Episodes

James talks with Impact Theory founder Tom Bilyeu about what happens when AI eliminates technical moats, compresses months of work into hours, and begins reshaping entire careers. Tom explains how he uses AI to test business ideas, why he always asks “Why will this fail?”, what mid-career workers sh...

James talks with former Kellogg CEO and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez about his new memoir, Sheer Will: Learning to Lead When There Is No Path. Carlos reflects on being diagnosed with ADHD at 65, rising from selling cereal in Mexico City to running Kellogg, learning to make decisions t...

James talks with Carlyle cofounder and Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein about his new book, Inside the Owner’s Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports. David explains why buying a sports team is unlike buying a normal business, why spending more doesn’t guarantee winning, what m...

Cal Fussman:

James talks with Bill O’Reilly about his new book, Confronting America: What Has to Change, and more than five decades spent around presidents, politicians, media executives, and major historical events. They discuss O’Reilly’s account of helping connect the Biden and Trump teams during Gaza hostage...

In this From the Archive episode, James talks with former professional poker player and decision strategist Annie Duke about Thinking in Bets. Annie explains why good decisions can produce bad outcomes, why winning can make it harder to learn, how to “borrow” someone else’s 10,000 hours, and why thr...

James talks with Ron Johnson, the retail executive who created the Apple Store with Steve Jobs and helped transform Target through design. Ron shares the thinking behind the Genius Bar, Apple’s radically simple stores, its hospitality-first hiring strategy, Steve Jobs’ leadership style, why physical...

In this From the Archive episode, James talks with Jon Morrow about spinal muscular atrophy, disability, expectations, technology, writing, entrepreneurship, Smart Blogger, Unstoppable, and how to build a life when the usual rules do not work for you. Jon explains how he escaped the Medicaid income ...

James talks with theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli about On the Equality of All Things, quantum mechanics, time, free will, consciousness, uncertainty, and why reality may be made less of objects than relationships. Carlo explains why there is no view from outside the universe, why science grows b...