Smart People Podcast

In this episode we interview Steven Kotler, author of a number of best selling books including, The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance. Drawing on over a decade of research and first-hand reporting with dozens of top action and adventure sports athletes like big wave legend Laird Hamilton, big mountain snowboarder Jeremy...

Do you know what Burning Man is? If not, listen to this episode. If you do, have you ever wondered how it started? Who decided to gather some friends and head into the desert to do….well, whatever they wanted? And perhaps more importantly, how do we as a society use these examples to uncover what...

Advertising agencies are caught between fee-cutting clients and profit-hungry owners. In the meantime, their creative workloads are growing, driven by increased TV, digital and social advertising. How do agencies generate profit margins under these circumstances? Through downsizing, salary freezes and ‘juniorizing.’ Agencies are disinvesting in capabilities at a time when their clients’ marketing challenges have...

Crowdfunding has officially arrived. Utilizing the power of the Internet, crowdfunding represents one of the most exhilarating ways to raise investment funds for your dream project. It enables you to get exposure in the public domain and can symbolize a seal of approval for your product, organization, or idea. But there are a number of...

Human creativity has been one of the fundamental drivers of civilization. Often our creativity has baffled skeptics by allowing us to find new and better resources, unexpected environmental technologies and genuinely amazing products that no one had predicted. However, like so many before it, Western civilization is now suffering from serious internal decay with its bloated public sectors, punitive taxes, over-regulation, marginalized citizens, stagnation, debt, unemployment and pessimism. In this episode, we speak with Lars Tvede about how to regain our creative edge in the West, and why we lost it in the first place. Lars is the author of the new book, The Creative Society: How the Future Can Be Won. He is a serial entrepreneur and author of numerous books on subjects ranging from economics, financial markets and the future. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in International Commerce. ______ “I looked at the maps of where creativity was occurring throughout history and I found that it almost only happened when you had small city-states. As soon as a nation become centralized, the creativity dropped.” - Lars Tvede Quotes from Lars: What we learn in this episode: • What does Lars believe is the best part about being an entrepreneur? • Why has the “West” created approximately 97% of all of the world’s innovation? • How can countries foster more creativity? Resources: The Creative Society: How the Future Can Be Won http://www.larstvede.com/ -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for FREE with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers!! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.

Parenting today is practically a competitive sport, and marketers are all too happy to cash in. Scare tactics and scientific-sounding jargon make it seem like parents are in constant danger of hard-wiring their children’s brains for failure. In fact, this state of parental anxiety is totally unnecessary—and possibly bad for our children. Babies are born with an appetite to learn. Children are naturally curious about the world and eager to explore it. They don’t need flashcards, educational videos, or the latest iPad app to help speed their development. Attempts to get children speaking and reading before they’re developmentally ready may even harm them in the long run. In this episode we speak with child development expert Dr. Stephen Camarata about how to cut through the jargon, and enjoy raising our kids. Dr. Camarata just released his book, The Intuitive Parent: Why the Best Thing for Your Child is You. So remember, you already have everything you need to raise a healthy, happy, intelligent child...and we'll show you why in this episode.  ____ What we learn in this episode: How to make sure you don't over-stimulate your baby What are the signs of learning disabilities? Is TV and screen time bad for your child's development? Resources: The Intuitive Parent: Why the Best Thing for Your Child is You https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-intuitive-parent/201508/the-intuitive-parent https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/stephen-camarata-phd -- This episode is brought to you by: Sidekick: Go to getsidekick.com/smartpeople to get your first month of Sidekick for free. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free. Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.

Over the course of our childhood and into adulthood, we receive a lot of advice on how to find and do work we love. People tell you to follow your passion, or that you should find work that fits your personality, or that you should just learn what your strengths are and only focus on that. All of this is in fact good advice, but it's missing perhaps the greatest component...motivation. You have to uncover what it is that pushes you to take action. The best part about finding what motivates you is that you don't have to know the why....just the what. Once you understand your motivations, you can then move on to see if it aligns with your strengths and personality. But if it doesn't motivate you, regardless of how good you are at it, you just won't be fulfilled. So, this week on Smart People Podcast, we are bringing on one of the foremost experts in helping people discover their motivations, Adrian Gostick.  Adrian is a global thought leader on workplace strategy and the author of several successful books on employee engagement. In this episode, we are talking about his recent book titled, What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work. This book offers an extensively tested method to help readers identify their core motivators and figure out the disconnects between their passions and their current work, and guides all those searching for joy and engagement by asking the important questions - “What motivates me?” and “What can I do about it?” His latest book, The Orange Revolution, was a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller." ____ "When we realize we have to do something different with our lives, there is a process that we go through - and it can take a long time. But eventually it is going to feel better because we have aligned our work with our motivation." - Adrian Gostick Quotes from Adrian: What we learn in this episode: There is more to motivation that Dan Pink's "Mastery, Purpose, and Autonomy" Why are many doctors unhappy and what is it that motivates the majority of them? How do you integrate your motivations into your work life? Resources: What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work http://www.thecultureworks.com/ http://adriangostick.com/

