This episode will transform how you think about style, aspiration, and the art of knowing what people want before they know it themselves. From working in department stores to advising Steve Jobs on Apple’s retail strategy when it didn’t have retail at all, Drexler’s career traces the evolution of American retail itself: from local shops to mall dominance, from catalog to digital, from mass market to personalization. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a retail enthusiast, or someone lookin...
Feb 04, 2025•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alfred Lin shares strategies for navigating startup challenges, building resilient teams, and creating long-lasting value. Lin explores lessons from companies like Zappos, Airbnb, DoorDash, and Amazon, offering actionable insights on topics like hiring for potential, managing crises, and fostering innovative cultures. Learn how first-principles thinking, customer focus, and disciplined growth can transform challenges into opportunities, even in the face of unprecedented disruptions. Lin is a par...
Jan 21, 2025•2 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whether you’re looking to increase your income, start a side business, or completely transform your financial future, Codie Sanchez will break down exactly what separates those who successfully build wealth from those who stay stuck. This conversation is packed with immediately actionable insights covering the biggest myths around money, the difference between acquiring and keeping money, the rich versus broke mindset and how it changes everything, non obvious lessons on negotiating, and more. P...
Jan 07, 2025•2 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Knowledge Project closes 2024 with a look back at some of the best conversations of the year. Featuring interviews from some of our most downloaded episodes ever, this collection of conversations offers a variety of insights into finances and investing, improving your communication, marketing and positioning, business frameworks, health and nutrition, and how to beat death. This conversation features segments from finance expert and writer Morgan Housel, non-verbal psychologist Blake Eastman...
Dec 24, 2024•2 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Charlie Hoehn explains the secrets behind why some books are unforgettable, and others no one seems to remember. He shares his journey of helping authors transform their ideas into best-selling books and provides actionable advice on structuring, writing, and marketing a book. You'll learn how to craft titles that make people want to read your book, design compelling covers that stand out on the shelves, and use certain strategies to engage readers effectively depending on the i...
Dec 10, 2024•2 hr 47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan Holiday unpacks the subtle and not-so-subtle messages life sends us—and what happens when we ignore them. From mismatched tattoos and injured ankles, Ryan reflects on the lessons he’s learned about preparation, awareness, and humility. Using examples ranging from personal missteps to famous entrepreneurial gambles, this episode is a deep dive into the art of learning from experience, knowing when to listen, and the cost of stubbornness. Plus, Holiday revisits his roots to discuss how Stoic ...
Nov 26, 2024•2 hr 46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Investor Adam Karr reveals his hidden playbook for spotting exceptional CEOs and building extraordinary businesses. Learn his counterintuitive techniques—from the surprising link between writing skills and executive performance to the 10-minute test that unveils a leader's true potential. Packed with battle-tested wisdom, Karr shares the deceptively simple principles that separate great business leaders from the merely good. Adam Karr is the President and Portfolio Manager at Orbis Investments. ...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast From near bankruptcy after a devastating flood to a $13.7 billion Amazon acquisition, Whole Foods founder John Mackey reveals how a small health food store became an empire that revolutionized American eating. Discover how a single near-death experience transformed a 25-year-old college dropout into the pioneer of the organic food movement. Mackey shares raw insights from the frontlines: how he turned hostile customers into evangelists, survived multiple extinction-level threats, and built a mis...
Oct 29, 2024•2 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rob Fraser unveils the untold story of OUTWAY—from hawking socks on street corners to building an eight-figure empire. Surviving near-catastrophic business crises, he leveraged lessons from his professional sports career to navigate the business world. Discover the counterintuitive mental models that transformed a world-class athlete into a business maverick, turning the humble sock into a ten-million-dollar revolution. As a special offer to listeners, the TKP community can get 30% off using the...
Oct 15, 2024•2 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast From a tiny village, John Bragg quietly built an empire that controls half the world's wild blueberries and North America's largest private telecom network. In this rare interview, the famously private billionaire reveals how he defied conventional wisdom by transforming a small farm into two multi-billion-dollar giants. Discover the contrarian principles that helped Bragg dominate seemingly unrelated industries—from frozen foods to fiber optics—and build businesses designed to thrive for genera...
