Smart People Podcast

This week we interview Mike Rognlien. Mike spent most of his career in tech. He worked at Facebook, where he built their first-ever professional and manager development programming. He also partnered with COO Sheryl Sandberg to build Facebook’s Managing Unconscious Bias course. He is an expert facilitator that focuses on leadership, strengths, and talking about the tough stuff. Mike is the author of, This Is Now Your Company: A Culture Carrier's Manifesto. We discuss: What do you have to do to enjoy where you work? Where do you start to go down the right path of 'enjoying what you do'? How do you think you go about cultivating curiosity? Why did you write your book and what do you hope to change in the world? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we interview Due Quach. Due is a refugee from Vietnam and a graduate of Harvard College and the Wharton MBA program. Due overcame the long-term effects of poverty and trauma by turning to neuroscience and meditation. After building a successful international business career in management consulting and private equity investments, Due traveled throughout Asia to study various contemplative traditions and then created the Calm Clarity Program to make mindful leadership accessible to people of all backgrounds. Due is the author of, Calm Clarity: How to Use Science to Rewire Your Brain for Greater Wisdom, Fulfillment, and Joy. We discuss: How can we find meaning or believe that we have meaning? Do you feel that everyone has the power to change our mental state in a way that can be positive, productive, and happy? How do we progress out of focusing on fear or the downside of things? Learn more about the Calm Clarity Program at https://www.calmclarity.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we interview Dr. Traci Stein. Dr. Stein is a Columbia-trained, licensed clinical psychologist and health educator. She is also certified in clinical hypnosis by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). Her focus has been on helping people to reduce uncomfortable physical and emotional symptoms and gain greater insight into who they are and want to be. Dr. Stein is also the author of, The Everything Guide To Integrative Pain Management. We discuss: What is the cause of chronic pain? What IS hypnosis? What are verbal suggestions? What does it mean? What are examples? What can we do on our own to work with hypnosis? Biofeedback, what exactly is that? How did you get into the idea of 'intuition' and wanting others to develop it? You can learn more about Dr. Stein at http://www.drtracistein.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we interview John Hooker. John Hooker is Professor of Operations Research and Holleran Professor of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at Carnegie Mellon University. His book, Taking Ethics Seriously: Why Ethics Is an Essential Tool for the Modern Workplace, develops an intellectual framework for analyzing ethical dilemmas that is both grounded in theory and versatile enough to deal rigorously with real-world issues. We discuss: What does the term 'ethics' truly mean? How did John become so dedicated around teaching ethics and social responsibility? What is the downside of not taking ethics seriously? How can we come to an agreement around ethics that works for an entire culture? Learn more about Professor Hooker at http://centerforethicsandpolicy.com/faculty/hooker.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we interview Dr. Elizabeth Boham. Dr. Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices Functional Medicine at The UltraWellness Center is Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. Her DVD, Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the functional medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well. We discuss: How does functional medicine deal with chronic disease and how does that differ from traditional western medicine? How did Elizabeth's battle with breast cancer lead her to specialize in functional medicine? How can you learn more about your genes and how they impact your health? What is a food intolerance and do you even know if you have them? Learn more about Dr. Boham at her website http://www.drboham.com/. If you purchase Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer, use the discount code Breast30wellness to get 30% off!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we interview Barbara Lipska. Barbara is a leading expert on the neuroscience of mental illness and she has an absolutely fascinating story to tell. It would be unfair to give anything away from the interview or the book, so download the episode and give it a listen! We discuss: What does a typical day look like for the director of the Human Brain Collection Core at the National Institute of Mental Health? What does a brain look like when you cut into it? What progress is being made around mental health research? Barbara Lipska, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized leader in human postmortem research and animal modeling of schizophrenia. She is currently director of the Human Brain Collection Core at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she studies mental illness and human brain development. Her amazing, new book is, The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the show we interview Adam Braun. Adam is the CEO & Co-Founder of MissionU, a debt-free college alternative for the 21st century that CNN called "perfect for young people who are eager to launch their career." Adam's goal is to overhaul the traditional higher education model by providing a solution that doesn't require upfront tuition and allows students to graduate debt-free. We discuss: How to balance family life with starting a company? What are Adam's favorite interview tactics? What's wrong with going to college? What does it take to turn your idea into a business? Adam has been featured as a speaker at The White House and named to Forbes 30 Under 30, Business Insider’s 40 Under 40, and Wired Magazine‘s 50 People Who Are Changing the World. He was previously founder & CEO of Pencils of Promise, the award-winning organization that has built nearly 400 schools around the world. Adam is the author of the bestselling book, The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like our bodies, our brains have very specific food requirements. In this episode we speak with Dr. Lisa Mosconi, who is both a neuroscientist and a certified integrative nutritionist, as she explains what should be on our menu. Dr. Lisa Mosconi, whose research spans an extraordinary range of specialties including brain science, the microbiome, and nutritional genomics, notes that the dietary needs of the brain are substantially different from those of the other organs, yet few of us have any idea what they might be. Her innovative approach to cognitive health incorporates concepts that most doctors have yet to learn. Busting through advice based on