When we’re looking for insights on how to make friends, manage our anxiety, or just live a happier life, we rarely look to the past. Instead, we tend to focus on what today’s thinkers have to say. But what if the recipe for happiness lies in the past, specifically the 2000-year-old past? What if the ancient writings of Greek philosopher Epicurus hold the answers? That’s what modern-day philosopher, Emily Austin, argues in her book, Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life. She teaches us what Epicurus really thought about pleasure and why he made it a cornerstone of his life. She also points out the advantages of an Epicurean mindset over a Stoic one. Emily’s book is proof that we still have much to learn, for our work and our life, from the ancient Greek philosophers, especially Epicurus! Episode Links The Good Life is the One Where Anxiety Falls by the Wayside The Epicurean Search for Happiness and Serenity Interview with Tali Sharot The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We often assume that stress and anxiety are the price we pay for success. Yet these feelings can lead to burnout and self-doubt, two debilitating outcomes that can get in the way of the very achievements we’re striving for. This is a pattern psychologist Mary Anderson often sees in her high-achieving clients: their very success has left them so scarred that they can’t enjoy it, let alone build on it. The good news is that Anderson has developed a set of research-backed strategies to get us unstuck. Anderson shares these stories and strategies in her book, The Happy High Achiever: 8 Essentials to Overcome Anxiety, Manage Stress, and Energize Yourself for Success – without Losing Your Edge. I walked away from the book – and our conversation – with tools to rethink some of my own limiting beliefs. I bet you will, too. Episode Links Perfectionism Is Not Healthy or Sustainable. Here’s What to Strive for Instead 5 Ways to Find Relief in a Moment of Overwhelm Staying Determined on the Way to Achieving Your Goals Interview with Michael Gervais The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

As a knowledge worker, you face two challenges. First, you need to take in staggering amounts of information to stay current. Next, you're expected to convert that information into innovative solutions that benefit your team and your company. While expectations for consuming and processing information have changed, most of our mental habits harken back to factory model days. Yet we’re ignoring the tremendous power of our human biology, namely, our brains. What if we designed an optimal work style built around key features of the human brain? That’s the question Mithu Storoni works to answer in her book, Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work. She likens brain function to a car engine with multiple gears. Then she shares how to best put those gears to work for us, and how best to shift them as circumstances change. It’s just the right book – with just the right information – for the age we’re living in. Episode Links Uncertainty is Uncomfortable, and Technology Makes It Worse. That Doesn’t Have to Be a Bad Thing Help! It Turns out Breaks Make You More Productive Interview with Ayelet Fishbach on the Science of Motivation The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We like the idea of the lone genius, that one person who developed a game-changing innovation. But whether or not we realize it, research shows that creativity is collaborative. Yep. You heard that right. And we have lots of examples: the development of the airplane, the Internet, the mountain bike, and so many more. We’re schooled in the notion that creativity is an individual thing, yet research shows, again and again, that it’s not. Instead, it’s through connecting with others, then working alone, and then connecting again, that we innovate. Keith Sawyer has studied groups and creativity for decades. His book, Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration, elucidates what group genius looks like, why it works, and what it takes to cultivate it, so we can develop game-changing innovations. This book changed how I see groups, creativity, and the connection between the two, and the research findings are fascinating. Episode Links Group Creativity and Collaboration Everyone Can Be More Creative – But Not Alone Being More Creative in Everyday Life is Simple Interview with Moshe Bar The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

It’s become common knowledge that we need to prioritize our physical and mental health. In fact we’re encouraged to commit to regular exercise and good nutrition, and to engage with mental health professionals as part of a healthy lifestyle. And if public health experts like Kasley Killam have their way, social health will become just as important. It’s why she wrote the book, The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier. Kasley’s book is the proactive solution to today’s loneliness epidemic. It’s also a research-backed argument for why social health needs to be on equal footing with mental and physical health. Episode Links Shifting the Focus from Loneliness to Social Health What is Social Health? The Little-Known Idea that Could Make All the Difference The Mental Health Industry is Booming. Next up? Social Health Innovation Interview with Malissa Clark The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Each day, millions of doctors write prescriptions for drugs intended to help their patients. But what if many of our modern health ailments, like depression, anxiety, and chronic pain, would benefit as much, if not more, from a social prescription? What if nature, art, movement, and service could reduce our symptoms, decrease doctor visits, and improve our health? These are questions Julia Hotz set out to answer. Julia is author of the book, The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging. By sharing research findings, as well as people’s stories from around the world, we get to see a whole other side of medicine. After reading her book, I’m more convinced than ever we need to seek out and prioritize healthy social time. Episode Links New Horizons in Medicine: Why Art, Service, and Nature Might Be What the Doctor Orders What If Your Doctor Could Prescribe Fishing Trips or Art Classes? Social Prescribing on the Rise Doctor’s Orders: A Social Prescription for Health Interview with Geoffrey Cohen The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We know how important friendships are. At the very least, for our health and well-being. But we also know how hard it gets to make and keep friends over the course of a lifetime, especially as we move, change jobs, and have families. That’s why Anna Goldfarb’s book, Modern Friendship: How to Nurture Our Most Valued Connections, is so important. We need friendships for good health, and Anna’s book teaches us ways to make, keep, and move on from toxic friends. And she readily shares what to say to build and deepen friendships. I think it’s a terrific book for understanding how to be a better friend. Episode Links Let’s Make This the Golden Age of Friendship The Secret to Modern Friendship, According to Real Friends How to Deal with a Friendship Quiet Season Interview with Kat Vellos The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us believe we can make a difference in the world. That we can have an impact. What holds us back from acting on those beliefs are often the doubts. Doubts about our skills, our credentials, even our roles at work. Alex Budak studied the research and interviewed the changemakers, and he argues we can all be changemakers, no matter our resumes. That’s what led him to write his book, Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level. I was inspired by Alex’s book and our conversation. I walked away with a changemaker playbook on the mindset, leadership qualities, and behaviors to make it happen. Episode Links Finding Leadership Treasures in World Cup Trash Stop Waiting for Permission Be the Light Interview with Sheena Iyengar The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

This year, we witnessed a solar eclipse. Walking the streets of my neighborhood that day, looking through my solar eclipse glasses and sharing them with others, I felt a profound sense of awe. And I saw that awe, that wonder, reflected in the faces of the people around me. For one or two hours, we were part of something bigger than ourselves. And that experience took us out of ourselves. It softened and connected us. Experiences like that are what made me want to read Dacher Keltner’s latest book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. In this conversation, we talk about what awe is, how it works, and why it matters. We also talk about how to build more awe into our lives. Episode Links Here’s Why You Need to Be Cultivating Awe in Your Life An Awe Walk Strengthen Your Leadership with the Science of Awe Interview with Norman Farb author of Better in Every Sense The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Social connections are one of the keys to a happy and healthy life, yet few of us learn how to build them. If we’re lucky, we have family and friends who model them. But even then, our biology equips us with cognitive biases that can get in the way. Fortunately, award-winning science writer David Robson has studied the research. He shares what he’s learned in his latest book, The Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social Network. In this conversation, he talks about the biases we hold and how we can overcome them. It’s a terrific resource for rethinking your approach to social connection. Episode Links How Learning about the Science of Shyness Helped Me The Big Idea: Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Being a Mess Interview with Marissa King on Social Networks and Social Chemistry The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

There are many good reasons to look to others. For example, you might need expert advice or feedback to improve your performance. But there’s one reason not to, and, that is, to determine your self-worth. When you look to someone else to define you or tell you how to live your life, you lose a lot. And if you find it hard to believe you’d ever let someone else influence you in those ways, you’d be surprised. Michael Gervais is a high-performance psychologist who’s worked with elite athletes, artists, and leaders. Through his work, he’s learned that one of the biggest obstacles standing in their way is fear of other people’s opinions. And he’s seen just how crippling those fears can be. That’s why he’s written the book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You. In talking to Michael, I learned how our biology sets us up to place a lot of weight on other people’s opinions. I also learned how social media is designed to reinforce that fear. Fortunately, Michael shared insights on what to do. I walked away feeling empowered. Episode Links Stop Basing Your Self-Worth on Other People’s Opinions Free Your People from the Need for Social Approval Build a Great Team on a Relationship-Based Culture, Not the Myth of Family Interview with Jonathan Rhodes on Getting the Life You Want The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We’re surrounded by people with knowledge. The manager who can provide expert feedback or the colleague who has important information. These kinds of insights can help us achieve our goals. Yet as much as we need that knowledge, we often don’t act in ways that invite it. It’s when the project runs behind or we can’t make our numbers that we realize, often too late, that asking sooner could have made all the difference. These are the results Jeff Wetzler can help us avoid. His book, Ask: Tap into the Hidden Wisdom of People around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership and Life, is a call to arms for regularly making asks that elicit the insights we need. His strategies are important for individuals, teams, and organizations. Episode Links How to Get the Honest Input You Need from Your Employees What Happens When You’re Blindsided at Work? Why We Don’t Raise Tough Issues and How to Get Better at It Interview with Anh Dao Pham on How to Succeed as a Project Leader The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We all want to be happy. In fact, it’s our desire for happiness that drives most of our decisions, like our friendships, our activities, even our purchases. Yet, over time, we find that the things that made us so happy at the start – that new car or delicious meal – end up losing their luster. I was curious about why this happens and what, if anything, we can do about it. That’s why I wanted to talk to Tali Sharot, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at University College London and MIT, and director of the Affective Brain Lab. In her latest book, Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, she explains why the things that once made us happy no longer do. She also shares what we can do about it. Episode Links The Big Idea: This Simple Behavioural Trick Can Help You Get More out of Life Your Life is Better Than You Think Why People Fail to Notice Horrors around Them David Robson on How Our Expectations Shape Us (Interview) The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We crave meaning and purpose, yet obtaining them can feel beyond our control, like they're merely products of luck and circumstance. Fortunately, researchers who’ve studied the power of ritual have found they’re more in our control than we think. In this interview, I talk to one of these researchers, psychologist Michael Norton. He shares how rituals, especially ones we create, can provide the meaning and purpose we crave. And, unlike habits, rituals operate on an emotional level that deepens the experience. In his book, The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, Norton shares what rituals are, why they matter, and how they can help bolster us throughout our lives. Episode Links The Calming Power of Rituals Forget Habits in the New Year. Find Joy in Rituals with Others Breaking up Can Be Easier if You Have a Ritual Interview with Eduardo Briceno on The Performance Paradox The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

At some point, we all get stuck. Maybe it’s in a job or career. Maybe it’s a relationship or business venture. Though it’s something we all experience, when it happens, we can feel alone and out of our depth. Emotions may overwhelm us. Mental traps lure is in. In no time at all, we can’t see a way out. Award-winning professor, researcher, and author, Adam Alter, has spent decades studying how successful people get unstuck. In his latest book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most, he shares what we can do to move forward. Adam’s recommendations can help us with what might be the most important times in our lives. Episode Links Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler How the ‘Creative-Cliff Illusion’ Limits Our Ideas by David Robson Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

When we’re feeling stuck, it’s tempting to believe more thinking is the answer. We stew and we ponder, and then we double down on solutions we’ve tried before. It’s no wonder we start to feel like we just can’t figure it out. But what would happen if we put thinking aside and tried something else? Author and researcher, Norman Farb, has learned that there’s an entire canvas of sensory experience we can access any time we want. And by tapping into our senses, we may find ways to feel better. It’s what Norm writes about in his book, Better in Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your life. By the time I reached the last page of this book, I felt like I’d been let in on an incredible set of tools for enriching my life. Episode Links How Your 5 Senses Can Help You Stop Worrying Feeling Sensations, Including Ones Connected to Sadness, May Be Key to Depression Recovery Attending to the Present: Mindfulness Meditation Reveals Distinct Neural Modes of Self-Reference Interview with Britt Frank on The Science of Stuck The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

When we think of geeks, we tend to think of the people who built the tech we use – from our smartphones to search engines to AI.   But if we just focus on the tech, we’re missing out on a lot. We’re overlooking how these same geeks reinvented corporate culture using a repeatable set of norms that ensure sustainable innovation. Andrew McAfee is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and cofounder and codirector of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. He’s been studying innovative companies for decades, and he’s taken what he’s learned and written about it in his latest book, The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results. I’m convinced what Andrew’s learned about the geek way – and its four key norms – is a roadmap for where today’s – and tomorrow’s - companies are headed. Episode Links The Geek Way New Book Explains the ‘Geek Way’ to Manage a Company Forward Thinking on How Geeks are Changing the World Interview with Roger Martin The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

There’s more to being a workaholic than working long hours. Consider what motivates you to work more. Where you’re spending your energy. Think about the impact those longer hours have on family and friends. These are some of the distinctions Malissa Clark makes in her book, Never Not Working: Why the Always-on Culture is Bad for Business and How to Fix it. She not only shares a helpful framework for thinking about workaholism but gives us ways to recognize it. Equally helpful, she explains steps we – and our organizations – can take to undo it. Malissa’s book is a great resource for assessing workaholic tendencies and for changing them – as individuals, teams, and organizations. Episode Links Are You a Workaholic? Don’t Wear it as a Badge of Honor These are the Four Drivers of Workaholism Thomas Curran on The Perfection Trap The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We associate the word epidemic with disease. Yet it’s a word we’re increasingly using to refer to a state of mind, namely, loneliness. Researchers have not only found a significant increase in people’s feelings of loneliness, but they’ve also learned how detrimental loneliness can be to our health and wellbeing. One of the most effective antidotes to loneliness is feeling like we belong. In fact, researchers have discovered that feelings of belonging can spill over into every area of our lives, from school to work to home. When present, they can boost our motivation and performance. That’s why I wanted to speak with Stanford psychologist Geoffrey Cohen, author of the book, Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides. Geoff has spent his career designing interventions to counter loneliness. In our conversation, he shares how taking even the smallest steps can reap big benefits. Episode Links Understanding and Overcoming Belonging Uncertainty The Science of Belonging and Connection A Crisis of Belonging Joe Keohane on the Benefits of Talking to Strangers The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

One-on-one meetings are the cornerstone of manager-employee relationships. For managers, they’re an opportunity to teach, coach, and mentor. For employees, they’re a chance to grow and develop. But given how important these meetings are, how well are we using them? How effectively do we plan and run them? Bottom line - are they an afterthought or a priority? These are just some of the questions, I asked meeting expert Steven Rogelberg, author of the book, Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings. In response, Steve not only described what the most effective one-on-one meetings look like, but he also explained how to design and lead them. I left the interview with lots of practical tips and tools. Episode Links This is the Most Important Meeting You’ll Have. Here’s How to Make It Better. Meetings Can Really Suck. Here’s How to Fix That Managers, Take This Simple Assessment to Hold Better One-on-One Meetings Make the Most of Your One-on-One Meetings The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

For many of us, the word addiction quickly conjures up images of drugs and alcohol. But we’re often slower to apply the term to compulsive, tech-induced behaviors like playing video games, checking social media, or shopping online. We prefer to think of these pleasure-seeking activities as harmless distractions. Yet they can just as easily lead to addictive behaviors. And with our ever-present smartphones, the chance of mindlessly engaging in these activities, to the point of addiction, are more likely than ever.   That’s why I wanted to talk to Anna Lembke, author of the book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Anna is a psychiatrist and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University. In this conversation, she uses patient stories to teach us about addiction. She also explains how our lifestyles encourage addictive behaviors. Finally, she shares insights on what we can do. I found her book to be revelatory and, as strange as this may sound, a real page turner. I also found it to be the resource we can all use to live more healthfully in a pleasure-filled world.  Episode Links We Have a Dopamine Problem I’m Addicted to My Phone. How Can I Cut Back? Constant Craving: How Digital Media Turned Us All into Dopamine Addicts Judson Brewer on Unwinding Anxiety The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We go to the dentist, get our eyes checked, and get our cars inspected. These regularly scheduled health and safety audits let us know how we’re doing. But we rarely audit how we spend our time. Sure, most of us have a calendar. Yet few of us study how these calendar events impact our happiness. We rarely track the connection between what we spend our time doing and how well we’re flourishing. As a result, we can find ourselves feeling unhappy, frustrated, and what scientists call “time poor.” Researchers like Cassie Holmes want to change that. They’ve learned there’s a strong connection between how we spend our time and how happy we feel. In her book, Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most, she shares ways we can optimize our calendars for happiness, including ways to avoid distraction, extend joy, create a meaningful schedule, and avoid regret. Holmes’ tips on time tracking and time auditing are simple and powerful. As the year draws to a close, this may be just the book you’re looking for as we head into a new year. Episode Links Having Too Little or Too Much Time is Linked to Lower Subjective Well-being Our Flawed Pursuit of Happiness – and How to Get It Right A Valuable Lesson for a Happier Life (video) Trust by Hernan Diaz The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking to guests about our relationships at work. For example, we’ve discussed how to listen better, how to navigate conflict, and how to influence others, just to name a few. What I’ve spent less time talking about are the relationships that go beyond work. That’s why I invited Kat Vellos on the show this week to talk about her amazing book, We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships.  Kat’s book is more than a callout to the power of friendship. It’s a roadmap for making new friends, and, equally valuable, it’s an owner’s manual for deepening existing friendships. It's an episode that really resonated with listeners. With the holidays approaching - and opportunities for more time with friends and family - I wanted to rebroadcast it for you. Enjoy! Episode Links How Many Hours Does It Take to Make a Friend by Jeffrey A. Hall Better Than Small Talk The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker Donald Horton and Richard Wohl and Para-Social Communication Loneliness and Social Connections Choke by Sian Beilock Non-Violent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg Kat Vellos TED Talk Happy City by Charles Montgomery Having and Being Had by Eula Biss The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

In the U.S., we have laws and policies in place to prevent discrimination of Black workers. In addition, we have leaders who make public pledges in support of diversity goals. Yet the data continue to show that Black employees are less likely to be hired, more likely to stall out in mid-level positions, and stand little chance of gaining senior level positions. Why is that? Adia Harvey Winfield’s work lies at the intersection of labor and race, and her research reveals that, for Black workers, there are gray areas. These gray areas are the cultural, social, and relational factors that influence who gets hired, who gets promoted, and who finds it easiest to navigate the workplace. That’s what she writes about in her latest book, Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It. Adia shares powerful stories of Black workers across all kinds of professions and organizations. We’re taken into the lived experiences of individual Black employees as they navigate landmines most of us don’t even see. It’s a book that took my understanding of racism in the workplace to a whole other level. Episode Links How Gray Areas in Work Culture Drive Racial Inequality What Do a Black Scientist, Non-Profit Executive, and Filmmaker Have in Common? They All Face Racism in the 'Gray Areas' of Workplace Culture We Built a Diverse Academic Department in 5 Years. Here's How. Joan Williams on Diversity Practices that Work The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

A well-crafted story can fuel connection. It can inspire trust and entertain. Better still, it can have a ripple effect. Yet most of us avoid telling stories. Instead, we stick to the facts and emphasize the data. Now, even if we believe this is the best way to convey information, our brains, if they could talk, would disagree. That’s why, if we want to connect, persuade, or just keep our audience’s attention, we need to get better at storytelling. That’s why I wanted to speak with Karen Eber, author of the book, The Perfect Story: How to Tell Stories That Inform, Influence, and Inspire. Karen not only explains why stories matter, she also explains how to craft them. Every section of this book is filled with takeaways you can immediately put into practice. It’s a book I’ll return to again and again. Episode Links How Your Brain Responds to Stories and Why They’re Crucial for Leaders The 4-Part Structure to Telling Great Stories Vanessa Bohns on How We Influence Others The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We’re often put on the spot to say something of value. And when it happens, it can catch us off guard. For example, you log in early to a conference call and need to make small talk with high status colleagues. Or you find out in a meeting that a co-worker is leaving the company, and you’re asked to say a few words. These kinds of spontaneous interactions happen more often than we think. But unlike formal presentations or pitches, there’s no time to practice. We wonder how to manage our anxiety and improve our performance. That’s why communications expert, Matt Abrahams, wrote the book, Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot. He shares strategies to help us lower our stress and make what we say more concise, relevant, and memorable. Matt takes our on-the-spot communication to the next level. Episode Links How to Shine When You’re Put on the Spot How to Speak Confidently When You’re Put on the Spot The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff Episode 235 with Jonah Berger The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us are on a performance treadmill. We show up. We execute. Then tomorrow we do it all over again. But this relentless focus on execution leaves little time for learning. As a result, our skills stagnate, and we accomplish less. Soon we find ourselves working harder while falling further behind. Eduardo Briceno calls this The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset into Action, a label that’s also the title of his book. In it, he shares how we can build learning into our day without sacrificing performance. It’s a way of working that ensures high execution and continuous learning.   Episode Links 4 Signs of the Chronic Performance Trap and How to Break Free Your Talent Wants a Learning Culture. Here are 5 Steps to Create One Interview with Steve Magness My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We live and work in a digital world where getting interrupted by communication tools is the norm. That means we shift our attention at least every 47 seconds. Then it takes us about 30 minutes to get back on task. At the same time, we continually interrupt ourselves – looking things up, tracking information down. While some view this as a problem to be solved, Gloria Mark sees it simply as a new reality. And she believes we’re using old language and frameworks to navigate it. Things like flow and sustained focus, when neither our brains nor our work allows for these kinds of solutions. Instead, she believes we need to lean into what our brains need, including taking social media breaks. She also believes we need to organize our day around what she calls kinetic attention. Gloria Mark’s book, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, gives the attention space a much-needed update. There are tips you’ll immediately want to put into practice. Episode Links How to Restore Our Dwindling Attention Spans A Psychology Expert Shares the 3 Things She Always Does to Boost Her Brain Energy The Island of Lost Trees by Elif Shafak Interview with Nick Carr The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

As humans, we have certain default settings that help us navigate the world. Yet those same default settings make us vulnerable to fraud and deception. For example, our ability to focus helps us concentrate on what’s right in front of us. But it also prevents us from seeing what’s missing. For example, we’re more willing to believe a presumed investment expert who touts a winning track record without thinking about the losses he never mentions. Our brains also rely on past experiences to guide our behavior. The upside is that it conserves energy and prevents us from having to relearn things like tying our shoes or driving to the store. Unfortunately, it predisposes us to act without thinking. That’s why Daniel Simons has written a book called Nobody’s Fool: Why We Get Taken in and What We Can Do about It. In it, he points out four habits that can put us at risk, and he shares ways to overcome them. He also points how others can leverage our very human tendencies to deceive us. Talking to Dan helped me see another side to some of my default settings and how I can stay vigilant, so I don’t get fooled.    Episode Links Failures of Awareness: The Case of Inattentional Blindness Failure to Detect Changes to People During Real-World Interaction The Last Improv Show Interview with Woo-Kyoung Ahn The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We’re often told that saying yes to everything will be the key to our success. It’ll strengthen our relationships, enhance our reputation, and help us achieve our goals. But what if the reverse were true? What if learning how to say no is the game changer? What if mastering this skill is the way to achieve our goals? Vanessa Patrick has written a book on the subject titled, The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No That Puts You in Charge of Your Life. There are so many factors that influence whether we achieve our goals, things like focus, persistence, and resilience. After reading Vanessa’s book, I’d add knowing how and when to say no. Episode Links Getting to Gutsy: Using Personal Policies to Enhance (and Reclaim) Agency in the Workplace How to Say “No”: Conviction and Identity Attributions in Persuasive Refusal Juggling Work and Home Selves: Low Identity Integration Feels Less Authentic and Increases Unethicality The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Aiming for perfection seems like a noble goal. It’s like we’re holding ourselves to a higher standard or standing out from the crowd. But striving for perfection means working toward the impossible. And the cost to our mental and physical health can be enormous. London School of Economics Professor, Thomas Curran, experienced the impact of perfectionism firsthand. As a recovering perfectionist, he’s made the field the focus of his research. Curran’s research led to his book, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough. In it, he explains the psychology behind it, calls out cultural messages that reinforce it, and shares steps we can take to overcome it. Episode Links Perfectionists Need to Embrace Failure The Rise of Perfectionism – and the Harm It’s Doing Us All Understanding Perfectionism and Impostor Syndrome with Dr. Thomas Curran Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

For many, work is the centerpiece of our lives. It’s not only a source of status and fulfillment, but also central to our identity. But what do we miss out on when hold these expectations of our work? What does it cost us? That’s the question Simone Stolzoff asks in his book, The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work. In answering this question, he explains the drivers that got us here, the reasons society and culture reinforce them, and what life might look like if we reframed the role of work in our lives. He challenges us to recognize who benefits by us making work the whole of our lives. Episode Links Losing Your Job Doesn’t Mean Losing Your Identity Please Don’t Call My Job a Calling Stop Looking for the Perfect Job Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Winning athletes and coaches have a lot to teach us. They’re asked to perform at the highest level, day in and day out, and they face enormous pressure to succeed. Faced with these expectations, the most successful ones must continually elevate their performance. But how? That’s a question Sally Jenkins has spent a career trying to answer. Through her work as a sportswriter at The Washington Post, she discovered the formula great players use to succeed, and she shares it with us in her latest book, The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us about Work and Life. It’s a fascinating set of insights that will help you elevate your own performance. Episode Links Bitter Rivals. Beloved Friends. Survivors. Another Side of Dad This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

There’s a lot to be said for the excitement we feel when we first set a goal for ourselves. The sense of exhilaration can give us the momentum we need to get started. But when the exhilaration wears off – and it usually does – we’re faced with a choice. Will we revert to old habits or develop new ones? These moments are what Jonathan Rhodes calls choice points, and the decisions we make can really add up. Ultimately, how we manage ourselves in these moments can be the difference between the life we have and the life we want. That’s why I wanted to interview Jonathan Rhodes, author of the book, The Choice Point: The Scientifically Proven Method to Push Past Mental Walls and Achieve Your Goals. His Functional Imagery Training provides a concrete roadmap to help us stay the course. Episode Links Tokyo 2020: Simone Biles’ Withdrawal is a Sign of Resilience and Strength How to Overcome Self-Limiting Beliefs The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Coming up with good ideas is hard. But it’s not because we’re not creative or smart enough. It’s likely we just haven’t learned how. Fortunately, Sheena Iyengar, Professor at Columbia Business School, has written a playbook that answers the question, how can I get my best ideas? It’s her latest book, Think Bigger: How to Innovate. Sheena’s approach leads us, step by step, from generating ideas to assessing which ones are innovative enough to act on. It’s a method informed not only by others’ successes but the science behind them. It’s a book you’ll return to again and again. Episode Links Sheena Iyengar Wants Us to Understand How Humans Come Up with Big Ideas Does Brainstorming Actually Generate Great Ideas? If There are No New Ideas, How Do We Keep Innovating? Antonio Canova The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Ambition is complicated. Yet the messages we receive from an early age are simple: “Winners never quit.” “Reach for the stars.” “Follow your dreams.” But like most simple messages, reality often paints a very different picture. Long hours that lead to burnout, or individual striving that results in loneliness. Rainesford Stauffer ran up against these realities. And, in her work as a journalist, she spoke to others who did, as well. That’s what led her to rethink what ambition could be, and to write about it in her book, All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive. In this interview, we talk about the roles history and religion have played in our ambition. We also discuss times when embracing ambition is a good thing. Ultimately, we try to uncover unexamined assumptions that can drive how we live our lives.  Episode Links There’s No Such Thing as Getting Ahead by Rainesford Stauffer Seeking Self-Esteem: Construction, Maintenance, and Protection of Self-Worth by Jennifer Crocker and Lora E. Park Too Much of a Good Thing: The Effect of Contingency of Self-Worth on Goal Setting by Xi Chen Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We’ve all had the experience of working toward goals today that would benefit us in the future. Goals like exercising more, losing weight, or saving for retirement. Yet when faced with early-morning alarms or tempting desserts, we may lose sight of our goals. But what if the answer to sticking with them was to form a relationship with a very special person – future you? Hal Hershfield, author of the book, Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today, has spent his career studying what happens when we build a closer relationship with our future self. His work reveals how this relationship can have an outsize impact on our success, one that extends beyond weight loss, fitness, and a comfortable retirement. Episode Links Nina Strohminger and Elizabeth W. Dunn and Kate Christensen and Paola Giuliano End-of-History Illusion Here There Are Blueberries The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

At some point, we all get stuck. Maybe it’s in a job or career. Maybe it’s a relationship or business venture. Though it’s something we all experience, when it happens, we can feel alone and out of our depth. Emotions may overwhelm us. Mental traps lure is in. In no time at all, we can’t see a way out. Award-winning professor, researcher, and author, Adam Alter, has spent decades studying how successful people get unstuck. In his latest book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most, he shares what we can do to move forward. Adam’s recommendations can help us with what might be the most important times in our lives. Episode Links Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler How the ‘Creative-Cliff Illusion’ Limits Our Ideas by David Robson Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

There’s never been a better time to question how we measure intelligence. With ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence pushing the boundaries of what it means to be smart, there’s an opportunity – even an urgency – to reconsider everything we know. That’s why I wanted to talk to Rina Bliss, author of the book, Rethinking Intelligence: A Radical New Understanding of Our Human Potential. A sociologist and genetics expert, Rina brings a fresh perspective to the discussion that expands what’s been, for far too long, a reductive numbers game. In this interview, Rina offers a new model for assessing aptitude, one that extends beyond test results and mistaken assumptions about genetics. Instead, she explains how intelligence is far from fixed and how it’s deeply influenced by the degree of stress, connection, and play in our lives.   Her book is filled with insights on how to rethink what it means to be smart, along with steps we can take to protect and deepen our intelligence. Episode Links AI Can’t Teach Children to Learn. What’s Missing? Conceptualizing Race in the Genomic Age DNA Tests for Intelligence Ignore the Real Reasons Why Kids Succeed or Fail The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Small things add up. And, for the most part, that’s a good thing. Like taking the stairs to get more exercise or swapping out something sugary for a piece of fruit. Over time, small actions like these can add up to a healthier lifestyle. Yet there are times when the small things that add up work against our well-being. Every time your boss shifts your priorities. Each time you have to cancel connecting with a friend. Rob Cross and Karen Dillon take a closer look at these moments in their book, Microstress: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems – and What to Do about It. They explain how these seemingly small stresses can, over time, have a damaging effect on our physical and emotional well-being. They also share effective ways to handle them. Episode Links The Hidden Toll of Microstress The Microstress Effect Fight Back Against Microstress Narrative Economics with Robert Shiller The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Change is a part of life, and it’s a big part of growing and developing. Yet, with change comes uncertainty, and that can cause us to get stuck. To thrive during change, we need a mental agility that comes from self-awareness, emotional awareness, and situational awareness. It’s about what Elaine Fox calls, switch craft. Elaine Fox is a leading psychologist and performance coach who’s spent her career working with athletes, military leaders, and executives. What she’s seen is that the most successful people are the ones who can toggle between different approaches, who have an agile mind. In her book, Switch Craft: The Hidden Power of Mental Agility, Elaine Fox teaches us what it means to be mentally agile and how to master its key components. It’s the perfect book for managing all of the change and uncertainty that surrounds us today. Episode Links Gut Feelings: How Does Intuition Work, Anyway? Perspectives from affective science on understanding the nature of emotion Turn Your Subliminal Biases Toward Optimism The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World by Suzie Sheehy The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

No one wants to feel like a sucker. In fact, the very thought of being one – of playing the fool – shapes our behavior in powerful ways. But what if our fear causes us to make choices that aren’t good for us? Or worse, what if people weaponize our fear in order to dominate or disempower us? Tess Wilkinson-Ryan has written a stunning book on the topic called, Fool Proof: How Fear of Playing the Sucker Shapes Our Selves and the Social Order and What We Can Do about It. A psychologist and law professor, Tess helps us understand what this fear is, why we have it, and how it plays out in law, politics, and everyday life. She also shares how to overcome it and make the decisions that are aligned with our goals. It’s a book you’ll keep thinking about long after you’ve read it. Episode Links Breach is for Suckers Transferring Trust: Reciprocity of Norms and Assignment of Contract Moral Judgment and Moral Heuristics in Breach of Contract Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen by Linda Heywood The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Almost everything we do – personally and professionally – is affected by the words we use. They help us build relationships, persuade others, and communicate feelings. But what if I told you that 6 types of words were better at doing those things than all the others? These findings are at the heart of Jonah Berger’s latest book, Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way. Jonah is a bestselling author who’s studied millions of words used in all kinds of settings. And he’s found that certain words hold the key to getting your way. Whether you want to be more effective in achieving your goals or just become more aware of how you’re coming across, this book is for you. Episode Links 3 Rhetorical Techniques to Increase Your Impact How Language Shapes Word of Mouth’s Impact Don’t Just Vote Be a Voter This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

The pandemic caused many of us to rethink our lives. From the places we’ve been living to the work we’ve been doing. It’s been an opportunity to hit the reset button. Of course, financial considerations play a central role, and that’s something Jill Schlesinger began to notice. It’s what prompted her to write her latest book, The Great Money Reset: Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life. A financial analyst and former financial planner, Jill wants to give us the financial tools we need to hit the reset button. That includes new ways of thinking about money, taxes, home ownership, and the businesses we want to build or sell. Her book is masterful. She takes a topic most people fear – money – and helps us put it in service of how we want to live. Episode Links Jill on Money: The IRS is Your Friend How Changing Careers after 45 Can Pay Off in the Long Run Jill on Money: Inflation Takes Bite out of Savings The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

As adults, we need to learn new things all the time. Yet many of us are relying on the same outdated methods we used as adolescents to do it. Thinks like relentless highlighting and endless rereading. If so, it may be time to take advantage of the latest research on learning. That’s where Daniel Willingham comes in. In this interview, we discuss his latest book, Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy. Dan explains when our brains may be working against us. He also shares specific strategies for overriding our brains, so we can convert information into knowledge and understanding. In a world where learning is more important than ever – for our lives and careers – Dan’s book is just the resource we need. Episode Links You’ve Been Studying All Wrong. This Professor Can Help You Outsmart Your Brain Proof Points: One Expert on What Students Do Wrong One Thing Teachers Can Do to Help Students Change Their Habits Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

One of the messages our culture delivers is “not enough.” Not clever enough. Not busy enough. Not successful enough. It’s a cultural mantra that beats just below the surface of many conversations, especially the ones we have with ourselves. That’s what’s so refreshing about Vanessa Bohns’ book, You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate our Power of Persuasion and Why It Matters. Vanessa’s message, when it comes to influence and persuasion, is that we’re more than enough. That’s why it’s so important we understand how they work because, like our favorite superheroes, we can use these powers for good or for evil. Vanessa is a professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and Harvard Business Review, among other publications.     Episode Links Shared Experiences are Amplified Audience-tuning Effects on Memory Saying is Believing Effect Prison Book Program The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Confidence seems elusive. We do something that comes easily and we don’t think twice about it. Or we try something new, experience setbacks, and question our capabilities. It leaves us thinking that confidence is something other people just seem to have. All the time. Performance psychologist Nate Zinsser knows that’s just not true. For decades he’s been working with Olympians, professional athletes, military leaders, and other high performers in his role as Director of West Point's Performance Psychology Program. What he’s learned is that confidence is something we need to build, protect, and practice. In his book, The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance, he shares the methods he’s developed to help us do just that. Reading Nate’s book helped me realize just how many misconceptions we have about confidence. And they’re the kind of misconceptions that can really hold us back. I think you’ll enjoy the interview and I know you’ll learn a lot from the book. Episode Links How I Avoid Burnout: A West Point Performance Psychologist A Psychologist Who Helps West Point Cadets Develop Mental Strength Shares 3 of His Best Tips Plateaus, Dips, and Leaps: Where to Look for Inventions and Discoveries During Skilled Performance When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. We love that feeling of a fresh start. But we hate how our commitments seldom make it to Valentine’s Day. So what if this year we had an expert teach us how to do it right? Ayelet Fishbach is that expert. She’s a social psychologist at the University of Chicago and author of the book, Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. In this interview, we talk about how to choose goals that energize us and how to pair them with incentives that keep us motivated. We also discuss a system for working on multiple goals simultaneously. Finally, we learn about the power of social support and how we can get it. Episode Links Immediate Rewards Predict Adherence to Long-term Goals The Structure of Intrinsic Motivation You Think Failure is Hard? So Is Learning From It Slacking in the Middle Pursuing Goals with Others Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner About Us Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Rate and Review If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We go to the dentist, get our eyes checked, and get our cars inspected. These regularly scheduled health and safety audits let us know how we’re doing. But we rarely audit how we spend our time. Sure, most of us have a calendar. Yet few of us study how these calendar events impact our happiness. We rarely track the connection between what we spend our time doing and how well we’re flourishing. As a result, we can find ourselves feeling unhappy, frustrated, and what scientists call “time poor.” Researchers like Cassie Holmes want to change that. They’ve learned there’s a strong connection between how we spend our time and how happy we feel. In her book, Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most, she shares ways we can optimize our calendars for happiness, including ways to avoid distraction, extend joy, create a meaningful schedule, and avoid regret. Holmes’ tips on time tracking and time auditing are simple and powerful. As the year draws to a close, this may be just the book you’re looking for as we head into a new year. Episode Links Having Too Little or Too Much Time is Linked to Lower Subjective Well-being Our Flawed Pursuit of Happiness – and How to Get It Right A Valuable Lesson for a Happier Life (video) Trust by Hernan Diaz The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

How we think about things can have an outsize impact on whether we achieve our goals. Take, for example, the research we might do to make an important decision. If we’re already committed to a certain way of thinking, it’s likely we’ll only focus on information that confirms what we already believe. It’s what scientists call confirmation bias, and it can cause us to overlook, or even dismiss, information critical to things like our health, our finances, and our careers. And it’s not the only mental bias we hold. That’s why, to make better decisions, we need to start by understanding what these biases are. Next, we need to learn when they’re most likely to kick in. Then, we need to know how to circumvent them. These are the reasons Woo-kyoung Ahn wrote her book, Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better.  Ahn’s book is based on the wildly popular course she teaches at Yale. It includes riveting examples, amazing research findings, and targeted steps we can take to address our biases. She provides a versatile set of tools we can use to improve our mental performance. Episode Links Bias on the Brain Be Mindwise: Perspective Taking vs Perspective Getting What's Fueling Lonnie Walker IV's Surge with the Los Angeles Lakers by Dave McMenamin The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Who are you? It’s a question you’ve had to answer if you’ve ever moved, changed jobs, or started a new relationship. And it’s natural that who you are will change with each new experience you gain and new memories you form. The “story of you” will be different. At the same time, our brain is an incredible editor. With limited storage space for memories, it’s got to pick and choose. It does that by connecting the dots between them to give us the stories we tell about ourselves. In other words, who we are is who we say we are. It’s informed by our past, our present, and predictions we make about our future. That’s both tremendously freeing and just a little bit scary. At any moment, we’re not one self, we’re many selves. And that self is constructed. By us. Gregory Berns walks us through all of this and more in his latest book, The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent – and Reinvent – Our Identities. He points out that we are, by nature, storytellers, and he shares ways to put that skill to work for us, so we can avoid regret and prioritize our values. This is a great book to read if you’re feeling stuck or trying to make a major life decision. It’ll help you weigh the options and gain a different perspective on how you see yourself. Episode Links Changing the Narrative of Your Self How Do the Books We Read Change Our Brains? Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Work relationships matter more than we think. They can be a key reason we stay in a job or the reason we leave. When they don’t go well, they can consume a lot of our time and energy, both in and out of work. That’s why we need to get better at them. Even the difficult ones, like a boss who takes all the credit or a co-worker who’s perpetually negative. Amy Gallo is an expert on conflict and a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review. In this interview, we discuss her most recent book, Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People). We talk about why work relationships are worth the time we invest, even when they’re challenging. In fact, it’s when they’re challenging that we need to work that much harder to overcome our most primal default settings. Amy shares a number of tools we can use to gain a different perspective, pressure test our assumptions, and respond so that we spend less time outside of work dealing with difficult people. And so we have more options than to give up or walk away. It’s a book I think you’ll return to again and again over the course of your career.  Episode Links 4 Tactics That Backfire When Dealing with a Difficult Colleague How to Navigate Conflict with a Coworker Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

What if becoming a better quitter was something to aspire to? Annie Duke thinks it is. She’s a national science foundation fellowship winner and bestselling author who’s used her background in psychology to become a successful poker player and business advisor. Lately, she’s spent time studying the power of quitting, a tool she argues is as important as grit, resilience, and sticking it out. The science shows we’re not great at it. We don’t fire quickly enough. We don’t quit soon enough. We don’t end relationships early enough. Why? Well, identity and goals play a role. Along with many of the messages our culture sends that err more on the side of stick it out than on the side of quit and try something else. Annie’s compelling book on the topic is titled, Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. It’ll help you see how sticking with something that’s not working is just as much a decision as quitting. You’ll begin to view quitting as an important tool to add to your decision-making toolkit, especially when you understand better when to use it. Episode Links Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer To Change, or Not to Change? Just Flip a Coin Horse by Geraldine Brooks The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

What if the skills we need to thrive in uncertainty were ones we already had? That’s the case Jennifer Garvey Berger makes in her latest book, Unleash Your Complexity Genius: Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead. When life is good, we make time to connect, engage, and create. But when it’s uncertain, stress gets in the way of these healthy behaviors. While we can’t always change life’s complexity, we can counter its effects by tapping into healthy features of our biology. These include our breath, laughter, and social connections. This is a book to read with your colleagues, your teams, or all by yourself. It’ll help you take the first steps toward responding to uncertainty in healthier and happier ways. Episode Links The Expectation Effect by David Robson Quit by Annie Duke Akasha and Vernice Jones and Carolyn Coughlin Changing on the Job by Jennifer Garvey Berger Good Arguments by Bo Seo The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Your manager sees it one way. Your colleague sees it another. Both ways are different from yours. Why is that? Well, our brains may have something to do with it. Today’s brain researchers are studying what makes our brains different. They’re finding that these differences not only impact how we interpret situations, but also how well we’re able to focus, learn new things, and adapt to change. They’re also discovering what motivates us and how well we connect with teammates. Chantel Prat is a neuroscientist who studies brain differences, and she’s written a book on the subject, The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours. In it, she explains how differences in brain design play out in work and in life. She helps us appreciate these differences and gain greater empathy for one another. Episode Links The Dress Michael Gazzaniga and Roger Wolcott Sperry and Simon Baron-Cohen Hebbian Theory PACE Model of Curiosity Theory of Mind Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

How we think about toughness needs a reset. Too often, it’s been associated with brute forcing our way through things. Ignoring our feelings. Making an outward show of confidence and dominance. The problem is it just doesn't work. Performance coach and bestselling author, Steve Magness, offers another way. He’s done a deep dive on the latest research on toughness and performance. In his book, Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and The Surprising Science of Real Toughness, he discusses the misconceptions of our current model. Then he offers a new one informed by the latest in neuroscience and psychology research. Along the way, he translates research findings into practical steps we can take to make the shift. If you’re a performance junkie, you’ll gain a lot from this interview. You can also apply his ideas to managing your teams. If you enjoy Steve’s approach, check out my previous interview with him on finding your passion at work and in life, episode 142. Episode Links How to be More Resilient, According to an Elite Performance Coach The Secret to Developing Resilient Teams and Organizations Changing This 1 Word in Your Thoughts Can Boost Mental Toughness and Resilience, Psychologists Say Steven Callahan Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

What do you do when a promotion isn't an option? Maybe there aren’t enough positions to go around. It’s not the right moment in your career. Or maybe you don’t want the management responsibilities. In each case, you can feel stuck. But what if there were other options for career growth and development? That’s the case Julie Winkle Giulioni makes in her book, Promotions are So Yesterday: Redefine Career Development and Help Employees Thrive. In it, she shares seven areas for growth that leaders can develop in their organizations, teams, and individual employees. Julie’s insights offer a slate of new options to managers and individual contributors, each of which can have a positive impact on all areas of the organization. If you’re looking to meet employees where they are and modernize your organization in the process, Julie’s book is a terrific resource. Episode Links Multidimension Career Framework Psychological safety and Amy Edmonson The Inner Game of Career Development Defeat Disconnection with Development The Earned Life by Marshall Goldsmith The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Is our cultural conditioning holding women back at work? We don’t often notice how we’re culturally conditioned. Like when we walk into a store and the girls’ toys are pink and boys’ toys are blue. It’s a gender norm we may not question.  Now you might ask, in the big scheme of things, how much do kids’ toy colors really matter? But what about actual behaviors, like when girls are playing together and they’re told to be quiet and play nice? Years later, these kinds of gender norms show up in the workplace. For example, men can be loud and openly ambitious, while women need to be warm and likeable. Yet, it’s these kinds of behaviors that can hold women back. The kind of body language and spoken language that got women the job may not get them promoted.  I invited Susannah Baldwin on the show because she’s spent decades studying the causes and effects of women’s cultural conditioning and its impact on their advancement in the workplace. In her book, Women, Language, and Power: Giving Voice to Our Ambition, she shines a light on how dominant a force this conditioning is. She also offers thoughtful guidance on how to overcome it. Whether you’re looking to understand the challenges for yourself or your team, you’ll find this book to be an incredible resource. Episode Links What Likeability Really Means in the Workplace Bem Sex-Role Inventory Let's Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower by Therese Huston Self-Promotion as a Risk Factor for Women: The Costs and Benefits of Counterstereotypical Impression Management Karin Martin gender researcher Persuasiveness of Confidence Expressed via Language and Body Language Anna Fels Executive Presence by Sylvia Ann Hewlett Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

There are times in our lives where we feel stuck, be it personally or professionally. It might be in our career. It might in a relationship. We’re smart, so we try to think our way out of it. But when we’re really stuck, thinking can turn into ruminating. And the more we think, the more we stay stuck. That’s when the labeling kicks in. The voice in our head labels us lazy, or crazy, or just plain unmotivated. Today’s guest, Britt Frank, is a licensed specialist clinical social worker (LSCSW). She’s written the book, The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find your Path Forward. Britt’s the perfect person to teach us how thinking our way forward may not be the right tool for the job. In this interview, she explains how we get stuck and steps we can take to move through it. Episode Links Eustress vs Distress Cognitive behavioral therapy Brene Brown Peter Levine and somatic experiencing Carl Jung and the Shadow Side Bessel van der Kolk William Worden and the 4 Tasks of Grieving The Sun Valley Wellness Festival Do Hard Things by Steve Magness The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us believe that if we're smart, work hard, and hit our targets, we've got what it takes to get promoted. And, in some organizations, we might be right. But, in many organizations, those skills only take us so far. Research shows that there's an additional set of skills, one we don't often discuss. Things like, strategic networking, political intelligence, and likeability. If you're like most people, these skills bring up a lot of strong emotions. You may even ask, why can't my work just speak for itself? Yet, if you think about who's gotten ahead at the places you've worked, you may start to see a pattern. That's what led Michael Wenderoth to write the book, Get Promoted: What You're Really Missing at Work That's Holding You Back. He noticed the gap between what we're often told to do to get ahead and what we actually need to do. This book is his attempt to fill that gap, and it's a much-needed resource for today's employee who's looking to get promoted. Episode Links Herminia Ibarra Power mapping For the Birds exhibit at Brooklyn Botanic Garden The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

In most organizations, moving up means managing projects. And if you want to grow your project management skills, you’ve got a wealth of resources to choose from. Everything from books and podcasts to courses and certifications. What’s much harder to find is information on how to lead a project, not just manage one. It’s the missing piece that may ultimately be more important to your project’s success. That’s why I wanted to interview Anh Dao Pham, author of the book, Glue: How Project Leaders Create Cohesive, Engaged, High-Performing Teams. Anh has decades of experience leading projects for tech companies. But it wasn’t until a conversation with a mentor that she realized the more apt title for her work is project leader, not manager. Adding tangible project leadership skills to her work has made all the difference.   And that’s what she shares in her book. The essential leadership skills project leaders need to start, maintain, and end successful projects. It’s a how-to for being the glue your team needs to succeed. Episode Links What Happy People Know by Dan Baker How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Influence by Robert Cialdini Elementary (TV Series) Give and Take by Adam Grant Grit by Angela Duckworth Rituals Roadmap by Erica Keswin The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

For the first time in U.S. history, we have employees from five different generations working side by side. With so many different perspectives and life experiences, conflict is inevitable. Unfortunately, this often leads to stereotyping. We classify colleagues as millennial snowflakes, entitled young people, or clueless boomers. When this happens, we miss out on some of the greatest business opportunities of the twenty-first century. Opportunities to build better products and services informed by a diverse mix of views. Chances to develop better learning experiences where we cross pollinate different generational strengths. Fortunately, Megan Gerhardt’s written a book to help us navigate the shark-filled waters of multi-generational management. It’s called, Gentelligence: The Revolutionary Approach to Leading an Intergenerational Workforce. In it, she shares the hallmarks of each generation, including what motivates and worries them. She also shares insightful ways to lead and build rapport. It’s a resource you’ll return to again and again. Episode Links Protecting My Turf: The Moderating Role of Generational Differences on the Relationships between Self-direction and Hedonism Values and Reactions to Generational Diversity An Exploratory Study of Gender and Motivation to Lead in Millennials Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence Bias Interrupted by Joan Williams and her interview on Curious Minds at Work Leaders Who Coach by Jan Salisbury The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show.

