TED

The Four Steps to Hearing Hard Feedback Gracefully | Chris Wheatley | TED

And the feedback is that when I'm not at my best, I come across as arrogant, condescending, self-righteous and a know-it-all -- which is a really nice combination and a great way to make friends, if you're interested.

Daily Stoic

9 Stoic Lessons From Roman Politics

Because if wise people, if good people, if people who try to live and act with virtue, if they don't seek public office, if they don't participate in public life, if they don't vote, if they don't speak out, you know what is happening? They're ceding that floor to the people who are not.

Book of the Day

Marking 25 years since Sept. 11 with 'All the Presidents' Wars' and 'Scattered Steel'

You got to plan for the day after otherwise that then you're going to lose the peace even if you've won the war.

Fresh Air

Stories of survival & loss at Ground Zero

Every fiber in my being was screaming at me to get out of this building. Every second that we wasted was one second closer to us not getting out of the building. But that's not what firemen do. We were there to save people's lives. And that culture, that firefighter culture, overtook whatever personal need I felt to get out of the building.

Book of the Day

Sen. Ted Cruz's new book 'Going Further' praises Justice Clarence Thomas

The reason I don't want to be a judge is a principal judge stays out of politics and stays out of policy fights. And if I were a judge, I'd do that. I'd stay out of those fights. I don't want to stay out of those fights.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

How Sonos rebooted itself

When I came in the door, one of my earliest observations was that the company behaved like it was 100 percent hardware, but we're really 100 percent hardware and 100 percent software. And if you get either one of those even a little bit wrong, the impact is tremendous.

TED Intersections

Why Is It So Hard for Men to Open Up? A Journalist and an Entrepreneur Answer | TED Intersections

Nothing that happens after the question is your responsibility. Your responsibility is have the curiosity, the integrity, the thoughtfulness, and the humility to ask what's on your mind and not bite your tongue because well, it might be uncomfortable. Well, what are they going to say? Let that be their problem.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning - [Invest Like the Best, EP.490]

Walter lays out the five step playbook that carried the Dutch, then the British, then America to global leadership, and why the same pattern keeps beating centralized continental powers.

Founders

#432 The Mind of Napoleon

A consecutive series of great actions never is the result of chance and luck; it always is a product of planning and genius. Is it because they are lucky that [great men] become great? No, but being great, they have been able to master luck. What is luck? The ability to exploit accidents: The vulgar would call this luck, but in fact it is the characteristic of genius.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

How Sonos rebooted itself

Tom was on the board at Sonos during the disastrous 2024 app redesign that threatened to crash the entire brand, and he took over as interim CEO to right the ship during that period.

Office Hours

Scott Galloway: How Getting Rich Affected My Friendships | Office Hours

If you are a boss and people get more out of working for you than maybe you get out of them or you pay them above market, that's a win. That's a victory. If you're a better spouse to your — if it is really hard for your spouse to figure out ways to be as good to you as you are to them, that's a win. That's the whole [ __ ] shooting match.

Founders

#431 How Henry Singleton Worked

"Henry Singleton has the best operating and capital deployment record in American business. If one took the hundred top business school graduates and made a composite of their triumphs, their record would not be as good as Singleton's."

Decoder with Nilay Patel

OpenAI's executive exodus has one big winner

When the board coup happened in 2023, Brockman was so incensed that he quit immediately. He and Altman were going to start their own thing, or were potentially going to lead a department at Microsoft. Brockman said, 'Okay, if Sam goes, I go.' That's when he became Sam's right hand in a new way. Before that, he was just one of the many execs. They were close, but the board coup made them closer than ever. That's also what made Sam know that he could trust him in a new way and thereby later greenlight him getting more power.

Founders

#431 How Henry Singleton Worked

Henry Singleton has the best operating and capital deployment record in American business. If one took the hundred top business school graduates and made a composite of their triumphs, their record would not be as good as Singleton's.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

OpenAI's executive exodus has one big winner

But when Sam Altman got fired by the board, Brockman was so incensed that he quit immediately. He and Altman were going to start their own thing, or were potentially going to lead a department at Microsoft. That's when he was making waves in a new way because he was hellbent on the drama.