pseudoscience, Dr. Mosconi provides recommendations, while calling out noteworthy surprises, including the truth behind those delicious sweet potatoes, what's the verdict on cholesterol, good fat vs. bad fat, should you drink coconut oil, and much more. Lisa is also the author of the incredible brand new book, Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power.She is also the associate director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC)/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, in the Department of Nutrition at NYU Steinhardt School of Nutrition and Public Health, and in the Departments of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Florence (Italy). Formerly, Dr. Mosconi founded and was the director of the Nutrition & Brain Fitness Lab at New York University School of Medicine (NYU), and an assistant professor in the NYU Department of Psychiatry, where she served as the director of the Family History of Alzheimer's disease research program. Dr. Mosconi holds a dual PhD degree in Neuroscience and Nuclear Medicine from the University of Florence, Italy, and is a board certified integrative nutritionist and holistic healthcare practitioner. She is well known for her research on the early detection of Alzheimer's disease and is passionately interested in the mitigation and prevention of memory loss through lifestyle modifications including diet, nutrition, and physical and intellectual fitness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Don’t just chase the new – Innovate the old." - Soon Yu Modern business gurus all cry for the need to innovate, to disrupt, and to act like a startup. It’s hard to argue with that kind of thinking. It’s sexy and exciting. But it’s wrong. Too many businesses become enamored by shiny new objects and end up overlooking the value locked away in their existing products. Maybe your business is one of them. Or maybe you only have an idea, but can't even figure out how to turn it into a business, let alone an Iconic Brand. This week we talk with innovation expert Soon Yu on how to take a different approach that allows you to leverage what you already have or know to create a business that lasts. It generates disproportionate levels of profit and protects you against market fluctuations. Many of the world’s most successful brands have been using it for years. Now, you can benefit from reaching iconic status, whether you’re a Fortune 500, local pizza parlor, or an aspiring Unicorn startup. Soon Yu is an international speaker and author on innovation and design. He is the author of the brand new book, Iconic Advantage®: Don’t Chase the New, Innovate the Old. He most recently served as the Global VP of Innovation and Officer at VF Corporation, parent organization to over thirty global apparel companies, including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Nautica, and Wrangler. He has been a founder and CEO for numerous venture-backed startups and was recognized as a Northern California finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. Prior to this he worked at Bain and Company, The Clorox Company, and Chiquita Brands, where he won company-wide awards for best advertising, best promotion, and best new product, and gained industry recognition from the Webby Award, Favorite Website Award and Dope Award. He frequently guest lectures at Stanford University, where he received his MBA, and is an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, pushing the limits of our imagination and granting us access to any experience imaginable. With well-crafted simulations, these experiences, which are so immersive that the brain believes they’re real, are already widely available with a VR headset and will only become more accessible and commonplace. But how does this new medium affect its users, and does it have a future beyond fantasy and escapism? This week on the show, Jeremy Bailenson draws on two decades spent researching the psychological effects of VR and other mass media to help us understand this powerful new tool. He offers expert guidelines for interacting with VR and describes the profound ways this technology can be put to use―not to distance ourselves from reality, but to enrich our lives and influence us to treat others, the environment, and even ourselves better. There are dangers and many unknowns in using VR, but it also can help us hone our performance, recover from trauma, improve our learning and communication abilities, and enhance our empathic and imaginative capacities. Like any new technology, its most incredible uses might be waiting just around the corner. Jeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Thomas More Storke Professor in the Department of Communication, a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a Faculty Leader at Stanford’s Center for Longevity. He earned a B.A. cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1994 and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University in 1999. He spent four years at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and then an Assistant Research Professor. Jeremy is the author of the incredible new book, Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do. — This episode is brought to you by: Audible, listen anytime, anywhere to an unmatched selection of audiobooks, original premium podcasts, and more. Start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free! Go to audible.com/smart or text SMART to 500-500. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not often I truly feel that a guest changes my paradigm on the spot - but this is an exception. This week we speak with Bryan Caplan about his newest book, The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money. As Bryan explains, despite being immensely popular--and immensely lucrative—education is grossly overrated. Bryan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity—in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee. In fact, decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for the average worker but instead in runaway credential inflation, yet employers still reward workers for costly schooling they rarely if ever use. Therefore, his recommendation is to cut education spending. Caplan draws on the latest social science to show how the labor market values grades over knowledge, and why the more education your rivals have, the more you need to impress employers. He explains why graduation is our society's top conformity signal, and why even the most useless degrees can certify employability. He advocates two major policy responses. The first is educational austerity. Government needs to sharply cut education funding to curb this wasteful rat race. The second is more vocational education, because practical skills are more socially valuable than teaching students how to outshine their peers. Bryan Caplan is professor of economics at George Mason University and a blogger at EconLog. He is the author of Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun than You Think and The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. http://www.bcaplan.