Audience of One

Nick (AKA Critter / @becomingcritter) is a writer and podcaster. We talk about presence, skepticism, religion, fearless authenticity, balancing seriousness and fun, relationships, and podcasting. Please enjoy. — (03:01) Seeking mystery & divinity (08:54) Skepticism, presence, and realizations about conceptions like time (23:36) Impermanent immediacy (33:30) Oscillating between seriousness and...

Matt Bateman is the Vice President of Pedagogy at Higher Ground Education. We talk about a pedagogy, Montessori, capability and agency in children, experimentation in education, how young education is as a science, the importance of work, and a conception of the good life. — (00:42) Leaving academia (02:35) Why Montessori & seeing a classroom for the first time (09:24) Children are capable (12...

Nicole (@startingfromnix) is a writer. We talk about writing, introspection, being heart- vs. head-heavy, what’s core to your identity, pursuing meaning over ego, living in the present, depth and endurance, and more. — (00:41) Writes helps you clarify your thoughts (02:49) The taste gap & inching closer to what you want to write (05:47) Focusing on the process (08:46) Self-excavation & tra...

Jake (@0FJAKE) is a podcaster, writer, and the former Chief of Staff for Balaji Srinivasan. We talk about sabbaticals and taking the time to find your work, pseudonymity and authenticity, status, challenging norms, the benefits of audio, and more. — (00:44) Taking sabbaticals (06:29) People should spend more time finding their next thing (16:56) Having faith, following your gut (23:38) Pseudonymit...

Dwarkesh Patel is the creator of the Lunar Society newsletter and podcast. We talk about curiosity, talent, podcasting and research, status games, finding what to work on, standing out from the crowd, and AI & futurism. — (00:42) Starting a podcast out of college while others enter the workforce (04:51) How he overcomes the occasional desire to quit (06:09) Feeling like podcasting isn't bu...

Tom Morgan is a writer and director at Sapient Capital. Tom and I discuss curiosity, Joseph Campbell's Hero’s Journey and the call to adventure, Brett Anderson’s work and the movement of reality towards complexity, the question of what is value, and more. — (00:30) Why he left finance (03:38) Directing your skills & talents towards something useful (07:28) Can we listen to our intuition mo...

Eric Wollberg is the co-founder and CEO of Prophetic, a consumer neurotechnology company building Halo, a non-invasive device for inducing and stabilizing lucid dream states. Eric and I talk about why he’s working on this problem, consciousness, the dream state, best applications for this technology, epistemological metaphysics, and more. — (00:57) Why work on this problem? (04:10) Using “extreme...

Ben Wilson is the creator and host of How to Take Over The World, a podcast which analyzes the lives of some of the greatest people to ever live. He’s also the founder of PodRamp and the producer of the My First Million Podcast with Shaan Puri and Sam Parr. Ben and I talk about greatness, the art of podcasting, lessons from the people he’s covered, being addicted to your craft, power, living life...

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is an ex-Googler, writer and founder at Ness Labs, and PhD candidate in Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College in London. We talk about treating life as a series of experiments, mindful productivity, redefining ambition, combining perspectives across domains, and more. — (00:55) Developing a love for science & writing (03:49) Research & the scientific method (0...

Justin Welsh is a former startup exec turned solopreneur & creator helping people launch, grow, and monetize their internet businesses. We talk about long term thinking, playing your own game, content creation, status, the value of travel, and more. — (00:47) Why he chose content creation (02:47) Did content creation come naturally or take effort? (04:58) The challenges of solopreneurship &amp...

Molly Mielke is a writer and the founding partner of Moth Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm aiming to increase the agency of exceptional individuals through investments and grants. We talk about rapidly "career sunk cost fallacy", increasing agency, investing in people and ideas, off the shelf games vs. creating your own, being famous among friends, freedom, commitment, and the b...

Adam Ryan is the co-founder and CEO of Workweek, a collective of industry-expert creators aiming to create business content their audiences actually enjoy. Adam and I talk about all things Workweek and the B2B knowledge/creator space. — (00:37) Individuals over institutions (03:35) Is there still opportunity in the B2C creator space? (05:31) Focusing on product (07:14) If you're an industry ex...

Zach Pogrob is a creator. He’s a writer, the man behind the animated videos on the @behaviorhack Instagram and TikTok accounts — which have amassed over 1.5M followers — and the leader of the “obsession movement” on Twitter. Zach and I talk about finding and sustaining your obsession, his inspirations, cultivating a long term mindset, building a brand as big as Disney, and more. — (00:34) How to f...

