The James Altucher Show

A Note from James: This is a very special episode for me. There have only been a few times in the history of this podcast when I’ve had the chance to sit down with one of my heroes. This is one of those times. Frank Miller is one of the most important storytellers of my life. When I first picked up Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, it completely changed what I thought comics could be. This...

A Note from James: I’ve been obsessed with anti-aging and longevity science for a long time. I’ve had many longevity researchers on the podcast, but this episode feels different because something we’ve been discussing for years has now moved into human trials. David Sinclair first came on the show in 2019, when his book Lifespan was published. He’s a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School...

Episode Description: Prediction markets allow people to trade contracts tied to real-world events—from elections and weather to rocket launches, airport traffic, awards, and the words a public figure might use during a speech. But James argues that having an opinion isn’t enough. Betting on your favorite team, preferred candidate, or a vague feeling about what might happen is speculation without a...

A Note from James: Mark Pincus is one of the true OGs of the internet. You probably know him as the founder of Zynga, the company behind FarmVille , Zynga Poker , and Words With Friends . Zynga was eventually acquired by Take-Two in a transaction valued at approximately $12.7 billion. Before Zynga, Mark started Tribe, one of the first social networks—before MySpace and Facebook. He has spent more...

A Note from James: If I could tell my children to read one post of mine, it would be this post. Influence is how they will navigate a world of uncertainty. Robert Cialdini is the most influential person in the world. And by that I mean, he wrote the book Influence , which sold 3 million copies and defines the six critical aspects of all influence. Now he has a new book, Pre-Suasion , going 10x dee...

Episode Description: In this episode from the early days of The James Altucher Show , James sits down with T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind , to examine why earning money, keeping money, and feeling secure about money are three very different skills. Harv recounts cycling through 14 jobs and 12 businesses before building a successful chain of fitness stores—and then losing m...

A Note from James: Oh my gosh, one of my favorite guests ever: Ben Mezrich. Ben wrote Bringing Down the House , which became the movie 21 . He wrote The Accidental Billionaires , which became The Social Network . And now his latest page-turner, Checkmate , is about one of the most explosive scandals in modern sports: the Hans Niemann chess cheating controversy that took over the world. You remembe...

A Note from James: Have you ever read The Da Vinci Code ? That book was definitely a page-turner. Before I read it, I had never really heard of Opus Dei. And after today’s conversation with Gareth Gore, you might wish you had never heard of Opus Dei either. In The Da Vinci Code , Opus Dei is a mysterious organization tied to the Catholic Church, secret history, and global power. But today’s guest,...

A Note from James: Today on the show, I have a very special guest and a good friend of mine, Brandon Webb. Brandon has been on the show many times before. He’s a former Navy SEAL, and he also ran the Navy SEAL sniper school that trained some of the best snipers in the world, including the sniper the movie American Sniper was based on. He’s written a ton of books about the military, leadership, con...

A Note from James: Today on The James Altucher Show , I’m excited to welcome back one of my favorite guests, David Epstein. David is the bestselling author of Range , which completely changed how I think about my own jack-of-all-trades life. In his new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better , David flips the usual idea of creativity on its head. We’re always told that creativity come...

A Note from James: What is actually going on in Iran? I have Brandon Webb on the show today. He’s a former Navy SEAL, he’s written a ton of books about the military and life in the military, then he wrote a murder mystery series set in the military, and now he has a parenting book out. Brandon also runs SOFREP.com, a major military intelligence news site. He came on for a quick episode to answer t...

A Note from James: Imagine going on Shark Tank in front of Mark Cuban, Mr. Wonderful, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and the rest of the Sharks. You’re offering 10% of your business for $700,000, which values the company at $7 million. They all say no. Then, a few years later, Amazon buys your company for a billion dollars. That's gotta feel really good, and that's the experience of our next guest...

Episode Description: James talks with psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin about practical mental strength—the kind you need in the moment , not just in theory. Amy’s earlier books focused on what mentally strong people don’t do. Her new book, The Mental Strength Playbook , turns that work into 50 fast, usable tools for anxiety, stress, worry, conflict, focus, and resilience. The conve...