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that working mothers are 50% LESS likely to be promoted than women without children? Or that only 1 in 5 senior executives is a woman? Have you ever realized that working moms are judged when they leave work early to tend to their children AND when they stay at work late (and "neglect" their families)? The truth is, we have a work environment that is not conducive to being a parent and women are the ones who tend to suffer the most. This week on the show we have a chance to talk with Mary Beth Ferrante about the struggles that working mothers face, and the ways they can get what they deserve. Mary Beth is a former Senior Vice President for a Fortune 100 Firm who has made the successful transition to a certified career coach with the International Coach Federation. She is trained in Organizational, Relationship & Systems Coaching (ORSC). In addition, she has chaired national women's organizations and been on the Board of Directors of the Junior League of Los Angeles. Today, she works with new moms (and dads!), managers and organizations to best support new parents, discover what inspires and drives new parents in their careers. Learn more about Mary Beth at LiveWorkLead.com — This episode is brought to you by: Audible, listen anytime, anywhere to an unmatched selection of audiobooks, original premium podcasts, and more. Start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free! Go to audible.com/smart or text SMART to 500-500. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We made it. You made it! Here's part 2 of our listener questions and 'year in review.' Quick recap. Before we closed out 2017, we sent an email to our newsletter subscribers asking what questions they would like answered. This is part 1 of Chris and I attempting to answer those questions. It was the first time in years that we recorded under the same roof. How crazy is that?!?! WARNING: there was "light" drinking while recording so expect complete openness and a dash of silly. We want to hear from you, the listener! If you're a fan of Smart People Podcast and would like to provide input to help shape the future of the show, please email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you and get in touch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We made it to 2018! Welcome :) Before we closed out 2017, we sent an email to our newsletter subscribers asking what questions they would like answered. This is part 1 of Chris and I attempting to answer those questions. It was the first time in years that we recorded under the same roof. How crazy is that?!?! WARNING: there was "light" drinking while recording so expect complete openness and a dash of silly. We want to hear from you, the listener! If you're a fan of Smart People Podcast and would like to provide input to help shape the future of the show, please email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you and get in touch. Here's to 2018! 🙌 💪 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For leaders in the 21st century, there is one pressing question: What set of skills is required to lead in crisis, and can history give us answers? Our guest this week, Harvard Business School historian and professor Nancy Koehn, has surveyed some of history’s greatest leaders and made an incredible discovery: courageous leaders are not born but made, and the power to lead resides in each of us. Nancy examined the lives of five of the greatest leaders of all time to better understand how they led through adversity and came out the other side stronger. These extraordinary individuals include: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson. In her book, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times, Nancy begins each chapter by showing her protagonist on the precipice of a great crisis: Shackleton marooned on an Antarctic ice floe; Lincoln on the verge of seeing the Union collapse; escaped slave Douglass facing possible capture; Bonhoeffer agonizing over how to counter absolute evil with faith; Carson racing against the cancer ravaging her in a bid to save the planet. Significantly, as we follow each leader’s against-all-odds journey, we begin to glean an essential truth: leaders are not born but made. In a book dense with epiphanies, the most galvanizing one may be that the power to lead courageously resides in each of us. Join us as we learn the keys to leadership in turbulent times and the lessons we can glean from some of the most well respected individuals of all time. Nancy Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. Koehn's research focuses on how leaders, past and present, craft lives of purpose, worth, and impact. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government before taking her MA and PhD in History from Harvard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our ancestors crossed deserts, mountains, and oceans without even a whisper of what anyone today might consider modern technology. Those feats of endurance now seem impossible in an age where we take comfort for granted. But what if we could regain some of our lost evolutionary strength by simulating the environmental conditions of our forebears? Or even more importantly, can we tap into our evolution and increase our mental and physical resilience? This week on the show we interview investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney (scottcarney.com). In his New York Times best selling book, What Doesn't Kill Us, Scott tries to figure out if it is possible to hack our bodies and use the environment to stimulate our inner biology? Helping him in his search for the answers is Dutch fitness guru Wim Hof, whose ability to control his body temperature in extreme cold has sparked a whirlwind of scientific study. In this episode, Scott tells us about his own transformational journey as he pushes his body and mind to the edge of endurance, a quest that culminates in a record-bending, 28-hour climb to the snowy peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts and sneakers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is Mike Lewis, Founder and CEO of When To Jump. When Mike was twenty-four and working in a prestigious corporate job, he eagerly wanted to leave and pursue his dream of becoming a professional squash player. But he had questions: When is the right time to move from work that is comfortable to a career you have only dared to dream of? How have other people made such a jump? What did they feel when making that jump—and afterward? Mike sought guidance from others who had “jumped,” and the responses he got—from a banker who started a brewery, a publicist who became a Bishop, a garbage collector who became a furniture designer, and on and on—were so clear-eyed and inspiring that Mike wanted to share what he had learned with others