Big Questions with Cal Fussman

After a dizzying few weeks of watching images of Vladimir Putin's invasion of the Ukraine and pondering the possibilities of a nuclear war, Cal senses it's time to step back and get perspective. He reaches out to Juliet Funt, author of the book A Minute To Think , for advice on getting the most out of himself during this crazy time. "Funt's wisdom around making space is priceless," says marketing...

Cal does the podcast he wishes he never had to do: Advice on surviving a nuclear attack. Hopefully, this scenario will never occur. But there have been a great deal of surprises throughout Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and it's wise to take a few moments to think about the unthinkable. This podcast looks at selecting a shelter, at supplies to store, and it offers tips like not going out in the rai...

Cal looks at the invasion of The Ukraine through the question that he's been focusing on in healthcare: How can we eliminate the problem before it happens? As it turns out, there may have been a way to avoid the carnage almost 20 years ago with some innovative thinking that could've put the The Ukraine in a very different place. We'll never know. But Cal throws out an example of using the question...

After tasting and loving an Olipop root beer, Cal tracks down the company's co-founder and CEO to find out how it came about. Olipop beverages are made from ingredients like kudzu root, slippery elm bark and Jerusalem artichoke. You're drinking plant fiber instead of high fructose corn syrup. There are few calories and very little sugar. Olipop beverages come in many flavors, and are in supermarke...

The United States is one million nurses short and you don't want to begin appreciating nurses only when you don't have one when you need one. Cal talks with Lori Armstrong, who runs Inspire Nurse Leaders, about the nursing shortage that's been exacerbated by departures during two years of relentless pressure on the front lines of healthcare. Lori is trying to solve the problem at an advanced level...

The release of Carl's memoir, Chasing History, seems like the ideal time to ask the renowned Washington Post reporter and now CNN commentator about the health of our democracy over the last 60 years. Bernstein's book looks at the start of his career from 1960-1965, when he began as a freckled copy boy, before his reporting with Bob Woodward of the Watergate break-in and its subsequent cover-up for...

While speaking at a retreat for a group of investors, Cal asks about a basic educational guide to   the stock market and saving money to make sure that any health care needs at the end of life can easily be met. He's turned on to The Personal Finance Club course and Jeremy Schneider. Which leads to this conversation. Anyone looking for a clear and time-tested way to save a nest egg will be happy t...

Cal looks back on experiences he's had with Muhammad Ali, Kobe Bryant and Larry King as a way of seeing forward into his journey to reshape healthcare. A story about Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream Speech is also included in this episode. Each remembrance shows us how a tiny action – an introduction, a suggestion or a boost during a scary moment can be so impactful, and each reminds us how...

Cal talks with the author of The Super Age, Decoding Our Demographic Destiny, about what our future looks like as America becomes an older nation as opposed to a younger one for the first time in its history. Bradley uses data from the past to predict what's coming and the results of this conversation are shocking to Cal. According to Bradley, the best is yet to come. Get ready to be optimistic.

Nido came to study in the United States from the Middle East when he was 17 years old with $50 in his pocket and built an extraordinary life through High Point University in North Carolina – where he is now president. During the last 17 years, Nido has grown the university from 90 acres to 500, from 18 buildings to 128 and from 1,400 students to 6,000. He talks about the power a strong home has ov...

The CEO of one of America's most innovative creative companies, Mekanism, shows Cal how to build a campaign through understanding an audience. This is new territory for Cal, who's spent a lifetime asking questions of people who've built great things – without ever having built anything himself. As Cal sets off on his journey to try to reshape healthcare, he knows he will have to build a platform....

Cal checks in with the author of The Third Door, and comes away with two tools that can help anybody who feels stuck in life get to a better place. (And in times of COVID, there are plenty of people who feel stuck.) The tools are called The Sun and The Clouds and The Thirty-Day Challenge, and they don't require much time. Even if you don't think you need them, they just may surprise you and take y...

