The Double Win

Most ambition advice is about how to reach the top of the mountain. Luke Burgis points out that many of us have an upstream problem: we’re climbing a mountain we don’t actually care about. Michael and Megan sit down with Burgis, a Wall Street suit turned entrepreneur turned philosopher, father, and author of several books on desire. They unpack why not all desires are created equal, how to unearth the ones that lead to ...

Chaos always prompts us to search for something solid. Confronted by the upheaval of economic reckoning, ecological exhaustion, and existential uncertainty, our souls are reaching for anything tangible and true. We want what’s real. That’s the core message of Ryan Levesque, a seven-time Inc. 5000 CEO who walked away from his former life to move with his family to a farm in Vermont. He joins Michael and Megan to talk abo...

Most of us know we’re moving too fast, but can’t figure out how to stop. In this episode, journalist and author Carl Honoré joins Michael and Megan to explain how we got addicted to speed, what we’re missing out on as a result, and why slowing down is a skill that requires practice. They dig into the warning signs that you’re living too fast and the hidden math that makes quick fixes more expensive than slow...

It's no secret that machine intelligence is evolving by the day. But what if there's a uniquely human intelligence that's altogether different? In this episode, neuroscientist, researcher, and Special Ops consultant Angus Fletcher joins Michael and Megan to explore our uniquely human contribution to the world. They unpack why children are more creative than AI, what intuition truly is (it's not pattern recognition), and how embraci...

Brad Stulberg is a researcher, writer, and coach focused on performance and sustainable excellence. In this conversation, he makes the case that excellence isn't primarily a performance strategy, but a virtue. He underscores that we’re wired to pursue our values and that the work we shape also shapes us in return. In a world obsessed with optimization, speed, and delegation, he advocates for craftsmanship, end-to-end ownershi...

Getting where you want to go requires five essential elements—and we’re all missing one or two, usually without realizing it. In this episode, Michael and Joel sit down with clinical psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Henry Cloud, to discuss his new book Your Desired Future. If you're working hard and still stuck or headed off course, this conversation will show you where the breakdown is happening and what to do a...

Even couples committed to a true, fair partnership can fracture under the weight of an invisible kind of work that almost always goes unacknowledged. In this episode, Megan and Joel sit down with Harvard-trained lawyer and bestselling author Eve Rodsky to talk about the reasons couples end up carrying unequal loads, and how ownership and accountability can help partners end cycles of resentment and defensiveness and move into trust...

We've spent decades trying to reduce, manage, and protect ourselves from stress. But what if that entire strategy is backwards? In this episode, Michael and Megan sit down with Stanford health psychologist and bestselling author Kelly McGonigal to challenge the most common assumptions about what stress is and how we should respond. If you’re ready to stop chasing the fantasy of a stress-free life and start living with greater...

We've been told our whole lives that more choice equals more freedom, and therefore, more happiness. But that equation breaks down sooner than we think. In this episode, Michael and Megan sit down with psychologist and bestselling author Barry Schwartz to unpack the hidden costs of abundance—in our shopping carts, our workplaces, and our sense of identity. If you've ever felt paralyzed by too many options or trapped in an end...

We’ve never had more access to information or more tools to make work faster and easier. But according to Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows and Superbloom, speed and efficiency come with trade-offs we rarely stop to examine. In this episode, Michael and Megan talk with Carr about the paradox of modern productivity: the very systems that help us scale our work can fragment our attention and erode the depth that makes that ...

Most of us have an unspoken rule set for modern relationships: Avoid the landmines. But according to Jacob Mchangama, that kind of fear-based self-censorship leads to disconnection. If you can’t be forthright about what matters with the people you share life with, you may stay civil, but you won’t stay close.

In this episode, Michael and Megan sit down with Jacob Mchangama—founder and executive director of the ...

You’re not a brain on legs. And if upgrading your mindset or sharpening your thinking hasn’t delivered the breakthrough you expected, it may be time to pay attention to the one stream of data AI can’t access: your body’s real-time signals.

In this episode, Michael and Megan sit down with science journalist Caroline Williams to unpack interoception—your internal sensory system. It’s the mechani...

Morning routines can become one more place we feel behind, especially when life shifts. In this episode, Michael and Megan talk with bestselling author Hal Elrod about The Miracle Morning After 50 (co-authored with aging expert Dwayne Clark). Along with the SAVERS basics (Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing) they explore the “after 50” focus on healthspan, purpose, flexibility, and over...