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Two books on vital technologies, providing us Mutually Assured Destruction and Individually Designed Creation. Take a moment to listen to our takeaways from American Prometheus & The Code Breaker.

Lisa Sun is a former management consultant turned fashion entrepreneur who wants to change the way we talk about confidence in the workplace. She combines the savvy of a seasoned operator with the rigor of a research professional in understanding what gives someone "Gravitas".

Free Solo, The Dawn Wall, Meru and the barrage of climbing documentaries continue to captivate audiences around the world. The books on which the documentaries are based thrilled me even more. In this episode, I speak with professional climber Augy Cohn about how the new wave of interest in rock climbing has affected the sport.

What makes Suneel special are not his vast accomplishments, which we’ll cover in the conversation…but the openness with which he discusses his personal and professional failures.  He talks more openly about his failures than pretty much any successful person I know.  And through that openness, he’s become a role model and coach for me.  Suneel is out with a new book called “EveryDay Dharma”. Dharm...

John C. Bogle is the founder of Vanguard and the creator of the Index Fund. It's a boring, inexpensive way to match the market year after year, which it turns out, is the best outcome the average investor can hope for. Why on earth do some people pick their own stocks? Or even worse, give their money to private managers who slice off percentage points of fees off your nest egg? I speak with in...

To all my listeners and supporters out there, my wife and I are having a second child in the next few days. It's a tremendously exciting time that has made me reflect on my reading journey, 99pages, and the future of the show. Just a brief message here as I take a few weeks off to focus on the family. 

Mongolia is not a country one often thinks about when considering the influences of world power. But several hundred years ago, it was center of the largest global land empire that has ever existed. Genghis Khan—also known by his given name of Temujin— is often a misunderstood or even mythological character in the modern psyche. And the virtues of his great empire often get drowned out by a host o...

12 years ago, Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries experienced one of the most dramatic acts of civil unrest in history. The Arab Spring brought millions of protesters into the streets to oppose authoritarian rule across several Middle Eastern countries. Catherine Manfre's memoir "Not There Yet" is a fascinating story spanning from Egypt in the Arab Spring to the steps of the US Capitol on Janu...

Dr. Michael Greger is the author of several books including "How Not To Die", "How Not To Diet", and "How To Survive a Pandemic". He's also the founder of NutritionFacts.org. He's on a mission to make fact based nutrition guidance accessible to the common person. The world of nutrition advice can be incredibly noisy; it's Dr. Greger's goal to make the science as clear cut as possible. I'm also joi...

With all the humor we extract out of Presidential elections, you might forget that we are picking literally the most powerful person in the world! We’re picking someone with the power to transform the economy, drop bombs, safeguard the nuclear codes…all sorts of crazy powers that no one has ever had before. Today we talk with Gautum Mukunda, Host of the NASDAQ's World Reimagined Podcast. He's also...

At the age of 17, Chris Wilson was sentenced to natural life in prison. It was during times of isolation that he decided to not only to turn his life around, but to make a difference in the lives of people who currently live in poverty-stricken communities similar to his childhood surroundings. His book "The Master Plan" is his story of reflection, self-improvement, persistence, and the cringe-wor...

Doug Stanton is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, lecturer, screenwriter. His books include The Odyssey of Echo Company, In Harm’s Way, and Horse Soldiers. Horse Soldiers is the basis for a Jerry Bruckheimer produced series titled "12 Strong", starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, released by Warner Bros. in 2018. Horse Soldiers is required reading by US Army Special Forces at the Jo...

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has used data from the internet -- Google, social media, and even pornography searches -- to get new insights into the human psyche. He's a former Google Data Scientist who uses data measure racism ,  self-induced abortion ,  depression ,  child abuse , hateful mobs ,  the science of humor , sexual preference ,  anxiety , and sexual insecurity...

David Gergen has been in public service for the better part of 50 years. He served as a White House advisor to four US presidents—Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and founder of the Center for Public Leadership. And he's probably best known for his segments on CNN where he serves as a Senior Political Analyst. We’re discussing his latest book, "Hear...

Jeff Rosenblum is a born storyteller. Almost 30 years ago, he founded a digital ad agency when he saw the power of the internet taking shape. Today, his firm Questus is among the largest and most successful agencies in the world. Jeff has used his platform to create stories in the form of books and documentaries to educate people on how advertising can be a force for good. His book Exponential des...

Few reporters  covered the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan with a nuanced critical eye like Rajiv Chandrasekaran. He's the former Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Post, and the author of “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” and “Little America”, about Iraq and Afghanistan respectively. These books shine light on the colossal civil-military divide in theater which led to disastrous decision mak...

Jay Z made $470 million in 2021. Long before hiphop produced billionaires, Zack O'Malley Greenburg was covering the beat from his post at Forbes. Zack is the author of several books on the business of hiphop including "Empire State of Mind" and "Three Kings" profiling Jay Z, Puff Daddy, and Dr. Dre. As was one of the earliest business writers in the country covering the entrepreneurial edge in the...

Tesla, Yelp, YouTube, Meta, Palantir, Affirm, SpaceX, LinkedIn, and countless other Silicon Valley companies were founded or seeded by alumni of a single company founded in the mid 1990s: PayPal. Jimmy Soni goes deep behind the scenes of the epicenter of the most powerful forces that have shaped the modern world. With captivating and detailed accounts from the principals of the team--Thiel, Hoffma...

How do Fyre Festival and Theranos get "backed" when substantive companies get passed on? In the words of Suneel Gupta, we need more high integrity people who can sell a good idea. Gupta is a Harvard professor, entrepreneur, and investor with a deep background in startup success. He has invested in homerun companies like Airbnb & SpaceX; and he's the founder of Rise which was acquired by O...

99pages is excited to host #British Olympian & Author Derek Redmond to discuss his book "Sport is a Business, Business is a #Sport ". Derek is best known for his iconic #olympics moment, tearing his hamstring in the middle of the 1992 Barcelona 400m semi-final. But with the help of his father, he summoned the strength to finish the race to one of the largest standing ovations in Olympics histo...

Gautum Mukunda is host of Nasdaq's "World Reimagined" podcast and the author of "Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter". Few people have researched the implications--and triviality--of leadership as much as Gautum. The overwhelming research shows that even great leaders often are riding the momentum of their institutions while in power. But occasionally, a leader comes along that totally chang...

The US is somehow the richest nation on earth yet is plagued with massive rates of poverty, healthcare debt, income inequality, and poor infrastructure. Kelton shows us how our Gold Standard logic leftover from the 1950s and 1960s continues to hold us back needlessly. She explains how modern monetary theory can help us reimagine the way in which currency owning governments can fund development and...

The story of the United States is often told as a cohesive group of colonists rising up against its British overlord. The story is far more complicated. In "American Nations" Colin Woodard differentiates between The values and emigration of Puritan New England, Dutch New York, German & Quaker Pennsylvania, Royalist Tidewater Virginia, the agrarian industrial deep south, the Scottish and Irish...

Sebastian Junger has defined himself as the leading storyteller of our nation's ground forces in the Global War on Terror--both in and after conflict. He has authored bestselling books War & Tribe. We'll discuss his latest release--Freedom--about the joint and mutually exclusive struggle for Freedom & Community.  We value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on c...

99pages interviews Ty Seidule, author of "Robert E. Lee & Me"--one of NPR's Staff Picks for 2021-- is part memoir, part history discussing the pervasion of Confederate legacy in modern society. Robert E. Lee in many circles continues to be regarded as a hero-- if not worshiped--with much of his actual horrific and selfish decisions masked in order to save face.  From an honest and scienti...