Oct 01, 2024•2 hr 32 min•Ep 177•Transcript available on Metacast When Princeton-educated attorney Erin Wade left law to open a restaurant, she didn't just create award-winning comfort food—she engineered a revolutionary workplace culture. This conversation reveals how she transformed an Oakland mac and cheese restaurant into a laboratory for modern management principles. Wade shares her groundbreaking 'color code of conduct' system (now adopted globally) and her radical approach to open-book management. A masterclass in building culture, solving industry-wide...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Master storyteller Matthew Dicks unveils the hidden blueprint behind stories that win million-dollar deals, transform resistant teams, and turn skeptical investors into champions. Learn why most leaders tell stories that fail, and discover the counterintuitive techniques that make audiences lean in, remember, and act. From high-stakes boardrooms to viral TED talks, Dicks reveals the psychological triggers that turn everyday moments into weapons of mass persuasion. (00:00:00 Intro (00:03:28) What...
Sep 03, 2024•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former IBM executive April Dunford reveals the sophisticated frameworks behind market leadership. This isn't about marketing tactics but how category leaders reshape markets to their advantage. Drawing from decades of experience, Dunford shares the nuanced art of market definition, competitive positioning, and strategic narrative. These are essential insights for leaders who understand that winning isn't about being better—it's about being different in meaningful ways. -- Newsletter - The Brain ...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast From Cambridge startup to NYSE heavyweight, HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan reveals the sophisticated frameworks behind scaling a $30B enterprise. Now a Sequoia Capital Senior Advisor, Halligan shares rare insights into the nuanced decisions that separate exceptional companies from merely successful ones. Learn the strategic principles of modern company building, including the counterintuitive culture choices, talent algorithms, and leadership pivots that defined HubSpot's trajectory. A master...
Aug 06, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Few episodes in The Knowledge Project’s nine-year history have impacted people’s relationships and lives more than when Esther Perel shared her infinite wisdom for the first time in 2019. Shane and Esther discuss how the stories you tell yourself shape how you see the world (and what to do about that), the important conversations to have at the beginning of a relationship, the most common arguments couples have and how to prevent them, what to say to a partner if the relationship isn’t working o...
Jul 23, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Few episodes in The Knowledge Project's nine-year history have impacted people's relationships and lives more than when Esther Perel shared her infinite wisdom for the first time in 2019. Shane and Esther discuss how the stories you tell yourself shape how you see the world (and what to do about that), the important conversations to have at the beginning of a relationship, the most common arguments couples have and how to prevent them, what to say to a partner if the relationship isn'...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Shane Parrish and Maya Shankar dive into the complexities of identity and personal transformation. They explore how significant life changes can reshape one's sense of self and explain how to navigate these transitions. Maya shares her personal stories and tips on making proactive choices and keeping a flexible, layered sense of self. They also discuss the psychological and philosophical aspects of identity, offering practical advice on goal-setting and personal growth. Maya Shankar is a cogniti...
Jul 09, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast What ancient wisdom and modern science reveal about raising exceptional children. Through years of anthropological research and scientific inquiry, NPR correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff uncovers the counterintuitive principles that shape human development across cultures. This isn't about quick fixes or parenting hacks—it's a deep examination of how successful cultures have developed emotionally intelligent, capable humans for generations. Essential insights for leaders who understand that raisi...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Succeeding in both life and business is very difficult. The skills needed to scale a company often clash with those required to cultivate a thriving home life. Yet, Brent Beshore seems to have cracked the code—or at least he's actively working on it. In this conversation, he spills his secrets on excelling in both arenas. This episode is split into two parts: the first 45 minutes covers life and how to be a better person. Brent opens up about the evolution of his marriage, physical health, and i...
Jun 11, 2024•2 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The skills it takes to get rich are drastically different from the skills it takes to stay rich. Few understand this phenomenon more than Morgan Housel. He's identified unique lessons about wealth, happiness, and money by studying the world's richest families and learning what they did to build their wealth and just how quickly they squandered it all.In this conversation, Shane and Housel discuss various aspects of risk-taking, wealth accumulation, and financial independence. Morgan explains the...
