Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin

Dr. Paul Conti is a psychiatrist, author, and founder of Pacific Premier Group, a medical practice providing mental health care, consulting, and coaching. A graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine, he completed his psychiatry training at Stanford and Harvard, where he served as chief resident before joining the medical faculty. He is the author of Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, which e...

Mark Booth is an author, editor, and publisher who also writes under the pen name Jonathan Black. He studied philosophy and theology at Oxford and built a publishing career working with authors including Rupert Sheldrake, Graham Hancock, and Lorna Byrne. His bestselling The Secret History of the World explores history through esoteric and mystical traditions. His latest book, The Secret History of...

Greg Laurie is an evangelist, author, and senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. He founded the church in Riverside in 1973 after becoming a Christian during the Jesus Movement in 1970. Through his Harvest Crusades and broadcast ministry, he shares the Christian gospel with audiences worldwide. His conversion and early relationship with his wife, Cathe, are depicted...

Frank Miller is a comic book writer, artist, and filmmaker. He rose to prominence drawing Marvel’s Daredevil in 1979 and became its writer in 1981, introducing Elektra and turning the series into a major success. He went on to create Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, write Batman: Year One, and create Sin City and 300, both of which were adapted into films. His latest book, Push the Wall, recounts...

Neil Young is a legendary singer-songwriter whose career has spanned more than six decades. From Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse to a celebrated catalog that includes albums such as Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and After the Gold Rush, his work has left an enduring mark on generations of musicians and listeners. A two-time Grammy winner, Neil has also been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall...

In this special episode taken from a live event in London, Rick Rubin and Daniel Kaluuya join Ayishat Akanbi for a conversation about the making of JAŸ-Z in 8, a new eight-part documentary series exploring JAY-Z’s life, music, and creative process. JAŸ-Z in 8 premieres September 18 on HBO in North America, and on MUBI everywhere else. Works mentioned: 4:44 Smile Regrets Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Ant...

Max Richter is a composer, pianist, and producer. His albums include Memoryhouse, The Blue Notebooks, and Sleep. His instrumental composition “On the Nature of Daylight” has been featured in films including Shutter Island and Arrival, which he also scored. By combining orchestral writing with electronic and ambient music, his work spans ballet, television, and film, including Mary, Queen of S...

Tom Freston is a media executive, investor, and the cofounder of MTV Networks. His route to television began after an early entrepreneurial venture sourcing and exporting apparel in South Asia, before he joined the team that made MTV a defining global youth brand and grew the company’s roster to include Nickelodeon, VH1, Comedy Central, and CMT. He later served as CEO of Viacom, overseeing major e...

Roger Avary is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer. Best known for co-writing Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino, he shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Avary made his feature-directing debut with the 1994 crime thriller Killing Zoe. He later directed Mr. Stitch, adapted Bret Easton Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction, and returned to the crime genre with...

To honor the 250th anniversary of America, Tyler Cowen plays Rick patriotic music from the United States and around the world in this special listening episode. In addition to his work as an economist, professor, and bestselling author, Tyler Cowen is a longtime music enthusiast with an expansive repertoire in classical and choral music, rock n’ roll, and world music.  Moving from John Philip...

Tyler Cowen is an economist, author, and professor who holds the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center. He co-authors the long-running economics blog Marginal Revolution with Alex Tabarrok, co-founded Marginal Revolution University, and hosts the interview podcast Conversations with Tyler. Cowen’s books in...

Steven Pressfield is a bestselling novelist, nonfiction author, and screenwriter. He published his first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, in his early fifties, launching him onto the literary map and leading to a 2000 film directed by Robert Redford. Pressfield’s 1998 Spartan epic Gates of Fire became a modern classic of military historical fiction and is widely read in military circles around t...

Jeff Bridges is an Academy Award-winning actor, musician, and photographer. Born into a family of performers, he began acting as a child and has built one of the most enduring careers in American film. His work includes acclaimed performances in The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Big Lebowski, and Crazy Heart, earning him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beyond filmmaking, Brid...

Albert Hammond Jr. is a songwriter, solo artist, and guitarist for The Strokes. Since 1999, he helped define the band's signature rock sound across landmark albums including Is This It, Room on Fire, and First Impressions of Earth. Alongside his work with the band, Hammond has built a solo career with albums such as Yours to Keep and Francis Trouble. On July 24, 2026, The Strokes released their se...

'Gurudev' Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual leader, humanitarian, and peace ambassador. In 1981, he founded the Art of Living Foundation, introducing meditation, yoga, and the Sudarshan Kriya breathing technique through programs now offered in more than 180 countries. In 1997, he co-founded the International Association for Human Values to support humanitarian and peacebuilding initiatives. He h...

Anthony Metivier is an author, memory expert, and the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a training system focused on memorizing complex information through mnemonic techniques and memory palaces. He is the author of several books on learning and cognition, including The Victorious Mind, and is known for combining memory training with mindfulness, reflective thinking, mind mapping, and critica...

Angus Fletcher is an author and professor of story science at The Ohio State University’s Project Narrative. With a degree in neuroscience from the University of Michigan and a PhD in literature from Yale University, he developed narrative-based leadership and decision-making training for the U.S. Army Special Operations, work that earned him the U.S. Army's Public Service Commendation Medal in 20...

Louis C.K. is a stand-up comedian, writer, director, and actor. A six-time Emmy and three-time Grammy winner, he is known for specials including Shameless, Chewed Up, Hilarious, and Sincerely, Louis C.K., as well as for creating and starring in the Peabody Award–winning series Louie and Horace and Pete. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has also released specials including Sorry, L...

Peter McGrath is a recording engineer, photographer, and longtime advocate for high-fidelity sound reproduction whose career has spanned more than five decades. He has worked extensively with organizations including Harmonia Mundi, the New World Symphony, and Friends of Chamber Music. In addition to capturing performances by leading orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists, and vocalists, he has al...

David Eggers is an author, publisher, and founder of nonprofit publishing company McSweeney’s. He first became widely known for A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and went on to write acclaimed books including What Is the What, A Hologram for the King, and The Circle. Beyond his writing, he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit organization that provides writing and tutoring programs for you...

Kenny Chesney is a country music singer and songwriter. His career has been defined by over 30 chart-topping country hits, including “She’s Got It All,” “When the Sun Goes Down,” “There Goes My Life,” “Don’t Blink,” and “The Boys of Fall.” Since his 1994 debut, he has released 20 studio albums, sold over 30 million records worldwide, and won multiple CMA and ACM awards, including Entertainer of th...

Bryce Crawford is a 22-year-old street preacher, an evangelist, and the founder of Jesus in the Street. Known for bringing his Christian faith directly into public spaces, he travels across the U.S. sharing the gospel in cities, on college campuses, and at large gatherings. After struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts as a teenager, Crawford experienced a life-changing encounter with God...

Returning to continue his conversation in Part Two, Vlad Tenev is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood. He launched the trading platform alongside Baiju Bhatt in 2013 with the goal of making investing more accessible through commission-free stock trading for everyday investors. Under his leadership, Robinhood expanded beyond equities into options, ETFs, cryptocurrency, banking products, and private...

Vlad Tenev is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood. He launched the trading platform alongside Baiju Bhatt in 2013 with the goal of making investing more accessible through commission-free stock trading for everyday investors. Under his leadership, Robinhood expanded beyond equities into options, ETFs, cryptocurrency, banking products, and private market investing, and the company went public in Ju...

Bob Roth is a teacher of Transcendental Meditation and the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation. He began practicing Transcendental Meditation in 1969 and went on to build a career centered on teaching it to executives, students, veterans, and others dealing with stress. As CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, he has expanded meditation programs for underserved communities and people affected by trauma...