Mentor Buffet

Randi Zuckerberg joins host Alexi Pappas to talk about the lessons she learned being one of the original employees of Facebook. 

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Alexi answers listeners' advice questions.

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Abby Wambach, the all-time highest goal scorer in soccer, joins host Alexi Pappas to talk about the lessons she learned from her teammate and mentor Mia Hamm. Abby and Alexi talk about the difference between personality and True Self, and how professional sports can encourage a safety state personality to dominate our lives. Now retired for a decade, Abby can see her behavior and her adaptations from when she was competing with clarity. Abby and Alexi also talk about how athletes can predict the future, the importance of sometimes saying No, and the Disney movie Inside Out. 

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Alexi answers listener advice questions about fitting in, finding inspiration, and setting goals.

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Oscar Best Picture-winning producer Alex Coco joins Alexi Pappas to talk about working with director Sean Baker through his whole career, on Florida Project in 2017, Red Rocket in 2021, and now Anora, which just won five Academy Awards. Alexi’s conversation with Alex is about not having a plan. It’s the spirit he’s brought to his independent filmmaking and it’s a worldview he’s embodied, consciously or not, since he was a teenager—getting in touch with what he likes, understanding his motivation system, and deciding who to spend time around. Alex and Alexi also talk about David Lynch’s seminal masterpiece Eraserhead, how Alex stays steady among chaos, and how to honor The Film Gods.

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Ian Harding, the actor, sits down with host Alexi Pappas to talk about his lifelong mentor, his Aunt Julie, who just passed away. Ian became famous overnight when he was cast in Pretty Little Liars and his whole world changed but Aunt Julie stayed the same. She taught him to embrace challenges and how to be graceful, and she gave him her presence through the ups and downs of his acting career—and his life. On this episode of Mentor Buffet, Ian and Alexi talk about all-boys boarding school, how to deal with expectation, and Lindsay Lohan—who Ian idolized as a teen teenager and then worked with her on his latest movie, Our Little Secret, which is now streaming on Netflix. 

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Haley Joel Osment grew up in Hollywood, and here he shares about mentors he's had through his lifelong acting career: His dad, Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, M Night Shymalan, The RZA, and more.

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Alexi answers listeners' advice questions.

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Rich Roll sits down with host Alexi Pappas and shares about some bad mentors he had when he was young. Rich habituated to not asking for help and adapted a strong sense of self reliance, which, years later, stood in his way of receiving help with his alcoholism. How he understood his greatest strength eventually proved to be a profound weakness. Rich details what it took for him to eventually receive help, how he learned to change his mind, and discusses the mentorship model in AA. He also shares about the beautiful mentorship and support he’s received from his wife Julie on the journey to understand his purpose. 

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Chris Bender is the producer who brought so many movies you love to the screen, like American Pie and Final Destination. On this episode of Mentor Buffet, Chris talks about how his career has been about finding screenwriters with strong voices who were otherwise being ignored—his taste is his form of expression. Chris’s collaborators were also mentors to him—early in his career, Warren Zide helped Chris understand the business and how he wanted to approach it, and the late and great J.C. Spink, Chris’s intern-turned-business partner, who he worked with for 20 years. Chris and Alexi also talk about parenting, high school career day, and how the industry is evolving. 

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