Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing with Bob Pittman

Working across 190 countries to deliver research-driven early learning, Sesame Workshop is the non-profit behind the longest running children’s television show and so much more. SherrieWestin is at its helm as President and CEO. Sherrie sits down with Bob to talk about the power of mission-driven work and how to stay relevant for generations of kids to come. From addressing social and environmental issues, to keeping pace wit...

From the free market to medical research to philanthropy, Mike Milken has had an outsized impact on it all. In the 1970s he ushered in an explosive era of innovation that changed the world of business and even the world itself. By the ‘90s, when facing his own life-threatening cancer diagnosis, he was determined to accelerate medical research and produce faster cures. Over the decades his work has addressed a vast range of me...

Chief Business Officer at iHeartMedia, Lisa Coffey has run the gamut in media sales. She started out as part of traditional media, at newspapers like USA Today and The Wall Street Journal and at the magazines of Time Inc. Then she made the jump to digital, first at LinkedIn and then spending a decade at Amazon before being named Chief Revenue Officer at LoopMe. Now she’s working across traditional broadcast radio along w...

After finding success from a young age at companies like 20th Century Studios, Vestron, and BMG Entertainment, Strauss Zelnick decided to go out on his own in his 40s. He founded Zelnick Media Capital and became CEO of Take-Two Interactive, the software company behind Grand Theft Auto. Together, they’re a $55 billion enterprise. He’s spent his career at the intersection of technology and media working across film, music...

A skull-emblazoned design with a funny slogan is just not what people expect when they’re buying a healthy beverage. But that’s exactly why Liquid Death Founder and CEO Mike Cessario thought there was room for disruption. He didn’t think funny, cool, irreverent marketing should be limited to things that are bad for you. What if this approach could even help people make healthier choices? Now the healthy beverage c...

Chon Nguyen started his career in the kitchen. As he shares on this episode of CEOs You Should Know, he became an entrepreneur but never left restaurants behind. Today he builds high-impact businesses at the intersection of technology and hospitality. He’s the founder of and CEO of Newgentek, an IT service provider offering a help desk, field services, technology infrastructure, and strategy for companies and restaurants with...

Avani Desai is the CEO of Schellman, the largest specialized CPA firm focusing on cybersecurity assessments for major companies like Walmart, Meta, and OpenAI. In this episode of CEOs You Should Know, she discusses the firm's role in building trust through third-party cybersecurity evaluations, the increasing importance of data privacy, and the evolving landscape of AI technologies. Avani emphasizes the shift towards integrating se...

This bonus episode is all about innovation– that breakthrough that can change individual careers and even entire industries. We’re going back through the Math & Magic archives to hear from top innovators –from Blake Scholl, who is working to revolutionize commercial flights as the CEO of Boom Supersonic, to Gerry Laybourne who changed children’s television forever at Nickelodeon. You’ll also hear h...

From the White House, to Edelman, Microsoft, Nissan and IBM, Jonathan Adashek has had a wide-ranging career. His experiences may span from politics, to the business side of PR, to tech, to automotive, but he has developed core beliefs about corporate culture, work ethic, marketing, and communications. Now as IBM’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Jonathan joins Bob to share incisive thoughts on what a br...

It can take decades to build breakthrough brands and noteworthy careers, and this bonus episode examines an essential building block to getting there – the college years. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon didn’t get the training you might expect for a leader in investment banking at his small liberal arts college. United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer skipped college altogether, whereas Progressive Insurance CMO Remi Ken...

Bobby Bones has been called “the most powerful man in country music.” Host of the nationally syndicated country music radio program, The Bobby Bones Show, and the podcast, Bobbycast, millions of Americans consider him a friend. Audio is his bread and butter, but he’s also made a name for himself on TV, as a mentor on American Idol, the host of Breaking Bobby Bones on the National Geographic Channel, and as a winne...

Ron Howard is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Grammy award-winning film director. With work spanning from comedies like Splash and Parenthood to critically acclaimed dramas like Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon and A Beautiful Mind, he is one of the most popular and prolific filmmakers of the last 50 years. His first on-screen appearance was at just 18 months old and he was cast as Opie on&nb...

Corporate culture is a big buzzword these days, but for our guests it’s integral to how they do business. Bill Koenigsberg, CEO of Horizon Media, feels personally accountable for his employees, while Progressive Insurance CMO Remi Kent shares how the pandemic made her bring her values to the workplace during her time at 3M. WPP’s Christian Juhl shares how the power of culture was a differentiator in business at Group M,...

Hugh Howey is an international best-selling author whose work has been published in 40 languages. But he’s not just a writer, he’s an entrepreneur in the purest sense. When Hugh self-published a short story, the world demanded more. Soon enough the income from that one story was enough to quit his job to begin work on what became the now-iconic Silo trilogy. Instead of going the traditional route with a publisher, Hugh ...

Fashion designer Norma Kamali has stayed relevant for generations by tapping into culture, creativity, and technology. In the early 60s, she got a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology but didn’t fit in with the style of the time. She abandoned design to work for an airline instead, giving her access to travel. During frequent trips to London, Norma discovered a fashion revolution that hadn’t hit the States ye...

When he was 14, Tarang Amin’s family sold their home and bought a motel. They fixed it up and expanded their business, buying one motel after another. Since those days, Tarang’s gotten an MBA, built an impressive resume at Procter & Gamble, Clorox, and Schiff Nutrition, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board and CEO of e.l.f. Beauty. Tarang still credits his days at the family motels for his achievements ...

A billion dollar business born from a $5,000 line of credit seems hard to believe, but so are a lot of Damian Maldonado’s achievements. The co-founder and CEO of American Financing, one of the major national mortgage companies, started selling candy and Avon products door-to-door when he was just 10 years old to help provide for his family. While he didn’t go to college, he was steadfast in his pursuit of learning and h...