Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 58

Tristan Harris — Fighting Skynet and Firewalling Attention (#387)

[image error]

“Big Brother isn’t watching. He’s singing and dancing. He’s pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you’re awake. He’s making sure you’re always distracted. He’s making sure you’re fully absorbed. He’s making sure your imagination withers. Until it’s as useful as your appendix.” — Chuck Palahniuk

Tristan Harris (@tristanharris) was named by Rolling Stone as one of the “25 People Shaping the World.” He was featured in Fortune‘s 2018 “40 under 40” list for his work on reforming technology, and the Atlantic has called him the “closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience.”

Formerly Design Ethicist at Google, he is a world-renowned expert on how technology steers our decisions. Tristan has spent nearly his entire life studying subtle psychological forces, from early beginnings as a childhood magician, to working with the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, and to his role as CEO of Apture, which was acquired by Google.

Tristan has briefed heads of state, technology company CEOs, and members of the US Congress about the attention economy, and he’s been featured in media worldwide, including 60 Minutes, PBS News Hour, and many more. He is the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, which can be found at Humanetech.com, and cohost (with Aza Raskin) of Your Undivided Attention podcast, which exposes the hidden designs that have the power to hijack our attention, manipulate our choices, and destabilize our real world communities.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] #387: Tristan Harris — Fighting Skynet and Firewalling Attention
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/de90c191-4521-4c7f-b77c-6bf68fe78e14.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This episode is brought to you by MeUndies, which brings you the softest undies known to man. Whether you like crazy prints or classic black, MeUndies give you the freedom to express yourself comfortably.They’re made with soft, sustainable fabric, and they’re available in sizes from XS to 4XL.

MeUndies has plenty of options for those looking to up their undie game. You can join its monthly membership. You can build a pack of your favorite undies or socks and save up to 30 percent. You can match with your better half if you’re into that sort of thing. New prints drop every Tuesday, and members get access to exclusive prints every month. MeUndies has a great offer for listeners of this podcast: Get 15 percent off your first order with free shipping and a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee at MeUndies.com/Tim.

This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. The right hire can move your business quantum leaps forward, while the wrong hire can crater it. Luckily, you can rely on LinkedIn Jobs to find you the most relevant, qualified candidates so you can focus on making a hire you’re excited about.

With five hundred million active members, LinkedIn attracts people every day who want to make connections, grow their careers, and discover new job opportunities. Note that 90 percent of LinkedIn users are open to new opportunities, but not actively scanning job boards. Post a job today at LinkedIn.com/Tim and get $50 off your first job post!

Want to hear an episode with someone who understands the importance of peace and quiet? — Listen to my conversation with Susan Cain about her love for minor key music and how she became a public speaking introvert. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

#357: Susan Cain — How to Overcome Fear and Embrace Creativityhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/627d570d-a0c4-4ac8-9f04-f062512162be.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Tristan Harris:

Website | The Center for Humane Technology | Your Undivided Attention Podcast | Twitter

POWA Academy Review, Bali 2016 by Oliver Parker
The Art of Misdirection by Apollo Robbins, TED
Tristan’s TED Talks
Magic Castle, Los Angeles
Tristan Harris Speaks to the US Senate — Optimizing for Engagement: Understanding the Use of Persuasive Technology on Internet Platforms, Humane Tech Community
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn
How to Cage the Monkey Mind, The Tim Ferriss Show #175
The Work of Byron Katie
Russian Propagandists Targeted African Americans to Influence 2016 US Election, The Guardian
Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Wikipedia
What is Ericksonian Hypnosis? Definition & History, British Hypnosis Research & Training Institute
The Man Who Studied 1,000 Deaths to Learn How to Live, The Tim Ferriss Show #153
Complaint Free by Will Bowen
Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment by Tim Ferriss
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Spirit Rock
Vipassana Meditation
Burning Man
Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear by Frank I. Luntz
Vice
Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Don’t Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor
Pavlov’s Dogs Study and Pavlovian Conditioning Explained, Simply Psychology
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Symptoms and Causes, The Mayo Clinic
Twilio
BJ Fogg’s Behaviour Model, Growth Engineering
The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica Scandal, Explained, Vox
OCEAN — The Big 5 Personality Types and Traits, Vision One
Couchsurfing
‘Time Well Spent’ Is Shaping Up to Be Tech’s Next Big Debate, The Verge
Technology is Downgrading Humanity: Let’s Reverse That Trend Now, Center For Humane Technology via Medium
On YouTube’s Digital Playground, an Open Gate for Pedophiles, The New York Times
1984 Apple’s Macintosh Commercial, Mac History
Twitter ‘Shuts Down Millions of Fake Accounts’, BBC
It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by Chris Hughes, The New York Times
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
The Trolley Problem: Would You Kill One Person to Save Many Others? The Guardian
Nobel Laureate Calls for Higher Big Tech Taxation, Deutsche Welle
Why Software Is Eating the World by Marc Andreessen, The Wall Street Journal
Facebook Should Disclose and Limit Pricing for Political Campaign Ads, TechCrunch
James W. Breyer and Mark E. Zuckerberg Interview, Oct. 26, 2005, Stanford University
How Instagram Rose Into a Cultural Powerhouse, The New York Times
Drawdown
Lullaby: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Learned Helplessness — What It Is and Why It Happens, Verywell Mind
The Terminator
Change Your Screen to Grayscale to Combat Phone Addiction, Lifehacker
Buffer
MeetEdgar
How to Use Zoom in Accessibility on iPhone and iPad, iMore
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman
Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse
Daniel Schmachtenberger Interviews, Future Thinkers Podcast

SHOW NOTES

Tristan explains why attending a retreat on hypnosis, pickpocketing, and magic in Bali turned out to be one of the best life choices he’s ever made. [06:21]
What does Tristan find particularly fascinating about magic and pickpocketing? [09:22]
Tristan was recently the lead witness in a Senate hearing on persuasive technology. In a free country, who controls the menu of choices we make? [13:58]
What tools or mental models does Tristan use to identify the invisible constraints in his own life? [16:43]
We share our mutual experiences with The Work of Byron Katie and what we each learned from the process in spite of initial resistance. [19:33]
Belief transformation, identity level propaganda, and the difference between Byron Katie’s work in psychological influence and Russia’s influence campaign during the 2016 US election. [28:58]
Playing with human cognition and experience through neuro-linguistic programming and what a closer look at the lines you’ve drawn on your internal map of reality might really tell you. [31:16]
Waking up from habitual processes, not believing everything we think, and the 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment. [35:10]
The soundtrack of our inner lives that plays on repeat and goes unnoticed. [37:45]
What The 4-Hour Workweek and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing taught Tristan about language’s ability to manipulate perception. [38:45]
What our respective meditation retreats and one of Tristan’s exercises at Burning Man made us realize about our baseless perceptions of people we don’t even know and situations that aren’t usually what they seem. [40:03]
How political consultant Frank Luntz has used vocabulary reframing to sway public opinion for various Republican causes. [44:07]
What academic linguist George Lakoff has to say about the power of grounding metaphor. [45:58]
The importance of gaining literacy for our minds — for ourselves and the sake of civilization. [47:49]
Who is BJ Fogg, what part has he played in applying the psychology of persuasion to technology, and what did Tristan learn at his lab about modifying behavior (including his own)? [49:44]
How Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and Tristan tried to apply these behavioral principles for good in the lab. [51:42]
How another group in this lab figured out not-so-good ways these principles could be used that predicted the Cambridge Analytica playbook. [54:20]
A reiteration that BJ Fogg is not the Dr. Evil of Silicon Valley, and what he’s done to further the goal of world peace (and an understanding of what this actually means). [56:25]
How can companies be incentivized to do the right thing when it comes to using easily abused persuasive technologies? Is there a way to motivate change in existing business models that prey on captivating human behavior, or will legislation have to do the job that Wall Street will not? [59:01]
What does Tristan see as possible Archimedes’ levers or proof points that could cause a shift in these business models? [1:14:53]
How energy companies and utilities in the United States were decoupled from their own destructive business models, and an example of how such a decoupling might be applied to attention monopolies. [1:20:38]
How can we stop software from, as Marc Andreessen once said, eating the world, and what would be a good use for funds generated by a proposed attention data tax? [1:23:03]
The classic externalizing harm model, the balance sheets that suffer in the process, and a yearning for the days when online technology was geared toward empowerment, not overextractive growth. [1:26:14]
Why do we keep growing toward self-terminating catastrophe when the alternative is ultimately less costly? [1:31:37]
“Big Brother isn’t watching…” But Aldous Huxley and Neil Postman might be. [1:33:36]
What does Tristan do to firewall his attention or mitigate some of the damage/distraction that every economic force seems to want to impose on him? What does he do to defend against these invasive technologies? [1:37:53]
The grayscale tip. [1:42:08]
What should stay and what should go from your home screen when you want it to be more useful and less distracting. [1:43:50]
Exorcising phantom vibrations. [1:45:21]
Imagine if society could learn to treat human attention as something sacred. [1:47:15]
How (and why) I try to disconnect from social media for a few weeks every few months. [1:49:08]
How a humane technology design pattern could save our nervous systems from being overtaxed. [1:51:06]
Using the zoom feature on Apple products for less distraction. [1:53:36]
Books Tristan gifts or recommends often. [1:56:05]
Parting thoughts. [1:58:50]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

James Brown
Apollo Robbins
Derren Brown
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Byron Katie
Tony Robbins
Milton H. Erickson
BJ Miller
Will Bowen
Jack Kornfield
Frank Luntz
Dick Cheney
George Lakoff
Aza Raskin
BJ Fogg
Mike Krieger
Karen Pryor
Robert Cialdini
Ivan Pavlov
Eric Weinstein
Dr. Evil
E.O. Wilson
Steve Jobs
Chris Hughes
Paul Romer
Marc Andreessen
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump
Mark Zuckerberg
Jim Breyer
Paul Hawken
Chuck Palahniuk
Neil Postman
George Orwell
Aldous Huxley
John Connor
James Carse
Stewart Brand
Daniel Schmachtenberger

Ken Burns — A Master Filmmaker on Creative Process, the Long Game, and the Noumenal (#386)

[image error]



“There’s always the certainty that the opposite of what I might believe in might also be true.”

— Ken Burns



Ken Burns (@KenBurns) has been making documentary films for more than 40 years.

Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The Statue of Liberty; Huey Long; Lewis & Clark; Frank Lloyd Wright; Mark Twain; Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; The Roosevelts; Jackie Robinson; Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War; The Vietnam War; and The Mayo Clinic: Faith — Hope — Science.

Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations; and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

His newest work is Country Music. It explores the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues, and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the twentieth century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. Country Music features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part, 16-hour series is directed and produced by Ken Burns, written and produced by Dayton Duncan, and produced by Julie Dunfey.

