Richard Lui is a journalist and news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News. He was formerly at CNN Worldwide. Lui is also a columnist, contributing to publications including USA Today, Politico, The Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press, and San Francisco Chronicle. In 2020 Lui directed the documentary Skyblossom which profiles five families, each with a stude…

Stephen M. R. Covey is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The SPEED of Trust—The One Thing That Changes Everything. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his fathe…

Ximena Vengoechea is a researcher, writer, and illustrator who works on personal and professional development. She has been published in Inc., The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Huffington Post. She is a contributor at Fast Company and The Muse and writes Letters from Ximena, a newsletter on tech, culture, career, and creativity. She is best known …

Ron Carucci is the best-selling author of nine books, including ‘To Be Honest’, which we dive into in our discussion about what it means to be honest and how to do it. Ron is the co-founder and managing partner of Navalent, a consultancy that works with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations. Ron is a regular c…

Carl Bergstrom is a theoretical and evolutionary biologist and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Bergstrom is a critic of low-quality or misleading scientific research. He is the co-author of a book on misinformation called Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World and teaches a class by the sa…

Andrew Tarvin (or as he prefers, Drew Tarvin) is the world’s first Humor Engineer teaching thousands of people at over 200 organizations, including P&G, GE, and Microsoft how to get better results while having more fun. He is a best-selling author of a couple of books (my favorite being Humor That Works), he has been featured in The Wall Street Jou…

John Tierney has written a number of books and he is also a journalist who writes for The New York Times and The City Journal. The first time he came on the podcast it was to discuss willpower because he, along with psychologist Roy Baumeister, wrote a book called ‘Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength’. He again collaborated with Dr…

Dr. Ethan Kross is one of the world's leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business, he is the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. He has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good…

Joshua Medcalf is a multi-faceted, thoughtful, self-aware guy. One of the more remarkable things about him is he dropped out of his Master’s program at Duke University, skipped scholarships to law school, and moved across the country into a homeless shelter to serve people. He’s written many books, including the fable 'Chop Wood, Carry Water.' He’s…

Jason Harris is the Co-Founder & CEO of Mekanism a premier creative agency in New York City. Customers he has landed include Alaska Airlines, Ben & Jerry’s, OkCupid, HBO, MillerCoors, Peloton, and The United Nations. He is the Co-Founder of the Creative Alliance, which is a force for good. And… he is the author of The Soulful Art of Persuasion a gr…

Nick Velasquez is a passionate learner and a devoted student of mastery. He's the creator of the popular blog UnlimitedMastery.com, where he writes about learning science, peak performance, creativity, and mastering skills. His writing has been featured in publications such as TIME and Thought Catalogue. The name of Nick’s book is: Learn, Improve, …

Stu Heinecke is a Wall Street Journal cartoonist among other things. During his career, he has become a hall of fame nominated marketer and he has learned a lot about how to communicate with people. Specifically, he has gained an understanding of the best way to break through to people. This is commonly known as ‘contact marketing’. To me, there is…

Maria Konnikiva is the author of two New York Times best-sellers, The Confidence Game and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. She is now, also, a successful professional poker player. Her new book about her poker journey is called 'The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win' is just out. Maria is my first 2…

Dr. Diane Halpern is an American psychologist and former president of the American Psychological Association. She is Dean of Social Science at the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute and also the McElwee Family Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. She received her PhD from the University of Cincinnati. She has received at le…

Apollo Robbins is a pioneer in the application of deception to real-world environments, Robbins uses pick-pocketing and sleight-of-hand to demonstrate perception management, diversion techniques, and self-deception. Known as “The Gentleman Thief,” Robbins first made national news as the man who pick-pocketed the Secret Service while entertaining fo…

Larry Chu is currently a partner at Goodwin - a law firm with over 1,000 lawyers - where he leads the Technology M&A practice on the West Coast. On the sell assignment side, his clients have included Qualtrics, Nest and Oculus. On the buy-side, his clients have included Box, PayPal, Informatica, Sony, Skype, McAfee, and Atlassian. He has also couns…

