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All Episodes

A Bit of Optimism — 221 episodes

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Title
1

How to Stop Being Socially Awkward (According to Science) with Behavioral Scientist Vanessa Van Edwards

2

Stop Telling Us Everything Happens for a Reason with Anti-Victim Tom Nash

3

The Real Reason Young People Don't Have 'The Hunger' for Work (And What Leaders Need to Hear) with Generations Expert Dr. Eliza Filby

4

The Leadership Advice Nobody Follows (But Everyone Should) with Top Leadership Expert Don Yaeger

5

Why This Baseball Team Has a 4.2 Million Person Waitlist With Savannah Bananas Founder Jesse Cole

6

Ken Burns and the Art of Telling the Whole Story

7

What Happens When You’re Naive Enough to Try with KIND Founder Daniel Lubetzky

8

AI Can Do Everything… Except This (Why Humans Still Win) With Restaurateur Will Guidara

9

Revisited: What Dying Teaches Us About Living with Death Doula Alua Arthur

10

Revisited: The Kennedy Family and the Search for Self with Journalist Maria Shriver

11

Revisited: How to Turn Stress Into Creativity With Grammy-Winner Jacob Collier

12

The Confidence Conversation We Need to Have with Scott Galloway

13

28 Years on the Force: Chief Angela Averiett on What It Really Takes to Change Police Culture

14

When Pop Fandom Becomes a Force for Good with AJR’s Adam Met

15

What Grit Really Teaches Us About Happiness with Professor Angela Duckworth

16

Matthew McConaughey on How to Fall Back in Love with Your Life

17

Revisited: Trevor Noah Makes My Brain Hurt

18

Revisited: Kids (And Employees) Know More Than You Think with Dr. Becky Kennedy

19

Revisited: The First Steps To Reducing Your Anxiety with Author Mel Robbins

20

Revisited: The Beautiful Brilliance of Boredom with Creative Polymath Elle Cordova

21

A Bit of Optimism Will Return in the New Year

22

Revisited: Your Unhappy Brain Needs Some Assistance with Happiness Expert Mo Gawdat

23

Prepare for the Life You’re Meant to Live With Chaplain John Fox

24

How Losing Everything Taught Her to Help Everyone: Joan Howard’s Story

25

A Rebel With a Cause (and a Cone) with Jeni’s Ice Cream Founder Jeni Britton

26

The Culture That Converts Even the Biggest Cynics with former WD-40 CEO Garry Ridge

27

Choose Your Seven Humans Wisely with author Fredrik Backman

28

The Smartest Way To Be Stupid with comedian Matthew Broussard

29

The Man Who Proved Me Right with CEO Bob Chapman and the Barry-Wehmiller Team

30

Rob Lowe Names Names: The Power of ‘Screw It’

31

The Future You Avoid Is Riskier Than the One You Face with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman

32

What Your Love Life Can Teach You About Work Relationships with psychotherapist Esther Perel

33

Your Instincts Know What You Want with Author Arthur Brooks

34

The Power of Doing One Thing Exceptionally Well with Gymshark Founder and CEO Ben Francis

35

Simon Goes Nuclear with nuclear energy influencer Isabelle Boemeke

36

The Brilliance of Boredom with creative polymath Elle Cordova

37

The Privilege of Bad Experiences with NASA astronaut Jonny Kim

38

The Business Case for Good Manners with etiquette coach William Hanson

39

Live Like You Have 2 Years Left with dancer and cancer survivor Angela Trimbur

40

The Quiet Power of the Empathetic Leader with Navy SEAL turned rowing coach Gordon Schmidt

41

Your Unhappy Brain Needs Some Assistance with happiness expert Mo Gawdat

42

We All Get Cancelled One Day with Somebody Feed Phil’s Phil Rosenthal

43

The Extraordinary Magic of Ordinary People with author Brad Meltzer

44

Ask Yourself "What If?" with Milk Bar Founder Christina Tosi

45

Revisited: Love Is Not Enough with couples therapist Shawn McBride

46

Revisited: The Secret to Happiness with Harvard professor Robert Waldinger

47

Where Is Simon Going? with journalist Cal Fussman

48

The Cure for Nihilism with professor Suzy Welch

49

(PART 2) The Climb Out of Pain is Taller Than Everest with National Geographic photographer Cory Richards

50

(PART 1) The Climb Out of Pain is Taller Than Everest with National Geographic photographer Cory Richards

