CreativeLive.com, which is one of the fastest growing startups. [Full disclosure: I am an advisor.] If you are an entrepreneur, perhaps just getting into entrepreneurship, thinking of taking the dive into entrepreneu...
My job is usually to deconstruct world-class performers from business, military, entertainment, politics, or athletics, and then to tease out the routines and habits you can use. In this particular episode, I'm going to share an overarching strategy that has been used by many of the greats. That includes Ben Franklin, legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick, and many, many more. It is also how I built my network, how my first book hit the tipping point, how I became successful at angel investing, and...
Kevin Kelly (@kevin2kelly) is back again and, as I've said before, he might be the real-life "Most Interesting Man In The World." Kevin is Senior Maverick at Wired Magazine, which he co-founded in 1993. He also co-founded the All Species Foundation, a non-profit aimed at cataloging and identifying every living species on earth. In his spare time, he writes bestselling books, co-founded the Rosetta Project, which is building an archive of all†documented human languages, and serves on the board of...
Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) is a legendary figure in Silicon Valley -- and worldwide. Even in the epicenter of tech, it's hard to find a more fascinating icon. Marc co-created the highly influential Mosaic Internet browser, the first widely used graphical web browser. He also co-founded Netscape, which later sold to AOL for $4.2 billion. Then he co-founded Loudcloud, which sold as Opsware to Hewlett Packard for $1.6 billion. He's considered one of the founding fathers of the modern Internet, right...
This episode is a role-reversal. I flew to New York City and sat down with Stephen J. Dubner (@freakonomics) of Freakonomics fame. He proceeded to ask me all sorts of questions that I'd never heard before, and we recorded the entire thing. It was a blast. His team did an incredible job with post-production, and I wanted to share the conversation with all of you. You can learn more about Stephen J. Dubner and his team at Freakonomics.com, on Twitter, or you can subscribe to their show on iTunes. ...
If you want a better understanding of warriors, tribal societies, human nature, and what we can learn from it all, this is for you. My podcast guest is Sebastian Junger (@sebastianjunger), the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Perfect Storm, Fire, A Death in Belmont, War, and Tribe. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world and has received both a Natio...
Alex Honnold (@alexhonnold, Facebook: /alexhonnold) is a professional adventure rock climber whose audacious free-solo (no ropes, no partner) ascents of America’s biggest cliffs have made him one of the most recognized and followed climbers in the world. Honnold is distinguished for his uncanny ability to control his fear while scaling cliffs of dizzying heights without a rope to protect him if he falls. His most celebrated achievements include the first and only free-solos of the Moonlight Butt...
This episode is a conversation/debate/trading of ideas between Chase Jarvis (@ChaseJarvis) and yours truly. We discuss a little bit of everything, including: Optimizing creative output Systems thinking Quota setting Celebrating the small wins Success for type-A personalities Meditation techniques Absurdity The details of the struggles of creating a high level And much, much more... If you enjoy this conversation, we invite you to check out CreativeLive.com/30DaysofGenius where you can get incred...
If you loved the Pavel, Poliquin, or Dom D’Agostino episodes, you'll love this one. My guest this episode isChristopher Sommer (GymnasticBodies on Instagram/Facebook), former US national team gymnastics coach. He is also the founder of GymnasticBodies, a training system that I’m currently testing (and have no affiliation with). As a world-renowned Olympic coach, Sommer is known for building his students into some of the strongest, most powerful athletes in the world. During his extensive 40-year...
"Just because you love something doesn’t mean you can’t suck at it." - Mike Rowe Mike Rowe (@mikeroweworks) is perhaps the best storyteller and pitchman I've ever had on the show. You may know Mike Rowe as the host of Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe is a TV host, writer, narrator, producer, actor and spokesman. His performing career began in 1984 when he faked his way into the Baltimore Opera to get his union card and meet girls, both of which he accomplished during a performance of Rigoletto. His transit...
"The answer is either yes or no. If it's 'no,' then I have to start over." - Joshua Skenes Joshua Skenes (IG: @jskenes) has become famous for his use of fire. As chef-owner of Saison in San Francisco (three Michelin stars), he has classical training and loves his high-end Japanese Nenohi knives, but nothing captures his imagination quite like the open flame. The back of his business card sports three words, stark on ivory stock: Play with fire. In this episode, we explore his obsessions: simplic...
In this episode, we don't have any special guests, unless you count the multiple personalities in my own head. We are not talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger, black-market chemists, Josh Waitzkin, Jamie Foxx or anyone else per our regular interviews. Today, I'll be responding to questions you upvoted on Reddit. This episode includes gems like: My favorite books Learning to take better notes How I develop skills Things that I'm excited about in the next 3-5 years Plus much more... Enjoy! Show notes ...
"A successful writing day is the day that I suffer in the morning, and I have fun in the evening." -Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) has long been one of my writing inspirations. His books, of near universal appeal, spans from The Alchemist to the most recent Adultery and has been translated into more than 70 languages. Few people know that The Alchemist, which has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide, was originally published by a small Brazilian publisher to the tune of... 900 co...
At the end of our lives, what do we most wish for? And how can knowing this help you live better lives now? BJ Miller, MD (@zenhospice) knows. BJ is a palliative care physician at Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, where he thinks deeply about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life for his patients. He is an expert in death, but he’s also learned how we can dramatically improve our own lives, often with very small changes. When you consider that he has guided or been involved with ~1...
Whenever I succumb to social pressure to treat time as less valuable than income, that's when I turn to stoicism. In this special episode of the podcast, I'm sharing one of my favorite letters from Seneca, "On Philosophy and Riches." This is a must-listen for anyone obsessed with increasing wealth or material possessions. My favorite portion begins with, "I might close my letter at this point." If you want to learn more of Seneca's teachings, I've compiled his letters into a collection called th...
Caroline Paul (@carowriter) is a blast and can also probably kick my ass... seriously. Caroline is the author of four published books. Her latest is the New York Times best seller The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure. Once a young scaredy-cat, Caroline decided that fear got in the way of the life she wanted--of excitement, confidence, and self-reliance. She has since flown planes, rafted big rivers, climbed tall mountains, and fought fires as one of the first female firefigh...