Semafor

'It's Intense Defamation': Hasan Piker Considers Suing His Democratic Critics

You don't need a Joe Rogan of the left. I'm certainly not the Joe Rogan of the left. You need better policies.

TED

How to Get Past the “Messy Middle” of a Big Change | Mary Martin | TED

As much as we want to avoid those messy middle moments, I would argue not only are they inevitable, they're a good thing. Why? Because messiness is a sign of bold ambition. Transformation without a messy middle means you probably won't get the big results you were hoping for.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

OpenAI's executive exodus has one big winner

While Sam Altman is the CEO and still OpenAI's most public face, Brockman has amassed enormous power and influence within the top ranks of the company as other senior leaders have left in rapid succession.

Founders

#430 How to Write Ads That Sell

The average salesman seeks favors. He seeks profit for himself. His plea is, 'Buy my goods.' He makes a selfish appeal to selfish people, and of course, he meets resistance. I was selling service.

The New York Times

Family Members of Sailor Aboard U.S.S. Lincoln Speak Out

I keep hearing, 'Well, they signed up for this.' They didn't sign up to be on a ship in the middle of the ocean with no port calls, no feet on the ground. That wasn't in the brochure when they signed up.

The a16z Show

Microsoft's Deputy CISO on Securing AI Agents

AI is shifting the CISO's role from saying "no" to safely enabling new technology.

China Decode

Why Microsoft Is Quietly Abandoning China | China Decode

I think there's a third category, and this is the category that I would put Microsoft into. This is the category of companies, big western companies that dared to dream the dream but never managed to realize it.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

The Wait Wait 2026 summer spectacular, part 1! | Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

So the first band director in middle school made me the drum major, right? So my job was to keep time with my gate, right? Which was a terrible idea, right? So then in high school they moved that to we're going to put the tuba on the field and you'll march in place while everybody else goes in planetary orbit around you.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Does Google even want to win in AI?

It's crazy to me that they have that much power and all that going for the company, and they're still not in the lead, let alone being behind as of right now. That's what I think is crazy.

The Prof G Pod

The Leaked Kremlin Slide Deck for Ending the War

Everything in Russia is a vertical of power leading up to Putin... Putin is scared of his own society. He's scared of that mobilization. In Ukraine, people had to step up because the state was... didn't have the capacity... and yet Ukraine keeps going. Yes, with support, because it's crowdsourced. It's networked. There's flattened hierarchies.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Bose CEO Lila Snyder on the fight for high-quality audio

Becoming a software company in addition to a product company comes with a whole new set of challenges, and Lila and I got into how it's all working.

The Prof G Pod

The Leaked Kremlin Slide Deck for Ending the War

Everything in Russia is a vertical of power leading up to Putin. And I think in the way that Ann has just laid out what's happening in Ukraine, in this case, strong society is beating out strong state. And there's a lesson in that.

The Prof G Pod

Why $1.4 Trillion in Defense Just Got Rendered Obsolete

It's almost like a child's idea of how power works. It's a you know a kind of elementary school vision of how you project power. You just bomb stuff and then you win. That is not how the United States became uh the world's most influential country and it's not how we achieve how we achieved good outcomes in the past.

The a16z Show

How Kavak Rebuilt Itself Around AI Agents | Alejandro Maza Ayala

companies looking for incremental AI adoption may be missing the larger opportunity: redesigning the organization itself

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Bose CEO Lila Snyder on the fight for high-quality audio

Becoming a software company in addition to a product company comes with a whole new set of challenges

The Prof G Pod

Sam Harris: The Democrats’ Far-Left Problem

All you have to be is a charismatic fraud and uh be incapable of feeling shame no matter how many times you're proven wrong and uh you know, you our politics will will promote you to somewhere near the top of the heap.

The Prof G Pod

Scott Galloway: "Trump Is the Chernobyl of Politics"

Trump is the equivalent of political Chernobyl. Name anybody from his first administration with the exception of Ambassador Haley, who I think will be a formidable uh formidable candidate to perhaps on the Republican side, no one survives Trump. Everyone gets political leukemia if they're around him long enough.