The most successful leaders are always looking for an edge. It could be a competitive edge for their organizations, their teams, even themselves. One of the most effective ways to gain that edge is to notice what others miss. It’s about rethinking accepted wisdom around things like, strategy, planning, and execution. This week’s guest, Roger Martin, is someone who brought that kind of critical thinking to his own successful business and who now brings it to leaders around the world. He shares what he’s learned in his latest book, A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness. Whether you’ve recently moved into a management position or you’ve been leading for decades, this is a practical and thoughtful resource. It’s a guide to rethinking many of our assumptions about management and leadership. Episode Links John Dewey Randall L Stephenson Isadore Sharp Roger Martin on the Efficiency Myth The Upside of London Tube Strikes Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't by Jeffrey Pfeffer Roger Martin on Medium The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us are productivity junkies. We pride ourselves on how much we accomplish and how long we maintain our focus. But our brains know better. Sooner or later, they start to wander. To the tune of nearly half our waking hours. Moshe Bar, cognitive scientist and author of the book, Mindwandering: How Your Constant Mental Drift Can Improve Your Mood and Boost Creativity, argues that we need these daydreams. They promote connections that inform our sense of self, lift our mood and stimulate creativity. Bar also believes the better we understand how mind wandering works, the more effective we’ll be at accessing it when we need it most. This is a mind-expanding book. It’ll give you a peek into the thought process of a brilliant cognitive scientist and a new appreciation for what you may have thought of as an annoying mental habit. Episode Links Raising the Bar: The Brain Scientist Who Studies the Past to Predict the Future Think Less, Think Better by Moshe Bar Karl Popper Jon Kabat-Zinn Reculturing by Melissa Daimler The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Research shows our desire to fit in is incredibly strong. If you've ever disagreed with a group, but were afraid to speak up, you know the feeling. It means we go along to get along. Unfortunately, these feelings are the rule, not the exception. Millions of people experience them on a regular basis. It’s a phenomena psychologists call pluralistic ignorance, and it distorts how we see the world. From racial segregation to discarding healthy kidneys slated for organ transplants, the effects can be enormous.   Todd Rose, author of the book, Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions, believes it’s a much bigger problem than we realize, one that reinforces norms and shapes systems that hold us back. Todd not only explains the science behind it, but offers things we can do to address it, things that, ultimately, will make us happier and healthier in the process. It’s a terrific and timely read! Episode Links Middle Schoolers say they want to be famous Solomon Asch Leon Festinger Rene Girard Populace Story Like You Mean It by Dennis Rebelo The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

The best filmmakers are influencers. They direct your attention using words, sounds, and images, and, within seconds, they’ve got you seeing the world through their eyes.   But you don’t have to be a filmmaker to influence someone’s behavior. Whether you’re managing a team or leading an organization, you have access to influence. It’s in the way you frame a conversation. How you negotiate. When you ask. The most influential people spend time planning and practicing these skills in advance. They recognize that these are tools they can learn to use. Yale Professor Zoe Chance understands how influence works, and she knows how to teach it. Her book, Influence is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen, is filled with stories, tips, and exercises that take the mystery out of influence. That’s what I loved the most about the book. That influence is far from mysterious. Instead, it’s a skill we can develop to create value for ourselves and others. Episode Links Learning the Language of Influence and Persuasion The Principle of Commitment and Behavioral Consistency Mastering Influence and Persuasion course at Yale The Door-in-the-Face Technique (procedure for inducing compliance) Pronoun Use Reflects Standings in Social Hierarchies Darren Brown and The Push and The Apocalypse Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast with Matt Abrahams The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

If someone asked what they should do to succeed in their job, you’d probably have a quick response. You might say something like, just do what you’re asked, get your work done on time, or don’t step on anyone’s toes. But what if the question wasn’t about how to succeed, but how to stand out as the best of the best? These are the high performers Liz Wiseman calls “impact players.” They’re the ones who leave an indelible mark on their work and the people around them. Liz spoke with nearly 200 top professionals, and she uncovered 5 behaviors that set them apart. Her findings inform her latest book, Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact. Liz Wiseman is CEO of the Wiseman Group, a former corporate executive, and author of the bestselling book on leadership, The Multiplier Effect. No matter what role you’re in, you’ll learn what it takes to develop the skills of the highest impact employees in today’s organizations. Episode Links Accidental Diminisher Quiz Rookie Smarts Quiz Impact Players Quiz Multipliers by Liz Wiseman The Art of Insubordination by Todd Kashdan  The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Humans have always lived with anxiety. Thousands of years ago, we feared attacks by wild animals. Today we worry whether we’ll have enough money to retire. It’s not the anxiety that matters, but how we handle it. Our responses can often compound the problem. For example, feeling anxious about a demanding customer, we reward ourselves with a pint of ice cream. As the pressure mounts, it becomes a daily habit, and then, an addiction. At that point, our response to anxiety is no longer giving us the reward we expected. Instead, it makes us feel worse. Judson Brewer offers an alternate path. A medical doctor and researcher, he studies anxiety and addiction. He’s spent his career helping people unwind the habits that amplify their anxiety and lead to unhealthy, addictive behaviors. Judson shares these methods in his latest book, Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind. He argues that we can’t think our way out of anxiety. Instead, through a combination of mindfulness, practice, and understanding our habit loops, we can change our behaviors for life. It’s a thoughtful, compelling approach that will give you a different perspective on anxiety. Episode Links Eric Kandel Reinforcement Learning Thomas Borkovec Default Mode Network (DMN) Yerkes-Dodson Law Flow by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi Dopamine reward prediction error Dana Small Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman  The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Imagine that fewer people are buying your organization’s product or service. It’s a shift you didn’t anticipate. To fix it, you study the data, identify the problem, and then take steps to address it. Your plan may include changes in marketing or team incentives. What it won’t include is doing nothing or trying to turn things around with one grand gesture. Yet that’s how we often approach meeting diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Joan Williams is author of the book, Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion for Real and for Good. She’s a Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, where she directs the Center for WorkLife. For decades, she’s studied structural inequality in the workplace. What she’s learned is that the most successful organizations treat diversity as a business goal. I wanted to interview Joan because she offers a fresh perspective on the topic. Through her work, she’s identified the most common ways bias shows up in organizations. She’s also figured out how to make bias training more effective. Finally, she’s learned which question to ask to determine an organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. After listening to this interview, I guarantee you’ll walk away with lots of new insights. Episode Links Bias Interrupters Why Companies Should Add Class to Their Diversity Discussions A Winning Parental Leave Policy Can Be Surprisingly Simple How One Company Worked to Root Out Bias from Performance Reviews Data-Driven Diversity Implicit Association Test Class Advantage, Commitment Penalty: The Gendered Effects of Social Class Signals in an Elite Labor Market The Maternal Wall Matrix by Lauren Groff  The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Why do we grieve, and what happens when we do? For much of human history, answers to these questions have come primarily from writers and thinkers. While they’ve given us powerful language to describe how we feel, they’ve shed little light on the science behind our feelings. Neuroscientists are changing that. Armed with innovative approaches for studying grief, coupled with modern technologies that capture it, researchers are learning what happens in our brains when we grieve. Their findings reveal not only why we grieve, but the important role learning plays throughout the grieving process. Mary-Frances O’Connor, Director of the Grief, Loss, and Social Stress Lab, and professor at the University of Arizona, has been at the forefront of this research. In her book, The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss, we learn how she and her colleagues are creating a new paradigm for understanding grief and the grieving process. A remarkable writer and storyteller, Mary-Frances has written a compelling book. In it, she corrects many of our misconceptions, while expanding what we know about an experience we all, ultimately, will have. Episode Links The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion  M. Katherine Shear and The Columbia Center for Prolonged Grief George A. Bonnano and the Loss, Trauma, and Emotion Lab It's Time to Let the Five Stages of Grief Die The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement Changing Lives of Older Couples Noam Schneck Donald Robinaugh The Power of Fun by Catherine Price  The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

From time to time, I’ll run across creative ways people are using apps I like. It often prompts me to learn more. I’ll watch some videos, read a few articles and, inevitably, what I discover is that I’ve been accessing just a fraction of what the software can do.  I got that same feeling while reading award-winning science writer, David Robson’s latest book, The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World. It made me realize that I’m leveraging far fewer of my brain’s features than I could be. That means I’m missing out on a lot. For example, quicker recovery from illness and injury. Better performance from more effective stress management. And adding years to my life with more thoughtful approaches to fitness and aging. What scientists are learning about the connections between the human brain and performance is incredible. And David Robson manages to take this research and organize it into a compelling playbook for a better life. Episode Links Can You Think Yourself Young? How Thinking about ‘Future You’ Can Help You Build a Happier Life The Brain is a Prediction Machine: It Knows How Well We Are Doing Something before We Even Try Believing is Seeing: Using Mindlessness (Mindfully) to Improve Visual Acuity Ellen Langer A Placebo Can Work Even When You Know It’s a Placebo Nocebo Effect Improving Acute Stress Responses: The Power of Reappraisal Jeremy P. Jamieson Veronika Job Can You Ever Get Over a Lingering Grudge? Dr. Michael Greger and nutritionfacts.org  The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Confidence seems elusive. We do something that comes easily and we don’t think twice about it. Or we try something new that’s challenging and we can't stop thinking about our mistakes. It can leave us thinking that confidence is something other people just seem to have. All the time. Performance psychologist Nate Zinsser knows that’s just not true. For decades he’s been working with Olympians, professional athletes, military leaders, and other high performers in his role as Director of West Point's Performance Psychology Program. What he’s learned is that confidence is something we need to build, protect, and practice. In his book, The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance, he shares the methods he’s developed to help us do just that. Reading Nate’s book made me realize how many misconceptions we have about confidence, and they’re the kind of misconceptions that can really hold us back. I think you’ll enjoy the interview and I know you’ll learn a lot from the book. Episode Links How I Avoid Burnout: A West Point Performance Psychologist A Psychologist Who Helps West Point Cadets Develop Mental Strength Shares 3 of His Best Tips Plateaus, Dips, and Leaps: Where to Look for Inventions and Discoveries During Skilled Performance Gender Gap in Orthopedics Remains Relatively Unchanged After-action Review When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

For women who want a career and a family, we might expect things would be easier today. After all, women have greater access to education and job opportunities. We’ve seen advances in reproductive health. And we’ve made inroads in anti-discrimination laws and policies. Yet gaps in pay and promotions remain a problem. Today’s guest, Claudia Goldin, is a Harvard University economist who’s spent her career studying women in the workplace. She believes there’s an important factor we’ve overlooked, namely, greedy work. These are jobs with lots of financial upside and promotion potential for employees who can log long hours and take on big assignments at a moment’s notice. And it’s the work that women with children often take less advantage of compared to their partners. As a result, ambitious career women can find themselves stalled out and earning less. In her book, Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey Toward Equity, Claudia traces how women got here. Drawing on extensive data sets, she reveals five patterns in women’s career and family behaviors: for women graduating from 1900-1910s, it was either career or family; for 1920-1930s graduates, jobs then families; with 1950s graduates, families then jobs; women graduating in the 1970s had careers then families; and, for women graduating in the 1980s-1990s it’s been careers and family. Yet, for today’s ambitious career women juggling career and family, it can mean increasing dissatisfaction with both. And in analyzing the way many careers today are structured, Claudia helps us understand why. It’s an insightful way to understand a problem we’ve been living with for a long time. Episode Links The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi The Other Side of the Mountain: Women's Employment and Earnings over the Family Cycle Assessing Five Statements about the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Women Marriage Bar The Group by Mary McCarthy The Quiet Revolution that Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family  The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. We love that feeling of a fresh start. But we hate how our commitments seldom make it to Valentine’s Day. So what if this year we had an expert teach us how to do it right?  Ayelet Fishbach is that expert. She’s a social psychologist at the University of Chicago and author of the book, Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. In this interview, we talk about how to choose goals that energize us and how to pair them with incentives that keep us motivated. We also discuss a system for simultaneously working on multiple goals. Finally, we learn about the power of social support and how we can get it. Episode Links Immediate Rewards Predict Adherence to Long-term Goals The Structure of Intrinsic Motivation You Think Failure is Hard? So Is Learning From It Slacking in the Middle Pursuing Goals with Others Marie Curie and Pierre Curie Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner  The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We hear it all the time, that the pace of technological change today is faster than ever before. But what does that really mean, and why does it matter? It means that if you were born in 1920, technologies in your life changed slowly. Think electricity, cars, telephones. At the time, these were huge innovations. But they took over 40 years to reach 3 out of 4 households in the U.S. Compare this to the experience of someone born just 50 years later. Digital technologies like social media took only 11 years to reach 7 of 10 Americans, and smartphones took even less time. This shift to software platforms has meant that today’s tech scales further and faster than 1920s technologies ever could. Yet the policies, laws, and systems we need to protect and guide us haven’t kept up. Our political, economic, and legal institutions were designed for a another time, one with different expectations for labor and privacy. It’s resulted in a growing gap between old-tech regulations and the ones we need to thrive in today’s digital world. Azeem Azhar is someone who’s thought a lot about this. And his book, The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics, and Society provides a useful model for thinking about where we’ve come from, where we’re headed, and how to navigate these changes. Episode Links Ray Kurzweil Azeem Azhar’s Exponential View podcast CubeSat The Manhattan Project  Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 1981 Air Traffic Controllers' Strike The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman Horace Dediu The Story of Work by Jan Lucassen The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Just a few years ago, the possibility of working from anywhere made us wistful. With family and friends, we’d play the “what if” game: What if we could work from home? What if we could live somewhere warmer? What if we could move to another country? When the pandemic hit and remote work made “what if” possible, some responded, “why not?” And that’s when things got complicated. Now we’re faced with a different set of questions; Why should we ever return to the office? When we’re not in the office, how do we make friends? How do we create an equitable work experience for remote employees? These are the kinds of questions Anne Helen Petersen and I talk about in this interview. Anne came on the show once before to discuss her book, Can’t Even, about burnout and the millennial generation. I invited her back on to discuss her latest book, Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home. Anne and her co-author, Charlie Warzel argue that, when it comes to what work can look like, we’re living in a time where the answers we arrive at have never been more important. We have an opportunity to make work better. Episode Links Culture Study on Substack by Anne Helen Petersen Galaxy Brain on Substack by Charlie Warzel The Remote Work Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet How to Care Less about Work The Surprising Science of Meetings by Steven Rogelberg Beginner's Mind by Yo-Yo Ma Beyond Collaboration Overload by Rob Cross The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

There are countless benefits to collaboration. We get new ideas. Solve problems more quickly. Produce higher quality work. But too much of anything can turn toxic. And it doesn’t have to be that way. Rob Cross, Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College, has spent time with hundreds of leaders who’ve figured out how to collaborate more effectively. What he learned led to him develop a framework to help others do the same. It’s a combination of guardrails and behaviors, all of which lead to more strategic and satisfying collaborations. And Rob shares these insights in his book, Beyond Collaboration Overload: How to Work Smarter, Get Ahead, and Restore Your Well-Being. Episode Links When Collaboration Fails and How to Fix It Collaboration Overload is Sinking Productivity The Secret to Building Resilience Invisible Network Drivers of Women's Success Impact and Effort Matrix Do You Have a Life Outside of Work? The People Who Make Organizations Go - Or Stop Don't Let Micro-Stresses Burn You Out Multipliers and Impact Players by Liz Wiseman The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We like to think of our identities as singular and stable: I’m an early riser (and will always be), or I’m a foodie (and can’t imagine otherwise). But if we take a step back, we see how we not only hold multiple identities, but how many of these identities change over the course of our lives.  Remember when you were a student? Or a time when you were single? While there are some identities we can’t change, like our race or birthplace, there are many that we can. It’s the difference between fixating on “who I am now” and, instead, focusing on “who I want to be.” And that simple shift in mindset can make all the difference when it comes to living a happier, more meaningful life. That’s what makes The Power of Us such an important book, and it’s why I wanted to talk to one of the book’s authors, NYU Professor, Jay Van Bavel. He and his co-author, Lehigh University Professor, Dominic Packer, share helpful ways to navigate the tremendous upsides and challenging downsides of our shared identities. Episode Links Dassler Brothers Feud Social Identity Theory Henri Tajfel 1951 Princeton-Dartmouth Football Game and Group Perception Yael Granot Leon Festinger Charismatic Leadership and Corporate Cultism at Enron Jay Van Bavel NYU Social Identity Lab https://www.powerofus.online/ Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams by Amy Edmondson Extraterrestrial by Avi Loeb The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

How to change someone’s mind. It’s a topic that’s come up a few times before on the podcast. For example, I talked to Jonah Berger about how to make inroads by asking for less. I also spoke with Tali Sharot about how to get further by focusing first on what you have in common. Yet there’s one tip that’s never made the list. And it’s one that’s proven to have an incredible impact. In fact, we’ve seen some of our most compelling entertainers regularly use it to their advantage, performers like comedians, magicians, and script writers. It’s the element of surprise. Michael Rousell writes about it in his book, The Power of Surprise: How Your Brain Secretly Changes Your Beliefs. Teacher, psychologist, and professor emeritus at Southern Oregon University, Michael has studied the topic of surprise for over three decades, and he’s tested it with his students. He makes a compelling case for why we should use it more than we do and provides clear instructions on how we can. Episode Links Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett Sam Harris and Making Belief Confirmation bias Wolfram Schultz and dopamine Elaboration Likelihood Model The Catalyst by Jonah Berger Michael Rousell TEDxSalem Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better by Will Storr The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We like to think we’re in complete control of the decisions we make. From the sandwich we ordered for lunch to the Netflix show we watched last night. Yet, in each case, we’ve got a hidden partner, one that influences nearly every decision we make. That partner is the designer. Whether we’re reading a restaurant menu or scrolling a website, we’re taking in information that’s been presented to us in a certain way. These conscious – or unconscious – choices that designers make can influence what we decide. In many cases, though, it’s an aspect of decision making we don’t think too much about. It’s this element of decision science that Eric Johnson, Professor at Columbia Business School, has spent his life studying. It’s the focus of his book, The Elements of Choice: Why the Way We Decide Matters, and it is truly fascinating. In fact, I bet you’ll walk away from this interview with at least one insight that gets you thinking about design and decision making. Episode Links The Decision Lab Sleights of Mind Choice Architecture Coffee Meets Bagel Derren Brown Naomi Mandel Query Theory Curse of Choice Experimentation Works by Stefan Thomke Medicine. Do Defaults Save Lives? Endowment Effect Replication Crisis Meta-analysis The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

What do you think makes companies like Amazon or Google so innovative? With Amazon you might say their relentless focus on the customer. With Google, you might point to their powerful search engine or cloud computing. What you might not think about is just how important experiments are to their success. Not just a few experiments, but tens of thousands run annually so they can improve on what they do. And experiments aren’t just for tech companies with lots of data. Running thoughtful experiments can yield innovative results for all kinds of companies, big and small, startup to established, across all kinds of industries. It’s how we think about them – how we design them – that matters. And that’s where science and creativity come in. Stefan Thomke, an innovation expert and Professor at Harvard Business School, is someone who’s spent his career helping companies design and run business experiments. He writes about what he’s learned in his book, Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments. It’s not only a riveting analysis of what it looks like to be an experimentation organization. It's a playbook for building one. Episode Links Building a Culture of Experimentation  The Surprising Power of Online Experiments Creating the Experimentation Organization The Netflix Data War The Discipline of Business Experimentation A Smarter Way to Run Business Experiments At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure Jeff Bezos on Innovation Richard Feynman on the Scientific Method (1964) Novum Organum by Francis Bacon The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking to guests about our relationships at work. For example, we’ve discussed how to listen better, how to navigate conflict, and how to influence others, just to name a few. What I’ve spent less time talking about are the relationships that go beyond work. That’s why I invited Kat Vellos on the show this week to talk about her amazing book, We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships. Kat’s book is more than a callout to the power of friendship. It’s a roadmap for making new friends, and, equally valuable, it’s an owner’s manual for deepening existing friendships. Episode Links How Many Hours Does It Take to Make a Friend by Jeffrey A. Hall Better Than Small Talk The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker Donald Horton and Richard Wohl and Para-Social Communication Loneliness and Social Connections Choke by Sian Beilock Non-Violent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg Kat Vellos TED Talk Happy City by Charles Montgomery Having and Being Had by Eula Biss The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

One of the messages our culture delivers is “not enough.” Not clever enough. Not busy enough. Not successful enough. It’s a cultural mantra that beats just below the surface of many conversations, especially the ones we have with ourselves. That’s what’s so refreshing about Vanessa Bohns’ book, You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate our Power of Persuasion and Why It Matters. Vanessa’s message, when it comes to influence and persuasion, is that we’re more than enough. That’s why it’s so important we understand how they work because, like our favorite superheroes, we can use these powers for good or for evil. Vanessa is a professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and Harvard Business Review, among other publications.    Episode Links Erica Boothby and The Invisibility Cloak Illusion Thomas Gilovich and The Spotlight Effect  Shared Experiences are Amplified Audience-tuning Effects on Memory Saying is Believing Effect Social Media and the Invisible Audience The Benefits of Asking for Help Frank Flynn A Face-to-Face Request is 34 Times More Successful Than An Email Marianne LaFrance Mary Carskadon and Brown University Sleep Lab Prison Book Program Adam Galinsky and Power Perspectives Not Taken The Burden of Power: Construing Power as Responsibility Chatter by Ethan Kross Mindwise by Nicholas Epley Kurt Lewin To Reduce Sexual Misconduct, Help People Understand How Their Advances Might Be Perceived The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

I have a confession to make. I enjoy talking to people I don't know. I like learning about them and hearing their stories. I'm sure it explains why I started this podcast nearly six years ago. Yet I know a lot of people who avoid talking to strangers. And if, for any reason, they have to, they dread it. But these feelings of dread work against us. Study after study shows that when we talk to strangers, we nearly always feel good afterwards. And in a time where people feel more isolated and lonely than ever, the good feeling that comes from talking to strangers may be just the thing we need to bring us closer together. That's why I reached out to Joe Keohane to talk to him about his incredibly entertaining and enlightening book, The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World. He explains how we got to be so suspicious of strangers and what it's cost us. And for anyone who avoids talking to strangers because they don't know what to say, he's got you covered. Joe shares things he's learned from workshops he attended while writing the book.  Episode Links Georgie Nightingall and Trigger Conversations Gillian Sandstrom Nicholas Epley Juliana Schroeder The Lesser Minds Problem Michael Tomasello Douglas Fry Stranger Danger Stanley Milgram and Stanford Prison Experiment led by Philip Zimbardo Oscar Ibarra Theodore Zeldin and The Feast of Strangers Braver Angels The Ezra Klein Show The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Numbers have power. They convey certainty. For example, when we know whether cases of Covid-19 are rising or falling, we feel like we have more control. Like we’ve got the answer. Yet numbers can be slippery too. Sure. Counting the number of people in a sports stadium is objective. But what about race totals in the U.S. Census? The same goes for the number of people who fall below the poverty line or the number of people the Jobs Report counts as unemployed. While those numbers might seem certain, a closer look offers a very different story. We need to ask ourselves: Who decides what’s important enough to count? Who creates the categories we use? And how do the questions we ask – and the ways we ask them – bias the answers? When we ask these kinds of question, we start to realize that the numbers aren’t that objective after all. Instead, we need to investigate each one to understand what’s behind it. That’s why I wanted to speak with Deborah Stone. She’s written an incredibly insightful book to help us do this, and it’s called, Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters. As she so expertly explains, with so much riding on the data we gather, we owe it to ourselves to think more deeply about what gets counted and why, as well as how we decide to count it. Deborah has taught at Brandeis, MIT, and universities around the world, and her previous book, Policy Paradox, has been a seminal work in the policy field for over three decades. Episode Links Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives by Theodore Zeldin Policy Paradox by Deborah Stone Federalist Paper 54 Three-fifths Compromise Ronald Melzack and gate control theory alternative to pain scale Mollie Orshansky The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

So often, when we try to solve a problem, we focus on what we can add. Let’s say you're moving to a smaller space. Your first thought might be to research shelving or rent a storage unit. But what if, instead, you subtracted? What if you thought about what you’d sell, donate, or just throw out?  That’s the question Leidy Klotz answers in his book, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. It’s a topic he was inspired to pursue while building a bridge of Legos with his son. Faced with a design challenge, Leidy chose to add Legos, while his son subtracted. That simple action – a highly counterintuitive one – set Leidy on the path to writing this book. It’s since become a lesson he’s working to apply to all kinds of problems, like climate change and sustainability. An Associate Professor of Engineering at the University of Virginia, Leidy studies the overlap between engineering and behavioral science, all in service of more sustainable systems. He’s worked with the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, the National Institutes of Health, the World Bank, and ideas42. Episode Links The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin Subtract: Why Getting to Less Can Mean Thinking More Why Do Engineers and Behavioral Scientists Have to Learn from Each Other? Using Behavioral Science to Redesign the Built Environment Strider Bike Hazel Rose Marcus Michele Gelfand Pocket Park The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for brain science. I love learning new things about how our brains work and how to get the most out of this amazing organ. That means I'm always scanning for my next book on the topic. And, when I find it, I'm usually placing an order before I've made it through the table of contents. With this week's guest, I barely glanced at her book's title before I clicked "buy." That's because the author is the incredible neuroscientist, Lisa Feldman Barrett. Last time she was on the show, we talked about her mind-blowing book, How Emotions are Made. I learned how her research has led to a complete rethinking of, well, how emotions are made. In this conversation, we talk about her newest book, Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain. At first glance, you might think, what does this have to do with my work? The short answer is . . . everything. What you'll learn about your brain will change how you structure your day and, on an even bigger scale, how you interact with other people. This is a book to savor. It's enlightening. Insightful. And it's downright enjoyable. In fact, you may want to read it in bite-size chunks, like one chapter at a time, because it's a book you may not want to finish too quickly. It's just too good. Lisa Feldman Barrett is an award-winning Professor of Neuroscience at Northeastern University. She has appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. I'm thrilled to have her back on the show. One quick ask before the interview - if you enjoy the podcast, I'd be grateful if you'd take a moment to rate and review the show on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. The team works hard to produce the podcast - and to keep it commercial free -- and it means a lot for us to know that you enjoy it. Speaking of brain science - a positive rating or review gives us the dopamine hits we need to keep on going. This is a re-broadcast of Episode 182 with Lisa Feldman Barrett. Episode Links Lisa Feldman Barrett's Extended Notes for Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain The Accidental Species by Henry Gee The Rationality of Decisions Depends on Behavioural Context Tuning and Pruning Cultural Inheritance Reverse inference problem The Remembered Presence by Gerald Edelman Himba people Hadza people Why We Want to Squeeze Cute, Little Things Wired to Wonder by Todd Kashdan Gray Malin Curious Minds at Work Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, show your support by: Rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe Telling someone about the show Subscribing so you never miss an episode Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

When you think about courage at work, what comes to mind? Most of us think of the whistleblowers, the people who speak out on illegal corporate practices. Yet many who succeed in changing the workplace, do so on a smaller scale. They push back on sexist comments. Point out bias in hiring. Or challenge unequal promotion practices. Each is an example of courage at work, and it’s a form of courage most of us say we want to see. But research shows many of us don't exercise this kind of courage, even though staying silent is something we regret. So how can we overcome our fears and do what’s needed to create workplaces aligned with our values? Jim Detert tells us how. He’s a Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. After years of studying workplace courage, he knows the steps we can take to do so without jeopardizing our jobs. And he shares these steps in this interview and in his book, Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work. Episode Links Winfred Rembert Stuart Scott Climbing the Courage Ladder The Importance of Courage Cultivating Everyday Courage The Temporal Pattern to the Experience of Regret Sir Walter Scott The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Think of your family, your friends, and your colleagues. In each of these relationships, you can expect to experience conflict from time to time. Sometimes, it's unhealthy conflict that harms our relationships. Other times, it's healthy conflict that strengthens them. High conflict is something different. It happens when we view the conflict as good versus evil. It's when the walls go up. When it's about us versus them. Right versus wrong. We double down on our assumptions, maybe about people we don't even know. Ultimately, we get stuck. It's a volatile place, and a dangerous one, because it's often just a step away from dehumanization. My guest, Amanda Ripley, spent four years studying this conflict. She's an investigative journalist and author of the book, High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. Amanda interviewed ordinary people who got caught up in high conflict, and, with effort and commitment, managed to break free. Through their stories, she explains what conflict is, how we get sucked into it, and, most importantly, how we move through it. Amanda is author of the books, The Smartest Kids in the World and Unthinkable. She writes regularly for The Atlantic and spent a decade writing for Time Magazine. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian.  Episode Links Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Mark Lynas Gary Friedman More in Common  Baha i Faith Losing Common Ground: Social Sorting and Polarization Kim Binsted Curtis Toler and Team CRED John and Julie Gottman The Difficult Conversations Lab and Peter Coleman Ranked-choice Voting 22 Questions that 'Complicate the Narrative' The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

I've got a riddle for you. What do we need to get better at our jobs? To maintain relationships with family and friends? To find our keys? The answer is memory.  Yet when it comes to what it is and how to get the most out of it, we may not know as much as we'd like. And that's too bad, because knowing even a little about how our memory works can give us a lot, including peace of mind. That's what made me pick up Lisa Genova's latest book, Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. Lisa's a Ph.D. neuroscientist and bestselling author of the book, Still Alice, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. Remember is an incredible resource that combines the science of memory with the compelling storytelling she's known for. Episode Links Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein Still Alice by Lisa Genova Automaticity Semantic memory Episodic memory Prospective memory A Powerful Way to Improve Memory and Learning The Science of Learning to Learn and Self-Testing Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Method of Loci or Memory Palace Phantom Flashbulbs: False Recollections of Hearing the News about Challenger The Neuroscience of Memory: Implications for the Courtroom Elizabeth Loftus Forgetting is Part of Remembering He Ate All the Pi: Japanese Man Memorizes Pi to 111,700 Digits Learning and Memory Under Stress The Impact of Sleep on Learning and Memory and About Sleep's Role in Memory The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. How to Support the Podcast If you'd like to support the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Ways to Subscribe Click here and scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Change happens through action. For example, if we want to solve the hunger problem in our local community, we donate to a food drive. We volunteer at a food bank. We do things that solve the problem. But often the hurdle to taking action is knowing what action to take. Research shows that bystanders are often unsure of what to do. And when they don't know what to do, they tend to do nothing. That's why I wanted to talk to David Smith and Brad Johnson about their book, Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace. Brad and David share specific steps individuals and organizations can take to support women in the workplace. It's a male ally playbook. And a playbook is desperately needed. One of the biggest workplace challenges today is how few women, particularly women of color, hold leadership roles. Though women make up nearly 50 percent of the workforce, in 2020, they held only 38 percent of managerial positions, 33 percent of senior manager/director roles and 21 percent of C-suite titles.  David is a professor of sociology in the College of Leadership and Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College. Brad is a professor of psychology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law at the U.S. Naval Academy and a faculty associate in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.  Episode Links Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong Structured exposure 30-5-1 The invisible knapsack Impostor Syndrome Let's Talk by Therese Huston Athena Rising by W. Brad Johnson and David G. Smith Bystander effect The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. How to Support the Podcast If you'd like to support the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Ways to Subscribe Click here and scroll down for a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us have a voice in our heads. On some days, it builds our confidence. On others, it tears us down.  Our inner voice is an invisible force that has a big effect on our work and our lives. I've often been curious about this voice. What shapes it? What makes it louder? If we understood it better, could we get it to work for us, rather than against us? Ethan Kross has spent the bulk of his career studying the power and perils of this voice. He's an award-winning psychology professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. His enlightening book on the topic is, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It.  What his research reveals is that there are simple things we can do to amplify the positive aspects of our inner voice. Equally important, there are things we can do to quiet the chatter - ways we can turn down the volume on self-talk that works against us. Episode Links Brood X Andrew Irving My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor Rick Ankiel Analysis paralysis Simone Biles Solomon's Paradox Fred Rogers The Toolbox Project The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. How to Support Us If you'd like to support the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the podcast. Ways to Subscribe Click here and scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

For many of us, public speaking creates a lot of anxiety. And like all phobias, it comes at a cost. Researchers have linked a fear of public speaking to lower college graduation rates, lower wages, and fewer promotions. But I think the biggest price we pay is the loss of our voice. It robs us of the ability to share our ideas. And it diminishes an important way for us to have an impact on the world. I've known this was a topic I wanted to discuss on the podcast, but the challenge has been finding the right author. So I was thrilled when I came across John Bowe's book, I Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in an Age of Disconnection. I saw how John was coming at the topic in a completely different way, and it moved me. First, he shares in a very vulnerable and, I think, courageous way, his own experience of learning public speaking skills. Second, he delves into the history of public speaking, taking us back to ancient Greece and the important role public speaking played in people's lives. Third, he describes what it was like for him to learn these skills at Toastmasters, the nonprofit that operates public speaking clubs around the globe. I'll admit that this final point really sealed the deal. I'm a big fan of Toastmasters. I've been a member and, from the first time I attended one of their meetings, I was not only impressed by how they teach public speaking, but I was wowed by the dedication of the people who join. John Bowe has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, This American Life, McSweeney's, and more. He is the author of Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, editor of Us: Americans Talk about Love, and co-editor of Gig: Americans Talk about Their Jobs. Episode Links A World on the Wing by Scott Weidensaul Toastmasters history A Brief History of Public Speaking Quiet by Susan Cain The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. How to Support Us If you'd like to support the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Ways to Subscribe Click here and scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

A hundred years ago, if you asked someone about burnout, they wouldn't know what you were talking about. Fast forward to today and there's a good chance they'd say they've experienced it. Burnout's a term psychologist Herbert Freudenberger popularized in the 1970s. He used it to describe the experience of doctors and nurses exposed to long periods of stress and overwork. Over the past 20 years, use of the term has expanded to include people in other industries and roles. And today, during the pandemic, it's become an everyday reference. But just because we know what burnout is, or what it feels like, doesn't mean we know what to do about it. And the advice we often get to "work less" or "have more fun" seems a little too simple. Too binary. That's where the Nagoski sisters come in. My guest, Amelia, and her sibling, Emily, are co-authors of the book, Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. It's a book filled with remarkable insights. One of the central ones is this: while we often associate stress with burnout, we're unclear on the relationship between them. Amelia and Emily explain that most stress isn't the problem. Instead, it's the stress cycle that kicks in when we don't work through the emotions that accompany our stress. That's the problem. And it's what leads to burnout. Fortunately, in this interview, Amelia not only walks us through the stress cycle, she also explains what we can do to break it. Equally important, she discusses how to avoid it in the first place. Amelia Nagoski holds a doctorate in musical arts and is an Assistant Professor at Western New England University. Her co-author and sister, Emily Nagoski, holds a doctorate in health behavior and is an award-winning author of the bestselling book, Come as You Are. Episode Links The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard Haas Down Girl by Kate Manne Cognitive Reappraisal and Acceptance: Effects on Emotion, Physiology, and Perceived Cognitive Costs Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality Requiem by Andrew Lloyd Webber The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. How to Support Us If you'd like to support the show, please rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Ways to Subscribe Click here and scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

Most of us are hungry for feedback. Whether it's from bosses, teachers, family, or friends, we know it's the key to getting better. And the research supports this: frequent, effective feedback improves our motivation and our performance. Yet, when we become managers, we often forget this lesson, which means most of the people we manage don't get enough feedback. And it's not because we don't think it helps. It's often because we're afraid. We worry about hurting people's feelings, demotivating them, or creating conflict. That's why I wanted to read Therese Huston's latest book, Let's Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower. What I like about her approach is how she humanizes feedback. She asks us to think about our goals. Why are we sharing this feedback, with this particular person, at this time? Then she asks us to think about what's in it for them to receive our feedback. The result is a genuine conversation. It starts with us sharing why we care about their growth and development. It continues with us sharing the challenge or gap as we see it. Then it means listening to understand their point of view, so that we can work together on a solution. Approaching feedback this way can break down barriers. It can also help us overcome our hesitation. Ultimately, it can lead to stronger relationships and higher quality work.  Therese was the founding director of the Center for Faculty Development at Seattle University. She's written for The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. I spoke to Therese on the podcast about her previous book, How Women Decide. Episode Links Avraham N. Kluger Why Do So Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman Nine Lies about Work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall The Ideal Praise-to-Criticism Ratio by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer The 1, 2, 3 Newsletter 6 Things Employees Want to Hear from Their Bosses The Little Things that Make Employees Feel Appreciated by Kerry Roberts Gibson, Kate O'Leary, and Joseph R. Weintraub Research: Men Get More Actionable Feedback Than Women by Elena Doldor, Madeleine Wyatt, and Jo Silvester Why Most Performance Evaluations are Biased and How to Fix Them by Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, JoAnne Wehner, Shelley J. Correll Shelley Correll Katherine Hilton and Stanford Researcher Examines How People Perceive Interruptions in Conversation  Michael Bungay Stanier Crucial Conversations Our Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. How to Support Us If you'd like to support the show, please rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Ways to Subscribe Click here and scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for brain science. I love learning new things about how our brains work and how to get the most out of this amazing organ. That means I'm always scanning for my next book on the topic. And, when I find it, I'm usually placing an order before I've made it through the table of contents. With this week's guest, I barely glanced at her book's title before I clicked "buy." That's because the author is the incredible neuroscientist, Lisa Feldman Barrett. Last time she was on the show, we talked about her mind-blowing book, How Emotions are Made. I learned how her research has led to a complete rethinking of, well, how emotions are made. In this conversation, we talk about her newest book, Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain. At first glance, you might think, what does this have to do with my work? The short answer is . . . everything. What you'll learn about your brain will change how you structure your day and, on an even bigger scale, how you interact with other people. This is a book to savor. It's enlightening. Insightful. And it's downright enjoyable. In fact, you may want to read it in bite-size chunks, like one chapter at a time, because it's a book you may not want to finish too quickly. It's just too good. Lisa Feldman Barrett is an award-winning Professor of Neuroscience at Northeastern University. She has appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. I'm thrilled to have her back on the show. One quick ask before the interview - if you enjoy the podcast, I'd be grateful if you'd take a moment to rate and review the show on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. The team works hard to produce the podcast - and to keep it commercial free -- and it means a lot for us to know that you enjoy it. Speaking of brain science - a positive rating or review gives us the dopamine hits we need to keep on going. Episode Links Lisa Feldman Barrett's Extended Notes for Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain The Accidental Species by Henry Gee The Rationality of Decisions Depends on Behavioural Context Tuning and Pruning Cultural Inheritance Reverse inference problem The Remembered Presence by Gerald Edelman Himba people Hadza people Why We Want to Squeeze Cute, Little Things Wired to Wonder by Todd Kashdan Gray Malin Curious Minds at Work Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, show your support by: Rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe Telling someone about the show Subscribing so you never miss an episode Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

For a good part of my life, I believed that focusing on my weaknesses was the key to achieving success. In fact, I didn't realize how much I'd embraced this way of thinking until I began working with an executive coach. Soon after we started working together, my coach made an observation I've never forgotten. She said, "Gayle, you're great at pointing out your weaknesses - all the ways you feel you don't measure up - but I never hear you talk about your strengths." That's when I realized how this way of thinking had become my default setting. I had to work hard to change it. That's why, when I picked up Dan Cable's latest book, Exceptional: Build Your Personal Highlight Reel and Unlock Your Potential, I knew I wanted to have him back on the show. He captured my old way of thinking with his first sentence, "Many of us think the best path to self-improvement is to face the cold truth about ourselves at our worst." Yet, what Dan quickly points out is that, far from motivating us, this relentless focus on identifying and fixing our weaknesses can create a lot of anxiety, along with feelings of overwhelm, even helplessness. That sounds like a far cry from a path to success, right? Dan's a Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. Since his last book, Alive at Work, he's been studying what happens when we uncover our strengths through others' eyes, through current and former colleagues, bosses, friends, and family members. Dan's approach is fascinating and his research findings are incredible. Episode Links You Need a Personal Highlight Reel by Dan Cable What You Should Follow Instead of Your Passion by Dan Cable Stop Sleepwalking through Life by Dan Cable and Mel Bradman Alive at Work by Dan Cable Post-traumatic growth What Job Crafting Looks Like by Jane E. Dutton and Amy Wrzesniewski Impostor Syndrome Curious Minds at Work Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, you can show your support by: Rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Telling someone about the show. Subscribing so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

Meaningful conversations can be a creative lab space. At their best, they're a place to share perspectives and be heard. They can also be a place to stress test new ideas and catch the limits in our thinking. When conversations work, we gain a stronger connection to the people we work with. We feel like we understand each other better and that we're channeling each other's knowledge and skills to achieve a bigger goal. Yet these kinds of conversations are far too rare. And I don't think it's intentional. I think it's because we don't know how to design them. That's what motivated me to read Fred Dust's latest book, Making Conversation: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication. A former senior partner and global managing director at international design firm, IDEO, Fred's designed these kinds of conversations for hundreds of organizations across multiple industries. Fred gives us permission to make better conversations a priority, and he shares insights on how to do it effectively. Episode Links Where Do Ideas Come From? Fred Dust at Aspen Ideas Active Listening Frank Osborn on Brainstorming Responsive Classroom The Op Ed Project Courtney E. Martin Curious Minds at Work Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, you can show your support by: Rating and reviewing the show on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Telling someone about the show. Subscribing so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

For most of us, networking is a topic that brings up a lot of strong feelings. And most of those feelings aren't all that positive. Ultimately, we know we should network. But just thinking about it can make us uncomfortable. In fact, research shows that many of us associate networking with something dirty. On top of that, we feel guilty for not devoting more time to it. That's why I wanted to interview Marissa King. Author of the book, Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection, Marissa is Professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale School of Management and an expert on social networks. Marissa's take on networking is refreshing because she emphasizes the relational aspect. She also provides tools for gauging how we network, so that we can easily see how well our approach is working. Her discussion of networking and her strategies for how to reframe it more positively help us to walk away without feeling icky. At the same time, her tips inspire us to tend to our professional network the way we would our personal one. If you're looking for a fresh take on networking, I think you'll enjoy hearing what Marissa has to say.  Episode Links Shout-out to Heather Cox Richardson for her Letters from an American Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty by Carmen Nobel Do People Mix at Mixers? by Paul Ingram and Michael W. Morris Marissa King's site for assessing your networking approach as convener, broker, or expansionist Self-monitoring How to Build a Better Social Network and the work of Ronald Burt Why Do People Gossip? by Sophia Gottfried and the work of Robin Dunbar Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad Homophily Heidi Roizen Curious Minds at Work Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to show your support: Rate and review on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend, colleague, or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

