#UpgradeMe with Dana Leong

Why is Yuga Labs' CEO the same guy who produced Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime? Figge went from co-founding POSSIBLE (creative studio behind arena tours for Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney and 200 other arena shows) to a 2020 Emmy for the world's first Unreal Engine extended reality stage. Then he created WENEW with Beeple. Then four C-suite roles at Yuga Labs in under fou...

What does it take to go from sneaking into rumba rehearsals as a kid in Santa Clara, Cuba, to becoming arguably the greatest living drummer on earth? Dafnis Prieto is a Grammy Award winner, MacArthur "Genius" Fellow and one of the most gifted drummers alive. On faculty at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, he has three self-published books studied worldwide. Host Dana...

If you’ve ever said “I just need more time,” this episode is for you. Dana Leong shares how a weird orchestra dream, a move to Asia, and a market‑entry consultant led him to a three‑block system for his life: Health as the first priority Creativity split into creating, editing, practice, and learning Business development as a weekly non‑negotiable Along the way he pulls lessons from Leonardo da Vi...

**This Episode is for entertainment purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition. ** 💔 Is it love? Or just dopamine with bad lighting? This Valentine's Day special hits DIFFERENT. Dr. John Tsuang aka JT Love (addiction psychiatrist / human...

Dana Leong travels to Hangzhou to join NBA legend Yao Ming for his annual charity basketball weekend—and to find out how Yao turned fame into a platform for rural education, youth sports, and real opportunity. From gala stages to courtside commentary and a powerful moment with a young player on a prosthetic leg, this conversation is a masterclass in quiet, compounding impact.​​ Watch on YouTube: ...

AI isn’t just a buzzword anymore, it’s quietly wiring itself into every building, airport, and city on the planet. Eric Liu is one of the people actually doing it. As Founder & CEO of TwinMatrix Technologies and a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, he builds spatial digital twins that turn real-world spaces into living, intelligent systems.​In this episode, Eric breaks down what digital twins...

Meet Gene Yu — Green Beret, counter-terror rescue lead, and the real-life action hero behind viral headlines in Asia. Nephew to Taiwan’s former president, he led special ops across Iraq, Southeast Asia and personally orchestrated a high-risk hostage rescue in the wilds of the Philippines.
What drives a warrior to risk everything for others? Discover the secrets of endurance, resilience and leaders...

#UpgradeMePod 017 Imagine spending a week surrounded by 400 of the world's most powerful leaders, from CEOs and astronauts to Grammy winners & members of royal legacies. This episode takes you inside the World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leaders (YGL) Summit with Dana Leong, filled with stories, lessons, & personal ups and downs that will inspire your own journey. Don’t miss out...

TEKTONIK Music 'Sweet Sleep Meditations' Now Entering the 2026 Grammy Awards Voting Ballot for  Best New Age Album ! On behalf of our own TEKTONIK Music, please spread the word! We're going for Grammy #3!! We’re reaching out to ask our UpgradeMePod community to share this with your music industry contacts. Your votes for our milestone album,  Sweet Sleep Meditations , mean the world to...

Get ready to explore the future of music and media with Adams Fan, Chief Creative Officer of F5 Shanghai, China’s most awarded independent agency at Cannes Lions. Adams flips the interview with Dana Leong, sharing visionary insights drawn from his trailblazing career leading breakthrough creative campaigns for global giants like Pfizer, Lenovo, Saudi Tourism, and more. Known for blending technolog...

Whatever your brain looks like, we all have something in common, in that there’s an entire universe inside your head and we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to understanding how it all works. Today’s guest is a full fledge neuroscience genius, a tech mogul and one of the most influential female entrepreneurs of our time. Multiple documentaries, news segments, magazine covers and one o...

Dana answers the most popular question he receives, "How do you win a Grammy Award?". What do you think? Did he answer it? What else would you like to know in future episodes? #UpgradeMePod #DanaLeong #Grammy #PaquitoDrivera #Musician #Productivity #StoryTime #Motivation #Podcast--Welcome back to #UpgradeMe. It’s a podcast about the never ending self improvement journey, ideas and life h...

On this episode of #UpgradeMe with Dana Leong, we take you inside the motivational mindset of teenage multinational cart racing champion and burgeoning formula racer Nikhil Bohra through his regiments, training, trials tribulations and biggest growth opportunities. Buckle up! Welcome back to #UpgradeMePod. It’s a podcast about the never ending self improvement journey, ideas and life hacks to help...