51

Find Your Allies Fast with philanthropist Melinda French Gates

52

Who Are You, Really? with journalist Maria Shriver

53

The Search for Self-Love with podcaster Lewis Howes

54

Revisited: Why Awkward Is Awesome with psychologist Ty Tashiro

55

Does Gender Change How We Lead? with Retired Colonel DeDe Halfhill

56

The Myth of the Perfect Meditator with podcaster Jay Shetty

57

When Your 'Flaw' Becomes Your Edge with Comedian Hasan Minhaj

58

Humble Leaders Lead Better Teams with Retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink

59

A Sweet Conversation About Dying with Death Doula Alua Arthur

60

The Secret Art of Micromanagement with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky

61

You Are More Like Grammy-Winner Jacob Collier Than You Think

62

Kids (And Employees) Know More Than You Think with Dr. Becky Kennedy

63

Spite Is The Greatest Motivator with Watch Duty founder John Mills

64

The First Steps to Reducing Your Anxiety with author Mel Robbins

65

The Cure for Loneliness with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

66

Trevor Noah Makes My Brain Hurt

67

Should You Work With Your Friends? with my friend Will Guidara

68

The Secret to Happiness with Harvard professor Robert Waldinger

69

The First Steps to Find Love with Matthew Hussey

70

Dr. Mark Hyman: To Live Longer You Need...

71

Alexis Ohanian: Why I Left Reddit and Why Greed Can Inspire Good

72

What can we learn from a rural school in Kenya? with principal Carol Moraa

73

Peace Is A Process with negotiation expert William Ury

74

Creating Astonishment with Chicago Bears CEO Kevin Warren

75

A Lifetime of Leadership with President Joe Biden

76

Revisited: How To Be A Friend with chef and entrepreneur Christina Tosi

77

Revisited: Molly's Game with Molly Bloom

78

Revisited: We Cannot Heal Alone In The Loneliness Epidemic with Rabbi Sharon Brous

79

Confident Ignorance with rapper, novelist, and filmmaker Logic

80

Wealth Is Togetherness with community organizer Kennedy Odede

81

Landing Moonshots with Google's Innovation Chief Dr. Astro Teller

82

Creativity Is Connection with poet IN-Q

83

The Smell of Memory with scent designer Dawn Goldworm

84

Mastery is an Infinite Game with performance psychologist Mike Gervais

85

Breaking Tradition with cellist Anastasia Kobekina

86

How to Breathe Out Fear with freediver Li Karlsen

87

More Thinking About Thinking with Brené Brown and Adam Grant: Part Two

88

Thinking About Thinking with Brené Brown and Adam Grant: Part One

89

The War On The Young with Professor Scott Galloway

90

Moral Courage with Diane Foley, mother of executed journalist James Foley

91

Humble Confidence with veteran and entrepreneur Blake Hall

92

The Ultimate Infinite-Minded CEO with Trek Bicycle CEO John Burke

93

Be Necessary with war journalist Sebastian Junger

94

Invention is Reinvention with entrepreneur Eric Ryan

95

The Definition of Success with author Neil Strauss

96

Happily Friended with author Rhaina Cohen

97

How To Eat with Glucose Goddess Jessie Inchauspé

98

Love Is Not Enough with couples therapist Shawn McBride

99

We Cannot Heal Alone with Rabbi Sharon Brous

100

Ideas That Stick with advertising legend Lee Clow

101

The Anxious Generation with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt

102

How to Live to 100 with Blue Zones explorer Dan Buettner

103

Going To Mars with NASA director Laurie Leshin

104

Four Years in Solitary Confinement with political prisoner Leopoldo Lopez

105

Redemption with charity founder Scott Harrison

106

Supercommunicators with journalist Charles Duhigg

107

Community Starts at Home with author Alexandra Hudson

108

How To Be A Friend with chef Christina Tosi

109

Why Awkward is Awesome with psychologist Ty Tashiro

110

A Theory of Everyone with behavioral researcher Dr. Michael Muthukrishna

111

Atomic Habits with author James Clear

112

Excellence with Silicon Valley Legend Jackie Reses

113

Imperfections, Nuance, and Humanity with comedian Alex Edelman

114

Drive with professional racer Danica Patrick

115

The Value of Values with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon

116

A Curious Mind with movie producer Brian Grazer

117

Talking to Animals with A.I. ethicist Aza Raskin

118

A New Paradigm for Trust with entrepreneur Yat Siu

119

Humanize with designer Thomas Heatherwick

120

Teammateship with NBA champion Shane Battier

121

The Future of Leadership with educator Elizabeth English

122

Remember Love with the poet Cleo Wade

123

Purpose over Profit with Thrive Causemetics CEO Karissa Bodnar

124

Beautiful Conflict with the poet Yung Pueblo

125

Power with author Robert Greene

126

Failing Well with professor of leadership Dr. Amy Edmondson

127

Happier-ness with author Arthur Brooks

128

Intuition vs. Reason with poker champion Liv Boeree

129

When to Quit with Steven Bartlett (Part 2)

130

Sweating the Small Stuff with Steven Bartlett (Part 1)

131

Community and Empowerment with Sharmadean Reid

132

The Book of Charlie with David Von Drehle

133

Leadership with General CQ Brown, Jr.

