Modern Wisdom

Get my free End Of Year Review Template here - https://chriswillx.com/review/ It’s the end of 2023 and to celebrate I thought I’d run through some of the best lessons I’ve picked up over the last 12 months. This year has had over 10,000 minutes of episodes produced so there was a lot to choose from but I ended up settling on 16 insights from some of my favourite conversations both inside and outsi...

George Mack is a writer, marketer and an entrepreneur. Thinking for yourself is one of the most important skills you can develop. However it's hard. It's a difficult task to overcome the boring, negative, irrational trends around you. Which is why you need some new tools in your mental models box. Expect to learn what the Keynsian Beauty Contest is, why memes are so influential in society today, w...

Whitney Cummings is a writer, actress, comedian and a podcaster. Women aren't having a great time at the moment. They're maybe just as lost as men, the only difference is they get a little bit more sympathy. So just where did the trajectory of women go awry and how can they find a way to be happy again? Expect to learn the social psychology behind the rise of Taylor Swift, Whitney’s thoughts on be...

Ali Abdaal is a YouTuber, podcaster, entrepreneur, and an author. What would life be like if you didn't get so distracted? If you actually did the things you wanted to do with your productive hours, rather than what you were distracted by. Ali has spent an entire career deconstructing the keys to productivity, and today we get to go through some of the most important. Expect to learn what feeling...

Bedros Keuilian is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, podcaster, and business coach Everyone could do with a bit more confidence in their abilities. A bit more certainty about what they can achieve and their power to overcome obstacles. Maybe telling people to man up isn't so bad after all... Expect to learn what it truly means to improve, why the story you tell yourself about yourself matters, how...

Jeremy Boreing is the co-founder and CEO of the Daily Wire. Independent media is having a moment. YouTube numbers dominate mainstream TV and podcasts wipe the floor with radio. But is it possible for movies, children's programming and more to tumble next? Expect to learn what it's like to work with Ben Shapiro, where Disney keeps going wrong, the problems with modern day Conservatives, whether Jer...

Scott Galloway is a clinical professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, a public speaker, entrepreneur and an author. Despondency and cynicism are everywhere online. Some of the most popular modern trends are those that tell people to not hope for the best and that things can never get better. Thankfully I don't agree, and neither does Scott. Expect to learn why Sc...

Louise Perry is a writer, Press Officer for the campaign group We Can’t Consent To This and an author. Young women have been through turmoil over the last 50 years. With their entry into the workforce, emancipation from the kitchen and greater freedom and independence, you might think they have got everything they want out of life. But unfortunately, the reality may be less rosy. Expect to learn w...

Shane Parrish is the Founder of Farnam Street, an ex-Canadian Intelligence Agency Operative and an author. Our lives are mediated by our thoughts. The more accurately we can make decisions, the better and happier our existence will be. Therefore it makes sense to spend some time learning how to think more clearly and frameworks to keep us rational. Expect to learn if its truly possible to think in...

Rob Henderson is a psychologist, US Air Force veteran, and author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class. Humans are an odd species. We know truths on our own but choose to lie in groups. Our thinking gets hijacked by social norms, paths of least resistance, lies and half truths. It's a mess out there, but thankfully there's ideas we can discover to help us navigate. Expect...

Dr Jordan B. Peterson is a clinical psychologist, podcaster, speaker and an author. Finding meaning in the modern world can be a difficult task. When life is convenient and comfortable, discovering our purpose and facing hard things can be increasingly tough. But there are some reliable routes toward the greatest adventure of your life. Expect to learn why you are morally obligated to do remarkabl...

Dr Tracy Vaillancourt is a professor at the University of Ottawa, a researcher and an author with a focus on the link between violence and mental health. Intrasexual competition is present in all animals, however the sophistication of this rivalry amongst human females is unbelievably impressive. The "fairer sex" wield their competition in some very weird, wonderful and ruthless ways. Expect to le...