When challenging situations arise, how do we make the shift from bystander to helper? What are the factors that determine whether or not we take action? And what if helping means disobeying an authority figure? These are the kinds of questions that made me want to read Catherine Sanderson's latest book, Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels, and to interview her on the show. In particular, her discussion of the Milgram Shock Experiment, a study that's always fascinated me, got me thinking more deeply about those pivotal moments when we decide whether or not we're going to speak up or step in, rather than stand by. For some background, the Milgram Shock Experiment was first conducted in the 1960s by Stanley Milgram, a psychology professor at Yale. He wanted to find out how far people would go in obeying an authority figure when their obedience knowingly caused harm to another person. In the study, participants delivered an electric shock to a subject they couldn't see. The voltage increased with every wrong answer given. If they refused to administer the shock, a member of the research team - the authority figure - responded with one of four scripted statements. The electric shocks weren't real, but the participant in the study didn't know that. If they refused to administer the shock, the authority figure would recite one of the four scripted statements, for example, "The experiment requires that you continue," or "You have not other choice but to continue." Aside from statements like these, the authority figure never forced participants to deliver the shocks. Yet every participant did. Not one refused. Even when the person receiving the shocks sounded out in pain with moans, shouts, even pleas to stop, the participants kept going. What Catherine talks about in her book, though, are the many participants who wanted to stop. The ones who communicated, at some point along the way, that they didn't want to continue. That's the moment I'm curious about. What would it have taken for them to disobey authority? And what would I have done in that same situation? Catherine is a professor at Amherst College. She's studied what neuroscientists and psychologists have learned about why we stand by and why we speak up. She's also studied what leaders can do to make it safer for people to speak up, which training programs work best for teaching these skills, and what drives the brave souls who always speak up. Episode Links This week's shout-out goes to Emily Levesque, author of the book, The Last Stargazers Bystander effect Young Children Show the Bystander Effect in Helping Situations Social loafing Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart The Pain of Social Rejection KiVa anti-bullying program Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend, colleague, or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

What will the world look like when we're living and working with robots every day? Robots work on assembly lines. They zoom around warehouses. And they even fly planes. Most of us aren't surprised to hear these stories anymore. But how will we work with robots when they're driving our cars or delivering our food? When millions of robots populate our sidewalks, offices, and residential buildings - when they move beyond the factory floor - we'll need to learn how to interact with them, even teach them. Julie Shah, co-author of the book, What to Expect When You're Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration, believes we'll need to tap into our ability to create, problem solve, and learn from experience, in order to "transfer those insights to machines and integrate machines into our work and our everyday lives." She also believes we'll need to think differently about how we design robots and how we gather and share robot data. In particular, she argues that industry and government will need to work more closely together so they can share information on robot performance. This information will help us make rapid improvements, so we can integrate robots more quickly and safely into society. She explains, "The capability of these systems is so dependent on the data used to train them. Being able to share learnings across companies and across an industry is equally important." Julie Shah is a roboticist who directs the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT, where she is also the associate dean of social and ethic responsibilities of computing. Episode Links Inner Workings: Can Robots Make Good Teammates? by Carolyn Beans Integrating Robots into Team-Oriented Environments by Julie Shah Don Norman Three-body problem You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane Affordance Aviation Safety Reporting System - NASA MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Julie Shah's co-author Laura Major Curious Minds Team You can learn about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

What if mathematics could help us rethink gender equality by questioning how society is structured? Women are often told that, to succeed, they need to be more. More competitive. More confident. Even more resilient. In other words, women need to fit themselves into environments created mostly by men. But Eugenia Cheng, author of the book, x + y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, argues that it's not about what women lack but about how society operates. For her, the question is not, "society is like this, how can women become more successful in it?" Instead, it's about asking "why is society like this in the first place?" Eugenia rejects associating certain traits with traditional, binary gender roles. For example, she doesn't think it's helpful to think of men as more competitive or women as more caring. She disagrees with the notion that there's only one way to achieve success, such as the myth of the resilient individual achiever who's unaffected by criticism. Instead, she argues that we're stronger and more resilient when we "build networks of people to help support [us], rather than just having to be strong all by [ourselves]." Eugenia Cheng is Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and honorary visiting fellow at City University of London. Her previous books include, How to Bake Pi, Beyond Infinity, and The Art of Logic. Episode Links Higher-dimensional algebra Mean, median, mode Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez No Contest by Alfie Kohn Equity: A Mathematician Shares Her Solution by Jory Lerback Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

What's driven our relentless obsession with economic efficiency and who are its winners and losers? For much of the twentieth century, the U.S. economy benefited most individuals and families, no matter their social class. In recent decades, that's not been the case. Roger Martin examines this shift in his latest book, When More is Not Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency. He shares data indicating that, while the wealthy continue to prosper, the average American family does not. While Roger is concerned with what lies ahead for these families, he is equally concerned about the future of the U.S. economic system. He says, "What set off the project behind this book is that the median family, who is also the swing voter, is going to give up on capitalism as the system it wants to have run this country." Professor of Strategic Management, Emeritus, at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Roger previously served as Dean and Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute. In addition, he's published eleven books, written numerous articles for Harvard Business Review, and has been named the number one management thinker by Thinkers50. Based on his extensive research and his work with hundreds of companies, Roger believes organizational leaders can change things for the better. In this interview, he shares examples of how companies, like Southwest Airlines, have done just that. At the same time, Roger discusses how our longstanding model of the U.S. economy as machine got us here. He points out, "It's kind of an accident. We've done some things based on models we thought were good that have gotten us in places we don't like at all." Episode Links Why Information Grows by Cesar Hidalgo The Persona Project  Wassily Leontief Pareto Distribution David Ricardo and comparative advantage Cristiano Rinaldo Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, here are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.  Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

How did humans, a species of self-centered apes, come to care deeply about complete strangers? From an evolutionary standpoint, we shouldn't be kind to strangers. Yet, history shows, time and again, we are. Scientists see it as a puzzle to solve. Michael McCullough, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, believes it's what sets us apart. He says, "[We] love to talk about ways in which humans are biologically unique, and there's a million ways. But I really do think that our regard for strangers, absolute strangers, is one of them." Michael is author of the book, The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a Moral Code. Drawing on multiple fields, he crafts a story of how our empathy for strangers has changed over time.  He covers a lot of ground, moving from ancient history to modern psychology. Ultimately, he arrives at the pandemic present, where he asks, "How are you going to bring the tools of reasoning, ethics, and science all together to make rational choices about collective courses of action?" A Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Michael is also the author of two previous books, To Forgive is Human and Beyond Revenge. Episode Links The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins David Sloan Wilson Group Selection Behavioral game theory Robert Trivers Code of Hammurabi Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

We recognize the biases we hold around race, class, and gender, but what about language? Katherine Kinzler, author of the book, How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do - and What It Says about You, explains, "The language you speak, and the accent or dialect you use to speak it, is such a foundational part of social life." Yet speech and language are often overlooked aspects of social identity. In fact, Katherine's research reveals that the way we speak can "determine who you might connect with, but also the judgments you make about other people, and the judgments they might be making about you." In her book, Katherine discusses how language, accents, and speech influence life experience and outcomes. In particular, they can be tools for social division, discrimination in hiring and firing, and other forms of bias and prejudice. It's one of the reasons Katherine advocates language learning in school. She says, "a lot of times, we think of language [learning] as 'icing on the cake'...nice to have but not really a fundamental part of learning. I think we could do so much more if we changed how we thought about the necessity of more than one language." Katherine Kinzler is Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. She holds degrees from Yale and Harvard, has written for the New York Times, and was recently named a Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum, one of the 50 scientists under 40 working to shape the future. Episode Links Bilingual Brains Better Equipped to Process Information  Neuroplasticity as a Function of Second Language Learning by Ping Li, Jennifer Legault, and Kaitlyn a. Litcofsky Want to be More Rational? Learn Another Language by Rob Smith How Speaking a Second Language Affects the Way You Think by David Ludden How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Found Her Voice by Katy Steinmetz Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World by Olga Khazan Meyer v. State of Nebraska Emotions Shape the Language We Use, but Second Languages Reveal a Shortcut around Them by Beth Daley The War against German-American Culture: The Removal of German-Language from Indianapolis Schools, 1917-1919 Linguistic Insecurity Bilingual Children's Social Preferences Hinge on Accent by Jasmine M. DeJesus, Hyesung G. Hwang, Jocelyn B. Dautel, and Katherine D. Kinzler The Native Language of Social Cognition by Katherine D. Kinzler, Emmanuel Dupoux, and Elizabeth S. Spelke Research: How Speech Patterns Lead to Hiring Bias by Michael W. Kraus, Brittany Torrez, and Jun Won Park Multilingual Environments Enrich Our Understanding of Others by Christopher Bergland Jane Elliott Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. This week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.

How can we escape the time traps that keep us from living our best lives? These are the traps that make us feel like there are never enough hours in the day. They leave us time poor, a term Ashley Whillans talks about in her book, Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life.  Ashley is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and a leading scholar on time and happiness research. She explains the negative impact feeling time poor can have on our health, our productivity, and our relationships.  In contrast, when we prioritize how we spend our time, we gain many positive results, no matter where we reside in the world. Ashley says, "People who value time report greater happiness, less stress, less negative emotion. Doesn't matter where I study this, in India, in Kenya, in the U.S., in Canada, in Denmark, focusing on time is an important path to happiness." Ashley designed tools to help us rethink our relationship with time. These include self-assessments and checklists for making smarter decisions about how we use our time. She explains how incorporating them into our lives can prompt us to ask, "not only how much would that decision cost you, but how much time would it cost." Ashley Whillans is part of the Workplace and Well-Being Initiative at Harvard, and she advises organizations on workplace and well-being strategies. Her work has appeared in publications like, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Wall Street Journal. Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Daniel Gilbert Time poverty Autonomy paradox Time confetti and Brigid Schulte Yes-damn effect Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky Mere urgency effect Psychological safety  Time affluence Time is Tight: How Higher Economic Value of Time Increases Feelings of Time Pressure by Sanford Devoe and Jeffrey Pfeffer Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast

How did we get to a place where life's become an endless treadmill of work? In her latest book, Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, Anne Helen Petersen tackles this question. Her book is for anyone who feels their life has become an endless to-do list. In particular, Petersen describes the plight of today's millennials, a generation she believes is under constant pressure to perform. She explains how, for many millennials, it begins in childhood, when activities originally intended for fun get repurposed for resume building. She argues, "You're taking things that are meant to be leisure, that are meant to be those joyful corners of your life that are not work, and you're turning them into work." Petersen discusses the social and economic forces that have led to this cultural shift, including the demise of labor unions, increasing reliance on contract workers, and the rise of the gig economy. In each case, she points out how companies benefit, while workers struggle to make ends meet. At the same time, she wonders if millennials are the generation that can break the cycle. She muses, "I'm curious if we can refigure our relationship to work. I am curious if millennials are broken, if we are just too far down this road, or if we can take a different road." Anne Helen Petersen is a senior culture writer for BuzzFeed. A former academic, she received a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, where she focused on the history of celebrity gossip. Her previous books, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud and Scandals of Classic Hollywood, were featured on NPR, Elle, and The Atlantic. Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace by Lindsey Pollak How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen Annette Lareau Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary by Louis Hyman The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can be Done to Improve It by David Weil The Effects of 'Clopening' on Employees: What Employers Can Do by Tom Starner Are You Just LARPing Your Job by John Herrman How Does Your Ugly Garden Grow? by Anne Helen Petersen Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast

Is the onslaught of online information eroding our brain's ability to think deeply and creatively? In 2008, Nicholas Carr, asked the provocative question, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Two years later, he delved more deeply into this topic in his Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  Writing at the dawn of the smartphone era, Carr was concerned about the shift many of us were making from deep reading to online scanning. It made him question the Internet's impact on our long-term memory and reasoning skills. Carr muses, "we find ourselves...gathering information...but never slowing down to...mull over it...and when we lose...the ability to concentrate and be attentive...we short-circuit memory consolidation and end up with a...shallow mind." In the decade since the book's release, brain researchers have validated a number of Carr's insights. At the same time, many of today's challenges speak directly to his concerns. He argues, "if you look at problems...with...'fake news'...or...the...rush to...dismiss information that doesn't fit into your existing worldview, I think this is...about...[not]...building this rich interconnected set of knowledge...[in] our...minds." Nick Carr has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Wired. He is also author of the books, The Glass Cage, and Utopia is Creepy. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf Memory consolidation Frederick Winslow Taylor Flynn effect Joseph Weizenbaum Salience network Cynthia Ozick Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What happens in our minds when we dehumanize others, and how can we resist it? These are the kinds of questions David Livingstone Smith, author of the book, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, has found himself asking throughout his career.  Most of us are familiar with events of mass violence in recent history, such as the Holocaust, slavery in America, and the Rwandan genocide. David wants to know what motivates us to commit these atrocities. By studying dehumanization, he's learned what a powerful tool it is. He explains, "If people can convince others that those whom they wish to harm are not really human beings at all, but are, in fact, dangerous animals, then this makes it acceptable to harm them." David helps us unpack dehumanization's building blocks, including the dangerous myths of race science and biological hierarchies. And he shares how each of us can resist the urge to dehumanize. To begin, he urges us to recognize that no one is immune: "If politicians scare us or flatter us into thinking of others as, essentially, less than human, we're all capable of doing terrible things.  David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. He has written or edited eight books, including Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, which won the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for nonfiction. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi Kwame Anthony Appiah The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson Caste by Isabel Wilkerson Roger Money-Kyrle The Wall by John Lanchester Cornel West Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What can a simple street address reveal about a person’s identity, race, wealth and power? For many of us, an address is something we don't spend a lot of time thinking about. It may be a string of numbers and letters we type into a GPS. A place we call home. Or just a placeholder where we get our mail. Yet, for others, it can mean much more. A way out of poverty. A signal of economic status. Or an indicator of race and social history. Street addresses can change lives. Deirdre Mask, author of the book, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, explains, "Billions of people in the world don't have reliable addresses, and having an address is one of the cheapest ways of lifting people out of poverty." At the same time, Deirdre argues, street addresses don't always change lives for the better. While they can stop epidemics and help the poor get bank accounts, they can also entrench racism and empower authoritarian governments. In this interview, one of the examples we discuss is the negative stereotype associated with streets name for Martin Luther King, Jr. Deirdre asks, "Is it really that MLK streets all deserve this bad reputation or is it that, because we associate MLK streets with Blackness, that we seem them as bad, whether they're nice or not?"  Deirdre is a writer, lawyer, and academic. Her work has appeared in publications like, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Economist. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Addressing the Unaddressed Physician John Snow Zip codes and Robert Moon Empress Maria Theresa Lost in Translation film Learning from the Japanese City by Barrie Shelton The Years that Matter Most by Paul Tough Susan Hiller Hollywood, Florida Paul Laurence Dunbar Nathan Bedford Forrest Shelby Foote Frederick Douglass by David Blight Derek Alderman Sarah Golabek-Goldman and Homelessness what3words.com Maoz Azaryahu The Black Lives Matter Movement is Being Written into the Streetscape by Deirdre Mask Performative Utterances Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we recognize the blind spots that cause us to build less inclusive teams? When we commit to achieving greater diversity in the workplace, we're taking an important step. But we need to see this step as just the beginning in an ongoing journey.  Stefanie Johnson, author of the book, Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build Innovative Teams, created the word "inclusify" to call this out. She argues, "People don't experience inclusion just because they were included...it takes thoughtful action and intention on the part of the leader...to create an inclusive environment...that's the idea behind inclusify." To start, we need to recognize the blind spots that get in our way. In her work with managers and boards, Stefanie's found six that come up time and again: the meritocracy manager, the culture crusader, the team player, the white knight, the shepherd, and the optimist. She explains how leaders use concepts like "meritocracy" or "culture" to exclude employees who hold different ideas. And she shares how statements like, "we don't want to lower the bar" make things harder for underrepresented groups: "...women actually are required to have greater experience to earn a board position than men...there are higher standards a lot of times for underrepresented groups. That's why they're underrepresented." By pinpointing blind spots and coupling that knowledge with a commitment to helping diverse employees feel like they belong and can bring their unique selves to work, leaders take more of the steps needed to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations. Stefanie Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder. Her work has been featured in the Economist, Newsweek, Time, and on CNN. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links @DrStefJohnson drstefjohnson.com Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt Unconscious bias Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace by Emilio J. Castilla 3 Reasons You Should Stop Hiring for "Culture Fit" by Delisa Alexander Ways to Support the Podcast If you’re a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.  In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we get our staunchest opponents to come around to our way of thinking? When we're trying to convince other people, we often start by sharing our ideas. If they resist our efforts, we usually just push harder. Sometimes it works, but, most of the time, our efforts fail. That's what got Jonah Berger, author of the bestselling book, The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind, wondering, what do the most successful change agents do?  He discovered that they think and act more strategically. Rather than pushing harder and ratcheting things up, they act more like catalysts. He explains, "What they do is they lower the barrier to change. They figure out an alternate way to make the same change occur with less energy, not more." Jonah's talked to successful hostage negotiators, substance abuse counselors, and salespeople to learn what they do. From his research, he's discovered five barriers that inhibit change, along with ways to get around them. For example, we often ask for more change than the average person can handle. To counter that, he says, "We have to figure out ways essentially to ask for less. Rather than asking people to make a big change right away, ask for smaller changes." Jonah is Marketing Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He's published more than 50 papers, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. He's appeared on Curious Minds twice before to discuss his pervious books, Contagious and Invisible Influence. Curious Minds Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links The Strategy behind Florida's "Truth" Campaign Thai Health Promotion Foundation - Smoking Kid (1:30 min video) Changing Eating Habits on the Home Front: Lost Lessons from World War II Research by Brian Wansink Gregory M. Vecchi, Ph.D. Invisible Influence by Jonah Berger Dave Fleischer and deep canvassing Study Finds Deep Conversations Can Reduce Transgender Prejudice gong.io Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a family member, friend, or colleague about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What would happen if, instead of reacting to problems, we solved them at the source? That's a question that Dan Heath, author of the book, Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, wants us to ask. He believes it's the linchpin of real change. Dan explains, "So often in life, we get trapped in these cycles of reaction...and all of that action starves us of the energy that we need to get upstream and deal with these problems at the root level." He shares enlightening stories of people who've made it a goal to prevent problems, rather than merely react to them. At the same time, he helps us understand how to think and act like they do. To start, he says, we need to confront what he calls our "problem blindness." It's our tendency to accept the unacceptable, just because we've gotten used to it. Instead, he encourages us to "Get real suspicious and curious about recurring problems. If there's something that you've just come to take for granted...customers are always going to call about itineraries...or we're always going to have a high dropout rate...Get suspicious about that!" Dan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE Center, which supports entrepreneurs fighting for social good. He's also co-author with his brother, Chip Heath, of the bestselling books, Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, and The Power of Moments. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Irving Zola Frederick Winslow Taylor Marcus Elliott The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath Freshman On-Track Toolkit When do workarounds help or hurt patient outcomes? by Anita L. Tucker How Iceland Got Teens to Say No to Drugs by Emma Young Paul B. Batalden The University of Chicago Crime Lab Becoming a Man - Youth Guidance Sally Herndon Ways to Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What are the skills that can help us learn new things more quickly and efficiently? Our ability to learn sets us apart from other species. Yet few of us understand how to maximize this ability. Stanislas Dehaene, Director of the NeuroSpin Brain Imaging Center in Saclay, France, and Professor of Experimental Cognitive Psychology at the College de France, can help. In his latest book, How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine...for Now, he explains how the human brain is designed for learning. Next, he shares exactly what we need to optimize our learning. Sleep is one example. We know it's important, but we may not know just how critical it is for learning. Stanislas explains, "So we re-learn, we replay during sleep, the things we've begun to learn during the day. In this way, we are able to multiple the learning examples." At the same time, we may not be aware of what Stanislas calls "the secret ingredients of successful learning." These are the four pillars that, when present, speed up the learning process, namely, attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation. Finally, Stanislas explains the connections between artificial intelligence and the human brain. Though he's convinced that future AIs will surpass the capabilities of the human brain, he readily shares just how amazing our brains are: "I don't think that the brain is intrinsically better than machines. I think the brain is an extraordinary machine." Stanislas has written extensively on the topic of human learning. His previous books include, Reading in the Brain, Consciousness and the Brain, and The Number Sense. The Team Learn more about host and creator, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf Explicit Memory Creation During Sleep Demonstrates a Causal Role of Place Cells in Navigation by G. de Lavilleon, M. M. Lacroix, L. Rondi-Reig, and K. Benchenane Coordinated Memory Replay in the Visual Cortex and Hippocampus During Sleep by Daoyun Ji and Matthew A. Wilson Error-correction Learning for Artificial Neural Networks Using the Bayesian Paradigm by Smaranda Belciug and Florin Gorunescu Infants Grasp Gravity with Innate Sense of Physics by Joseph Castro  Community-induced Memory Biases in Preverbal Infants by Jennifer M. D. Yoon, Mark H. Johnson and Gergely Csibra Illiterate to Literate: Behavioural and Cerebral Changes Induced by Reading Acquisition by S. Dehaene, L. Cohen, J. Morais, and R. Kolinsky  Seymour Papert Alexander Grothendieck National Education Scientific Council Support Us Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if leaders spent less time building themselves up and more time building up others? When leaders face challenges, they're often encouraged to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Frances Frei, co-author with Anne Morriss of the book, Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, agrees that leaders need to take responsibility. But she thinks they should replace the mirror with a window. To do that, leaders must shift away from looking at themselves and, instead, empower their teams. She explains what this looks like: "If I walk into a room, and I'm thinking about me, and everybody else is thinking about me, then I'm not doing a good job. I want to walk into the room and be thinking about everyone else. I want to be thinking about how to unleash greatness in everyone else." As part of unleashing team members' greatness, Frances believes leaders must also grow their team members. And when team members aren't growing, leaders need to understand why. That's where self-assessment tools can be helpful. For example, she shares a tool that can help leaders understand why they may be losing their team's trust. She also shares a tool that helps leaders determine whether a team member's underperformance is a result of their own behavior or organizational bias. When it comes to organizational bias, she points out that when "there are demographic patterns associated with who's thriving, it's super clear whose fault it is...no question the firm is doing something. Not on purpose. They're probably hitting something with their tail, but we have to fix it." Frances Frei is a Professor at Harvard Business School, and she recently served as Uber's first Senior Vice President of Leadership and Strategy. She regularly works with companies on organizational transformation, including embracing diversity and inclusion as levers for improved performance. Her TED Talk on Building Trust has been viewed four million times. Curious Minds Team Head here to learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli.  Episode Links Valerius Maximus Emma Dench The Connector Manager by Sari Wilde and Jaime Roca Lesbians in Tech 1844 Conway Ekpo Black Male Lawyers Grace Hopper AnitaB.org Stacy Brown-Philpot Harvard Business School Gender Initiative The Field Method at Harvard Business School Youngme Moon Ways to Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if the biggest barrier to our success wasn't a lack of confidence but overconfidence? We tend to associate a high degree of confidence with success. In fact, most of us believe it's a requirement for achieving our goals. Yet extensive research led Don Moore, author of the book, Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely, to conclude that "the evidence for that relationship...is shockingly weak." Instead, Don argues, it's about striking a balance between under confidence and overconfidence, and he shares a helpful technique called probabilistic thinking to help us do just that. To illustrate this point, he explains how he and his fiance used this approach to plan their wedding. After realizing that their guest list far exceeded the 125 chairs available in the reception venue, they knew they needed a strategy. Rather than remove names from the list, they estimated the likelihood of each guest attending. That helped them decide how many invitations to send. Don explains, "We went through that long list, summing up the probabilities across individuals. It got us to 127, so we sent out the invitations right away. The actual number who said 'yes' was 126, so we found one more chair and were happily married." Don Moore is a Professor of Management of Organizations at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He is also co-author of the book, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, and he's written for publications like, The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. The Curious Minds Team You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links Max Bazerman 5 Tips for Calibrating Your Confidence by Laura Counts The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki The Intelligence Trap by David Robson Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke Too Optimistic about Optimism Why Decisions Fail by Paul Nutt Simple Ways to Support Curious Minds Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if the way we engage in politics today works against the changes we seek? One-third of Americans say they spend at least two hours a day on politics. But according to Eitan Hersh, author of the book, Politics is for Power: How to Move beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change, most of that time is spent consuming news, posting to social media, and signing online petitions. Eitan labels these kinds of isolated, predominantly online behaviors "political hobbyism," and he contrasts them with the kinds of activities that can drive real change. He explains that politics "...is about getting power for the things you care about, working with others, having goals, having strategies, and that's just not what's going on for most people who are cognitively engaged in politics." Eitan's book is a primer for anyone who wants to effect political change. In it, he shares inspiring stories of ordinary people working to change the world through everyday political participation.  He also shares steps he's taken to overcome his own political hobbyism and the empathy he has for others like him. He says, "They start thinking of all the excuses in their head for why they shouldn't do things differently: 'I don't have time.' 'I'm not very ideological.' Or whatever their excuses are. Hey, I know those excuses -- those are mine! Here's how I kind of got past them." Eitan Hersh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. He researches and teaches on the topics of civic participation, U.S. elections, and voting rights. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @eitanhersh Political Hobbyism: A Theory of Mass Behavior by Eitan D. Hersh We All Really Need to Do Hard Things - the story of Lisa Mann - by Eitan Hersh Changing the Conversation Together (CTC) a deep canvassing organization 7 Questions with Dave Fleischer on Deep Canvassing Lilliana Mason You're More Powerful Than You Think by Eric Liu Angela Aldous story as discussed in Power, Friendship, and Some Democratic Rules by Russell Arben Fox Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam Linked fate Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if we transformed the word weird from an insult to a badge of honor? When we call someone "weird," it's rarely positive. Growing up as a self-described "weirdo," Olga Khazan, author of the book, Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World, decided to explore the upside of being an outsider. Olga interviewed dozens of successful people who'd been labeled "weird" at some point in their lives because of characteristics like their profession, race, religion or sexual orientation. She chose to speak with "people who had struggles and some challenges because they are so different from everyone around them...people who it wasn't such a clear-cut, straight to the top trajectory." What Olga noticed was that some "weirdos" readily shrugged off the label, while others found it harder to overcome. That got her curious about the outsiders who thrived, the ones who were more creative, adaptable, and resourceful. What set them apart? In describing what helped these outsiders succeed, Olga reveals a number of traits. One of them centers on how effective they are at convincing others to listen to their ideas. She says, "If you want to get someone to buy into a crazy idea you have, a really weird idea, you [have] to give them a normal idea first." Olga Khazan is a staff writer for The Atlantic, where she covers health, gender, and science. She has written for publications like, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and Forbes, and was a two-time recipient of the International Reporting Project's Journalism Fellowship. She was also winner of the 2017 National Headliner Awards for Magazine Online Writing. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @olgakhazan https://olgakhazan.com/ Rule Makers, Rule Breakers by Michele Gelfand Henri Tajfel, influential social psychology researcher in the areas of prejudice and social identity theory Let Your Workers Rebel by Francesca Gino The Behavioral Immune System: How Unconscious Fears of Infection Shape Many Aspects of Our Psychology by Mark Schaller Vivienne Ming Idiosyncrasy Credit Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the podcast. Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How much of a role can asking others for help play in achieving our goals? It turns out, quite a bit. In fact, research shows that we're more likely to achieve success if we make asking for help a part of our strategy. Yet, according to Wayne Baker, author of the book, All You Have to Do Is Ask: How to Master the Most Important Skill for Success, most of us rarely do. There are a number of reasons why. One of the most common is our fear that we'll be seen as incompetent. Another is our assumption that we'll be rejected when we ask. Yet research reveals what tends to happen is the opposite. Wayne explains, "The research shows very clearly that even strangers are very likely to help...so, you start with the assumption that most people will help you if they can, and they want to help you." In this interview, Wayne describes tools we can use to get better at asking for help. He even shares the story of putting one of these tools to work for a very special ask of his own -- his tenth wedding anniversary. In fact, his ask led to him giving his wife a surprise ring on national television. Wayne explains, "I had it in my pocket, and I asked them for permission to give it to her. And they let me do it, on air. It was amazing...It was just this incredible experience." Wayne Baker is Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan. He is also faculty director of the Center for Positive Organizations and co-founder and board member of Give and Take. His writing has appeared in publications like, Harvard Business Review, Chief Executive Magazine, and MIT Sloan Management Review. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @DrWayneBaker https://allyouhavetodoisask.com/ Heather Currier Hunt of IDEO Center for Positive Organizations Givitas - Give and Take Amy Edmondson Troika Consulting Reciprocity Ring Stand-up Meeting: The Definitive Guide On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B by Steve Kerr Simple Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes, or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the podcast. If You Enjoyed This Interview, You Might Also Like: Andy Molinsky on Overcoming Your Fears Amy Edmondson on Maximizing Team Performance Chip Conley on Bringing Wisdom to Work Other Places to Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if knowing how successful people see the world could help us achieve our goals? When we see people achieving their goals, we may be tempted to give up. We tell ourselves they have advantages we lack, like more time, and maybe even traits we lack, like a better work ethic. While both may be true, what if there's a different reason they succeed, one that has to do with how they see their goals? That's what Emily Balcetis, Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University and author of the book, Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World, set out to discover. For example, in an innovative study of visualizing goals in order to choose which ones to pursue, she asked women to shop in a different kind of store. She explains that, "On the shelves, they saw paper bags with labels...hours for a work week...[number of] kids...compensation packages...all different facets of life that they had thought about in that survey were now made concrete." Emily learned that making deliberate and strategic choices about how we visualize our goals can dramatically improve our chance of achieving them. Her findings reveal four visual tactics we can use to do just that. One of these, "narrow your focus," is something elite runners do. In a study on exercise, Emily taught participants this skill and the results were fascinating. Emily shares that, "People who were taught to narrow their focus of attention...took more steps when they went out for each...walk, they moved faster in the same of time, and they went out more often for walks or runs in the week that followed." Emily's work has been featured in The Atlantic, Scientific American, NPR, and Forbes. She's received awards from organizations like, the International Society for Self and Identity and the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Anish Kapoor Hal Hershfield Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Pre-Commitment by Dan Ariely Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec Simple Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes, or wherever you subscribe. Tell one friend or family member about the podcast. If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy: Laura Huang on Finding Your Edge Wendy Wood on the Science of Habits John Zeratsky on Creating Time for Work that Matters Places to Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Listening improves our relationships, health, and workplaces. So how can we get better at it? Think about the last time someone listened to you, a time when you felt heard. Those moments matter more than we realize. In fact, research shows that, over time, not feeling heard has a negative impact on our physical and mental well-being. Curious how many people have someone in their lives who listens to them, Kate Murphy, author of the book, You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters, decided to ask. What she found surprised her: "Well, I asked hundreds of people on five continents...who listens to you?...and there was almost always, without exception, a pause, a hesitation. They had to really think about it. And many times, they didn't have anyone." In this interview, Kate shares why most of us are poor listeners and the negative impact this can have on our relationships, our careers, and our health. One simple tip she provides is to rethink our questions. She explains, "What do you do for a living?...What part of town do you live in? What school did you go to?...[T]hose...questions...aren't really designed to help you get to know the other person. You're trying to rank them in the social hierarchy." As a result, she contends, "the other person, they shift into the mode of their script and their resume...and...that is a soul-sucking conversation." Kate Murphy is a Texas-based journalist who has written for publications like, The New York Times, The Economist, Texas Monthly, and many more. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Barry McManus The Power of Human by Adam Waytz Closeness communication bias Negative capability Naomi Henderson 3 Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member. If You Liked This Interview, You Might Also Enjoy Jennifer Eberhardt on the Impact of Hidden Racial Bias Hal Gregersen on Why Questions are the Answer Mahzarin Banaji on the Hidden Biases of Good People Dacher Keltner on the Power Paradox Some Places to find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What actions would you take if you knew how important friendships were for your health? Most of us recognize that friendships play an important role in our lives. Yet few of us realize how crucial they are for our health and well-being.  In this interview, Lydia Denworth, author of the book, Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life's Fundamental Bond, shares fascinating research on the science of friendship. She argues that, "Friendship is as important as diet and exercise for both our psychological and physical health." In our conversation, Lydia explains ways of assessing whether our friendships are healthy. She also describes the neuroscience of friendship. For example, she discusses a remarkable study where researchers looked at participants' brain patterns while watching snippets of different videos. Their analysis yielded a surprising finding, as Lydia explains, "Just by looking at the brain processing, they could predict who was friends with who." Lydia Denworth is a contributing editor for Scientific American, writes the Brain Waves blog for Psychology Today, and is the author of two previous books, Toxic Truth and I Can Hear You Whisper. Her work has appeared in publications that include, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Host and Producer You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links: John Bowlby and Robert Hinde Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey The Social Brain Lisa Berkman Framingham Heart Study and Alameda County Study James House John T. Cacioppo and Steve Cole Social Neuroscience Evolutionary Mechanisms for Loneliness Popular by Mitch Prinstein Amboseli Baboon Research Project and Jeanne Altmann and Susan Alberts The Amazing Monkey Island in Puerto Rico - Cayo Santiago Your Brain Reveals Who Your Friends Are What Makes a Good Life TED Talk with Robert Waldinger and Arlie Bock If You Liked This Episode You Might Also Enjoy: Episode 150: Marc Brackett on Permission to Feel Episode 148: Adam Waytz on the Power of Human Episode 90: Dan Heath on Creating Moments that Matter Episode 84: Mitch Prinstein on How Popularity Shapes Our Lives 3 Ways to Support the Podcast: Subscribe Tell a friend or family member about the podcast or an interview you enjoyed Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

As we increasingly equate human worth with productivity, what does it mean to do nothing? That's the question Jenny Odell explores in her book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. In it, she deftly draws on the work of artists, laborers, and writers, past and present, to discuss how others have grappled with this question. In attempting to clarify what she means by doing nothing, Jenny asks, "What's the difference between being allowed to be open...observant...reflective versus...constantly express[ing]...one's rage and anger...what if there's a part of you that deserves to remain unspoken, unarticulated in the moment?" In this conversation, Jenny offers ways to resist the attention economy, but she's careful to avoid easy answers. Though she acknowledges how privilege gives some of us more options to resist than others, she emphasizes how all of us, privileged or not, operate within this productivity-obsessed system. The fallout from our always-on culture is often exhaustion and anxiety, both of which Jenny sees in her students. She explains, "I can tell my students, 'Oh, just get better at time management.' That might help in some ways, but it's not going to help the...problem of this culture of productivity that was never humane to begin with." Jenny Odell is an artist, writer, and educator who teaches at Stanford University. She has been an artist-in-residence at the San Francisco dump, Facebook, the Internet Archive, and the San Francisco Planning Department, and she has exhibited her art all over the world. Simple Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe so you'll never miss an episode Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe Recommend the podcast to a friend or family member The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Eyeo Festival 2017 - Jenny Odell Gordon Hempton Radical Technologies by Adam Greenfield The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman Getting Back Together by Robert Houriet Walden Two by B. F. Skinner Thomas Merton Pilvi Takala - The Trainee Tehching Hsieh Diogenes Bartleby, the Scrivener Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport 1934 West Coast Longshoreman's Strike Laborfest David Hockney 4'33" by John Cage Peter Stephen Berg, bioregionalist Rebecca Solnit Janet Delaney, photographer iNaturalist app If You Liked This Interview, You Might Also Enjoy: Cal Newport on Digital Minimalism Emily Esfahani Smith on Creating a Meaningful Life Tim Wu on Reclaiming Our Attention Matthew Crawford on Individuality in an Age of Distraction Other Places to Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What happens when you actively shape how you're seen, rather than leaving it to chance? At some point, many of us have felt overlooked, underestimated, or even ignored in our work. We may have responded by putting our heads down and working that much harder, in the hope that someone would finally recognize our talents and skills. Yet working harder can leave us feeling frustrated, especially when our efforts fail to change other people's perceptions. Harvard Business School Professor Laura Huang explains, "A lot of times, we think our hard work is going to speak for itself, but often we find that it doesn't. Even when we've proven ourselves and shown the ability to...provide value...we continue to have to guide the perceptions of others." Laura is author of the book, Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage. In this interview, she explains why we need to shape how others see us. She asserts, "People are perceiving and making attributions...all the time. If you realize...somebody's making an incorrect attribution about you, changing that...is...difficult. It's more difficult than if you...direct [it] from the get go." Laura has been named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40. Her work has been featured in The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Nature. Episode Links @LauraHuangLA When Its Okay to Trust Your Gut on a Big Decision Dave Dahl of Dave's Killer Bread Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You by Heidi Grant If you Liked This Episode, You Might Also Enjoy: Brian Gunia on a Fresh Approach to Negotiation Rob Walker on the Art of Noticing Heidi Grant on the Science of Asking for Help Dan McGinn Performing Under Pressure Andy Molinsky on Overcoming Your Fears Other Places to Find the Show Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast Host and Producer You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating Tell a friend or family member about the podcast If you haven't already, please subscribe

What happens when you teach an AI to write knock-knock jokes, recipes, and pick-up lines? It's a rare week that goes by without someone talking about the power, and the perils, of artificial intelligence. But if you're not an expert in machine learning, how do you separate fact from fiction? That's where Janelle Shane's expertise comes in. Janelle is the author of the book, You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place. As she describes how an AI learns, she reveals the gap between what researchers strive to do and what's currently possible. Janelle explains, "The AI in science fiction is almost exclusively this kind of human level, general AI, that's really smart, at least as smart as a human, and then the stuff we have in the real world is a lot simpler." Janelle runs amusing AI experiments, in order to learn how machine learning works and where its limits begin. She shares stories of what happened when she trained AIs to tell knock-knock jokes, invent new recipes, and write pick-up lines. Along the way, she describes the ups and the downs of working with AIs to solve problems: "The pro is you might get an answer that you didn't expect. The con is also that you might get an answer that you didn't expect." Janelle's work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, Slate, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many more. In addition, she keeps readers up to date on recent projects and AI hilarity on her website, aiweirdness.com. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links aiweirdness.com Erik Goodman Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind by Susan Schneider An AI Expert Explains Why There's Always a Giraffe in Artificial Intelligence GPT-2 An Artificial Intelligence Predicts the Future On the Life Cycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang If You Enjoyed this Episode, You Might Also Like: Kartik Hosanagar on How Algorithms Shape Our Lives Susan Schneider on the Future of Your Mind Adam Waytz on the Power of Human Kat Holmes on the Power of Inclusive Design Caroline Criado Perez on Invisible Women Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if our success was less about channeling willpower and more about building sustainable habits? Too often, when we think about goals we've failed to achieve, we blame it on a lack of willpower. Yet research has shown when we rely primarily on willpower, we're bound to fail. Willpower takes energy, and it's when our energy stores are at their lowest that we need it the most. That's when we default to our old habits, the ones we most want to change. They require a lot less energy because they've become automatic.  If that's the case, what can we do? Wendy Wood, author of the book, Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick, can help. Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California, she's studied the science of habits for decades.  To begin, Wendy argues we need to give ourselves the time we need to develop new habits. We need time for our habits to become unconscious. She explains that, "People who have high levels of self-control, they don't report being distracted by temptations. They don't even see the temptations anymore because they are on autopilot." Drawing on decades of research, Wendy shares concrete ways we can form new habits. One of these involves environment, especially proximity. For example, researchers found that people who drove around three miles to the gym went five times as often as those who traveled five miles. Wendy shares, "It's not like the people who went five times a month were necessarily more motivated. The big difference here is the distance they had to travel. So making it easy for you to repeat a behavior seems to be key." Wendy has written for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, Time magazine, and on NPR. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @ProfWendyWood http://goodhabitsbadhabits.org/ Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey If You Like This Episode, You Might Also Enjoy: James Clear on Making and Breaking Habits Chris Bailey on Overcoming Distraction John Zeratsky on Creating Time for Things that Matter Laura Vanderkam on Getting More Done Morten Hansen on Working Smarter Sean Young on the Science of Changing Your Life Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

We all have trouble changing our habits, but the problem isn't us. It's our systems. Whether we want to adopt good habits or avoid bad ones, we need to think beyond willpower or setting bigger goals. According to James Clear, author of the book, Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, we need to design a system of small, repeatable habits. James challenges us to ask, "How can we make...small changes...little one percent improvements...and in the process of integrating them...into a larger system, end up making some really remarkable progress?" In this interview, James shares findings from the latest research, in order to teach us how to design simple systems that support game-changing habits. In particular, he explains how we can leverage our environments and even our addictive tendencies to our advantage. And he helps us see how a commitment to daily habit change, no matter how small, can lead to a new identity: "Every action you take is like a vote for the person you want to become...doing one pushup or writing one sentence or reading one page...cast[s] a vote for being that kind of person, for reinforcing that identity." James is an author and speaker focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, and on CBS This Morning. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @JamesClear Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals This Year The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Hooked by Nir Eyal The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey Point and Call video Habit Scorecard How to Improve Your Health and Productivity Without Thinking Stick with It by Sean Young The Mistake Smart People Make: Being in Motion vs Taking Action Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can recognizing, understanding, and managing our emotions contribute to our happiness, success, and well-being? Emotions play a big role in our lives. Yet, for most of us, they're viewed as something to ignore or overcome. For these reasons, we often have little experience identifying our feelings. We say we're stressed out, when what we may actually be feeling is frustration, anger, or even disappointment. While the distinction between stress and frustration may seem slight, it's actually enormous. Marc Brackett, author of the book, Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive, explains: "Imagine how many of us...don't really have clarity about what we're feeling, and feel uncomfortable talking about those feelings, don't know how to regulate them. It's a disaster really. It's why so many people are unhappy." Marc shares a tool to help us more accurately identify our emotions, so that we can work with them more effectively. This tool is part of a framework he's developed to help us live fuller and happier lives. He shares that his bigger goal for this work is to "create an emotion revolution," in order to "ensure that everyone has permission to feel." Marc is the Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. He's published over a hundred scholarly articles on the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, and performance, and he consults regularly with organizations like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links @marcbrackett marcbrackett.com RULER Mood Meter Emotional Agility by Susan David Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three things you can do to support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family about the podcast. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe.  Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

In a world where empathy is in decline, how can we learn to care more? If you sense we're less empathetic today than decades past, you're right. Studies show there's been a 48 percent decline in empathy between 1979 and 2009. Though human beings are wired to care about each other, we need the right conditions for those feelings to grow. Jamil Zaki, author of the book, The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, argues that a shift to online interactions and urban living has made relationships more "narrow, transactional, and anonymous." He explains that in this kind of environment, it's "really not great soil for empathy to grow." But there is hope. Jamil's research reveals that empathy is a skill we can develop through training and that this training can leave us feeling not only more empathetic, but also kinder. Dedicated practice can also change the brain. Jamil shares that it can grow "parts of the brain...associated with the experience of empathy." Jamil Zaki is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, by clicking here. Episode Links @zakijam The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot Carol Dweck Tania Singer London taxi drivers and brain science Gordon Allport Contact hypothesis Emile Bruneau Nicholas Epley When Cops Choose Empathy by Jamil Zaki Jason A. Okonofua Elizabeth Levy Paluck Jeremy Bailenson Eve Ekman Kari Leibowitz Three Ways to Support the Podcast First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the show wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if the very tech that connects us is taking away our need to interact? Technology connects us to more people than ever before. Yet, as Adam Waytz, author of the book, The Power of Human: How Our Shared Humanity Can Help Us Create a Better World, points out, the data shows we're interacting with one another a whole lot less. We can turn to our apps for restaurant recommendations and our social media platforms for insights into our friends' lives. And we can do all this without ever having to directly communicate with anyone. Adam believes this lack of human interaction is taking its toll. He contends that, "...people are becoming less engaged with each other, which then manifests in things like income inequality, political polarization...treating people as more members of a market economy...versus members of a community." To counter these tendencies, he believes we need to bring more meaning to work. In particular, he recommends, "Getting people to think about the way their work impacts other people..." Doing so helps people "...feel like their work matters and ultimately make[s] them feel more human, even as we see automation creeping around us."  Adam is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and a social psychologist at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.  The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by clicking here. Episode Links adamwaytz.com What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limit of Markets by Michael J. Sandel Social Empathy: The Art of Understanding Others by Elizabeth Segal Mistakenly Seeking Solitude by Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How would our decision-making change if we shifted focus from the present to the future? Instant gratification comes easily to us. But when we delay tackling long-term problems associated with things like, health, climate, or society, we cheat our future selves. Bina Venkataraman, author of the book, The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age, argues that it doesn't have to be this way. Mining related research from the fields of biology, psychology, and economics, Bina shares steps we can take to make wiser decisions. For example, she invites us to look more closely at the kinds of data we're gathering. She explains, "So often we're measuring a lot of immediate results...And that's true whether you look at our sensors that track the steps we take, small fluctuations in temperature or the stock market, or test scores for kids in school." Yet, she argues that this kind of data is "not always a great proxy of what we actually want to accomplish in the long run." Instead, she explains that it's when we telescope out that we see what's at stake. But only if we make it a habit to do so. And though it's a habit that's hard to master, Bina believes we have a choice. She shares, "we're actually not cursed to this recklessness...Is it going to be easy in every case? No. Can we do it right away? No. But the book is really a roadmap for how we do that as a society. And I think it's cause for a king of optimism, an engaged optimism." Ultimately, she exults, "we have the power to do things differently." Bina Venkataraman is the incoming editorial page editor at The Boston Globe. She worked as a journalist for The New York Times and served as senior advisor for climate change innovation in the Obama White House. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by clicking here. Episode Links @binajv Mental time travel Hal Hershfield Thomas Suddendorf Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions that Matter the Most by Steven Johnson Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University Aging booth app Elke Weber Dear Tomorrow with Jill Kubit and Trisha Shrum Vijay Mahajan Walter Mischel Implementation intention or if-then and Peter Gollwitzer Ronnie Bardah Eagle Capital Management Pre-mortem Social discount rate Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: (1) subscribe so you'll never miss an episode; (2) tell a friend or family member - you'll always have someone to talk to about the interview; and rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe - you'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How does work change when we have five generations in the workplace at once? For the first time in history, there are five different generations working alongside one another in the workplace. In some organizations, that makes for a potential 60-year age difference among employees and, for that reason alone, it makes sense that there might be generational divides and misunderstandings. Lindsey Pollak, author of the book, The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace, is quick to point out that being born to a particular generation doesn't necessarily mean we'll feel the way we're depicted. In fact, she argues, "It doesn't guarantee that you will behave that way or that will be your personal preference." Yet she argues that the likelihood is high they'll hold similar perspectives because of the era in which they entered the workforce: "[there] will be common understandings." Lindsey challenges us to rethink millennial stereotypes and reflexive views of older workers. For example, she talks about how leaders can reframe knee-jerk reactions to millennials' career aspirations, in order to respond more effectively. They can ask, "What are you eager for? Maybe it's leadership skills which I can help you get elsewhere without the next job. Maybe it's more learning and I can help you engage in training and development." Lindsey has served as an official ambassador for LinkedIn, a Millennial workplace expert for The Hartford, and as chair of Cosmopolitan's Millennial Advisory Board. Lindsey is also author of the books, Getting from College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World and Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders. The Host Head here to learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli. Episode Links @lindseypollak Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott Neil Howe and William Strauss -- Generational Theory Lindsey Pollak TEDx Talk: It's about Time We Stop Shaming Millennials Project Oxygen: re:Work User Manuals and Workplace Teams and How to Create a Personal User Manual Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe. You'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Overcast Google Play