Andrew Rose, along with his wife, Priya, are building The Neighborhood in New York City, with the goal of bringing together 1000 forward-looking, abundance-minded friends within walking distance of one another. Andrew and I talk about community building and bringing friends together, isolation, implementing the right social technologies, balancing contentment and ambition, and more. — (00:48) Buil...

Rich Bartlett helps people grow high-trust communities & decentralised organisations. He’s the co-founder of tech co-op Loomio, community building network Microsolidarity, management consultancy The Hum, and director of the social impact collective Enspiral. We talk about microsolidarity, fellowship and belonging, being optimistic and pessimistic about the future, cooperation and coordination,...

My guest today is Gurwinder Bhogal. Gurwinder writes The Prism, a blog covering the ways technology and psychology conspire to fool us, and how we can withstand the assault on our senses. We talk about writing, bugs in our psychological software, how we can better understand and manage our emotions and reactions, and the pursuit of finding truth. — (00:38) Gurwinder’s background (03:59) Language a...

Alpha Barry is the founder of Temple, which builds cities to make the world more prosperous and beautiful, as well as Monolith, which founds and funds companies building Africa’s industrial economy. We talk about his vision for Temple and Monolith, why we need new cities — and the opportunities and challenges of building them — and why Africa is the right place to build these ventures. — (00:50) A...

Visakan Veerasamy (AKA Visa) is a writer, both on Twitter and through his books Friendly Ambitious Nerds and Introspect — both of which I highly recommend. We talk about writing; networks, scenes, and subcultures; deviants and outliers; being introspective; and more. — (00:42) Visa's background (05:45) Online networks need a cultural paradigm shift to realize its true potential (12:25) We need...

Ava (@noampomsky) is the writer of the Bookbear Express Substack, where she discusses human interaction and relationships through the lens of her own life. We talk about writing, reading, how a massive audience can change your writing, vulnerability, finding your thing to commit to, and how AI will impact dating and relationships. — (01:21) Ava's background (02:21) Her novel (03:40) Going from...

Isabel is a writer, both on Twitter ( @isabelunraveled ) and through her Mind Mine blog/newsletter. We talk about building your intuition muscle, being rational vs. gut-led, vulnerability, the importance of humility, and more. — (00:37) Isabel’s background (04:26) Gradual vs. discrete change (05:53) Nurturing intuition & balancing the practical vs. intuitive (11:15) Are there downsides to list...

Michael Ashcroft is a climate and energy consultant turned Alexander technique teacher. Michael talks and teaches about awareness through his blog and course, “Expanding Awareness”. We talk about what Alexander Technique is and isn't, how to cultivate awareness, effortless effort, the importance of direct experience, and much more. — (00:33) Michael's background (02:25) Why he was drawn to...

Lenore Skenazy is the author of the Free Range Kids book and blog, and president of Let Grow — all of which focus on promoting childhood independence. We talk about how society and parents fears are disconnected from statistics, the importance of agency, the connection to current university culture, how let grow is helping, and more. — (00:33) Lenore's background (02:17) Free Range Kids and Le...

Kyle Kowalski is an ex-marketing executive and founder of Sloww where Kyle synthesizes lifelong learning that catalyzes human development. We talk about meaning crises, psychological development, ikigai, the birth lottery, agency, and more. — (00:26) Kyle’s background (07:31) Why it took him 2.5 years to finally quit his job (12:06) Why Sloww aligns with his purpose (24:23) How he and his wife cho...

Colin Keeley is the co-founder of Verne, a holding company for SaaS businesses, and the creator of IndiePE, a course for people to learn how to buy their first small business. This episode is a great primer on hold co’s and buying online SMBs for those interested in the space. — (00:27) Colin's background (01:00) What attracted him to hold co’s & buying SaaS (01:40) Why the partnership with hi...

Zohar Atkins is a rabbi and thinker. He’s the author of the blogs “Etz Hasadeh” and “What Is Called Thinking?”, and host of the "Meditations with Zohar" podcast. Zohar and I talk about academia, Judaism, content creation, and bridging philosophy and religion. — (00:27) Background (05:24) Thoughts on academia and the peer review process (08:56) What Substack & podcasting offer compared to acade...