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Where Does It Hurt?
Civil rights legend Ruby Sales learned to ask “Where does it hurt?” because it’s a question that drives to the heart of the matter — and a question we scarcely know how to ask i...
by On Being
The Evolutionary Power of Children and Teenagers
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Alison Gopnik understands babies and children as the R&D division of humanity. From her cognitive science lab at the University of California, Berkeley, she investigates the “ev...
by On Being
There and Back Again
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Here's a simple question: When an animal disappears in the winter, where does it go? Oddly enough, this question completely stumped European scientists for thousands of years. A...
by Radiolab
The Other Latif
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Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a bizarre and shocking discovery. He shares his name with ...
by Radiolab
Scott Adams: Avoiding Loserthink
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Dilbert creator and author Scott Adams shares cognitive tools and tricks we can use to think better, expand our perspective, and avoid slumping into “loserthink.” As you’ll h...
Neil Pasricha: Happy Habits
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Neil Pasricha shares the recipe for resilience, an antidote for anxiety, and how his two minute morning routine primes each day for success.
Jeff Hunter: Embracing Confusion
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CEO of Talentism, Jeff Hunter, teaches how to rewrite damaging narratives that hold us back, how to give and receive helpful feedback, and why confusion can be a good thing.
Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation
Renowned car designer Frank Stephenson teaches the path to mastery, innovation, and taking creative risks. He also gives us a peek into the future of automobiles and what it mea...
A Calm Mind, a Fit Body, a House Full of Love
When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place.
Productize Yourself
Figure out what you’re uniquely good at and apply as much leverage as possible.
We Choose Our Own Tribes
“The challenge of our future is to say, are we going to connect and amplify positive tribes that want to make things better for all of us?” Entrepreneur and digital wise man Set...
Beauty Is an Edge of Becoming
“Beauty isn’t all about just niceness, loveliness. Beauty is about more rounded, substantial becoming.” Beloved Irish poet John O’Donohue on beauty’s true grit, and finding it i...
Courage Is Born from Struggle
“Hope is a function of struggle.” Brené Brown, a researcher and scholar, on the value and power of adversity to give rise to the astonishing strength of which we are all cap...
Sitting Together in the Dark
Writer and photographer Teju Cole says he is “intrigued by the continuity of places, by the singing line that connects them all.” He attends to the border, overlap and interplay...
by On Being
Luck, Risk and Avoiding Losers
Billionaire investor, author and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Howard Marks discusses risk assessment, how to think different than the crowd, and the three mighty dares that sep...
The Path to Perpetual Progress
Atul Gawande’s one of the world’s top surgeons, a researcher, a prolific writer at The New Yorker, a multiple time best-selling author, and a husband and father to boot. Here a...
The Kids Are Worth It
Parenting expert and best selling author Barbara Coloroso shares her three foundational principles of child rearing, how to get kids to be accountable for their actions, and wha...
ARRRRR Pirate Peg Legs Really A Thing?
Pirate historian Laura Sook Duncombe tells us about the golden age of pirates. Plus, a tunnel follow up with Dr. Mole: where do the emergency exits in underwater tunnels go? Tha...
Homo Deus: A conversation with Yuval Harari
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A conversation between Prof Yuval Harari and Azeem Azhar. We cover the compelling insights Yuval makes in his new book Homo Deus. Where are we, as a species, going now that we h...
The Trust Battery: Interview with Shopify Founder Tobi LĂĽtke
"We think about Shopify a little bit as it’s sort of the fire flower from Mario" Shopify began as a simple two-man operation selling snowboards online, but it became clear ra...
Choosing Curiosity Over Fear
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Her name is synonymous with her fantastically best-selling memoir Eat Pray Love. But through the disorienting process of becoming a celebrity, Elizabeth Gilbert has also reflect...
by On Being
Baby Blue Blood Drive
Horseshoe crabs are not much to look at. But beneath their unassuming catcher’s-mitt shell, they harbor a half-billion-year-old secret: a superpower that helped them outlive th...
by Radiolab
Why a Wall Street rebel left a $1.5 million job
Six years ago Brad Katsuyama walked away from a $1.5 million salary at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) with the audacious goal of creating a new stock exchange. Katsuyama, the ma...
The Girl Who Doesn't Exist
In today’s episode, we meet a young woman from Texas, born and raised, who can’t prove that she exists. Alecia Faith Pennington was born at home, homeschooled, and never visi...
by Radiolab
How Friendship and Quiet Conversations Transformed a White Nationalist
Derek Black grew up the heir apparent of a prominent white nationalist family. David Duke was his godfather. When Derek was 11, he designed the kids’ page for what is known as t...
by On Being
Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart
“When we’re our best selves with each other, I don’t think that’s what’s possible between people; I believe that’s what’s true between people.” A wise thinker and writer, and a ...
by On Being
Cartographer of Meaning in a Digital World
She has called Brain Pickings, her invention and labor of love, a “human-powered discovery engine for interestingness.” What Maria Popova really delivers, to hundreds of thousan...
by On Being
Thriving in a Digital World
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If you’re an investor in Silicon Valley, work at a tech start-up, or just love to geek out on technology and business analysis, odds are good that Stratechery is on your short l...
How Tea Works
Legend has it that tea was discovered by a curious Chinese emperor after leaves blew into his boiled water. Now tea is the second only to water in popularity worldwide. And desp...
How Anesthesia Works
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The use of general anesthesia is less than 200 years old. Before doctors were able to cause unconsciousness in patients, surgery was brutal for all involved. But despite this ad...
People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard.
You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. The founder of behavioral econ...
How to Become Great at Just About Anything
What if the thing we call “talent” is grotesquely overrated? And what if deliberate practice is the secret to excellence? Those are the claims of the research psychologist Ander...
Sure, I Remember That
It’s about false memory, particularly in the political realm, and how we are more capable of “remembering” an event that never happened if the event happens to synch up with our...
How to Build a Smart City
We are in the midst of a historic (and wholly unpredicted) rise in urbanization. But it’s hard to retrofit old cities for the 21st century. Enter Dan Doctoroff. The man who help...
Converging Cultures - Apocalypse Now
Contagion has haunted so much of 20th century culture, from Camus’s Plague to Romero’s zombies. In this episode, we examine real and imagined epidemics, and meet the people whos...
by Little Atoms
When I almost died
Ellen's near-death experience ended her marriage. Kelsey's forced her into sobriety. And Paul's left him feeling impatient: "Every moment has to matter, but then it doesn’t."
Cut Loose: Your Breakup Stories
When Nan Bauer-Maglin was 60 years old, her husband left her for his 25-year-old student. "I thought about suicide. You know, there’s a great feeling of rejection especially if ...
Why You're Not Having Sex
She’s never dated anyone seriously. She's never been kissed, and she's never had sex. She's not opposed to any of those things. They just haven't happened for her yet. And she’s...
Cheating Happens
People cheat. But they don't often talk about the aftermath, and how they and their partners decide what comes next.
The Ministry of Nostalgia and Landscapes of Communism
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A great podcast about architecture and cultural politics. Owen Hatherley writes regularly on architecture and cultural politics for Architects Journal, Architectural Review,Icon...
by Little Atoms
Reinventing Food
Rob Rhinehart, like most startup entrepreneurs, was strapped for cash and time as developed his ideas and ultimately a company. What stood out to Rhinehart in that all-consuming...
by a16z Podcast
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