What does artificial intelligence mean for the future of machine consciousness and the human mind? Every week, artificial intelligence is playing a bigger role in the products that we use. Think of Siri, Alexa, Netflix and Spotify. But are we seriously considering what the future holds when it comes to the role AI will play in our lives? Susan Schneider, author of the book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, asks the questions that companies often don’t. Among those discussed in this interview are: Could AIs become conscious? and, What does it really mean for humans to merge with AIs using brain implants or other devices? In this interview, she shares her concerns: “If you enhance your brain in radical ways would you still be you, or would you basically be changing yourself in such incredibly radical ways that you are no longer the same person you were before?” Susan believes we should be asking these kinds of questions now, before these technologies become mainstream. She argues that if we don’t, important aspects of human life may be decided by people who design first and ask questions later. She says, “Think of Anthony Hopkins’ character in Westworld. In a way he’s a consciousness engineer. He made decisions, together with other characters, to create or not create sentient beings.” Susan Schneider is a philosopher and cognitive scientist. Currently, she’s the NASA Chair at the Library of Congress and the Director of the AI, Mind and Society Group at the University of Connecticut. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Financial Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian. Her books include The Language of Thought, The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, and Science Fiction and Philosophy. The Host Head here to learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli. Episode Links @DrSueSchneider Singularity Transhumanism Ray Kurzweil Philosophical zombie John Searle Chinese Room thought experiment NASA, Astrobiology and Paul Davies, Seth Shostak, and Steven Dick A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence by Karthik Hosanagar Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom Derek Parfit The Postbiological Universe by Dr. Steven Dick, NASA The Mind is the Software of the Brain by Ned Block Merging with AI Would Be Suicide for the Human Mind by Susan Schneider, FT Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe. You'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Overcast Google Play

Is there a certain type of leader whose management approach gets more from their teams? Gartner, a research and advisory firm, recently conducted a study of thousands of managers and employees. They wanted to find out if there were certain types of management practices that had the greatest impact on employee growth and development. In this interview, Sari Wilde, co-author of the book, The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Built Exceptional Talent – and Others Don’t, shares their findings. Sari explains that what the researchers learned surprised them: not only did one management type have an outsize impact, but it was also a type they never would have predicted. They named it the Connector Manager. According to Sari, this type of leader not only provides targeted feedback and coaching, but also readily “connects employees to others, either within the team, or across the organization, who might be better suited to provide the right kind of coaching and development.” Sari also shares key characteristics of Connector Managers, as well as some of the tools they use in their work. For example, she describes one tool managers can use to assess employee motivation. It’s one Sari found so insightful that she used it with her team. Today, it frames how they do their work: “[The team’s] top five motivators were things like growth, achievement, transparency, inclusion, so that has changed the way that I communicate, the way I run my team meetings.” Sari is a Managing Vice President at Gartner where she leads global teams focused on creating research and products to improve outcomes. She’s been studying organizations for more than 15 years, advising executives at hundreds of Fortune 500 companies on their leadership and talent management practices. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson Sari Levine Wilde Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Does college have a greater impact on the lives we lead than we ever imagined? Is college still a tool for upward mobility or is the system engineered to advance the wealthy? Paul Tough, author of the book, The Years that Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, answers this question and more. For example, he explains differences in how many rich and poor students choose their colleges and how those choices impact lifetime earnings. He also discusses how financial aid really works: “College wants us to think that financial aid is this very linear process where colleges decide who they want to admit, and then they give them the aid that they need and it’s a very straightforward process….But that’s not true.” Though he discusses how the system of higher education is broken, he also offers insights on how to fix it. He explains that a hundred years ago, the U.S. government saw how technological advances made it necessary for young people to have a high school education to compete for jobs. They tackled that problem by creating a system of free, public high schools. Paul sees parallels today: “Clearly a high school degree is not enough to compete in the current labor marketplace….Kids need more education. But we have not … pulled together to say well we’re going to solve that problem. Instead we’re saying to these young people, you’re on your own.” Paul is a contributing writer to New York Times Magazine where he’s written extensively about parenting, education, poverty, and politics. His writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Esquire, and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Paul’s previous books include: Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why, and How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @paultough Raj Chetty and article about him: The Economist Who Would Fix the American Dream Caroline Hoxby and articles on her work: The College Board Tried a Simple, Cheap, Research-Backed Way to Push Low-Income Kids into Better Colleges. It Didn’t Work and The Nudges That Didn’t Work Anthony A. Jack and his book: The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez David Laude and his interventions to support college students at the University of Texas The High School Movement in the U.S. Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if advice we get to “follow your passion” is more complicated that it seems? Steve Magness is co-author with Brad Stulberg of the book, The Passion Paradox: A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering the Benefits of an Unbalanced Life. Steve coaches some of the world’s top distance runners and has propelled numerous athletes to Olympic trials, world championship teams, and the Olympics. He has been a featured expert in Runner’s World and the New York Times. When faced with the choice of what to do with our lives, we’re often told, “follow your passion.” Steve believes this advice can be overwhelming, incomplete, and, ultimately, defeating. That’s why he and Brad decided to study the topic. They wanted to demystify it. Along the way, they learned that passion not only fuels big accomplishments, but it can also be problematic. They share that, “passion and addiction are close cousins.” In this interview, Steve shares ways to develop our passion and insights on how failure can play a role in our search. He also gives tips on how to sustain our passion for the long haul by doing things like focusing on what we can control, rather than what our competitors are doing. He contends, “We can’t control what other people do and where that bar is. But what we can control is making the comparison point a previous version of yourself.” The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net Episode Links @stevemagness and https://www.scienceofrunning.com/ @BStulberg and https://www.bradstulberg.com/ Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein Instead of “Finding Your Passion,” Try Developing It, Stanford Scholars Say Les Passions de l’Ame: On Obsessive and Harmonious Passion Shalane Flanagan Obey the 24-Hour Rule Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if our IQ scores reveal far less about intelligence and reasoning than we think? We often assume that people with high IQ scores are more intelligent. We may even believe they’re able to think more critically and make wiser decisions. But is that true? In this interview, David Robson, author of the book, The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes, reveals that people with high IQ scores can actually be more prone to mental mistakes and that they don’t necessarily make wise decisions. He compares their intelligence to a car with a fast engine and tremendous power that, without “…a GPS, and good steering and reliable brakes…could actually be quite dangerous. It can drive you in the wrong direction. It can drive you off a cliff. It could just drive you around in circles.” David explains the origins and limitations of IQ testing, particularly how it overlooks other forms of intelligence, like creative, practical, and cultural intelligence. He also shares the evolutionary dynamics that explain poor decision making, as well as the advantages of measuring people’s ability to engage in wise reasoning: “The wise reasoning scores were actually very good at predicting how happy [people] were, how likely they were to suffer from depression, whether they were satisfied with the people around them – you know all of these really important things in their life.” David is an award-winning science journalist who specializes in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. He was a features editor at New Scientist and is currently a senior journalist at BBC Future. His writing has also appeared in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @d_a_robson davidrobson.me Kary Mullis Lewis Terman Flynn effect Robert Sternberg Cultural Intelligence and Soon Ang Keith Stanovich and dysrationalia Daniel Kahneman Dan Kahan Curse of knowledge Farsighted by Steven Johnson Igor Grossmann and wise reasoning Philip E.Tetlock and superforecasting Silvia Mamede Adam Galinsky Richard Feynman Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How is our lack of social empathy affecting millions of people in surprising, unexpected ways? To maintain and deepen our relationships with other individuals, we need empathy. To craft policies that effectively serve entire groups, we need what Elizabeth Segal, author of the book, Social Empathy: The Art of Understanding Others, refers to as social empathy. Yet for most of us, social empathy is a blind spot, one with often devastating consequences when it comes to public policies in areas like, education, healthcare, and politics. For example, Elizabeth points to Hurricane Katrina as an example of how a lack of social empathy delayed fixing the collapsed levees: “The public policies were never put in place because the people who had the power to make those policies didn’t live in those neighborhoods, particularly the poorest neighborhoods.” To counter this blind spot, Elizabeth explains that we need to understand what social empathy is and how it operates. In this interview, she shares how our biology and experiences influence and shape this capacity, along with what we can do to cultivate it. For example, she describes a teaching experience that sparked social empathy in her students: “They started to learn in a small way that life is different when you’re poor than when you’re not.” Elizabeth is Professor of Social Work at Arizona State University. She’s also author of the book, Social Welfare Policy and Social Programs: A Values Perspective, and co-author of Assessing Empathy. The Team You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Outgroup Bias The Power of Human by Adam Waytz The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki How Toyota Turns Workers into Problem Solvers by Sarah Jane Johnston Social Empathy Center Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds Podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if you design a product or service that prevents certain people from using it? These kinds of mismatches are everywhere: a computer mouse that works only for the right-handed; credit-card-only payment systems that exclude those without credit; and even game controllers for gamers who can’t use their hands. Inclusive design advocate, Kat Holmes, explains, “The design of the controller is an indicator of who gaming is for and who it is not for…to think that one little piece of plastic shaped in a particular way is a gateway requirement to who can and can’t participate…starts to become a really absurd idea.” When this kind of exclusionary design scales, it can shape entire industries and markets. And for many designers, these outcomes are unintended. That's why Kat Holmes, UX designer and author of the book Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, is a champion of inclusive design. In fact, she's developed a framework for design teams, so that more people can participate. Kat argues that inclusive design should be a priority, not an afterthought. In addition to all the ways it helps people, it’s often been a smart business decision. To that end, Kat shares all the ways design teams can make this an ongoing part of the creative process: “…whether it’s the team…the work environment, the tools…the assumptions, all of these things are…opportunities for either balancing towards exclusion or towards inclusion.” Kat served as Principal Director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft and in 2017 was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Today she serves as Director of User Experience Design at Google. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @katholmes The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda World Health Organization on disabilities John Porter, UX Designer at Microsoft Susan Goltsman and the Emergence of Inclusive Design A Brief History of Closed Captioning (it all started with Julia Child) Pellogrino Turri and The Technology of Compassion Vint Cerf Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What’s the cost when women are left out of healthcare, education, and public policy data? Data drives decision making in critical areas. Yet, in most cases, as Caroline Criado Perez, author of the book, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, points out, women are simply absent from the data. Why is this? Because we operate in a world where deeply ingrained cultural biases treat men as the data default and women as the exception. Caroline explains, “If we look at politics . . . news media . . . films, women represent about 20 percent of the people we see and hear about. . . we are taking in that information and thinking that this is what the world looks like. . . it creates this sense in our heads that we don’t have to collect data on women.” This data gap leads to bad decisions with devastating consequences. What’s even more shocking is that these gaps are hidden in plain sight, in places where it would seem like gender couldn’t possibly matter. For example, when one Swedish town studied which roads got cleared first following a snowstorm, they were surprised to learn their decisions were based on male commuting patterns. The result was that women were getting hurt, and the town was losing money. Caroline reveals that . . . “the cost of the accident and emergency admission was three times the cost of the winter road maintenance. And just by doing this simple switch of the order in which they do the snow clearing, that cost went down dramatically.” Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster, and feminist activist and was named Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year. Her first book was titled, Do It Like a Woman. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Pierre Bourdieu Why Sweden Clears Snow-Covered Walkways Before Roads by Angie Schmitt The Work that Makes Work Possible by Anne-Marie Slaughter Women Lack Access to Private Toilets Around the World Do the Math: Include Women in Government Budgets Gender Budgeting in OECD Countries Why Women Are No Longer Catching Up to Men on Pay by Ben Casselman Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds Podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if achieving our goals is not about willpower but about gratitude, compassion and pride? It’s natural to experience negative emotions, like discouragement, frustration, and even fear when we’re working on something hard. And every time these feelings arise, we may be tempted to overcome them with willpower. But rather than dismissing our emotions, what if we put them to work on our behalf? In this interview, David DeSteno, author of the book, Emotional Success: The Power of Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride, explains: “Emotions push people to do hard things. And if we’re not utilizing those tools in the right way, we’re kind of fighting this battle with one hand tied behind our back.” In particular, the three emotions David champions are gratitude, compassion and pride. He explains that they not only fuel perseverance, but also “…reduce people’s blood pressure. There’s evidence they will help you sleep better at night. They will increase immune responses. In general, they basically act to destress the body.” David is a Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association where he served as editor in chief of the journal, Emotion. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @daviddesteno http://www.davedesteno.com/ and his Social Emotions Lab at Northeastern University Psychologist Walter Mischel The Grateful Don’t Cheat: Gratitude as a Fount of Virtue by David DeSteno, Fred Duong, Daniel Lim, and Shanyu Kates Hal Hershfield Episode 124 with Liz Fosslien on Emotions at Work on her book Tom Denson, Professor at UNSW in Sydney; he studies aggression David Brooks and resume vs eulogy virtues When Students Feel They Belong, They Thrive by G. M. Walton and G. L. Cohen Classroom Belonging and Student Performance in the Introductory Engineering Classroom Nilanjana Dasgupta, Social Psychologist at UMass Amherst Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Some Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

In a world where empathy is in decline, how can we learn to care more? If you’re sensing that people are less empathetic today than decades ago, your instincts would be right. We are. Though human beings are wired to care about each other, we need the right conditions for those feelings to grow. Jamil Zaki, author of the book, The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, argues that an increase in online interactions and urban living has made relationships more “…narrow, transactional, and anonymous.” He explains that in this kind of environment, it’s “…really not great soil for empathy to grow.”   His research reveals that empathy is a skill we can develop through training and that this training can leave people feeling not only more empathetic, but also kinder. In addition, Jamil shares that this kind of training can change the brain, that it can grow “…parts of the brain often associated with the experience of empathy.” Jamil is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @zakijam The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot Carol Dweck Tania Singer London taxi drivers and brain science Gordon Allport Contact hypothesis Emile Bruneau Nicholas Epley When Cops Choose Empathy by Jamil Zaki Jason A. Okonofua Elizabeth Levy Paluck Jeremy Bailenson Intensive Care Nursey UCSF Eve Ekman, Ph.D., MSW Kari Leibowitz Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast  

Can we achieve greater success in life by choosing to generalize rather than to specialize? If you want to be the best at something, the story goes something like this: Begin as early as you can. Focus on nothing else. And practice as if your life depends on it. It’s the story we associate with sports heroes and chess grandmasters. But David Epstein, author of the book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, argues that this story is incomplete. It never mentions the fact that activities like chess and golf take place in “kind” learning environments, where learners have perfect information, operate with clear goals, and experience immediate feedback. In contrast, most of us operate in what are called “wicked” environments. There, as David explains, “…not all information is clear. People don’t wait for each other to take turns. . . Goals may be unclear. Feedback may be intermittent, nonexistent . . . it may be inaccurate and it may be delayed.” David also reveals that many top performers were not, in fact, specialists from an early age. They were generalists who took the time to explore multiple paths, and many delayed choosing a focus until they found the right fit: “They pinballed around . . . They didn’t focus on the long term . . . Instead, they said here’s who I am right now, here are the skills I have, here’s what I want to learn, here are the opportunities in front of me right now…” David has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. His first book was the bestseller, The Sports Gene. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links David Epstein and Malcolm Gladwell on 10,000 Hours vs The Sports Gene What the Childhood Years of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer Can Teach Us about Success by David Epstein The Two Settings of Kind and Wicked Learning Environments by Robin M. Hogarth, Tomas Lejarraga, and Emre Soyer Gary A. Klein Daniel Kahneman on adversarial collaborations Flynn effect Does Professor Quality Matter? Evidence from Random Assignment of Students to Professors by Scott E. Carrell and James E. West Recent Research on Human Learning Challenges Conventional Instructional Strategies by Doug Rohrer and Harold Pashler on spacing, interleaving and testing Structure Mapping in Analogy and Similarity by Dedre Gentner and Arthur B. Markman Integrated Science Program at Northwestern University Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra Beware the “Inside View” by Daniel Kahneman Here is What It Takes to Become a CEO, According to 12,000 LinkedIn Profiles How Scientists Think by Kevin Dunbar Drop Your Tools: An Allegory for Organizational Studies by Karl E. Weick You Don’t Want a Child Prodigy by David Epstein on headstarts and falling behind The Darkhorse Project What You’ll Wish You’d Known by Paul Graham includes concept of premature optimization Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder is 45 by Pierre Azoulay, Benjamin Jones, J. Daniel Kim, and Javier Miranda Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing in Italian by Cressida Leyshon Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if we entered negotiations with the goal of benefitting both sides, not just ours? For many, the word negotiation conjures up images of a heated exchange, of master manipulators, expert wordsmiths, and of winners and losers. Victors earn the spoils by outsmarting opponents and preying on their weaknesses. It’s a daunting picture. But Brian Gunia, author of the book, The Bartering Mindset: A Mostly Forgotten Framework for Mastering Your Next Negotiation, shows that this mindset is not only short-sighted, but can also be ineffective. He argues that we’d be much more successful – and enjoy the negotiation process more – if we spent as much time thinking of the other person’s needs as our own. He encourages us to “…think about negotiations not as opportunities to fight with the other side about one fixed outcome, like money, but as the opportunity to find issues to trade things with the other side that benefit both of us at the same time.” Brian is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School. His research has been featured in publications like Fast Company, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. In this interview, he shares his five-step process for applying a bartering mindset to our next negotiation and explains why it works: “…negotiators who spend more time and make more of an effort to figure out what’s going on in the other side’s head, tend to do a lot better.” The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @briangunia Mindwise by Nicholas Epley Distributive versus integrative negotiation Double coincidence of wants Multiple equivalent simultaneous offers (MESOs) and their benefits Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can paying more attention to the world around us increase our engagement and creativity? Most of us are fighting a daily tug-of-war with distraction – from phone alerts to streaming video to open office plans. Yet, when it comes to what we can do about it, we're mainly encouraged to manage our tech and prioritize productivity. Rob Walker offers a different goal, along with a very different set of solutions. Author of the book, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday, he contends that our lives become richer when we engage more fully with the world around us. In fact, he reveals what most creatives already know, namely, that paying attention to the everyday can refuel us: “It’s kind of just a basic building block of having a distinct point of view or creating something new or coming up with an innovation of almost any kind.” In this interview, Rob shares practices we can use to become more observant and more connected. One example involves taking a moment to notice which phase the moon is in: “Most people have no idea, which is kind of astonishing, because there was a time when everyone on the planet knew what phase the moon was in.” Rob is a columnist for Life Hacker and contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He’s also author of the books, Buying In and Significant Objects, and he serves on the faculty at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @notrobwalker School of Visual Arts in Manhattan The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu and link to my interview with him A Painting Only You Can See by Randy Kennedy Davy Rothbart and Found Magazine John Cage and 4’33” Marcel Duchamp and the concept of Infrathin On Looking by Alexander Horowitz Roman Mars 99% Invisible The SLANT method Letters to Strangers Rick Prelinger Ian Bogost Easy Ways to Support the Podcast First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we ensure we not only respect people’s dignity, but also protect our own? Violations of dignity lie at the heart of many conflicts, from the global stage to the corner office. Yet, dignity is a concept we rarely discuss. Donna Hicks, author of the book, Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture that Brings out the Best in People, believes it all starts with understanding the difference between dignity and respect: “Respect is something that has to be earned, whereas dignity is something that each and every one of us deserves. We are born with it.” Drawing on her extensive experience in international conflict resolution, and insights from psychology and neuroscience, she shares the essential elements of dignity and how to respond effectively when our dignity is violated. And she explains the importance of learning these skills in today’s workplace. In this interview, Donna also reveals how past behavior can prevent us from leading with dignity: “If you want to lead your life with dignity, one of the things that I think gets in the way of that is feeling ashamed and embarrassed by the ways in which we’ve violated people’s dignity.” Donna is a conflict resolution specialist who has facilitated diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and other high-conflict regions. She’s also an associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Her first book is titled, Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @drdonnahicks Nelson Mandela and Archibishop Desmond Tutu Start with Why by Simon Sinek What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team by Charles Duhigg The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson An Everyone Culture by Robert Kegan No Hard Feelings by Lis Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy, Episode 124 of Curious Minds William James’ I vs Me Barbara Frederickson Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

We all have trouble changing our habits, but the problem isn’t us, it’s our systems. Whether we want to adopt good habits or avoid bad ones, we need to think beyond willpower or setting bigger goals. Instead, James Clear, author of the book, Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, argues that the secret is designing a system of small, repeatable habits. He challenges us to ask ourselves, “How can we make these small changes that we layer on top of each other – these little 1% improvements or tiny advantages – and in the process of integrating them all into a larger system, end up making some really remarkable progress?” Through compelling stories and brain research, James teaches us how to design game-changing habits and sustainable systems. In addition, he shares ways we can leverage environmental factors and addictive tendencies to our advantage. Finally, he helps us see how a commitment to daily habits leads to the identity we seek: “Every action you take is like a vote for the person that you want to become. Doing one push up or writing one sentence or reading one page, it’s not going to transform you right away. But it does cast a vote for being that kind of person, for reinforcing that kind of identity.” James is an author and speaker focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Entrepreneur, and on CBS This Morning. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @JamesClear James’ article on British cycling and marginal gains: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here’s What Happened James’ article on identity and habits: Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals This Year The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Hooked by Nir Eyal The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey Point and Call safety system in Japan (video) Habit Scorecard James’ article on habits and environment: How to Improve Your Health and Productivity Without Thinking Stick with It by Sean Young James’ article on motion versus action: The Mistake Smart People Make: Being in Motion vs. Taking Action Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if there were a better way for us to think through life’s riskiest decisions? That’s where Allison Schrager comes in. She’s the author of the book, An Economist Walks into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk. An economist, journalist at Quartz, and cofounder of LifeCycle Finance Partners, she led retirement product innovation at Dimensional Fund Advisors and consulted for international organizations, including the OECD and the IMF. Allison has also been a regular contributor to The Economist and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and she teaches at New York University. For her book, Alison spent time with high-risk professionals, like big-wave surfers, movie producers, and sex workers. She learned how they manage risk and shares what we can learn from them. Along the way, she learned some surprising things about herself, like what it felt like to play in her first poker tournament: “We start at 8:00, and it’s like midnight, and I’m like ‘When does this game end?’ And people are like ‘When you run out of chips.’ And I’m like, oh my god, I’m going to be here forever.” When it comes to risk, Allison believes we can learn to overcome our biases and manage risk effectively. She explains, “There’s been so many books [on the topic] …but they always write everyone off as being sort of hopeless when it comes to risk or thinking probabilistically, and I really believe everyone has it in them.” You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Moonlite BunnyRanch and Dennis Hof Kat Cole and Focus Brands Film producer, Ryan Kavanaugh Idiosyncratic risk versus systematic risk Top poker player, Phil Hellmuth, and poker staking How Luck Happens by Janice Kaplan and Barnaby Marsh Gerd Gigerenzer Arnold Donald and IoT and AI with Carnival cruises David Bowie Magician Belinda Sinclair Robert C. Merton Big Wave Risk Assessment Group H. R. McMaster Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Unconscious racial bias can influence what we see, what we do, and what we remember. These are topics that Jennifer Eberhardt, author of the book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, has been studying for over twenty years. In one of her studies, participants were shown either black or white human faces and then asked to identify a crime-related versus a neutral object. She found that, “black faces facilitated the detection of the crime object, whereas the white faces inhibited their detection of those very same crime objects.” Jennifer’s research led her to work with police departments, prison inmates, and companies. In each case, she couples awareness instruction with actions people can take. For example, she helped one company address online bias in reporting suspicious people in their neighborhood by shifting their response from “if you see something, say something” to “if you see something suspicious, say something specific.” Jennifer is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a recipient of a 2014 MacArthur “genius grant.” She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. She is co-founder and co-director of SPARQ, a Stanford "do tank" that brings together researchers and practitioners to address significant social problems. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Blindspot by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald Language from Police Body Language Footage Shows Racial Disparities in Officer Respect Scientific racism Jennifer’s 2014 MacArthur Fellow video The Racist Trope that Won’t Die by Brent Staples When Resumes are Made ‘Whiter’ to Please Potential Employers by Bourree Lam Whitened Resumes: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market by Sonia K. Kang, Katherine A. DeCelles, Andras Tilcsik, and Sora Jun Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Are we making our own decisions or are machine learning algorithms making them for us? Kartik Hosanagar, author of the book, A Human’s Guide to Machine Intelligence: How Algorithms are Shaping Our Lives and How We Can Stay in Control, explains that algorithms are merely a set of steps for making decisions. Yet he points out that artificial intelligence has become so pervasive in our lives that we’re often unaware of just how many decisions machines are making on our behalf: “The algorithms [are] driving 70-80% of the choices that people [make]…[But] if we asked people how much of your choices are driven by algorithms, they might say maybe 10-20%. We think we are…choosing…but in reality, they are curating our world for us.” In this interview, we talk about what companies should be asked to reveal about their algorithms. We also discuss why we need to educate ourselves about how they work. We also discuss some of the unexpected research findings that arise when machines learn from each other, rather than humans. For example, in one study, a surprising thing happened as machines were learning how to negotiate: Karthik explains that “…the bots were negotiating with each other using words and sentences that made almost no sense to the researchers. The bots had figured out a secret code to communicate with each other that was allowing them to communicate more efficiently.” Kartik Hosanagar is Professor of Technology and Digital Business and Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. His writing has appeared in Wired, Forbes, and the Harvard Business Review. Episode Links @KHosanagar Irresistible by Adam Alter Reporter Carole Cadwalladr’s The Guardian article on Google search bias regarding Jews A more recent article on Google search algorithm bias Kevin Gibbs and the Google autocomplete origin story Code of Hammurabi Jennifer Logg and her work on algorithmic and human judgment Berkeley Dietvost, Joe Simmons and Cade Massey’s paper on our how humans avoid algorithms after they make errors Rene Kizilcec’s paper on the effects of transparency on trust when it comes to algorithms James Barrat You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple things you can do to support our work. First, subscribe. That way you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping others find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we change boring, unproductive meetings into gatherings no one would want to miss? Many of us dread meetings, even when we’re the ones leading them! But there are steps we can take to make them great – steps Steven Rogelberg, author of the book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance,has been studying for over two decades. Though some argue we should get rid of meetings, Steven sees them as essential: “The elimination of meetings is a false goal. Without meetings, employee voice is quieted. Your ability to coordinate, communicate and truly engage in consensus decision making – they’re all compromised without meetings. . . the true goal is to eliminate bad meetings.” In this interview, Steven shares simple approaches we can take to make meetings great. He offers tips on how to structure meetings to achieve our goals, how to determine who needs to attend, and how to manage meeting energy. For example, he recommends shifting our next meeting agenda from a list of topics to a set of questions. By doing this, he explains, “Now you are actually very clear. You will be done with this meeting when these questions are answered.” Steven is an award-winning Professor of Organizational Science, Management, and Psychology at the University of North Carolina. His work has been profiled by the Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal, and he’s worked with organizations such as IBM, TIAA and Procter & Gamble. Episode Links @stevenrogelberg Meeting recovery syndrome The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker Parkinson’s Law Klaxoon Steven’s book was listed as the #1 leadership book to watch in 2019 in the Washington Post and the #1 business book everyone will be reading in Business Insider You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. If you enjoy the podcast, there are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if the secret to getting unstuck isn’t the right answer, but the right question? Hal Gregersen, author of the book, Questions are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life, came to this conclusion after interviewing over 200 high-impact leaders. Through these conversations, he learned they were asking a different kind of question, one he calls catalytic. In this interview, he explains that these kinds of questions “…challenge an assumption that is fundamentally false in a way that provides me and perhaps others around me energy and motivation to do something about it.” Along the way, Hal’s found that these kinds of questions can help us get unstuck in all aspects of our lives. For example, Hal shares the story of a leader lamenting the distance he feels in his relationship with a teenage daughter. After spending just four minutes on a catalytic questioning activity called a “question burst,” this same leader made a starting realization: “At the beginning of the conversation…I was so focused on how to not lose her…But I was asking the wrong question. I really need to figure out how to help her grow and flourish…[to] let her find her.” Hal is the Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He’s authored or co-authored ten books, including the bestseller, The Innovator’s DNA with Clay Christensen and Jeff Dyer. Episode Links Andreas Heinecke and Dialogue in the Dark Using Catalytic Questioning to Solve Significant Problems by Hal Gregersen Sociologist Amitai Etzioni Debby Sterling and Goldieblox More information on question bursts in this HBR article by Hal The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson Video clip of Ed Catmull explaining Pixar’s Brain Trust Creative Clarity by Jon Kolko Lior Div and Cybereason Video clip of Jeff Wilke Walt Bettinger Marc Benioff Bea Perez Room 13 If you enjoy the podcast, here are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast. You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net.  

What if instead of improving our lives, our technology is actually making them less meaningful? Many of us live in a hyperconnected world. Hourly, we’re responding to messages, writing emails, browsing social media, and combing the Internet. By the end of the day, we’re left wondering why we feel so unproductive and exhausted. These are feelings that Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, associates with the addictive nature of our devices. Cal believes our tech addictions have set us on a path for lives that feel less meaningful and less in our control. In this interview, he argues that, “It’s this sense of losing autonomy. That you signed up for these things…then you look up years later and see that you’re using them more than is useful…feeling like it’s manipulating the way that you feel and what you believe.” But rather than providing simplistic solutions, Cal describes a robust philosophy he calls digital minimalism. He explains how it challenges us to ask bigger questions like, “Do I like my life? Am I living a life worth living? Do I feel meaning and satisfaction? Do I feel a sense of authentic engagement?” Cal Newport is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. He writes the Study Hacks Blog and is the author of five other books, including: So Good They Can’t Ignore You, and Deep Work. Episode Links Steve Jobs announcing the first iPhone in 2007 Adam Alter Tim Wu Leah Pearlman on the perils of Facebook’s “like” button Tristan Harris Sean Parker Digital minimalism defined Matthew B. Crawford Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu Curious Minds interview with Tim Wu Lead Yourself First by Raymond M. Kethledge, Michael s. Erwin, and Jim Collins Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf The Shallows by Nicholas Carr Crossfit Benjamin Franklin’s and the Junto for structured social gatherings Generation Z Tim Berners-Lee The Slow Media Manifesto If you enjoy the podcast, here are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast.

Which emotions should we bring to work and which ones should we leave at home? When it comes to most workplaces, it’s a difficult question to answer. That’s what drove Liz Fosslien and her co-author, Mollie West Duffy, to write their book, No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work. It’s a compelling guide for validating and managing our feelings in the workplace. In this interview, Liz challenges the myth that emotions and work don’t mix: “This traditional notion that you can check your feelings at the door when you come into a job is biologically impossible.” She also shares advice on how we can handle our feelings, for example: “…when you are making a choice, write down everything that you’re feeling and really look at each feeling and say, is this because of something that I’m thinking about in this choice, or am I just feeling all of these irrelevant things…” Liz is a strategy and design consultant who’s worked with organizations like Salesforce, Ernst & Young, and the Stanford d.School. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Life Hacker, the Freakonomics blog, and on NPR. Episode Links @fosslien @molliewest Martin Seligman Emotional Agility by Susan David Curious Minds interview with Susan David Steven Pinker Emotional contagion If you enjoy the podcast, here are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast.

How can we reclaim our attention in a world that’s increasingly filled with digital distractions? Chris Bailey, author of the book, Hyperfocus: How to be More Productive in a World of Distraction, has some answers. He is a productivity expert whose work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company. His first book was The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy. In this interview, he shares ways we can increase our productivity. These include: multitasking strategically, meditating consistently, and creating a distraction-free environment. Episode Links @Chris_Bailey Deep Work by Cal Newport – Episode 28 interview on Curious Minds Gloria Mark Mary Czerwinski Parkinson’s law Shawn Achor  

Which work environments are the most effective at leveraging their people’s talents, skills and abilities? Amy Edmondson, award-winning Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School and author of the book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth, has spent her career trying to answer that question. What she’s learned is that organizations that prioritize psychological safety do it best. Amy has written three other books, as well as over 70 articles and case studies, on leadership, teams, innovation, and organizational learning. Her findings have been corroborated by a number of studies, including Google’s recent multi-year research on its teams. In their quest to uncover which traits accounted for the highest-performing teams, Google learned that, among five important traits, psychological safety was the single most important. As Amy explains in this interview: “Psychological safety isn’t a nice to have, it’s must have for excellence. Only in psychologically safe environments are we going to be able to energetically, and openly, and candidly work well together to get the job done.” Episode Links @AmyCEdmondson Amy’s HBS faculty profile Psychological safety Edgar Schein Warren Bennis William Kahn What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team by Charles Duhigg Volkswagen emissions scandal Curious Minds interview with Jason Fried of Basecamp Inside the Pixar Brain Trust The Leader’s Toolkit Julianne Morath

What can older workers contribute to fast-growing companies populated by digital natives? A lot. Chip Conley, author of the book, Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, believes that older workers provide emotional intelligence, discerning judgment and humble wisdom. But to do this, they need to let go of past identities and adopt a learning mindset. In short, they need to become interns while embracing their positions as mentors. Chip was the founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, a boutique hotel firm he ran for over 24 years. Most recently, he spent 5 years as Head of Hospitality and Strategy at Airbnb, helping to make it the world’s largest hospitality brand. He’s also author of the NYTimes bestseller, Emotional Equations. Episode Links @ChipConley http://www.chipconley.com/ Ageism Digital intelligence Joie de Vivre Hotels Rumi’s poem, Raw, Well-Cooked and Burnt Appreciative inquiry The Difference by Scott Page The Element of Lavishness: Letters of William Maxwell and Sylvia Townsend Warner Liminal Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl James Baldwin Emotional intelligence  

By reading on our devices, we’re losing abilities it took us thousands of years to develop. That’s because reading from a screen – a computer, a tablet, a phone – lends itself to skimming. This lack of deep reading alters brain development and erodes essential skills, like critical thinking and empathy, according to literacy expert, Maryanne Wolf. Author of the book, Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Maryanne is the Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice at UCLA and past professor of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. She is Co-Founder of Curious Learning, a global literacy project, and she works with the Dyslexia Center at the UCSF School of Medicine. Maryanne is not opposed to digital reading. Instead, she’s on a mission to help us develop what she calls a "bi-literate brain," that is, a brain suited for digital and analog reading, and she explains how we can teach young people to gain these important skills. Episode Links @MaryanneWolf_ NataliePhillips Ziming Liu Barbara Oakley’s interview on Curious Minds on Learning How to Learn The Lost Art of Reading by David Ulin Internet of Stings by Jennifer Howard Sam Wineberg Marilynne Summers Ann Mangan Susan B. Neuman If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. Your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing! You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. You can find the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast  

Disastrous events take place all the time, but could many be prevented? For example, could discount retailer, Target, have spared thousands of people their jobs rather than close 58 of its Canadian stores? Could the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe have been avoided? Chris Clearfield, co-author with Andras Tilcsik of the book, Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It, sees a paradox at work in these events, that is, increasingly complex systems resulting in greater vulnerability. As he walks us through similar meltdowns that have taken place across organizations like, Enron and Three Mile Island, as well as events like the Oscars, he shares steps we can take to anticipate, and even avoid, these disasters. A former derivatives trader, Chris worked in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He’s written about catastrophic failure, technology, and finance for The Guardian, Forbes, and the Harvard Kennedy School Review. In this interview Chris answers questions like: Why do meltdowns increase as systems grow more complicated? What advantages do diverse groups have when it comes to avoiding failures? What are the two biggest factors that contribute to most large-scale disasters? How does “tight coupling” contribute to meltdowns? What led to Starbuck’s infamous social media meltdown? How did snafus in UK post offices result in post masters spending time in jail? How has the Internet of things (IoT) increased the chance of meltdowns? In what ways have companies like Enron used complexity to their advantage? Why did Airbus 330 pilots trade sleek design for the more workmanlike Boeing 737? How can premortems help us anticipate and avoid failures in our work? What does the Flint water disaster have to teach us about our cognitive biases? Why is it so important for us to pay attention to small problems as they arise? Which is more important for preventing meltdowns, people who speak up or leaders who listen? How can families take advantage of agile work practices to up their game? What do flight crews have to teach us about workplace communication? Links to Episode Topics @ChrisClearfield Charles Perrow Three Mile Island accident Whiplash by Joi Ito and interview link on Curious Minds SPIES decision-making method Superforcasting by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner Performing a Project Premortem by Gary Klein Daniel Kahneman Flint Water Crisis Marlys Christianson Agile Practices for Families If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!

Many of us strongly identify as supporters of equality, diversity and inclusion. Yet Dolly Chugh’s research suggests that by holding on to this identity too tightly, we may not live up to our own expectations. Dolly is the author of the book, The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, suggests An award-winning Professor of Social Psychology at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Dolly encourages us to aim for “good-ish” over good, that is, to view ourselves as works-in-progress, so that we can stay open to making mistakes and learning from them. Through stories of ordinary people doing just that, Dolly gives us the mindset, the language, and the actions we can take to become the people we want to be. In this interview we talk about: Why wanting to be seen as good people makes it harder for us to become better people The connection between seeing ourselves as “good-ish” and holding a growth mindset How learning from our mistakes involves listening more deeply and asking more questions What our social media contacts can reveal about how diverse and inclusive our networks actually are How our biases limit what we notice and what we process How the concept of headwinds and tailwinds can help us understand systemic bias Uncoupling diversity from inclusion How diversity focuses on numbers while inclusion asks whether those numbers count How small, inclusive acts add up How opportunities initiated by people in power can transform headwinds into tailwinds The 20/60/20 rule for deciding when and how to engage as an ally Why an audience of undecided listeners may be the reason to engage with people resistant to issues of diversity and inclusion How personal, humanizing stories of diversity and inclusion often change minds more effectively than cold, hard facts Links to Episode Topics http://www.dollychugh.com/ @DollyChugh Rick Klau Carol Dweck and fixed vs growth mindset Perrin Chiles and Adaptive Studios Story of revival of Project Greenlight in 2014 Brittany Turner Implicit Association Test MeToo Movement Max Bazerman Blindspot by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald Debby Irving and headwinds and tailwinds Bootstrap narrative The myth of meritocracy African Americans and the G.I. Bill Susan Lucia Annunzio If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!

It can seem like we’re working harder, yet rarely getting to what matters most. John Zeratsky understands how we feel and wants to help. He’s the co-author with Jake Knapp of the book, Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day. Their book is an innovative way to look at our work, inspiring by years of productivity hacks that ultimately left them unfulfilled. John was a designer for tech companies like YouTube and Google before working at Google Ventures with close to 200 startups. There, he began experimenting with hundreds of teams, in order to help people accomplish their most important goals. What he discovered has been distilled to dozens of bite-sized tips and strategies readers can try out and build into their lives. John’s first book was the New York Times bestseller Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. He’s also written for The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Wired. In this interview we talk about: Why checking off items on a to-do list can make us feel productive yet unfulfilled Why we need to get off the “busy bandwagon” with meetings, email and chat How endless streams of content are bottomless “infinity pools” for our attention The direct connection between our tech’s default settings and attentional exhaustion How to keep the positive aspects of our tech and lose the not so good parts A four-part framework for making time for work we value How choosing a daily highlight can make all the difference on how we spend our time Why we should trade our to-do lists for might-do lists How to “bulldoze” our calendars to free up time for our daily highlights How making simple changes to our tech can help us create barriers to distraction Why dusting off our wristwatches may be the way to go Why quiet and boredom our invaluable for our work and our health Key ways we can design our environment so that the right decision is the easy decision Links to Episode Topics @jazer https://about.me/jazer Getting Things Done by David Allen Off the Clock by Laura Vanderkam and you can find her interview here on Curious Minds Curly Lambeau and Lambeau Field https://maketimebook.com/ If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!

Long hours, 24/7 access, and crushing goals have become the norm in many workplaces. Jason Fried, co-author of the book, It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work, thinks we need to stop celebrating this approach and, instead, actively work to create calmer organizations. Jason is the Co-founder and CEO of Basecamp, an incredibly successful project management and team communication software company. He’s written three other books about work —  Getting Real, Remote, and the New York Times Bestseller, Rework. In this interview we talk about: Why it’s invaluable to think of your organization as a product How curbing our ambition can be good for us and our customers Why we should understand that “a company is just a collection of choices” Reasons why leadership needs to defend their employees’ time from distractions The important role office hours can play in helping people focus Why we should embrace JOMO over FOMO The negative aspect of encouraging employees to think of each other as family What a trust battery can do for our relationships with others at work Why we should think twice before taking on projects we believe to be low-hanging fruit Why strong writing skills can be invaluable, no matter a person’s role at work Why expecting new employees to “hit the ground running” is unfair and inefficient What job candidates gain when leaders eliminate salary negotiations The value in supporting employee learning in areas of interest outside of work What everyone gains when we slow down how we make decisions about new ideas How to make a decision when team members disagree How building reading time into the start of a meeting can make the rest of the meeting more productive Links to Episode Topics @jasonfried https://basecamp.com/ Background on concept of disagree and commit A New York Times article on JOMO Morten Hansen on his book, Great at Work, on Episode 102 of Curious Minds Tobi Lutke and Shopify Article on Jeff Bezos and reading memos at the start of meetings If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!

What if you could make better decisions? Even with the biggest, life-altering choices, such as where to live, who to marry, or whether to start a company? Steven Johnson, author of the book, Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions that Matter the Most, thinks we often face decisions like this with little to no training and that we could use more tools in our decision-making toolbox.  Steven is the bestselling author of ten books, including Wonderland, How we Got to Now, Where Good Ideas Come From, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, and Everything Bad is Good for You. He is also the host and creator of the PBS and BBC series How We Got to Now. When it comes to complex decision making, he thinks we can do better, and in this interview about his latest book, Farsighted, he shares strategic approaches to help us get there. In this interview we discuss: How our most important decisions are complex and life-defining yet our approach to them is often too simple and quick Why breaking complex decisions into steps can help us get started Why you may never use a simple pros and cons list again How mapping all the variables that influence your decision can provide more wisdom Why our decision-making blindspots actually limit the kinds of decisions we make The important role outsiders or non-experts can play in expanding options for decision making Why diverse teams make more intelligent, thoughtful decisions than homogeneous teams The important roles uncertainty and lack of confidence play in making smarter decisions Why we need to take the either-or option off the decision-making table How influence diagrams can help us map who might be influenced or impacted by our decisions How charrettes can ensure we’ll get feedback from diverse stakeholders Why it’s important to speak to group members individually when trying to make a thoughtful decision The important role daydreaming plays in predicting outcomes in decision making The characteristics and practices of the most accurate predictors Why it’s important to map the degree to which we’re uncertain as we make important decisions How an effective decision-making process can help us work our way into important insights that may never have occurred to us otherwise Why we should try value models over pros and cons lists How reading novels provides decision-making simulations that help us practice Why decision making may be one of the top five skills we need to learn Links to Episode Topics https://stevenberlinjohnson.com/ @stevenbjohnson How We Got to Now|PBS Collect Pond Pierre Charles L’Enfant Paul C. Nutt Highline in NYC Katherine W. Phillips Decisive by Dan and Chip Heath Influence diagram Charrette Simple Rules by Donald Sull Phillip E. Tetlock Thomas C. Schelling Value model Middlemarch by George Eliot If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!

When we try to explain cultural differences, we often turn to descriptions of east versus west, rich versus poor or, in U.S. politics, red versus blue. But Michele Gelfand, author of the book Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World, argues that we’re overlooking the most comprehensive explanation of all – how tightly or loosely we adhere to social norms. Michele is Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and her pioneering research into cultural norms has been cited in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Science, and on NPR. Drawing on decades of research conducted in over 50 countries, Michele shares how these cultural characteristics play out around the world. In this interview we discuss: How our unwritten rules of behavior are the glue that holds societies together How tight cultures typically have stronger social norms than their loose culture counterparts Just how early we begin to learn social norms – typically by the age of 3 How our social norms affect our behavior from morning to night How social norms can cause us to follow along even when we don’t agree Why they play an important role in what we can accomplish as a society The tradeoffs of tight versus loose cultures when it comes to creativity, safety, openness, and cooperation How disasters, diseases, and diversity serve as indicators of tight versus loose cultures The dynamic nature of tight and loose cultures in response to temporary vs long-term environmental threats The role of social status and power in relation to tight vs loose cultures The impact of organizational tightness versus looseness on the success of mergers and acquisitions Why we should seek tight-loose ambidexterity to accommodate change How culturally ambidextrous leaders are more successful than their rigid counterparts Times we might compromise or negotiate with others when it comes to tight vs loose How our social norms will influence robot behavior Links to Topics Mentioned in the Podcast @MicheleJGelfand https://www.michelegelfand.com/ Culture Lab Solomon Asch The Secret to Our Success by Joseph Heinrich Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me! Robert Levine The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle Fractal Betty Dukes Tom Curley The Muppets If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!

