Elevation Nation

John Camardella is a World Religion Teacher at Prospect High School in the Chicago Area and Education fellow of the Harvard Divinity School. John has been on a life long journey to educate others about religion while understanding human behavior and beliefs at its deepest level. After a year-long sabbatical to study with some of the most brilliant minds at Harvard, John is ready to bring back new...

Every day the mind is all over the place. Oftentimes we find ourselves in interesting situations based on what our  needs or what we think we want. That can be challenging at times as a young adult…

Nzingha Prescod is an American World Champion and Olympian who spent the first 27 years of her life committed to becoming the best fencer in the world. After retiring from competition in 2020, Nzingha has been focused on the next phase of her life combining her love for fencing and passion for philanthropy. Navigating life beyond competition has not been an easy task for Nzingha. Now the founder o...

Decisions decisions decisions. We make hundreds throughout a given day. In this episode, we get a bit philosophical as to how we make these decisions and if they are truly what make us happy.

Jonny Lazarus is a former Division 1 hockey player and now a content creator, podcast host, on-air NHL analyst and a multimedia planner. After coming to terms with the reality that his NHL dreams were unrealistic after college, Jonny didn’t shy away of his love for hockey.  Even when faced with adversity over the past few years, Jonny has remained committed to his goal of staying close to the game...

With half of 2022 in the books, Sam and Parker take some time off from work to hit the reset button and gear up for the second half of the year. Also, during the time off, some unfathomable events occurred near Sam’s hometown in Highland Park, IL. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the horrific events. Please consider a donation to the GoFundMe of Adan Aguilar, a victim of the...

Chase Damiano is a entrepreneur, strategist and consultant focused on helping early and mid-stage founders redesign their lives to put purpose and intention first. With his company HUMANS AT SCALE, Chase has worked with many successful entrepreneurs, including former guest Rahul Vinod (Founder of Rasa). Chase’s work has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 and The Washington Post among others. We t...

We discuss the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade. 

Danielle Dietzek and Julie Griggs are the co-founders of Fourplay Social, a social network for single friends. Danielle and Julie both worked in healthcare before coming up with an idea to make dating for single people more fun. They created Fourplay to allow people to recruit another single friend, create a "fourplay" team, and then match with other pairs, making for a much more fun dating experi...

The current state of the economy is leaving us a bit anxious this week. Although we will never be able to predict what is going to happen for sure in the economy, we can alter our mindset to prepare for both the good or the bad.

Amir Vardi is the founder of Lever, a company on a mission to help people optimize credit card rewards, track spending and improve credit scores. Amir found himself knowing all to well about the world of finances in the classroom and corporate setting. But as a young adult, he struggled with getting a full grasp of his own personal finances. An idea that he wrote on a napkin, soon became a reality...

Nature is healing especially when you live in a crowded city. Sam and Parker discuss their latest adventures outside of their respective cities and the lesson’s they took away from their time enjoying the great outdoors.

Jamauri Bogan is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former Division 1 football player who is on a mission to make the world a better place through real estate development in moderate to low-income communities and philanthropic programs. After playing college football at Western Michigan University as one of their greatest running backs of all time, Jamauri joined the real world with the vision t...

Topics: TikTok has taken the world by storm so spend some time giving our perspective on the popular video app; One of Parker’s videos is getting some attention on TikTok; Is social media helping or hurting us?

Alex Neumann is a professional pickleball player based in New York City. Growing up as an avid tennis player, Alex found pickleball in college and fell in love with the up and coming sport. Now he spends his days working at his full-time job while training and competing to become one of pickleball’s best. Alex’s recent success has led him to travel to pickleball tournaments across the country, spo...

Prestige is something that we all know about. It is a term that is used to describe the respect or admiration that one has for another’s accomplishments or status. Sam and Parker have a conversation about how they see prestige and how expectations define different levels of prestige. Thank you to David Perell for the inspiration on the topic. His twitter thread on prestige sparked the conversation...

Xander Chase and Ryan Lane are the founders of FTL, a company focused on developing products that help make productive days a little bit easier to achieve. They are releasing their first product, a fully functional bag that combines your work, gym, and garment bag all into one beautifully designed product.  FTL stands for For The Love. We talk with Xander and Ryan about their love for building thi...

A lot has been going on Sam’s life and his has felt a bit overwhelmed with all he has to do now and what will come doing a soon to be busy summer. On Fortitude in 15 this week, we unpack why Sam is feeling that way and talk through some tips and tricks to take a step back and come to terms with overwhelming feelings.

Genevieve Bellaire is the founder and CEO of Realworld, a platform to navigate adulthood and its life moments. In 2017, Genevieve started Realworld to help young adults navigate the “Realworld” decisions around personal finance, healthcare, and insurance. Realworld has helped thousands of young adults get a better grasp on life after college. Realworld and Elevation Nation are similar in the sense...

As we get older, our eating habits evolve. This week on Fortitude in 15, Sam and Parker discuss how their habits have changed over the years and how they are going about eating. One thing is for certain: we can't eat like we used to...

Rob Carney is an enthusiast when it comes to wellness and agriculture. His background in sustainable food and farming, combined with his passion for a variety of health practices has helped him grow an enormous following of people looking to better the quality of their lives.  We talk with Rob about: Growing Your Own Food Personalizing Your Diet Modern Day Farming Human Connection w/ Nature Websit...

Parker came across a list that Jesse Itzler (entrepreneur and motivational speaker) posted on his LinkedIn page earlier this week: WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR 21 YEAR OLD SELF For the 150th episode of Elevation Nation, Parker and Sam discuss, agree and disagree with the ten tips that Jesse provides in his list. 

Ben Putzer is a soon-to-be college graduate and entrepreneur. As a student at The University of Maryland, Ben started a company called Visitour, a platform for prospective college to students to find customized campus tours. Visitour has more than 50 unique tour guides across three schools in the Big Ten. As graduation approaches, Ben is mulling a big decision: Will he go full-time on Visitour aft...

Sam and Parker catch up after a week of not chatting due to a busy week of travel. Parker is down in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Sam just came home from a trip in New York City. With things getting very busy, they talk about how to they are trying to be more intentional with how they go about their day.

Ilana Dunn is the Host and Executive Producer of “Seeing Other People”, a podcast show about dating and relationships. Ilana’s Snapchat show “Screening For Love”, where she interviews strangers about dating advice, recently hit 50k subscribers.  Although Ilana graduated college with a top journalism degree, she struggled to find her fit and fulfillment in the real world. When she was let go from h...