Marc Elliott shares his controversial perspective on NXIVM, arguing that media narratives have distorted the truth about Keith Raniere and the organization. Living with severe Tourette syndrome for 20 years, Elliott found relief through NXIVM techniques when traditional medical approaches failed. He challenges the dominant narrative by examining inconsistencies in accusers stories, questioning the lack of due process in the trial, and arguing that salacious headlines and the MeToo movement creat...
Feb 05, 2026•58 min
Luvvie Ajayi Jones challenges the cultural expectation that harmony is more important than justice. As a professional troublemaker, she argues that speaking up in rooms where bad ideas or unjust systems persist is not just necessary—it is our responsibility. Drawing from her Nigerian heritage and her grandmother's fearless example, Luvvie explores how we've been conditioned to shrink ourselves, hide our superpowers, and accept being called "too much" instead of claiming our full selves. She brea...
Feb 02, 2026•46 min
Peter Krask, creator of Myth Merchant and former Hollywood producer, shares his journey from quitting grad school to producing reality TV to building a business around storytelling and mythology. After realizing a PhD wasn't his path, Krask dove into the entertainment industry, learning the business side of creativity—budgets, staff, international shipping, and legitimacy through visibility. He explains how being on television instantly validated his work in ways that years of independent effort...
Jan 06, 2026•1 hr 2 min
Oliver Burkeman, author of "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking," dismantles the self-help industry's obsession with optimism and goal-setting. Raised as a Quaker with pro-social parents, Burkeman explores why chasing happiness often makes us miserable, how negative visualization (imagining worst-case scenarios) builds resilience, and why acceptance of uncertainty is more valuable than relentless positivity. He explains that we already know the five or six things...
Jan 05, 2026•54 min
In this powerful conversation, former CBS news anchor and positive psychology researcher Michelle Gielan unpacks how we can rewire our communication habits to shape more resilient, empowered, and optimistic lives — both personally and collectively. Drawing on research from her book *Broadcasting Happiness*, Gielan shows how small shifts in the way we speak, frame problems, and open conversations have a measurable impact on our mindset, productivity, and relationships.She explores the science beh...
Jan 02, 2026•45 min
Michelle Florendo shares her journey from following the immigrant dream of Stanford, an MBA, and a "good job" to discovering she was miserable and needed to chart her own path. As a decision engineering expert, she reveals the three essential elements of every decision (options, objectives, and information), explains why we confuse decision quality with outcome quality, and shares how embracing uncertainty—not just managing risk—can unlock possibilities we never imagined. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Jan 01, 2026•44 min
Justin McRoberts, musician, pastor, and author of "It's What You Make of It," shares how confronting death early in life shaped his approach to creativity and faith. Having attended over 20 funerals by age 25, McRoberts explains why understanding mortality is essential to living fully and why the cultural narrative of imperviousness keeps people from taking creative risks. He explores how opportunities—not rigid plans—defined his multi-hyphenate career, why narrative holds human lives together, ...
Dec 22, 2025•48 min
Jeff Wald, author of The End of Jobs and CEO of WorkMarket, examines how robots and AI are creating the fourth industrial revolution—a massive power shift from workers to companies that mirrors past technological upheavals. Drawing from labor history, on-demand platforms, and regulatory battles like California Prop 22, Wald reveals why the lifetime employment contract was always a myth with average job tenure at 5 years in 1960 and 4.2 years today. He introduces the hard tech vs. hard human fram...
Dec 09, 2025•51 min
Jeff Spencer, former Olympic cyclist and performance coach to Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and Olympic gold medalists, breaks down the precise architecture of champion-level achievement. From losing his father at age 10 to competing in the Munich Olympics to coaching nine Tour de France victories, Jeff reveals the eight sequential steps every prolific performer navigates: prepare, perform, achieve, pause. He explains why most people burn out by chasing every opportunity instead of choosing goal...
Dec 08, 2025•43 min
Jason Naylor, artist and author of Live Life Colorfully, shares how growing up as the second of seven children in a Mormon family in Salt Lake City shaped his caretaker personality and his eventual escape to New York where he discovered creative liberation. Naylor reveals the symbiotic relationship between color and messaging in his work—the more positive and uplifting his messages became, the more color naturally emerged because he couldn't visualize kindness without bright hues. Drawing from c...
Dec 05, 2025•49 min
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 to walk into any room but delayed his understanding that not everyone has equal access to opportunity until he reached Princeton. Weinstein reveals how writing for Dennis Miller taught him to find the Venn diagram between his voice and another's—a skill that translated perf...
Dec 04, 2025•51 min
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 friendships that watched her evolve from emo to punk rock to professional white woman. Weiss challenges the dangerous mindset mantra in entrepreneurship, arguing that privilege and circumstance—like having a home to return to if everything went belly up—allow some people to...