Gatherings play a big role in our lives. Weekly work meetings. Weddings. Holiday dinners. But over time, our gatherings can have a ho-hum feel. Priya Parker, author of the book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, thinks it doesn’t have to be that way. Priya is the founder of Thrive Labs, an organization that draws on her training and experience in conflict resolution, organizational design, and public policy to help others create transformative gatherings. From the momentous convening of the World Economic Forum to a light-hearted picnic in the park, she walks us through new ways of bringing people together, including who to invite, how many, and even how to start. In this interview we discuss: How the category of a gathering – like a wedding or networking event – should never supersede its purpose Why knowing why we’re meetings should drive everything else about the gathering How an innovative justice center in Red Hook, Brooklyn rethought its purpose for gathering in order to solve problems of poverty and crime Why the New York Times had to replace ritual with purpose in its infamous “Page One” meetings The kinds of questions we can ask when planning a meaningful gathering Why “the more the merrier” works against effective meetings The connection between purpose and the number of people we invite to a meeting Why we need to think about the ratio of meeting space to number of people attending The responsibilities a host has once the gathering begins How we can use simple rules to create the feeling of a temporary alternative world How to start a gathering (and how not to) How an activity like “15 Toasts” drives connection Why the end of a meeting is just as important as the beginning Why gathering is an act of courage, rather than an act of perfection Why we need to stop hiding as we plan and lead meetings of purpose  Links to Episode Topics @priyaparker Priya Parker’s website Red Hook Community Justice Center New York Times “Page One” Meeting Dean Baquet Jonathan Cook The Power of Moments by Dan and Chip Heath Young Presidents Association Presidio in San Francisco Alamo Drafthouse Cinema “I am here” days Jill Soloway Transparent 15 Toasts Ocean’s 11 movie If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!

Do we know what others think? What about our partners or closest friends? Nick Epley, author of the book, Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want, explains that we can read the minds of others, but not nearly as well as we think. In fact, we can barely read our own minds.  Nicholas Epley is Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research has appeared in more than two dozen journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Wired, NPR, and on CNN. In this interview we discuss: The fact that we aren’t as good at understanding others -- even those closest to us -- as we think we are How our predictions of what a group thinks of us is are, on average, more accurate than what we think any one individual in that group thinks of us Why our confidence in how well we understand people we spend a lot of time with outstrips the accuracy with which we actually do understand them How the faster we decide what another person thinks can cause us to be that much more confident in our assessment, even if we’re wrong The gap between what we think we’ll do in a particular situation and the ways we behave when we’re actually in that situation How we’re really making up stories or guessing when we attempt to explain why we feel a certain way or take a particular action Why a surefire way to ensure we won’t understand others is to dismiss their capabilities, dehumanize them and, in general, distance ourselves from them How we can misunderstand others just by paying attention to different things or focusing on something else Why interpreting information differently from others -- seeing the same situation in a different way -- makes it difficult to understand their perspective How body language reveals much less than we assume when it comes to understanding what others are thinking The importance of perspective getting over perspective taking -- how we need to test out our understanding by asking the other person what their experience was like, listen to what they have to say and then repeat it back to ensure our understanding, rather than work from the stories we’ve made up in our minds How we’re happier connecting with strangers on trains, buses, and in cabs, though we predict we’d be happier if we kept to ourselves Links to Episode Topics Nicholas Epley at Chicago Booth Richard LaPiere The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What kind of self-talk can best help us achieve our goals? When we run into challenges, the voice inside our heads can be harsh and critical. Kristin Neff, Associate Professor in Human Development at the University of Texas, Austin, explains that this kind of self-talk does us more harm than good. What works instead, she says, is to speak to ourselves as we would to a close friend -- with kindness and understanding. Kristin is the author of the book, Self-compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. She is a pioneer in the research on self-compassion and first established it as a field of study almost a decade ago. She also makes it clear that we shouldn’t confuse self-compassion with self-pity or lowering our expectations. Instead, we should see it as a strategy that’s been proven effective for achieving our goals. In this interview we discuss: The important differences between sympathy, empathy and compassion How compassion shifts our response from understanding how someone feels -- being empathetic -- to taking action by providing care and support The important role mindfulness plays in allowing us to remain open to ourselves and others when difficult feelings arise The ways self-compassion gives us permission to be kind to ourselves and to show support and understanding, while recognizing our struggles are part of the human condition How self-compassion differs from self-pity and emotional self-indulgence Why self-compassion is more helpful than self-judgment or self-criticism as it allows us to view mistakes and failure as part of the learning process How asking ourselves, what would you say to a good friend in this situation, can shift our perspective from one of harshness and judgment to compassion The importance of recognizing that being human means we are imperfect, we will make mistakes, and difficult things will happen to us and to others -- that we are not alone How our self-talk - the kinds of things we say to ourselves, our inner voice - should be that of a supportive, caring friend rather than a harsh critic The importance of having our own back -- of having an inner ally --  and how that gives us the strength to cope with difficult things in life How veterans’ level of self-compassion was more predictive of whether or not they developed PTSD than how much combat they’d seen Why the advantage of self-compassion over self-esteem is that it is not dependent on our success or what others think of us How self-compassion gives us the freedom to cultivate a learning mindset because it frees us up to make mistakes and try again How self-compassion allows us to accepts ourselves without being complacent How “the texture of wisdom is gratitude” Links to Episode Topics @self_compassion Kristin Neff’s website Emiliana Simon-Thomas The Greater Good Science Center Chris Germer The Mindful Self-compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

When it comes to time, most of us feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Yet we’ve probably got more time than we think. It's just that the way to win back more hours is counterintuitive. That’s what Laura Vanderkam reveals in her latest book, Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done. In it, she shares research on how our brains perceive time, interpret new experiences, and make memories. She explains how this knowledge can change our relationship with time, especially if we analyze how we spend it. Laura’s written 5 other books, including, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Fortune. Her TED Talk, How to Gain Control of Your Free Time, has been viewed over 5 million times, and she’s co-host of the podcast, Best of Both Worlds. In this interview we discuss: Why knowing how we spend our time helps us enjoy our down time that much more How tracking our time -- even for a few days -- gives us the data we need to be more mindful Why, to change our relationship with time, we need to take charge of it How a program that tracked a veteran school principal’s time helped him focus more of his attention on instruction How we can each make every day a "realistic ideal day" within the framework of our lives How one way to stretch time is to add more memorable activities into your life Why we need to manage our experiencing selves in order to make more memories that expand our sense of time How we can woo good memories to make our lives feel fuller and richer Why we should leave blank spaces in our calendars, so that we can reflect, slow down, and connect with others in the workplace How savoring increases our enjoyment of an experience as we plan something enjoyable, take the time to anticipate it and then share it with others How we can invest in our happiness by examining the pain points in our lives and, wherever possible, spending wisely to alleviate them How taking the time to exercise gives us energy to enjoy our time more Why taking time to reflect can help us step outside the stream of time so we can ask ourselves if we like how we’re spending it How a better-than-nothing goal, or BTN, can help us accomplish big goals by committing to small daily activities that add up over time, like writing 400 words or running one mile a day How spending time with the people in our lives expands our sense of time and means we should deliberately build time with others into our schedules A simple way of building a network over the course of a year by reaching out to one person a day with a question, a tip, or a helpful article or piece of information Episode Resources @lvanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/ National SAM Innovation Project Daniel Kahneman Unsubscribe by Jocelyn Glei Fred Bryant 10 Steps to Savoring the Good Things in Life Molly Ford Beck Redbook If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

How do you feel about asking for help? For most of us, asking for help feels uncomfortable, mainly because we expect we’ll be rejected when we ask. Yet there's a good chance we're wrong. Heidi Grant, social psychologist and author of the book, Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You, explains that a lot more people want to help us than we tend to predict. It’s the way we ask for help that determines the result, and that’s where Heidi’s practical tips can make all the difference. Heidi is Chief Science Officer of the NeuroLeadership Institute and Associate Director of the Motivation Science Center at Columbia University. She’s the author of a number of books, including No One Understands You and What to Do about It and Nine Things Successful People Do Differently. In this interview we discuss: How our brains process social pain -- rejection, exclusion, not feeling valued or respected -- using some of the same areas of the brain as physical pain Why fears of social pain -- rejection, exclusion, not feeling valued or respected -- can prevent us from asking for help How we’re twice as likely to get help from strangers as we think -- we tend to underestimate how much others want to help us How we often underestimate the likelihood that someone will help is because we focus on how onerous the task is We also underestimate the social cost of someone saying no to our request How helping others feeds into a desire to connect and feel good about supporting someone else in their work There are three responses we can have when someone asks for our help: (1) no; (2) yes, but I don’t want to because I have to; and (3) yes, and I want to and it feels rewarding When you ask for help, don’t make it weird by being overly apologetic -- it makes the helper feel uncomfortable How offering a reward can make the helper feel like it’s an exchange or a transaction rather than something they’d want to do for you How offering a reward for someone’s help can shift the motivation they have from wanting to help for the sake of helping to wanting to help only if they get something in return Why we should ask again even if someone has already turned us down -- especially if they’ve turned us down - because they often feel guilty and will want to help the next time How we may not be getting the help we need because we aren’t letting others know we need their help -- they may be completely unaware The fact that nothing goes without saying, since others can’t read our minds to know we need their help The fact that someone may want to help but holds off so as not to offend Why we should be specific in asking for what we need and in asking the right person, rather than making general asks to a group of people Why your requests to meet up with someone just to pick their brain or chat may not be getting you the results you want Why it’s so helpful to communicate what you have in common with the person whose help you’re requesting, like shared goals, experiences, or identities How others are more inclined to help when they’re aware of the impact they’ll be having Why it’s so important to go the extra mile to make the help you seek rewarding to the other person -- that way it’s a win-win for both of you Episode Links  http://www.heidigrantphd.com/ @heidigrantphd NeuroLeadership Institute Motivation Science Center at Columbia Business School Reach by Andy Molinsky Illusion of transparency Diffusion of responsibility If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

In times of rapid change, people who can think creatively are invaluable. Leonard Mlodinow, author of the book, Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change, calls this type of thinking elastic. It is a bottom up approach that unleashes new ideas, and he believes anyone can employ it, since it is innate to us. Leonard’s previous books include Subliminal (winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award), The Drunkard’s Walk (a New York Times Notable Book) and The Grand Design with Stephen Hawking. He’s also written for the TV Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. During our conversation he shares more about what elastic thinking is, why we need to cultivate it, and concrete ways to do just that. In this interview we discuss: Elastic thinking as a way of making new or breaking already-established rules, as well as framing or reframing problems The fact that we need elastic thinking now more than ever in a world of rapid change How bottom up thinking serves as the basis for artificial intelligence and machine learning Why humans, with our 100 billion neurons, still outdo computers when it comes to elastic thinking How our point of view can preclude us from solving a problem, so that we constantly need to challenge our hidden assumptions, in order to see things differently Ways to broaden our thinking include asking about the least popular dish at a restaurant and then trying it, talking to people not normally in our social circles, questioning a strongly held belief, and thinking about times we made a mistake How giving our brains down time to make associations, generate ideas and relax our mental filters can improve our problem-solving abilities Episode Links @lmlodinow http://leonardmlodinow.com/ Encyclopedia Britannica Wikipedia Caltech Ellen Langer The Net and the Butterfly by Olivia Fox Cabane and Judah Pollack Natural neural networks Google translate Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Doolittle Raid If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Tech addictions don’t just happen to certain kinds of people. Increasingly we’re finding they can happen to any of us. In today’s technology-rich world, many of us check our phones obsessively, binge watch television programs and pour over social media. Author and New York University Professor Adam Alter calls this behavioral addiction, an area of psychology he’s studied in relation to the irresistible games, apps and other software that compel us to play, watch, read, and respond. Adam is author of the book, Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, and Associate Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He’s also author of the New York Times bestseller, Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave, and he’s written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Atlantic, WIRED, and Slate. In this interview we discuss: How advances in the fields of psychology and design have made our tech so much harder to resist The fact that most of us dramatically underestimate how much time we spend online and how little joy it often brings us How the presence of an iPhone on a table undermines our ability to connect The fact that our tech-rich work, travel and home environments actually set us up for addiction Why screen time poses a threat to children’s ability to learn empathy How addiction is a form of learning where a seemingly pleasurable activity becomes a learned behavior Important research on want vs like when it comes to addiction How tech designers take advantage of the destructive and addictive side of goal achievement How breaking goals into small steps helps us feel success daily, rather than failure until the larger goal is achieved Why the lack of natural break points in online articles and programming sets us up for addictive online behaviors How tech and online designers tap into our preoccupation with closing loops and completing tasks to hook us Why it is so important that we carve out daily time to put our tech away How we wouldn't give most people the ability to interrupt us, yet we continually give our tech that power Episode Links @adamleealter Adam Alter Kevin Holesh and Moment app Your Smartphone Reduces Your Brainpower, Even If It’s Just Sitting There by Robinson Meyer Technology Addiction - How Should It Be Treated? Lee Robins’ Studies of Heroin Use Among U.S. Vietnam Veterans James Olds Peter Milner Reward system Deep Work by Cal Newport Aryeh Routtenberg Kent Berridge Natasha Dow Schull Scott Adams on systems vs goals Benjamin Franklin and the to-do list Social comparison theory Zeigarnik Effect - Bluma Zeigarnik - cliffhanger The Sopranos The Italian Job Angry Birds by Rovio American Academy of Pediatrics If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Unhappiness at work is at an all-time high. While some might blame bad attitudes or a lack of motivation, Daniel Cable offers another perspective. He believes that the routines of the modern workplace are simply out of step with how our brains are wired to explore and experiment. Daniel Cable is Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School and author of the book, Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do. He believes our biological urge to learn and discover is what’s needed in today’s fast-paced work world. He also thinks that the organizations that will most benefit from it are those willing to redesign how they operate. In this interview we discuss: How our brain’s urge to explore and discover is an asset in today’s workplaces The fact that most workplaces fail to tap into our innate abilities to innovate and problem solve The kinds of rewards organizations might gain for customers, workplace cultures, and the bottom line by tapping into what our seeking systems innately crave How our brain’s reward system is triggered when others take the time to understand our perspective and unique strengths How trying something new and novel also triggers our brain’s reward system Why it’s so important for us to see the impact of our work on others -- to understand our purpose How our seeking system is a feature and not the bug that Henry Ford believed it to be as he built scalable systems for repetitive work How fear in the workplace can create learned helplessness The fact that play is an important way for us to learn what we are capable of Why encouraging employees to bring their best selves to work significantly increases their long-term retention and engagement, while also increasing customer delight How team members problem solve more effectively when they share in advance when they have been at their best Why it’s so important that leaders be willing to learn from employee experimentation, since it may not always go as planned -- and that’s part of the learning process How servant or humble leadership works best in supporting employees’ desire to explore, discover, and innovate How the role of the leader is to get the most out of their people at work by providing resources, removing obstacles, modeling psychological safety and modeling a growth mindset How our perceived resistance to change flies in the face of our building flying machines and developing cures for diseases and so much more Episode Links @DanCable1 Dan Cable Dan-cable.com Jaak Panksepp Ventral striatum KPIs Martin Seligman Henry Ford Frederick Taylor In the Lab of Happy Rats video - Jaak Panksepp Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi How to Activate Your Best Self and What Happens When You Do by Dan Cable Wipro Harvard Kennedy School Let Your Workers Rebel by Francesca Gino William B. Swann Jeffrey T. Polzer Osteria Francescana and Massimo Bottura Creative Change by Jennifer Mueller KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and KLM Surprise and KLM’s ‘Adios Amigos’ Tweet Servant leadership The Power Paradox by Dacher Keltner Growth mindset and Carol Dweck If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Can facts change someone’s mind? Most times, this approach is a dead end, especially when we try to convince those with top-notch analytical skills. In fact, neuroscience shows that analytical people will tend to use data to find fault with facts they don’t like. If we want to bring someone closer to our way of thinking, Tali Sharot suggests another way in her book, The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals about our Power to Change Others. Tali is founder and director of the Affective Brain Lab at University College London and an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and the BBC. Tali is also author of the book, The Optimism Bias. In this interview we discuss: Why we tend to seek out information that confirms what we already believe Our attraction to information associated with people who think like us How bias compounds as we filter for information that aligns with, and people who agree with, our beliefs How we will avoid getting advice from experts - on something completely unrelated to politics - if they are not aligned with our political beliefs Why people with strong math and analytical skills can become even more entrenched in their beliefs on a topic How our brains tend to encode information from people who agree with us and how that impacts the decisions we make Why starting a conversation by focusing on an area of agreement can help us view one another as more similar than originally thought and help us listen more fully to a different perspective How our brains can synchronize when we listen to an emotional, compelling speech and how that helps us predict what the speaker may say How feelings of happiness, sadness, stress, and so on, can be emotionally contagious for others in a family, group or organization How social media serves as the amygdala of the internet, rousing us emotionally in ways associated with how the amygdala works How immediate, positive feedback, associated with progress and situated in a social setting, can improve performance The fact that our phobias arise from areas of our life we cannot control How our brains view choice as a reward Episode Links Tali Sharot @affectivebrain Affective Brain Lab Dan Kahan Mentalization How Emotions are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett Susan Cain Uri Hasson Weizmann Institute of Science Hospital Hand Hygiene Project Discovery health insurance If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We all know people who seem especially lucky or, in some cases, unlucky. Janice Kaplan wondered whether this was due to random chance or luck overlooked, so she co-authored the book, How Luck Happens: Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work, Love, and Life. In writing the book, she learned how we can tilt the scales in our favor, even in cases where the odds are long. Janice is the former editor in chief of Parade magazine and author of 13 popular books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Gratitude Diaries. In this interview we discuss: How there are aspects of luck within our control How a winning combination of talent, hard work, and knowing your goals can increase your luck How optimism and a belief in making our own luck makes good things happen Why an optimistic mindset ensures we will apply the effort it takes to make our own luck Why we need to toggle between focused and wide-ranging attention to see events as opportunities What it means to choose the statistic we want to be How we can put ourselves in a position where luck can find us The fact that our weak ties have a greater chance of helping us achieve our goals Why we may need to zig versus zag or try out a different lane to be successful How revisiting what we thought of as dead ends can help us see new possibilities Why goals and knowing what we want are paramount to making our own luck How lucky breaks can actually be small events that make a big difference if we know how to take full advantage of them Why it can be helpful to navigate life with a compass, rather than a map The key role curiosity plays in helping us do things differently in order to make a lucky moment out of something that does not seem that way at first   Episode Links Barnaby Marsh Martin Seligman Doug Rauch Lara Galinsky Mike Darnell American Idol Steven Strogatz Six degrees of separation Joi Ito If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

How do we build remarkable teams, the kind that are more than the sum of their parts? Daniel Coyle answers that question in his latest book, The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. After talking to some of the greatest teams, such as the Navy Seals, IDEO, the San Antonio Spurs, and Pixar, Dan found a replicable pattern of three behaviors shared by these dynamic cultures. They each actively work to (1) Build Safety, (2) Share Vulnerability and (3) Establish Purpose. Dan shares how our teams can do this, too. Dan is also the author of The Talent Code, The Little Book of Talent, The Secret Race, and Hardball: A Season in the Projects. In this interview we discuss: Why certain groups add up to way more than the sum of their parts What kindergartners can teach us about group performance How status management undermines group performance How culture is something we do, not something we are Why culture is about moving together toward a common goal The three key skills of group performance - vulnerability, safety, and purpose How bad apples chip away at psychological safety and derail groups Why we need to be intolerant of brilliant jerks The outsized impact of warmth as a counter to negativity Key indicators of high-performing groups, like rapid speech, light physical touch, laughter, and high energy, which indicated safety and connection The incredible value of collective intelligence in groups as they share information, problem solve, and connect the dots Why belonging cues are so powerful for group performance How great coaches, like Gregg Popovich, exude curiosity and care for their teams The role emotional control can play in supporting team members How Navy Seals use the vulnerability loop to amplify team safety and boost performance How an after-action review - a discussion of what went right, what went wrong, and what will happen next time -- helps teams improve performance The value of warm candor - telling a hard truth but emphasizing connection - over brutal honesty Why cheesy catch phrases can be stronger indicators of group performance than we might think Why we should focus on the first five seconds when we interact with someone for the first time, especially when it comes to our energy level, eye contact, facial expressions, and engagement How asking our team members about one thing we should keep on doing and one thing we should stop doing can help us get better at what we do Episode Links Navy Seals IDEO San Antonio Spurs Gregg Popovich Pixar Peter Skillman Alexander Pentland Sociometer Collective intelligence The Captain Class by Sam Walker Draper Kauffman Gramercy Tavern Danny Meyer Laszlo Bock If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What sets top workplace performers apart? To answer this question, Morten Hansen, Professor at University of California, Berkeley, studied over 5,000 U.S. corporate employees for his book, Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More. Through his research, he found that top performers engage in 7 key practices that explain 66 percent of the differences in their level of performance. Co-author with Jim Collins of the highly acclaimed book, Great by Choice, Morten is also the author of the book, Collaboration, and he has been ranked one of the most influential global management thinkers by Thinkers50. In this interview we discuss: Why working longer hours is not enough to achieve high levels of performance How seven work-smart practices can explain 66 percent of the differences between top performers and their peers Why we need to do less and then obsess to produce exceptional work How an obsession with sled dogs led one explorer to reach the South Pole before his highly competitive and well-resourced peer Why Jiro, the famous sushi maker, is one of the best examples of someone who does less and obsesses his way to a Michelin star The key question employees need to ask their bosses in order to do less and obsess: which of these projects is of the highest priority for achieving our goals? How a lack of prioritization can be the linchpin to doing less and obsessing over it to provide key value How a high school principal architected a work redesign that epitomizes what it means to start with delivering value and then determining goals The value of redesigning our work without spending more or adding staff Why our goals should emerge from the value we seek to deliver How focus on fewer work projects allows you to ask deeper questions and provide more value Why a focus on passion and purpose allows us to contribute more than passion alone The fact that the goal of collaboration is better performance, not better collaboration Why we need to avoid over collaborating and under collaborating and, instead, focus on disciplined collaboration to achieve our goals How small changes can help us achieve big results, especially when it comes to focusing more, saying no to some things, setting better priorities, and collaborating more strategically Episode Links Robert Falcon Scott Roald Amundsen Jiro Dreams of Sushi Psyched Up by Dan McGinn A Flipped School and Greg Green Hartman Goertz and Tangier Terminal Berkeley Executive Education Genevieve Guay Curious George If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Sometimes an outsider can offer a game-changing take on a tried-and-true process. When it comes to performance, that person is Idan Ravin, author of the bestselling book, The Hoops Whisperer: On the Courts and Inside the Heads of Basketball's Best Players. Over the course of his career, Idan has worked with athletes like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry. Though he never played for or coached a professional basketball team, his outsider status coupled with his passion for learning and performance science, have made him a one-of-a-kind teacher. In this interview we discuss: How some of the most impactful teachers can come from unexpected places How his outsider status and commitment to self-teaching made him the incredible teacher he is today Why teaching young people served him well in teaching professional basketball players The importance of seeing people for who they can be vs who they are not Why seeing what others never notice in performance is akin to the approach a plastic surgeon takes How high performing athletes can lose their love of the game and why Idan works so hard to recapture it Why he combines high intensity with sensory overload approaches to improve performance Why learning requires the comfort of safe spaces where we can make mistakes Why learning also requires the discomfort that comes with stretching ourselves to gain new skills The humility and modesty that comes with being vulnerable in our learning How rewiring our brains takes time, can be incremental, and is often far from linear Why he wants to redefine the word selfish to include reaching for something because you have earned it through self-reliance and responsibility Why the best teachers help us gain the skills we need and then support us in ways we express them Why he believes dreams are a luxury while faith is something you can control and act on The meaningful exchange that can take place when we teach and learn from those we teach The importance of taking action to achieve our goals How some of the most credentialed and strongly affiliated individuals can also be the least knowledgeable when it comes to learning and performance Episode Links Carmelo Anthony New York Knicks Nike commercial Peak by Anders Ericsson Adam Levine The Voice If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Many of us view motivation as the spark we need to achieve our goals. But Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win, explains that it is actually the reverse. To feel motivated, we actually need to take action, that is, to complete at least one small task toward our goal. That is because accomplishing an initial task causes our brains to release dopamine, the reward and pleasure chemical. The good feeling we get when we do this can spur us on to accomplish more. And who better to talk about using motivation to achieve lots of goals than Jeff Haden, the most popular columnist for Inc.com and one of most widely followed influencers for LinkedIn. Jeff is also the author or co-author of 50 nonfiction books, and his work has also appeared in Time, Fast Company, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur. In this interview we discuss: Why motivation is not something you get but something you create How accomplishing tasks associated with your goal can create a virtuous flywheel of motivation, achievement, and happiness Why successful people set a goal and then forget it How focusing on big goals can overwhelm and even defeat us and what we should do instead When we focus on accomplishing the daily tasks associated with our larger goal, we maintain motivation and feel happier Why serial achievers are happier and experience less regret and why we should all aim to be them Why, for most of us, choosing that one thing we might want to do for 40 years is unrealistic Why we need pros rather than coaches to achieve new, challenging goals How pros can pave the way and prevent us from reinventing the wheel The fact that pros hold the key to our success as they have done the thing we most want to do To gain willpower, we need less willpower, provided we structure our environment in ways that reduce our options How maximizing our edge time can help us achieve more The fact that doing what others around us are doing will only get us what they have gotten -- we need to work harder and smarter to achieve something different How successful people work on big goals serially, rather than concurrently How paying attention to the details and making small changes can improve our performance Why the proud feelings you have in accomplishing hard things creates momentum to achieve more How taking productive, rather than relaxing, break can help you achieve What success means to Jeff -- and it has nothing to do with cars or houses or stuff Episode Links Venus Williams Jerry Seinfeld Tony Robbins Friday Night Lights Not Impossible by Mick Ebeling Choice architecture Jim Whitehurst and RedHat David Brailsford If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What is the secret to changing our habits? Too often, we are led to believe that we need to study successful people and then use our willpower to act like they do. But UCLA Medical School Professor, Sean Young, reveals that this approach mainly leads to failure. Instead, Young and his colleagues point us to seven forces that succeed in creating lasting change. Sean is the author of the book, Stick with It: A Scientifically Proven Process for Changing Your Life - for Good. He is a Professor at UCLA Medical School, and Founder and Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Digital Behavior and the UC Institute for Prediction Technology. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Science, and CNN. In this interview we discuss: Why we need to shift from self-blame to a thoughtful process for change How education alone is not enough to change behavior The ABCs of behavior -- automatic, burning, and common The seven tools Sean discusses to support behavior change - stepladders, community, important, easy, neurohacks, captivating, ingrained Just how powerful stepladders or very small steps can be in changing unwanted behaviors or habits The importance of creating the right-size steps to stay on track in reaching our goals How success with small steps increases our self-confidence to help us stick with it The fact that community -- the influence key others have on us -- can help us change behavior How purposefully structured online, peer-driven communities can help drive behavior change Why quick mental shortcuts or neurohacks can change our brains to help us change our behavior How taking action helps us see ourselves as someone who engages in the behavior we want to have Why it is important to pair the type of behavior with the right tool, like stepladders with common behaviors Why one of the most game-changing tools is making it easy to engage in behavior changes Episode Links seanyoungphd.com @seanyoungphd Michelle Segar, author of No Sweat Richard E. Petty Yo app If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What if you are creative, but your organization is not? Many of us have worked in places that have tried to adopt more creative practices, and we know that it doesn’t always produce the desired results. In fact, if we introduce creativity, it can even seem to backfire. But Jon Kolko has devised a formula for injecting creativity into resistant organizations. Author of the book, Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide for Bringing Creative Thinking Into Your Company, Jon is a Partner at Modernist Studio and Founder of Austin Center for Design. He served as VP of Design at Blackboard, has worked extensively with both startups and Fortune 500 companies, and has written four additional books on design. Jon shares insights for achieving creativity and innovation in even the most resistant organizations. In this interview we discuss: Why attempts at introducing creativity into organizations can make things worse The role framing plays in the creative process and how it helps with innovation How leading with a creative strategy changes can yield more innovative solutions Why summary problem statements are so important How to push through complexity to arrive at simplicity Why creative people work best a flow state of uninterrupted blocks of time Why embracing a creative culture means embracing uncertainty The role of feedback in a special kind of meeting called a critique The two reactions to avoid when receiving feedback How creative approaches differ in small versus large organizations The three types of ownership of ideas The one skill that every instructor needs to teach students in creative fields What mentors are invaluable Why teaching design thinking is inseparable from teaching of design Episode Links Jon Kolko Creative Clarity Frog Design Ideo Flow The Swoop and Poop Design Thinking If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Do you have the seven qualities of a great leader? As the former sports editor of the Wall Street Journal, Sam Walker chronicled the exploits of some of the most remarkable teams ever assembled. Fascinated by their success, he spent over a decade researching which teams performed best and how they did it. Sam lays out his findings in his latest book, The Captain Class: The Hidden Force that Creates the World’s Greatest Teams. Initially, he expected to find a magical combination of factors such as exceptional skill, brilliant coaching and remarkable strategy. Instead, he discovered something completely different: the 16 teams with the longest winning streaks across 37 elite sports succeeded because of a single player -- the captain of the team. These captains were not only not the best player, but also possessed all or most of seven characteristics rarely associated with great leaders. Sam is currently deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal, where he worked as a reporter, columnist, and sports editor. He is also author of a previous book, Fantasyland. In this interview we discuss: How talent, coaching, money and strategy rarely result in teams stringing together years of consecutive greatness Why a single player, the captain of the team, is the key to the enduring success of outstanding teams Why most captains were appointed by the coach, not selected by the players What the analogies are for this coach-captain in the workplace How these captains excel in seven ways: they are relentless they are aggressive They are willing to do thankless jobs they shy away from the limelight they excel at quiet communication they are difficult to manage they have excellent resilience and emotional control The secrets of success of players like basketball great Tim Duncan Why all of the little things on a team must get done Why Pele, possibly the greatest soccer player of all time, was never a captain Why none of these captains were inspiring speech makers What maps of team interaction reveal about captain communication Why shared cognition is such an important part of team communication Why superstars can sometimes decrease great team performance Why sacrifice for the collective good of the team is so important to winning How we should look for the least likely candidates when searching for group leaders Why we should not mistake the ability to take praise as a sign of a great leader Why criticizing others is a right we earn and how to earn it Why elite leaders are often boring Episode Links Sam Walker The Captain Class: The Hidden Force that Creates the World’s Greatest Teams Fantasyland Barcelona Cuban Women’s Volleyball Team Boston Celtics San Antonio Spurs The Pittsburgh Steeler Tim Duncan Richard Hackman Brazil’s National Football Team Pele Carlos Alberto Hilderaldo Bellini Yogi Berra Sandy Pentland Charismatic Connectors Shared Cognition French National Handball Team Jerome Fernandez Richard Davidson Maurice Rashad Montreal Canadiens Richie McCaw Carla Overbeck United States Women's National Soccer Team If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Breakthroughs can take our work to new and exciting places, yet they rarely happen as often as we’d like. Are there ways to prompt these kinds of moments, so we can create them more often? Olivia Fox Cabane and Judah Pollack tell us how in their book, The Net and the Butterfly: The Art and Practice of Breakthrough Thinking. Olivia is the former Director of Innovative Leadership for Stanford StartX and bestselling author of The Charisma Myth. She has worked with companies like, Google, MGM, and Deloitte, and she has lectured at Harvard, MIT, and Yale. Judah Pollack is a former faculty member at Stanford StartX and a lecturer at University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. He has worked with organizations like Airbnb, IDEO, and the U.S. Army Special Forces. In this interview we discuss: How breakthrough thinking requires two systems in the brain: the Executive Network (the net) and the Default Network (the butterfly) How we need off-task time in order for the Default Network to engage and create breakthroughs The 4 types of breakthroughs: Eureka, Metaphor, Intuitive and Paradigm How Eureka Breakthroughs are sudden insights that are fully formed, when everything seems to fall into place That we are predisposed to certain kinds of breakthroughs and how it helps to honor our natural style That no one style of breakthrough is any better than another How Metaphorical breakthroughs help us see topics in new ways How Intuitive breakthroughs seem like just the beginning and less easy to trust, requiring us to have faith in the process How Steve Jobs had an intuitive breakthrough that the iPhone needed to be made of glass That our brains our physical objects that need to build new neurotransmitter receptors in order to construct new knowledge How our practice with exploring new experiences in the brain affects our ability to make breakthroughs How surfing the net for new things or watching new movies can help with building the brain plasticity that helps to make breakthroughs How curiosity enlivens brain plasticity How fear negativity affects the Default Network and works against us having breakthroughs Why our best ideas may come to us in the shower How our inhibitions can cause us to feel like imposters or make us overly critical, either of which can hinder breakthrough thinking How the placebo effect can be used to our advantage Ways we can practice failure in order to normalize our feelings about it Three supertools that can help us achieve breakthroughs How the journey toward topic mastery create preconditions for breakthroughs How implementing these practices can affect us down to the gene level How to find the balance between our fast-paced, hyper-focused work world and the slower, more diffused approach needed for breakthrough thinking Links to Episode Topics Olivia Fox Cabane Judah Pollack The Net and the Butterfly: The Art and Practice of Breakthrough Thinking The Charisma Myth Stanford StartX University of California Berkeley The Executive Mode Network of the brain The Default Mode Network of the brain The Arab Spring The Revolutions of 1848 Occupy Wall Street Steve Jobs Think Wrong Neuroplasticity Impostor Syndrome Inner Critic Placebo Effect Meditation If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Are you prepared to live to 100? Research shows that it is becoming the norm, but that few of us are planning for it. Many are surprised to learn that it not only requires rethinking saving and retirement, but also education, jobs, and relationships. To guide us, London Business School Professor and future of work expert, Lynda Gratton, has written The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity. In addition to her many books, Lynda writes for Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and Forbes. She points out the possibilities, as well as the challenges, associated with living longer lives. Lynda also encourages us to plan for what lies ahead, so that we can take full advantage of this opportunity. In this interview, we talk about: What learning will look like as we continue working into our 70s and 80s Why working well with robots will decrease our odds of obsolescence How generational markers, such as millennials, limit how we think about work and life Why we will become age agnostic as people of all ages learn and work together Are you building, maintaining, or depleting current skills? The secret to increasing our adaptability and willingness to change Three new life stages that are upending how we think about life and work Are you spending your free time in recreation or re-creation, and why it matters? The important role experimentation will play in our lives as we live longer How marriage and friendships will change as we live longer lives Why juvenescence holds the key to navigating a longer life Why we should be worried about wealth disparity Why living longer will push organizations to rethink work policies and expectations Why individuals and families - not most organizations - will guide us in innovating Selected Links to Episode Topics @lyndagratton www.100yearlife.com 100 Year Life Diagnostic London Business School World Economic Forum Andrew Scott Future of Work Consortium The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here by Lynda Gratton Stretch by Karie Willyerd and Barbara Mistick If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We have more control over our happiness than we think. And if we follow the advice of the most cutting-edge happiness researchers, we can help others achieve it, as well. Emiliana Simon-Thomas happens to be one of those researchers. A neuroscientist and Science Director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, she speaks and writes about the connection between happiness, meaning, compassion and wellbeing. She also co-teaches an online course, The Science of Happiness that, to date, has been taken by over 450,000 people. In this interview we discuss: Just how important social relationships are to our happiness and wellbeing How our baseline for study is social, not solitary The fact that social deprivation leads to greater stress, lowered resilience, and less happiness How friendships helps us reframe challenges as more achievable The fact that an ongoing sequence of pleasurable moments does not guarantee happiness How happiness is derived from a rich emotional life that includes negative emotions How happiness speaks to the ease with which we experience the entire range of human emotion The fact that happiness stems from our ability to transcend ourselves - to view our lives in relation to a bigger purpose How the ways we spend our time, where we put our focus, and how we view others determines our happiness How forgiving others can have a greater impact on us than the person we forgive How mindfulness is about noticing the world beyond ourselves How graduates of the Science of Happiness course show significant improvement when it comes to happiness, flourishing, and connections to others, along with decreased loneliness and stress The fact that the quality of our relationships has a significant impact on our happiness The game changing difference it makes when we express our gratitude toward others How practicing gratitude helps us feel more optimistic, decreases our self-absorption, and increases feelings of pleasure that can create a reinforcing loop How practicing gratitude and showing appreciation can shift workplace culture The difference between valuing someone for who they are versus what they achieve How our ability to express gratitude and to show compassion are culturally influenced habits, not gendered skills How the data shows that happier employees are more productive, more engaged, more loyal and more attentive to creating a better customer experience The importance role self-compassion plays in our ability to be happy, to show compassion to others, and to improve or maintain our wellbeing Links to Episode Topics Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas @GreaterGoodSC The Expanding Gratitude Project Gratitude and Wellbeing at Work The Science of Happiness course Eric Liu Social baseline theory - James Coan and David Sbarra Robert Emmons Judson Brewer The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan Center for Positive Organizations Davita Kristin Neff If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Ninety-five percent of us think we are self-aware, but only ten to fifteen percent of us actually are. How important is that difference to our well being and happiness? Well, according to Tasha Eurich, self-aware individuals are are better at their jobs, more satisfied with their relationships, raise more mature children, are better students, lead more profitable companies, and choose better careers. Tasha is the author of the book, Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-aware As We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life. An organizational psychologist and researcher whose work has been featured in Entrepreneur, CNBC.com, The Huffington Post, and FoxBusiness.com. In this interview we discuss: Why self-awareness is the metaskill of the 21st century How self-awareness includes how clearly we see ourselves and how well we understand how others see us The fact that 95 percent of people think they are self-aware when the reality is closer to 10 to 15 percent How the ways we self-reflect can work against the benefits we might gain How reflecting on what, not why, shifts us into action and a more positive mindset Why we should journal to figure things out rather than merely ruminate or emotion dump How a focus on learning well helps us take on new challenges in ways that a focus on doing well may not Ways we can mine solutions to problems by asking ourselves what it might look like if the problem were already solved How getting feedback from others helps us gain additional perspectives on how we see ourselves How asking for feedback allows us to show vulnerability in positive ways Why we want to control the kinds of feedback we ask for by choosing the right people, asking the right questions, and using the right process Why we should seek out loving critics for feedback -- people who couple honesty with care How the ways we receive feedback are also important -- that we should give ourselves time to process feedback and to determine if we should act on it Self-aware teams practice honesty and transparency Leaders are the linchpins when it comes to self-aware teams Self-aware teams need psychological safety and an ongoing awareness process Team members can jumpstart self-awareness by taking small steps, like admitting something they do not know or something they did wrong Why it is important to recognize when you cannot influence someone to be more self-aware Links to Episode Topics @tashaeurich http://www.tashaeurich.com/ James Pennebaker Carol Dweck Solutions focused therapy How Emotions are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett Alan Mulally http://www.insight-book.com/quiz.aspx If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Most of us can learn anything, if we're taught how. Yet few of us find this to be the case. Why? Because we lack the skills we need to deal with the resistance and frustration we inevitably face when learning difficult topics. Barbara Oakley wants to change that. Author of the book, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science, and Professor of Engineering at Oakland University, she shares techniques for mastering any subject. And these are techniques over 2 million people have experienced in her incredibly popular MOOC, Learning How to Learn. In this interview we discuss: How she made the leap from self-described high school math "flunky" to accomplished engineering professor What inspired her to make the shift from Russian linguist to engineer How offering interesting learning hooks can help people learn content more effectively How a diffuse or relaxed mode of thinking helps us organize what we learn The importance of toggling between focused and diffuse thinking to learn The fact that learning difficult things is hard How sleep helps us build the neural architecture we need to learn new things How we can be strategic in our approach to learning Why you actually need content knowledge to become an expert - we cannot outsource it How repetition, practice, and seeing things from different perspectives builds important neural patterns for expertise Why conceptual chunking -- memorizing and understanding -- help us create these neural patterns How our prefrontal cortex relaxes when we know something, so that we can build on that knowledge to solve more complex problems What it means to have an illusion of competence when it comes to learning How we can check our understanding by seeing if we can explain it to a five year old How neural reuse theory, or learning something new by attaching it to something we already know, is a powerful learning tool Why teachers should emphasize how simple something difficult can be to learn How interleaving helps us learn when to use one technique versus another How transfer helps us use learning we have done in one area in a new area and how it is best learned by doing How we can reframe procrastination by focusing on the process not the product How breaking the work into tiny tasks helps us overcome procrastination Links to Episode Topics @barbaraoakley https://barbaraoakley.com/ The Knowledge Illusion by Steven Sloman https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/ Bayes Theorem Negative binomial Geometric distribution Pomodoro Technique and Francesco Cirillo Terry Sejnowski Lynda.com If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Do you really know your neighbors or coworkers? To understand human behavior, we need research participants who act and respond truthfully. But that is a tall order when it comes to topics that are embarrassing or even incriminating. Social scientists have found it hard to get honest answers when asked about topics that might reveal racism, sexism, gluttony or a slew of other socially unacceptable traits. Researchers like Seth Stephens-Davidowitz have found a way around that problem by analyzing data from our over 3.5 billion daily Google searches. And it turns out that the candid words, phrases, and questions we type in reveal a whole lot about us. Seth is the author of the bestselling book, Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us about Who We Really Are. He is also a New York Times op-ed contributor, a visiting lecturer at The Wharton School, and a former Google data scientist. In this interview we discuss: How Internet datasets help us ask bigger questions than ever before How word and picture data expand the kinds of questions we can ask and yield unexpected insights How data from our over 3.5 billion daily Google searches serves as a digital truth serum for learning more about what we actually think and do How big data is giving researchers insights into small groups of people we rarely had before   How big data is helping researchers engage in rapid experimentation and conduct quick tests to see how people respond How horse racing analytics data scientists like Jeff Seder help us think beyond traditional data sets to uncover game-changing findings How night lights in India revealed key insights regarding economic activity Just how much creativity is involved in data science research How researchers studied big data in the hopes of helping political leaders shift hate group behaviors What Google search analysts learned about gender from searches on children and intelligence What we are learning about poverty and economic mobility from big data The connection between the health of poor people and the number of rich people living nearby The connection between the number of tax accountants and how many people cheat on their taxes How data scientists are using our doppelgangers to anticipate what we might want to buy How the healthcare industry can use doppelgangers to personalize treatment The fact that Google conducts more experiments in one day than the FDA does in one year How your love of curly fries may signal high intelligence to prospective employers How it is becoming harder than ever for regulators to stay ahead of all the things companies can know about us as the number of variables keeps on growing How researchers may use big data to figure out, once and for all, which foods are nutritious -- and whether we really should be eating broccoli Links to Episode Topics @SethS_D http://sethsd.com/ Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Jeff Seder American Pharoah Night Lights and Economic Activity in India 2015 San Bernardino Attack The Rise of Hate Search New York Times article Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What's behind the extraordinary experiences that stay with us? Are they as random as we're led to believe or is there a pattern to them that, if we understood it, would allow us to create them ourselves? In his research, Dan Heath, co-author of the book, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, uncovers four key elements that characterize these kinds of moments. And he explains how we can create them not only for ourselves, but for our family, our friends, and the people in our organizations. Dan is a Senior Fellow at the CASE Center at Duke University and co-author of the bestselling books, Made to Stick, Switch, and Decisive. In this interview we discuss: The important role that elevation, insight, pride, and connection play in defining moments How we can tap into defining moments to celebrate and inspire employees at work Ways to spot opportunities, like important work and life transitions, to design defining moments How our brains hold onto the peaks and endings of defining moments The fact that great experiences are mostly forgettable and occasionally remarkable What it looks like when we break the script to create unforgettable moments Why we need to beware of the soul-sucking force of reasonableness to create defining moments How defaulting to ease and efficiency can turn peak moments into speed bumps How social moments of shared meaning and responsiveness build connection The key roles that understanding, validation, and caring play in connecting with others Why we build deeper connections more quickly when we work together on something bigger than ourselves How creating the right mission and conditions can get people to take on difficult challenges The fact that purpose has a greater impact on our performance than passion Why purpose is central in making us more effective in our roles How we can learn to cultivate purpose How just one hour visiting student families in their homes completely changed the culture of a low-performing elementary school Why 36 simple questions can help us deepen our relationships in less than an hour When people experience crystallizing experiences that cause them to rethink their work and their lives Links to Episode Topics http://heathbrothers.com/ https://centers.fuqua.duke.edu/case/team_profiles/dan-heath/ John Deere and CEO Sam Allen Magic Castle Hotel Images of Joshee on vacation Simply Brilliant by Bill Taylor Harry Reis Sharp HealthCare Morten Hansen Flamboyan Foundation Carlie John Fisherow Arthur Aron and his 36 questions Post-traumatic growth Option B by Adam Grant and Sheryl Sandberg SuperBetter by Jane McGonigal Roy Baumeister and the crystallization of discontent If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Maybe performing under pressure is easier than we think. In those moments before an interview, an exam, or a presentation, we often feel our worst. Yet Daniel McGinn, author of the book, Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed believes we can decrease and even repurpose those anxious feelings to up our performance. Senior Editor of Harvard Business Review, Dan has written for Wired, Inc., The Boston Globe Magazine, and Newsweek. In this book, he draws on the fields of performance and sports psychology and shares quick and simple techniques we all can use. In this interview we discuss: Why we should take a page from pre-performance rituals of top athletes How we can leverage stress before a high-stakes event and maximize our performance What it means to fine-tune our emotions before a high-stakes event The role that centering plays to enhance high-level performance How pre-performance routines distract us from feeling anxious and prime us for the event Why that lucky pen, ring, or tie really can make a difference in our performance How the words we choose and the connections we make to something bigger than ourselves can help us psych up our teams Why a highly experienced, highly motivated team may not need a pep talk How listening to certain kinds of music can improve our performance in all kinds of tasks How a sports DJ is impacting two of the top sports teams in the U.S. Two factors that make a song motivational - how its musicality -- beats, tempo - resonate with us and how emotionally connected we feel to it How our self talk, our visualizations, and our mental rehearsals before an important event can improve our performance The important role priming -- physical and emotional - plays before a high-stakes event Why we should reflect back on past successes to increase our confidence in a new performance task How we can sit there feeling worried or we can develop a set of practices to give us confidence before a high-stakes event Links to Topics Mentioned @danmcginn http://www.psychedupthebook.com/ Improving Acute Stress Responses: The Power of Reappraisal Yuri Hanan and the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning Don Greene and centering The River and Laura Donnelly and Hugh Jackman Malcolm Gladwell Peak by Anders Ericsson Stanley A. McChrystal Sports DJ TJ Connelly Eye of the Tiger Nate Zinsser The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

When you hear the word power, what comes to mind? For most of us, we imagine power-hungry leaders or think of phrases like power corrupts. But when my guest, Eric Liu, considers power, he sees something different. He views power as a positive force. In fact, he believes it is a gift each of us can use to shape society. At a time when many of us feel powerless, Eric offers a simple set of instructions for seizing power and using it to help shape our communities, our nation, and the world. He is Founder and CEO of the non-profit, Citizen University and author of the book, You’re More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen. His TED Talk on citizen power and voting has been viewed over 2 million times. In this interview we discuss: How power is an important literacy Why power is about who gets to decide How power is a gift we are continuously giving away How our citizenship endows us with unearned power and privilege that we should share with intention Why we need to ask ourselves, to whom am I giving my power, my might, and my imagination? The myth of rugged individualism in the face of game-changing collective action and collaboration we have seen across history How we are part of a collective web of relationship, obligation, and mutual aid The fact that power compounds as people with voice and connections amass it The fact that power justifies itself as incumbents spin narratives to maintain it The realization that many rely on intimidation and self-justifying narratives to maintain their power How power is infinite as demonstrated by movements to push back and reinforce pockets of power How we can reframe power by changing the game, the story, and the equation The fact that we are all better off when we are all better off The power of story in organizing for change -- the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now How a civic collaboratory taps into the shared need and wisdom of organizations to amplify their impact How we are strong in our ideals of citizenship but weak in practicing them Why citizenship is about power plus character - working on behalf of a greater good How we accuse others in order to excuse ourselves How taking responsibility sets in motion a cycle of responsibility that is contagious Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast @ericpliu http://www.citizenuniversity.us/ The Power Paradox by Dacher Keltner Nick Hanauer Marshall Ganz Jose Antonio Vargas Bonds that Make Us Free by C Terry Warner If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Few of us realize how dependent we are on the people and objects around us for our knowledge. But Steven Sloman does. He reveals that we are constantly accessing expertise stored in our communities, our technologies, and in our environment. In fact, research reveals that many of us adopt positions on issues like climate change and health care from certain experts, without even realizing it. These findings have enormous implications for our increasingly polarized society, including the fact that educating people about issues is probably not the most effective way to change their minds. Steven Sloman is co-author of the book, The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone.  He is a Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Cognition. His work has been featured in publications like the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal. In this interview we discuss: The fact that we tend to think we understand how things work better than we actually do How we fail to distinguish what we know from what others know How complexity prevents us from understanding many of the things we think we do The fact that knowledge must be collective to offset all the complexity in our lives When we want to understand how the government or our car works, we figure out enough causal structure to solve our problems What the deliberative mind is good at, which is coming to causal conclusions How deliberation depends on a community of knowledge and connects us to other people The unique ability of human beings to share intentionality, that is, to engage in tasks with other people The limitations of understanding that comes from someone else How understanding is contagious and community based Much of our understanding comes  from having access to knowledge rather than actually knowing Why it is important to help people see that they do not understand -- that they cannot explain something they think they understand well Our conviction that we understand or know something comes from the trust we place in certain experts The fact that we cannot convince people by making them experts but by convincing them to  believe in a different set of experts That we tend to stick with our first explanation or conclusion, even if it is found to be incorrect The fact that most of our beliefs are formed independent of data -- they tend to be shaped by our culture and what our community thinks The fact that the thought leaders we look to actually determine what we believe How we actually vote for what our communities judge to be the right things, not what the right things might actually be The fact that group intelligence is derived from how well team members communicate with and relate to one another rather than individual intelligence How many VCs make investment decisions based on the team and their collective intelligence That what should spend more time on collective or team intelligence over individual intelligence A question we can ask individuals whom we hire: How have you contributed to group performance in the past? How engaging in the activity is key to helping us learn and to gaining causal knowledge Why it is so important to be aware of what we do not know -- to reduce our pride in what we think we know How intelligent nudges can guide people toward better decision making Why focusing on policy consequences is preferable to the values associated with those policies yet is much harder to do Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast Steven Sloman Frank Keil Clark Glymour Michael Tomasello Herbert Clark and common ground Why Information Grows by Cesar Hidalgo Anita Woolley Pixar Disney Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference.

Most of us are aware of the negative effects of income inequality on health and well-being. But few of us realize that just seeing yourself as unequal can produce the same results. Keith Payne, author of the book, The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die, and Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an international leader in the psychology of inequality and discrimination, and his work has been featured in The Atlantic, The New York Times and on NPR. His research helps us understand how inequality is the public health problem of the 21st century. In this interview we discuss: How we see ourselves compared to others is a better predictor of health and well-being than income and education How inequality is a better predictor of drug use, health outcomes, crime, and other self-defeating behaviors than poverty in advanced economies The false dichotomy of blaming the system or the individual when it comes to understanding inequality rather than understanding how individuals respond to their environments How bees engaged in high risk, high reward behavior after they lost some of their honey supply and how this mirrors how humans behave when they have less How people living in areas of greater inequality search Google on more high risk, high reward topics like payday loans and lottery tickets Why how we feel about our status in relation to others can have a greater impact on how we vote than our actual status How the poor do not actually tend to vote against their own self interest -- how there is more to that story than meets the eye The fact that there is a strong correlation between the rise in income inequality and the rise in political partisanship The fact that parts of the world with greater equality are less religious How pay incentives works well for individual performers but less so for collaboration and teams Does your organization value teamwork and collaboration? Then think twice about incentivizing individuals with big payouts for performance. How we often overlook the fact that inequality is driven more by the wealthiest than by the poorest How solving the problem of inequality by adopting a public health mindset can help develop bigger, more impactful solutions How moving to a zip code with less inequality can potentially have a more positive impact on future outcomes than moving to a wealthier zip code Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast @UNCPsych http://bkpayne.web.unc.edu/ Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram Kendi Nancy Adler Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy ONeil Angus Deaton Anne Case If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Could our code be making us more human? When most of us hear the word code, we think of computer code -- the digital instructions that drive our devices. But when Philip Auerswald hears the word code, he sees the instructions that drive the human race. Phil is the author of the book, The Code Economy: A Forty-thousand Year History. He is an Associate Professor at the School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, and Executive Director of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network. He is also the co-founder of Innovations, a journal on entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. Phil believes that as machines and algorithms play ever bigger roles in our lives, we will actually become more human. This long view of automation--a 40,000-year view--also gives us insight into a different, more innovative perspective on how to think about the future of work. In this interview we discuss: A broader definition of code as the DNA of human society from the simple to the complex The importance of getting beyond singularity vs dystopian views of humans vs machines How humans will redefine their own value -- as they have done repeatedly -- as robots, machines and algorithms play a bigger role in our world The fact our ability to learn -- to experiment and share what we learn -- is what sets us apart How human beings are constantly exploring spaces of possibility How evolving understanding, knowledge, and knowhow results from finding the adjacent possible The fact that cities are actual platforms in that they stand on problems solved in literal ways -- sewage and electric power and subway transport How platforms of today are increasingly digital The concepts of bifurcation and substitution where a product is split over time into cheap and high volume vs expensive and low volume, as in watches and clocks How high volume and low cost items typically lend themselves to automation The fact that we are trying to recapture a 1960s way of living and working that is no longer viable How we need to rewire rather than retire The concept of a job has only been around for about 150 years due to the introduction and growth of large-scale institutions that needed people serve in a role and act on specific routines Why subsidizing higher education and retirement are not the right ways to think about the problem of machines, robots, and automation Why the evolutionary nature of ideas and actions opens us up to abundance and new opportunities How it is almost irrational to think our creative processes will come to an end How the inequality that exists within cities and between cities and rural parts of the U.S. are the driver of political discord Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast @auerswald http://auerswald.org/ Stuart Kauffman Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford Shinola Nexus by Ramez Naam Milton Friedman Permanent income hypothesis Otto von Bismarck Larry Harvey and Burning Man The Absence of Design in Nature Scale by Geoffrey West Jose Lobo Progress and Poverty by Henry George The Origin of Populist Surges Everywhere by Philip Auerswald If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Why are high-school memories of popularity so strong? Because they still shape our lives today. Mitch Prinstein, author of the book, Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-obsessed World and Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains how teen popularity impacts adult happiness, our health, and our relationships. And surprisingly, not just for unpopular, but for popular people, too. And, according to Mitch, if you thought there was only one kind of popularity -- the high status kind -- then you are seeing only half the picture. There is actually another kind -- one based on likability -- that plays a key role in our lives. In fact, understanding what sets these two kinds of popularity apart -- for ourselves and our organizations -- can mean the difference between being a mediocre and an outstanding leader. In this interview we discuss: The connection between adolescent brain development and our desire for popularity How memories of our popularity as teens stays with us in adulthood, for better or worse The difference between likability and high-status popularity and why it matters How and why high-status teens can suffer from relationship, mental health, and addiction problems as adults How bosses who bully may have achieved high-status popularity as teens The ill health effects low likeability, low status teens experience as adults How our bodies are attuned to our experience with popularity as teens Why likeability and kindness trumps high status when it comes to popularity How our brains get a signal for social pain when we perceive we are excluded or unpopular How perceived unpopularity can trigger in our bodies an unhealthy inflammation response How the more sensitive we are to physical pain the more sensitive we can be to social pain and rejection How likeable people tend to hang back and observe before talking How likeable people say things like: I wonder if . . . , rather than: We should . . . The fact that our memories of popularity from our teenage years influence how we see the world, including what we attribute actions of others to When someone stands you up or shows up late, do you blame yourself or blame them? Our popularity when we were younger influences how we view popularity for our children Anxious and insecure mothers often have popular children because they pay attention to how their children interact with peers and tend to coach their children in proactive ways How parents can help their children to achieve likeable popularity by modeling what it looks like and scaffolding support through young adulthood How our likability as young people has a greater influence than many other factors when it comes to our health and well-being as adults How the kind of popularity we associate with social media, like likes,is not the kind of popularity that serves us well as social human beings How the extent to which others like something online can lead us to engage in more risky behavior How the ways we interact with social media are changing what we value and care about Why the more we connect online for status, the lonelier and more isolated we can feel Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast @mitchprinstein http://www.mitchprinstein.com/ Naomi Eisenberger Take Pride by Jessica Tracy Martha Putallaz If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

When it comes to economic growth, why are some countries and companies better than others? While many experts look to factors in geography, finance, or psychology for the answers, César Hidalgo asks us to look instead at information and networks. Cesar is the author of the book, Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies. He is also an Associate Professor of Media Arts & Sciences at the MIT Media Lab, where he leads the Collective Learning Group. Cesar wants us to think about the amount of knowledge and knowhow people accumulate and the kinds of organizations where this information is stored. He and his team work on collective learning — that is, the learning of teams, organizations, cities, and nations. And he wants us to understand why building these kinds of networks and organizations can be challenging. In this interview we discuss: What it means to describe the objects around us as crystallized imagination What distinguishes wealth from income and why it matters Why the challenges of economic growth are tied to the challenges of learning in individuals and teams Why individual skills, knowledge, and ability do not scale well and how this impacts economic growth Why group or team knowledge trumps individual knowledge Why it is not about knowing what needs to be done but about creating a team of people who have the knowledge and knowhow to do it Why we can view products as alternative channels of communication in that they endow us with their knowledge -- we cannot build a phone but we can communicate with one or we cannot build a plane but we can be transported by one Our capacity as individuals is augmented and expanded by the products and tools we have access to, from running water to smartphones -- channels of knowledge and comfort are transmitted through products Economies are amplifiers of our knowledge and knowhow -- just look at how few people make toothpaste yet how many use it Our ability to create products is limited by our knowledge and knowhow which is influenced by our social networks How learning from experts, through experience, helps us learn and get better faster The key differences between knowledge and knowhow and how this influences economic growth How Ford Motor Company in 1928 experienced the challenges of transporting knowledge and knowhow through their failed experiment in Brazil called Fordlandia The importance of asking, what are the channels that drive collective learning? Episode Links @cesifoti http://www.chidalgo.com/ where you can find all the data tools her mentions in the podcast Pep Guardiola Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus by Doug Rushkoff Wernher von Braun Fordlandia Ricardian Trade Theory Steven Pinker Richard Dawkins Jonathan Haidt Joseph Henrich Kurt Vonnegut If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Does our obsession with the myth of the lone genius cause us to miss out on opportunities for high-impact innovation? Scott Page helps us see how diverse teams repeatedly outperform not only smart individuals, but also teams of talented individuals with similar backgrounds and cognitive tools. Scott is the author of The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies, and Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics at the University of Michigan. His findings have deep implications for what we teach students, how we evaluate employees, and how we make some of our biggest decisions. In this interview we discuss: How cognitive diversity includes how we think about the world, how we solve problems, and how we search for creative solutions How we can help others innovate by asking them to come up with adjacent possibles or ideas similar to the ones we are talking about How people who are successful in their fields accumulate skills in subtle ways over time The marked impact team diversity can have on the accuracy of its predictions How leaders can compile data on employee competencies and experiences to inform which people they place on which teams and to determine when they may need outside perspectives Why we should gather data on which team members made the most accurate predictions on the most important projects Why we want to consider the most important aspects of the work we are trying to do in order to determine which people to put on which teams Why we should ask ourselves, do we have diversity on the dimensions that matter most? If not, then find members outside of the organization who do. Given a certain competency threshold, randomness of team members may trump ability The fact that research shows we are always better off including some diversity as opposed to forming teams of all the best, most similar people Why even very small improvements due to difference accumulate in big ways over time The fact that team diversity allows us to make continual improvements How we suffer from a siren call of sameness where we want to work with and hire people who look like us, attended the same schools, and travel in the same social circles, yet those are some of the people we should most avoid when we want to solve complex problems How quants are giving us clear insights into the impact of diverse teams How complexity is driving us to work in teams yet how we are still evaluating most people in our organizations only as individuals The fact that we want both deep talent and diverse talent in our organizations and on our teams The fact that with people from only one identity group, we have a limited set of life experiences and ways of seeing the world that limits our creativity and problem-solving abilities When it comes to social policy work we want to be sure we have people in the room who can assess the policy from a multitude of perspectives and experiences Why young people should be thinking about depth and difference and the tools and skills they need to learn to demonstrate either or both What skills, tools, and behaviors are we helping young people accumulate? Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast @ScottPage4 http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/ John Taylor Lu Hong Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox by Gerd Gigerenzer and Reinhard Selten Jon Kleinberg Maithra Raghu Steven Johnson Stuart Kauffman The Great Courses Jack B. Soll Ray Dalio Juliet Bourke Whiplash by Joi Ito Rule of 72 Sheen S. Levine Radical Candor by Kim Scott Leigh Thompson Verna Myers Steve Jurvetson Barbara Mellers and Philip Tetlock Malcolm Gladwell Kimberly Crenshaw Tim A. McKay Reid Hoffman If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference.

Have you ever had a great idea only to have it rejected by your organization? If you are nodding your head, you will want to read Think Wrong: How to Conquer the Status Quo and Do Work that Matters. The authors, John Bielenberg, Mike Burn, and Greg Galle, lead a Silicon Valley innovation firm called Future Partners that gives people the language, frameworks, and tools they need to drive positive change in their organizations and communities. John, Mike and Greg explain the two important reasons we experience these hurdles, namely, human biology and culture. Then, they walk us through ways to challenge and, ultimately, overcome them. In this interview we discuss: How thinking right is all about predictable results and ho-hum solutions How thinking wrong feels awkward because we are acting outside what is acceptable The fact that we cannot follow the same predictable paths if we want to create and innovate How a lot of brains operating on the same neural pathways create a culture The six practices of thinking wrong: be bold, get out, let go, make stuff, bet small, and move fast How letting go is about rethinking assumptions, biases and orthodoxies The importance of making stuff so that our ideas come to life for others to see Why betting small lets us run lots of inexpensive experiments How moving fast allows us to iterate together on learning to accelerate progress Why innovative outlaws need a shepherd and a scout to offset organizational sheriffs and posses How biology and culture limit our thinking and ability to innovate The fact that we say we want innovation when we really want optimization How stepping off a predictable path makes us feel uncomfortable and vulnerable The value of teaching different kinds of problem-solving systems The value of learning from investment over return on investment How incremental innovation, or increvation, will not help us solve big, important problems Episode Links @FuturePartner Future Partners Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio Mach49 Deflection Point Exercise Uncertain and Unknown Exercise Creative Change by Jennifer Mueller Project M Pie Lab If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Why is social media so pervasive? Many have searched for just the right metaphor to capture its explosive growth, yet few have found ones that fit. Instead of turning to concepts like networks or connections, maybe we should be looking to biology. And that is exactly what Oliver Luckett and Michael Casey have done in their book, The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media to Transform Your Business and Your Life. In it, they offer a provocative theory: that social networks mimic biological life. As part of that theory, they explain how our capacity to create and share memes actually facilitates an evolutionary process. That process mimics the transfer of genetic information in living things. Oliver is a technology entrepreneur and currently CEO of ReviloPark, and he has served as Head of Innovation at The Walt Disney Company. Michael Casey is the author of three books, including The Age of Cryptocurrency. He was a reporter, editor, and columnist for The Wall Street Journal and also a senior advisor to the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT Media Lab. In this interview we discuss: Social media as the vehicle for a shift from top down gatekeeping to broad and open distribution How the creative expression that is part of social media mirrors the evolutionary process of biological organisms How the Internet operates as a social organism that we feed and contribute to as it evolves and reproduces The fact that there is an order inherent in the chaos of social media, just as there is order inherent in biological systems and organisms How the evolution of social media, like that of organisms, is not about progress, but about randomness, feedback, and interactions important to the evolutionary process How the metaphor of social organism better helps us to understand and respond to our changing culture in ways that encourage healthy responses and interactions How changing online business models hamper the kinds of organic, authentic, creative expression we need to be healthy online and to support an organic evolution of social media How the distribution mechanisms for information and creative expression have shifted from physical elements -- the TV tower, printing press, newspaper delivery truck -- to our brains and social networks How artists like Banksy are using social media to collaborate and impact the art world Why memes are like cultural currency and replicating tools that get repeated and absorbed into our culture to help it evolve How censorship works against our building up immunities to that will allow social media to evolve and increase in authenticity and creativity How social media is a human phenomenon that allows for a vibrant exchange of ideas Why we need to get it right when it comes to understanding social media, especially as we head into our AI future Episode Links @mikejcasey and @revilopark http://thesocialorganism.com/ http://www.michaeljcasey.com/ Norman Mailer Holarchy Banksy and documentary Banksy Does New York Hatsune Miku Richard Dawkins If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Think we want creative ideas? Think again. While most of us are swimming in creative ideas, the research shows that we tend to go with what we already know. This love-hate relationship with creativity discourages innovation and causes people and organizations to stagnate. Jennifer Mueller, author of the book Creative Change: Why We Resist It . . . How We Can Embrace It, has spent years studying how leaders and organizations handle creative change. She understands why we resist creativity and how to recognize this tendency. She also gives us strategies for promoting creativity in our organizations and for pitching our creative ideas. Jennifer is an Associate Professor at the University of San Diego, and she has served on the business school faculty of Wharton, Yale, and NYU. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. In this interview, we discuss: How our discomfort with uncertainty can cause us to kill creative ideas How generating creative ideas is easier than moving ahead with them The novelty of creative ideas is what makes them so difficult to accept How leaders really want ways to determine which creative ideas have value, not more creative ideas Why it is hard for leaders to admit they do not know whether a creative idea has value We prize correct solutions over a creative ones because of the uncertainty involved How creativity is uncertainty unleashed in a particular moment Why a how-best mindset limits our ability to stay open to creative ideas What a bias against creativity looks like and how we can reduce it Whether we are rejecting a creative idea or how it makes us feel and why this matters Why a successful medical inventor avoids using the term incubator for his startups Why we should treat innovation like a process rather than an outcome How coaching and encouraging trumps teaching when it comes to creative ideas How and why we need to evaluate creative ideas differently from other kinds of ideas How strength in decision-making works against being open to creative ideas Why the ways we communicate creative ideas makes all the difference The important role pattern matching plays in connecting experts to our creative ideas How convincing others of our creative ideas may mean helping them feel failure How pointing out that no one else is doing it as a way of supporting our creative ideas actually reinforces the status quo Why we need to broaden how we think of creativity in schools Why millennials are more anxious about creativity and less motivated to elaborate on creative ideas than previous generations How little we actually know about who has the potential for successful leadership and how this limits creativity in organizations Key skills leaders need to learn and demonstrate to support creative change How any new idea needs to be socialized before it can live in an organization What change circles are and the important role they play in supporting innovators How strengthening our capacity for creative change allows us to solve global problems Episode Links @JennSMueller http://jennifersmueller.com/ Thomas J. Fogarty Spencer Silver Ignorance by Stuart Firestein Star Wars High Noon 2001 Space Odyssey Rob McClary Do Schools Kill Creativity? Ken Robinson TEDTalk If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Why do some succeed with so little, while others fail with so much? Scott Sonenshein, author of the book, Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less and Achieve More than You Ever Imagined, thinks it happens because we get caught up in a mindset of chasing. A Professor of Management at Rice University, Scott is also a strategy consultant for organizations in healthcare, education, manufacturing, and technology. Drawing on research from psychology and management, Scott makes a case for doing more with less, what he calls stretching with what you have -- and it is a far cry from being cheap or refusing ever to spend. In this interview, we talk about: How waiting for the perfect tool gives us an excuse to delay working on our goals Why chasing after resources can cause us to get caught up in destructive comparisons Looking beyond the conventional uses for a particular resource and why that matters How reflecting on scarcity can help us get more out of the resources we already have How a mindset and culture of ownership lets us solve problems more creatively How stretching with the resources we have is a skill we can teach and learn How a culture of belief in people to solve problems creatively makes all the difference Why stretching is a far cry from being cheap and more about being frugal Why more expertise, knowledge, and practice does not equal greater problem solving How we approach problems more narrowly when we look only for expertise How and why outsiders bring a fresh perspective to problem solving Ways we can cultivate an outsider perspective in ourselves How, when we overplan, we count on a world that may or may not exist Why, in turbulent environments, successful organizations are both fast and accurate The power of running lots of small experiments to learn How we can leap without looking by doing and gathering data without learning from it How sticking to our plans at any cost can work against our own best interests The creativity the comes from unthinkable combinations How stretching makes a difference in how we live our lives Episode Links @ScottSonenshein http://www.scottsonenshein.com/ Not Impossible by Mick Ebeling Ron Johnson If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Research shows that happiness is elusive. So how can we achieve a deeper, longer lasting sense of joy? Emily Esfahani Smith, author of the book, The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life that Matters, studies the powerful distinction between meaning and happiness and why it matters. An editor at the Hoover Institution, a policy think tank at Stanford University, and a columnist for The New Criterion, her writing  has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. Her research reveals four pillars, or themes, associated with meaning. The stronger these pillars are in our lives, the more meaningful our lives will be. In this interview, we talk about: Why we should strive for meaning over happiness How meaning helps us think longer term The fact that meaning helps us connect to something larger than ourselves The four themes of meaning -- belonging, purpose, storytelling, and transcendence Why belonging is the most important pillar of meaning How belonging helps us see how we matter, helps us feel valued, respected, cared for Why purpose is all about what we can contribute to others How the story we tell about our lives is a way of crafting our identities How transcendence helps us connect to something larger than ourselves How we can help each other have a healthy sense of belonging at work through the social cues that we send, like making eye contact and smiling How purpose and belonging overlap when we become more focused on service Why we need to act on our talents and strengths to recognize our purpose Narrative identity arises from the stories we tell about our lives and our experiences We have agency in shaping the story of our lives in ways that help us move forward Paying attention to our current future selves - who we want to become How astronauts rethink their values and their ambitions as a result awe experiences What growing up in a Sufi household taught Emily about meaning vs happiness Episode Links @EmEsfahaniSmith http://emilyesfahanismith.com/ The New Criterion The Hoover Institution Pursuing Pleasure or Virtue by Veronika Huta and Richard M. Ryan Shawn Achor The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan Carlos Eire Jeffrey S. Ashby Sufism Rumi Whirling Dervish If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

When we get angry or excited, our emotions can seem automatic. But are they? For decades, scientists have described these feelings as hardwired, beyond our control, and associated with certain parts of the brain. But recent breakthroughs in neuroscience and psychology are upending this classical view, with revolutionary implications for how we understand ourselves and the world. In her book, How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, Lisa Feldman Barrett, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, helps us rethink what it means to be human, with repercussions for parenting, our legal system, and even our health. Lisa received an NIH Directors Pioneer Award for her groundbreaking research on emotion in the brain and has been studying human emotion for over 20 years. In this interview, we talk about: The fact that our emotions are not hardwired but are made by our brains as we need them Old, inaccurate ways of thinking about emotions and the brain, like emotions as associated with specific parts of the brain How variety is the norm when it comes to expressing and feeling emotions How having emotional granularity helps us feel, express, and understand our own and others emotions more deeply The fact that our brains are not reacting but rather are predicting and constantly guessing what will happen next based on past experiences How the predictions our brains make, based on past experience, yield the thoughts, perceptions, emotions, and beliefs we hold and feel How the brain of a baby is awaiting instructions for how to wire itself by capturing experiences it can draw on in the future How baby brains look very different from adult brains because they have not yet had the experiences an adult has had How our present and future selves are conjured from our past The fact that our emotions are not universal or identical by have variations and shades based on the situation How we actually have not one anger but many angers and happinesses and so on Why we must have knowledge of an emotion in order to experience it How the easiest way to gain knowledge of an emotion is through emotion words How an extensive emotion vocabulary benefits us socially and academically and helps us see varied emotions in other people, gives us greater empathy The fact that we can combine past experiences in brand new ways to create new knowledge if we have not yet had those actual experiences The fact that emotions are abstract concepts rather than physical properties and that they can guide us toward a particular goal of say using anger to overcome an obstacle If a tree falls in a forest and no human is there does it make a sound? No! If we have no concept of a tree then we would not hear the sound of it falling in a forest. Why we cannot understand unfamiliar languages or music How our brain is constantly anticipating sights, sounds, tastes and taking in information from the world and our bodies based on past experience How granularity in color perception is similar to what it means to have emotional granularity Why staying physically healthy is tied to being emotionally healthy How awe experiences help us gain perspective and regulate our physical and emotional health How curating awe experiences daily -- like walking outside, reading something new, taking in nature -- helps make our immediate problems seem smaller and less worrisome How the physical health of our bodies is intricately connected to the emotional health of our minds How many gun laws work against what we now know about our predicting brains the the ways past experiences taint our beliefs and what we see and how we act How understanding how our emotions are made helps us see that we are more in control and empowered than we may think to create the life we want to have

Do successful people possess talents that we lack? Or do they just do things that scare the rest of us? Andy Molinsky wants to help us embrace difficult challenges that can lead to growth. He is the author of the book, Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence, and a Professor of Psychology and Organizational Behavior at Brandeis International Business School. Andy has spent his career studying how people learn to have difficult conversations, take on new roles, overcome shyness, and achieve the success they crave. He often writes on this topic for Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Fast Company, The Economist and The Financial Times. In this interview, we talk about: Concrete steps you can take to step outside your comfort zone The connections Andy made between what immigrants face and what we all face when we enter a new, challenging situation How so much of learning new things and taking on new, stimulating challenges is about stepping outside our comfort zones What we gain by stepping outside our comfort zones Why it is about everyday acts of courage, like making smalltalk with supervisors, speaking up at meetings, connecting with someone who holds a different point of view How reaching helps us grow and advance in our lives and jobs to take on new roles, achieve goals and dreams, and help others The techniques we use to avoid reaching, like playing the avoidance game The excuses we make when we try to avoid reaching and how they harm us How perfectionists can avoid reaching The important role scaffolding plays as we take on new challenges and opportunities How we can customize or personalize aspects of a situation to feel more empowered The props, behaviors, costumes, and poses we can employ when we reach How fear is about trying to predict the future rather than living in the present How reaching is so often a process of self discovery The epiphanies we have when we reach -- easier than we thought and better than we imagined we would be How a friend or colleague can remind us of how well we did the last time we reached in this way Why sticking with it when things get hard means all the difference How we can build small wins into our plan to help us gain perspective and resilience Why reaching is really about learning, not failure Why it is all about adopting a learning orientation How keeping a diary can help us track our learning journey Why reaching is about much more than taking a leap -- it includes planning, practicing, trying out tools and techniques The fact that we are not alone when we feel uncomfortable reaching -- most of us feel this way How so many of us feel like imposters when we reach Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast @AndyMolinsky www.andymolinsky.com Global Dexterity by Andy Molinsky Emotional Agility by Susan David Lev Vygotsky Carol Dweck If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Leaders face an onslaught of new challenges that demand increasingly innovative solutions. Yet their approaches to finding them often get stuck in either blue-sky brainstorming or bottom-line decision making. Instead, leaders need a path that blends these two approaches -- a middle road that engages not only the minds of their teams, but also their hearts. To address these challenges, Lisa Kay Solomon co-authored the book, Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change. Lisa is an innovation, leadership, and design expert and Principal Faculty and Managing Director of Transformational Practices at Singularity University. Her writing has been featured in BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. In this interview, we talk about: Why we need to bring the human side -- our hearts and minds -- to strategic conversations How designing strategic conversations is an important leadership skill How strategic conversations differ from brainstorming and decision making Why strategic conversations are about more than getting the right answer Why these kinds of conversations are about the future of our organizations, of challenging the status quo, and of multiple perspectives, whether that involves new products and services, entry into new geographic regions, new business models, or new ways of staffing How strategic conversations can help us build understanding and help us see what success looks like The power of staying in the exploration space, staying expansive in our thinking Why these conversations are about mindsets, emotions, new ways of thinking, and new possibilities versus logic, right over wrong, or defending particular points of view Why strategic conversations require leaders to develop greater self-awareness and an understanding of their biases Why strategy is emotional How our education and schooling tees us up to think of strategic planning as all about the correct, numeric answer The important role design thinking, empathy, and supposed soft skills play in strategic conversations Why designing strategic conversations is a craft, not a crapshoot The importance of engaging multiple perspectives rather than just identifying participants -- paying attention to diverse ages, people outside the organization, visualizations, etc Why we should prepare participants before bringing them together, so that we set them up for success How background readings, information on who else will be in the room, meeting goals, etc, can help participants do their best work Why we want to design backwards when bringing people together for strategic conversations The importance of asking what participants will be thinking or saying to friends before, during, and after strategic planning meetings Why framing the issue of the strategic conversation is so important and so challenging How framing the issue is like providing the picture on the puzzle box because it is about setting the parameters How we can reframe discussions of market competitors by asking who is delivering value in new ways to our customers Why a school considering adding a high school asked should we do it versus can we do it Why leaders need to get comfortable bringing emotion into the room How setting the agenda is about making it an experience, getting people invested, and engaging emotionally, rather than just about getting things done Why we should value discussing our fears, what we care about, and what makes us nervous about the issues we are discussing Addressing the yeah but of long-term vs short-term thinking and planning Being able to speak to the reality of organizational politics and turf wars Having empathy for knowing how to engage with one another in these ways -- with visualizations, storytelling, conversations, and new ways of thinking Recognizing that strategic thinking can be learned and that it is a set of skills we ar...

How can we stay on top of changes that are not only getting faster, but more complex? We need strategies to take advantage of breakthroughs in fields as diverse as data mining, artificial intelligence and machine learning, since they are changing the ways we work, research, and live. To navigate this change, Joi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab and author of Whiplash, shares insights from research at the Lab and offers us nine strategies for surviving our faster future. In this interview, he does a deep dive on creative problem solving, teams, diversity, and learning. He talks about: How the Media Lab got started and the current focus of its work The importance of the white space between and beyond disciplines How the Media Lab has shifted from operating as a container to operating as a node How neuroscientist Ed Boyden embodies the multi-disciplinary approach of the Lab How pull over push problem solving is about finding and using the resources you need when you need them How the 2011 Japanese earthquake became a focal point for pull over push problem solving The power of diverse teams - and diverse tools - for creative problem solving The sweet spot of disagreement and diversity among productive teams When it comes to diversity, why we need to ask, are we looking to the other or just another? How innovative cybersecurity folks are designing systems that assume failure rather than seeking to avoid it and how this is about resilience over strength Why we need to think about the interaction among objects - the systems in which they operate - in order to innovate for greater success The role nuance and complexity play in thinking about open source How machine learning and artificial intelligence are impacting fields like cryptocurrency and genetic engineering The fact that policies and regulations are behind where machine learning and artificial intelligence are taking us Why lawyers need to learn more about tech and scientists need to learn more about ethical and legal issues Kevin Esvelt and his work at the Media Lab in genetic engineering and his focus on responsible ways of deploying these tools in conjunction with everyday citizens Why we cannot wait on ethicists and policymakers but must get scientists on board instead How our education system is the opposite of what robots and artificial intelligence are ensuring we need when it comes to creativity and innovation Why the Media Lab emphasizes the 4Ps of play, passion, projects, and peers and how that differs markedly from what U.S. schools are about Why our education system and our schools need to be as dynamic and open to change as the fields that will have the greatest impact on us and them How we might look to the ed system in Finland regarding assessment and project-based learning The value of the Montessori approach The value of looking at countries like India and others where they are experimenting with schools and learning The power of informal, interest-driven learning Why we should be spending more time on getting people engaged in their learning Why he believes learning is a social and cultural problem, not a tech problem, and why we need to create a culture of learning How he thought programming and coding would be more about mindset and creativity than employment Why he believes we need to nudge human-machine interactions in the right direction Episode Links @Joi https://joi.ito.com/ MIT Media Lab Jerome Wiesner Nicholas Negroponte Marvin Minsky Seymour Papert Muriel Cooper John Seely Brown Ed Boyden Optogenetics Just-in-time manufacturing The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly Scott E. Page Donella Meadows Reid Hoffman Kevin Esvelt and Rewriting the Code of Life CRISPR Mizuko Ito (Mimi Ito) and Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your rati...

Can extraordinary innovation happen in ordinary organizations? Yes, if you know how. In his latest book, Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways, Bill Taylor shines a spotlight on innovation in organizations such as banks, fast-food joints, and nonprofits. And he shares how they do it. Co-founder of Fast Company and bestselling author of the books, Practically Radical and Mavericks at Work, Bill has written for the NYTimes, the Guardian, and Harvard Business Review, and he blogs regularly for HBR. In this interview, he talks about: How Silicon Valley companies make up less than 10 percent of businesses How having a compelling lighthouse identity helps ordinary organizations stand out The 4 key elements of a lighthouse identity What it looks like when innovation meets the ordinary world of banking The fact that we want to do business with companies and brands that are fun Why being ordinary is not an option for every day organizations How an investor seeks out missionary over mercenary businesses The role teaching and psychology play in a fast-food standout What happens when leaders read and discuss books together Why an every day company requires its leaders to teach What it looks like when company expansion is driven by employee growth How big and rapid growth can decrease what makes a young organization so special The incredible role thought leadership plays in extraordinary organizations What Bill learned by spending a training day with employees from Quicken Loans How being bold, exciting and compelling in the marketplace requires we be that way in the workplace How the most successful organizations prioritize ideas and people Steps experts can take to see their work with fresh eyes What jazz can teach leaders about provocative competence What it takes to find our next ideas and why that is more important than ever How a wildly successful company prioritized learning to get unstuck Needing to ask: When is the last time you did something for the first time? Why we need to spend less time being interesting and more time being interested How being interested is about seeking out big ideas and small sources of inspiration Needing to ask: Am I learning as fast as the world is changing? Why the future is shaped by tough-minded optimists The importance of asking how to help more people benefit from the wealth of the few Episode Links @williamctaylor https://williamctaylor.com/ Metro Banks Willy Wonka John Doerr of KPKB Pals Sudden Service Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award The Art of Sun Tzu The Innovation Formula by Amantha Imber Quicken Loans and Dan Gilbert Rosanne Haggerty and Community Solutions MacArthur Fellows Program Robert Wennett WD-40 John W. Gardner If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening! Thank you to Emmy-award-winning Creative Director Vanida Vae for designing the Curious Minds logo, and thank you to Rob Mancabelli for all of his production expertise! www.gayleallen.net LinkedIn @GAllenTC

Innovators often invent the future and some do so by rethinking the past. For example, innovative historical researchers not only help us understand what happened yesterday, they improve how we respond to those issues today. Ibram Kendi is one of those researchers. In his book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, he uncovers the history of racist ideas in America. Winner of the 2016 National Book Award, his research reveals that racist policies fuel ignorance and hate, rather than the other way around. His findings challenge what many of us were taught to believe about racism in America today and the strategies we use to address it. Highlights from our conversation include: How racist ideas stem from racist policies that reinforce power structures History shows that 200+ years of educating and persuading away racism has been less impactful than eliminating racist policies How uplift suasion has worked against blacks by making them believe they are responsible for the racist ideas of others Why there is a very real mutual interest in working against racism, sexism, homophobia, and poverty to eliminate one and all of these isms How eliminating racist policies and disparities are key to eliminating racist ideas The fact that racist ideas connote racial hierarchy while anti-racist ideas connote racial equality How misleading statistics and unscientific approaches reinforce negative stereotypes around predominantly black neighborhoods How the academic achievement gap is a racist idea Three perspectives on our ongoing historical debate on race - segregationism, anti-racism, assimilation - and what they mean for blacks How W.E.B DuBois helped us recognize that black striving for suasion and uplift maintains false notions of black inferiority How Angela Davis taught us about the complexities of our identities in terms of gender, race, class, sex, age, etc How scientific racism served to reinforce notions of black inferiority How even after scientific racism was disproven by biologists and geneticists those in power wanted to fixate on any tiny percentage of difference to reinforce superiority How the debates we are having today about race are not new and are informed by a long history of racist policies in the US that allow those in power to argue that blacks are inferior How the US government sought to use deportation to evict freed slaves Episode Links @DrIbram http://www.ibram.org/ Jefferson Davis Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy ONeil How the Academic Achievement Gap is a Racist Idea by Ibram Kendi Cotton Mather Thomas Jefferson William Lloyd Garrison W. E. B. DuBois Double consciousness Angela Davis Intersectionality Bill Clinton Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Employee engagement is at an all-time low, but why? Francesca Gino, an expert on employee engagement and productivity, advises that if we do only one thing to fix it, we should encourage our employees to stop conforming and be themselves. When she and members of her research team introduced small interventions that encouraged people to be more authentic, the results were dramatic. Francesca is a Professor at Harvard Business School and author of the recent Harvard Business Review article, Fostering Rebel Talent at Work. She has won numerous awards for her work in psychology and management, and her research has been featured in publications like The Economist, The New York Times, and Scientific American. She is also author of the book, Sidetracked. Highlights from our conversation include: Why being ourselves at work increases engagement, creativity, and productivity How authenticity at work increases employee engagement and retention How opportunities to reflect on our strengths and unique qualities as early as onboarding increase our engagement and desire to stay on Why engagement goes up when we ask employees to share strengths during onboarding Concrete ways to encourage new employees to add to organizational culture How reflecting on who we are increases happiness and engagement Simple ways we can be authentic at work without waiting for permission The importance of asking why we do things this way How an award-winning chef helps his employees be authentic at work How it takes courage to be authentic and why it breeds success How leaders can model non-conformity for their employees What leaders can say to encourage employees to voice dissent How leaders can make clear when conformity is the rule The one quality a high-powered search firm seeks in candidates above all others How curious people can be better decision makers and creatives Why asking people to read a variety of books may hold the key to fostering creativity How her own experience coming to the U.S. from Italy led her to the research she does That rebel talent is something we can learn to embrace and cultivate How leaders can start small to help their employees be themselves at work Episode Links @francescagino http://francescagino.com 360-degree feedback HBR The Conversational Firm by Catherine Turco Massimo Bottura and Osteria Francescana elBulli Mellody Hobson and Ariel Investment Egon Zehnder Pixar and Ed Catmull IDEO If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Self-driving cars are just around the corner. Are you ready? With the advent of machine learning and related tech, autonomous cars are more technologically mature than most of us think. Yet old-school policies and regulations are lagging behind, making it difficult for large scale adoption to take place. Essentially, driverless tech has become a people, rather than a technology, problem. To help us sort out the complicated landscape on our horizon, Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman wrote the book, Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead. Lipson, a roboticist at Columbia University who specializes in artificial intelligence and digital manufacturing, and Kurman, an expert on the impact of technology on the economy and our daily lives, lay out the advances in technology that got us here and the benefits and challenges that lie ahead. Highlights from our interview include: The staggering number of lives self-driving cars will save How the maturity of driverless tech has outpaced updates to policies and regulations How traditional models of car insurance do not hold up to what autonomous cars require How a safety standard comparing driverless tech to humans is key How driverless tech can reduce noise and idling pollution Ways parking spaces and garages can be repurposed with fewer cars on the road The fact that city planners are focusing on public transportation and neglecting driverless tech and its impact on transportation budgets The important safety challenge of an incremental versus an all-out shift to driverless tech How driverless tech is now able to out-perceive humans at the wheel The role DARPA played in advancing driverless accelerating driverless tech How a shift from rules-based to machine learning birthed driverless car tech How sensors and software feed information to driverless cars How a combination of sensors and software help driverless tech overcome individual vulnerabilities in tech How gaming software held the key to advancing driverless tech The role ImageNet played in advancing image perception needed for driverless cars The fact that deep learning includes machines learning what we may not have words for Why we need to be talking about the impact of driverless tech on jobs How driverless tech can reduce isolation and increase mobility for the elderly and visually impaired How networked driverless cars can amass thousands of lifetimes of experience very quickly as they learn from one another in ways humans cannot How the shift to self-driving cars is less about the tech and more about the human issues of policies and regulations How driverless tech will usher in new businesses we cannot even imagine or predict Episode Links Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University DARPA Grand Challenge The Grid by Gretchen Bakke Lidar GPUs ImageNet Deep learning Qualia If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