who might be helped by those stories. Out of these stories came When To Jump, a community dedicated to exploring the fundamental question we all think about: when is the right time to go do what you really want to be doing? Mike is the author of the brand new book, When to Jump: If the Job You Have Isn't the Life You Want, and he is also the host of the new hit podcast, When To Jump. — This episode is brought to you by: Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people get special life insurance rates. Go to healthiq.com/SPP to support the show and see if you qualify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are all creators. Every day we go out into the world and use our unique human abilities to shape our environment. We create a life for ourselves, we create a product or service for others, we create relationships through it all. And what we all come to learn is that creativity is a messy business. We will run into road blocks, we will lose our motivation, we will fail. It is the destiny of every creator and their creation to get stuck from time to time. And it is in those times, that we need someone like Steve on our side. This week on the show we speak with Steve McKee - an expert on revitalizing stalled, stuck, or stale brands. The lessons we discuss can apply to all creative endeavors, and go far beyond business. Steve is the president and co-founder of McKee Wallwork & Company, an integrated marketing firm that specializes in revitalizing stalled, stuck and stale brands. MWC is an Inc. 500 company, has twice been awarded the American Marketing Association's Effie Award (one of the industry's highest honors), and has been recognized by Advertising Age as one of ten top small agencies in the nation. Steve has nearly three decades' experience coaching troubled brands as they look to better position themselves for success. Steve writes for SmartBrief and is the author of the books Power Branding: Leveraging the Success of the World's Best Brands, and When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You're Stuck, and What to Do About It. — This episode is brought to you by: Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people get special life insurance rates. Go to healthiq.com/SPP to support the show and see if you qualify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Money is a tool to create the things that we want. It is a proxy for security, health, and welfare for our families and loved ones. When we lose that holistic thinking about what wealth is, then our money winds up working at a very singular purpose to create more pieces of paper as opposed to create greater human and environmental welfare." - Morgan Simon When we put our money in a bank (or a mutual fund, pension plan, endowment, etc.) it doesn't just sit there, it is put to use. It is invested in the economy, and it has power. But have you ever stopped to wonder what your money is being invested in? Is it supporting the causes and communities you care about? Or is it being used to further the cause of individuals, organizations, or governments that you disagree with. It is time to recognize that we are all investors, and that it is up to us to make sure we are adding more value than we extract and that the risk and returns are balanced between our investments and the communities. This is the basis for impact investing. Impact investing is the support of social and environmental projects with a financial return, and it has become a hot topic in the world's philanthropy and development circles. In the next decade, it is poised to eclipse traditional aid by ten times. Yet for all the excitement, there is work to do to ensure it actually realizes it’s potential. This week on the show we are interviewing an expert in this field, Morgan Simon. Morgan is the author of the brand new book, Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change. Over the past seventeen years, she has influenced over $150 billion in capital. Morgan currently co-leads Candide Group, which supports two clients, including members of the Pritzker family on behalf of the Libra Foundation. She is also co-founder and chair of the non-profit Transform Finance. Previously, Morgan served as the founding CEO of Toniic, a global network of impact investors, and as the founding executive director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition. — This episode is brought to you by: Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people get special life insurance rates. Go to healthiq.com/SPP to support the show and see if you qualify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mindfulness is all the rage these days. And yet, even as the New York Times churns out articles like How to Be Mindful While Grocery Shopping and How to Be Mindful When You have Seasonal Allergies a quick look at NIMH or NIH data shows that Americans are sicker than ever, poorer than ever, more psychologically disturbed than ever. Though the literature has certainly been convincing, we have to ask ourselves whether the West's new cultural obsession with mindfulness is actually helping us. In contrast, our guest this week believes that mindfulness, which is a "top-down" approach to wellness, is only half of the picture, and it is yet another way we are persuaded to separate from the body and live in the head. If we could also learn to be in our bodies (approaching wellness from the bottom-up), we would have a chance at experiencing true balance and connection. We would be less anxious and more compassionate. We would cease to be okay with things that we've collectively learned how to be numb to. Our guest this week is Philip Shepherd. Philip is recognized as an international authority on embodiment. His unique techniques have been developed to transform our experience of self and world, and are based on the vision articulated in his celebrated books, New Self, New World and Radical Wholeness. The approach he takes heals the frantic, restless pace of the intelligence in the head, which tends to run on overdrive, by uniting it with the deep, present and calm intelligence of the body. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's work environment, our success is heavily dependent on our ability to consistently deliver strong results. And although there are multiple inputs that lead to our results, there is one secret weapon that outweighs everything else. The key to success ultimately lies in the strength of our relationships. You may be thinking to yourself, "But wait, we are talking about business! With all of the demands on my time, I don't have the luxury to think about something soft and fuzzy like relationships." But the truth of the matter is, given the complex and global nature of business, almost everything we accomplish happens with and through other people. So how do you improve these relationships and leverage them to create a true competitive advantage for your organization? This week on the podcast we answer this question and more as we talk with Todd Davis, author of the brand new book, Get Better: 15 Proven Practices to Build Effective Relationships at Work. Davis has over 30 years of experience in human resources, talent development, executive recruiting, sales, and marketing. He currently serves as chief people officer and executive vice president at Franklin Covey where he is responsible for their global talent development in over 40 offices in 160 countries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Narcissism—an inflated view of the self—is everywhere. Public figures say it’s what makes them stray from their wives. Parents teach it by dressing children in T-shirts that say "Princess." Teenagers and young adults hone it on Facebook, and celebrity newsmakers have elevated it to an art form. In a world that measures success by page views and number of followers, those with narcissistic tendencies often do what is necessary to reach "the top", at the expense of everyone else. So how does the average person contend with the narcissist? And what does this epidemic of "self love" mean for our society? This week on the podcast we speak with W. Keith Campbell, Ph.D. Keith is Department Head and Professor of Psychology at the University of Georgia, as well as a nationally recognized expert on narcissism, society and generational change. His work and lectures expose the rise of narcissism – and individualism more generally – and its influence on every level of society. Keith is the co-author of the book, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is no debate that a good education is a critical component of raising smart, well rounded, successful children. But cutting-edge research has proven that early childhood education is crucial for all children as young as 3 years old to gain the academic and emotional skills they need to succeed later in life. In essence, pre-K may actually be the most important year. Children who attend quality pre-K programs have a host of positive outcomes including better language, literacy, problem-solving and math skills down the line, and they have a leg up on what appears to be the most essential skill to develop at age four: strong self-control. In this episode, Harvard education researcher Suzanne Bouffard explains the sometimes surprising ingredients that make for a great pre-k program. What should you look for in a classroom? How should a teacher interact with young children? What can you do at home to help support a young child's learning? All this and more in this episode of Smart People Podcast. Suzanne Bouffard is a writer with a background in child development and education. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Duke University and has spent the past ten years conducting and writing about education research at Harvard University. She is the author of the brand new book, The Most Important Year: Pre-Kindergarten and the Future of Our Children. Sponsor: This week, we are brought to you by Audible! Get a free audiobook with a 30-day trial at www.audible.com/SMART. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our society—if we want to get sane, we must first gain insight about ourselves. Simply put: Trump isn’t crazy, but our society is." - Dr. Allen Frances This week on the show we interview one of the men who literally wrote the book on mental illness as we answer the question - Is Trump crazy? And what does it say about America that he was elected to the highest office in the land? Psychiatrist Dr. Allen Frances analyzes the national psyche, viewing the rise of Donald J. Trump as darkly symptomatic of a deeper societal distress. Drawing on his vast experience, Dr. Frances explains American society’s collective slide away from sanity and offers an urgently needed prescription for reclaiming our bearings. Dr. Allen Frances chaired the task force that produced the fourth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders, which is is published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and offers a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. He then became critical of later versions, and he warned that we are currently "over-treating" mental disorders and finding problems where there are none. Dr. Frances is professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Duke University School of Medicine. He is author of the new book, Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most." Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. Awareness of death can be a valuable companion on the road to living well, forging a rich and meaningful life, and letting go of regret. But how can we sit with something that is so uncomfortable? And how can utilize the unavoidable nature of death to live a more rewarding life? This week we talk with Frank Ostaseski as he helps us understand how the experience of dying can reveal the secrets of living. As a renowned teacher of compassionate caregiving and the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. In 2001, he was honored by the Dalai Lama for his compassionate service to the dying and their families. Frank is also the founder of the Metta Institute, which is an organizations dedicated to training professionals in compassionate, mindfulness-based care. Frank is the author of the highly acclaimed book, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. https://fiveinvitations.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know our world has ended five times? It has been broiled, frozen, poison-gassed, smothered, and pelted by asteroids. And in each of these catastrophic occurrences, climate change has been the culprit. You may be wondering, how do asteroids have anything to do with climate change? We will leave the details to our guest this week, but essentially there is a triggering event (asteroid, volcano, humans) that causes the oceans to become more acidic and very soon after the entire world dies. This is what happens every time...and it may be happening again. This week on the show we interview award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen about his new book, The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions. In his book and in this interview, Peter takes us on a tour of the 5 ways that the Earth has died, as well as what may be to come. Part road trip, part history, and part cautionary tale, The Ends of the World takes us on a tour of the ways that our planet has clawed itself back from the grave and casts our future in a completely new light. Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, the Washington Post, Slate, the Boston Globe, Aeon, among other publications. A graduate of Boston College, he was a 2015 journalist-in-residence at the Duke University National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and a 2011 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Science Journalism Fellow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all know that technology is evolving at a rapid rate, and it's changing the way we live. Do you call a cab, or do you use Uber? Do you stay in a hotel, or do you check Airbnb? Do you read a book or a Kindle? These products and services quickly enter our world and become the norm. But just knowing that technology is evolving is not enough, you need to understand how it is impacting you and how you can evaluate what industry will be disrupted next. This week on the show we interview an expert who can help you understand, evaluate, and respond to disruptive technologies that are sure to have a big impact on your business and your life. (Bitcoin anyone?) Our guest this week is Paul Armstrong. Paul is a leading strategist, author and speaker on the future of technology, disruption, retail innovation, media industry, social technologies, and more. Paul runs the technology advisory HERE/FORTH where he helps clients understand trends and how to sensibly apply emerging technologies strategically. Paul is regularly seen on the BBC and News at Ten, when industry comment is called for, and currently writes for a number of publications, including Forbes, Cool Hunting and Short List. Paul's first book, Disruptive Technologies: Understand, Evaluate, Respond, offers organizations a distinct response to emerging technologies including Blockchain (Bitcoin), artificial intelligence, and other external factors - such as the sharing economy, mobile penetration, millennial workforce, aging populations - that impact on their business, client service and product model. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For nearly a decade Brett Velicovich was at the center of America’s new warfare: using unmanned aerial vehicles—drones—to take down the world’s deadliest terrorists across the globe. One of an elite handful in the entire military with the authority to select targets and issue death orders, and his team successfully killed/captured 14 of America’s 20 most wanted terrorists across Iraq within only three months. In this episode, Brett tells us his never before told story of how drone warfare has completely changed the battlefield and what it's like to be part of one of the most elite military units to ever exist. With stories ranging from ISIS capture missions to tracking Boko Haram, this episode will be sure to entertain and enlighten! Brett is the co-author of the brand new book, Drone Warrior: An Elite Soldier's Inside Account of the Hunt For America's Most Dangerous Enemies. This book was co-written with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Christopher S. Stewart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Millions of lives are lost to catastrophes that could have been saved by the advance warnings of experts. But how do we know who can truly predict the future, and who is just screaming that the sky is falling? This week on the podcast our expert guest tells us how we can get better at predicting disasters, how to weed out the real warnings from the exaggerations, and what threats we need to be paying attention to right now. Our guest this week is R.P. Eddy, author of the brand new book, Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes. R.P. is a globally recognized national security and intelligence expert. He is CEO of Ergo, a leading intelligence and analysis firm. Previously, he served as Director at the White House National Security Council, as well as numerous other high level government positions. Eddy was a member of the State Department Senior Executive Service and achieved the diplomatic rank of Minister-Counselor. The World Economic Forum at Davos honored him as a “Global Leader for Tomorrow.” He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Board of the Middle East Institute. He has been a Senior Fellow or associate at Harvard University, the Madison Policy Forum, and the Manhattan Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our episode this week we talk with former Google data scientist and author, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. Seth explains exactly how the internet provides a window to the soul and how we can use this data to answer some of the most difficult, and most interesting questions of our time. With conclusions ranging from strange-but-true to thought-provoking to disturbing, he explores the power of this digital truth serum and its deeper potential—revealing biases deeply embedded within us, information we can use to change our culture, and the questions we’re afraid to ask that might be essential to our health—both emotional and physical. All of us are touched by big data everyday, and its influence is multiplying. Seth is the author of the new book, Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are. He is a former Google data scientist and is currently a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times. He received his undergrad degree from Stanford and his PhD in economics from Harvard. More about Seth Stephens-Davidowitz at http://sethsd.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all sustain emotional wounds. Failure, guilt, rejection, and loss are as much a part of life as the occasional scraped elbow. But while we typically bandage a cut or ice a sprained ankle, our first aid kit for emotional injuries is not just understocked—it’s nonexistent. Think about it... we learn about germs, scrapes, and sprains starting at 2 years old, but we often don't learn about emotional injuries and proper treatment until they have become debilitating. And even worse, many times we don't even know we are sustaining these emotional injuries and they are just lurking beneath the surface, continually holding us hostage. Fortunately, there is such a thing as mental first aid for battered emotions. Drawing on the latest scientific research and using real-life examples, our guest Guy Winch, Ph.D. offers specific step-by-step treatments that are fast, simple, and effective. In this episode, we talk with Guy about his amazing book, Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts. His message is essential for anyone looking to become more resilient, build self-esteem, and let go of the hurts and hang-ups that are holding them back. Guy Winch, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, author, and keynote speaker whose books have been translated into twenty-one languages. His TED Talk, Why We All Need to Practice Emotional First Aid, has been viewed over 4 million times and is rated among the top 5 most inspiring talks on TED.com. Dr. Winch also writes the popular Squeaky Wheel Blog on PsychologyToday.com Dr. Winch received his doctorate in clinical psychology from New York University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at NYU Medical Center. He has been working with individuals, couples and families in his private practice in Manhattan for over twenty years. He is a member of the American Psychological Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The smart phone is our most treasured tech device. If you don't believe me, try