It debuts on PBS on Sunday, September 15th, 2019, at 8 EST/7 CST.

The first four episodes will stream on station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and PBS apps, timed to coincide with the Sunday, September 15th premiere. The second four episodes will be timed alongside the broadcast of Episode 5 on Sunday, September 22nd; each episode will stream for a period of three weeks. PBS Passport members will be able to stream the entire series for a period of six months beginning Sunday, September 15th.

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] #386: Ken Burns — A Master Filmmaker on Creative Process, the Long Game, and the Noumenalhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/3b4b2494-fbdf-49de-b966-db06a1c22b97.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is, inevitably, Athletic Greens. It is my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so.

As a listener of The Tim Ferriss Show, you’ll get a free 20-count travel pack (valued at $79) with your first order at athleticgreens.com/tim.

This episode is also brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I’ve been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute.

New classes are added every day, and this includes options led by elite NYC instructors in your own living room. You can even live stream studio classes taught by the world’s best instructors, or find your favorite class on demand.

Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer: Enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts, or an incredible gift. That’s onepeloton.com and enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase.

Want to hear another podcast with an artist who tells stories in a unique way? — Listen to my conversation with Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind Humans of New York. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

Brandon Stanton - The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fanshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/3fd5315a-966f-4a6c-82a8-0303a51e1b26.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Ken Burns:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Country Music, PBS
The Ken Burns Filmography
The Greenwood School
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
The Address, PBS
The Civil War, PBS
Small But Deadly: The Minié Ball, The Civil War Institute
Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Poetry Foundation
D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, Normandy Tourism, France
Jackie Robinson, PBS
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, PBS
Jazz, PBS
Thomas Jefferson, PBS
Declaration of Independence, National Archives
Bhagavad Gita
Baseball, PBS
http://kenburns.com/films/baseball-2/
The National Parks, PBS
The War, PBS
The Roosevelts, PBS
The Vietnam War, PBS
History Does Not Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes, Quote Investigator
Mark Twain, PBS
Ecclesiastes 1:9, The Bible
#MeToo Movement
M422 Mighty Mite, Wikipedia
John Dean’s Compelling Case for Parallels Between Trump and Watergate, The Washington Post
The Statue of Liberty, PBS
Every Song from Cop Rock, YouTube
Brooklyn Bridge, PBS
The Shakers, PBS
Huey Long, PBS
The Congress, PBS
Thomas Hart Benton, PBS
The Attention-Span Myth, The New York Times Magazine
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams
Austin City Limits
George Washington’s Favorite Play, Journal of the American Revolution
Annual Message to Congress Concluding Remarks by Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Online
Mount Rushmore
Hampshire College
University of Michigan
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, PBS
Odd Man Out
Florentine Films
What is Auteur Theory and Why Is It Important? Indie Film Hustle
Johnny Guitar
The American Cinema: Directors And Directions 1929-1968 by Andrew Sarris
Telluride Film Festival
The Noumenal World and the Phenomenal World, Mr. Hoye’s TOK Website
Poetics by Aristotle, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

SHOW NOTES

What are the stories behind the comforting mementos Ken carries in his pocket? [08:06]
What is the less comforting memento with “a weight and a disturbing heaviness” Ken can’t carry in his pocket? [13:14]
What purpose do these mementos serve for Ken? [15:06]
What does a wholehearted “yes” feel like to Ken when he’s considering a project, and what’s his best example of this experience? [18:14]
On the sadness of wrapping up a long project, the hospice care of the creative process, and dismantling the myth that history repeats itself (though it may very well rhyme). [23:05]
When a project that Ken has been working on for 10 years resonates eerily with the present. [26:25]
What’s the motivational neon sign that hangs in Ken’s editing room, and how does it speak to the process of trying to complete a project that’s always in a state of flux? [29:20]
On The Civil War somehow capturing the public’s attention more than ABC’s Cop Rock, and the millions who have seen it in the 29 years since. [34:39]
Ken talks about dealing with debilitating anxiety and doubt early in his career, and developing General Grant’s “morning courage” over time. [35:47]
The three things Ken tries to do as he helps others deal with their own debilitating anxiety. [40:17]
Music as “the art of the invisible” and a “benign form of heroin.” [41:10]
What do the three things Ken mentioned earlier look like in practice, and which are the hardest to navigate? [43:06]
“How much pain has caused us the evils which have never happened?” [45:02]
Ken’s personal philosophy is an alloy made stronger by its inclusiveness in the space between us and US. [45:49]
What is Hampshire College and how is Ken’s story — and success as a filmmaker — entwined with it? [52:13]
What lessons from Ken’s mentor Jerome Liebling have had the most impact on his trajectory since graduating from Hampshire College? [58:04]
When a cliche about what happens if you love your work (and, by extension, the people with whom you work) happens to be true. [1:03:05]
How did Ken’s father react when he made the decision to go to Hampshire instead of The University of Michigan? [1:04:41]
As the “smartest man” he ever knew, but “like a Maserati without a clutch,” does Ken think his father may have suffered from depression? What qualities did Ken inherit from his father and mother, and what have conversations with his brother and father in law revealed about his own motivations as a filmmaker? [1:06:16]
The pros and cons of digging deep as an emotional archaeologist. [1:13:45]
As we seek to find the sum of our parts, it shouldn’t be too surprising when the math doesn’t always add up. The human condition is anything but rational, but it makes for good storytelling. [1:16:27]
Parting thoughts. [1:19:33]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Dayton Duncan
Julie Dunfey
Abraham Lincoln
Drew Gilpin Faust
Jackie Robinson
Jack Johnson
Thomas Jefferson
Adolf Hitler
Diana Chapman
Jim Dethmer
Harry Truman
Mark Twain
Seymour Hersh
Sol Linowitz
Learned Hand
Ho Chi Minh
Peter Coyote
Shelby Foote
U.S. Grant
Huey Long
Thomas Hart Benton
Steven Bochco
Harlan Howard
Charley Pride
Hank Williams
Wynton Marsalis
Willie Nelson
Seneca the Younger
George Washington
Cato
Geoffrey Ward
Franklin Roosevelt
Popeye
A.P. Carter
Bill Monroe
Johnny Cash
Jimmie Rodgers
Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne
Lyla Smith Tupper
Robert Kyle Burns
Elaine Mayes
Jerome Liebling
Dizzy Gillespie
Louis Armstrong
Andrew Sarris
Nicholas Ray
Philip Yordan
Sarah Burns
David McMahon
Buddy Squires
Ric Burns
Richard Brown
Merle Haggard
Emmylou Harris
Zeus
Leo Tolstoy

Ken Burns — A Master Filmmaker on Creative Process, the Long Game, and the Noumenal (#386)

[image error]



“There’s always the certainty that the opposite of what I might believe in might also be true.”

— Ken Burns



Ken Burns (@KenBurns) has been making documentary films for more than 40 years.

Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The Statue of Liberty; Huey Long; Lewis & Clark; Frank Lloyd Wright; Mark Twain; Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; The Roosevelts; Jackie Robinson; Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War; The Vietnam War; and The Mayo Clinic: Faith — Hope — Science.

Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations; and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

His newest work is Country Music. It explores the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues, and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the twentieth century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. Country Music features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part, 16-hour series is directed and produced by Ken Burns, written and produced by Dayton Duncan, and produced by Julie Dunfey.

It debuts on PBS on Sunday, September 15th, 2019, at 8 EST/7 CST.

The first four episodes will stream on station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and PBS apps, timed to coincide with the Sunday, September 15th premiere. The second four episodes will be timed alongside the broadcast of Episode 5 on Sunday, September 22nd; each episode will stream for a period of three weeks. PBS Passport members will be able to stream the entire series for a period of six months beginning Sunday, September 15th.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] #386: Ken Burns — A Master Filmmaker on Creative Process, the Long Game, and the Noumenal
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/3b4b2494-fbdf-49de-b966-db06a1c22b97.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is, inevitably, Athletic Greens. It is my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so.

As a listener of The Tim Ferriss Show, you’ll get a free 20-count travel pack (valued at $79) with your first order at athleticgreens.com/tim.

This episode is also brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I’ve been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute.

New classes are added every day, and this includes options led by elite NYC instructors in your own living room. You can even live stream studio classes taught by the world’s best instructors, or find your favorite class on demand.

Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer: Enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts, or an incredible gift. That’s onepeloton.com and enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase.

Want to hear another podcast with an artist who tells stories in a unique way? — Listen to my conversation with Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind Humans of New York. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

Brandon Stanton - The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fanshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/3fd5315a-966f-4a6c-82a8-0303a51e1b26.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Ken Burns:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Country Music, PBS
The Ken Burns Filmography
The Greenwood School
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
The Address, PBS
The Civil War, PBS
Small But Deadly: The Minié Ball, The Civil War Institute
Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Poetry Foundation
D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, Normandy Tourism, France
Jackie Robinson, PBS
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, PBS
Jazz, PBS
Thomas Jefferson, PBS
Declaration of Independence, National Archives
Bhagavad Gita
Baseball, PBS
http://kenburns.com/films/baseball-2/
The National Parks, PBS
The War, PBS
The Roosevelts, PBS
The Vietnam War, PBS
History Does Not Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes, Quote Investigator
Mark Twain, PBS
Ecclesiastes 1:9, The Bible
#MeToo Movement
M422 Mighty Mite, Wikipedia
John Dean’s Compelling Case for Parallels Between Trump and Watergate, The Washington Post
The Statue of Liberty, PBS
Every Song from Cop Rock, YouTube
Brooklyn Bridge, PBS
The Shakers, PBS
Huey Long, PBS
The Congress, PBS
Thomas Hart Benton, PBS
The Attention-Span Myth, The New York Times Magazine
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams
Austin City Limits
George Washington’s Favorite Play, Journal of the American Revolution
Annual Message to Congress Concluding Remarks by Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Online
Mount Rushmore
Hampshire College
University of Michigan
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, PBS
Odd Man Out
Florentine Films
What is Auteur Theory and Why Is It Important? Indie Film Hustle
Johnny Guitar
The American Cinema: Directors And Directions 1929-1968 by Andrew Sarris
Telluride Film Festival
The Noumenal World and the Phenomenal World, Mr. Hoye’s TOK Website
Poetics by Aristotle, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

