Douglas Rushkoff is obsessed with technology and how it impacts our lives. In this interview, he offers insight into how we shape and are shaped by technology, what’s happening with mainstream media, and some tips on remaining sane online. Rushkoff is an author, professor, and documentarian who focuses on the ways people, culture, and institutions create, share and influence each other's values. He is the author of 17 books including the 2019 release Team Human, and he is a Professor of Media Th...
Nov 16, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Author and philosophy professor William Irvine goes in-depth on Stoicism, and why the fundamental tenets of this ancient philosophy can provide answers to some of the toughest problems in today’s society. On this episode Irvine offers a definition and some useful background on Stoicism and its origins, the original Stoics, their thoughts on failure, their advice on decision making, and how we can train ourselves to be more stoic. Irvine has written seven books including the wildly popular 2008 r...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast What are the best strategies to get people to say “Yes” to your requests in life? Acclaimed psychologist Robert Cialdini dives deep into the seven small things that make a huge impact in influencing others, as well as the difference between being influenced and being manipulated into making decisions. What are the tactics, how do they work, and how do we defend against them? This episode is jam-packed with practical advice that will make you more persuasive in life. Known colloquially as “The Go...
Oct 19, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast What do Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Jennifer Doudna all have in common? Celebrated journalist and author Walter Isaacson calls upon his years of research to explain how curiosity has always fueled creativity among history’s greatest innovators, and how each of those individuals shaped the world around them. On this episode Issacson dives deep into the curious obsessions of Jobs, da Vinci’s ability to develop a brilliant mind, Ada Lovelace and how she developed the algori...
Oct 05, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two-time NBA champion and 2021 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Chris Bosh goes in-depth on the skills it takes to become a winner on the basketball court and in life. On this episode Bosh discusses the rare combination of talent and hunger, emulating others before becoming your own person, individual success vs. team success, the subjective traits that set championship teams apart, what it means to lead by example, where confidence comes from, and so much more. Bosh is widely regarded as one of...
Sep 21, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Todd Simkin calls on experiences from his lengthy career in financial services and educating traders to help Shane understand how to make better decisions. Simkin breaks down all the influences that go into how and why we make decisions, why financial decisions are different than inter-personal ones, the strategies involved with teaching other people to make better decisions, what he looks for when he’s hiring, the value of asking the right questions, and so much more. Simkin is Associate Direct...
Sep 07, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Doug Conant breaks down how putting his employees first made him an internationally renowned business leader atop both the Nabisco Foods Company and the Campbell Soup Company. On this episode Doug discusses why you can’t win in the marketplace if you haven’t won in the workplace, his first 100 days as CEO of Campbell Soup, adjusting to shifting consumer preferences, how to know when you have the right people and the wrong people, and so much more. Conant served as the President of Nabisco from 1...
Aug 24, 2021•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kat Cole discusses how "the power of possible" guided her from a part-time job as a hostess at a Hooters restaurant to one of the most respected business leaders in America. In this wide-ranging episode Cole discusses the dark side of gratitude and how it can keep you in place, defaulting to believing in people, leading with a heavy heart while navigating through tough times, adopting new roles at work, questions to ask to uncover the truth in business and personal life, and so much more. Cole s...
Aug 10, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt looks back on his two decades with the company and the strategies he used to lead during three separate crises. In this episode, Immelt discusses what happened during those events and why, what it was like to take over for GM icon Jack Welch, getting the information you need to make decisions, activist investors, fighting complexity, the mismatched timelines between CEOs and shareholders, unions, and so much more. Immelt is currently a venture partner at N...
Jul 27, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Celebrated restaurateur Danny Meyer discusses the intersection between hospitality and humanity, and why we are all in the hospitality business regardless of where we work. Meyer defines hospitality and how to deliver it with every interaction, how we can scale a feeling, hiring great people and when to let them go, and so much more. Meyer is the Chief Executive Officer of the Union Square Hospitality Group, which comprises some of New York's most beloved and acclaimed restaurants, including Gra...
Jul 13, 2021•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Acclaimed economist and author Noreena Hertz breaks down the world’s loneliness crisis, and what it means for the well-being of our minds, bodies, economies and democratic institutions. In this episode we define loneliness and how to recognize it, its mental and physical health implications, the shame around admitting you’re lonely, what we can do to help alleviate the crisis for ourselves and our kids, and so much more. Hertz has been an Honorary Professor at the Institute for Global Prosperity...
Jun 29, 2021•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sarah Tavel has spent the past four years as a general partner at venture capital firm Benchmark, after previously serving in the same role with Greylock Partners and as the first-ever product manager at Pinterest. In this episode Shane and Sarah how studying philosophy helped in her career as a venture capitalist, the value of intellectual rigor, her concept of the net-present value of pain, why every strength has a corresponding weakness, where executive boards go wrong, assessing the performa...
Jun 15, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Celebrated organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant provides compelling insight into why we should spend time not just thinking, but rethinking. In this episode we cover how to change our own views, how to change the views of others, hiring processes, psychological safety, tribes and group identity, feigned knowledge, binary bias, and so much more. Grant is a Professor of Psychology at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of five books, including his most ...
