The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown and Adam Grant

I’m talking with Scott Sonenshein, a researcher, organizational psychologist, and New York Times bestselling author, about the pandemic, the racial reckoning, and work — specifically, what it means for people going to the office for the first time, or staying hybrid, or working from home. We will never be the same again after what we’ve experienced over the past couple of years, and it’s time we t...

Barrett and I have not been able to stop thinking — and talking — about an episode we did a few weeks ago with Donald Sull and Charlie Sull of CultureX: “How Toxic Work Cultures Are Driving the Great Resignation.” In that episode, we took a deep dive into an MIT Sloan Management Review article the Sulls had recently written, about what was driving the Great Resignation. In sharing their findings,...

This is a conversation about how a simple act of generosity can put someone on a new, groundbreaking course. I’m talking with James Rhee — acclaimed impact leader, entrepreneur, educator, investor, and goodwill strategist — about why kindness matters. He leads with a powerful combination of kindness and math and demonstrates how revenue doesn’t define our lives. We unpack the power of goodwill — w...

I want you to pay attention and direct your flashlight right on this podcast — you’ll understand what that means after you listen to this episode. I’m talking to Dr. Amishi Jha, a neuroscientist and the author of the bestseller Peak Mind, about attention, focus, concentration, and mindfulness — specifically how mindfulness can literally change our levels of attention. Learn more about your ad choi...

I’m talking with Dr. Donald Sull and Charlie Sull about an article I came across in the MIT Sloan Management Review titled “Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation.” As we know, between April and September of 2021, more than 24 million American employees left their jobs, an all-time record. Donald and Charlie researched what’s driving the Great Resignation. It is both revealing and confirmi...

I’m talking to Megan Reitz, a professor of leadership and dialogue, and John Higgins, a researcher and author, about an article they published in the MIT Sloan Management Review titled “Leading in an Age of Employee Activism.” It’s a huge topic in every organization I talk to, and I can say, as an employer and an activist — leading a team filled with organizers and activists — that this is definit...

I’m talking with Debbie Millman — designer, author, educator, curator, brand strategist, and host of the long-running, multi-award-winning podcast Design Matters — about her new book, Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People. It’s a conversation about creativity with one of the most creative people in the business, where she answers a lot of direct questions like, Wh...

Dan Pink is one of my favorite researchers and writers. In this episode, we dig into one of my least favorite feelings (but one of my best teachers): regret. In his new book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, Dan shares findings from two large studies on regret. It’s fascinating. One big takeaway: We have more regrets about the things we did NOT do than the things we did...

We’re back! It’s 2022, and we’re all talking about “returning to the office” at some point. There are a lot of unknowns, and it’s going to be awkward. In this episode, Barrett and I discuss how our organization is going to gather again, as well as what we are seeing in companies across the country. We talk through a few of the toughest questions, debunk some “remote working” myths, and discuss wha...

My conversation with America Ferrera was so good that I didn’t want it to end, so here we are with the second episode with the renowned actor, director, producer, activist, and leader. We continued our discussion about the importance of integration and how transformative it can be to bring all of our identities to our leadership journey — and in the process, the conversation goes where really neit...

I’m talking with America Ferrera — actor, director, producer, activist, and leader — in the first of a two-part series about leading with your whole self. I have done a lot of work with integration and leadership over the past decades, and I hadn’t heard it so clearly captured and explained as America did in this episode. Every transformational leader I’ve ever worked with refuses to compartmental...

Dr. Laurie Santos is a professor of psychology and the head of Silliman Residential College at Yale University and the host of the popular podcast The Happiness Lab. We talk about her experiences with university students and how it connects with the research that I’ve done for my new book, Atlas of the Heart. We discuss how that data predicts what we can expect when we return to the workplace, as...

It’s Part 2 of our two-part episode with James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, which has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 50 languages. In Part 1 of our series, we talked about building systems to create habits, and in this episode, we talk about how and why habits are atomic and how to build a habit or break a habit. We also look at our environments and...

Even before James Clear and I met, I knew this would be a two-part series. I just had so many questions for the author of Atomic Habits, which has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 50 languages. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be exactly the type of conversation I’d anticipated. In Part 1 of our series, we talk specifically about developing identity-...

I am talking with Dr. Maya Shankar, a cognitive scientist who served as chair of the Social and Behavioral Science Team during the Obama administration and served as the first behavioral science adviser to the United Nations. We talk about what happens when change knocks us off our charted path. How do we get back up? How do we figure out who we are without that path? And how do we start building...

Barrett is back to talk more about trust and how we approach it at our company. We call it BRAVING trust — BRAVING is the acronym we use for the seven attributes of trust. And in Part 2 of this two-part series, we really dig into the core elements of BRAVING: boundaries, reliability, accountability, vault, integrity, nonjudgment, and generosity. We talk frankly about awareness, experiences, and ha...

In this episode, Barrett Guillen, chief of staff at Brené Brown Education and Research Group, is joining me to talk about trust, what trust means, and how we approach it at our company. We call it BRAVING trust — BRAVING is the acronym we use for the seven attributes of trust. We have shared this with organizations all over the world, and today, we’re going to dig into what we’ve learned about pra...

Liz Wiseman is an author, a researcher, and an executive adviser, and we are talking about her new book, Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact. Liz has done research across organizations around the world, talking to managers about what impact players look like, what sets them apart, and how they contribute. With this research, she gives us language to recogniz...

I’m talking with Jodi-Ann Burey and Ruchika Tulshyan about imposter syndrome and the articles they have written together on the topic, including “Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome,” which is among the Harvard Business Review’s top 100 most-read articles in history. We talk about the contexts in which imposter syndrome was originally defined, as well as how it continues to be defined a...

Charles Feltman is the author of The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work, which is based on his nearly three decades of work with individuals and teams to build, maintain, and restore trust. I have used his definitions of trust and distrust in every book I’ve written, because they are practical and actionable and, at the same time, deep and meaningful. It was importa...

This episode is the second of a two-part series on feedback, and Barrett is back to take it to the next level and dig into engaged feedback with me. As you know, Barrett is chief of staff for Brené Brown Education and Research Group and one of my sisters, and together, we go through the 11 elements of the Engaged Feedback Checklist. It’s a practical tool, and we talk about the real and tangible wa...

This episode is the first of a two-part series on feedback, and I’m talking with my sister Barrett Guillen, chief of staff for Brené Brown Education and Research Group, about professional feedback. We get very honest about the feedback that we have received over the years, as well as how it felt, what we’ve tried to do about it, where we slip up, and where we’ve made strides. Learn more about your...

I’m talking to Dr. Amy Cuddy, social psychologist, bestselling author, award-winning Harvard lecturer, and expert on the behavioral science of power, presence, and prejudice. We discuss her recently published Washington Post article, “Why This Stage of the Pandemic Makes Us So Anxious,” and how working through this collective, constant pandemic flux affects us as individuals and as leaders. We als...

As I’m writing a book and thinking about habits that are getting in my way of being more productive, I call upon Charles Duhigg, who is a New York Times bestselling author on habits and productivity with The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business. We talk about how we are in an interesting time to think big picture about what we’re doing well...

This episode is the second of a two-part series with Priya Parker, master facilitator, strategic adviser, and the author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. We hold a weekly meeting in our organization that doesn’t seem to be serving everyone in a consistent way, so Priya helps me figure out what’s going on and why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/ad...