SHOW NOTES

What are the stories behind the comforting mementos Ken carries in his pocket? [08:06]
What is the less comforting memento with “a weight and a disturbing heaviness” Ken can’t carry in his pocket? [13:14]
What purpose do these mementos serve for Ken? [15:06]
What does a wholehearted “yes” feel like to Ken when he’s considering a project, and what’s his best example of this experience? [18:14]
On the sadness of wrapping up a long project, the hospice care of the creative process, and dismantling the myth that history repeats itself (though it may very well rhyme). [23:05]
When a project that Ken has been working on for 10 years resonates eerily with the present. [26:25]
What’s the motivational neon sign that hangs in Ken’s editing room, and how does it speak to the process of trying to complete a project that’s always in a state of flux? [29:20]
On The Civil War somehow capturing the public’s attention more than ABC’s Cop Rock, and the millions who have seen it in the 29 years since. [34:39]
Ken talks about dealing with debilitating anxiety and doubt early in his career, and developing General Grant’s “morning courage” over time. [35:47]
The three things Ken tries to do as he helps others deal with their own debilitating anxiety. [40:17]
Music as “the art of the invisible” and a “benign form of heroin.” [41:10]
What do the three things Ken mentioned earlier look like in practice, and which are the hardest to navigate? [43:06]
“How much pain has caused us the evils which have never happened?” [45:02]
Ken’s personal philosophy is an alloy made stronger by its inclusiveness in the space between us and US. [45:49]
What is Hampshire College and how is Ken’s story — and success as a filmmaker — entwined with it? [52:13]
What lessons from Ken’s mentor Jerome Liebling have had the most impact on his trajectory since graduating from Hampshire College? [58:04]
When a cliche about what happens if you love your work (and, by extension, the people with whom you work) happens to be true. [1:03:05]
How did Ken’s father react when he made the decision to go to Hampshire instead of The University of Michigan? [1:04:41]
As the “smartest man” he ever knew, but “like a Maserati without a clutch,” does Ken think his father may have suffered from depression? What qualities did Ken inherit from his father and mother, and what have conversations with his brother and father in law revealed about his own motivations as a filmmaker? [1:06:16]
The pros and cons of digging deep as an emotional archaeologist. [1:13:45]
As we seek to find the sum of our parts, it shouldn’t be too surprising when the math doesn’t always add up. The human condition is anything but rational, but it makes for good storytelling. [1:16:27]
Parting thoughts. [1:19:33]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Dayton Duncan
Julie Dunfey
Abraham Lincoln
Drew Gilpin Faust
Jackie Robinson
Jack Johnson
Thomas Jefferson
Adolf Hitler
Diana Chapman
Jim Dethmer
Harry Truman
Mark Twain
Seymour Hersh
Sol Linowitz
Learned Hand
Ho Chi Minh
Peter Coyote
Shelby Foote
U.S. Grant
Huey Long
Thomas Hart Benton
Steven Bochco
Harlan Howard
Charley Pride
Hank Williams
Wynton Marsalis
Willie Nelson
Seneca the Younger
George Washington
Cato
Geoffrey Ward
Franklin Roosevelt
Popeye
A.P. Carter
Bill Monroe
Johnny Cash
Jimmie Rodgers
Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne
Lyla Smith Tupper
Robert Kyle Burns
Elaine Mayes
Jerome Liebling
Dizzy Gillespie
Louis Armstrong
Andrew Sarris
Nicholas Ray
Philip Yordan
Sarah Burns
David McMahon
Buddy Squires
Ric Burns
Richard Brown
Merle Haggard
Emmylou Harris
Zeus
Leo Tolstoy

The World’s Largest Psychedelic Research Center (#385)

This is something I’ve been working on for ~1.5 years and something diligent scientists have been working toward for 20+ years.



This episode features a recording of the press conference announcing the launch of the world’s largest psychedelic research center and the U.S.’s first psychedelic research center, The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Among other things, researchers there will be investigating the effectiveness of psychedelics as a new therapy for opioid addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (formerly known as chronic Lyme disease), anorexia nervosa, and alcohol use in people with major depression. The researchers hope to create precision medicine treatments tailored to individual patient needs.

I couldn’t be happier, and it wouldn’t have happened without generous support from Steven and Alexandra Cohen (@cohengive), Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt), Blake Mycoskie (@blakemycoskie), and Craig Nerenberg. Many thanks also to Benedict Carey of the New York Times (@bencareynyt) for investigating and reporting on this from multiple perspectives, as he’s done for many years.

As some of you know, I shifted most of my focus from startup investing to this field in 2015, and it’s incredibly important to me that this watershed announcement help to catalyze more studies, more ambitious centers, more scientists entering the field, and more philanthropists and sources of funding taking a close look at psychedelic science. To that end, it’s critical that more people realize there is much more reputational upside than reputational risk in supporting this work in 2019 and beyond. To broadcast this as widely as possible, I have one offer and one sincere ask:

THE OFFER — If you’re involved with media and would like to learn more about the center or speak with the key scientists involved, please visit this contact page.
THE ASK — Please share the the New York Times articles ( here is one tweet ) or the announcement. Whatever you can do to spread the word is most appreciated! The short link tim.blog/nyt will also forward to one of the NYT articles.

For this press conference, I am joined by Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., who initiated the psilocybin research program at Johns Hopkins almost 20 years ago, leading the first studies investigating the effects of its use by healthy volunteers. His pioneering work led to the consideration of psilocybin as a therapy for serious health conditions. Griffiths recruited and trained the center faculty in psychedelic research as well.

Also participating is Matthew Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, who has expertise in drug addictions and behavioral economic decision-making and has conducted psychedelic research at Johns Hopkins since 2004 (with well over 100 publications). He has led studies that show psilocybin can treat nicotine addiction. Johnson will lead two new clinical trials and will be associate director of the new center. 

The conference was moderated by Audrey Huang, Ph.D., a media relations director at Johns Hopkins.

Additional resources: 

Johns Hopkins Opens New Center for Psychedelic Research (New York Times) 

Tim Ferriss, the Man Who Put His Money Behind Psychedelic Medicine (New York Times) 

Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (Official website) 

Johns Hopkins Launches Center For Psychedelic Research (Johns Hopkins Newsroom) 

Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research Contact Form

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] #385: The World's Largest Psychedelic Research Center
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/a7f19f35-2be9-491a-85dd-631ebad5f23a.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

11 Questions with the Most Curious Man in Hollywood

[image error]

Photo by Sam Jones

The following is a guest post from Brian Grazer (@briangrazer), an Oscar-winning movie and television producer and New York Times bestselling author. His work has been nominated for 43 Academy Awards and 195 Emmys, including A Beautiful Mind, 24, Apollo 13, Splash, Arrested Development, Empire, 8 Mile, Friday Night Lights, American Gangster, Frost/Nixon, Genius, and many others.

He is the author of Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection (coming out September 17th) and the New York Times bestseller A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. Grazer was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and is the co-founder of Imagine Entertainment, along with his partner, Ron Howard. They are known as having one of the longest-running partnerships ever in Hollywood. According to the New York Times, “…one thing becomes clear when you speak to Mr. Grazer: His desire to win — to remain Hollywood royalty — is undiminished.”

In his guest post, Brian answers many of the questions I asked 130+ of the world’s top performers for my most recent book, Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World. And to get the full Brain Grazer experience, which I highly recommend, click here to listen to our first conversation.

Please enjoy!

Enter Brian…

What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?

The book that I gift most to people, because it has had a lasting impact on my psyche, is The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee. I admire Bruce Lee for his physicality, of course, but more so for his deep philosophy, known as “Jeet Kune Do” or “the way of the intercepting fist.”  The key element of Jeet Kune Do is its “formless form.” Bruce Lee rejected the rigid rules and structures of Kung Fu and other traditional fighting styles. Instead, he borrowed from several styles to create his own fluid, rapidly efficient technique that was all his. In The Warrior Within, John Little explains how Bruce Lee’s philosophy helped him overcome tremendous challenges and pain to become a man whose originality, intense belief, and commitment I’ve long admired. One of his principles that has become infinitely useful to me is: no action is action. When I’m in disagreement with someone or deciding what action to take during a dilemma, sometimes I will consciously use Bruce’s technique of letting energy go through you, versus refuting a point or getting mad or trying to make my case. Sometimes by not making your case, that’s the strongest case. And sometimes no action is action. Here’s one story that comes to mind.

Many years ago, Seagram’s, led by CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr., bought Universal Studios. Edgar reached out to a few very big producers who had deals with Universal, like Steven Spielberg and Ivan Reitman. I had a deal with Universal as well, but he didn’t reach out to me. In one minute, I impulsively thought of at least 10 actions I could take. I was about to call his office to try to arrange a meeting. But then I paused for a second and thought, “I’m going to do absolutely nothing and let the gravitational forces of the cosmos take over.” Guess what? Just two months later, I was invited to the White House to screen the movie I had just produced, Apollo 13, for President Clinton, the First Lady, and esteemed cabinet members. I arrived at the White House with Tom Hanks and my partner Ron Howard, who was the director. We greeted everyone, and I saw that Edgar Bronfman was there as well. When the movie ended, I was flooded with compliments. Edgar witnessed it all. That became our meeting and birthed one of my strongest relationships ever with a studio. No action became the best action I could’ve taken.

I love this quote from Bruce Lee:

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)? My readers love specifics like brand and model, where you found it, etc.



One of my favorite tools that I use daily and that has been life changing for me is the Pocket app. It costs five bucks per month, but I’d easily pay 100x that given how valuable it is to me. Throughout my day, when I come across articles or videos, I store them in Pocket so I’m not distracted by feeling I have to read something that moment or I’ll lose it or forget about it. It takes a millisecond to store in the app, and there’s also an extension for the browser on your computer. When I’m ready to digest them, Pocket converts the articles to audio. It’s incredibly easy to use, and the audio quality is excellent. You don’t even need an internet connection, so it’s awesome for flights.



For me, the value of Pocket goes way beyond the benefit of convenience or organization. Ever since I could pick up a book as a young kid, I’ve had a very hard time with reading. I now realize I had acute dyslexia, before it was even labeled as such, so teachers assumed I was just dumb. I would get Ds and Fs because I couldn’t keep up with the other kids. It was pretty debilitating, and I carried a lot of shame because of it. But what I was proud of was my curiosity. I asked tons of questions. And my grandma Sonia told me to never stop asking questions, saying, “You’re going all the way, Brian!” — despite not having any empirical evidence. She inspired me to work harder to learn. Instead of goofing around in class, I started to pay close attention to my teachers as they lectured. I would also go see them before and after class to talk about the lesson and ask about anything I didn’t understand. My grades went up, and I ended up getting a scholarship to USC. More and more in my life, I would look to people in order to learn.

What started as a survival mechanism in grade school became a habit that would help me thrive. In fact, talking to people is essentially what led me to finding a career that I love and a life that I never thought would be possible for a kid who could barely read. Here’s how it happened…

After college, I created a discipline of meeting people who were experts in, or passionate about, anything. First, I focused on meeting people in Hollywood and then once I learned the industry, I only wanted to meet people who were experts in anything other than what I do (Hollywood). For the past 35 years, I’ve met with people across all disciplines including Jonas Salk, Margaret Thatcher, Andy Warhol, Eminem, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Princess Di, Bill Gates, many Nobel laureates, scientists, spies, neighborhood skateboarders, assistant DAs, Uber drivers, and more coffee baristas than I can count.

