The Knowledge Project

Steve Cohen and Jack Nicklaus shared the same performance coach. For the next hour, he’s yours too. Dr. Gio Valiante is the world’s leading performance psychologist. We discuss why most people never reach their potential, how confidence and fear shape performance, and what separates those who consistently excel from those who stay stuck. He shares practical strategies for building better habits, o...

Dr. Giulia Enders has changed the way millions of people think about the human body. As a physician, microbiome researcher, and bestselling author, she has spent years studying the surprising role the gut plays in everything from digestion and immunity to mood, sleep, metabolism, and long-term health. In this conversation, Giulia explains how your gut shapes your health, how stress quietly damages...

Bill Gurley spent years on Wall Street, built his career as a partner at Benchmark, worked through Uber’s hypergrowth era, and now serves on the board of the Santa Fe Institute, where he studies complexity and systems thinking. In this episode, Bill shares the mental models he returns to most, including systems thinking, second- and third-order effects, and the importance of understanding both the...

Mark Pincus is the creator behind Farmville and Words with Friends. He built Zynga into one of the biggest gaming companies in the world and helped shape the early era of social products on the internet. In this conversation, he breaks down how great founders spot winning ideas early, why most startups build the wrong thing, and how products become part of people’s daily lives. He shares lessons f...

Chung Ju-yung built Hyundai because he refused to be stopped. He is known for turning Hyundai into an industrial force that helped transform South Korea. The company built highways, ships, cars, and entire industries. At its peak, Hyundai accounted for 16% of South Korea’s economic output. This episode explores how Chung built Hyundai, how he helped power South Korea’s rise, and how hunger, guilt,...

Winston Weinberg is the CEO and co-founder of Harvey, the AI platform built for the legal industry. In this episode, Winston explains how AI is reshaping legal work, why judgment becomes more valuable as routine work gets automated, and how to build the prioritization muscle required to move faster, stay focused, and make better decisions when everything is changing. He also shares the operating p...

The AI race, the future of AGI, and the inside story of OpenAI. Greg Brockman is the co-founder of OpenAI. This is the most detailed first-person account he has given of the 72 hours after Sam Altman was fired, how OpenAI started, and the future. Greg explains how the original Napa offsite produced the three-step technical plan OpenAI has followed for a decade and the real reason OpenAI had to aba...

Mario Harik is the CEO of XPO, one of the largest trucking companies in the world, and leads a team of 40,000 people across a multi‑billion‑dollar operation. He started as employee #3, trained under Brad Jacobs (who’s built eight multibillion‑dollar companies from scratch), and has spent the last two decades turning engineering discipline, frontline feedback, and a deep belief in human potential i...

Joe Liemandt quietly built one of the most successful software empires you’ve never heard of—then reappeared with a $1 billion bet that AI can make kids learn ten times faster and love school more than vacation. At Alpha School, students spend just two hours a day on AI‑driven academics, consistently score in the top 1% on standardized tests, and use the rest of their time to build real‑world life...

Harrison McCain learned salesmanship by talking his way into a pharmaceutical job at 22, then spent five formative years under K.C. Irving, absorbing lessons in vertical integration, relentless deal-capture, and "management by suggestion." He quit with no plan, two newborn kids, and no income. His brother Bob noticed that New Brunswick potato farmers were shipping raw potatoes to Maine for process...

Connor Teskey is the CEO of Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world’s largest investors, managing about a trillion dollars across infrastructure, power, real estate, private equity, and credit.  In this exclusive interview, his first as CEO, we explore his approach to capital allocation, isolating variables, and building a business designed for long-term growth. Discover why effective invest...

The world's largest hotel company spent its first 30 years without a hotel. It started as a root beer stand in 1927. The first room didn't open until 1957. The man behind it was J. Willard Marriott. In this episode of Outliers, we explore how Marriott turned one root beer stand into a hotel empire, without a master plan. Oh, and along the way, he invented the airline catering business. This is the...