Dr. Jack Mayer is a Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire. He received his Ph.D. in psychology at Case Western Reserve University and was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. His 1990 article, "Emotional Intelligence" with Dr. Peter Salovey, provided a foundation for research in the area, and they have published dozen…

General David Petraeus has had a long and distinguished career. He served in the Army for 37 years. Highlights include Commander of the International Security Assistance Force, 10th Commander US Central Command and Commanding General Multinational Force – Iraq (where he successfully directed ‘the surge’ and literally wrote the book on counterinsurg…

Ryan Holiday is an author, marketer, entrepreneur and founder of the creative advisory firm Brass Check. Holiday began his professional career after dropping out of college at the age of 19, instead choosing to work with Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power. Holiday is the author of several books and has written for Forbes, Fast Company, T…

Elizabeth Stanley is an associate professor of security studies with joint appointments in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Earlier in her career, she served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer as a captain. She is the creator of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training, which h…

My guest is Rob Biesenbach a corporate communications consultant, keynote speaker, and author. In addition, he is a Second City-trained actor and improviser, who has appeared in nearly 200 stage and commercial productions. As a consultant, he has worked with Fortune 500 companies such as AC Nielsen, Mars, MillerCoors and Motorola. As a speaker and …

Dr. Todd Kashdan is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Senior Scientist at George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. He has published over 185 peer-reviewed journal articles and written a number of books. He is the author of the book ‘Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life’. He is also a scientif…

Angela Duckworth wrote one of my favorite books... Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. In 2013 she became a MacArthur Fellow, which means she won what some call “the genius award.” This is a sizable 'no strings' attached grant to do research. Not to mention, it’s typically given to geniuses. She is the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a n…

Kai-Fu Lee is a venture capitalist, technology executive, writer, and an artificial intelligence expert. Dr. Lee developed the world's first speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system as his Ph.D. thesis at Carnegie Mellon. He's been an executive, at Apple, SGI, Microsoft, and Google. He is one of the most followed micro-bloggers in …

Karla Starr is a writer who has written for O, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, the Guardian, and more. She is the recipient of a ‘Best Science/Health’ book award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Her first book, 'Can You Learn to Be Lucky? Why Some People Seem to Win More Often Than Others', was published earlier this year. She an…

Dr. Larry Weiss has spent the past 8 years as the Head of School at Brooklyn Friends. Since 1974, when he began his career in secondary school education, he has helped lead in one form or fashion Friends World College, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, Horace Mann School in Riverdale and Saint Ann’s. Dr. Weiss graduated from Columbia Colleg…

Emma Seppälä is the Science Director of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. She is also Co-Director of the Yale College Emotional Intelligence Project at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. She is authored of the 2016 book The Happiness Track. She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University. We have an in-dep…

Greg McKeown is a public speaker, leadership and business consultant, and author. He is the founder and CEO of THIS, Inc., a leadership and strategy design agency based in Silicon Valley. His book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, published in April 2014, is a business and self-help book that discusses how to lead a more meaningful an…

Phil Hellmuth is a professional poker player who has won a record fifteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He's a colorful guy with a lot of interesting stories. He's written a book called #Positivity. He and I discuss how a positive outlook along with goal setting have impacted his life and led to success.…

Kamal Ravikant is an extraordinary guy. He has trekked to one of the highest base camps in the Himalayas, meditated with Tibetan monks in the Dalai Lama's monastery, earned his US Army Infantry patch, walked 550 miles across Spain, lived in Paris, been the only non-black, non-woman member of the Black Women's writers' group, written a novel, held t…

Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times best-selling author. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Colorado State. She’s the Principal of The Eurich Group a multi-faceted executive coaching organization. Her most recent book entitled 'Insight' focuses on self-awareness. She and …

Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg is a Clinical Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine and Director of the Luria Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Goldberg divides his time between research in cognitive neuroscience, clinical practice in neuropsychology and teaching. He is one of the early scientists to study how creativity is processed in …

Dr. Francesca Gino is a professor of business administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. She is also formally affiliated with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, with the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative at Harvard, and with the Behavioral Insight Group at Harvard Kennedy School. She te…