How does this come back to the Pocket app? It helps me discover people I would love to meet! When I read about, or listen to, someone interesting, I immediately reach out to them to see if they’d like to have a curiosity conversation with me.

It also helps me prepare. In order to have conversations with people outside my field, I need to do my homework. Being prepared helps me better connect with whomever I’m with. I ask better questions and listen with more understanding. Pocket can’t create the empathy or that trust that only happens when we’re face-to-face with someone, but it does help with the preparation and information-seeking side of that equation. It allows me to digest any topic, including long-form pieces that I would have glossed over in the past because of my difficulty with reading.

Just recently I listened to an article in the New Yorker about a hip-hop manager in Atlanta named Kevin “Coach K” Lee. Coach K has mentored some of today’s most influential rappers, such as Gucci Mane and Migos. I met with Coach K, which led me to meet with Cardi B at my house a few weeks ago. She’s the biggest female rapper in the world and the first ever female to win a Grammy for best rap album. I didn’t go into it cold; I was ready after learning more about her music and her story.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?  Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?

At the start of my career, in my early twenties, I had early success as a television producer — two shows in particular: a miniseries based on the Ten Commandments and a made-for-TV movie called Zuma Beach, both of which were very successful — but I wanted to be a movie producer.  I wrote a script called Splash, which was based on my own personal, fruitless search for true love in LA. I realized all of my romantic relationships had been superficial — I was a young producer and could go out with beautiful girls, but there was never any truth or substance to it. I just couldn’t find true love! Meanwhile, I was just starting to write up stories, though I had no formal training. I decided to write a movie called Splash, which is the story of a young man who was on the path to succeeding at many things, except for love. He falls in love with a woman named Madison, who is everything he ever wished for; however, we the audience learn she’s a mermaid, which he later learns as well. As I developed the characters, I kept defining and redefining what would be the perfect girl for me. I decided to make the story even more romantic and mythical by making her a mermaid, which naturally made her more unattainable.

I started to pitch the movie, studio by studio. And everyone, and I mean everyone, said no. Not only did they reject my script, but they felt they had to further humiliate me, saying things like, “This is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.” I must have been rejected hundreds of times on Splash. I felt ashamed, yet something in me wouldn’t give up.

Seven years into it, I realized I needed to shift gears on my approach. When I was first pitching Splash, I was painting it as a “mermaid movie.” Well, of course, the studios — all of which are risk-averse in nature — were going to say no to that. It’s a pretty crazy idea. But one day a friend asked me what the story was really about. I said I wrote Splash because I was looking for true love. That was really the theme of the movie. So then it hit me — this isn’t a movie about a mermaid; this is a story about the value and meaning of true love! So I went back to the studios and started pitching it as a love story. The executives started to listen. Because who doesn’t root for love? When I finally sold Splash to Disney in 1983, I realized the importance of universal, human themes in connecting with any person or audience. Whether you’re in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, on Wall Street — it is crucial to find the heartbeat of why what you’re selling matters and why it should exist. To this day, I still start every pitch by first describing the underlying, universal theme. Friday Night Lights, 8 Mile, and American Gangster are all about self-actualization. At first glance, you might think American Gangster is a “gangster movie,” but it’s not. It’s about talent, resourcefulness, and gaining respect — that’s why we root for Frank Lucas even though he’s a cut-throat killer.

If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it — metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions — what would it say and why? It could be a few words or a paragraph. (If helpful, it can be someone else’s quote: Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?)

This is what my billboard would say:

COULD CURIOSITY + HUMAN CONNECTION BE THE ANTIDOTE TO OUR TIMES?

OPEN THE CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE TODAY, FACE-TO-FACE!

People are more connected digitally yet feel more alone than ever before. We are living in a more polarized world. We are getting further and further away from understanding a fundamental human thing: feelings. We can’t get empathy from our screens. This would be my message because when we are face-to-face with someone, able to look each other in the eye, we are relating to them, we are understanding them, creating a pathway to empathy — to peace, not war.

What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc.)

The tent in the backyard I built to marry my wife Veronica in, in front of my family and closest friends. At the end of the day, the investments that matter the most to me always come back to the most important people in my life.

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?

I love food. I post food videos on Instagram because it allows me to be self-effacing, fun, and free. And it makes my kids laugh! 

One day, I was walking down Abbot Kinney in Venice and stumbled upon this matcha shop called Shuhari Matcha Café. I was so curious about it and asked a bunch questions when I walked inside: “What exactly is matcha?” “Why do you choose to work at a matcha shop?” “Why is it so good for me?” “What’s the proper ritual?” I talked to the girl behind the counter and then took a video of myself trying matcha for the first time in their backyard Zen Garden. I posted it and saw that people really like to learn. Food is universal; it’s a unifier.

My latest obsession to capture on IG is a sandwich inspired by David Chang’s BLT. But I add one hormone-free fried egg and my favorite condiment of all time, Chile Crunch — a crunchy, smoky, crazy-delicious blend of garlic, onion, chiles, and spices, made in Denver, Colorado (you can order it on Amazon or at Williams-Sonoma). I put it on everything!

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?

Over the last few years, I’ve turned my curiosity onto my spirituality. I grew up with a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, so I have been straddling two faiths since childhood. I’ve always believed in God but never felt at home within a specific place of worship. A few years ago, I met a local pastor named Monsignor Torgerson, who presides over St. Monica Catholic Church, a few minutes from where we live. When I met him, he looked at me without judgment, which I had never felt from a religious figure before. This started a friendship that has led to a very personal spiritual journey that continues in my life today.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore?

When I was 23 years old, I worked as a summer law clerk at Warner Bros. that I turned into something that would change the whole course of my life. My job was to deliver legal documents to celebrities and executives around town. I was on the path to becoming a lawyer, and I knew I didn’t want to do it. I quickly became more curious to learn about this industry I knew nothing about. So I spontaneously stretched the truth a little on the job. When I would deliver documents, I would tell the front office or assistants that the papers were “absolutely invalid” unless I personally handed them to the signers themselves. My system worked, and I was able to meet with the biggest stars at the time, like Warren Beatty, as well as the biggest directors and agents. This was long before the internet, when it wasn’t unusual that they would invite me in and have a conversation. One day, I got the opportunity to meet Lew Wasserman, the most powerful person in Hollywood at the time. But as soon as I got off the elevator, before I could even say a word, he picked up a yellow legal pad and a #2 pencil and said, “Put the pen to the pad — they have greater value together than as separate parts. Now get out of here, kid!”

What Lew was saying to me was that I had to create my own IP (intellectual property) and that the next time I walked in the door, I’d better have something to offer. I had no money — I couldn’t buy a script — so what he was saying was that I had to create something of my own. His advice is what inspired me to write Splash, and then after that, I wrote Night Shift, which starred Michael Keaton.

So my advice is, no matter who you are meeting with or what job you are in or interviewing for, always bring something of value. Research the person or the industry you’re in or the product you’re working on, and develop an original point of view and/or a fresh idea. No matter how afraid you might be, you will stand out if you have something to say. Whether they like your idea or comment or not, you’ll stand out. The bigger risk is to not make any impression at all. Preparing ideas will give you something to say, which also will help you feel more confident in whatever environment you’re in. Start there and you will be way ahead of most of your peers. People will remember you for it.

The advice I would ignore is when people try to talk you out of an idea you believe in. After being repeatedly rejected on Splash, I learned that no one really knows what will work and what won’t. The fact of the matter is, Splash was a huge success, and everyone said no to it for seven years. That taught me that “no” is really only a temporary point of view. You should never compromise or give up on the things you believe in most.

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? What new realizations and/or approaches helped? Any other tips?

I’ve been in Hollywood for 40 years, which means a lot of parties, events and award ceremonies. I’m not jaded, but I am now much more thoughtful about where I want to spend my energy. Just this past year, where I would have attended eight or nine functions over Oscars weekend, I went to one lunch and then got dressed for the Oscars. At the last minute, we decided to order takeout and watch it from home. Other than the year I won an Oscar, it was my best Oscars yet.

Here’s a very simple thing I do before committing to an event or responding to an invite:  I ask myself, does it fill me up or does it drain me? The answer leads me to the right decision every time.

I also ask myself: Why am I doing this? What’s my intention? Am I going because I think it will be fun? Am I just curious what it will be like? Is it because showing up for this person is really important? (If I won’t like the event but it’s important to someone I care about, then it makes the cut.) If my intention for going stems from love (love of the event or the person), then I say yes. If it’s an intention based on fear (of missing out or of not being part of the group or of not seeing someone for business), then I say no. That’s not the right intention for me. And I get so filled up by simply staying with my family that there has to be a compelling reason for me to give that up.

I’ll tell you how I transformed something that I felt was a distraction into something I look forward to. For over a year, I dreaded using a sleep apnea machine and would only last a few days at a time before calling it quits. I felt like it was a burden. My doctor kept telling me I needed to use it, but nothing worked until two things happened. First, my wife Veronica started calling it the “tube of life” instead of a sleep machine, which reminded me of the bigger picture. If I use this thing, I may live longer and not have a stroke. OK, pretty important. Second, I discovered an app that connects to the machine and scores my sleep every night. Now I can’t wait to check it first thing in the morning to see how I’ve done. Sometimes reframing or gamifying something mundane can make all the difference.

Lastly, starting my day early and alone helps me say no to distractions later because I am able to ground myself in what I want to achieve for the day. I wake up at 5 a.m. and create an environment which includes a dozen or so small candles, bottles of still and sparkling water, sliced apples, and Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee (thank you, Tim, for the recommendation). I listen to articles and videos and write a lot of notes and ideas — I’m old school, I like to write them out on several note cards, or “buck slips,” as they’re called in Hollywood. Then, throughout the day, I convert them into a more systemized form in Notes on my iPhone so I can follow up on each and every one.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? (If helpful: What questions do you ask yourself?)

When that happens, I immediately have to do something to change up my energy and my environment. A quick bike ride to the rim overlooking the ocean always clears my head. Or sometimes I’ll go in my studio and start painting. I’m not particularly good at painting, but it doesn’t matter. Just the act of getting out of my own head ends up clearing my head. When the tide is right, one of my favorite ways to get clarity is to surf. I’m so focused on every facet of my body and technique that I’m actually not even thinking. I’m in another dimension.

If I’m overwhelmed and facing a decision, I ask, “Am I at my very best to make this decision? Do I need to do a palate-cleansing exercise like meditation, a bike ride, or listening to music outside? I ask myself: does this really need to be decided now? Otherwise, I do the Taoist approach: do nothing until it feels right. Which is also Bruce Lee.