TED

Inside Dubai’s Mission to Build the City of the Future | His Excellency Khalfan Belhoul | TED

If rules are an issue, we can change them for you. We can connect you with any relevant decision maker to break those rules. We will not be upset if you make mistakes, and we will support you on every winning bet you make.

The Prof G Pod

The Real Reason Trump Always Finds a Workaround

It's not just being a con man, which is something else. It's I am cheating the system. And that to me, I think illuminates not only Trump, but also many of the people who follow him because they're like, "Yeah, he's just a smart businessman. This is the way you're supposed to do business." And in a way that's a real denigration and destruction of what the system is, which is the American people trying to make rules under which to govern themselves.

TED

Inside Dubai’s Mission to Build the City of the Future | His Excellency Khalfan Belhoul | TED

Usually governments are a hurdle or they take time or they're bureaucratic. We are hearing from our leaders that we can actually do this. This is music to our ears.

TED

Why AI Will Never Replace a Great Teacher | Matt Wu | TED

Ask any student what has changed their life the most, and they won't tell you about a technology. They'll tell you about a person. A teacher who believed in them before they believed in themselves.

Semafor

The World of Work: The State of Global Workplace | Semafor Events

The problem that causes people to quietly quit is the work place. And ultimately, I think as we're all talking about all this worry and this anxiety, let's remember that the workplace is fundamentally broken. And so maybe we could use this as a moment to finally get it right.

Throughline

The architect of modern China

To make that vision real, he had to change China's relationship to the world and introduce capitalism to a society steeped in tradition and communist ideals.

Semafor

The World of Work: The State of Global Workplace | Semafor Events

80% of all of the world's workers have quietly quit. And by the way, it's not their fault. The problem is not work. The problem that causes people to quietly quit is the work place.

Daily Stoic

The Fall Of The Roman Republic With Barry Strauss

I leaned towards princ too principled and clean for the world of politics but that makes him a mediocre politician.

The CEO Signal

Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet On Leading The Dreams Business | The CEO Signal

Are we proud of the way we show up? And is it financially attractive? If the answer is no to either, then we should either make the intervention to address the issue or get out.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

John Kim - How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars - [Invest Like the Best, EP.482]

The number one thing I've learned is that investors invest in people, not ideas. You can have the best idea in the world, but if people don't trust you, don't believe in you, and don't think you can execute, they're not going to give you money.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

John Kim - How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars - [Invest Like the Best, EP.482]

The number one thing I've learned is that investors invest in people, not in strategies. You can have the best strategy in the world, but if they don't trust you, if they don't believe in you, if they don't think you have the capability to execute, they're not going to give you capital.

Pivot

Mitch McConnell Finally Appeared in a Photo. Kara and Scott Aren’t Buying It | Pivot

This isn't a story about Mitch McConnell. It's a story about American political system that refuses to make room for the next generation.

Book of the Day

Jonathan Jakubowicz says he wanted to write a book Venezuelans couldn't resist

When morals are put aside where ideology doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is that you support the leader, you know, so there is a breakdown in society, and and then suddenly anything goes, and I think it's a very dangerous path to take.

Book of the Day

Jonathan Jakubowicz says he wanted to write a book Venezuelans couldn't resist

My country elected a man who believes in nothing but loyalty. He doesn't care what you do as long as you don't cross him. So, why fight him? Who am I to tell people they're wrong for believing in a man who makes them feel seen?

TED

The Counterintuitive Secret of Leadership | Jessica Kriegel | TED

People don't change because you implemented new processes. People will act in alignment with what they believe. And so if you want to change their behavior, you have to shift what it is that they believe.

Book of the Day

Revisiting the story of the American Revolution with Rick Atkinson

A people not used to being forced to do things will not be drove. They must be led. And he is a leader and um in the army that he's commanding the army we have today actually that's a fairly critical insight that he's got and a recognition that this is the essence of leadership.

The Prof G Pod

Top House Intelligence Democrat on How Trump Misread Iran

Some people got in his ear and just said, "You know what you know you need to say to Donald Trump to persuade him," which is, "You will be the greatest leader since Napoleon." And painted a picture of Trump Towers being built in Shiraz and Tehran and that sort of thing.