We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn’t be this way. There is a formula for success that’s been followed by the icons of history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek. These men and women were not exceptionally brilliant, lucky, or gifted. Their success came from timeless philosophical principles laid down by a Roman emperor who struggled to articulate a method for excellence in any and all situations. In this episode we speak with Ryan Holiday, author of the bestselling book, The Obstacle Is the Way, as he reveals what these principles are, and how to turn our own adversity into advantage. Ryan Holiday is a media strategist and prominent writer on strategy and business. After dropping out of college at nineteen to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, he went on to advise many bestselling authors and multiplatinum musicians. He served as director of marketing at American Apparel for many years, where his campaigns have been used as case studies by Twitter, YouTube, and Google and written about in AdAge, the New York Times, and Fast Company. His first book, Trust Me I’m Lying —which the Financial Times called an “astonishing, disturbing book”—was a debut bestseller and is taught in colleges around the world. He is the author of two other books and is now published in 16 languages. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his rebellious puppy, Hanno and pet goats ____ "Wealth is created by scarcity. It's the fact that there are not many people who have been successful at the thing you are trying to do that makes it worth doing." - Ryan Holliday Quotes from Ryan: What we learn in this episode: How to find what you want to be when you grow up? Why are obstacles a good thing? What is stoicism? Resources: The Obstacle Is the Way http://ryanholiday.net/ Twitter: @ryanholiday -- This episode is brought to you by: Sidekick: Go to getsidekick.com/smartpeople to get your first month of Sidekick for free. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free. Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.

What is it like to be a co-founder of one of the largest, most innovative tech companies on the planet? What are the necessary ingredients of a successful startup? How can people better leverage technology to be more productive? These are just a portion of the questions we get answered by our guest this week, VP of Marketing and Co-Founder of Evernote, Andrew Sinkov. Join us as we discuss how Evernote went from a company on the brink of bankruptcy, to one of the most used and most loved tech companies around.  Evernote builds apps and products that are defining the way individuals and teams work today. As one workspace that lives across your phone, tablet, and computer, Evernote is the place you wrtire free from distraction, collect information, find what you need, and present your ideas to the world. Whatever you're working toward, Evernote's job is to make sure you get there. Evernote is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founder in 2007, Evernote products reach more than 100 million users worldwide - wither nearly 400 employees and growing. ______ "When people start companies, they are trying to make something like this happen. And there is not a rule book for this. There is a ton of luck necessary, but you also have to build the right team, have the right people, make the right decisions, work with the right investors, etc. And even when you have all those things, it still doesn't necessarily work out." - Andrew Sinkov Quotes from Andrew: What we learn in this episode: What is the average day like for the Co-Founder of Evernote? What was the evolution of Evernote - specifically from startup to massive tech company? How did the mission of Evernote change over time? Does Andrew believe Silicon Valley is in a "tech/startup" bubble? Resources: https://evernote.com/ https://blog.evernote.com/ https://appcenter.evernote.com/ http://restartgtd.com/howto/how-to-install-evernote-web-clipper-in-google-chrome/ Twitter: @sinkov -- This episode is brought to you by: Sidekick: Go to getsidekick.com/smartpeople to get your first month of Sidekick for free. Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for FREE with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.