In January 2021, Vlad Tenev made a decision that nearly destroyed Robinhood. Wall Street called it betrayal. Customers called it cowardice. He has never fully explained what happened — until now. Vlad Tenev built Robinhood into a financial titan, navigated the unprecedented GameStop crisis, and completely re-engineered the company to thrive after losing the vast majority of its market value. He br...

Phil Knight is the founder of Nike, the brand that reshaped sports and became one of the most powerful companies in the world. What would you do if your bank, your supplier, and your government all turned against you at the same time? Phil Knight didn’t have to imagine it. He lived on the edge of insolvency for nearly two decades. This Outliers episode explores belief, trust, fear, and the price o...

Nicolai Tangen is the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. He is responsible for managing $2.1 trillion. That's roughly 1.7% of every listed company on earth. In this episode, we explore the intersection of massive wealth, high-speed decision-making, and the psychological traits required to survive the AI revolution. ----- Approximate Timestamps: (00...

Michael Ovitz co-founded CAA and helped reshape Hollywood, then took the same playbook into tech investing and advising founders. In this conversation, he breaks down the operating rules that kept CAA from losing clients, and the personal disciplines that kept him grounded when the stakes got massive. You’ll learn how to build momentum, tell the truth without hesitation, read for context instead o...

Ray Kroc turned McDonald’s from a single roadside restaurant into a system built to scale. At 52, after decades selling paper cups and milkshake machines, he opened the first McDonald’s in 1955 and helped grow it to nearly 8,000 restaurants worldwide. This Outliers episode breaks down how standards, execution, franchising, and real estate created a business machine built to last. ----- Approximate...

Morgan Housel breaks down the exact framework he uses to build wealth, minimize financial stress, and buy freedom. While most financial advice focuses on how to get rich, Morgan explains why the skills needed to stay rich are completely different. You will learn why "boring" investing beats complex strategies, how to avoid the social traps that destroy wealth, and the specific equation for finding...

Peter D. Kaufman is the Chairman and CEO of GlenAir, the editor of Poor Charlie’s Almanack, and was a decades-long friend of Charlie Munger. In a talk that was never meant to be made public, one of the world's greatest business minds reveals the secrets to multidisciplinary thinking. Peter allowed the complete talk to be transcribed and posted on FS. ----- Approximate Timestamps: (00:00) Introduct...

James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits, a global bestseller that has shaped how millions of people think about habits, consistency, and long-term change. In this conversation, James explains how habits shape identity, why progress often stays invisible before it compounds, and how to design your environment so good behavior becomes the default. You will learn how to stay consistent when motiva...

What do some of the greatest outliers in business history have in common? For the past year, I’ve been sharing the stories of history's greatest outliers like James Dyson, Estée Lauder, Sol Price, Henry Singleton, Les Schwab, Rose Blumkin, Jim Clayton, and Andrew Mellon. These are names that deserve to be studied, but rarely are. This episode explores the mindsets, systems and patterns history’s m...

This week, we're releasing a special episode of TKP with Pierre Poilievre. While we don't often tackle politics on the show, we are trying to improve political discourse by offering a platform for both sides to speak with depth and nuance. This episode covers the economy, media, free speech, immigration, corporate subsidies, and more. (And before you ask, the same invite was extended to both Pierr...

The Knowledge Project closes 2025 with a look back at the most meaningful conversations of the year. Featuring insights from some of our most impactful episodes, this collection brings together practical insights on decision-making, leadership, preparation, relationships, trust, and performance. This episode features insights from world-class investor Alfred Lin, tech founder and operator Bret Tay...

Bernie Marcus is the co-founder and former CEO of Home Depot.  This is how he built a culture of ownership, kept going when everyone turned him down, nearly lost it all, and created one of the most successful retailers in history.  ----- Approximate Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:00) Part 1: An Accidental Miracle (09:29) Part 2: A Golden Horseshoe Kick (25:49) Part 3: Building From Nothing (...

Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland reveals the formula for persuasion, why people make decisions and how you can use psychology to your advantage. Rory is the world’s leading advertising strategist. He spent almost four decades as Ogilvy studying why people behave the way they do and how to change that behavior. He explains why contrast drives choices and efficiency often destroys value, and how...