A Note from James: People are so afraid of AI, and I get it. They’re afraid of how it will affect jobs. They’re afraid of bias, manipulation, or even worst-case scenarios like AI turning on humans. That’s why I love talking to Peter Diamandis. He wrote Abundance , came on the podcast 10 years ago, and now he’s back with his new book, We Are as Gods . He also runs the Moonshots podcast and the Meta...

Episode Description: In this From the Archive episode, James talks with Cal Newport about a simple but uncomfortable idea: most people are working hard on the wrong things. Newport breaks down the difference between deep work —focused, cognitively demanding effort that produces rare and valuable output—and shallow work , which fills time but doesn’t move the needle. In a world engineered to fragme...

Notes from James: I wish I had been Kolin Jones when I was 18 years old. When Colin was 19, during COVID, he set up his own private jet brokerage out of a college dorm room. No investors. No jets. No connections. Just a GoDaddy website, an email address, and an obsessive willingness to send 2,500 cold emails a day. Amalfi Jets is on track to do $120 million in revenue this year. And he still doesn...

Episode Description In this From the Archive conversation, James talks with Yuval Noah Harari about the idea underneath Sapiens and Homo Deus : humans did not come to dominate the planet because they were the strongest animals, but because they learned to cooperate at scale through shared stories—religion, money, nations, and eventually data. The discussion moves from early human history to agricu...

A Note from James: What is going on in Iran? And once this war is over, what happens to investing? Is the world coming down? I’m bringing on the Invest Diva, Kiana Danial, to talk about both. She wrote Triple Compounding For Dummies , and we’ll get into that, too. She’s Iranian, and she has a perspective on what’s happening that I think matters. My gut, based on the force of history, is that when...

A Note from James One of my favorite people in the world is back on the podcast: Jen Shahade. She’s been on the show before. She’s a great chess player, a great poker player, a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, and the author of the new book Thinking Sideways , about how lessons from chess can help with decision-making. As a chess player myself, I can say these techniques really do work. And s...

A Note from James: This is why I love doing podcasts—talking to people like Dr. Sheena Howard, author of Why Wakanda Matters . Wakanda is the country where Black Panther is from, and Sheena has written extensively about comics, including work on Black Panther itself. We talk about comics, race, and storytelling. I asked a question I was almost afraid to ask—whether the Black Panther movie was raci...

Episode Description This archival conversation with Jim Kwik moves beyond memory tricks and into something more fundamental: how we think, learn, and make decisions. Jim breaks down why most people forget nearly everything they read, why repeating the same mistakes isn’t always about logic, and how modern life is quietly degrading attention and memory. He explains how the brain filters information...

A Note from James: I talked to Nelson Dellis, who’s a six-time USA Memory Champion and has broken multiple Guinness World Records. His book, Everyday Genius , makes a pretty bold claim—that with some practice and the right techniques, you can dramatically improve how your brain works. We didn’t just talk about memory. We got into everything: mental math, focus, cold reading, even some techniques t...

A Note from James: I’ve been in therapy for more than three decades. Different therapists. Different kinds of therapy. Different crises. And one question has always fascinated me: What is the therapist actually thinking while I’m sitting there talking? Are they bored? Are they judging me? Are they secretly Googling me? My guest today, Lori Gottlieb , knows the answer—because she’s both sides of th...

A Note from James: In the Blondie song “Rapture,” which was the number-one song in 1981, Debbie Harry has this famous line: “Fab Five Freddy told me everybody’s fly.” So the question is—who is Fab Five Freddy? This guy is one of the central figures in the birth of hip-hop culture. Not just rap music, but the whole ecosystem: graffiti, breakdancing, fashion, DJ culture, art, film—everything that ev...

A Note from James: Tony Hawk is one of the greatest athletes of all time—but what fascinates me most isn’t just the tricks. It’s the mindset. Tony didn’t just become the best skateboarder in the world. He built an entire ecosystem around what he loved: competitions, companies, tours, sponsorships, and one of the most successful video game franchises ever created. What’s interesting is that none of...