Former Tesla President on the 5 step Algorithm Behind Tesla, SpaceX, and Radical Innovation
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has upended entire industries - from cars to rockets - by doing things differently.
Jon McNeill, former president of Tesla, reveals the thinking behind Tesla and SpaceX that drives radical innovation - and shows how anyone can apply it.
He also offers a rare glimpse into what Elon Musk is like and how he operates close up.
The Quiet War: How Countries Fight Without Firing a Shot
A few paragraphs from Washington once stopped oil tankers in their tracks halfway around the world - no navy, no missiles.
Eddie Fishman, who helped design and implement U.S. sanctions and economic warfare policies, explains how these quiet battles shape global power.
If countries can inflict real damage without firing a shot, what does power look like in this new kind of war - and how vulnerable are we?
The Hidden Plastic Inside Us (And Why It’s Rising Fast)
Scientists are finding tiny fragments of plastic inside the human body - including the brain.
Dr. Matthew Campen of the University of New Mexico explains how they get there - and why the biggest source may surprise you.
Government by Deal: What Happens When Everything Becomes Negotiable?
The government feels louder and faster than ever: executive actions, constant disruption, everything happening at once.
But Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute argues that all this motion may be masking something deeper. He explains why durable change comes from laws passed by Congress - not one-off deals- and why the shift from rule-making to deal-making could shape the future in unexpected ways.
Why Quantum Computing Changes What’s Possible with Princeton Dean of Engineering Andrew Houck
The rules of quantum physics aren’t just strange - they’re usable. Particles can exist in multiple states at once. Observation can reshape reality.
Now, scientists are turning those quirks into machines that could solve problems today’s computers simply can’t touch.
Princeton Engineering Dean Andrew Houck breaks down what quantum computing really is, what it can (and can’t yet) do, and why it could transform fields from drug discovery to energy.
A clear-eyed look at the weirdest laws of the universe and the revolutionary technology they may soon power.
Six Ways the Constitution Keeps Leaders in Check with Cass Sunstein
The Constitution isn’t just a statement of ideals. It’s a framework for power - built to divide authority so that no single institution can fully control the law.
But that design has a consequence: it slows decisions and complicates action. Is that inefficiency a weakness - or the very mechanism that protects liberty?
Drawing on his experience at the center of federal rule-making, Harvard Law School’s Cass Sunstein explores how these constitutional guardrails actually work, why they were designed to restrain concentrated authority, and what we risk losing when they begin to erode.
This isn’t abstract theory. It’s about the quiet architecture that shapes who can act, and how a system of divided power ultimately protects self-government.
The Winner’s Curse: Why “Winning” Often Means You Just Lost with Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler
We all love the thrill of winning - the house, the promotion, the deal. But as Nobel laureate Richard Thaler explains, some of our biggest “wins” are actually the moments we set ourselves up to lose. Thaler breaks down why we overbid, overpay, and talk ourselves into choices we regret. And he shares simple tricks to help you catch yourself before you make a mistake you can’t undo.
The American Dream is Now a Coin Flip: Here's Why and What We Can Do
The American Dream promises that hard work leads to a better life. But for many children today, that promise depends less on effort and more on where they grow up.
Raj Chetty, a Harvard professor and the founder of Opportunity Insights, has spent years following millions of lives to understand what truly drives economic mobility. His findings challenge long-held assumptions about opportunity in America.
If the American Dream has started to feel like a coin flip, what’s quietly shaping the odds? And what would it take to give more children a real chance to get ahead?
In this conversation, we explore why neighborhoods matter more than we think and how expanding opportunity could strengthen not just individual lives, but the country as a whole.
Why Do Innocent People Plead Guilty?
Federal Judge Jed Rakoff has spent decades inside the justice system - as a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and now a judge. In this conversation, he challenges how we think justice works and explains why outcomes often have little to do with guilt or innocence.
The Surprising Science of Why We Laugh
We think laughter is a response to something funny.
A joke. A punchline. A light moment.
But listen closely to real conversations, and laughter shows up in places that are far more important than we realize - and often when nothing is funny at all.
Neuroscientist Sophie Scott CBE reveals what laughter really signals, how it works, and why it quietly shapes our relationships, our hierarchies, and our sense of belonging.
Sophie Scott is a professor at University College London and one of the world’s leading researchers on the science of laughter.
A Smarter, More Hopeful Future of Work - If We Get AI Right
Elon Musk and Geoffrey Hinton warn of an AI-driven job apocalypse.
MIT’s David Autor, one of the world’s leading thinkers on how technology reshapes work, says the real danger lies somewhere else.
The biggest risk of AI isn’t mass unemployment - it’s whether human skills and expertise will still matter.
David explains how AI could expand middle-class opportunity by lowering barriers to high-value work, why past technologies created more new jobs than they destroyed, and what we need to get right to make this moment a hopeful one.
Presidential Power: How It Grows and What Comes Next
Jack Goldsmith, who once ran the Justice Department office that advises presidents on what they can and can’t legally do, takes on some of the hardest questions about the limits of the president’s power — from changing the government to the use of military force abroad, including the invasion of Venezuela.
Drawing on his experience inside the executive branch, he looks at why the limits on presidential power are more fragile than they appear, how precedent quietly expands executive authority, and what that means for the future of the presidency.
Why Most New Year’s Resolutions Fail by March - and the Science of What Actually Works
Most people quit their New Year's resolutions by March. The reason why might surprise you.
University of Chicago professor Ayelet Fishbach has spent decades studying why we fail at goals. Her finding: willpower is overrated. What matters is something entirely different.
In this episode, Fishbach reveals what actually separates those who succeed from those who quit and the strategies that make goals stick.
Highlights of 2025
Some insights change how you see the world.
From the White House to the frontiers of AI drug discovery, we’ve gathered the most powerful moments from a year of extraordinary conversations.
This 2025 highlights episode brings you the thinkers and leaders who challenged assumptions, revealed hidden patterns, and reframed the biggest questions of our time.
Dr. David Agus on The Hopeful Science of a Longer, Healthier Life
Dr. David Agus, Professor of Medicine and Engineering at the University of Southern California and Founding CEO of the Ellison Medical Institute, treats presidents, CEOs and cultural icons and has spent decades studying one question: What determines how long and well we live?
His answer is hopeful: Only 4% is genetic. The other 96% is under your control.
In this episode, he reveals why elephants rarely get cancer, why giraffes never get heart disease, and what inflammation does to nearly every organ in your body.
He also shares the simple, proven habits that matter more than DNA, and destroys the myths quietly harming millions.
Science-backed. Actionable. Hopeful.
He is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, including The Book of Animal Secrets, The Lucky Years and The End of Illness.
What US Ambassador to China Nick Burns Saw That Terrified Him
Nicholas Burns spent 2021 to 2025 in Beijing as US Ambassador to China, witnessing up close the forces shaping the world's most dangerous rivalry.
Sitting across from Xi Jinping and living in China, he saw firsthand how dangerously close the world is to a crisis. Some of it genuinely terrified him.
Our conventional wisdom about China? Outdated. And dangerously wrong.
In this episode, he reveals the alarming "nightmare scenario" almost no one is talking about, why a single unanswered phone call could spark disaster, and what we're getting wrong about China and what China is getting wrong about us.
All from someone who lived it.
Three Science-Backed Changes That Will Help You Sleep Better - Starting Tonight
Sleep shapes your mood, memory, immune system, and long-term health, yet most of us aren’t getting enough.
Harvard Medical School and Mass General Brigham sleep scientist Dr. Elizabeth Klerman shares the three easiest science-backed changes proven to improve your sleep tonight, plus the myths that make things worse. .
If you’re tired of feeling tired, this episode shows you what to change and why it works.
What Happened When My Daughter Was Born Looking White - And I Wasn’t
In a Paris hospital delivery room, Thomas Chatterton Williams, writer for The Atlantic and author of Self-Portrait in Black and White, held his newborn daughter for the first time. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. And in that instant, everything he thought he knew about race shattered.
Thomas lives the questions about race and identity that most of us only debate. The son of a Black father who grew up under Jim Crow and a white mother, he had accepted America's racial categories without question. Until he couldn't.
What he decided is radical. Controversial. And will challenge how you think about identity, George Floyd, and the categories we use to define ourselves.
The Thermostat in Your Brain: Pushing Past Your Limits with Nick Thompson
What if fatigue, fear, and even failure aren’t real limits, but signals from the brain trying to protect us?
Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and former Editor-in-Chief of Wired, reveals the surprising psychology behind fatigue, focus, and fear — and how our biggest limits often come from within.
Nick isn’t just one of the most thoughtful leaders in media, he’s also a record-breaking ultramarathoner who’s learned that endurance begins in the mind.
This conversation will change how you think about performance, aging, and the power of effort itself.
Nick's wonderful new book is The Running Ground.
The Surprising Science of Why Life Gets Better with Age with Stanford’s Laura Carstensen
We’re told youth is life’s peak — but what if that story is wrong?
Stanford psychologist Laura Carstensen reveals how time itself reshapes what we value and how we find meaning. Her research offers profound lessons for living well at every age — and for finding more meaning in the moments we have. It’s a conversation that will change how you think about time, happiness, and life itself.