Through Another Lens Podcast

This was the first time I’d ever had a full day alone with Dax, my youngest grandson. First time having dinner with just Mason and Lincoln, no one else around. First time Lee Daley and I had uninterrupted hours together in years, maybe ever.

It all happened in one week. All of it felt rare. All of it made me realize something I’d been missing: everyone texts, but not everyone breathes the same air.

Wednesday Night at TED AI

The confer...

I’ve sat through those meetings. You know the ones. The leadership team locked in a conference room for eight hours, trying to wordsmith a mission statement that captures the essence of what the company does, why it matters, and where it’s going.

Someone suggests “empower.” Someone else counters with “enable.” A third person insists we need “leverage” in there somewhere. By hour six, everyone’s exhausted. By hour seven, someone pro...

Tonight, while writing this, I built a complete business intelligence system.

Agenda management. Task tracking. Calendar integration. Email automation. A working system is ready to use tomorrow morning.

Took me maybe an hour while I was thinking through this story.

Thirty years ago, at Wavefront, that would have required a team of developers and months of work.

And that gap—between then and now—tells you everything you need to know abo...

My twelve-year-old grandson Dax didn’t break eye contact with me for twenty minutes.

We’d been sitting at my kitchen table talking about consciousness - not the stuff they test in school, but the idea that only twenty percent of who we are operates consciously. The rest, that massive eighty percent, runs in the background. Processing. Recognizing patterns. Sending signals we’re barely aware of.

His mom had brought him up for the week...

The thing about growing up on Lenny Bruce and George Carlin is that they taught you that comedy’s job was to rub our noses in hypocrisy. Smart comics. They held up mirrors to society and made us laugh at what we saw, even when it was uncomfortable.

Especially when it was uncomfortable.

I thought I understood what that meant until I found myself producing an improv troupe at 70, standing in front of a circle of students ranging from t...

Most of us grow up mistaking obligation for love. I did too—until I finally saw what a healthy connection actually feels like.

Here's what nobody tells you about dysfunctional families: they don't feel dysfunctional from the inside.

The scariest part isn't the apparent toxicity you see in movies. It's how completely normal your patterns feel when they're all you've ever known.

I spent 49 years thinking I understood connection. I was w...

I'm standing in line at Lighthouse Coffee on a Sunday morning, watching an older gentleman who looks about my age - which is 72 - order his usual. Something about him seems familiar, not because I know him, but because he carries that quiet Sunday energy that comes with being a regular somewhere.

"Hey," I say, stepping closer. "Do you have any grandkids?"

He looks at me with that split-second calculation we all make when a stranger s...

I'm standing in my front yard in Montecito, holding a mason jar with a chrysalis hanging inside. It's early morning, and I notice something different.

The chrysalis is moving.

Not swaying. Moving. Shaking like something is fighting to escape from inside.

Which, of course, is exactly what's happening.

The Jade Pendant That Changed Everything

Ten years ago, a guy here in Santa Barbara gave my wife Kymberlee a chrysalis. I'd never seen one...

I thought I was building a framework for podcasts. What I didn't realize was that I was developing a way of thinking about every creative project I've worked on since - from meals for 2,500 people to AI ventures, improv classes, and even dinner parties.

It started ten years ago in a client meeting. They wanted the tactical stuff - microphones, software, and hosting platforms. But I kept pulling them back to something bigger.

"What's ...

I'm staring at another TEDx speaker application in my inbox. The subject line promises "A Revolutionary Idea That Will Change Everything." The email begins with "Dear TEDx Organizer" and proceeds to three paragraphs outlining how their groundbreaking concept will transform humanity.

There's just one problem.

They never looked at our website. Because if they had, they would have seen those four words right on the front page: "Do not s...

When Clever Stops Working

I used to think the best scenes came from clever ideas.

If I could front-load a tidy premise and stack a few plot beats, the rest would take care of itself. Then, at rehearsal one night, everything changed with something so small I almost missed it.

We ran a drill that punishes clever. Tag outs, fast pivots, lots of chances to get in our own way. I opened a scene with a tidy, smart offer. My friend matched me...

I do not set out to be a podcaster.

My first memory of the medium is Adam Curry in my ears on an iPod, and I think, This is portable radio that belongs to me. Interesting. Then life moves on.

The spark to actually make a show lands in 2015. I'm having coffee downtown when I hear a host say, "Live from the basement of the Balboa Building in Santa Barbara, California." Two blocks away from where I'm sitting. I track him down. His name ...

Capturing the Moment

I'm on a quick trip to Colorado for my friend Duey Freeman's 75th birthday. He picked me up at the airport Saturday night, and now it's Sunday morning, over breakfast at my hotel in Golden.

Duey and I found ourselves talking about something neither of us had examined before. Two men in their seventies, trying to figure out why neither of us has had what we'd call a best friend since... well, maybe never.

"I have f...

It’s a picture-perfect Santa Barbara day at Tucker’s Grove. Blue sky, soft breeze, and that warm sun that sinks into your skin like it belongs there. We’re gathered under the trees, catching up—old Wavefront friends. Forty-one years since we launched the company. Most of us are now in our sixties or seventies. The conversation feels familiar: grandkids, travel, the joys of slowing down.

You’ve heard this one before. Where are you li...

I didn't expect an iceberg to open the door.

Or that an 11-year-old would hold my gaze like a Zen monk while I explained the subconscious.

We were sitting together, my grandson and I, talking about the mind. I asked him to imagine an iceberg.

"The part you can see above the water," I said, "is your day-to-day thinking. What you're doing right now. Talking to me, listening, thinking about what you might say next."

That got a nod.

"But th...

The Mobius Mind

How refusing to pick a lane led to breakthrough thinking

I'm sitting outside at a café in Santa Barbara. The sun is warm on my face, and I can see exactly where we are — this little table by the window. It's 2003. I'm 48, in that space between Wavefront and whatever comes next.

I've brought in two great guys — Robert and Brett — to help me shape what I think will be a personal brand. I'm starting to get speaking invita...

I had just left Wavefront. This was early 2002.

I didn't have a plan. Didn't have a product. Hadn't met Kymberlee yet. No introNetworks on the horizon. Not even a whiteboard sketch of what was next.

I was wandering, really. But when your brain runs on systems and visual metaphors, it doesn't exactly sit still. Even when you want it to.

So when I ended up at a wildlife film festival here in Santa Barbara, I wasn't expecting it to becom...

"Coach Richard delivers his pickleball wisdom, we all just listen, then he says 'Good talk' and walks away. Nobody talked back! This hilarious habit sparked a revelation: certain phrases don't just stick with us—they completely hijack our brains and become our unconscious operating system.

In this episode, Mark explores how sayings choose us, from borrowed wisdom like 'See One, Do One, Teach One' to his own coaching catchphrases lik...

Our animal companions often become unexpected mirrors, reflecting back chapters of our lives we might otherwise forget. In this personal narrative, I trace my journey from a childhood surrounded by 37 rooftop cats to my current life with two bonded Ragdolls. Along the way, I've learned about care, loss, and finding connection on nature's terms, not mine. If an animal has ever chosen you, you'll recognize yourself in this story. Rea...