May 28, 2024•2 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Investigative journalist Abigail Shrier reveals an uncomfortable truth: our culture's overwhelming embrace of therapy might be harming the next generation. In this thought-provoking conversation, she challenges conventional wisdom about mental health, drawing from extensive research and disturbing patterns among lifelong therapy patients. Learn when therapy helps, when it hurts, and how successful parents navigate emotional resilience in their children. Newsletter - I share timeless insights and...
May 21, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast What if reaching the next level of success wasn't determined by another skill, degree, or course but by something that changed on the inside? That's what Dr. Jim Loehr believes, and in this episode, he reveals everything he knows about mental toughness and winning the mind game. Shane and Loehr discuss the radical importance of the stories you tell yourself—including how they can damage your kids—and how to change the negative stories you believe. Loehr also shares the best reflection questions ...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast From a single storefront to a $200M enterprise, David Segal reveals the sophisticated frameworks behind building a category-defining business. Learn the counterintuitive principles that separate exceptional operators from average founders, including the hidden challenges of success and the strategic tension between working in versus on your business. A look into the mind of a builder who has mastered both the science of operations and the art of scale. And watch in real-time as he does it again ...
Apr 16, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Rhonda Patrick explores the intricate world of nutrition and health. Dr. Patrick provides a deep dive into the role micronutrients play in our daily health, detailing how deficiencies and insufficiencies in vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids can lead to serious health issues over time. Shane and Dr. Patrick also discuss the science behind deliberate heat exposure. She outlines the optimal sauna conditions—temperature, duration, and frequency—necessary for these health benefits ...
Apr 02, 2024•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brad Jacobs doesn't just build big companies – he builds industry giants. As the founder of eight multibillion-dollar companies, he's cracked the code on scaling businesses from zero to billions. In this conversation, the secrets he's earned over decades. You'll discover where billion-dollar opportunities are hiding in plain sight, how to spot massive trends years before your competitors, and the most crucial factor determining a company's success. Currently serving as Chairman and CEO of QXO, J...
Mar 19, 2024•2 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Most families who obtain immense wealth squander it by the third generation. But Chris Davis comes from a family whose grandfather and father all became independently wealthy of each other, and Davis has done the same. How does that keep happening? In this conversation, we find out. Shane and Chris discuss life and investment lessons he learned from his father and grandfather, why writing is more important to clarify one's thinking no matter who's reading it, and the surprising benefit of readin...
Mar 05, 2024•3 hr 45 min•Transcript available on Metacast What can you do (or avoid) tomorrow to guarantee you can live longer? In this episode, Bryan Johnson reveals the five simple disciplines you can start doing to live healthier and longer. Johnson shares what his daily routine looks like, the ins and outs of his experimentation process, and why he gave his father plasma. Johnson also opens up about the constant hate he receives from people online, how he deals with it all, and what he wishes he'd known when he sold his company. Bryan Johnson is th...
Feb 20, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Becky Kennedy shares the crucial life and parenting skills you need but didn't get taught on regulating emotions, setting boundaries, and the best sentence you can say when a partner tells you something difficult. This episode applies to EVERY relationship in your life, not just your kids. Get ready to parent more effectively with less stress, repair after a disagreement, regulate emotions, and unlock the next level in all of your relationships. Dubbed the “The Millennial Parenting Whisperer...
Feb 06, 2024•2 hr 58 min•Ep 187•Transcript available on Metacast Tom Gayner, CEO of Markel Group, reveals the lessons he’s learned from Charlie Munger and Berkshire Hathaway, how he invests, and the specific way he thinks about opportunity cost. Gayner shares the difference between good debt and bad debt, where he disagrees with Munger, and why he focuses on the basics. This intimate conversation offers a level of insight and honesty that Tom hasn’t offered anywhere else. Gayner is currently the CEO of Markel Group and the Director of The Coca‑Cola Company. H...
Jan 23, 2024•2 hr 10 min•Ep 186•Transcript available on Metacast Blake Eastman has dedicated his entire life to psychology and nonverbal behavior. In 2009 he founded The Nonverbal Group, a behavioral research and education company in New York City which conducts large scale studies on human behavior and uses a wide range of technologies to systematically deconstruct and improve human communication. Eastman dives deep into how we communicate with one another, including the ability to read nonverbal cues, his thoughts on big talkers vs. silent types, how we can...
Jan 09, 2024•2 hr 44 min•Ep 185•Transcript available on Metacast 
