Kelly reminisces with Chicago-bred comedian and author Mike Bridenstine whose new book is called  “The Perfect Amount of Wrong: The Rise of Alt Comedy on Chicago’s North Side.”  “Chicago was an improv town and everybody knew it.” “None of it was glamorous. None of it should have worked at all.” “During that brief period, I was forced to unlearn […]
Kelly talks to best-selling author Morgan Housel whose book “The Psychology of Money” sold over 3 million copies. His new book, “Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes,” is a fascinating look at history’s most powerful lessons. “Asking what the biggest risks are is like asking what you expect to be surprised about.”  “The […]
Kelly sits down with high-performance psychologist Michael Gervais to talk about his new book “The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying About What People Think of You.” “The sooner you fundamentally change your relationship with other people’s opinions, the sooner you become free.”  “The idea that we can take a magic pill that makes our […]
Kelly has a timely conversation with Harvard University professor Michele Lamont to discuss her new book “Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How it Can Heal a Divided World.” “Identity is and has always been a basis for hateful attacks.”  “Unlike optimism, hope is not an expression of our temperament, but a plan for the […]
Kelly spends time with Catalina Daniels and James Sherman, two entrepreneurs who met at Harvard Business School and have written a new book: “Smart Startups: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know.” “Knowing you are meant to be an entrepreneur is a journey unto itself.”  “As soon as you observe a rising tide, you’re too late.”  “Hire for curiosity.”
Kelly talks to Jill Stoddard, the founder and director of The Center for Stress and Anxiety Management, to discuss her new book “Imposter No More: Overcome Self-Doubt and Imposterism to Cultivate a Successful Career.” “If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t worry about being exposed as incompetent.” “The imposter voice often grows rather than shrinks with […]
Kelly welcomes back Suneel Gupta to the podcast to talk about his new book “Everyday Dharma: 8 Essential Practices for Finding Success and Joy in What You Do.” “For too long, we have fixated on the future of work and ignored the future of worth.”  “It’s easy to recognize when you’re lost in the woods. The hard part […]
Kelly interviews Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key live at the Chicago Humanities Festival to discuss their new book “The History of Sketch Comedy: A Journey Through the Art and Craft of Humor.” “There is something about comedy that is primal.” “Just because something is uncomfortable, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”  “There was always a parachute and […]
Kelly connects with Liz Tran, the founder of Reset – an executive coaching and wellness company – to talk about her new book “The Karma of Success: Spiritual Strategies to Free Your Inner Genius.” “Our work selves and our home selves are not separate beings.”  “Get out of your own way and allow what is already […]
Kelly welcomes Harvard professor Frances Frei back to the podcast along with leadership coach Anne Morriss to talk about their new book:  “Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems.”  “The fastest way to mess up change leadership is to make it about you.”  “The most important item on your packing […]
Kelly talks to Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross about the science behind art. The pair have written the book “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transforms Us.” “We now have scientific proof that the arts are essential to our very survival.” “Your brain loves a good metaphor.” “Curiosity is a building block of flourishing.”
Kelly connects with UCLA professor Hal Hershfield to talk about his new book “Your Future Self: How To Make Tomorrow Better Today.”  “Your fate is not fixed. Not even close.”  “We can never really know our future selves.” “You are actually a we.” 
Kelly welcomes back renowned Harvard professor Amy Edmondson to the podcast to discuss her new book “The Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well.” “Most of us fail to learn the valuable lessons failures can offer.”   “Everyone fails at failure.” “When it comes to errors, intent matters.” 
Kelly sits down with playwright and author Jeffrey Sweet to discuss the new edition of his legendary book “Something Wonderful Right Away,” an oral history of The Second City.
