Modern Wisdom

David Friedberg is an entrepreneur, investor, and podcaster. What will the future actually look like? With AI dominating the conversation, cutting through the noise matters more than ever. So what’s really coming, and what will it cost us?

Michael Smoak is a mindset coach, entrepreneur, and podcaster. What does it actually cost to live a great life? From the outside, top performers seem to have everything we want, but the story isn’t that simple. Behind every extraordinary life is a series of trade-offs, sacrifices, and unseen costs.

Eric Jorgenson is an investor, entrepreneur, and author. How does Elon Musk actually think? You can analyse him from first principles, but the closest thing to a blueprint is Eric Jorgenson’s The Book of Elon. So what’s really going on in his mind, and what makes him so extraordinary?

Erica Komisar is a psychoanalyst, parenting expert, and author. Why do we assume kids will be okay after divorce? As separation becomes more common, the long-term impact on a child’s development is often overlooked. So what actually happens, and can divorce ever be done without damage?

Robert Pantano is a writer, creator, and the founder of the Pursuit of Wonder YouTube channel. At what point does self-awareness become self-sabotage? The more you analyze yourself, the easier it is to get stuck overthinking. So how do you improve your life without ruining it?

Tristan Harris is a tech ethicist, entrepreneur, and a speaker. Are we sleepwalking into disaster? AI is unlocking massive progress, but the dangers hiding beneath the surface are exactly what experts fear most. So what’s coming… and could it spiral beyond our control?

Welcome to the new Studio! To celebrate, I put together a new episode style.

Chris Bailey is a productivity expert, speaker, and author. How do you make goals actually stick? We all want better for ourselves, but most goals fade. So how do you set goals that excite you—and actually follow through?

Will Guidara is a restaurateur, hospitality expert, and author. What does it take to become the world’s best restaurant? In an era of extravagant dining and over-the-top experiences, the answer might be simpler than you think. So what actually separates the best from the rest?

Roy Baumeister is a psychologist, professor, and researcher. Are men inherently more expendable from an evolutionary standpoint—and if so, has that dynamic helped drive innovation?

Nir Eyal is an author, behavioural design expert, and investor. What does it mean to truly hold a belief you endorse? Maybe some of what we believe isn’t true. But more interesting is how beliefs are formed, and how they can be reshaped.

Gurwinder Bhogal is a programmer and a writer. Gurwinder is one of my favourite X follows. He’s written yet another megathread exploring human nature, cognitive biases, mental models, status games, crowd behaviour and social media. It’s fantastic, and today we go through some of my favourites.

Dr Debra Soh is a neuroscientist, sex researcher, political commentator, and author. Why are we more connected than ever—but having less sex? Technology promised endless connection, but many people feel more isolated than ever.

Bill Gurley is a venture capitalist, general partner at Benchmark, and a former Wall Street analyst. How do you find work you actually enjoy? So many people warn about the jobs they hate and the dreams they never chased. But turning passion into a career is harder than it sounds.

Louis Theroux is a journalist, documentary filmmaker, broadcaster, and author. What is it really like inside the Manosphere? Online spaces for men have exploded in influence, shaping how millions of young men think about success, relationships, and masculinity.

Dr. Max Butterfield is an experimental psychologist and professor who studies relationships and decision-making. Why does love make us do crazy things? Rom-coms make relationships look easy, but real love is far more complicated.

Dr Peter Salerno is a social psychologist, professor, and researcher. Why are narcissists so manipulative? At some point in your life, you’ve probably encountered a narcissist. They can take control of a situation so subtly that before you realize it, you’re caught under their influence.

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University, a productivity expert and an author. Has AI “workslop” damaged our ability to focus? When AI entered the workplace, many thought it would replace knowledge workers.

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden is a psychologist and behavioural geneticist, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an author. Are people born evil, or does evil emerge from circumstance?

Scott Solomon is an evolutionary biologist, professor, and author. Since the earliest days of science fiction, we’ve wondered what it would mean to live on Mars. Today, that question is no longer hypothetical.

Dr Dani Sulikowski is an evolutionary psychologist, professor, and researcher. Female intrasexual competition is more ruthless than most people realize. Just when we think we understand how women compete with one another, the rules shift—and the limits move.

Charlie Houpert is an entrepreneur and YouTuber. Why does life tend to teach its hardest lessons just as we think we’ve arrived? We chase the goals, build the lifestyle, tick the boxes, only to discover that emptiness and insecurity still follow us.

Dave Evans is an entrepreneur, early Apple engineer, former Electronic Arts executive, Stanford lecturer, and author. How does someone genuinely find meaning in their life? We’re often told that when things feel empty, uncertain, or painful, the answer is to “find more meaning”.

Oliver Burkeman is a journalist, a writer for The Guardian and an author. How does the insecure overachiever evolve? You think success will quiet the doubt, then you hit 30, and it’s still there. More achievement, more stress.

Rick Glassman is a comedian, actor, and podcaster. Why do humans act so complicated? We’re simple creatures — farts are funny, everyone does awkward stuff, yet we all pretend we don’t. Maybe life gets better when you lean into the weird instead of hiding it.

Louis Theroux discusses his documentary exploring the manosphere -- the online ecosystem of pickup artists, red pill content, and masculinity influencers. Theroux examines why young men are drawn to these communities and what legitimate needs these spaces are (poorly) addressing.

Richard Reeves discusses the growing crisis facing men and boys -- declining college enrollment, rising suicide rates, falling workforce participation, and the lack of institutional support. He argues that acknowledging male struggles does not diminish female progress and that we need to hold two truths simultaneously.

Robert Greene discusses The Laws of Human Nature, covering envy, narcissism, irrationality, and the shadow self. Greene argues that understanding dark psychology is not manipulative but protective -- recognizing these patterns in yourself and others prevents you from being controlled by them.

Andrew Huberman joins Chris Williamson for episode 700, covering dopamine management, focus protocols, cold exposure science, and practical neuroscience tools for optimizing attention, energy, and mood in daily life.