If you struggle with exercise, Michelle Segar has a secret for you: Stop blaming yourself! Blame the system! After years of studying the science of motivation, Michelle Segar, Ph.D., Director of SHARP -- the Sport, Health, and Activity research and policy center at the University of Michigan -- has created a framework for rethinking exercise that swaps out prescription for meaning. Filled with practical tips and strategies, Michelle’s bestselling book, No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness, is informed by years of putting these findings into practice with people just like you. Some of the things we discuss in this interview: How systems determine our success in sustaining physical activity Why exercise is about so much more than weight loss Why finding the right whys make all the difference in our health and wellness How reflecting on how we feel when we move can help us sustain activity Why relying on willpower is such a short-sighted strategy The important role of emotions and decision making in activity for life Why meaning trumps should every time when it comes to changing our behaviors How we approach eating following a workout we enjoy versus a workout like work How exercise recommendations became so prescriptive Fewer than 1 percent of American adults know how much exercise is recommended How small of a role logical and rational behavior play in our choosing to exercise Why we need a new kind of fitness prescription based on how we live and feel How we help others when we prioritize our self care How a go-to activity resource prevents us from wasting time and energy Why reflecting on the immediate benefits of physical exercise fuels us long term The importance of finding exercise we love Getting past the idea that movement only counts when we sustain it for periods of time How awareness of our current situation empowers us to take ownership for what we want it to be Why negotiation skills can reap big benefits in helping us create time for physical activity Episode Links @MichelleSegar http://michellesegar.com/ Paulo Freire Dan Ariely Behavioral economics Reward Substitution Self-determination theory No Sweat Resolutions Quiz 2015 USA Best Book Awards SHARP at the University of Michigan If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Have you ever felt powerless to improve the lives of those less fortunate than you? Mick Ebeling believes that the key to helping many is to start by helping just one. He shares details and examples of this in his book, Not Impossible, The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn’t be Done. Mick explains that through this philosophy, we not only solve an immediate problem, but we also learn more about what else we can do. Thought leader, speaker, and founder of Not Impossible, Mick and his team are crowdsourcing solutions through tech to help people around the globe. Along the way, he is helping us to see how powerful each one of us is to create change in the world. Here are some of the things that came up in our conversation: How it all started when Mick connected with LA graffiti artist Tony Quan The value he places on tech to meet human and social needs The power of committing first and then figuring it out - where it leads The important role diverse team members play in solving real-world problems How taking the time to see others in your world can lead to incredible change After 7 years with ALS Tony got to draw and communicate again with the Eyewriter What happened when Tony could no longer blink? He used brain waves. The inspiring story of 3D printing and Project Daniel The story behind the powerful quote  to preach always and when necessary, use words How Mick wound up taking charge on printing out 3D limbs What we learn and the impact we can have when we help start by helping one person How he got to his philosophy of helping one to help many Why his organization strives to keep innovative tech prices low How emotion plays a key role in determining which projects to take on The role of inspiring stories in picking projects and spreading the words How we do not need expertise to effect change in the world Ask why something needs to happen rather than how - why that is key Every single thing that surrounds us today was once impossible How not knowing what you cannot do is so freeing Episode Links @MickEbeling www.notimpossible.com Mick Ebeling TED Talk Tony Tempt One Quan Time Magazine Top 25 Inventions EyeWriter Cameron Rodriguez Optical character technology Open source The BrainWriter Consumer EEG Devices Project Daniel Dr. Tom Catena Richard Van As Maker Faire Gait Trainer If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Algorithms make millions of decisions about us every day. For example, they determine our insurance premiums, whether we get a mortgage, and how we perform on the job. Yet, what is more alarming is that data scientists also write the code that fires good teachers, drives up the cost of college degrees and lets criminals evade detection. Their mathematical models are biased in ways that wreak deep and lasting havoc on people, especially the poor. Cathy O’Neil explains all this and more in her book, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. Cathy earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard, taught at Barnard College, and worked in the private sector as a data scientist. She shares her ideas on the blog mathbabe.org and appears weekly on the Slate Money podcast. Here are some of the things that came up in our conversation: The shame she felt as a data scientist working for a hedge fund during the financial crisis How most of us trust and fear math to the point where we stop asking questions How a faulty algorithm cost a high-performing teacher her job How value-added models of evaluation miss the mark How a mathematical model is nothing more than an automated set of rules The fact that every mathematical model has built-in blindspots What is hard to measure typically does not get included in an algorithm The cost to colleges and applications of leaving price out of college ranking algorithms Crime prediction models can fail because of incomplete data The big error in the findings of A National at Risk report and how we still pay for it How poverty lies at the heart of the achievement gap What allows big data to profile people efficiently and effectively Where we may be headed with individual insurance costs because of big data Why we need rules to ensure fairness when it comes to health insurance algorithms Data scientists have become de facto policy makers and that is a problem The set of questions all data scientists should be asking The fact that FB serves up an echo chamber of emotional content to hook us How data is just a tool to automate a system that we, as humans, must weigh in on Why healthy algorithms need feedback loops Why we have a problem when we cannot improve a model or reveal it as flawed Why we need to stop blindly trusting algorithms Questions we should be asking to demand accountability of algorithm designers Episode Links @mathbabedotorg https://mathbabe.org/ Sarah Wysocki U.S. News & World Report college ranking system PredPol Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford A Nation at Risk The Achievement Gap If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What is the hidden impact of constant demands on our attention? How does it affect how we think, how we act, and how we live? We have clickbait on our mobile devices and computer screens, ads on buses, and commercials on radio and TV. But as Tim Wu, author and Professor at Columbia University Law School points out, this is a fairly recent development that has turned into a constant monetization of our attention.    Tim is the author of three books: Who Controls the Internet?, The Master Switch, and most recently, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. He has written for the New Yorker, the Washington Post, Forbes, and Slate magazine. He points out that this constant barrage of messaging actually shapes who we are, often without our realizing it. Highlights from our conversation include: How does what we are exposed to determine what we decide? The connection between early war propaganda and the rise of advertising How the science of advertising was built on engineering demand Why early suffragettes were hired to sell cigarettes How the Paris poster period led to an early revolt against the attention merchants How Consumer Reports grew out of frustration with ads The original remote control took the shape of a gun to blow away commercials Bringing TVs into our homes meant attention merchants now had more access 1950s provided a captive prime time TV programming audience for advertisers How advertising convinces us that to be individuals we need to buy things How novelty and unpredictability makes things addictive How idealistic tech founders work against own values in reliance on ads Tech innovation of today focused more on getting inside our minds and featuring ads Why harvesting captures so well how our attention is sought and used How such a tiny sector of the economy has such a big impact on us and how we live How spending time with others is actually a revolt against advertising Where are the sacred spaces in our lives? What is the role of public virtue in decision making today? Episode Links Tim Wu @superwuster William James Benjamin Day Herbert Kitchener George Washington Hill French Poster Period Singletasking by Devora Zack Timothy Leary Mad Men Coca-Cola Commercial Charlie Brown Christmas Special Space Invaders You’ve Got Mail Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schull Buzzfeed Netflix Temenos If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Is it possible to lead with full transparency? Can openness be the cornerstone of a large, fast-growing tech organization? These are just some of the questions that Catherine Turco answered when she spent 10 months observing all aspects of a fast-growing, high-tech company determined to build a new form of management. The result was something she calls The Conversational Firm. While she points out that it is not an easy or predictable path for leaders to choose, it is one with powerful benefits for the organization and its employees. Catherine Turco is the author of the book, The Conversational Firm: Rethinking Bureaucracy in the Age of Social Media, and an Associate Professor of Organization Studies at MIT. An ethnographer and economic sociologist, her work has appeared in the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology. In this interview, we discuss: What happens when openness in products gets applied to organizational culture What it means to apply principles of holacracy to an organization What an ethnographer learned after spending 10 months immersed in a tech company What it means to be a conversational firm How open communication and hierarchical decision making can exist side by side How leaders sharing company information can rally employees to offer solutions The power of collective problem solving through radical information sharing Why trust makes all the difference for leaders and employees The important role design plays in crafting a healthy corporate culture How an open culture is self-reinforcing How openness encourages employees to see themselves as problem solvers How openness increases employee engagement Why new approaches to company culture require new images of leadership Building a different kind of organization requires intention and focus Making the shift from punitive to educative approaches to management and leadership How the public nature of social media is helping companies get past thoughtless policies How the pros can outweigh the cons of an open work space Why the influx of tech in any org makes it easier to rethink traditional hierarchies Why harnessing the collective wisdom of employees ups meaning and engagement Why we need new models of leadership where leaders want to listen The important role thoughtful organizational culture plays for everyone Episode Links Catherine Turco Holacracy TINYpulse Silo Effect by Gillian Tett Dilbert Adria Richards Sendgrid PyCon Hipchat Slack If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Gratitude has a dramatic impact on well-being and success, yet many of us are not aware of this research. In this groundbreaking book, The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life, Janice Kaplan explains the science behind the power of gratitude. The author of twelve books, including The New York Times bestselling memoir, I will See you Again, Janice was an award-winning producer at ABC-TV Good Morning America, Executive Producer of the TV Guide Television Group, and Editor-in-Chief of Parade Magazine. In this episode, Janice explains the surprising, counterintuitive connection between gratitude and happiness. She also shares simple steps we can take today to increase the amount of gratitude we express and how doing it can change your life. Here are some things that came up in our conversation: how a mindset of gratitude gives us control over our own happiness simple steps you can take to express gratitude right now with family and friends the mental and physical health benefits of practicing gratitude 90 percent believe gratitude makes us happier yet under 50 percent express it Our attitude toward life events determines how they impact us Choosing gratitude means gaining control and not waiting for happiness to arrive Gratitude is as simple as finding one thing each day to be grateful for When we appreciate others and show gratitude, they flourish Gratitude changes our brain Gratitude helps us sleep better, and lowers stress and blood pressure Experiences and interactions with others makes us happier than buying stuff Prioritizing gratitude helps us pay more attention Recognizing how fortunate we are helps us be more generous 81 percent say they would work harder for a grateful boss 90 percent believe grateful bosses are more successful Being appreciated is highly motivating Ambition and gratitude play nicely together - can achieve and be appreciative Gratitude can get us out of the comparison game We are built to find redeeming value in difficult life events It is not happiness that makes us grateful but rather gratitude that makes us happy Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers figured out gratitude a long time ago Share a photo of something you are grateful for Send a text of gratitude Episode Links Parade Magazine John Templeton Foundation National Gratitude Survey TSA Habituation Massachusetts General Hospital Tom Gilovich Paul Piff Monopoly game Daniel Gilbert David Steindl Rast Essentialism by Greg McKeown If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Everyone benefits from understanding great design. Whether you make products, program apps, or provide services, design plays a critical role in how effectively you accomplish your goals. And if you work in the field of design, there has never been a better time to showcase your skills. In this thought-provoking interview, John Maeda talks about all of this and more. An award-winning designer who was described as a bellwether for the design industry by Wired Magazine, John sits at the crossroads of business, design, and technology.. His TED talks have been viewed by millions, and his books have been translated into dozens of languages. John began his career Professor and Head of Research at The Media Lab at MIT. He then served as President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), authored a number of books, and then left academia to work as Design Partner for venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. He now works as Global Head of Computational Design and Inclusion at open-source tech firm, Automattic. John shares what he has learned along the way. Insights from our interview include: How the arduous practice of engineering informs his perspective on design How he was raised not to know what he could not be How curiosity is about having an openness to now knowing How much of what he saw in Silicon Valley was reminiscent of MIT How resilience can increase with curiosity How each challenge he has chosen stretches him How creatives often lack confidence - a normal occurrence for them How a brilliant professor taught him to say I do not know The three kinds of design that exist right now How digital design is constantly changing, immature How design thinking is a powerful strategy for understanding users How schools can benefit from real-world practice Why stepping out of academia was important for his understanding of the world Why the addictive aspect of tech is not a problem for him How he is always looking for new people to learn from Why he wishes we were talking less about beauty in design and more about effectiveness How he wishes design were more about who we can serve rather than trends How he is asking how design can be more inclusive How we can get caught up in making things in our own image through design The fact that design tends to come to the foreground only once the tech matures The challenges of leading and working with people in design How he is learning to work in a 100 percent remote tech company Episode Links John Maeda @JohnMaeda MIT Media Lab Rhode Island School of Design Kleiner Perkins Automattic Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer Design Report 2016 Walker and Company, Bevel Brand Grindr Jackie Xu Justin Sayarath The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling Matt Mullenweg of Automattic Paul Graham of Y Combinator CRISPR If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

It is essential to achieve our goals, yet few of us practice it. It is emotional agility -- the ability to navigate the thoughts, feelings, and stories we tell ourselves as challenges arise. This does not mean ignoring how we feel or wallowing in those emotions. And it is certainly not about just being happy all the time. It is about recognizing that the monologue inside our heads is not in control of us but, rather, we are in control of it. That is something Susan David knows a lot about. Author of the book, Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life, she is a psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, and CEO of Evidence Based Psychology. Her writing has been featured in numerous publications, including Harvard Business Review, Time, Fast Company, and The Wall Street Journal. Insights from our interview:   How we deal with our thoughts and emotions impacts our well being In a time of unprecedented complexity we need to be agile and responsive We get hooked when we treat our thoughts and emotions as facts How we can be blind to what is right in front of us The fact that we will look for information to support the stories we make up We engage with thought blaming when we give too much power to our thoughts We need to let go of our need to be right Between stimulus response, there is a space where we can choose When we bottle emotions our emotions, we miss out on what they can teach us When we brood or give too much space to thoughts and emotions, we get stuck Brooding prevents closure and moving forward Our consumer culture can make us feel that we are not good enough When we extend compassion to ourselves we are more open to change Constant comparison to others sets up a never ending competition Giving language to our emotions helps us make plans and solve problems Journaling thoughts and feelings for just 20 minutes a day can be life changing When we walk our why, we are more resilient and focused Walking our why helps us overcome social contagion The value of tweaking our emotions from have to to want to Making the shift from have to to want to is about prioritizing our values Have to language makes our brains rebel and is about obligation and shame Our brains are wired to make us comfortable - the unfamiliar feels unsafe Aim for a state of whelm, rather than over- or underwhelmed Emotional labor is the difference work demands and how we feel How many workplaces are operating out of old industrial models? How to raise emotionally agile children? Help them identify and label emotions. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is fear walking. Faced with complexity, we are less likely to collaborate, innovate or relate Complexity requires we develop inner skills Episode Links Susan David @SusanDavid_PhD Emotional Agility article in HBR Victor Frankl Charles Darwin James Pennebaker Take Pride by Jessica Tracy NYTimes article - Teaching Your Child Emotional Agility The Quiz - Emotional Agility Report - Susan David How Levis Is Building Well-Being Programs Where They Matter Most: In Factories by Adele Peters If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

How do breakthroughs happen? Not how we think. Movies, books, and articles, constrained by time and word limits, often leave out the realities --  the messy work, filled with dead ends, abandoned questions, and accidental discoveries. That is what Stuart Firestein, Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, wants to change. He believes that the roles ignorance and failure play in the discovery process are vastly underappreciated, so much so that he has written two books about them, Ignorance: How It Drives Science, and Failure: Why Science is So Successful. An advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation program for The Public Understanding of Science, Stuart shares insights from his own work as a successful researcher and scientist and from those of his peers, as well as scientific philosophers and historians. Insights from our interview:   Knowledge and facts are important insofar as they help us ask better questions Conscious ignorance offers a useful playground for discovery The messy process of science and discovery is where the value lies The disconnect between scientific textbooks and courses and actual science The innovative course he teaches that helps students gain a scientific mindset What it is that makes a problem interesting How scientists, researchers, and creatives look for connections Why failure can be useful even if it never leads to an eventual success The fact that the more expert a person is the less certain they will be How systems limit innovation Why we need better tools for assessment and evaluation in schools Why we need feedback tools that are more diagnostic and less judgmental Why he worries most about people who dislike or are disinterested in science Why he sees his lab as a cauldron of curiosity How writing books requires a different way of looking at things How philosophy and history can impact science in an interactive way Episode Links Stuart Firestein @FiresteinS Be Bad First by Erika Andersen Is the Scientific Paper a Fraud by Peter Medawar James Clerk Maxwell Principles of Neuroscience Eric Kandel Kenneth Rogoff D.H. Lawrence Do No Harm by Henry Marsh MCAT NIH NSF Sidney Brenner Michael Krasny Karl Popper Thomas Kuhn Isaiah Berlin If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Want to succeed in work and life? Be bad first. Do not confuse this with the familiar call to fail fast (so often heard in the startup world in recent years). This is a longer game. It is about getting comfortable with being novices and of committing to learning new, hard skills that take years to acquire. In a world of rapid-fire change, constant connection, and lots of choices, it is a necessary goal. Erika Andersen, wants to teach us how to do just that. Erika is the Founder of Proteus, author of three books on leadership, and a Forbes contributor. She shares concrete tips and great examples in her latest book, Be Bad First: Get Good at Things Fast to Stay Ready for the Future. Insights from our interview:   The key skill for success in the 21st century Why being bad first is not about failing fast or failing forward How open are we to learning new ideas? Less open than we say. How we hate being bad at things but love getting good at things How our desire for mastery can work in our favor with new challenges How hard are you clinging to the skills you have? How is that working for you? Four mental skills crucial for learning How Michelangelo successfully navigated being bad first The role innovation plays in getting ourselves to learn new things How to put our self talk to work for us rather than against us How we cannot get the help we need if we do not know our gaps How to revise and reframe our negative self talk What does healthy curiosity look like in adulthood? Confused about curiosity? Watch a 3-year-old! Get curious by unleashing your drive to understand Value the expertise of others enough to ask them questions Expected to be expert in your field? Beware of asking these questions. Want to reclaim your innate curiosity? Start with your hobbies! Anti-curiosity strongly connected to negative self talk Risk-free way to practice being bad first? Write with your non-dominant hand. It is impossible to be good at something you have never done - remember that Learning something new? Find your bridge - the part you know something about. Three things we need to believe in order to change our behavior. When leaders model new behaviors, change goes faster in their orgs Every year, pick something new to be bad at. Episode Links @ErikaAndersen Erika Andersen Rookie Smarts by Liz Wiseman Duolingo If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Is pride a deadly sin or a key to our survival? Will it lead us down a destructive path or can it actually help us resist temptation? In this conversation, Jessica Tracy answers these questions and more. Jessica is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of the book, Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success. Her research has unearthed findings that help us see just how important pride is for human progress and survival. Her discussion of pride takes us beyond associations of boastfulness and arrogance, in order to understand how feelings of pride can boost creativity, encourage altruism, and confer power and prestige in ways that benefit us as individuals and as a society. In this interview, we talk about:   Why we need pride to feel good about ourselves The fact that pride is innate, rather than learned The body language we associate with pride and what it signals How residents of Burkina Faso helped us recognize that pride is universal How philosophers like Aristotle and Rousseau helped us see pride as positive How studying narcissism clued us into key aspects of pride The fact that there are two kinds of pride - authentic and hubristic What we learned when we asked people to talk about times when they felt pride How the speech of one political candidate included both aspects of pride Why asking if you are a voter vs if you will vote makes you more likely to vote How we can resist temptation by imagining the pride we will feel if we do How displays of pride convey status and why that is important What residents of Fiji taught us about pride, status, and evolution Why we evolved to have hubristic pride and the dominance that comes with it The connection between prestige and authentic pride How people with hubristic pride dominate through fear How dominant leaders are better at helping groups solve problems How prestigious leaders cultivate creativity and innovation in groups The fact that cultural ideas evolve through learning How pride motivates us to create and make things better How pride helps us want to teach and share and let others copy When people show pride in answering questions observers will copy them The fact that pride guides social learning How pride helps helps scientists make progress - they want to be right and it feels good when that happens Why we did not evolve to be selfless - we evolved to build a sense of self How hubristic pride is about a false sense of self and why it leads to shortcuts Why our sense of self is different from that of any other animal To what extent do pride and shame drive bad behaviors? Episode Links http://ubc-emotionlab.ca/people/dr-jessica-tracy/ @ProfJessTracy Dean Karnazes and Ultramarathon Man The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan Cumulative cultural evolution Lance Armstrong If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We produce more wind and solar power than ever before, yet coal, oil, and gas constitute over 90 percent of our energy sources. Why? Blame it on the grid. While our electrical grid was once an engineering marvel, today it is the Achilles heel of energy efficiency. In her book, The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and Our Energy Future, McGill University Professor Gretchen Bakke explains why. A former Fellow in the Science in Society Program at Wesleyan University, she holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago. In this interview, Bakke shares how our grid became what it is today and offers fascinating insights into the technologies, personalities, and policies that got us here. Along the way, she explains all the fascinating ways innovators are helping us rethink it and what the future of energy looks like. In this interview, we talk about:   What the U.S. electrical grid actually is The history that informs the grid Why it matters when we use electricity Why the more we invest in green energy the more fragile our grid becomes How our current grid binds us to non-renewable energy sources How overgrown trees, sagging power lines, and a computer glitch caused a massive blackout in 2003 How electricity became a monopoly and a commodity How grid complexity works against complete reliance on alternative energy The good, the bad, and the ugly of smart meters Why energy storage is the holy grail of the energy business The innovation of vehicle-to-grid initiatives The feasibility of wireless electricity How an energy platform can help us reimagine the grid How an energy cloud can help us de-regionalize our reliance on energy sources What a cultural anthropologist brings to our understanding of the grid The values and history embedded in our electrical grid The fact that we made the grid and the grid makes us Whether choreography serve as a tool for helping us rethink power Episode Links Arc lamp Charles Edison Charles Brush Samuel Insull National Energy Act PURPA Energy Policy Act of 1992 Enron Walkable City by Jeff Speck Vehicle to grid Elon Musk The Paris Talks Energy cloud If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Do good people discriminate more often than they think? That is exactly what a team of researchers found when they analyzed the thoughts and reactions of millions of people around the world.   Harvard University Professor of Social Ethics, Mahzarin Banaji, author of the book, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, shares surprising findings from Implicit Association Tests taken by over 18 million people from over 30 countries. What she reveals may surprise you. Banaji is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, as well as the Radcliffe and Santa Fe Institutes. She and her co-author Anthony Greenwald, Professor at Washington University, have spent their careers uncovering the hidden biases we all carry when it comes to issues like race, gender, age, and socioeconomics. In this interview, we talk about: How knowing our blindspots can help us innovate How we can measure the extent of our biases with the Implicit Association Test How the implicit association test can launch a dialogue around bias Who we say is American versus who we really believe is American How our tendency is to be curious and to want to learn about ourselves How much we want to know is a measure of our smart we are The role competition and social knowledge play in motivation to learn and grow Why we need to get beyond learning about it to doing something about it The importance of what we are willing to do to address our biases Knowledge of bias helps us rethink hiring, law, admissions, medicine, and more Bias in our minds hurts us, too The fact that implicit bias starts as young as 6 years old Disappointing differences in explicit vs implicit love of our ethnic or racial group What is not associated with our groups in society gets dropped from our identities Bias and discrimination can come from who we help How referral programs can reinforce bias and lack of diversity A tip on how to ensure referral programs cultivate diversity The fact that we all like beautiful people and how that harms us Ways to outsmart our biases What symphony orchestras can teach us about overcoming bias in hiring The fact that good people can and do have bias How we will be perceived by future generations if we can address our biases Whether Mahzarin likes science fiction Episode Links @banaji http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~banaji/ Anthony Greenwald Implicit Association Test Fitbit Inclusion Conference 2016 What Works by Iris Bohnet Social imprinting Group identity Stanley Milgram Abu Ghraib My Lai Massacre If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What stands between us and meaningful work? Email! It is killing our productivity and distracting us from the creative work we crave, yet we spend over a quarter of our work week on it. What is behind our addiction and what can we do about it? Jocelyn Glei, author of the book, Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done, explains the science behind our addiction and offers strategies for prioritizing meaningful work. Jocelyn is the founding editor of 99U and editor of three productivity books, including the bestseller, Manage Your Day-to-Day. In this interview, we talk about:   The challenge of living in an age of distraction Why it is easier to be busy than to focus on meaningful work How, on average, we check email 11 times an hour and process 122 emails daily How we spend over a quarter of work time on email How the random rewards of email keep us addicted How completion bias makes us strive for inbox zero How designs like progress bars and percentages speak to our completion bias How our negativity bias influences every email that we read How empathy, emoticons, and punctuation can compensate for negativity bias The fact that email goes awry because of a missing social feedback loop How empathy goes a long way in overcoming email negativity bias Email is great for asking but awful for declining The difference between an email asker and an email guesser What it means to do creative, meaningful work Steps we can take to ensure meaningful work rules the day The role momentum plays in doing meaningful work Why we need to synchronize calendars with to-do lists How scarcity of time and resources impacts capacity, mindset, and attitude Tech setups to help us avoid frequent email checks How the best way to fail at email is to rely on program defaults Why the more we check our email, the less happy we are How segmenting emails senders helps us decide which emails to ready by when The fact that not all email messages are created equal How quickly we respond to emails sets expectations How to ensure your emails stand out How productivity can be about what we choose not to do Why we need to spend more time deciding than doing Why it is about leaving a legacy Episode Links @jkglei http://jkglei.com/ B. F. Skinner Daniel Goleman and emotional intelligence Mark McGuinness Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much Gloria Mark Manage Your Day to Day Clayton Christensen If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Is there a formula for innovation? Yes! And the most successful individuals, teams, and organizations rely on it to achieve their goals. Innovation psychologist, bestselling author, and Founder of the leading innovation firm in Australia, Inventium, Amantha Imber has worked with organizations like Google, Disney, LEGO, and Virgin. In her book, The Innovation Formula: The 14 Science-backed Keys for Creating a Culture Where Innovation Thrives, she distills the science behind game-changing innovation and offers concrete examples of what leaders can do to cultivate it in their teams. In this interview, we talk about:   What it means to democratize innovation in our organizations Innovation as change that adds value What happens when we assign projects for challenge vs capacity The Imagination Breakthroughs Project at GE The diminishing returns of cash rewards for performance Why leaders are trading cash for time to support innovation Guarding against groupthink in long-standing teams The value in walking in stupid for doing innovative work The kind of leadership that sets the most innovative organizations apart Why leaders should do innovative work rather than delegate it How the Kickbox project helps companies like Adobe spark innovation Why blue-sky brainstorming is a lazy way to innovate Innovative ways Engineers without Borders and Tata Group learn from failure The power of assuming abundance by sharing generously Why we need a certain level of noise to do creative work Hack-in-a-box to support student innovation and entrepreneurship Episode Links @amantha http://www.inventium.com.au/ Jeff Immelt of GE Imagination Breakthroughs at GE Wieden + Kennedy Advertising Originals by Adam Grant Adobe Kickbox project Tata Group Engineers without Borders If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

How do we make time for creative work, and how do we sustain it? Amy Whitaker, author of Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses, tells us how. Writer, artist, researcher, and teacher, Amy works at the intersection of art and commerce. She holds an MBA from Yale and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine arts. She is also a professor at New York University. In this interview, we talk about: Why art and creativity are responsible for our greatest human contributions That art is the opposable thumbs equivalent of what makes us human How creativity is about personal discovery and contribution The fact that creativity is not a distant land of mythic geniuses and art theorists The value in taking a wide-angle or systems view for art thinking The role of play and creativity in important scientific discoveries How to develop a habit of studio space for creative work Why it is normal to feel disoriented and vulnerable while creating The importance of working in the weeds to feel alive Why we need to trade discernment for judgment Whether we are standing at the easel versus sitting in the armchair The power of becoming a good noticer How creatives are inventing point B rather than moving toward it When Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile and what it did for running Inspiring ways to manage creatives Why managing is about creating the space for creatives to do their work The importance of good enough versus perfect or right Why creatives need to think about the letter versus the envelope Why we need to have our own metaphors Thoughts on Leonardo da Vinci if he were alive today Why we need to find language for the middle space Episode Links http://www.amywhit.com/ @theamywhit Thomas J. Fogarty Takahiko Masuda Target blindness Brene Brown Amy Poehler Harper Lee Actor-observer bias Truman Capote Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think by Mona Patel Kristian Still Dialectical behavioral therapy Amy Schumer Cubism Brexit Roger Bannister and YouTube video of him breaking the 4-minute mile Donald Keough and New Coke If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Smart machines are coming, so what are we doing about it? Instead of cowering in fear, what if we took a proactive approach? What if there were a playbook we could use to anticipate and thrive in an increasingly automated world? In his book, Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines, Thomas Davenport, offers ways to accomplish that goal. His book is a guide for employees and students who want to know what they can do to work successfully with smart machines. Tom is a Professor in Management and Information Technology at Babson College and co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics. He is also a Fellow of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and a Senior Advisor to Deloitte Analytics. He teaches analytics and big data at Babson, Harvard, MIT, and Boston University and has written over 17 books In this interview, we talk about: What the number of bank tellers working today can tell us about smart machines 10 reasons to look over your shoulder for smart machines in your own work What separates humans from machines The 4 markers of machine smartness and which one we are living now Why employers should aim for augmentation vs automation wherever possible How smart machines can liberate us to do more creative and valuable work Augmentation at its best in freestyle chess How we can step in with machines in the workplace Why we would want to step up with machines in the workplace What it looks like to step forward with machines in the workplace How we might step aside with machines in the workplace How some are stepping narrowly with machines in the workplace Why every organization needs an Automation Leader Why we need to get past STEM as the only solution The important role organizations play in providing professional learning Why Tom argues against universal basic income How companies can be more resilient in a digital age with increased competition The fact that so few of our political leaders are talking about this big shift Episode Links @tdav http://www.tomdavenport.com/ Oxford Study on The Future of Employment Bricklaying Robots Ex Machina Freestyle chess Former WaMu Risk Officer Stretch by Karie Willyerd 2020 Workplace Report If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Multitasking is a myth. And we are poorer for trying to do it. The research shows that we have less productivity, more stress, diminished creativity,  and poorer relationships when we try to do many things at once. And yet, in a hyper-connected world, we can often feel like we have no other choice. And yet, if we honored how are brains are designed, we would see that singletasking is the answer. That is the message and the research that Devora Zack, author of Singletasking: Get More Done -- One Thing at a Time, wants you to hear. And she gives practical tips about how to do it even in the most frenetic of moments. Devora is the author of two previous books, Networking for People Who Hate Networking and Managing for People Who Hate Managing, and CEO of Only Connect Consulting. She’s worked with clients at Cornell University, London Business School, and Deloitte, and is a visiting faculty member at Cornell University. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal. In this interview, we talk about: The myth of multitasking How single tasking ups our productivity and creativity and state of flow Using time shifting to avoid a multitasking mindset The price we pay for multitasking The fact that excessive media multitaskers have trouble remembering Why single tasking requires us to commit to a choice Tips for starting small with single tasking The three different ways most of us make sense of the world and why they matter How accessibility and our need to please can prevent us from single tasking Why single tasking lets us bring the best version of ourselves to what we do The fact that some prefer to shock themselves than sit in silence How device-free staff meetings can increase focus and productivity A great tip for being more fully present with friends and family Ways to build fences to prevent interruptions before they occur The power of cluster tasking with tasks we do daily What we can do and say when colleagues interrupt us Tips for open plan offices and colleague interruptions What team members think and feel about leaders who single task The connection between happiness and single tasking Episode Links @Devora_Zack http://www.myonlyconnect.com/ Deep Work by Cal Newport People Prefer Electric Shocks to Being Alone with Their Thoughts Slow Reading Club If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Can you trust your memory? Probably not. Research shows that we can be convinced fairly easily that we are guilty of a crime we did not commit. We not only misremember information, but we can misremember information about the wrong person. Add to that the fact that when someone else tells us how they remember something, it can alter our memory of that same event, person, or situation. These insights, along with many others from memory research, are changing how we think about law and order, learning, and what makes us human. False memory researcher and criminal psychologist, Julia Shaw, is one of only a handful of experts in the field. A senior lecturer and researcher in the Department of Law and Social Sciences at London South Bank University and author of The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory, she works with members of the military and law enforcement. She is also a regular contributor to Scientific American. In this interview, we talk about: What the blue-gold dress phenomenon revealed about how our brains work Why we need less evidence to convict someone who looks less trustworthy Why we form stronger memories when others are same race, age, or gender Why we reminisce most strongly about moments from our teens and 20s Why we have rosy memories of most of our firsts in life What actually happens in our brains when we form a memory How memories get stamped in our brains The fact that we simply cannot multitask - it is humanly impossible - and why Why it is that whenever we remember we also forget How to get someone to think they saw Bugs Bunny at Disneyland Why we should write things down rather than try to remember them Why understanding how unreliable our memories can be is liberating How attention is the glue between reality and your memory The vital importance of sleep to build lasting memories How we all suffer from overconfidence when it comes to our memories Why there is a right way to ask questions when we need to gather information How to avoid asking leading questions that may create false memories How photos can prompt false memories The fact that we implant false memories in each other all the time How creating memories with others may ensure more accurate memories How social media can result in muddled memories Why we need to continually update memories to learn Why the flexibility of our brains -- and our memories -- is a beautiful thing How we can convince people they committed crimes that never happened How false memory research can change the legal system How we can mistake the false memories of others for lying Episode Links http://www.drjuliashaw.com/ @drjuliashaw London South Bank University The Dress Own race bias Reminiscence bump Rohypnol Retrieval-induced forgetting The Honest Truth about Dishonesty by Dan Ariely If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We all share, but today, millions get paid for it. Is this new trend just a fad or is it radical rethink for how we work? When we catch a ride with an Uber driver or contract with someone on Upwork, we marvel at the convenience. What we often overlook is the amount of trust it takes to ride with a stranger or to work with someone we may never meet. Yet that level of trust is what is driving the sharing economy, a form of commerce that harkens back to the 11th-century Maghribi traders. In his book, The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-based Capitalism, NYU Stern Professor Arun Sundararajan provides the context and the history for how we got here. He also paints a picture for where we are headed, particularly when it comes to labor and safety policies and regulations. A recognized authority on the sharing economy, he has written for the New York Times, Wired, the Financial Times, and Harvard Business Review. In this interview, we talk about: What makes the sharing economy similar to 18th-century commerce How we are making the shift away from corporate buying to peer purchasing How the sharing economy is blurring the lines between personal and professional How the pendulum is swinging back to relationships, connections, and gifts How the sharing economy speaks to our yearning for making and connection What the 11th-century Maghribi traders can teach us about trust and commerce Ways the sharing economy encourages us to do a better job Whether the sharing economy can reduce inequality How the sharing economy requires different labor regulations and policies How the government can partner with platforms to rethink regulations How labor regulations were designed for an era of full-time workers Why our economy will increasingly rely on stakeholders other than government How blockchain tech promises a world where crowd is market maker Why trust is embedded in this economic shift How new forms of trust will enable new forms of commerce What is it about digital cues that help us trust one another? Episode Links Arun Sundararajan @DigitalArun The Gift by Lewis Hyde Robert Nesbitt Sherry Turkle Karl Marx Emile Durkheim Maghribi Traders Capital by Thomas Piketty The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly New York University Stern School of Business Upcounsel HourlyNerd Gigster Upwork BlaBlaCar Blockchain technology If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Is there a secret to lasting power? Yes, and Dacher Keltner has been teaching leaders about it for decades. And the secret is not the ruthless, manipulative approach associated with 15th-century politician and writer Niccolo Machiavelli. It is actually the opposite. As a University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Psychology, and Founder and Director of the Greater Good Science Center, Dacher Keltner shares research-based insights he has gained. And in his latest book, The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence, he discusses a new science of power and 20 guiding power principles. In this interview, we talk about: How the legacy of Niccolo Machiavelli continues to inform power Why power is about so much more than dominance, manipulation, and ruthlessness Why we need to question a coercive model of power The short- versus long-term impact of different kinds of power Why power is about lifting others up Why lasting power is given, not grabbed The important role that reputation, gossip and esteem play in who gains power How, within days, group members already know who holds the power What makes for enduring power How our body language and words speak volumes about power Why Abraham Lincoln is a fascinating study of empathetic power The fact that great and powerful leaders are incredible storytellers How feeling powerful makes us less aware of risk How feeling powerful makes us less empathetic, attentive and responsive to others How feeling powerful actually overrides the part of our brain that signals empathy How drivers of more expensive cars (46 percent) tend to ignore pedestrians How powerful people often tell themselves stories to justify hierarchies The price we pay for powerlessness Concrete ways we can cultivate enduring, empathetic power Gender and power Why the key to parenting is to empower children to have a voice in the world Episode Links Dacher Keltner Greater Good Science Center Frans de Waal The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli Thomas Clarkson and the abolition movement Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan House of Cards The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott What Works by Iris Bohnet Arturo Behar and Facebook Greater Good in Action Science of Happiness course on edX If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Average is a myth, so why should it control our lives? We measure ourselves -- and others -- against averages all the time. Think GPAs, personality tests, standardized test results, performance review ratings. These are average measures that tell us little about what makes us unique. And this is not just a feel-good argument. It is a mathematical fact. In his bestselling book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness, researcher, professor, and president of The Center for Individual Opportunity at Harvard, Todd Rose, explains the history of average and how it became so embedded in our culture. He goes on to explain why now, more than ever, we need to move beyond its impact on our schools and our workplaces. In this interview, we talk about: How the concept of average has done us more harm than good The courage of a brilliant scientist to question average for the greater good What newborns and chubby thighs can teach us about the limitations of average How innovative organizations are tapping into the wisdom of jaggedness for hiring Why organizations are relying on CodeFu to find great programming talent Why the personality test industry is bigger than ever and more bankrupt Why personality traits are context dependent, not inherent or static Why unlocking the context of behavior can be game changing in helping kids The important connection between environment and self control Why faster does not equal smarter Why we need to get rid of fixed-pace learning in schools Thoughts on competency-based versus grade-based learning Shifting from diplomas to micro-based credentials Giving individuals more say in their learning pathways What Todd Rose thinks about personalized learning and personalization Why we need to keep equity at the forefront What dark horses may have to teach us Episode Links @ltoddrose http://www.toddrose.com/ The Center for Individual Opportunity Adolphe Quetelet Francis Galton Edward Thorndike Peter Molenaar Esther Thelen and her study on newborn stepping reflex IGN CodeFu Matthew B. Crawford and The World Beyond Your Head: Individuality in an Age of Distraction Yuichi Shoda Celeste Kidd Khan Academy Equifinality Ogi Ogas Kevin Kelly and Wired If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Do we shape tech or does it shape us? Turns out it is both. And that is just 1 of the 12 big ideas Kevin Kelly explores in his latest bestseller, The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. The Inevitable is a playbook to guide us through the seismic changes in life and work, caused by technologies becoming exponentially faster and smarter. Kelly, Co-founder, former Executive Editor, and now Senior Maverick at Wired Magazine, takes us on a futuristic -- and highly believable ride -- from start to finish. Former publisher and editor of Whole Earth Review and Cool Tools, he is the author of other thought-provoking and visionary books, like New Rules for the New Economy, Out of Control, The Silver Cord, and What Technology Wants. Kelly embodies what it means to be curious! In this interview, we talk about: Why continual tech upgrades will make us perpetual newbies Why Kevin favors protopia, instead of utopia or dystopia What it means to cognify Why artificial intelligence is a feature, not a bug Why we want and need the different kinds of intelligence that comes with AI How we will work with robots to solve big problems How robots will free us up to be artists, scientists, inventors, and creatives How many of our jobs will be to invent jobs for the robots around us How our technology places us in streams and flows that are dynamic, interactive, and chronological Why personalization and immediacy will be better than free How filters may negotiate on our behalf and sharpen our understanding of who we are Why virtual reality is about presence and, more importantly, interactivity Why one day anything that is not interactive will be considered broken How interactivity will one day extend beyond our bodies to our emotions, facial expressions, voices, and more Why if it matters, we will be able to tell whether it is human or nonhuman Why tracking is inevitable and transparency around our data is a must What Kevin means by covalence when it comes to our data How we will come to a deeper, more nuanced understanding of privacy Two things Kevin worries about As AIs become more capable and integrated into our lives, how will we treat them? As cyber conflicts and cyber wars continue, what rules will we establish? How will our technology change us? The importance of thinking much longer term than a generation or a corporate quarter What a global government might look like and how we might get there Episode Links @kevin2kelly http://kk.org/ Wired Whole Earth Review Protopia Game of Thrones The Third Wave by Steve Case The Quantified Self The Fitbit Blockchain Bitcoin Boston Dynamics Quadrupeds Star Trek If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Are you prepared to live to 100? Research shows that it is becoming the norm, but that few of us are planning for it. Many are surprised to learn that it not only requires rethinking saving and retirement, but also education, jobs, and relationships. To guide us, London Business School Professor and future of work expert, Lynda Gratton, has written The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity. In addition to her many books, Lynda writes for Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and Forbes. She points out the possibilities, as well as the challenges, associated with living longer lives. Lynda also encourages us to plan for what lies ahead, so that we can take full advantage of this opportunity. In this interview, we talk about: What learning will look like as we continue working into our 70s and 80s Why working well with robots will decrease our odds of obsolescence How generational markers, such as millennials, limit how we think about work and life Why we will become age agnostic as people of all ages learn and work together Are you building, maintaining, or depleting current skills? The secret to increasing our adaptability and willingness to change Three new life stages that are upending how we think about life and work Are you spending your free time in recreation or re-creation, and why it matters? The important role experimentation will play in our lives as we live longer How marriage and friendships will change as we live longer lives Why juvenescence holds the key to navigating a longer life Why we should be worried about wealth disparity Why living longer will push organizations to rethink work policies and expectations Why individuals and families - not most organizations - will guide us in innovating Episode Links @lyndagratton www.100yearlife.com 100 Year Life Diagnostic London Business School World Economic Forum Andrew Scott Future of Work Consortium The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here by Lynda Gratton Stretch by Karie Willyerd and Barbara Mistick If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

More than 99 percent of our decisions are shaped by others. From the clothing we buy to the cars we drive to the political candidates we vote for, our choices are the results of the invisible influence of those around us. And once we recognize that, we start to see our behavior -- and the behavior of others -- in a whole new way. Jonah Berger, marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has spent 15 years studying the ways that influence impacts our lives. He wrote about it in his bestselling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, and, now, in his latest book, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior. In this fascinating and compelling interview, he shares insights on: Two reasons why we often overlook the power of influence What animals can teach us about learned behaviors When peers can improve our performance and when they can work against it A common trait among most elite athletes The power of the Goldilocks Effect when it comes to designing products and services What cockroaches can teach us about performance and peers The secret to changing behavior The power of proximal peers in motivating ourselves and others Episode Links @j1berger www.jonahberger.com Contagious: Why Things Catch on By Jonah Berger Livestrong Monkeys Adept at Picking up Social Cues The Goldilocks Effect Segway The Horsey Horseless Robert Zajonc and Social Facilitation Dan Yates and Opower If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Want to hire, evaluate, and collaborate more effectively? The same design principles that are changing how we think about products and services can improve our talent management. Iris Bohnet, author of What Works and Professor of Behavioral Economics at Harvard University, tells us how. In this interview, Bohnet shares fast and inexpensive ways we can de-bias our organizations. She pinpoints how simple improvements can provide big gains for managers and employees. In our conversation, we talk about: How behavioral design can help us hire and retain the best talent Why interviews are a poor predictor of future performance How work sample tests ensure better hiring How blind employee screening widens opportunities for job candidates What we can learn from how orchestras hire musicians Why we need to stop holding group interviews The challenges of employee self-evaluation Why we need gender-neutral language in job descriptions Why diverse groups are more effective and less enjoyable What critical mass does for groups and organizations How tokenism can overshadow expertise The important role political correctness plays in resetting norms How acting differently - or watching others act differently - can change behavior Episode Links Iris Bohnet Heidi Roizen Competence but disliked dilemma Implicit association bias Hannah Riley Bowles Work Rules by Laszlo Bock @ThereseHuston How Women Decide by Therese Huston If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What if our distractions are robbing us of our individuality? Philosopher-machinist Michael B. Crawford noticed just how much attention we give up -- often against our will -- to all the distractions strategically placed in front of us, from commercials on ATM screens to blaring airport televisions. He has written a guidebook to identifying the sources of lost attention, and he makes suggestions for how to get it back. Matthew is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He is also a fabricator of components for custom motorcycles. His first book, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, prompted a rethinking of education and labor policies in the U.S. and Europe, leading the London Sunday Times to call him “one of the most influential thinkers of our time.” His latest book, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction gets at the heart of what it means to be human. In this conversation, we talk about: Silence as a resource as important as air, food, and water The high price we are increasingly forced to pay to avoid distractions All the ways distractive tech makes us more alike The connection between deep work and independent thinking The overlooked intellectual side of hard labor How personalizing experiences can make them unreal How reclaiming the real requires submitting to something or someone else Why doing and taking action results in knowing The Maker Movement as an attempt to reconnect with what makes us human How machine-based design can lead to addiction, compulsion, and loss of control The fact that most schooling is disconnected from real-world learning Why trust lies at the heart of deep learning How traditions of learning offer opportunities for deep connections Episode Links Matthew B. Crawford Reclaimed Fabrication Cal Newport Deep Work by Cal Newport Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schull Aristotle Descartes Michael Polanyi If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Do you fear becoming obsolete? Liz Wiseman offers a solution. Rather than run from challenging roles, seek them out. In fact, in a world where 85 percent of your knowledge could be irrelevant in as little as 5 years, this strategy may be the key to maintaining and advancing a successful career. Liz is the bestselling author of Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work. She helps us see how taking on a new challenge, especially when it feels like a stretch, gives us the best chance of staying relevant in an ever-changing world. She also points out the immense value of rookies for our organizations, particularly in leadership and mentoring roles traditionally reserved for more experienced workers. A frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Inc. and Time, Liz has been named one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world, and her firm has worked with organizations like Apple, Disney, eBay and Google. In this conversation, we talk about: Why what we know is less important than how fast we can learn Why we should take jobs that we are not qualified for How experience may get in the way of what we most need to learn How experience can actually decrease our relevance and performance over time How choosing jobs that involve inquiry and discovery will keep us relevant Why one of the most valuable aspects of learning something new is the struggle involved Why rookies bring in 5 times the expertise of experts Why we need to watch out for mediocre thinking to stay relevant The link between surfing with the rookies and testing your assumptions What effective reverse mentoring looks like Why the word leadership may not mean what you think Anti-perfectionism and the power of keeping things small Liz is curious about what distinguishes between a rookie and a novice with rookie smarts. She wonders why some people persist while others give up. She is equally curious about why so many senior leaders look and feel so broken and what we can do about it. Episode Links @LizWiseman The Wiseman Group Oracle and Oracle University and Larry Ellison Fortran Growth Mindset and Carol Dweck Stretch by Karie Willyerd Herminia Ibarra and Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader Bob Hurley of Hurley International Wayne Bartholomew C K Prahalad of the University of Michigan Pareto Principle If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

When it comes to risk, confidence, and stress, who handles them better, men or women? Believe it or not, just asking this question shows we have a lot to learn. Turns out it is not about better, but about different. And while conventional wisdom often has us thinking women are indecisive, risk averse, and fragile, those perceptions are far from what research reveals. In her groundbreaking book, How Women Decide: What Is True, What Is Not, and What Strategies Spark the Best choices, Therese Huston, founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at Seattle University, clues us in. Armed with a doctorate in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon, she is a contributing writer for The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. Therese pinpoints what the research reveals around perceptions of women. Perhaps even more importantly, she discusses several research-based strategies for overcoming these misperceptions. In this conversation, we talk about: How we misunderstand female decision making The mistake parents make when dealing with daughters on the playground The bias in the term risk averse and the term that should replace it Two traits that make the top 10 list for men but not for women Who pays a higher price for failure The risks women take when they speak up A dating app with unique features for women Confidence as a dial we need to turn up or down, depending on the situation Which gender has the more appropriate level of confidence Two things women can do to overcome negative perceptions of self-promotion How men and women differ when under pressure to make a crucial decision Strategies to avoid being nervous before an important event Why failure trumps regret Episode Links @ThereseHuston Daniel Kahneman The Honest Truth about Dishonesty by Dan Ariely Chip and Dan Heath Pew Research Center 2015 Study on What Makes a Good Leader Barbara Morrongiello What Women and Men Should Be by Deborah Prentice and Erica Carranza Victoria Brescoll We Are Way Harder on Women Who Make Bad Calls by Therese Huston The Center for Advanced Hindsight Siren dating app and CEO Susie Lee OkCupid Linda Babcock If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

