FOMO Sapiens with Patrick J. McGinnis

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with DJ DiDonna, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, founder of The Sabbatical Project, and author of Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One (Simon & Schuster, July 2026). DJ spent nearly a decade researching why extended time away from work is one of the most impactful experiences a person can h...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, MacArthur Fellow, National Medal of the Humanities recipient, and author of the new book The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us (Liveright, 2026), for one of the most philosophically rich conversations the show has had. Rebecca holds a Ph. D. in philosophy of science from...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Karim Jouini, co-founder and CEO of Thunders.ai, to explore a problem most people in tech are ignoring: as AI writes code at unprecedented speed, no one has figured out how to test it fast enough. Karim brings a rare perspective to this conversation: he started his first software company at 16 in Tunisia, running a cyber café ma...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Allan Dib, serial entrepreneur and author of the million-copy bestseller The 1-Page Marketing Plan, to make the case that most businesses are overcomplicating marketing, and that AI is about to make that mistake far more costly. Allan breaks down his signature nine-block framework across three phases (before, during, and after) and i...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Emily Tisch Sussman, co-owner of the two-time NWSL champion New York/New Jersey Gotham FC, creator and host of the award-winning iHeart podcast She Pivots, Tony-nominated Broadway producer, and Democratic political strategist. Emily's career has moved from federal policy to cable news to podcasting to sports ownership, and the throug...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis welcomes back Marcus Buckingham, New York Times bestselling author, psychometrician, and one of the most influential voices in leadership over the last 30 years, to discuss his new book Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business, published by Harvard Business Review Press. Marcus spent decades resisting the word "love" in a...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Geoff Cook, CEO of Noom, the leading digital health platform combining psychology, technology, coaching, and clinical care. Geoff co-founded The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed social entertainment company he led for 18 years through its $500 million sale, before joining Noom to tackle something bigger: the full picture of human health....

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Brandon Webb, former U.S. Navy SEAL, Course Manager of the elite SEAL Sniper Program, and New York Times bestselling author, to talk about his new book, Puddle Jumpers, and the uncomfortable argument at its center. The same mental management principles Brandon used to transform sniper training, including the visualization and self-ta...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Max Marchione, co-founder and President of Superpower, a fast-growing preventative health platform making concierge-level medicine accessible for $199 a year. Max founded Superpower after a decade of misdiagnosis across more than 20 doctors, a frustration that led him to ask a simple but radical question: What if the best healthcare...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup method and author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, to discuss his bold and urgently needed new book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great. Eric's core argument is as simple as it is unsettling: the corruption that destroys great companies...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Laura L. Rubin, founder of AllSwell Creative and author of The Big Unlock: Liberate Your Creativity Through Mindful Journaling, published by Simon & Schuster. Laura spent over a decade as a marketing and communications executive before building AllSwell into one of the leading voices on mindful writing, hosting hundreds of workshops...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Claude Silver, the world's first Chief Heart Officer and #2 executive at VaynerX, to explore what it actually means to show up as yourself at work — and why most people don't. Claude is the author of Be Yourself at Work, an instant USA Today bestseller that reframes authenticity not as a soft ideal but as a genuine strategic advantag...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Charlie O'Donnell, founder of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and author of Founder Unfriendly: What Investors Won't Tell You About Getting Funded, for one of the most practical and honest conversations about venture capital you're likely to hear. Charlie has spent more than two decades inside the New York startup ecosystem, starting as the...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick sits down with Jon McNeill, former President of Tesla, former COO of Lyft, and CEO of DVx Ventures, to unpack the operating system behind one of the most extraordinary growth stories in business history. During McNeill's tenure at Tesla, revenue grew from $2 billion to $20 billion in just 30 months. That kind of growth doesn't happen by accident — it follow...

Sales isn’t about persuasion, and that misunderstanding is what keeps most founders stuck. In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick talks with Rob Snyder, a serial B2B founder, Harvard Business School alum, and venture partner, to break down what actually drives revenue in zero-to-one startups. Rob shares how two years of brutal rejection forced him to unlearn everything business school taught him...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick sits down with Liz Tran, founder of Inner Genius and author of AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That's Always Changing, to explore a simple but urgent idea: in a world defined by constant disruption, IQ and EQ are no longer enough. What we need now is AQ, the Agility Quotient, which Liz defines as your capacity to handle change, disappointment, an...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick sits down with wellness pioneer Tracy Anderson to explore what it takes to build something that actually endures in an industry built on trends. Tracy reflects on her 25-year journey, from pioneering a research-driven approach to movement in the late 90s to watching a flood of imitators cash in on simpler versions of her life's work. She explains why she ne...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick sits down with Florence Shaffer, the founder and CEO of Becoming, a human performance company that helps leaders navigate sustained complexity without losing themselves in the process. Florence spent more than 20 years leading digital transformation inside global brands, including Burberry and Estée Lauder, before turning her lens inward, to the hidden cons...

In this conversation, Patrick talks with Matt Beall, Chairman and CEO of Bealls Inc., one of America's oldest retail chains and one of the first national retailers to accept cryptocurrency at checkout. Matt is also a prominent figure in the Buttcoin community, a memecoin born from a 2011 internet joke that has grown into something far more serious than its name suggests. They dig into how crypto b...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Chris Wharton, to unpack what’s broken in the modern longevity and wellness industry. Chris argues that while interest in healthspan is exploding, the conversation is being driven by oversimplification, misinformation, and loud voices rather than rigorous science. He explains why there is no such thing as a single “longevity expert,”...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick welcomes back Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable, to discuss his newest book, Beyond Belief. The conversation starts with a paradox we all recognize: we know exactly what to do, yet we don’t do it. Nir explains why the missing piece isn’t discipline or motivation, but belief. Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, and personal experienc...

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick sits down with Daniel Coyle, bestselling author of The Culture Code, The Talent Code, and his new book Flourish, to explore a deceptively simple question: why do so many high achievers still feel empty? Drawing from years of research inside elite teams, thriving communities, and high-performing organizations, Dan explains why nobody flourishes alone — and h...

In Part 2 of this FOMO Sapiens conversation, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Sahil Bloom to explore what it actually means to build a meaningful life and career in the age of infinite noise. Sahil reflects on the responsibility that comes with modern influence, arguing that creators today wield unprecedented power to compound either positive or negative energy. He explains why chasing outrage and...

What if the biggest risk in life isn’t failure, but settling for something that’s merely fine? In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Patrick sits down with Sahil Bloom, former private equity investor turned global creator and author of The Five Types of Wealth. Sahil unpacks the invisible forces that keep smart, ambitious people stuck on paths that don’t quite fit: from the psychology of insecu...

In Part 2 of this conversation, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and author of The Seven Rules of Trust, joins Patrick McGinnis to confront the hardest question of our time: how do we build trust in a world where reality itself is becoming unstable? From AI-generated content and deepfakes to misinformation and collapsing institutional credibility, this episode explores what trust looks like under...