leaving it turned off for a full day and see how many times you yearn for it! This obsession with our phones is creating a massive amount of data that is being harnessed by companies to drive their business decisions in the ever expanding $3.3 trillion dollar mobile economy. In our episode this week, mobile economy expert Anindya Ghose welcomes us to the mobile economy of smartphones, smarter companies, and value-seeking consumers. Drawing on his extensive research in the US, Europe, and Asia, and many relevant case studies, Anindya explains how businesses can harness the power of a data-driven mobile economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For anyone who wants to create or innovate - this is the interview for you. When we think about creativity, we most often think of things: impressionism, the iPhone, democracy, Uber. We also narrow in on the few, those rare creators who seem to have something we lack. These tendencies quickly take us off track, perpetuating a myth and unknowingly pushing us further away from the possible. Here’s the truth: Creativity is about the possible. It’s the seed of any human advancement ever made or yet to be imagined. Most important and powerful of all, creativity is a uniquely human capacity that each of us possesses – including you. The story of creativity is the story of who we are, a story still unfolding. It’s time we come to understand it and learn how each of us can contribute our verse. It’s time we understand this language of man and learn to speak creativity. In this episode, award-winning author Larry Robertson discusses precisely what that means, and how we do it. We also learn how a deliberate pause can help spark true growth and progress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is economist Kate Raworth, and in her new book, Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design. Named after the now-iconic “doughnut” image that Raworth first drew to depict a sweet spot of human prosperity (an image that appealed to the Occupy Movement, the United Nations, eco-activists, and business leaders alike), Doughnut Economics offers a radically new compass for guiding global development, government policy, and corporate strategy, and sets new standards for what economic success looks like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we are speaking with Christopher Brinton and Mung Chiang, both experts on the subject of networks. In fact, the duo recently paired up to write a book called, The Power of Networks: Six Principles That Connect Our Lives. Mung Chiang is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. His research on networking received the 2013 Alan T. Waterman Award, the highest honor to US young scientists and engineers. He founded the Princeton EDGE Lab in 2009, which bridges the theory-practice gap in edge networking research by spanning from proofs to prototypes. Chiang is the Director of Keller Center for Innovations in Engineering Education at Princeton University and the inaugural Chairman of Princeton Entrepreneurship Council. Christopher Brinton is the Head of Advanced Research at Zoomi Inc. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University. He is also an adjunct professor in the School of Engineering at The College of New Jersey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, one of the nation’s leading psychologists discusses why today’s corporate leaders desire but reject creative solutions. We will answer questions such as could people love but also hate creative ideas? Could the mindset we use to evaluate ideas turn this love or hate on or off—in an instant? Do experts struggle even more than novices with this bias? And more. Our guest this week is Jennifer Mueller. Jennifer is the author of the new book, Creative Change: Why We Resist It....How We Can Embrace It. She holds a doctorate in social psychology and has taught at top business schools, including Wharton, the Yale School of Management, and New York University's Stern School of Business. Her highly acclaimed paper “The Bias Against Creativity” went viral, was downloaded more than 65,000 times, and was heralded as “famous” by an article in The Atlantic. She currently serves on the faculty at the University of San Diego and lives in Solana Beach, California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we are speaking with an executive coach who works with those seemingly "perfect" people and she's here to tell you that nothing is as it seems. In fact, often times people reach the societal ideal of perfection only to find out that it's not at all what it seems and the price paid to get there was too high. So instead of chasing someone else's dreams, it's time to define your own - and trust me, it's not easy. Our guest this week is Heather Gray, a therapist and coach who is a master at helping anyone repair broken relationships, rediscover passions, and heal from ignored and fractured parts of their lives. She helps her clients learn how to be present for themselves and for those they care about so that they can truly have it all. Learn more about Heather and her work at ChooseToHaveItAll.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you feel comfortable delivering bad news? Do you look forward to speaking in public? Do you enjoy networking? Is it easy for you to speak your mind and be assertive with friends and colleagues? If you answered no to any of these questions, this episode can help! In this show we speak with a true academic, Andy Molinsky as he discusses his brand new book, REACH; A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge , and Build Confidence. Andy is a Professor at Brandeis University’s International Business School with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology. Andy received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and M.A. in Psychology from Harvard University. He also holds a Master's Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in International Affairs from Brown University. Andy helps people develop the insights and courage necessary to act outside their personal and cultural comfort zones when doing important, but challenging, tasks in work and life. His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, Psychology Today, the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, NPR and Voice of America. Andy was awarded as a Top Voice for LinkedIn for his work in education. http://www.andymolinsky.