Kelly reconnects with Second City alum Mike Lukas to talk about his new book, “Finding Your Funny Muscle: How to Create Laughs Like a Pro.” “A good laugh can feel better than sex on drugs in a rock and roll hot tub.” “Bottom line, humor isn’t some obscure concept that only the chosen few can master.”  “Shared pain makes us […]
Kelly speaks to journalist Jason Del Rey to discuss his new book, “Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart and the Battle For Our Wallets.” “You can either choose to disrupt yourself or be caught flatfooted when disruption chooses you.”  “This might not have been move fast and break things, but it was at times, move fast and fake things.”  “A world where one […]
Kelly speaks with Christian Madsbjerg, co-founder of the consulting firm ReD Associates and professor of applied humanities at the New School in New York City. He has a new book called “Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World.” “Creativity is never radical, insights are.”  “Stop talking and try listening. What will you hear in the silence?”  […]
Kelly steps out of “Yes, And” mode to talk to University of Houston professor Vanessa Patrick about her new book  “The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No That Puts You in Charge of Your life.” “There is little upside to saying yes when we want to say no.”  “The way […]
Kelly speaks with legendary Washington Post sportswriter Sally Jenkins about her new book, “The Right Call: What Sports Teach us About the Art of Decision Making.” “No one succeeds alone, not even a LeBron James.”  “The brain robs your body of the energy to think.”  “Good practice is transformative.” 
Kelly connects across the pond with Neil Mullarkey, who began his comedy career in a duo with Mike Myers, improvised with London’s legendary Comedy Store Players, and applied his knowledge of improvisation to the world of business management training. He has a new book, “In the Moment: Build Your Confidence, Communication and Creativity at Work.” You can find […]
Kelly has a fascinating conversation with scholars Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater to talk about their new book, “The Language Game: How Improvisation Created Language and Changed the World.”  “Actual language is always a matter of improvisation, of finding an effective way to meet the communicative demands of the moment.”  “Language is continually invented in the […]
Kelly talks to Babson College professor Rob Cross and returning guest Karen Dillon of the Harvard Business Review to discuss their new book: “The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems – and What to Do About It.” “You can’t always control what you’re asked to do, but you can control how you respond.”  “Our brains […]
Kelly sits down with Zeynep Ton, Professor of the Practice in the Operations Management group at MIT Sloan School of Management, to discuss her new book “The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work.” “A jockey on an injured horse isn’t going to win just because you doubled his pay.”  “Bad […]
Kelly connects with Dan Lyons, journalist and former staff writer for the famed television series “Silicon Valley” to discuss his new book,  “STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World.”  “Talking is like breathing. You don’t think about it; you just do it.”  “Our brains suck at multitasking. Trying to do it makes us dumber […]
Kelly welcomes back NYU marketing professor Adam Alter to the podcast to talk about his new book,  “Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most.”  “People tend to get stuck in the middle.”  “The best way to be lucky is to persevere because luck overlaps with longevity.” “Most of the time, people overestimate the […]
Kelly Leonard, Executive Director of Learning & Applied Improvisation at Second City Works, connects with Marcus Collins, the head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy and a clinical assistant professor of marketing at The Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, to discuss his new book: “For The Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, And Who […]
BONUS PODCAST: This bonus podcast was taped live at the Up Comedy Club at The Second City. Kelly Leonard, Executive Director of Learning & Applied Improvisation at Second City Works, hosts a podcast taping with a stellar panel of guests to look at how comedy is an effective tool in the struggle for human rights. […]
Kelly sits down with Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and the author of “Generations: The Real Difference Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents – and What They Mean for America’s Future.” “Each generation is softer than the one before it.”  “The United States does not just have a growing income […]
BONUS PODCAST: Kelly Leonard, Executive Director of Learning & Applied Improvisation at Second City Works, welcomes the legendary Seth Godin back to the podcast to talk about his new book “The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams.” “The work of significance embraces the very things that industrialism seeks to stamp out.” “What each […]
Kelly Leonard, Executive Director of Learning & Applied Improvisation at Second City Works, gets a lesson in both food and economics from Professor Ha-Joon Chang when they discuss his new book “Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World.” “We Koreans don’t just eat garlic. We process it. In industrial quantities. We are garlic.” “This […]
