John Tierney has written a number of books and he is also a journalist who writes for The New York Times and The City Journal. The first time he came on the podcast it was to discuss willpower because he, along with psychologist Roy Baumeister, wrote a book called ‘Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength’.  He again collaborated with Dr. Baumeister. This time they have written a book called, “The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It.”  He and I investigate how to meet adversity and how to overcome it.

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Andrew Tarvin (or as he prefers, Drew Tarvin) is the world’s first Humor Engineer teaching thousands of people at over 200 organizations, including P&G, GE, and Microsoft how to get better results while having more fun.  He is a best-selling author of a couple of books (my favorite being Humor That Works), he has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and TEDx, and has delivered programs in 50 states, 18 countries, and 3 continents.  And in the spirit of the topic, he loves the color orange and is obsessed with chocolate. He and I talk about how to use humor to communicate and motivate people.

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Carl Bergstrom is a theoretical and evolutionary biologist and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Bergstrom is a critic of low-quality or misleading scientific research. He is the co-author of a book on misinformation called Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World and teaches a class by the same name at the University of Washington. He and I talk about the importance of understanding what is being perpetrated around us and how to avoid falling into traps created by skilled bullshitters.

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Ron Carucci is the best-selling author of nine books, including ‘To Be Honest’, which we dive into in our discussion about what it means to be honest and how to do it.  Ron is the co-founder and managing partner of Navalent, a consultancy that works with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations.  Ron is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Forbes.  His work has also been featured in Fortune, CEO Magazine, Inc., Business Insider, MSNBC, Business Week, and Smart Business. And he is a two-time TEDx speaker.

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Ximena Vengoechea is a researcher, writer, and illustrator who works on personal and professional development.  She has been published in Inc., The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Huffington Post. She is a contributor at Fast Company and The Muse and writes Letters from Ximena, a newsletter on tech, culture, career, and creativity. She is best known for her project The Life Audit. An experienced manager, mentor, and researcher in the tech industry, she previously worked at Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter. She is also the author of ‘Listen Like You Mean It: Reclaiming the Lost Art of True Connection’.  She and I spend some time in conversation about how to become a better listener.

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Stephen M. R. Covey is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The SPEED of Trust—The One Thing That Changes Everything. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to become one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine. In this episode, we discuss trust and how it should be developed, ingrained, and practiced by everyone, every day, all the time.

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Richard Lui is a journalist and news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News. He was formerly at CNN Worldwide. Lui is also a columnist, contributing to publications including USA Today, Politico, The Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press, and San Francisco Chronicle. In 2020 Lui directed the documentary Skyblossom which profiles five families, each with a student providing care for a veteran parent or grandparent with disabilities.  This where today’s topic, selflessness, comes into play. Seven years ago, Richard walked into his supervisor’s office, prepared to give up his dream job at NBC, having just learned of his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.  As in the documentary, Richard was compelled to care for his father.  It turns out, there was a comprise to be reached with NBC.  It also turns out that what Richard learned from that time in his life became the basis for his book ‘Enough About Me - The Unexpected Power of Selflessness’. We are going to get the benefit of that learning in our conversation today.

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Intangibles is a podcast about traits, behaviors, and qualities that entrepreneurs can cultivate to help be successful.  It is created by the host, Steve Berg. You can follow him on Twitter @sbberg1.

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Intangibles

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