Jun 01, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Famed investor Joel Greenblatt is the Managing Principal and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Gotham Asset Management, the successor to Gotham Capital, an investment firm he founded in 1985. He’s also spent more than two decades on the adjunct faculty at Columbia Business School, and he’s the author of five books focused on investment strategy, including You Can Be A Stock Market Genius and The Little Book that Beats the Market. Joel and Shane discuss a wide array of topics, including the differen...
May 18, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Renowned researcher and author Jim Collins makes his second appearance on The Knowledge Project, this time to share a wealth of life lessons learned from his mentor and collaborator, Bill Lazier. Jim recently released BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0), an ambitious upgrade of his first book Beyond Entrepreneurship, co-authored with Lazier and focused on effective leadership style. Shane discusses all new topics with Jim in their follow-up conversation, including what it means to be a mentor a...
May 04, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a not-for-profit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development. She’s also the author of Grit, a New York Timesbestseller that examines why some people succeed and others fail, and why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Angela and Shane discuss whether human behavior is constant or circumstantial, the mindsets ...
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thomas Zurbuchen is currently Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, where he seeks answers to big questions about the universe and our place in it. Previously, he was a professor of space science and aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan and a founding director of its Center for Entrepreneurship. In this episode, Thomas and Shane discuss the origin of his passion for astrophysics, commercial spaceflight, exciting experiments going on at the Internatio...
Apr 06, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Ridley is the author of several books related to science and human progress, biologist, newspaper columnist and member of the House of Lords in the UK. Matt and Shane discuss writing books about science, the age-old battle between viruses and humans, rational optimism, the difference between innovation and invention, the role of trial and error and the effects of social media on seeing others’ points of view. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only ...
Mar 23, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Author of one of the best business books of all time, The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman chats with Shane about rapid skill acquisition, mental models, decision making, overcoming fear and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog...
Mar 09, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Seth Godin is the author of 20 bestselling books, founder of altMBA, the Akimbo podcast and runs one of the most popular blogs in the world. Seth and Shane chat about creative work, fear, shame, trusting yourself, what it means to be a professional, how to become an observer of reality, emotional labor, how we learn and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sun...
Feb 23, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable, Nir Eyal was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Review as, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” In this episode, Shane and Nir discuss regaining control of our attention from technology, how to get more done in less time, controlling the things you have agency over and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sun...
Feb 16, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Loch Kelly is an author, meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and founder of the Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. Shane and Loch do a deep dive into mindfulness, consciousness, how to not let your emotions take over, ways to access your hidden awareness, debugging your mind and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timel...
Feb 09, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sendhil Mullainathan is the Professor of Computation and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the author of Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much. Sendhil reflects on lessons he learned from his father, how creativity is the marrying of ideation and filtration, direct versus associative memory, what we can do to get better, rules versus decisions, positioning over predicting, outcome over ego and so much more. Listen now for some ideas that you can...
Feb 02, 2021•2 hr 40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jane McGonigal is a PhD Game Designer who advocates for the use of video games to help people learn skills that transfer to the real world, heal physical problems like concussions and improve attitudes and self-esteem in children. Shane and Jane discuss how video games help with decision making, post-traumatic growth as well as how much is too much, what to watch out for and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more...
Jan 19, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress, the open platform that runs most of the sites you visit and the CEO of Automattic. In this episode Matt and Shane discuss distributed work, the 5 levels of autonomous organizations, decision making, running an organization with more than 1300 people, integrating acquisitions and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Ever...
Jan 05, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast For over a decade, Kris Cordle worked directly with the CEOs at Yahoo, Twitter, and Slack. She joined Twitter and Slack early and helped them scale into public companies. Most recently she was Chief of Staff at Slack but left to launch Devenu Collaborations, helping rapid-growth CEOs scale. Kris and Shane discuss life in a religious cult, automatic rules for success, lessons in decision making and scaling, why it's hard for founders to scale, the common patterns to success, and much more. It's t...
Dec 22, 2020•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sahil Lavingia is the founder and CEO of Gumroad, an online marketplace for creators. In this conversation Sahil and Shane cover building a billion dollar business, the most critical skills for success, how he hires, his worst mistake, the patterns of success and failure and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless ...
Dec 08, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast The former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Roger Martin is one of the top management thinkering in the world. You’ll walk away from this conversation a better leader and decision maker as he discusses patterns of good leadership, the hardest skill to transfer when decision making, self-sabotage, overcoming fear and integrative thinking. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more he...
Nov 24, 2020•2 hr 31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The founder and co-head of the Leadership Practice at CRA and the Admired Leadership Institute, Randall Stutman is an incredible executive coach with an impressive roster of clients. You’ll walk away from this episode with some tools to put into practice to make you a better leader, partner and parent as Randall discusses the behavioral versus psychological view of leadership, what really drives results, and the uncommon routines of the world’s best leaders. -- Want even more? Members get early ...
Nov 10, 2020•2 hr 39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Managing Director of Mistral Venture Partners Code Cubitt has an interesting origin story. After being kicked out of University twice he still managed to graduate and quickly climbed the ranks for several prominent companies before striking out on his own. Hear how he evaluates founders, his decision-making process, common mistakes companies make as they scale, and much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more ...
Oct 27, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