This week on the show our guest is a man that needs to no introduction. You know him for his iconic role in the cult classic movie, "The Goonies", and for starting a 3 decade long fad of the "truffle shuffle" - welcome Jeff Cohen (Chunk). Of course we talk with Jeff at length about his child acting career, what it was like to work with Steven Spielberg, and how it feels to play a lead role in one of the best movies of all time (yes - I truly believe that). But that was 30 years ago! What is Jeff up to now? Jeff is a founding partner of an entertainment law firm and he just wrote his first book called The Dealmaker's Ten Commandments: Ten Essential Tools for Business Forged in the Trenches of Hollywood. In this book, Jeff draws on his experience in the cut-throat world of Hollywood to provide a practical, no-nonsense methodology for negotiating deals, managing your time and handling crisis, all at the highest level. Join us as we talk to Chunk... all grown up. Jeff attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business in 1996.  After his time at Berkeley, Cohen graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 2000 and later became an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. In 2002, he co-founded the Cohen & Gardner firm in Beverly Hills. Jeff was recently named to The Hollywood Reporter's Next Generation: Hollywood's Top 35 Executives 35 and Under. ____ "Acting is the greatest job in the world. No matter what they say, no one intentionally gives up acting." - Jeff Cohen Quotes from Chunk.... I mean Jeff: "Wherever I go there is a little 10 year old doing the truffle shuffle right behind me." "When I was a kid actor I wanted to be Spanky from the Little Rascals. That was my goal. I was a little chubby kid and I grew up watching the Little Rascals." "I had a little taste of fame without being so famous that I couldn't do something else. I could still hold an entry level job and work my way up through the ranks." "Everyone is on the same side... their own." "Ultimately, the exercise of economic combat is not to show everybody how smart you are, or to yell the loudest. The point is to make a deal, because if you don't make a deal you don't get paid." What we learn in this episode: What's it like to be a child actor? What is life like in Hollywood, both as an actor and an entertainment lawyer? What are the 10 commandments for "deal making"? Resources: The Dealmaker's Ten Commandments: Ten Essential Tools for Business Forged in the Trenches of Hollywood Twitter: @Jeff_B_Cohen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-KRGgMB78Y -- This episode is brought to you by: Sidekick: Go to getsidekick.com/smartpeople to get your first month of Sidekick for free. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free. Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.

We've all been taught the golden rule - "treat others as you want to be treated". Our parents raise us with the best intentions - they tell us to be nice to one another, and not to step on others to get ahead. But is that actually good advice? Is it better to have high moral character and put others first, or is it a dog eat dog world where nice guys finish last? This week we speak with Fred Kiel, co-founder of KRW International, leadership researcher, and author of the new book, Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and Their Companies Win. In this book (and episode), Fred summarizes seven years of research on the connection between the character of the CEO and return on assets. As part of this research, Fred and his team embarked on a landmark study of more than 100 CEOs and over 8,000 of their employees' to determine once and for all if the character of a leader really has an impact on a company's financial success. Prior to focusing on business advising, Fred founded a successful private practice in Minneapolis which became the major employer of professionals in that market. His interest in business advising eventually won out, and a bit over two decades ago, he sold his practice and co-founded KRW International. Fred has served on the boards of several philanthropic organizations, including Augsburg College Youth and Family Institute, Graywolf Press, Walk-In Counseling Center, and the Lyra Concert. He currently serves on the board of the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center. He also served on the adjunct staff of the Center for Creative Leadership for nearly ten years and served two terms on the Board of Psychology for the state of Minnesota. ____ "We are born to be both self-concerned and to be concerned for the common good. Which one of those sides 'wins' is dependent upon our environment and our experiences as we grow up." - Fred Kiel Quotes from Fred: What we learn in this episode: What does it take to be a strong leader? What does it mean to be moral? What are the 4 moral principles? What are the two eulogies that you have and how do you want to shape them? Resources: Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and Their Companies Win returnoncharacter.com Fred Kiel TedX Talk -- This episode is brought to you by: Sidekick: Go to getsidekick.com/smartpeople to get your first month of Sidekick for free. Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for FREE with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.

Did you know that the alcohol that gets you drunk in a beer or a cocktail is actually the waste products of billions of dead yeast organisms? Or that most of our crops were initially grown to make alcohol and only later were actually used for food? These are just some of the crazy facts that we learn this week as we interview New York Times Best Selling author, Amy Stewart. Amy is the author of 7 books, and perhaps her most popular is the one we focus on this week, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks. This fascinating concoction of biology, chemistry, history, etymology, and mixology will make you the most popular guest at any cocktail party. Amy Stewart is the author of seven books. She has written six nonfiction books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers: The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants, and Flower Confidential.  She lives in Eureka, California, with her husband Scott Brown, who is a rare book dealer. They own a bookstore calledEureka Books.  Since her first book was published in 2001, Stewart has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and Fresh Air, she’s been profiled in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and she’s been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, the PBS documentary The Botany of Desire, and–believe it or not– TLC’s Cake Boss. Amy has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other newspapers and magazines. She is the co-founder of the popular blog GardenRant. ____ "Next time you have a beer or a cocktail, just remember what you are drinking is the waste products of billions of dead yeast organisms." - Amy Stewart Quotes from Amy: What we learn in this episode: How did humans discover alcohol? How is alcohol made?  What plants and/or grains are used to make each style of alcohol? Resources: The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks http://www.amystewart.com/ @Amy_Stewart Amy's Favorite Alcohol: Strega Cocchi Americano Woodford Reserve -- This episode is brought to you by: Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free.