What are you most excited about these days?

My new book! Face To Face: The Art of Human Connection comes out September 17th. I wrote this book because I realized that everything I’ve succeeded at in life and that has mattered to me happened because of two things: curiosity and human connection.

In the book, I share personal stories and take you “behind the scenes” on some of my movies and television shows, like A Beautiful Mind, Empire, Arrested Development, American Gangster and 8 Mile, to show just how much in-person encounters have revolutionized my life and how they have the power to change yours too.

I talk about what I’ve learned through interactions with people like Bill Gates, Taraji P. Henson, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Eminem, Prince, Spike Lee, and the Afghani rapper-activist Sonita — namely, the secret to a bigger life lies in personal connection. I’ve found that only when we are face-to-face, able to look each other in the eye, can we form the kinds of connections that expand our worldviews, deepen our self-awareness, and ultimately lead to our greatest achievements and most meaningful moments.

David Allen — The Art of Getting Things Done (GTD) (#384)

[image error]

“Your head’s for having ideas, not for holding them.”

— David Allen



David Allen (@gtdguy) is one of the world’s most influential thinkers on productivity, and his 35 years of experience as a management consultant and executive coach have earned him the titles of “personal productivity guru” by Fast Company, one of America’s top five executive coaches by Forbes, and among The American Management Association’s top 10 business leaders.

David’s bestselling book, the groundbreaking Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, has been published in thirty languages, and the “GTD” methodology it describes has become a global phenomenon, being taught by training companies in 60 countries. David, his company, and his partners are dedicated to teaching people how to stay relaxed and productive in our fast-paced world.

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] David Allen — The Art of Getting Things Done (GTD) (#384)https://rss.art19.com/episodes/dd3a8a84-a547-4afd-9e7c-0b24afdbab87.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This podcast is brought to you by 99designs, the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Its creative process has become the go-to solution for businesses, agencies, and individuals, and I have used it for years to help with display advertising and illustrations and to rapid prototype the cover for The Tao of Seneca. Whether your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99designs.

You can work with multiple designers at once to get a bunch of different ideas, or hire the perfect designer for your project based based on their style and industry specialization. It’s simple to review concepts and leave feedback so you’ll end up with a design that you’re happy with. Click this link and get $20 off plus a $99 upgrade.

This episode is also brought to you by FreshBooks. I’ve been talking about FreshBooks — an all-in-one invoicing+payments+accounting solution — for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as the contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time.

FreshBooks makes it super easy to track things like expenses, project time, and client info, and then merge it all into great-looking invoices. FreshBooks can save users up to 200 hours a year on accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Right now FreshBooks is offering my listeners a free 30-day trial, and no credit card is required. Go to FreshBooks.com/tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “How did you hear about us?” section!

Want to hear another episode with someone who’s an expert in making the most of the hours in the day? — Listen to my latest conversation with Josh Waitzkin, in which we discuss cramming two months of learning into each day, harnessing unconscious learning, resonant frequency, HRV training, and much more. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

#375: Josh Waitzkin — How to Cram 2 Months of Learning into 1 Dayhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/c656791d-c44b-4b05-b6c5-d0ab0fe8afaa.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with David Allen:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
The Getting Things Done Workbook: 10 Moves to Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen and Brandon Hall
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
43 Folders
Lifehacker
South by Southwest
Simple Advice from David Allen: Get Rid of Brain Clutter, CreativeLive Blog
Mind’s Limit Found: Four Things at Once, LiveScience
Getting Things Done Guru David Allen and His Cult of Hyperefficiency, Wired
Quicken
Braintoss
Dropbox
Evernote
Outlook
WhatsApp
Five Mistakes People Make When Using Productivity Technology, Inc.
Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, 9to5 Mac
Shreveport, Louisiana
American Field Service (AFS)
Where Were You When JFK Was Shot? Only 28.9% of Americans Can Answer That, Pew Research Center
Realgymnasium Z¸richberg
Kunsthaus Z¸rich
Cafe Odeon
Dadaism
Beat Generation
New College of Florida
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
Berkeley, California
Palestine, Texas
David (and His Long List of Professions), Wikipedia
Lockheed Martin
GTD Global Summit
Insight Seminars
Lifespring
Getting Things Done: The Power of the Next-Action Decision, The Simple Dollar
David Allen Guides You through a Mind Sweep, GTD Podcast Episode 3
The Six Horizons of Focus, GTD
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Santa Barbara, California
Ojai, California
Shambhala Booksellers Closes After 35 Years, The Berkeley Daily Planet
At the Gates of Spiritual Science by Rudolf Steiner
Great White Brotherhood of Ascended Masters, Ascension Research Center
Theosophical Society in America
Tara Brach on Meditation and Overcoming FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), The Tim Ferriss Show #94
What You Can Expect From a Shiatsu Massage, Verywell Health
Sleep Apnea Symptoms and Causes, The Mayo Clinic
The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter by Patrick McKeown
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman
Stoicism Resources and Recommendations, Tim.blog
The New York Times
Words with Friends
The Power of the GTD Weekly Review, GTD Podcast Episode 43
Never Met a Man I Didn’t Like: The Life and Writings of Will Rogers by Will Rogers and Joseph H. Carter
The Father Of “Getting Things Done”: You’re Getting Me All Wrong, Fast Company
Correspondance by Gustave Flaubert
“Inspiration Is for Amateurs — The Rest of Us Just Show Up and Get to Work.” Lifehacker
EY World Entrepreneur of the Year
Groupon
Uptake Technologies
Chicago Ideas Week
IBM Notes
eProductivity
Evernote
Evernote Web Clipper
Microsoft Word
Organize Your Life! by James Fallows, The Atlantic
The Artist’s Way Workbook by Julia Cameron

SHOW NOTES

As David once told Chase Jarvis: “Your mind is made for having ideas, not for holding ideas.” What did he mean by this? [06:55]
What are the first questions and exercises David presents when he begins coaching high-functioning but overwhelmed people? [10:05]
What are the consequences of breaking an agreement with yourself, why are you most likely to break such an agreement, and what are your options for recovering from a broken agreement? [12:45]
David’s best tips for renegotiating an agreement when the need arises. [16:05]
Where does David keep his backlog? [19:13]
What are the pros and cons of keeping track of information in digital versus analog format? [20:47]
As a teenager, what did David want to be when he grew up? [22:34]
What did David’s college and career path look like, and how did it steer him toward understanding models for navigating life’s complexities? [27:21]
If you can remember being in Berkeley in 1968, you probably weren’t there. But here’s what David can piece together from this time and the long list of careers that followed — leading to the formation of the principles detailed in GTD. [29:16]
What mentors does David credit as being instrumental in his creation of GTD? [34:38]
What are next action decisions, and how do they differ from what people generally put on their to-do lists? [37:27]
The capture list, the two-minute rule, and emptying the in-basket. [41:04]
Top-down versus bottom-up systems and understanding the hierarchy of priorities. [42:08]
What led to the Allens’ relocation to Amsterdam, and what quality of life improvements have he and his wife noticed since moving there? [47:58]
How long did it take for the Allens to go from thinking about the possibility of moving from Ojai to Amsterdam to actually going through with it? [52:15]
What does David consider his most fruitful — though seemingly counterintuitive — life decision? [55:07]
One of David’s mentors in Berkeley claimed to have extra-sensory abilities. Did David ever experience evidence of this in person? [1:00:28]
David shares a particularly difficult period of time in his life, what led to it, and what happened in its aftermath. [1:02:16]
What does the word “spiritual” mean to David? [1:07:18]
What does David’s meditation practice look like these days — and what does he recommend for someone who wants to start meditating? [1:08:20]
What was David’s biggest takeaway from the time he spent in a mental institution? [1:09:10]
Does David ever feel overwhelmed or unfocused? If so, how does he deal with it? [1:10:43]
Are there any new beliefs, behaviors, or habits that have materially improved David’s life in the last handful of years? [1:11:54]
Books (aside from his own) that David has gifted or recommended most to others. [1:13:28]
What are David’s bedtime and morning routines, and how much sleep does he get every night? [1:14:33]
Is there anything about GTD David wishes more adherents would heed? Does anything important get commonly missed? [1:16:27]
What are the steps of the GTD weekly review? Does David recommend doing it at any particular day or time? [1:18:28]
Are there certain categories of things to which David simply says “No” as a default? [1:21:06]
How does David filter unpleasant people out of his life? [1:22:46]
Why GTD is intended as a force for freedom and creativity, not a yawnworthy paean to rigid structure — as Brad Keywell, Howard Stern, Will Smith, and Robert Downey, Jr. can testify. [1:23:49]
Is the GTD weekly review inherently a solo process, or can it involve someone’s group, staff, or family? [1:28:46]
What does David use to organize his email? [1:29:30]
Does David use any particular app or program for pulling material like articles or references from the Web? [1:31:01]
Are there any quotes by which David tries to live his life? [1:32:29]
What would David’s billboard say? [1:33:08]
Does David still have hope that people will do something with the space created by GTD to answer life’s bigger questions? [1:33:43]
Parting thoughts. [1:36:27]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Merlin Mann
Chase Jarvis
Peter Drucker
Claude Monet
Carl Jung
John Clellon Holmes
Shirley Allen Holmes
Jack Kerouac
Oswald Spengler
Dean Acheson
Russell Bishop
Kathryn Allen
Tony Robbins
Jim Rohn
Amelia Boone
Michael Bookbinder
Nick Dobos
Rudolf Steiner
John-Roger Hinkins
Oliver Burkeman
Will Rogers
Gustave Flaubert
Pablo Picasso
Chuck Close
Brad Keywell
Howard Stern
Will Smith
Robert Downey, Jr.
Eric Mack
James Fallows

David Allen — The Art of Getting Things Done (GTD) (#384)

[image error]

“Your head’s for having ideas, not for holding them.”

— David Allen



David Allen (@gtdguy) is one of the world’s most influential thinkers on productivity, and his 35 years of experience as a management consultant and executive coach have earned him the titles of “personal productivity guru” by Fast Company, one of America’s top five executive coaches by Forbes, and among The American Management Association’s top 10 business leaders.

David’s bestselling book, the groundbreaking Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, has been published in thirty languages, and the “GTD” methodology it describes has become a global phenomenon, being taught by training companies in 60 countries. David, his company, and his partners are dedicated to teaching people how to stay relaxed and productive in our fast-paced world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] David Allen — The Art of Getting Things Done (GTD) (#384)
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/dd3a8a84-a547-4afd-9e7c-0b24afdbab87.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This podcast is brought to you by 99designs, the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Its creative process has become the go-to solution for businesses, agencies, and individuals, and I have used it for years to help with display advertising and illustrations and to rapid prototype the cover for The Tao of Seneca. Whether your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99designs.

You can work with multiple designers at once to get a bunch of different ideas, or hire the perfect designer for your project based based on their style and industry specialization. It’s simple to review concepts and leave feedback so you’ll end up with a design that you’re happy with. Click this link and get $20 off plus a $99 upgrade.

This episode is also brought to you by FreshBooks. I’ve been talking about FreshBooks — an all-in-one invoicing+payments+accounting solution — for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as the contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time.

FreshBooks makes it super easy to track things like expenses, project time, and client info, and then merge it all into great-looking invoices. FreshBooks can save users up to 200 hours a year on accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Right now FreshBooks is offering my listeners a free 30-day trial, and no credit card is required. Go to FreshBooks.com/tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “How did you hear about us?” section!

Want to hear another episode with someone who’s an expert in making the most of the hours in the day? — Listen to my latest conversation with Josh Waitzkin, in which we discuss cramming two months of learning into each day, harnessing unconscious learning, resonant frequency, HRV training, and much more. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

#375: Josh Waitzkin — How to Cram 2 Months of Learning into 1 Dayhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/c656791d-c44b-4b05-b6c5-d0ab0fe8afaa.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with David Allen:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
The Getting Things Done Workbook: 10 Moves to Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen and Brandon Hall
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
43 Folders
Lifehacker
South by Southwest
Simple Advice from David Allen: Get Rid of Brain Clutter, CreativeLive Blog
Mind’s Limit Found: Four Things at Once, LiveScience
Getting Things Done Guru David Allen and His Cult of Hyperefficiency, Wired
Quicken
Braintoss
Dropbox
Evernote
Outlook
WhatsApp
Five Mistakes People Make When Using Productivity Technology, Inc.
Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, 9to5 Mac
Shreveport, Louisiana
American Field Service (AFS)
Where Were You When JFK Was Shot? Only 28.9% of Americans Can Answer That, Pew Research Center
Realgymnasium Z¸richberg
Kunsthaus Z¸rich
Cafe Odeon
Dadaism
Beat Generation
New College of Florida
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
Berkeley, California
Palestine, Texas
David (and His Long List of Professions), Wikipedia
Lockheed Martin
GTD Global Summit
Insight Seminars
Lifespring
Getting Things Done: The Power of the Next-Action Decision, The Simple Dollar
David Allen Guides You through a Mind Sweep, GTD Podcast Episode 3
The Six Horizons of Focus, GTD
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Santa Barbara, California
Ojai, California
Shambhala Booksellers Closes After 35 Years, The Berkeley Daily Planet
At the Gates of Spiritual Science by Rudolf Steiner
Great White Brotherhood of Ascended Masters, Ascension Research Center
Theosophical Society in America
Tara Brach on Meditation and Overcoming FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), The Tim Ferriss Show #94
What You Can Expect From a Shiatsu Massage, Verywell Health
Sleep Apnea Symptoms and Causes, The Mayo Clinic
The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter by Patrick McKeown
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman
Stoicism Resources and Recommendations, Tim.blog
The New York Times
Words with Friends
The Power of the GTD Weekly Review, GTD Podcast Episode 43
Never Met a Man I Didn’t Like: The Life and Writings of Will Rogers by Will Rogers and Joseph H. Carter
The Father Of “Getting Things Done”: You’re Getting Me All Wrong, Fast Company
Correspondance by Gustave Flaubert
“Inspiration Is for Amateurs — The Rest of Us Just Show Up and Get to Work.” Lifehacker
EY World Entrepreneur of the Year
Groupon
Uptake Technologies
Chicago Ideas Week
IBM Notes
eProductivity
Evernote
Evernote Web Clipper
Microsoft Word
Organize Your Life! by James Fallows, The Atlantic
The Artist’s Way Workbook by Julia Cameron

SHOW NOTES

As David once told Chase Jarvis: “Your mind is made for having ideas, not for holding ideas.” What did he mean by this? [06:55]
What are the first questions and exercises David presents when he begins coaching high-functioning but overwhelmed people? [10:05]
What are the consequences of breaking an agreement with yourself, why are you most likely to break such an agreement, and what are your options for recovering from a broken agreement? [12:45]
David’s best tips for renegotiating an agreement when the need arises. [16:05]
Where does David keep his backlog? [19:13]
What are the pros and cons of keeping track of information in digital versus analog format? [20:47]
As a teenager, what did David want to be when he grew up? [22:34]
What did David’s college and career path look like, and how did it steer him toward understanding models for navigating life’s complexities? [27:21]
If you can remember being in Berkeley in 1968, you probably weren’t there. But here’s what David can piece together from this time and the long list of careers that followed — leading to the formation of the principles detailed in GTD. [29:16]
What mentors does David credit as being instrumental in his creation of GTD? [34:38]
What are next action decisions, and how do they differ from what people generally put on their to-do lists? [37:27]
The capture list, the two-minute rule, and emptying the in-basket. [41:04]
Top-down versus bottom-up systems and understanding the hierarchy of priorities. [42:08]
What led to the Allens’ relocation to Amsterdam, and what quality of life improvements have he and his wife noticed since moving there? [47:58]
How long did it take for the Allens to go from thinking about the possibility of moving from Ojai to Amsterdam to actually going through with it? [52:15]
What does David consider his most fruitful — though seemingly counterintuitive — life decision? [55:07]
One of David’s mentors in Berkeley claimed to have extra-sensory abilities. Did David ever experience evidence of this in person? [1:00:28]
David shares a particularly difficult period of time in his life, what led to it, and what happened in its aftermath. [1:02:16]
What does the word “spiritual” mean to David? [1:07:18]
What does David’s meditation practice look like these days — and what does he recommend for someone who wants to start meditating? [1:08:20]
What was David’s biggest takeaway from the time he spent in a mental institution? [1:09:10]
Does David ever feel overwhelmed or unfocused? If so, how does he deal with it? [1:10:43]
Are there any new beliefs, behaviors, or habits that have materially improved David’s life in the last handful of years? [1:11:54]
Books (aside from his own) that David has gifted or recommended most to others. [1:13:28]
What are David’s bedtime and morning routines, and how much sleep does he get every night? [1:14:33]
Is there anything about GTD David wishes more adherents would heed? Does anything important get commonly missed? [1:16:27]
What are the steps of the GTD weekly review? Does David recommend doing it at any particular day or time? [1:18:28]
Are there certain categories of things to which David simply says “No” as a default? [1:21:06]
How does David filter unpleasant people out of his life? [1:22:46]
Why GTD is intended as a force for freedom and creativity, not a yawnworthy paean to rigid structure — as Brad Keywell, Howard Stern, Will Smith, and Robert Downey, Jr. can testify. [1:23:49]
Is the GTD weekly review inherently a solo process, or can it involve someone’s group, staff, or family? [1:28:46]
What does David use to organize his email? [1:29:30]
Does David use any particular app or program for pulling material like articles or references from the Web? [1:31:01]
Are there any quotes by which David tries to live his life? [1:32:29]
What would David’s billboard say? [1:33:08]
Does David still have hope that people will do something with the space created by GTD to answer life’s bigger questions? [1:33:43]
Parting thoughts. [1:36:27]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Merlin Mann
Chase Jarvis
Peter Drucker
Claude Monet
Carl Jung
John Clellon Holmes
Shirley Allen Holmes
Jack Kerouac
Oswald Spengler
Dean Acheson
Russell Bishop
Kathryn Allen
Tony Robbins
Jim Rohn
Amelia Boone
Michael Bookbinder
Nick Dobos
Rudolf Steiner
John-Roger Hinkins
Oliver Burkeman
Will Rogers
Gustave Flaubert
Pablo Picasso
Chuck Close
Brad Keywell
Howard Stern
Will Smith
Robert Downey, Jr.
Eric Mack
James Fallows

Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species (#383)

[image error]

“Humans and cockroaches and coyotes are going to inherit the earth.”

— Mike Phillips

[Visit tim.blog/wolf for the most important links from this interview and my personal next steps.]

Mike Phillips has served as the Executive Director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund and advisor to the Turner Biodiversity Divisions since he co-founded both with Ted Turner in June 1997. Before that, Mike worked for the U.S. Department of Interior, leading historic efforts to restore red wolves to the southeastern US and gray wolves to the Yellowstone National Park. He also conducted important research on the impacts of oil and gas development on grizzly bears in the Arctic, predation costs for gray wolves in Alaska, and dingo ecology in Australia. These days, Mike is an advisor to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project.

In 2006 Mike was elected to the Montana House of Representatives. He served there until elected to the Montana Senate in 2012. His service in the senate will extend through 2020.

Mike received his MSc in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Alaska in 1986 and his BSc, Ecology from the University of Illinois in 1980.

Please enjoy!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Specieshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/b47b8a89-1ce5-41ad-9e39-abeea1e599d6.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep. I recently moved into a new home and needed new beds, and I purchased mattresses from Helix Sleep.

It offers mattresses personalized to your preferences and sleeping style without costing thousands of dollars. Visit HelixSleep.com/TIM and take the simple 2-3 minute sleep quiz to get started, and the team there will build a mattress you’ll love.

Their customer service makes all the difference. The mattress arrives within a week, and the shipping is completely free. You can try the mattress for 100 nights, and if you’re not happy, it’ll pick it up and offer a full refund. To personalize your sleep experience, visit HelixSleep.com/TIM and you’ll receive up to $125 off your custom mattress.

This episode is also brought to you by ShipStation. Do you sell stuff online? Then you know what a pain the shipping process is. Whether you’re selling on eBay, Amazon, Shopify, or more than 100 other popular selling channels, ShipStation was created to make your life easier. ShipStation lets you access all of your orders from one simple dashboard, it works with all of the major shipping carriers, locally and globally, including FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Tim Ferriss Show listeners get to try ShipStation free for 60 days by using promo code TIM. There’s no risk and you can start your free trial without even entering your credit card info. Just visit ShipStation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage, and type in TIM!

Want to hear another episode with someone who’s working hard to save the planet? — Listen to my conversation with Conservation International CEO M. Sanjayan, in which we discuss monkey birthday cakes, storytelling, respect, common misconceptions about conservation, and much more. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

#285: Overcoming Doubt, Battling the Busy Trap, and Enhancing Life — M. Sanjayanhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/370d31e4-20da-44aa-8f20-32d7a58d7db5.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Visit tim.blog/wolf for the most important links and my personal next steps
Get Involved with the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project and Action Fund

Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund | Rocky Mountain Wolf Project | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

SD31: Senator Mike Phillips, Montana State Legislature
Turner Endangered Species Fund
Wolf Restoration, Yellowstone National Park
How Wolves Change Rivers, Sustainable Human
Grizzly Bears in Northeastern Alaska by Michael K. Phillips, Cambridge University Press
Wolf Species Profile, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Dingoes Vital for Ecosystem Health, UNSW Sydney
Conservation International
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Grizzly Bear Predation Rates on Caribou Calves in Northeastern Alaska, Journal of Wildlife Management
The Brooks Range — Travel Alaska
The Craigheads: Conservation, Controversy, and a Classic Nat Geo Story, National Geographic
Bears Not Attracted to Menstruating Women, LiveScience
Denali Park
Restoration of the Red Wolf by Michael K. Phillips, V. Gary Henry, and Brian T. Kelly, University of Chicago Press
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
X-Men, Marvel
How to Properly Carry and Use Bear Spray, Outside
Jaws
Trophic Cascade in Yellowstone National Park, Access Science
Manifest Destiny: Causes and Effects of Westward Expansion, Khan Academy
Superior National Forest
Endangered Species Act of 1973
Can the Red Wolf Survive Extinction a Second Time? Sierra Club
Thinking Like a Mountain by Aldo Leopold, Eco-Action
Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
The Extinction Crisis, Center for Biological Diversity
Starfish Story (aka The Star Thrower), Rebel Shoes Productions
Avatar
Could Colorado Bring Back Gray Wolves By Popular Demand? KUNC
White River National Forest
Little Red Riding Hood by The Grimm Brothers
Why We’re So Divided Over Saving Wolves, National Geographic
Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
American Farmland Trust
The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss
Wolf Depredation, International Wolf Center
Range Rider Program, Western Sustainability Exchange
Fladry Fencing to Prevent Wolf/Livestock Conflict, People and Carnivores
Archimedes’ Lever: How You Can Move the World, Eric Kim
Horatius at the Bridge by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Bartleby
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold

SHOW NOTES

Who is Mike Phillips? [03:56]
Why might a grizzly bear’s muzzle be bloodstained while its teeth are green? [07:27]
What inspired Mike to become an ecologist who focuses on predators? [12:26]
Is it true that menstruating women shouldn’t hike in grizzly bear country? Here’s how Mike took aim at answering this age-old question. [15:33]
To his mind, what is the craziest study Mike has gotten funded? Two words: radioactive wolves. [18:47]
What are the most effective deterrents, defensive tools, and practices for preventing and reacting to grizzly attacks? [20:39]
What role do predators play in an ecosystem, and what happens when they’re extirpated from that ecosystem? [26:30]
What is a trophic cascade? [30:11]
Why was a 300-year war launched in the US on the once ubiquitous gray wolf, and how was this mass-scale extermination accomplished? [34:23]
How did Mike get the opportunity to lead red wolf recovery in North Carolina and gray wolf recovery in Yellowstone? [38:42]
What changes has Mike personally observed in Yellowstone over the past 24 years since gray wolves were reintroduced? [42:08]
What did two wolves teach Mike about the value of private land in advancing the recovery of endangered species, and how did this lead to Mike leaving Yellowstone in ’97 to co-found the Turner Endangered Species Fund and Turner Biodiversity Divisions with Ted Turner? [45:00]
The extinction crisis and why it matters, the likely fate of humanity should we ignore it, and what conservationists most often get wrong. [47:40]
Does Mike ever get overwhelmed by the seemingly unstoppable harm that humans are wreaking on the planet? If so, how does he overcome the feeling and continue working to counter it? [53:06]
Why does Mike consider western Colorado to be the last missing piece in the effort to restore gray wolves, and why should someone who doesn’t live in Colorado support this effort? [58:12]
If we’re looking at the opportunity to reestablish a major carnivore at an intercontinental scale, how many wolves need to be reintroduced over what period of time for this to stand a good chance of being realized? [1:01:51]
If such an initiative is successful, what would Mike hope some of its ripple effects to be? [1:05:49]
Why is wolf restoration such a controversial topic? [1:08:06]
How hard is it to make a living in the woods with your teeth if you’re a wolf, how often do they fail at hunting, and what two assets do they have going for them? [1:09:33]
What are the justified and unjustified concerns people raise with regards to wolf restoration? [1:14:33]
Tools that can be helpful toward wolf reintroduction efforts in minimizing wolf versus human conflict. [1:20:31]
How can we incentivize ranchers to non-lethally deter predation when the path of least resistance is to just shoot the offending wolf? [1:23:51]
What changes to the Endangered Species Act are currently being proposed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and what does Mike think will come of them? [1:29:54]
How much of its historical range does the gray wolf currently inhabit? [1:31:50]
Why are different animals proposed for delisting at different points in their rehabitation of their historical range? [1:32:33]
What is the state of gray wolf reintroduction in western Colorado right now, what is the time-sensitive nature of the effort, and how can you help? [1:35:15]
If my audience can provide $100,000 to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund within a week of this podcast coming out, I will match that, and provide another $100,000. [1:42:11]
Where can someone who wants to contribute more than a modest sum to this effort make their donation? [1:46:42]
In what other ways can someone who’s strapped for cash help? [1:49:27]
A book recommendation. [1:51:27]
Parting thoughts. [1:53:02]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Sanjayan
John and Frank Craighead
Jerry Jeff Walker
Frank Mundus
Warren Buffett
Aldo Leopold
Ted Turner
James Cameron
Rolf Peterson
Rudyard Kipling
E.O. Wilson
Charles Darwin
Thomas Babington Macaulay

Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species (#383)

[image error]

“Humans and cockroaches and coyotes are going to inherit the earth.”

— Mike Phillips

[Visit tim.blog/wolf for the most important links from this interview and my personal next steps.]

Mike Phillips has served as the Executive Director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund and advisor to the Turner Biodiversity Divisions since he co-founded both with Ted Turner in June 1997. Before that, Mike worked for the U.S. Department of Interior, leading historic efforts to restore red wolves to the southeastern US and gray wolves to the Yellowstone National Park. He also conducted important research on the impacts of oil and gas development on grizzly bears in the Arctic, predation costs for gray wolves in Alaska, and dingo ecology in Australia. These days, Mike is an advisor to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project.

In 2006 Mike was elected to the Montana House of Representatives. He served there until elected to the Montana Senate in 2012. His service in the senate will extend through 2020.

Mike received his MSc in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Alaska in 1986 and his BSc, Ecology from the University of Illinois in 1980.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/b47b8a89-1ce5-41ad-9e39-abeea1e599d6.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep. I recently moved into a new home and needed new beds, and I purchased mattresses from Helix Sleep.

It offers mattresses personalized to your preferences and sleeping style without costing thousands of dollars. Visit HelixSleep.com/TIM and take the simple 2-3 minute sleep quiz to get started, and the team there will build a mattress you’ll love.

Their customer service makes all the difference. The mattress arrives within a week, and the shipping is completely free. You can try the mattress for 100 nights, and if you’re not happy, it’ll pick it up and offer a full refund. To personalize your sleep experience, visit HelixSleep.com/TIM and you’ll receive up to $125 off your custom mattress.

This episode is also brought to you by ShipStation. Do you sell stuff online? Then you know what a pain the shipping process is. Whether you’re selling on eBay, Amazon, Shopify, or more than 100 other popular selling channels, ShipStation was created to make your life easier. ShipStation lets you access all of your orders from one simple dashboard, it works with all of the major shipping carriers, locally and globally, including FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Tim Ferriss Show listeners get to try ShipStation free for 60 days by using promo code TIM. There’s no risk and you can start your free trial without even entering your credit card info. Just visit ShipStation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage, and type in TIM!

Want to hear another episode with someone who’s working hard to save the planet? — Listen to my conversation with Conservation International CEO M. Sanjayan, in which we discuss monkey birthday cakes, storytelling, respect, common misconceptions about conservation, and much more. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

#285: Overcoming Doubt, Battling the Busy Trap, and Enhancing Life — M. Sanjayanhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/370d31e4-20da-44aa-8f20-32d7a58d7db5.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Visit tim.blog/wolf for the most important links and my personal next steps
Get Involved with the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project and Action Fund

Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund | Rocky Mountain Wolf Project | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

SD31: Senator Mike Phillips, Montana State Legislature
Turner Endangered Species Fund
Wolf Restoration, Yellowstone National Park
How Wolves Change Rivers, Sustainable Human
Grizzly Bears in Northeastern Alaska by Michael K. Phillips, Cambridge University Press
Wolf Species Profile, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Dingoes Vital for Ecosystem Health, UNSW Sydney
Conservation International
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Grizzly Bear Predation Rates on Caribou Calves in Northeastern Alaska, Journal of Wildlife Management
The Brooks Range — Travel Alaska
The Craigheads: Conservation, Controversy, and a Classic Nat Geo Story, National Geographic
Bears Not Attracted to Menstruating Women, LiveScience
Denali Park
Restoration of the Red Wolf by Michael K. Phillips, V. Gary Henry, and Brian T. Kelly, University of Chicago Press
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
X-Men, Marvel
How to Properly Carry and Use Bear Spray, Outside
Jaws
Trophic Cascade in Yellowstone National Park, Access Science
Manifest Destiny: Causes and Effects of Westward Expansion, Khan Academy
Superior National Forest
Endangered Species Act of 1973
Can the Red Wolf Survive Extinction a Second Time? Sierra Club
Thinking Like a Mountain by Aldo Leopold, Eco-Action
Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
The Extinction Crisis, Center for Biological Diversity
Starfish Story (aka The Star Thrower), Rebel Shoes Productions
Avatar
Could Colorado Bring Back Gray Wolves By Popular Demand? KUNC
White River National Forest
Little Red Riding Hood by The Grimm Brothers
Why We’re So Divided Over Saving Wolves, National Geographic
Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
American Farmland Trust
The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss
Wolf Depredation, International Wolf Center
Range Rider Program, Western Sustainability Exchange
Fladry Fencing to Prevent Wolf/Livestock Conflict, People and Carnivores
Archimedes’ Lever: How You Can Move the World, Eric Kim
Horatius at the Bridge by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Bartleby
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold

SHOW NOTES

Who is Mike Phillips? [03:56]
Why might a grizzly bear’s muzzle be bloodstained while its teeth are green? [07:27]
What inspired Mike to become an ecologist who focuses on predators? [12:26]
Is it true that menstruating women shouldn’t hike in grizzly bear country? Here’s how Mike took aim at answering this age-old question. [15:33]
To his mind, what is the craziest study Mike has gotten funded? Two words: radioactive wolves. [18:47]
What are the most effective deterrents, defensive tools, and practices for preventing and reacting to grizzly attacks? [20:39]
What role do predators play in an ecosystem, and what happens when they’re extirpated from that ecosystem? [26:30]
What is a trophic cascade? [30:11]
Why was a 300-year war launched in the US on the once ubiquitous gray wolf, and how was this mass-scale extermination accomplished? [34:23]
How did Mike get the opportunity to lead red wolf recovery in North Carolina and gray wolf recovery in Yellowstone? [38:42]
What changes has Mike personally observed in Yellowstone over the past 24 years since gray wolves were reintroduced? [42:08]
What did two wolves teach Mike about the value of private land in advancing the recovery of endangered species, and how did this lead to Mike leaving Yellowstone in ’97 to co-found the Turner Endangered Species Fund and Turner Biodiversity Divisions with Ted Turner? [45:00]
The extinction crisis and why it matters, the likely fate of humanity should we ignore it, and what conservationists most often get wrong. [47:40]
Does Mike ever get overwhelmed by the seemingly unstoppable harm that humans are wreaking on the planet? If so, how does he overcome the feeling and continue working to counter it? [53:06]
Why does Mike consider western Colorado to be the last missing piece in the effort to restore gray wolves, and why should someone who doesn’t live in Colorado support this effort? [58:12]
If we’re looking at the opportunity to reestablish a major carnivore at an intercontinental scale, how many wolves need to be reintroduced over what period of time for this to stand a good chance of being realized? [1:01:51]
If such an initiative is successful, what would Mike hope some of its ripple effects to be? [1:05:49]
Why is wolf restoration such a controversial topic? [1:08:06]
How hard is it to make a living in the woods with your teeth if you’re a wolf, how often do they fail at hunting, and what two assets do they have going for them? [1:09:33]
What are the justified and unjustified concerns people raise with regards to wolf restoration? [1:14:33]
Tools that can be helpful toward wolf reintroduction efforts in minimizing wolf versus human conflict. [1:20:31]
How can we incentivize ranchers to non-lethally deter predation when the path of least resistance is to just shoot the offending wolf? [1:23:51]
What changes to the Endangered Species Act are currently being proposed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and what does Mike think will come of them? [1:29:54]
How much of its historical range does the gray wolf currently inhabit? [1:31:50]
Why are different animals proposed for delisting at different points in their rehabitation of their historical range? [1:32:33]
What is the state of gray wolf reintroduction in western Colorado right now, what is the time-sensitive nature of the effort, and how can you help? [1:35:15]
If my audience can provide $100,000 to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund within a week of this podcast coming out, I will match that, and provide another $100,000. [1:42:11]
Where can someone who wants to contribute more than a modest sum to this effort make their donation? [1:46:42]
In what other ways can someone who’s strapped for cash help? [1:49:27]
A book recommendation. [1:51:27]
Parting thoughts. [1:53:02]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Sanjayan
John and Frank Craighead
Jerry Jeff Walker
Frank Mundus
Warren Buffett
Aldo Leopold
Ted Turner
James Cameron
Rolf Peterson
Rudyard Kipling
E.O. Wilson
Charles Darwin
Thomas Babington Macaulay

Safi Bahcall — On Hypnosis, Conquering Insomnia, Incentives, and More (#382)

[image error]

Safi Bahcall (@SafiBahcall) is the author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, which debuted #3 on Wall Street Journal’s bestseller list. Loonshots describes what an idea from physics tells us about the behavior of groups and how teams, companies, and nations can use that to innovate faster and better.

Safi received his PhD in physics from Stanford and his undergrad degree from Harvard. After working as a consultant for McKinsey, Safi co-founded a biotechnology company specializing in developing new drugs for cancer. He led its IPO and served as its CEO for 13 years. In 2008, Safi was named E&Y New England Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2011, he worked with President Obama’s council of science advisors on the future of national research.

In this episode, we talk about many things we haven’t covered before, including hypnosis, conquering insomnia, thoughts on depression, optimizing incentives, and much more. You can also listen to my first interview with Safi at tim.blog/safi.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, or on your favorite podcast platform.

[image error] [image error] [image error] #382: Safi Bahcall — On Hypnosis, Conquering Insomnia, Incentives, and More
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/3c5b26f9-55e1-49d9-80ff-1bb51c7a13d7.mp3Download

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

This podcast is brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I’ve been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute.

New classes are added every day, and this includes options led by elite NYC instructors in your own living room. You can even live stream studio classes taught by the world’s best instructors, or find your favorite class on demand.

Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer: Enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts, or an incredible gift. That’s onepeloton.com and enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase.

This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs, which offers a smarter system for the hiring process. If you’ve ever hired anyone (or attempted to), you know finding the right people can be difficult. If you don’t have a direct referral from someone you trust, you’re left to use job boards that don’t offer any real-world networking approach.

LinkedIn, as the world’s largest professional network, which is used by more than 70 percent of the US workforce, has a built-in ecosystem that allows you to not only search for employees, but also interact with them, their connections, and their former employers and colleagues in a way that closely mimics real-life communication. Visit LinkedIn.com/Tim and receive a $50 credit toward your first job post!

Want to hear my first episode with Safi? — Listen to our first conversation, in which we discuss Safi’s writing tips and techniques, creativity, systems thinking, and much more!

#364: Safi Bahcall — On Thinking Big, Curing Cancer, and Transforming Industrieshttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/41329492-2cee-4976-b910-7a1c9b2d64b9.mp3Download

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Safi Bahcall:

Website | Twitter | Instagram

Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall
Safi Bahcall — On Thinking Big, Curing Cancer, and Transforming Industries, The Tim Ferriss Show #364 (Safi’s first appearance on this show.)
Trip of Compassion
Department of Psychology, Stanford University
Research Supports the Notion That Hypnosis Can Transform Perception, Stanford Report
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information, The Psychological Review
Hypnotic Induction (3 Effective Techniques), British Hypnosis Research
Introduction To Aikido, Aikido FAQ
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injection: How It Works, HSS
Pandora
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston
10 Things Not to Say to a Depressed Person, Thrive Global
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), The Mayo Clinic
About Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), Healthline
Stoicism Resources and Recommendations, tim.blog
How New Ketamine Drug Helps with Depression, Yale Medicine
Ketamine: NMDA Receptors and Beyond, The Journal of Neuroscience
Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Unit
Psychedelics — Microdosing, Mind-Enhancing Methods, and More, The Tim Ferriss Show #377
Drug Scheduling, DEA
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William Irvine
How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie
Understanding the Default Mode Network, Verywell Health
Dissolving the Default Mode Network with Michael Pollan, Simulation
Waking Up with Sam Harris (Meditation App)
Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
How to Be Happy (According to the World’s Happiest Man), Esquire
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
The Truth About MDMA Therapy with Dr. Michael and Annie Mithoefer, AMP #131
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
Tara Brach on Meditation and Overcoming FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), The Tim Ferriss Show #94
Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony de Mello
Peter Mallouk — Exploring the Worlds of Investing, Assets, and Quality of Life, The Tim Ferriss Show #356
Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John R. Ratey and Eric Hagerman
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Its Clinical Implications, Archives of Medical Science
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), The Mayo Clinic
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Film)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), The Mayo Clinic
Electroencephalogram (EEG), The Mayo Clinic
Brain Treatment Center
TMS Is Painful but Not as Painful as Depression, The Bloggess
The Relationship between Individual Alpha Peak Frequency and Clinical Outcome with Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Brain Stimulation
Working Memory Revived in Older Adults by Synchronizing Rhythmic Brain Circuits, Nature Neuroscience
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), Johns Hopkins Medicine
Functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI), Scholarpedia
Introduction to Phase Transitions, MIT
Free Rider Problem, Investopedia
Uber
The Innovation Equation by Safi Bahcall, Harvard Business Review
The Hunger Games

SHOW NOTES

Where, how, and why did Safi learn about hypnosis? [06:30]
How Safi has used self-hypnosis and trance induction to calm down and sleep when his racing brain has other ideas. [12:29]
A few common relaxation trance induction techniques. [18:08]
Some of the most effective applications of hypnosis, how it compares to meditation for self-control, and Safi’s chairman of the board routine to try when other tactics aren’t getting through. [21:01]
What does it say about the ego and the mind that splitting it up into these different characters has such tremendous power? Why is it so effective? [30:57]
Understanding anger as a gift and using it as fuel. [35:15]
How Safi makes sure he doesn’t overfill himself with this kind of fuel to the point where it burns him from the inside — thanks to a useful phrase from The Hot Zone author Richard Preston. [38:36]
What is Safi’s relationship with depression, and what does he see as effective and non-effective ways of helping someone cope with it? [43:18]
My own relationship with depression and what I’ve found useful for — and promising for the future of — its treatment. [51:39]
While I’ve suffered from severe depression my entire life, I’ve not had a major episode in the past five years or so. Why do I think this is? [1:00:08]
A mental trick Safi uses when he finds himself wallowing in “a deep brown stew” of thoughts, and a book that’s helped him befriend rather than fight with these thoughts to achieve inner peace. [1:06:55]
Books and tools I’ve found for helping me achieve my own inner peace. [1:14:50]
How my default calibration for joy has changed over time, and the roles place and time have played in this calibration. [1:20:35]
Even when you inherit faulty genetics or programming, it’s empowering to know there are ways you can take control, edit your script, and change how these factors affect you. [1:24:20]
Where is your calendar for the day? [1:28:26]
What is your default question? What might be a better question? [1:31:09]
Two different kinds of anger, and what we can learn by identifying and dissecting them as they appear in our lives. [1:33:39]
Happiness equals reality minus expectations. [1:39:07]
MDMA and rTMS as loonshots for depression. [1:41:04]
We already know that biochemistry can influence thought patterns, but can thought patterns influence biochemistry? [1:55:50]
Safi riffs on position space versus frequency space, new ways of looking at old problems, common paradoxes, and how incentives really drive progress in science as well as business. [2:01:47]
When good ideas really die. [2:12:13]
What would a Chief Incentives Officer bring to the table? [2:14:21]
What are some common default compensation structures or offers that Safi considers problematic, and how is empowering a Chief Incentives Officer like bringing a gun to a knife fight? [2:22:13]
“Culture” is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the business world, but what does it really mean in this context, and how does it relate to a company’s structure? [2:30:51]
Will changing a company’s culture or its structure drive more meaningful, quantifiable progress? “It’s the incentives, stupid.” [2:34:18]
Safi shares two very different examples of how a company might handle a coveted promotion — one promotes politics, and one promotes innovation. Which is preferable? [2:37:06]
Parting thoughts. [2:43:42]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Barack Obama
David Spiegel
Jack Kornfield
Oprah Winfrey
David Letterman
Jay Leno
Michael Jordan
Alexis Ohanian
Richard Preston
Tony Robbins
William Irvine
Dale Carnegie
Usain Bolt
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Michael Mithoefer
Annie Mithoefer
Eeyore
Tara Brach
Maria Popova
Peter Mallouk
Jack Nicholson
Andy Grove
Travis Kalanick
Bob Sutton