Mental health gets closer to home for Cal when a young acquaintance is brought to tears with harmful thoughts in front of Cal's house. This, after suicide and attempts shook a nearby college campus. It's clear that a huge number of people are dealing with mental health issues that are not being treated or acknowledged. Cal talks with Kevin Hines, who has devoted his life to suicide prevention afte...

Cal learns how we all can bring some happiness into our lives from a man who became a national and international whistling champion. Chris Ullman has whistled in the Oval Office, whistled on The Today Show and The Tonight Show, and whistled with a symphony orchestra in front of 60,000 people. His message boils down to this: It's hard to be unhappy when you're whistling a happy tune. Chris brings j...

Cal hears a story about a guy who got seriously ill on vacation, and how, after he survived, the experience ultimately changed his diet and made him determined to clean out the chemicals in his body. When you hear the story, it may make you think about the way you take care of your own body. We get haircuts and buy products to groom our skin. But what if we put that care into our insides?

Cal talks with a man who's devoted his life's work to the study of this scary disease, and Patrick Sullivan comes through with tips on how to keep it away. One important factor is making sure your hearing, and that of your parents, doesn't decline. Research shows that if hearing loss is not treated it can significantly increase the possibility of Alzheimer's and dementia. Cal brings in the CEO of...

Cal celebrates his birthday to find an unexpected gift. It's a book written by Marc Champagne called: Personal Socrates: Questions That Will Upgrade Your Life from Legends & World Class Performers. Cal opens the book and is surprised to find that the first chapter is about HIM. Other chapters are run through the prism of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the writer Maya Angelou, the broadcaster L...

Cal gets a windfall when he listens to the strategy that takes Lisa Gable where she wants to go. And Lisa's gone to some incredible places. The author of Turnaround has served four presidents, raised about a half billion dollars and stitched together a coalition of food and beverage industry corporations with public health agencies that led to the reduction of 6.4 trillion calories from the collec...

As Duke's Mike Krzyzewski heads into his 47 th and final year of coaching college basketball, Cal goes to the archives to play a conversation with the Hall of Fame coach that he had ten years ago. It's filled with the ingredients of success, and touches on topics like time, money, support, mentorship, passion, love, friendship, preparation, fear, honor, failure, truth and family. This conversation...

As Cal becomes riveted with the Hulu series Dopesick about the drug company that created OxyContin and addicted a chunk of America, he speaks with a man in recovery from a decade of opioid addiction for insight. Ryan Hampton courageously opens up and explains how he became addicted, what it was like and how the bankruptcy of Purdue Pharma failed the victims of the opioid crisis that has killed hal...

When Cal wonders how much money Americans annually spend on Halloween, he's directed to the author of Salt Sugar Fat and Hooked: Food, Free Will, And How The Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions. Cal finds out that kids consume what amounts to 169 sugar cubes each Halloween, but Moss shocks him with a most unexpected thought. That Halloween is fine. It's the other 364 days in a year that we really h...

The United States is $28 trillion in debt, and it was going to run out of money on October 18th if it couldn't borrow more. Fortunately, an agreement was reached in Congress to temporarily raise the debt ceiling and keep the government functioning. Unfortunately, the debt problem was kicked like a can into the near future, and a political solution will need to be agreed upon in December. Cal reach...

For years, Cal wanted to have a conversation with the greatest wrestler who ever lived. Dan Gable went undefeated in high school, won two national championships at Iowa State University and took a gold medal at the 1972 Olympics by beating six opponents with three pins and shutting his other opponents out by a combined score of 26-0. His dominance continued as a coach at the University of Iowa, wh...

After putting on a bunch of weight during COVID, Cal says enough is enough. Just as he does, he hears about a book that promises to bring back his six pack. The last time Cal saw that six pack was thirty years ago. But authors and personal trainers Stephen Compolo and Peter Tzemis guarantee Cal that if he follows the formula he can see that six pack once again. Plenty of great advice on calorie in...

Cal comes across the mindset of overcoming adversity when he talks with a 19-year-old who has a fatal disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Elijah avoided an operation that would have straightened his curved spine with a metal rod by straightening it himself through exercise and diet. Now, with the possibilities of gene editing, he's got his sights on stopping the disease cold through his no...