With the shift in gender roles, many children are no longer being raised primarily by their mothers. With dual income families increasing in popularity, child care is often outsourced to a neighbor, grandparents, or a nanny. But what is the effect on children? Contrary to conventional wisdom, growing up with a working mother is unlikely to harm children socially and economically when they become adults. The working mother study, authored by Harvard Business School professor Kathleen McGinn, HBS researcher Mayra Ruiz Castro, and Elizabeth Long Lingo of Mt. Holyoke College, found that women with working mothers performed better in the workplace, earning more and possessing more powerful positions than their peers with stay-at-home mothers. In the United States, adult daughters of working mothers earned 23 percent more than those whose mothers had not worked during their during the daughters' childhoods, earning an annual average income of $35,474 compared to $28,894. Over 33 percent held supervisory positions, compared to roughly 25 percent of their counterparts from more traditional households. The "working mother effect" actually improves future prospects, especially for adult daughters of mothers who worked outside the home before their daughters were 14 years old, according to recent findings based on a comprehensive survey of 50,000 adults aged 18 to 60 in 25 nations worldwide in 2002 and 2012. This week we interview one of the leading researchers in the HBS Gender Initiative, Harvard Professor Dr. Kathleen McGinn. One of the main goals Harvard Business School wants to achieve with the Gender Initiative is to ground discussions about gender in rigorous research so that people can make better- informed decisions for themselves, their families, their companies, and their communities.  ____ "There is a slight positive effect for maternal employment on children's achievement in school and on their behavior in school." - Kathleen McGinn Quotes from Kathleen: What we learn in this episode: What does gender mean to a "white, middle-class male"? Is it a good idea for a corporation to set a quota for number of employed minorities and women? Are children raised by stay at home moms happier? Resources: HBS Gender Initiative Women and Public Policy Website -- This episode is brought to you by: Animoto: Visit Animoto.com/smartpeople and use promo code “SMARTPEOPLE” to get 15% off to receive 15% off an Annual Pro subscription! Aspiration: At Aspiration, their investment strategies are built for the middle class. Signing up takes as little as $500 and five minutes of your time. You can sign up and find out more information at aspiration.com/smartpeople

If you’ve ever sought a job or hired someone, applied to college or guided your child into a good kindergarten, asked someone out on a date or been asked out, you’ve participated in a kind of market. Most of the study of economics deals with commodity markets, where the price of a good connects sellers and buyers. But what about other kinds of “goods,” like a spot in the Yale freshman class or a position at Google? This is the territory of matching markets, where “sellers” and “buyers” must choose each other, and price isn’t the only factor determining who gets what.  Our guest this week, Alvin E. Roth, is one of the world’s leading experts on matching markets. He has even designed several of them, including the exchange that places medical students in residencies and the system that increases the number of kidney transplants by better matching donors to patients. Alvin is the Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University. He is also the Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard University. He works in the areas of game theory, experimental economics and market design. He is also the author of the fantastic new book, Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design, and in 2012 he won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design" ...whatever that means. ____ "Markets are what people do. It's how we get along with each other. When you're not alone and you're interacting with other people there is a good chance you're engaged in some kind of marketplace." - Alvin Roth Quotes from Alvin: What we learn in this episode: What is the true definition of a market? What are matching markets and what are some examples? What is a repugnant transaction? What's a great trick to increase your chances of being accepted to the college of your choice? Resources: Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design http://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/ http://web.stanford.edu/~alroth/ -- This episode is brought to you by: Animoto: Visit Animoto.com/smartpeople and use promo code “SMARTPEOPLE” to get 15% off to receive 15% off an Annual Pro subscription! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.

Early birds and night owls are born, not made. Sleep patterns are the primary result of the highly individualized biological clocks we inherit, but these clocks also regulate bodily functions from digestion to hormone levels to cognition. Living at odds with our internal timepieces can make us chronically sleep deprived and more likely to smoke, gain weight, feel depressed, fall ill, and fail geometry. By understanding and respecting our internal time, we can live better. In this episode we interview Till Roenneberg, professor of chronobiology at the Institute of Medical Psychology at LMU in Munich, Germany, and author of the book, Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired. ____ "We don't even know how much sleep somebody needs. We can calculate how much sleep someone gets, but we don't know if it's the amount they need. And we know there is a genetic individual difference between how much sleep people need." - Till Roenneberg Quotes from Till: What we learn in this episode: What is chronobiology? What is the difference between a night own and an early bird? Is it genetic or environmental? The science behind out circadian rhythm. How can you adjust your circadian rhythm? Resources: Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired Twitter: @TillRoen  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ylqK-aPX8 Get the F.Lux software we discussed -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for FREE with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople.