The James Altucher Show

I sat down with the expert, Tom Quiggin from Quiggin Report, and ask him the big question. "Iran: Why now!? And what next!? Will be there another World War?" Tom analyzed and explained the situation to me. I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast. Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to "The Jam...

What are strong narratives and what are weak narratives?  I sat down with comedian Brian Scott McFadden and we broke down the narratives of all of the presidential candidates to discover what we can learn from each of them and how we might form strong narratives for ourselves.   I also wrote an article about it: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/democratic-disaster-last-night-how-candidates-can-james...

Amy asked a big question. She said, "Ten years from now when I look back at this decade of my life, am I going to be impressed with how I spent it?" She asks a lot of big questions. Because she's a psychotherapist and the author of the international bestseller, "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do." She's a regular on this show. Because we're friends. But also because I always learn from her...

I want to know what people think. And feel. I want to be able to read a room. And then use that to either make more money, create relationships, have more success, make business deals, etc. So I found Euny Hong and invited her on the podcast. She is the author of "The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success." Euny told me Steve Jobs was a master at this. You'll hear how he did...

I've been through almost every type of negotiation: salary negotiation, vacation time, buying businesses, selling businesses, getting equity, etc. The only negotiation I haven't tried personally is hostage negotiation. But I interviewed one from the CIA. And learned a lot to apply to other negotiations. So I decided to take all my best negotiation tips and put them into one podcast. Here's me with...

I'm a guest on The Conscious Creators Show. And I'm airing it here. Because I talk a lot about what I've learned from my podcast guests, how I've applied the lessons I've learned from them about choosing yourself and how you can apply it to your life today AND keep it going for the new year. And the new decade I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at james...

David Kwong is known for creating illusions. He's a master. He'll make you question your reality. I wanted to know his tricks. Because it's all developed from elements of persuasion. You'll also hear about his career. And how he used talent stacking to get ahead as a famous magician, illusionist and puzzle creator. I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at...

Who makes you think what? So many people come on my podcast and say, "Freewill is a myth." We've heard this from Yuval Harari who wrote "Sapiens." We heard it from Robert Greene, author of "The Laws of Human Nature." And now we're learning about it from a different perspective... Jonathan Kay wrote a book in 2011 called, "Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Undergr...

I love games. I love chess. I love poker. I love anything that helps me be more strategic, prepared for negotiations. I like being able read people and build alliances. All of this comes from games. But I didn't realize there are so many new games that also teach you about history, war, economics, statistics, the list goes on. I found out when I read Jonathan Kay's new book "Your Move: What Board...

Someone sent me a video of a young 20-something-year-old getting tasered in the shower by a police officer. He was mentally ill.  I thought, "This needs to change." And it is. Thanks to Chief Don Deluca, Scott Cohen and the whole team behind BolaWrap, a new technology that helps officers restrain people without using extreme force. Their story is proof that problems in society don't have to stay p...

We all make stupid arguments all the time. But we can get better. If we take the right steps. So I read Scott Adams new book and invited him on the podcast to talk about "Loserthink." Loserthink is any kind of argument that's baseless or lacking evidence. I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast. Thanks so much for listening! If y...

Mike Rowe has been a TV personality for a long time. He's best known as the host of "Dirty Jobs" where he shows the world what it's like to do dangerous and disgusting jobs. Mike showed us that there's dignity in work. Of all kinds. In this episode, I ask Mike what made him want to do that show. He told me, "Curiosity." "It's no less valid to wonder how a sewer works than how the Hubble works." Mi...

I'm jealous of Jeannie Gaffigan's brain tumor. Not the tumor itself. Or the feeding tube. Or side effects. But I'm jealous of the community that came to her side. I told her, "I'm afraid that if this ever happens to me, I won't have the love and support that you've built up over the years." She had a mega support system... neighbors and family who got her the best doctors, plus friends and colleag...

Eric Adams was beat by the police at age 15. "They kicked us in the groin over and over again. We were urinating blood for seven days." So when Eric grew up, he became a cop. "I had no idea I was going to last for 22 years," he said. "I thought I would be there a year. And then they'd say, 'Get rid of this guy. This guy's a trouble maker." But that never happened. He got promoted. "I was driven. T...

I want to live forever. Or at least for as long as I feel like living. So I called Dr. Steven Gundry. He's changing the way we understand health by creating new food pyramids, busting myths about food fads, and helping us understand the underlying science that makes one food bad and another food good. Dr. Gundry is also the bestselling author of "The Longevity Paradox," "The Plant Paradox"  & "The...

Kamal Ravikant went to the hospital for a scheduled elective surgery. Everything went great. Until the stitches inside his body ripped. And he felt pain in his stomach. He asked the nurse for medicine. Soon his was spurting blood everywhere. One of the residents held him down to try to stop the bleeding. Kamal sat there in fear as he watched the inside of his liquids get all over this man. They ha...

It's hard to practice psychology in high stakes situations. But it's necessary. I've been practicing this forever. I practice with chess, in business, in negotiating, in investing. Jennifer Shahade also practices this. Actually, no. She's mastered it. She's the U.S. Women's Chess Champion and a professional poker player. We've been playing chess together since we were kids. And I recently went on...

Nas had a great life. And a great job. He was making a ton of money as a software developer for Venmo. But he was too comfortable. So he started a creative challenge where he traveled around the world. And made a one-minute video every day for 1,000 days. He didn't skip a single day. Which is not easy. So I wanted to have Nas on the podcast to learn how he got the courage to quit his job, travel t...

Humble The Poet was scared of going broke again. It was his biggest fear. So he made some necessary changes. And now he's sharing them with you. We recorded this as a quick minisode. It started by accident. We were just talking. And then I looked at my audio engineer. "Are you recording." Yes. Here's the clip.    I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at ja...

Humble The Poet was a teacher. He didn't like it. And he felt it. He had a different art inside of him. Part of it was rap, part of it was poetry, part of it was philopshy. It took time, but now Humble The Poet is a full-time artist. In this podcast, you'll learn how he gave himself permission to step off of the approved life paths and create his own.   I write about all my podcasts! Check out the...

This is Ryan Holiday's 10th time on the podcast. In this episode, we talk about his new book, "Stillness Is the Key," which takes an allusive topic (stillness) and makes it applicable to everyday life.  Ryan signed a bunch of copies for me to give away. You can learn how to enter by going to @Altucher on Instagram. - James    I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I...

This is Part 3 of my 500th podcast celebration. All three episodes have incredible clips from incredible guests. Here's the list of clips for Part 3. And let me know which clips you love. Or who you'd like to hear more from. And we'll bring it to you. Thanks. - James Clip 1 - Ep. 438 - Brad Meltzer: Our County's Secrets (Untold Stories From the CIA & Secret Service) Clip 2 - Ep. 481 - Take Back Th...

Here's Part 2 of my 500th celebration! I'm releasing three bonus episodes. You can listen in any order. They all have a mix of clips that show you how to find what you really love in life, how to overcome the fear and self-doubt that plagues all of us, how to predict the future, get a new skill and more. I hope you enjoy. But most of all, I want to say thank you for supporting this show. I appreci...

Consider this the new year. I'm releasing 3 episodes back-to-back with the greatest advice from 30 guests. Today you'll get 10 clips (I made a list of the guests and episodes below so yu can follow along). But here's what I'm thinking. Use these 3 episodes as a guide. Let them help you reinvent.  I do this every 100 episodes. 500 is big. And it's hard to choose the clips. Because there are so many...

Tim O'Brien is the bestselling author, "The Things They Carried." Tim wrote this book as a veteran of the Vietnam war. He was drafted. Like everyone else in their 20's at the time. "85, 90% of our casualties came from land mines," he said. "Not gunfire. Not the typical battle you'll see in movies. Landmines were the killing force." Every step he took was a mystery. People died all around him. ""I'...