134

Preparing for Change with Cassandra Worthy

135

Trust with Jimmy Wales

136

Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf

137

Determination with Steven Pressfield

138

Rewarding Kindness with Jimmy Darts

139

Love Without Judgment with Ana Kirova

140

The Soul of an Idea with David Copperfield

141

Molly's Game with Molly Bloom

142

The Courage of Compassion with Robin Steinberg

143

A Goofy Episode with Bill Farmer

144

Insane Vacations with Mike Reiss

145

Down A Rabbit Hole with Seth Godin

146

How To Be An Entrepreneur with Jeff Rosenthal

147

The Wisdom of Anxiety with Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary

148

Guaranteed Joy with Richard Curtis

149

Exploration with Leland Melvin

150

Taking Comfortable Risks with Scott Galloway

151

Digging Up the Past with Sarah Parcak

152

High Performance with Divesh Makan

153

Embracing The Fall with Carla Hall

154

Gen Z in the Workplace with Jonah and David Stillman

155

Ask Simon Anything: Part Two

156

Ask Simon Anything: Part One

157

Two Bits of Optimism with Brené Brown and Adam Grant: Part Two

158

Two Bits of Optimism with Brené Brown and Adam Grant: Part One

159

Being Yourself with Kathryn Finney

160

Live A Long, Happy Life with physician Mark Hyman

161

The Value of Interruptions with Janis Burl

162

The Sweet Bitter with Susan Cain

163

Kindness with James Rhee

164

How To Be An Optimist with Pat Berges

165

The Labor of Love with Francesca Hogi

166

Unreasonable Hospitality with Will Guidara

167

Partnering with Jean Oelwang

168

Vulnerability and Redemption with Adrian Grenier

169

Obscure Presidential History with Jeremy Deutsch

170

Happiness with Arthur Brooks

171

Giving What You Have with Mark Bustos

172

Giving A Sh*t with Phoebe Robinson

173

My True Crime Episode with David Mittelman

174

Rebuilding Community with Luma Mufleh

175

No More Lonely Friends with Marissa Meizz

176

Resolving Conflict with William Ury

177

Gratitude with Omar Brownson

178

Setting Boundaries with Sara Kuburic

179

Being Rich with Ron Finley

180

Hope with Shamma Al Mazrui

181

The Asymmetry of Power with Tristan Harris

182

Family with Ari Emanuel

183

Enchantment with Chloe Valdary

184

The Value of Failing with Suneel Gupta

185

Awesome Responsibility with Kyle Carpenter

186

Raising Resilient Kids with Angela Duckworth

187

Learning to Love with Tim Shriver

188

Thinking Differently with Matthew Barzun

189

Having a Laugh with Michael McIntyre

190

Respect with Nicole Avant

191

Designing the Future with Brian Collins

192

Confidence with Sara Blakely

193

Vulnerability with Brigadier General Michael “Johnny Bravo” Drowley

194

The One With Brené Brown

195

Faith with Quilen Blackwell

196

A Tension Deficit with James Harding

197

The Infinite Game with Dr. James Carse

198

Happying with Derren Brown

199

Conversion with Ric Elias

200

Generosity with Ann Marie Scichili

201

Joy with Marco Bizzarri

202

Fight with Love, Fight for Love with Aloe Blacc

203

Finding your Tribe with Amy Cuddy

204

A Bit of Everything with Adam Grant

205

Moving Forward with my sister Sara

206

A Lot of Optimism (Or The One Where I Met Andy Grammer)

207

Ethical Fading with Lenny Wong

208

Second Chances with Bruce Deel

209

Challenging Authority with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

210

Extreme Listening with Deeyah Khan

211

Quiet Service with General Stan McChrystal

212

Courage with Guy Raz

213

Gratitude with Carolyn Adams

214

Shades of Grey with Jenna Arnold

215

Entrepreneurship with Helene and Seth Godin

216

Leadership with Bob Chapman

217

Service with Maria Shriver

218

How To Have Difficult Conversations with David Harris

219

Hope with Curtis Martin

220

Relationships with Christina Tosi and Will Guidara

221

This is... A Bit of Optimism