If you are searching for your natural talents, think again. Award-winning psychologist, Anders Ericsson, is reshaping our conception of innate ability versus learned skills. Anders has spent decades unearthing the secrets of expertise, and his research shows that the experts sitting at the top of most fields do not have more innate ability than their peers, they have more time spent in guided practice. Anders shares his fascinating findings in his book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Along the way, he corrects our misconceptions around 10,000 hours of practice, and helps us see how we can master just about any skill at any age. He also points out how important it will be to understand high performance as we change jobs and careers with increasing frequency. In this conversation, we talk about: The myth of the prodigy or naturally talented performer Choosing a goal and pursuing it rather than waiting to find a particular gift or talent The advantages for children when parents enjoy the skill they are teaching How gaining expertise in one area helps us gain expertise in other areas What high performers do that is different from the rest of us Differences in our brains as we shift from amateur to expert The difference between what experts and novices do with information How hard it is to get good by yourself and why nothing beats an expert teacher Anders plans to spend more time learning about the kind of concentration involved in deliberate practice. He hopes to develop ways for us to find the time and energy to engage in the kinds of training and to develop the kinds of habits needed to perform at the highest level. Episode Links Improvement in Memory Span by Pauline Martine and Samuel Fernberger (1929) William G. Chase The Knowledge London cab drivers test Alexander Alekhine Mental representations Top Gun Project Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We like to think that cheating is limited to criminals and other wrongdoers. But what if it were true that the majority of people cheated most of the time? That is exactly what has been revealed in the extensive research of Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. Dan has found that not only do most people cheat, but that it is true even of the service providers that we trust the most, such as our accountants and our doctors. Even more surprising, traditional deterrents, such as harsher punishments, do not have any effect. His work has profound implications for our work, our families and our society. Founder and Director of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, Ariely is the author of the bestselling books, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, Irrationally Yours, and the book we discuss in this interview, The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone -- Especially Ourselves. In this conversation, we talk about: How dishonesty is a lot more common than we think How most punishments do very little to eliminate dishonesty Why conflicts of interest, like team or company loyalty, make it harder to be honest The role creativity plays in dishonesty Why it is so important to get a second medical opinion The reason the slippery slope of dishonesty is so frightening How a good cause - a charity or a loved one - can cause us to cheat even more The important role simple rules can play in keeping us honest Dan also shares his theory on what may actually have caused the Volkswagen emission crisis, and he talks about the topic of his most recent work - hate. Episode Links @danariely danariely.com Mensa Enron Gary Becker and Simple Model of Rational Crime (SMORC) Cost-benefit analysis Mortgage-backed security Prada Harpers Bazaar Signaling Coach Donald Sull and Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World The Dishonesty Project documentary Joseph M. Papp cyclist Volkswagen Yael Melamede of Salty Features Pilates If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Steve Case, co-founder of America Online, believes that Internet companies have grown in three successive waves. Tech entrepreneurs spent the first wave getting us on the Internet. They spent the second wave connecting us to the apps and platforms they built on top of it. Now, in the third wave, innovative partnerships and policies will help entrepreneurs rethink large parts of our daily life, such as healthcare, food, and education. That is the argument Steve makes in his award-winning and bestselling book, The Third Wave: An Entrepreneurs Vision of the Future. Steve was the co-founder of America Online, the first Internet company to IPO, and Chair, Founder, and CEO of Revolution, a DC-based investment firm. In this interview he talks about the challenges early tech entrepreneurs like him faced, and he paints a picture of the challenges and opportunities to come. He also talks about the power of entrepreneurship to support ongoing innovation in the kinds of sectors that impact the lives of millions of people around the world. In this conversation, we also talk about: How Steve got his start as a tech entrepreneur Key differences between entrepreneurship today versus decades ago The story behind AOL Lessons learned from the TimeWarner acquisition Why entrepreneurs need vision and thoughtful execution to succeed Key factors and skills that will set Third Wave entrepreneurs apart Possibilities for healthcare, education, and food industry disruption The important role government will play in the Third Wave What Steve means by the Rise of the Rest for Third Wave entrepreneurship Why Steve gets so excited about food entrepreneurship The power of impact investing for companies, employees, and investors Why he chose to write a book about the future instead of the past Steve plans to spend the next 10-15 years of his life making the ideas of the Third Wave a reality. He believes his book offers a framework and that it is up to leaders like him to support the kinds of diverse people and companies who will put that framework into action. Episode Links @SteveCase The Third Wave: An Entrepreneurs Vision of the Future by Steve Case The Third Wave: The Classic Study of Tomorrow by Alvin Toffler Agricultural Revolution Industrial Revolution P&G Pepsico Atari Modem AppleLink Apple IBM Sears RadioShack White Label product Time Warner Microsoft Thomas Edison The Creators Code by Amy Wilkinson Khan Academy MOOCs Snapchat Drones Driverless cars Total addressable market (TAM) Revolution Foods Sweetgreen Impact investing BlackRock Bain & Company If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

While bitcoin and blockchain may sound like something from science fiction, they have become powerful tools to help us rethink banking and finance. What began as a cypherpunk vision has become a viable model of currency and exchange for everyone with access to a Smartphone, from the unbanked in Afghanistan to the urban hipster in New York City. Eager to learn more about where bitcoin and blockchain technology has come from and where it is headed, co-authors Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna researched and wrote the bestselling book, The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and the Blockchain are Challenging the Global Economic Order. In this interview, Michael J. Casey, Senior Advisor to the Digital Currency Initiative at the Media Lab at MIT and former global finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal, shares what they learned and why we should care. In this episode, we talk about: Connections to science fiction, cryptography, and cypherpunks The blockchain and bitcoin origin story What it means to decentralize the banking system The mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto Trust and the huge role it plays in launching a new currency How it all started when someone bought a pizza What bitcoin and blockchain mean for us as customers and as business owners How blockchain and bitcoin can upend industries from medicine to music What this tech means for the poor and unbanked How mobile tech, bitcoin, and blockchain are empowering millions Ways Wall Street is already co-opting ledger tech for its own purposes How this tech will govern the economy of the future Episode Links @mikejcasey http://www.michaeljcasey.com/ Satoshi Nakamoto Cypherpunk Cryptography Michel Foucault Hyperinflation Deflation Casa de cambio Laszlo Ripple Ethereum MIT Internet of Things Micropayment www.dougrushkoff.com Oliver Luckett The Audience If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Productivity strategies do not work if we are focused on the wrong things. What we really need is an effective system for determining what is absolutely essential and the discipline to work on that thing. We need criteria that empower us to select our highest priority, and a strategy for eliminating everything else. My guest, Greg McKeown has designed this system, and he has written about it in his award-winning bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. In addition to his writing and speaking, Greg is CEO of THIS, Inc., a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum, and a lecturer at Stanford University. In this interview he shares incidents in his own life that led him to develop this system, as well as the elements that make the system powerful. In this episode, we talk about: How we forget our power to choose How our language shapes how we view the world How our priority became priorities and what that means for our lives Non-essentialism as a form of malware that has infected all areas of our lives How the smartest, most driven, capable, and curious people are the most vulnerable to non-essentialism Why we need to retire in our roles in order to gain perspective and get our lives back How a list of 6 can get us to our number one priority A game-changing way to use our journals as reflective, proactive tools The power of small wins The downside of email-to-email living Why technology makes a good servant but a poor master What it means to protect the asset in order to lead an essential life The unimportance of practically everything How discerning what is essential gives us the courage to push back on what is not Teaching young people how to focus on what is essential The three historical waves of non-essentialism or how we got here Why you want to be an essentialist before the busyness bubble bursts The trade off between our highest contribution versus what we got done today Greg also talks about how he is making a deliberate choice to hold off on his second book in order to focus on his highest contribution. He explains how challenging it is to do that and how aware he is of the trade offs he is making along the way. Episode Links @GregoryMcKeown http://gregmckeown.com/ Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown Panem - bread and circuses World War II Facebook Tulip mania Deep Work by Cal Newport @JaniceKaplan2 http://www.janicekaplan.com/ If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We may believe that successful entrepreneurs possess innate abilities that set them apart, but what if those skills are just the result of practice and experience? That is the conclusion of Amy Wilkinson, bestselling author of The Creators Code: The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs. She performed five years of interviews with the founders of organizations such as LinkedIn, eBay, Under Armour, Tesla Motors, Spanx, Airbnb, and PayPal. The result? She learned that these entrepreneurs share six common skills that made them successful. Perhaps more importantly, she contends that these are things that any of us can learn. Wilkinson is a strategic adviser and lecturer at Stanford Business School. Her career spans leadership roles with McKinsey and J.P. Morgan. She has served as a White House fellow, special assistant to the U.S. Trade Representative, and as a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. In this episode, we talk about: How successful entrepreneurs seek not to be first, but rather, to be only Why creators hold the key to a new economy The importance of finding the gap between what is and what can be How we can train ourselves to spot problems and see them as opportunities How Starbucks built its success on the concept of lift and shift Ensuring success by looking forward versus looking back Why you might need to fire yourself in order to innovate How nostalgia holds us back What the OODA Loop can teach us about entrepreneurship Why we all need to build a failure ratio into our work in order to grow The power of networking minds to solve big problems How you can be creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial within your current organization Episode Links @amywilkinson AmyWilkinson.com Elon Musk and Tesla and Zip2 Kevin Plank and Under Armour and the University of Maryland and the Terrapins Howard Schultz and Starbucks Nascar Driving School Chris Guillebeau and Born for This: Find the Work You Were Meant to Do Andy Grove of Intel Gordon Moore of Intel John Boyd and OODA Loop and Paypal Billpoint Palm Pilot Youtube Yelp Digg Founders Fund Clarion Capital Palantir Jessica Herrin and Stella and Dot InnoCentive BP Oil AOL If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Fear of job obsolescence ranks higher for most people than their fear of dying! Only half of workers today believe their skills will be valuable three years from now, and of this group, only a third feels their companies are providing the kinds of training they need to do anything about it. That means the learning is on us, and we need strategies for navigating this strange new world. Karie Willyerd has answers. Karie is the author of Stretch: How to Future-proof Yourself for Tomorrow’s Workplace. She is the Workplace Futurist for SuccessFactors, an SAP company, and the co-author of The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrows Employees Today. Her articles and blogs appear regularly in Harvard Business Review, and she has been a Chief Learning Officer for five Fortune 500 companies. In this episode, we talk about: How, no matter where we work, it is on us to manage our professional learning What our professional learning has to do with Al Capone Why millennials really are not that different from everyone else The one thing that 83% of executives agree on Five practices we can use to stay current The power of a diverse network What it means to: learn a living A powerful system for reflection with a triple loop for learning What a reverse mentor is and why we each need one Why we need new experiences in our work When to throttle down on productivity in order to learn new skills Why bouncing forward is so much better than bouncing back What it means to become an enhanced employee Karie also shares insights on the power of virtual reality for learning and building relationships. Episode Links @angler Gallup Report - Employee Engagement Findings SAP Oxford Economics Al Capone Sell-by date David Kelly and IDEO Farai Chideya and The Episodic Career Mark Granovetter and the concept of weak ties Adam Grant and Give and Take Harvard Learning Innovation Labs New York Times New Work Summit NFL Disney If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Named one of ten most influential thinkers in the world by MIT, Doug Rushkoff asks some seriously big questions on this episode of Curious Minds. The biggest one is: what if an economy predicated on growth is unsustainable? Growth at companies like General Electric (GE) used to mean jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. That same growth, at companies like Facebook and Google, yields, at most, tens of thousands of jobs. As growth-oriented tech companies absorb more jobs through smarter tech and automation, is this an opportunity to rethink the nature of work, jobs, and the overall economy? Doug Rushkoff asks us to consider that topic in his latest bestselling book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity. Rushkoff is a professor of media theory and digital economics at Queens College, CUNY. He is the bestselling author of a dozen other books, including Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, and Life Inc. In this episode, we talk about: Why Doug sees growth as the culprit in our current economy The unmet promise of technology and the long tail for artists and creatives How big data analytics reduces unpredictability and, thereby, innovation Ways more of us can take ownership of the platforms putting us out of work How it is not the job we want but the meaning, purpose, and material benefits work gives Money as a verb How currency tools like blockchain can help us rethink power and authority Twitter as a textbook case of tech success but growth company failure How digital distributism can trump digital industrialism The shift from tech as energizing to energy sucking Ruskhoff also talks about how he thinks about technology use in his own life, including which tools he chooses to use and why. Episode Links @rushkoff www.rushkoff.com Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus by Doug Rushkoff eBay Etsy Operating system Bazaar Crusades Burning Man Acquisition IPO Wired Chris Anderson Long Tail The Long Tail by Chris Anderson Free by Chris Anderson Mondo 2000 Boing Boing Ponzi scheme Alan Greenspan Taylor Swift Power law dynamics Distributism Venture capital Capital gains tax Blockchain Bitcoin PGP - pretty good privacy Distributism Marxism Capitalism Marshall McLuhan Peer-to-peer economy Lendingtree Fintech Faustian bargain Private equity Flip this house Michael Dell The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Technology and globalization are reshaping work, but what can we do about it? What approaches should we take as organizations do more with fewer employees? How can we think about our careers as we hold more jobs over the course of our lives, often from different fields? What skills do we need and what mindsets should we hold? Farai Chideya, author of The Episodic Career: How to Thrive at Work in the Age of Disruption, helps us answer these questions. Through her research, reporting, and work experience, she offers insights into what has changed and what we can do. Farai is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York Universitys Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, an award-winning author, journalist, professor, and she frequently appears on public radio and cable television, speaking about race, politics, and culture. In this episode, we talk about: The most important step you can take before starting a job search Counterintuitive ways to find local jobs and to use your social network How a learning mindset can ensure greater career success Why emotional resilience is the new superpower The upside of an episodic career Why a tech-informed mindset is a must-have no matter your job Farai also shares her curiosity about American life and the American dream and how a changing world of work is influencing these things. She wonders how new technologies will change how we live. Episode Links @Farai http://www.farai.com The Episodic Career: How to Thrive at Work in the Age of Disruption by Farai Chideya New York University Journalism Institute Facebook Google Virtual reality Artificial intelligence Robotics Automation Data journalism Farai and the FiveThirtyEight Blog Decision tree Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford Encore.org CRISPR If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We each have work we were born to do, but it can take time and effort to find it. Becoming comfortable with the search is half the battle, because we need to try different kinds of jobs and work environments. With each experience we gain greater insight into the skills and knowledge we have to share, and we find our perfect blend of work, skills and meaning. In his latest book, Born for This, Chris Guillebeau, bestselling author of The $100 Startup and The Happiness of Pursuit, shares his own experiences and the stories of the many people he has interviewed, to help us navigate this process and choose our own path. Chris is the creator and host of The World Domination Summit, and a successful entrepreneur, speaker, and blogger. After a 10-year personal quest, he has visited every country in the world. In this episode, we talk about: Why you see yourself as self-employed, even if you work for someone else The joy-flow-money framework for evaluating creative opportunities What it means to bet on yourself The environments that support your best work The skills you most need to learn (and they are not what you think they are) Why giving up is actually a good thing Strategies for hacking new products and services Why curiosity is so important Episode Links @ChrisGuillebeau ChrisGuillebeau Born for This by Chris Guillebeau The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau The Happiness Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau The World Domination Summit Steve Jobs Seth Godin Facebook Shenee Howard Manifest Destiny If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We are taught to think before we act. But what happens when we need to act in order for that thinking to make sense? Herminia Ibarra’s research suggests that is exactly the case when learning to lead. Based on decades of research, teaching, experience, and interviews, her latest book, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, outlines ways that we can assume larger leadership roles. Her work also confirms that, until we adjust to these new roles and responsibilities, we may feel fake or unlike ourselves. All of that is normal. Herminia is a Professor of Leadership and Learning at INSEAD and the Founding Director of The Leadership Transition program. In this episode, we talk about: The small but crucial changes we can take on a daily basis to step up to leadership Ways to redefine our jobs to make more strategic contributions What it means to diversify our networks for learning Ways to inject playfulness into how we see ourselves to ensure growth and change Why it is natural to feel like a fake when we take on new roles and responsibilities How to network within rather than outside of or on top of our jobs The importance of taking action over spending time endlessly reflecting and thinking Episode Links @HerminiaIbarra http://herminiaibarra.com Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Rethinking Your Career by Herminia Ibarra Outsight Principle Mark Snyder Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon Zelig If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Should we expect distractions at work? Or are we unwittingly cooperating in our own ineffectiveness? In this conversation, Cal Newport, bestselling author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, shares how deep work has become the superpower of the 21st century. Cal argues that today’s workplace is a minefield of distractions. With email, open floor plans, and instant messaging systems, we’re continually pulled away from meaningful, productive work. And the very tools our workplaces rely on to promote productivity are actually contributing to increased distraction and inefficiency. Learning to take control of our own attention is not only the key to a meaningful life, but it is the key to economic viability in a distracted age. Cal is Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, as well as the bestselling author of five books. His ideas and writing are frequently featured in major publications, and he is author of the popular blog, Study Hacks. In this episode, we talk about: What makes deep work so valuable How deep work makes life more meaningful What deep work looks like and how little distraction it takes to ruin it Why boredom is actually the key to doing deep work Why relationships hold the key to deep work Why we should be teaching young people to engage in deep work The value of being lazy when it comes to deep work Why you need a philosophy for doing deep work Cal also shares his deep curiosity to rethink cognitive workflows in a post-industrial age. Episode Links @CalNewport Calnewport.com Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Georgetown University MIT Slack Eric Barker The Second Machine Age by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson Madmen Adam Grant Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Sophie LeRoy and attention residue Jack Dorsey Square Twitter Industrial Revolution Henry Ford Scientific management Assembly lines Knowledge worker Wilhelm Hofmann Roy Baumeister How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett Downton Abbey The Collaboration Curse in The Economist If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Why do we love certain foods? What role do families and memories play in our tastes? How can we help our children to eat well and wisely? While we may think our food preferences are innate, most are learned when we are young. And that also means we can change our preferences if we choose. In her bestselling book First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, Bee Wilson helps us rethink everything we thought we knew about eating. Bee is the author of four books, a writer for The Guardian & the London Review of Books, and the BBC Radio Food Writer of the Year. In this episode, we talk about: how our food likes and dislikes are less about biology and more about learned habits whether children know instinctively how to eat healthy foods how our home environment shapes our preferences why children reject new foods and how to get them to eat a wide variety the fascinating role of schools in influencing our eating habits how to change the types of foods that we like the role that gender plays in the formation of eating habits choices Japan made to change its eating patterns how we often overlook the single biggest influence on our eating habits Bee also speculates on how our healthcare systems could improve our health and save billions of dollars by teaching how to eat. Episode Links @KitchenBee Bee Wilson Consider the Fork First Bite: How We Learn to Eat Clara Davis Supertasters Food neophobia Lucy Cook Tiny Tastes Keith Williams and Tiny Tastes Karl Duncker Julie Mennella Bulimia Anorexia Eating in Post-War Japan If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

How can you better forecast the future? What are the characteristics and habits of mind of those who are the best in the world at doing it? And why are those people rarely the forecasters featured in the national and international media? In their  bestselling book Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner have shared their research on the elite few who correctly predict events that have not yet happened. Dan is an award-winning journalist, an editor, and the author of two other books, Risk and Future Babble. He recently joined the Canadian Prime Minister’s office as a senior advisor. In this episode, we talk about: what separates superforecasters from others making predictions the limits of even the best forecasters the two types of forecasters -- Hedgehogs and Foxes -- and which one is better how the intelligence community learned surprising things about their predictions the most common mistakes of amateur forecasters why the best forecasters are not smarter and don’t have more access to information the role of intellectual humility in forecasting how to learn to be a superforecaster Dan also shares the things he’s most curious about working on next. Episode Links @dgardner @ptetlock Philip Tetlock Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction The Good Judgement Project The Fox and the Hedgehog George Soros IARPA Groupthink John F. Kennedy Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis Daniel Kahneman Thinking Fast and Slow Paul Slovic If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

If you are going to have a boss (or be a boss), make it a Superboss. Why? Because a Superboss leads individuals, teams, and organizations in ways that move the world. Sydney Finkelstein, bestselling author of Super Bosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, shares these insights in our interview. Sydney is Professor of Management and Faculty Director of the Tuck Executive Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth where he specializes in business leadership and strategy. In this episode, we talk about: why working for a Superboss may be the best thing you ever do for your career what sets Superbosses apart when it comes to hiring why Superbosses dismiss textbook approaches to leadership how Superbosses leverage collaboration and competition in teams how losing incredible talent only strengthens Superbosses and their organizations what you can do right now to become a Superboss how Superbosses pursue deep passions outside of work Sydney shares incredible stories from his research and captures how Superbosses often act in fascinating and counterintuitive ways. Episode Links @sydfinkelstein Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent by Sydney Finkelstein NFL, Bill Walsh, 49ers Lorne Michaels and SNL, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, Mike Myers Norman Brinker and Chilis, Steak and Ale Jon Stewart Ralph Lauren Larry Ellison Marc Benioff and Salesforce.com Julian Robertson Jay Chiat Bill Sanders George Lucas and Skywalker Ranch, Industrial Light and Magic Pixar Alice Waters and Chez Panisse Chase Coleman, III General Electic (GE) Harvard Business Review and Why Chief Human Resource Officers Make Great CEOs Network effect Thomas Frist and HCA If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Abraham Lincoln, Lucy Stone, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Steve Jobs: What set them apart and helped them achieve such world-altering success? In his latest book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant  shares the research on the mindsets, behaviors, and emotional resilience that lead to incredible breakthroughs in innovation and creativity. He also explains how we can apply these findings to our own lives. Adam Grant is the youngest tenured, highest-rated professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a contributing writer for the New York Times, and he’s consulted with organizations like Google, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army. He is also the bestselling author of Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success. In this episode, we talk about: why Originals rarely accept the status quo breadth versus depth -- which one drives innovation and creativity? the role of risk in the mindset of Originals what Originals do differently when faced with the same fears as everyone else why we are the worst judges of our own ideas and who can help us the importance of status over power in rallying others around our ideas why enemies can become our biggest advocates what really causes groupthink and prevents innovation the power of getting pulled into leadership roles role models versus mentors and how it can be easier to find them why we need to rethink optimism, happiness, and contentment for achievement and innovation why your first 15 ideas are less original than your next 20 Adam also shares how he uses these ideas in his classroom. Episode Links @AdamMGrant Adam Grant website Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant vuja de Albert Einstein Tiger Mom Galileo Galilei Dean Simonton Segway Steve Jobs Jerry Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Frenemies Basecamp David Heinemeier Hansson Abraham Lincoln Martin Luther King, Jr. Michelangelo Irving Janis and Groupthink Devils advocates and Charlan Nemeth at University of California, Berkeley Mark Cuban and Shark Tank and Mavericks Elon Musk Peter Thiel Lord of the Rings Sheryl Sandberg Jeff Bezos A Wrinkle in Time Mark Zuckerberg Enders Game Disney Michael Eisner The Lion King King Lear Hamlet Bambi Uber TED Talk If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Every day we have problems to solve and decisions to make. Too often, the steps we take to address them result in more complexity, rather than less. That is where simple rules come in. Donald Sull, bestselling author of Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World offers a six-step framework for better decision-making that has been tested with individuals and with organizations. An expert in global strategy, Don is a senior lecturer at MIT and a former professor at Harvard University and the London Business School. Using vivid examples and powerful stories, Don helps us see the creative impact of developing and applying simple rules. In this episode, we talk about: ways simple rules support strategy and encourage innovation the ways simple rules beat out one-size-fits-all rules the six-part framework to make simple rules of your own why we need to involve the users of the rules in the creation process how feedback only makes rules better over time how simple rules can support personal and organizational agency and ownership Episode Links @simple_rules donsull.com Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World by Donald Sull and Kathleen Eisenhardt Oakland As Billy Beane The Gates Foundation Why the French Do Not Get Fat Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink Collin Payne Pierre Chandon Murmuration Craig Reynolds Orcs Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien Zipcar and Robin Chase Votorantim Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger Young Presidents Organization Elmore Leonard Tina Fey and 30 Rock If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

What does it take to pursue your dream? For Miki Agrawal, it took a catastrophic event that had a direct impact on her work and her life. It woke her up to three goals she had always wanted to achieve. And it led her to become the serial entrepreneur she is today. Along the way, Miki has been upending industries and winning all kinds of awards, including the Tribeca Film Festival 2013 Disruptive Innovation Award and Forbes 2013 Top 20 Millenials on a Mission. Just this past year, she received the 2015 World Technology Summit Social Entrepreneurship award for her company, THINX, a stain-resistant line of sustainable underwear for women. In this episode, we talk about: the event that prompted Miki to rethink her life the wish list that led her to entrepreneurship the secret to asking others to participate in your dreams how freelance work primed her for working for herself how passion and ignorance go a long way in risk taking the role trial and error play in building a new product Miki shares the ways she is disrupting an industry and prioritizing social responsibility. She also talks about her passion for rethinking culture and confronting cultural taboos. Episode Links Do Cool Sh*t  WILD Tao Restaurant and Rich Wolf Alex Koren Toms Warby Parker AFRIPads Tushy If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

We all want to do meaningful work that gives our lives purpose and lets us be creative. And yet, the very tools that help us stay organized and connected can cause the kind of distractions that erode time spent on meaningful work. Jocelyn Glei, bestselling author and editor of Manage Your Day-to-Day, Founding Editor-in-Chief and Director of Behance’s 99U and the 99U Conference, talks about this and more in this episode. And she helps us rethink what we know about creativity, meaningful work, and happiness. In this episode, we talk about: why creative work is so important how being busy can distract us from doing work that matters the creative rituals and routines that result in more meaningful work why we need to redesign and manage our relationship with technology the positive roles of productive procrastination and anxiety in creative, meaningful work short-term happiness versus long-term purpose and meaning Jocelyn also gives us a glimpse into her upcoming book on the distractions of email. She is the author of two additional books, Make Your Mark and Maximize Your Potential. Episode Links @JKGlei Brene Brown Jonathan Adler Zine MIT Press The Acceleration of Addictiveness by Paul Graham Hooked by Nir Eyal The Achievement Habit by Bernie Roth Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer Miranda July Evernote Scrum The Gift by Lewis Hyde The Concept of Anxiety by Soren Kierkegaard Seth Godin If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation technologies are fulfilling (and surpassing) predictions from the most creative science fiction. While the possibilities are exciting, these changes force us to ask what this means for the future of work. What jobs will they replace? Which industries will they decimate? What impact will they have on how we live and work in what many are calling a post-industrial age? Martin Ford explores these questions and more, in his bestselling book, Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. Named 2015 Business Book of the Year by the Financial Times and McKinsey, his book is helping to drive a much-needed conversation around the dark side of innovative technologies. As a software company founder who has worked in the industry for over 30 years, Martin saw how automation was eliminating more and more jobs. This led him to research the impact of cutting-edge technologies on labor, wages, and productivity. In this episode you will learn: why this time is different when it comes to the impact of automation on jobs the important role education will play in how we respond and adapt why we need to rethink income and healthcare policies to ensure a healthy economy the pressing need to raise awareness around this issue and to incentivize solutions Episode Links @MFordFuture Luddite Martin Luther King, Jr. Triple Revolution Machine learning Deep Learning Artificial intelligence The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally Unleashed Artificial Intelligence on the World by Kevin Kelly Everlaw Long tail distribution Ray Kurzweil Basic or guaranteed income Single-payer healthcare X Prize Peter Diamandis If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

When we operate in silos, we narrow our perspective in ways that can limit, and even destroy, innovation. So where have we seen silos before and what can we learn from them? In this fascinating conversation with Gillian Tett, award-winning journalist and U.S. Managing Editor of the Financial Times, she explains how silos reversed decades of innovation at Sony, limited innovation in a world-class hospital, and played a key role in the 2007 global financial crisis. Drawing on insights from her bestselling book, The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers, she helps us see the patterns that create these tendencies, and the simple steps we can take to avoid or overcome them. In this episode you will learn: what makes smart people do apparently stupid things how rewards and incentives can reinforce a silo mentality why success can lead to silo perspectives steps we can take to overcome mental and organizational silos the value of an insider-outsider perspective Also in this interview, Gillian encourages us to recognize how the silos begin erected in the information technology industry have begun to mirror those that led to the 2007 global financial crisis. She is the other of two other bestselling books, Saving the Sun and Fools Gold. Episode Links @GillianTett Octopus Pots British Press Awards Cleveland Clinic Pierre Bourdieu Mental Maps   Securitizations Sir Paul Tucker Paul McCulley PIMCO Shadow banking Zoltan Poszar Nicolaus Copernicus Cultural anthropology Brett Goldstein Open Table Toby Cosgrove Robin Dunbar It is Complicated by danah boyd Liquidated by Karen Ho If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Why do most people want to live in walkable cities and towns? What's the impact on innovation and well-being? Jeff Speck, city planner, urban designer, TED Talk speaker, and bestselling author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, offers fascinating and fact-filled responses to these questions. Along the way, he tells us the changes needed to make cities the thriving places that most people want. In this episode you will learn: what is a walkable city how walkable cities drive innovation by attracting talent what makes cities safer than suburbs how more traffic signals actually make cities less safe why the most popular solutions to congestion actually increase it what the cheapest solution is for making a city more walkable how great urban design trumps weather every time Jeff also shares a fascinating insight regarding a possible downside of self-driving cars. Episode Links @JeffSpeckAICP The Walkable City TED Talk by Jeff Speck Externalities Millenials Seek Walkable Cities Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam Single Family Housing Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett Induced demand and traffic Free Good Donald Shoup Prospect-refuge Theory and Jay Appleton Charrettes for Design Andres Duany Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery Inclusionary zoning Granny flats Wyandanch, New York Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck Jarrett Walker - Human Transit If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Why do certain products, services, or stories go viral? How can we make our own work contagious? These are questions Wharton Professor, Jonah Berger, answers in his bestselling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. In this fascinating interview, he explains his six-part framework and discusses the behaviors that drive us to make certain ideas, products, and services contagious. In this episode you will learn: how to apply these techniques to your own work what made the video for a seemingly humdrum product - a blender - go viral which emotions drive us to share and which ones do not what makes us spread the word for free why you might suffer from the curse of knowledge and how you can avoid it the critical difference between social media and word of mouth Jonah also gives us a peek into his upcoming book on all the ways social influence drives our behavior. Fascinating stuff! Episode Links Beta testing Social psychology STEPPS Framework Hooked: How to Build Habit-forming Products  Geico ad for Hump Day Curse of knowledge Trojan Horse Social influence If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

If you are one of the millions of people who struggle to stick with an exercise program, Michelle Segar has a secret for you: It is not your fault; it is a faulty system. After years of studying the science of motivation, Michelle Segar, Ph.D., Director of SHARP -- the Sport, Health, and Activity research and policy center at the University of Michigan -- has created a framework for rethinking exercise, one that replaces a prescriptive mindset with one more aligned with human behavior and emotion. Filled with practical tips and strategies, Michelle’s bestselling book, No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness, is informed by years of putting these findings into practice with people just like you. In this episode you will learn: how to short-circuit the vicious cycle of failure why fitness apps are not enough why willpower is not the answer the science of decision making and reward the power of self-determination theory - initiating behavior because you should versus because you find it meaningful the more moderate recommendations for physical activity - which are known by less than 1 percent of physical activity professionals Episode Links Paulo Freire Dan Ariely Behavioral economics Reward Substitution Self-determination theory No Sweat Resolutions Quiz 2015 USA Best Book Awards If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

What if the secret to successful innovation lies in asking ambitious questions, the kinds most of us rarely ask? That is exactly what Warren Berger learned in speaking with some of the most recognized, global leaders in innovation. He discovered that they not only ask different kinds of questions, but they apply those questions to problems unsolved and unseen. Along the way, they change the world. He shares these insights, and more, in his bestselling book, A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. Most importantly, he helps us learn how we, too, can ask these kinds of questions and get started on our own innovative paths. In this episode you will learn: why curiosity is a killer app for success in work, life, and leadership the difference between ordinary and game changing questions the power of problem finding tips for helping us question our assumptions a framework to support innovative inquiry the connection between making, design thinking and powerful inquiry how important it is to create a culture of questioning Warren will share insights from his work with leaders in all kinds of organizations, including schools, and he will talk about his goals for future projects. Episode Links Wired Magazine Why Curious People are Destined for the C-Suite  The Right Question Institute If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Nobel-prize-winning economist Alvin Roth explores the markets that shape our lives, particularly our work, our health care and our schools. He also explains how key technologies enable companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Google to thrive. His insights extend beyond products, services, and features to include how successful companies attract and hire the most talented employees. Alvin Roth is a Stanford University Professor, and bestselling author of Who Gets What - and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design. In this episode you will learn: how one phone call and a pivotal decision ultimately led to a Nobel Prize the important differences between markets the role of markets when it comes to marriage, loans, and more the role of social support in markets the ways the Internet and mobile technology shape market possibilities the three key factors that influence the success of companies like Airbnb and Uber the ways Smartphones are influencing markets how labor market findings influenced the market designs of today what game theory can teach us about getting into college and getting a job how market designers are applying their skills to the growing global refugee crisis Alvin also shares what got him interested in the economics of market design and the potential this new field holds for helping us rethink what markets are and can do. Episode Links Bob Beran National Resident Matching Program Operations research Roth-Peranson Algorithm Elliott Peranson United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) School Choice Programs Black Market Repugnant Markets Lloyd Shapley David Gale The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences 1962 paper of Lloyd Shapley and David Gale Stable Matching (or Marriage) Problem (SMP) Game Theory Parag A. Pathak Atila Abdulkadiroglu If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

No one likes uncertainty, yet our success may depend on it. In the bestseller, Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing, Jamie Holmes argues that uncertainty and ambiguity are invaluable mindsets in an increasingly complex world. In fact, he wants us to rethink our desire for order and closure, so that we can be better leaders, decision makers, and innovators. A recent Future Tense Fellow at New America, Jamie has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, the Huffington Post, POLITICO, the Christian Science Monitor, the New Republic, the Atlantic, Slate, Foreign Policy, and the Daily Beast. In this episode you will learn: the reasons why a high tolerance for uncertainty is so valuable right now the ways we can use uncertainty to avoid bad decisions how our need for closure and order drives so much of what we do the value of uncertainty for innovation and creativity strategies for guarding against negative behaviors associated with certainty when (and how) to hire employees who thrive on uncertainty the kinds of leaders we prefer versus need in times of uncertainty how successful, innovative companies incorporate uncertainty into their business models what this means for educators and learners the real-world disorder and chaos associated with innovation, discovery, and creativity concrete strategies to help students get more comfortable with uncertainty what a renowned golf instructor can teach us about feedback the power of travel and bilingualism for building this capacity the power of reading fiction for helping us strengthen our tolerance for uncertainty Jamie also shares how uncertainty, ambiguity and not knowing make us better leaders and expand our capacity for innovation and creativity. Episode Links Jerome Bruner Leo Postman Travis Proulx Jordan Peterson Arie Kruglanski Need for Closure scale Stalling for Time by Gary Noesner Ambiguity Intolerance Zara Inditex Amancio Ortega Jim Lang Assumption College Brilliant Blunders by Mario Livio Bob Christina Dean Simonton If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

At 16, Madison Maxey was the youngest to intern at Tommy Hilfiger. Shortly after that, she founded her company, The Crated, a product innovation studio focused on second-generation wearable technology. Then, she went to college, like she was supposed to do. But for Maddy, there was a disconnect between the feelings that she received from her work and sitting in college classes.So after one semester of college, she dropped out to accept a Thiel Fellowship. Since then her work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, and New York Magazine, and she has provided wearable tech insights to the likes of the White House and Google. She has been named a founder to watch by Women 2.0 and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at General Assembly and an Artist in Residence at Autodesk. This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered to them. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs. In this episode you will hear Madison talk about: innovations in wearable technology what motivated her to learn programming why she dropped out of college after one semester her eagerness to be a Thiel Fellow her passion for costume design and design optimization what her parents thought about her decision to drop out of college her policy of You Do You the importance of finding your tribe how communication skills inform her work her work in relation to the Maker Movement how uncertainty is a natural part of innovation why young people should be working on projects right now how she had to learn the skills of time management her curiosity about teamwork, collaboration, and community in relation to a goal Episode Links Digital Fabrication Textile Circuits General Assembly Autodesk Computational Design 3D CNC Machine Workflows Arduino Enabling Technologies Nathan Wolfe TEDTalk If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Alex Koren had never considered dropping out of college. A successful high school student, he headed to Johns Hopkins University and was class president in his first year. Furthermore, that summer, Alex headed to a high-powered summer internship at Intel, seemingly the perfect opportunity for an undergraduate engineering major. Then something happened. While working at Intel, Alex organized a hackathon that led to his first company, Hyv, which focused on solving big problems with data. The engagement and exhilaration that he felt led him to found the company Chrg, with the goal of using everyday outlets and chargers in service of electric vehicles. Not long after that, Alex dropped out of college to accept 2014 Thiel Fellow. This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered to them. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs. In this episode you will hear Alex talk about: what he learned about failure how pursuing work that mattered meant doing something that shocked even him how to create communities for your passions the difference between a life of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation the importance of living with uncertainty as you pursue your goals the power of surrounding yourself with passionate people our responsibility to make things relevant for ourselves the reasons that we lose our creativity his attraction to what tomorrow holds Episode Links Interroga Omnia If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Jihad Kawas started his company, Saily, when he was 16 years old growing up in Lebanon. Now, two years later, after a recent public launch, his app has over 140,000 U.S. users and is gaining over 1,000 new users daily. Jihad is a 2015 Thiel Fellow who never attended college. Along the way, he was awarded a Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholarship, took first place at an MIT Social Innovation Camp, and has been a TEDx Talk speaker. This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs. In this episode you will learn: how building things as a young person led him to where he is today why parents need to let their children build real, meaningful things his beliefs regarding the impact of parents, families, and schools on young people ways even cutting-edge schools have rules and policies that constrain how he viewed school as something to get through in order to pursue his passion the power of having to develop a pitch to persuade and convince the funny way he found out about the Thiel Fellows program what it is like to be an 18-year-old Thiel Fellow and company founder how the success and accomplishments of his peers spur him on how he spends his time about the constant battle he faces with uncertainty and doubt about his advice for young people what he is curious about today Episode Links Project-based Learning Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) TEDx Talk by Jihad Kawas Silicon Valley TV show If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

At the age of 16, Charlie Stigler built SelfControl, an app designed to block out online distractions. It has been downloaded by millions. Encouraged by that success, two years later, Charlie founded a successful ed tech company, Zaption, which rethinks the use of video for learning. He did both before the ink was dry on his high school diploma. After graduation, Charlie did what everyone expected him to do. He headed off to college at Columbia University. Two years later, even he was surprised when he decided to drop out and become a Thiel Fellow in 2012. This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs. In this episode you will hear: how the projects that got Charlie into college were the very things he had to give up once he got there ways friends and family responded to his decision to choose a different path what exposure to can-do, will-do entrepreneurs helped him see what we lose when everything is done for us how he learned to decide what structure looked like for him how his real learning was taking place outside of high school and college how high school did not support independent entrepreneurial thinking advice for young people how we delay and support young people in not knowing what they want to do rather than encouraging them to find out and supporting that how technology and artificial intelligence and the rapid pace of change is helping us rethink our shoulds Episode Links Steve Lambert James Stigler If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

Design thinking and creativity are like muscles: we all have them, but they are more useful when they are strengthened! In this bestselling book Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think, Mona Patel gives you the perfect exercises for your design workout, giving you the tools you need to unleash your inner designer. Mona is a regular contributor to Fast Company, Time Magazine, and Forbes, and she is the founder and CEO of Motivate Design. Mona is also an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design. In this episode, she explains the ways design thinking informs her life and her work, and she shares some of the strategies she uses with friends, family, colleagues, and clients. In addition, you will learn: how to unleash your creativity through design thinking why everyone can be creative creative openers you can use with your teams questions that actually limit our creativity how to push people to create something better without making them feel bad the most important question for designing solutions which assumptions hold us back what it is like to be a woman of color leading a design company the power of a design-centered culture in the workplace If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening! Episode Links Four-C Model of Creativity by James Kaufman and Ronald Beghetto TEDx Talk by Mona Patel Ethnography Kodak Excuse Personas White Space Project Greenlight Human-centered Design Woman and Minority Owned Business Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

What happens when you dedicate a year of your life to practicing gratitude? Maybe everything. In this groundbreaking new book, The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life, Janice Kaplan explains the science behind the power of gratitude. The author of twelve books, including The New York Times bestselling memoir, I will See you Again, Janice was an award-winning producer at ABC-TV Good Morning America, Executive Producer of the TV Guide Television Group, and Editor-in-Chief of Parade Magazine. In this episode, Janice explains the surprising, counterintuitive connection between gratitude and happiness. She also shares simple steps we can take today to increase the amount of gratitude we express and how doing it can change your life. In this episode, you will learn: how a mindset of gratitude gives us control over our own happiness simple steps you can take to express gratitude right now with family and friends the mental and physical health benefits of practicing gratitude the connection between gratitude and experiences over stuff the importance of gratitude at work, and how it can drive purpose and ambition how gratitude gets us beyond the comparison game the differences between intentional and reactive gratitude how gratitude plays an important role in rebounding from life tragedies the power of a gratitude diet how we have so much more control over our happiness than we think If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening! Episode Links John Templeton Foundation National Gratitude Survey TSA Habituation Massachusetts General Hospital Tom Gilovich Paul Piff Monopoly game Daniel Gilbert David Steindl Rast

Mick Ebeling is the Founder of Not Impossible Labs, an online crowdsourcing platform that dramatically improves the lives of millions by creating low-cost, open-source, and do-it-yourself devices. For example, through a combination of marking and hacking, Not Impossible Labs developed 150-dollar devices that helped people with ALS communicate with loved ones for the first time in years, as well as prosthetic limbs for Sudanese children for as low as 50 dollars. The philosophy of Not Impossible Labs is to help one to help many, that is, to create a life-changing solution for one person, and then think about how to scale it. He describes these innovations in the bestselling book Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Could Not Be Done. Mick was deemed one of the Top 50 Most Creative People in 2014 by Advertising Age. He was also the recipient of the 2014 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award. In this interview, he shares the circumstances that launched Not Impossible Labs and that led to his book. He talks about the people whose problems he committed to solve and the hacking, making and do-it-yourself approaches he and his fellow innovators used to do just that. In this episode, you will learn: how to commit first to achieve the impossible how a 150-dollar EyeWriter helped a renowned artist with ALS draw again how 3D printers revolutionized life for Sudanese youth the importance of making and hacking for solving real-world problems how to empower young people to embrace a Not Impossible mindset how seeking solutions helps us make creative connections Mick also shares several of the new projects his organization has underway, and he talks about ways Not Impossible Labs is bridging the gap between makers and problem solvers. If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening! Episode Links Mick Ebeling TED Talk Street Art Tony Tempt One Quan Tempt One Foundation Stephen Hawking Time Magazine Top 25 Inventions MoMA EyeWriter Optical character technology Open source The BrainWriter Cameron Rodriguez ALS or Lou Gehrig Disease Triangulation Consumer EEG Devices Project Daniel Dr. Tom Catena Precipart Richard Van As Gait Trainer

Nir Eyal is the bestselling author of Hooked and a contributing writer for Forbes, TechCrunch, and Psychology Today. An entrepreneur, educator, and speaker, Nir writes about innovations at the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. In this interview, Nir shares the psychology behind why we get hooked by our devices and apps. He talks about how product designers use this knowledge to deliberately build certain features into their products, and he encourages us to use this knowledge to rethink our tech habits. In this episode, you will learn: the psychology that informs our technology habits the four key elements that make a technology product habit-forming the connection between emotion and our habits with tech what makes certain tech products are more sticky than others tips for what to do when tech becomes too addictive how we can use this technology to form good habits Nir also shares how what hooks us with tech can be used to improve the quality of our lives, especially when it comes to physical and mental health and wellness, and how he makes that the focus of his work today. If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening! Episode Links 7 Cups of Tea B. F. Skinner Operant Conditioning The IKEA effect Dan Ariely Michael Norton Robert Cialdini Foot in the Door Technique Cognitive Dissonance Marc Andreeson Getting Unhooked by Nir Eyal The Acceleration of Addictiveness by Paul Graham 

Wendy Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University. Wendy is an award-winning teacher and researcher, a TEDx speaker, and the author of the best-selling book Healthy Brain, Happy Life. While we have become more familiar with ways exercise can improve our body, Wendy helps us understand what it can do for our brain. She shares how exercise can improve our memories, our learning abilities, and our creativity. Things you will learn in this episode: how exercise can generate the kinds of brain cells we need the most the potential of exercise to disrupt how we age how to find a life-changing exercise regime what we are learning about mood, focus and attention in relation to exercise what movement can do for creativity and imagination why there is an urgency when it comes to exercise and our brains opportunities for thinking bigger when it comes to this kind of brain research Wendy also shares how her experience with exercise has influenced her teaching and her research focus. Episode Links Marian Diamond Intensati New York University Wendy Suzuki's Research Lab Transistor: A STEM Audio Project podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Bernie Roth is a Professor of Engineering and the Academic Director and Co-founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) at Stanford University. A leader of international workshops on creativity and design thinking, Bernie is the author of the book, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life. Bernie talks about what it means to apply design principles to create a life well lived. His focus is on personal transformation and empowerment. Things you will learn in this episode include: the importance of how we see the world the danger of having a reason for doing something how a bias toward action can overcome fear the answer to what is holding us back from learning, changing, and growing how methods for reframing and asking good questions can help us figure out the actual problems we are trying to solve ways to get unstuck how the language we use can empower or disempower us how teams and collaboration help us relate differently to one another and our work the shift of design thinking from object-centered to human-centered the origins and focus of his popular Designer in Society course for the d.school how much physical space influences our mindsets, our relationships, and the ways we work and collaborate Bernie also talks about how his work has changed the way he teaches. He is always striving to find ways to empower his students. As always, thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave a review of the Curious Minds podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! I read every one of them. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Thanks! Episode Links Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson Make Space by Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft Designer in Society course The Human Potential Movement The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill

David Heinemeier Hansson is the Founder and CTO of Basecamp, best-selling author of Rework and Remote, and creator of the popular web application framework Ruby on Rails. David is rethinking what it means to build a company in the digital age. He and his co-founder rejected the typical startup narrative in favor of a more traditional approach to building a global business. For this reason, Basecamp has the size of a typical startup, the reach of a global firm and the profitability of a mature company. Much of that success stems from a philosophy that puts customers and employees first, focuses on the long term, and prioritizes remote work. You will also learn: how he met his co-founder Jason Fried how a series of blog posts turned into a best-selling book how we may be underestimating the potential of remote workers why most business books probably do not apply to your organization how meetings deter employees from getting work done the lessons of the dot-com crash for building a sustainable company why he advises startup founders to avoid venture funding and working in Silicon Valley how important it is to work for all kinds of bosses, especially bad ones why the best work environment might be one where you are slightly out of your depth how the ancient philosophy of stoicism can inform decisions in the modern world David also talks about the importance of living a good life today rather than some time in the future. As always, thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave a review of the Curious Minds podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! I read every one of them. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Thank you! Episode Links Maverick The 4-Hour Workweek Stoicism

Best-selling author Seth Godin discusses how to reimagine life and work in the post-industrial age. His books include Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip, and Purple Cow. In this interview, Seth talks about the liberating power of committing to a lifetime of projects. He also discusses the challenges involved and ways of overcoming them along the way. Additional topics include: how the resistance prevents us from living how we want to live how seeing helps us innovate and inspire what he and Guy Kawasaki missed when they failed to see how we develop smart intuition ways to choose worthwhile projects when to end a project or simply to walk away and leave a legacy how to make it through the dip when most people quit how the modern economy rewards big problem solvers how committing to a life of problem solving gives our lives meaning how the power of relationships allows us to do amazing things (like speak in London) Seth also talks about the role of curiosity in his life and the big revelation that led him to start rethinking life and work. As always, thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave a review of the Curious Minds podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! I read every one of them. Be sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Episode Links What to Do When It Is Your Turn  The War of Art  Blog post on Projects Blog post on London Blog post on Learning to See Blog post on Permission Marketing Stop Stealing Dreams