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most of us know what it feels like to chase success and money. We believe that pounding our way through our days is the only way to prosperity and success. We sacrifice time with our loved ones, our weekends, our vacations, and perhaps even our sanity, in exchange for a paycheck. We want to have it all, but don’t find satisfaction in any of our achievements. Instead, we find ourselves sitting in our offices and big houses feeling unhappy, broke, burnt out, and unfulfilled... This week, our guest Leanne Jacobs explains how to break this cycle and achieve wealth in all the right ways, including money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the international sensation, critical favorite, and New York Times bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari unleashed a global phenomenon. His electrifying debut resonated with notable public figures: the book was lauded by President Obama, Bill Gate, Sebastian Junger, and Mark Zuckerberg. In this episode we discuss Sapiens, as well as his newest endeavor, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, leading sales trainer, researcher and CEO of Hoffeld Group, David Hoffeld blends cutting-edge research in social psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, to show you the best way to sell. He explains how to align the way you sell with how our brains naturally form buying decisions, dramatically increasing your ability to earn more sales. Hoffeld’s evidence-based approach connects the dots between science and situations salespeople and business leaders face every day to help you consistently succeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is an award winning sports journalist and Golf Digest's digital editor. So naturally, we start off the episode talking about digital content, the future of writing and publishing, and of course...golf. But the main focus of the interview is the essential life skill of "learning to lose". Sam shares with us what he uncovered in his interviews and all of the tips to being a good loser, and therefore a real winner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawrence Levy is a Silicon Valley lawyer and executive hired by Steve Jobs in 1994 as CFO and member of the Office of the President of Pixar Animation Studios. He was responsible for Pixar's business strategy and IPO and guided Pixar's transformation from a money-losing graphics company into a multibillion-dollar entertainment studio. He later joined Pixar's board of directors. He then left corporate life to study Eastern philosophy and meditation and their relevance to modern life. He now writes and teaches on this topic and cofounded Juniper Foundation to pursue this work. Originally from London, England, he earned degrees from Indiana University and Harvard Law School. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week believes capitalism is broken, and he makes a pretty good argument to support this. He explains how capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither of these outcomes serves the needs of our society. Our guest this week believes he has the solution - a cure for capitalism. In this episode, world renowned economist, Dr. Richard Wolff, offers a fair critique of capitalism and advocates for a worker cooperative based economy. This solution requires the institution of genuine economic democracy, starting with workers directing their own workplaces, as the basis for a genuine political democracy. According to Dr. Wolff, what most people don't realize is that worker cooperatives are actually larger than conventional businesses, survive at least as long as other businesses, and have more stable employment. Tune in and get your smart people economics fix! Dr. Richard D. Wolff is professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is currently a visiting professor at the New School for Social Research in New York. Wolff is the author of many books, including his newest, Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism. He is also the founder of Democracy at Work, a 501(c)3 organization that conceives, creates, and distributes content aimed at demonstrating why, and how, democratizing the workplace is a feasible solution to a new and better economic system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we welcome to the podcast Jerome Hardaway, Executive Director of Vets Who Code. Jerome is an Air Force veteran, alumni/Opportunity Fund recipient of General Assembly's Web Development Immersive Program, and Panelist on the Ruby Rogues podcast. Vets Who Code is a non-profit dedicated to filling the wide chasm between technical expertise needed and available to America’s best. Vets Who Code is looking to close the digital talent gap and ease career transition for military veterans, through software development training. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we interview consultant and executive coach, Doug Hensch, and we discuss his brand new book, Positively Resilient: 5 1/2 Secrets to Beat Stress, Overcome Obstacles, and Defeat Anxiety. Doug shares with us lessons learned over 20 years of experience that can help you increase your resilience, so that you can grow in the face of change, and thrive in the midst of adversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we welcome back former guest, Jonathan Levi. Jonathan is an entrepreneur, and an expert in speed reading and advanced memorization. His online course is ranked as one of the top selling of all time on Udemy and has been personally recommended by the CEO. Jonathan appeared on Smart People Podcast nearly 2 years ago in Episode 167 where he explained how to become a super learner and a speed reader. Get a free trial of Jonathan's new course (and 10% off if you purchase) at jle.vi/spp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show we speak with leading psychologist, Dr. Jessica Tracy. Dr. Tracy is professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where she also directs the Emotion & Self Lab and she is also the author of the brand new book, Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, in 2005. Her research focuses on emotions and emotion expressions, and, in particular, those emotions that are most intricately intertwined with our sense of self: pride, shame, and guilt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Bailey - A Life of Productivity. In this episode we speak with productivity expert Chris Bailey and learn the best ways to transform our life by getting done the things that are most important. The Productivity Project—and the lessons Chris learned—are the result of that year-long journey, and we are going to share them with you today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. David exposes how our emotions hold us back or carry us forward in our goals depending on how well we confront—not control—them. Science shows us that it’s not possible to smother your emotions with affirmations espoused by the latest positivity movement. It’s equally unrealistic to set your mind to a rigid “grit” goal that might not be working for you. Like it or not, your emotions are there, and the more honest and agile you are with them, the more you can overcome the demands of work and life to thrive. The antidote to emotional rigidity is emotional agility—being flexible with your thoughts and feelings so that you can respond optimally to the increasingly unpredictable challenges of business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices