3 Takeaways™

What separates great communicators from everyone else? It’s not confidence, charisma, or having the perfect words. Matt Abrahams, Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer, bestselling author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter, and host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast, reveals why many of our instincts before presentations, meetings, and difficult conversations may be working against us. In t...

What if joy isn’t a reward for when life goes well, but the thing that helps us survive when it doesn’t? Psychologist and Stanford lecturer Kelly McGonigal reveals that joy is not the same as happiness, and that many of us quietly push it away without realizing it. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why happiness needs everything to be good, while joy needs just one thing Why so many of us protect our...

As Arctic ice melts, the struggle for the frozen north is beginning to resemble a new Cold War. Russian submarine activity is rising. China is mapping the seabed and expanding its icebreaker fleet. And Greenland sits at the center of a growing contest over shipping routes, critical minerals, energy, and missiles. Heather Conley, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and one of Ameri...

The world map we grew up with makes Greenland and Africa look the same size. The problem?  Africa is actually an astonishing 14 times larger. The even larger problem? There's no such thing as an accurate map. They all distort how we see the world.  Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones are comedians, writers, and YouTubers with millions of followers where they are better known as Map Men. Their n...

What if one of the things Americans believe most deeply about America simply isn’t true? Americans have a powerful story about who they are and why America acts when it does. Historian Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says America's own history tells a very different story. He discusses: ● The biggest myth Americans believe about their own country ● What American hi...

What if AI becomes easier to talk to than another person? And what happens to us when it does? MIT professor Sherry Turkle has spent decades studying what technology does to the way we think, work, and love. Now she says there are two parts of our lives we should never let AI into. She discusses: Why ordinary conversation has started to feel like work The surprising reason people may prefer talkin...

Mark Cuban told people that television would eventually be delivered over the internet.  Everybody thought he was an idiot. Now, Cuban is making another prediction that runs counter to what we all believe, but this time it's about A.I. Few people have made as many big bets across as many industries as Mark Cuban. The billionaire entrepreneur and investor has built businesses in technology and...

What if the president can act before Congress has time to stop him? As former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, former General Counsel of the Department of Defense, and a member of the National Security Council, Jeh Johnson has advised presidents on war, terrorism, cyber threats, and some of the country’s most consequential national security decisions. He has seen what happens when the pressure...

What if trying harder is sometimes exactly the wrong thing to do? Angela Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania psychologist, MacArthur Fellow, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Grit, has spent years studying achievement. In her new book, Situated, she explores why perseverance alone isn't enough. She discusses: How Angela and her husband nearly “gritted” their way out of their ma...

What can we do when doing the morally “right” thing produces worse outcomes? And what if some of society’s strongest moral instincts are preventing us from solving problems we all agree are terrible? Alvin Roth is a Stanford professor and Nobel Prize-winning economist whose work has helped redesign real-world systems, including kidney exchanges and the way doctors are matched with hospitals. His n...

Could America build the world’s best AI and still lose the AI race? What if the biggest threat to America’s lead isn’t China’s technology, but our own fear of using it? Katrina Mulligan is Head of National Security Partnerships at OpenAI and previously served in senior roles at the Department of Defense, National Security Council, and Department of Justice. Few people have seen both Washington and...

What if your brain isn’t showing you the world as it truly is? Journalist, professor, and author of "A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness" Michael Pollan explores one of the deepest questions of all: why do we experience anything in the first place?  He discusses: What consciousness actually is Why the brain predicts reality instead of simply taking it in How perception may be a...

Why would the world’s largest country risk everything to destroy a smaller neighbor? What is it about Ukraine that poses a greater threat to Vladimir Putin than any army? Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and The Atlantic writer Anne Applebaum has spent decades studying Russia, Ukraine, and authoritarian regimes. She argues that the war is being fought over far more than territory and that the outc...

How does someone steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and simply walk away?  And how did an even more brazen crew rob the same museum in broad daylight last year with just a cherry picker and some power tools? The real stories are stranger than Hollywood and best-selling author Noah Charney knows them all. One of the world’s leading experts on art crime, he has advised museums, governments, and law...

Artificial intelligence could change almost everything. John Hennessy thinks we're still asking the wrong questions. As Chairman of Alphabet and one of the pioneers of modern computing, Hennessy has helped shape some of the biggest technology revolutions of the past half century.  He explains what today's AI can - and can’t - actually do, what would qualify as artificial general intellig...

Why do some people instantly draw us in? Olivia Fox Cabane reveals that charisma is not a gift. It is a skill - and most of us misunderstand what creates it. In this episode, you’ll learn: The three qualities that make someone charismatic Why introverts can be highly magnetic How people judge you before you speak Why presence matters more than performance The surprising link between confidence and...

Everyone knows where the last generation of great technology companies came from. The more interesting question is where the next generation will. Mehran Gul spent years studying the world's most successful innovation hubs to understand why some places repeatedly create breakthrough companies while others never quite do. He shares surprising insights about China's rise, Silicon Valley&ap...

Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of Influence - 5 million copies sold, and one of the most important books Warren Buffett says he's ever read - has spent decades studying why people say yes.  He reveals the psychological forces shaping our decisions, why tiny changes can dramatically influence outcomes, and how the most effective communicators get people to yes without anyone feeling pushed.  Once...

Most people think healthcare is broken by accident. Mark Cuban says it isn't. In part two of our conversation, he explains the hidden companies who really control healthcare, where AI is headed, and the biggest opportunities most people are missing. He also shares the advice he gives young people, the three “superpowers” he believes matter more than talent, network, or money, and the one ques...

The NBA thought it was selling basketball. Mark Cuban thought it was selling something else. That insight shaped how he has built companies, evaluated opportunities, and challenged entire industries. The lesson starts with basketball. It ends somewhere much bigger.  He also shares the skill he values most in entrepreneurs, and how AI is changing the way ambitious people learn.

What if those brief conversations - with a barista, a neighbor, or someone sitting next to us - matter far more than we realize? Gillian Sandstrom, a University of Sussex psychologist and author of Once Upon a Stranger, explores why we're so reluctant to talk to people we don't know, what happens when we do, and how seemingly small interactions can add up to a richer, happier, and more c...

The wind stops blowing. The sun goes down. What happens next? Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz explains why the transition to clean energy may be far more complicated than most people realize. In one of the most clear-eyed conversations about our energy future, Moniz pulls back the curtain on what it will actually take to build energy that is clean, reliable, and affordable - and why s...

We think of North Korea as a communist dictatorship. But Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal’s China Bureau Chief and former Korea Bureau Chief, says that misses the real story. He argues North Korea functions more like a religion -  complete with rituals, worship, and a ruling family treated like immortals. Once you hear it, you can’t unsee it. His new book is Korean Messiah. 

When people think about war, they picture missiles and mushroom clouds. But what if the greatest threats today are the ones most people never see coming? Christine Wormuth, former U.S. Secretary of the Army and current leader of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, explains why some of today’s biggest dangers are quieter, harder to detect, and easier to unleash than most people realize.

Most people see the world as the U.S. vs. China. But the real power shift is happening elsewhere. Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security and a former senior advisor at the National Security Council and the U.S. State Department, shows which countries are quietly shaping the next world order - and why the biggest power shifts are happening far from the spotlight.