Future Optimist

Stefanie Sword-Williams is the founder and author of F*ck Being Humble . Stefanie created a business to encourage individuals to be unapologetically proud of their achievements and overcome the fear of self-promotion. Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Europe, she has delivered workshops for global brands. Her story of how she turned her expertise into a mission is profoundly inspiring.

Jamey Mossengren quit a lucrative 9-5 job to become a professional unicycling unicorn. Now he enjoys a life of greater fulfillment and freedom than he ever had before, and he gets to make thousands of people happy everywhere he goes.

Dr. Kyle Grant is an ex-NASA scientist who created a venture-backed start-up called Oxwash. His company has raised millions of dollars from Silicon Valley VCs like Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter) and more. Dr. Grant has developed groundbreaking new methods for reducing microplastics from laundry, dramatically reducing energy and water consumption, and just generally transforming and disrupting t...

Harrison Broadhurst & Chris Rännefors are Co-Founders of BatBNB, a highly innovative and unique start-up saving the bats. If ever there was something or someone in need of a massive PR campaign, it’s bats. Bats and their role in our planet have been so profoundly misunderstood, and things have only gotten worse for them in recent years. My guests today created a start-up around bats that saw them...

Juggling between keeping the content treadmill running and our bigger goals can be a challenge. This is especially true as we need to put out more and more content just to "keep up". In this original article, I share some thoughts on how we can achieve a better balance in our lives.

Ryan Mckenzie has one of those stories that makes you feel that anything is possible.   He co-founded a business (Tru Earth) based on a patented, eco-friendly laundry strip. Laundry is a sneaky but incredibly wasteful industry, and his company Tru Earth has already eliminated nearly 6 million plastic jugs from landfills while donating nearly 10 million loads of laundry to those in need.

Ann Makosinski has been on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, on Time Magazine and Forbes lists, won the Google Science fair, and more. Today we talk about dealing with the expectations of being labeled a child prodigy, about having and pursuing multiple interests in our lives, and about being true to our authentic selves. In short, this 21st-century renaissance woman is a perfect guest for this...

What’s the best part about an amazing entrepreneur story? You hear what they’re doing, and you think… Really? No one’s ever done that before!? Well we’ve got such a tale today. For so long, we’ve internalized the idea that you can’t build a business without harming the planet, or that doing something sustainable isn’t good business sense. Ben Christensen is out there proving that win/win/wins are...

Raby Gueye is the founder and CEO of Teach For Senegal, which seeks to raise educational outcomes in Senegal so that one day every Senegalese child feels seen, loved, and liberated. She has a remarkable story that brought her from her native Senegal to the United States as a refugee. She dedicated her life to social justice issues, and a series of career choices and observations led her to returni...

If your life hasn't taken a straight and obvious path, you're not alone. In fact, many people you admire have taken crazy detours before arriving on the right path for them. For the full article: https://rosspalmer.com/the-vehicle-vs-the-destination/

The old models of success are broken and won't work in the new world. If you’re not sure how your unique skills and interests add up to a meaningful career you love, then this is the podcast for you.  I interview people who have forged their own path in life, defying conventions and finding something bigger than money to believe in. Find show highlights, research notes, videos and more at beattheo...

It's World Toilet Day! Isabel Medem is the co-founder of Sanima, a social startup that took on the challenge of providing sanitation to Lima, Peru, a city where 850,000+ people are denied access to basic sanitation, something most of us take for granted every day. World toilet day raises awareness of the fact that roughly 3.6 billion people are living without access to safely managed sanitation.

Andrew Tarvin is a seasoned public speaker and author, with a TED talk called “The Skill of Humor” that’s garnered over 11 million views as of this taping. He’s the author of 3 bestselling books on humor, and he’s delivered over 500 talks on humor to some of the largest companies in the world. Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

Debra Fine went from feeling uncomfortable in social situations to building an impressive solo career as an author and keynote speaker. She turned her greatest weakness and fear into her greatest strength and asset. She’s now a multiple bestselling author, speaker, coach, and mentor to other authors, my own father among them. Her story is proof that with grit and determination (and sometimes our b...

It's Halloween... A time for scary stories that will rock you to your core. Take heed, so that you don't follow the example of this chilling tale. And also -- eat some candy.  Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

Dr. Ramses Alcaide is the co-founder and CEO of Neurable, a company creating wearable brain control interfaces. Their flagship product is a pair of headphones that can respond to your brainwaves just by wearing them as normal. Suffice it to say, few people out there are as on the bleeding edge of what’s to come as Dr. Alcaide, so today we talk about how he was able to build his company, follow his...

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson. So you've decided to become a professional weirdo like me! You're ready to cast aside the shackles of an ordinary life and leap into the unknown. Great! So what now? Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

Commercially sold tampons and feminine hygiene products are horrible for both your body and for the environment, leeching tons of harmful toxins and contributing greatly to plastic waste. This “small” issue affects half of the planet, and all of us indirectly, so it’s about time we started to have an open conversation about topics that were stupidly previously taboo. Celia has received several awa...

I can't believe the incredible people that have sat down with me on the show so far. When I look back at the first 50 episodes, it's hard to believe how many truly remarkable people have shared their stories. I wanted to take this time to reflect on where we've come from and where we're going. Here's to 50 more! Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer

Catalin is one of those rare individuals on the absolute bleeding edge of tech, who puts social entrepreneurship first. He’s been named Forbes 30 under 30, his startup Ello uses machine learning to teach children how to read, he’s used AI to look into criminal justice reform in the US, and he’s used augmented reality to help give people with autism emotional cues. We talk about mentorship in silic...

Becca Hume is the founder of TapSOS. If you’re able to speak or hear, you take for granted that you can pick up the phone and dial 911 here in the US, or 999 where she’s from. But for deaf people and the 650 million people with disabilities around the world, these critical moments are not easy or even possible. She made it her life’s mission to change the outdated emergency support systems, fundam...

Beeing is an Italian start-up revolutionizing the way bees are kept and tracked. As it turns out, bees are so much more remarkable than we’ve ever known, and I think you’ll agree after this episode that this small company, founded by Roberto Pasi and Gabriele Garavini, is really doing something worthwhile. Their share their knowledge and passion for bees, and I express my ignorance -- it's a win/w...

Babar Ali is an inspirational story like you’ve never heard before. When he was just 9 years old, he started his own school. Many children in his village were unable to get an education due to extreme poverty, and he took everything he learned from his own education and taught it to other children in his backyard. 19 years later, he has his own school with 400 students a year, he’s been recognized...

Have you ever had a moment… where without warning, the path of your entire life was irrevocably changed? That’s what happened to my guest today. Aaron Baker was a professional motocross rider, with sponsors and a promising career. His bike stalled mid-air, leaving him with a career-ending spinal cord injury. He was given a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of ever regaining function. He’s turned that all arou...

300 million golf balls are lost in the US alone each year. They take between 100 and 1,000 years to decompose. We NEED a better solution. Mitch Schols is a founder of biodegradablegolfballs.com, a fledgling company with goals to make a high-performance, eco-friendly golf ball. I dream of a day when we can shank our ball into the lake and not cause an environmental catastrophe! Follow me on Instagr...