Duncan Pritchard is a professor of philosophy. He is currently at the University of California Davis as Chancellor's Professor of Philosophy but has held Chairs in Philosophy at the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling, Scotland. He has studied the problem of skepticism, the rationality of religious belief but his main area of focus is epistemolo…

Joe Burton (@joewburton) is the author of ‘Creating Mindful Leaders’, a book about mindfulness in the workplace. He is also the Founder and CEO of Whil (@WeAreWhil), a leading digital wellbeing training platform. During his career he spent fifteen years as a global COO at multiple public companies. He is a regular contributor to Forbes, Business In…

Alex Hutchinson is an author and journalist. He’s an expert on the science of endurance and fitness. He is a contributing editor for Outside, and also writes for The Globe and Mail and Canadian Running magazine. He was a Runner’s World columnist from 2012 to 2017. He and I discuss his third book, published in February 2018. It’s called ENDURE: Mind…

Kate Swoboda, also known as Kate Courageous, wears many hats including life coach, consultant to organizations, contributing columnist to magazines such as USAToday, Forbes and Business Insider and is also the author of a brand new book called The Courage Habit. Kate tells us how to make courage an everyday part of our lives by simply learning how …

Pamela Meyer is an author, certified fraud examiner, and entrepreneur. Described by Reader's Digest as "the nation's best-known expert on lying," Meyer is the author of the 2010 book Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception. Her 2011 TED talk, "How to Spot a Liar," has exceeded 16 million views and is one of the 20 most popular TED talks …

Dr. Jarrod Spencer is a Sports Psychologist. He works with professional, Olympic, college, and high school athletes, coaches, and teams across the country. In addition to serving as the Sports Psychologist for athletic teams at such schools as University of Maryland, Old Dominion University, Lehigh University, and Lafayette College, Dr. Spencer als…

Zach Elwood is a former professional poker player and the author of two books on poker tells. His first book, Reading Poker Tells, is widely regarded as the best book on the subject and has been translated into three languages. In addition, he’s worked as a poker behavior consultant for two World Series of Poker Main Event final tablists. He knows …

This is a recap of some of the guests that have been on in the first 21 or so episodes and a synthesis of some of the things I've learned so far.Door Steve Berg

Susan David is an award-winning Psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, the co-founder, and co-director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital and the CEO of Evidence-Based Psychology. She and I talk about her work on emotional agility, which is how to best react to a situation to maximize the outcome. She talks about how th…

Andrew Zolli is currently Vice President for Global Initiatives at Planet Inc. where he overseas the global humanitarian, social and ecological "Impact" initiatives. He is also Chair of the Garrison Institute an organization explores the intersection of contemplative practice, scientific & creative inquiry, and systems change, and is dedicated to u…

Maria Konnikova is the author of two New York Times best-sellers, The Confidence Game and also Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. She is a contributing writer for The New Yorker, where she writes a regular column with a focus on psychology and culture and is the host of the long form storytelling podcast from Panoply, called The Grift. …

Olivia Fox Cabane, the author of The Charisma Myth and of The Net And The Butterfly talks with me about charisma. We discuss the different types of charisma, how to develop charisma, and how to avoid the things that can sometimes get in the way. We look at the psychological underpinnings in alternatingly serious and funny ways.…

My first recording on anchor. Give it a listen. Short and sweet.

Daniel Pink (@DanielPink) is the author of six provocative books — including his newest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. His other books include the long-running New York Times bestseller A Whole New Mind and the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated int…

Subir Chowdhury (@subirchowdhury) is chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group, leaders in strategic initiatives, quality consulting, and training. Subir has worked with many organizations, large and small, across diverse industries including manufacturing, healthcare, food, government, and nonprofit. He’s helped hundreds of companies save billions …

George Anders is a business journalist and author. He has worked as an editor or staff writer at The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Bloomberg View. He has written five books including the New York Times bestseller, Perfect Enough. His most recent book is called You Can Do Anything – The Surprising Power of a ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Education…

Douglas Hubbard (@hdr_frm) wrote a book entitled ‘How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business’. He is also the founder of Hubbard Decision Research (HDR) a consultancy that applies quantitative analysis methods to the most difficult measurements and challenging decisions in business. He explains some techniques for measuri…