Jim Kwik is a world renowned memory expert, a podcaster and an author. Mastering a new skill, language, or instrument can be an intimidating task. However, Jim has found hacks which can dramatically elevate your learning process. This has the potential to transform an arduous learning approach into a simple journey toward peak brain performance. Expect to learn if modern people's brains are actual...

Max Lugavere is a health and science journalist, filmmaker, podcaster and New York Times bestselling author. To maintain peak health, nurturing an healthy mind and body is key. Simple daily habits and foods can make a massive difference to limiting and even reversing cognitive decline as you age,. Expect to learn why California is banning Skittles, how worried you should be about artificial sweete...

Bryan Caplan is an economist at George Mason University and author. Bryan wrote a letter to his young daughter encouraging her to not become a feminist. Which begs the question, why would a father not want this? In what ways are women being taken advantage of by an ideology, and how might Bryan be wrong? Expect to learn what trade offs feminism is making at the moment and why they're dangerous, wh...

Morgan Housel is a partner at The Collaborative Fund, an investor and an author. The world continues to change, but the hairless apes that inhabit it stay the same. So there must be some laws of human psychology which remain true, no matter what time and place you're in, and today we get to go through some of the most fascinating ones. Expect to learn the problem with the way most people make pred...

Douglas Murray is a journalist, author and associate editor of The Spectator. As the turmoil of global events dominates the media, it can feel as though the world is spiralling into chaos. If we can't agree on what's happening, how can we make sense of the world? What's the solution in a post-truth world? Expect to learn how Victoria’s Secret betrayed the body positivity movement, why people are s...

Spencer Greenberg is a mathematician, a writer and the founder of ClearerThinking.org First we make our habits, and then our habits make us. But what is the best way to step into this recursive loop and take charge of the most powerful force in our lives? Thankfully Spencer just completed a huge new study testing tons of different techniques. Expect to learn how useful personality tests are, Spenc...

Mads Larsen is a Norwegian author and journalist whose research focuses on the history of human mating ideologies. The narrative of human romance is an ancient story. But that story has not always remained the same, the last 10,000 years has been a crazy journey through different beliefs on why we should find and stay with a partner and today we get to hear about all the fascinating details. Expec...

Patrick Bet-David is an entrepreneur, founder of Valuetainment, podcaster and author. Given that the world is in chaos, we would usually turn to our institutions and news organisations to make sense of what's happening. But trust in these institutions is at an all time low, so what can we do about it? Expect to learn why it’s actually important to have enemies, Patrick's thoughts on Ben Shapiro's...

To celebrate 700 episodes of Modern Wisdom, I broke down some of my favourite lessons, insights and quotes from the last hundred episodes. Expect to learn how your expectations define your happiness more than your circumstances, what monothinking is, why the Abilene Paradox is my favourite new idea, the problem of taking advice from super successful people, how to actually achieve enlightenment, m...

Alexander DatePsych is a Neuroscience and Behavioural Science researcher whose work focuses on attractiveness and dating. The modern dating world is a difficult universe to navigate, which has led a lot of people to check out of it completely. But does this make people happier to elect loneliness rather than risk heartbreak? Expect to learn why 50% of men have not approached a woman in the last ye...

Dr Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist, Associate Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a podcaster. It has never been so easy and also so difficult to remain healthy and perform at your best. The right tools and insights we all need to avoid pitfalls and maximise our outcomes are thankfully at our finger tips, and today we get to go through some of Dr Huberman's favourites....

Justin Mogilski is an an evolutionary psychologist at the University of South Carolina whose research focuses on consensual non-monogamous relationships. It’s often said that choosing the right life partner is the most important decision you can make. So if you're not sure, why not just choose two? Or more? And how do the people in these relationships make it work? Expect to learn whether non-mono...

Mary Eberstadt is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and an author. We're told that more freedom is a good thing. That the more options and choices a person has, the better their life will be. With this in mind, the sexual revolution should have been one of the biggest improvements ever for women and their quality of life, but all might not be quite as rosy as it seems. Expect...