Dana Leong shares the incredible journey of #UpgradeMe from a COVID-era concept to one of the fastest-growing and most rewarding projects he’s ever been part of. With gratitude to our amazing community, guests, and team—including editor JC—this milestone is a testament to the power of learning, storytelling, and connecting with inspiring leaders worldwide. Join us on this journey of growth and mot...

Today we learn life lessons and productivity wisdom from Bunty Bohra . He is a highly accomplished business executive, currently serving as a partner at Antler, a global venture capital firm, and CEO of Biologic Pte, an advisory and investment firm based in Singapore and the former CEO of Goldman Sachs , India. Bunty has extensive experience in empowering and investing in exceptional founders and...

00:00 Intro Stateless Mogul? Taejun Shin’s Journey Begins02:00 The Stateless Hustle: Born Stateless, Built an EmpireHow he leveraged adversity into resilience and entrepreneurial drive.3:15 What Does the World Economic Form Do?!8:53 United Nations 🏛️16:36 A new initiative in Japan seeks to improve child services 🌍25:01 Financial inclusion and transformative education, realistic Ai Strategy 🌍36:3...

Thrilled to have #UpgradeMePod guest #MichikoZentoh, producer who helped change the face of Japanese travel and culture TV with legends like #AnthonyBourdain, #JackieChan and the #Olympics. Follow https://www.beneroots.jp/ Is there a limit on how free a spirit can be? Are we confined between the guard rails of our parents’ genetics and their nurture? Many times when a spirit is too curious to stay...

People always ask, what is it like to work in the music industry and how do artists make a living? Can you survive from making content for YouTube? During the pandemic, that question has become much more complex. However, they still say, ‘slow and steady wins the race’. Over the past 6 years I’ve known her, I’ve watched Minami grow in every way while relentlessly releasing songs and music videos o...

Today, we dive deep into the world of a true virtuoso, Jordan Rudess, whose journey from being a classical pianist at Juilliard in New York to the keyboard wizard of Dream Theater is nothing short of extraordinary. Imagine a young prodigy, trained in the hallowed halls of Juilliard, choosing to abandon the predictable path to explore the uncharted realms of progressive rock. Much like an artist sw...

In a world of hustlers, bustlers and innovators, we all seek balance. Combining classical realism at the urban edge of hip-hop and street art, Justin BUA balances being a forward thinking artist while reinventing the classical brush on canvas medium through original caricatures from his colorful youth, statement pieces of pop-culture icons and his one and only globally top selling posterized paint...

Follow Cookie Online: https://otrstudios.com/founder https://www.facebook.com/cookiejmarenco https://bluecoastmusic.com/ https://www.instagram.com/bluecoastrecords If you’ve ever traveled all the way around the world in order to meet your neighbor, or learned a valuable life lesson by taking the long route, then this is the story for you. Over the past 4 decades, hidden away in the hills of my tin...

We often take certain things for granted, especially when it comes to the autonomy of how a restaurant works. If designing and running one of the biggest and busiest restaurants in the Bay Area isn’t a big enough task for you to underestimate, imagine conceptualizing and running sixteen of them. Maybe it would take someone with the business sense of a Wall Street banker, the mental fortitude of a...

#UpgradeMe with Dana Leong - Nathan East Episode Whether you know it or not, you KNOW Nathan East. Not only is he “A” bass player, he is THE bass player. You can mention pretty much any important figure from music in the last 5 decades and it’s a solid bet he’s been involved with a collaboration. From the smooth grooves of Barry White to the innovative beats of Daft Punk, Nathan’s bass has been th...

Very few people have attained the level of innovation in their craft as DJ Qbert. The saying “If You Build It, They Will Come” was written about guys like him. Years before rising to global fame, he had already been discovering and perfecting a huge number of turntable routines and tricks that would become standardized scratches, staple sounds in hip-hop, pop culture caricatures in TV/Film/Video g...

Welcome back to #UpgradeMe . It’s a podcast about the never ending self improvement journey, ideas and life hacks to help you level up and the people who make it happen! Hosted by Dana Leong, a 2x Grammy Winning Musician, a US Musical Ambassador and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Join our communities online at: Instagram TikTok Facebook YouTube SoundCloud Twitter LinkedIn Subscribe to...