Dec 03, 2025•53 min
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 pick. Drawing from decades of presidential history, Mukunda introduces the concept of filtered versus unfiltered leaders—George H.W. Bush represents the filtered ideal with 44 years in government before becoming president, while Barack Obama exemplifies the unfiltered wildcar...
Nov 27, 2025•59 min
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 culturally rejected because it's unhealthy and dispensable—people don't care if you tell them to leave Facebook for six months but petroleum deprivation changes lives. Newport reveals Facebook's PR pivot after 2016 when defectors like Sean Parker exposed addiction engineering: Cam...
Nov 25, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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 explains how introspection, while powerful, can often backfire, leading to rumination, anxiety, and impaired performance.In this conversation, Kross explores how our inner voices are shaped by parents, culture, and adolescence—and how we can take control through deliberate tools...
Nov 24, 2025•55 min
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 breaks down the connection between attention control and exceptional achievement. He challenges the myth that social media grows your audience, revealing that craft—not constant self-promotion—drives lasting success. The conversation explores why our social brain can't process ...
Nov 24, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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 Hollywood screenwriting to the video game industry to running one of the most-read personal development blogs, Eric explains his obsession with translating peer-reviewed research into clear, entertaining, actionable insights. He breaks down why so many questions about happiness an...
Nov 21, 2025•1 hr 22 min
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 psychedelic medicine into mainstream healthcare. He explains the neuroscience of how ketamine creates neuroplasticity—allowing the brain to rewire itself—and why these treatments are showing 10x better outcomes than SSRIs. From navigating FDA breakthrough therapy designations...
Nov 20, 2025•54 min
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 concept of "highest and best use"—a real estate framework adapted to human potential that prioritizes outcomes over hours logged. Starmer reveals why 11.5 million workers quit their jobs between April and June 2021 alone, with burnout as the number one driver and women of colo...
Nov 20, 2025•45 min
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 what it means to pursue creative work when society constantly asks if you want more. This conversation examines the uncomfortable questions creatives must answer about their work, their purpose, and whether they are willing to embrace discomfort in service of something meani...
Nov 18, 2025•57 min
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, integrity, and honor while navigating a world not built for young black children. Jackson traces the roots of American racism to the legacy of slavery where black people started as chattel on unequal footing and never shed that history, creating an internalized stain on both si...
Nov 17, 2025•52 min
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 snow athlete, Ryan-Gorman used snowboarding and skateboarding as outlets for self-hatred and denial, pushing himself to dangerous extremes before hearing a podcast that changed everything. He reveals the complex reactions from family—his mom's unexpected resistance, his dad'...
Nov 14, 2025•45 min
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, David reveals how individual variability in learning means there is no one-size-fits-all approach to skill development. He reframes the Tiger Woods and Mozart narratives, showing how their success came from internal drive, not just parental pressure. From his own journey—le...
Nov 13, 2025•52 min
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 breaks down the components of conversational architecture: openings, turns, power dynamics, and interfaces. He explains why physical and digital spaces fundamentally alter what conversations are possible, how to slow down heated exchanges through pacing and tone, and why the most...
Nov 12, 2025•1 hr 18 min
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 landmarks like New Year work for initiating goals, only 20% of people still pursue them by November—the difference comes down to whether you're fantasizing or planning. Fishbach explains how fantasies (envisioning yourself already achieving the goal) actually decrease motivati...
Nov 12, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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 distinction between a focused life (giving undivided attention to whoever/whatever you're engaged with) and a purpose-focused life (where your life's purpose defines priorities that drive what you focus on). Drawing from Napoleon Hill and his guru's book *Merging with Siva*, Dandapa...
Nov 11, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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 emerged in mid-20th century knowledge work when visible activity became a proxy for useful effort because traditional productivity metrics (Model Ts per hour, bushels per acre) no longer applied. Newport argues that pseudo productivity was tolerable until the digital office ...
Nov 07, 2025•1 hr 41 min
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 knowing what to do and actually doing it. Drawing from decades working with elite athletes, Stein explains that performance gaps exist in every area of life—we all know we should eat healthier, sleep more, and exercise consistently, but implementation separates good from great....
Nov 07, 2025•1 hr 6 min
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 introduces the concept of informed consent in organizing—ensuring participants feel safe, informed, and empowered rather than treated as bodies in the street. Tennery-Spalding challenges the wellness industrial complex’s version of self-care, revealing how she fell into the...
Nov 06, 2025•48 min
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. Through his work with Venture for America, he witnessed firsthand the economic devastation in Detroit, Ohio, and the Midwest—where automated manufacturing jobs created the conditions that elected Donald Trump. Yang argues that artificial intelligence will soon eliminate truck ...
Nov 06, 2025•45 min
