Real Clear Values

As a photojournalist, Massoud Hossaini became the first Afghan to win the Pulitzer Prize for a photo he took in the immediate aftermath of a brutal terrorist attack in Kabul in 2011.

The story behind the photo and the sense of responsibility Massoud felt in telling Afghanistan’s story from an Afghan perspective is both heartrending and inspiring.

In this episode, Massoud talks about the perils of photojournalism in Afghanistan, why Afghanistan’s sudden fall into the hands of the Taliban was both preventable and unsurprising, and what the future might look like for him and the country he loves.

This is an insider’s take on both the fall and future of Afghanistan.

(Episode recorded on 30/10/21.)

What’s the value of faith and religion in relation to the workplace and wider society?

That question was at the heart of my conversation with Brian Grim, President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF).

RFBF is dedicated to educating the global business community, policymakers, non-government organisations and consumers about the positive power that faith — and religious freedom for all (including those with no religious faith) — has on business and the economy.

In this episode, Brian and I discussed the importance of people bringing their whole souls to work, the value of religion, the role of religion in shaping society's values, the rise of religious nationalism and much more.If you're interested in the intersection of religion and society then this episode is for you.

(Episode recorded on 25th October 2021.)

Joe Kwon is an expert in connecting with other people.

He’s the author of Unlock Your Executive Presence, host of the Executive Presence Morsels podcast and a privacy attorney.

Suffice it to say that he has many strings to his bow.

In this episode we talk about how to connect with your purpose, how to connect with others on your path, connection with place and connection in the context of leadership.

If you’d like to learn how to make better connections then this episode is must.

(Recorded on 27th August 2021.)

It’s fair to say that Monika Stezewska-Kruk knows a thing or two about power.

As a Power Coach on Stanford’s LEAD program, she’s been taught and mentored by renowned Stanford academic Jeffrey Pfeffer.

In this episode, we discuss the taboos of power, the virtues of pursuing it, and how to effectively obtain and retain it.

As Monika explains, power is necessary in order to get things done, but it doesn’t have to be a dirty word.

(Episode record on 5th August 2021.)

The last 100 days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s life were as intense as they were significant in paving the way towards international cooperation in the wake of WWII.

As FDR’s body gave up on him, he fought to the end to create a world in which something as atrocious as WWII could never happen again.

David Woolner, Professor of History at Marist College, is an expert on FDR’s life and presidency; he authored The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace and advised Ken Burns on his PBS documentary The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

In this episode of the Real Clear Values podcast, Woolner talks about how the world we’re living in today reflects FDR’s vision and values, warning that we should think very carefully before seeking to undo the work that he did to build lasting international cooperation and peace.

(Episode recorded on 2nd August 2021.)

“Professionally, every mistake I have ever made can be boiled down to two main reasons: I didn’t know enough or I didn’t care enough.”

Mareo McCracken’s brand new book, Really Care for Them, is a tour de force.

Although it was primarily written for sales people, it’s really for any professional who has to sell ideas to another person in the course of their work.

In this episode of the Real Clear Values Podcast, Mareo challenges conventional sales wisdom and shares real wisdom on one of the most fundamental principles at the heart of consistent sales success: care.

(Episode recorded on 17th August 2021.)

The story of Simon Day’s public speaking transformation is inspirational.

He went from quitting his job for fear of speaking with other people to becoming a UK & Ireland public speaking champion through Toastmasters International.

In this episode of the Real Clear Values podcast, Simon talks about the principles that empowered him on his transformation journey, those who supported him along the way, and how he created a life of purpose and meaning through aligning his work with his values.

We also discuss how to overcome resentment through using negative feedback as fuel to move forward, the difference between material wealth and real wealth, and how Simon coaches speakers with different styles.

Contact Simon for public speaking coaching at speakwithsimon.co.uk.

(Episode recorded on 19th July 2021.)

As thinkers on the populist right like Steve Bannon (U.S.), Aleksandr Dugin (Russia) and Olavo de Carvalho (Brazil) rose to prominence across the globe, Benjamin Teitelbaum, Professor of Musicology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, picked out an obscure philosophical thread that united them: Traditionalism.

Traditionalism isn’t about traditional family values or doing things in an old fashioned way; it relates to a belief in the existence of primordial, universal truths and a perennial wisdom that lies at the heart of all major world religions, drawing heavily from eastern influences.

As a result of his timely (and relentless) exploration of the Traditionalist connections between Bannon, Dugin and Carvalho, Teitelbaum wrote ‘War for Eternity’, which, as one reviewer put it, “reads like a Dan Brown novel”.

This episode of the Real Clear Values Podcast is certainly no less interesting.

We talk about building trust with members of far-right groups in Sweden, meta-politics and the influence of music on cultural ‘common sense’, Steve Bannon’s spiritual journey, the future of politics in the west and much more in between.

(Episode recorded on 9th July 2021.)

Corporate culture is the largest asset that is *not* on a company’s balance sheet.

But it’s also a black box.

Only those who work at a company really know what’s going on there – what management is really like and who has the biggest impact in making the company tick.

Shiva Rajgopal is Kester and Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing at Columbia Business School, but when I spoke with him on the Real Clear Values Podcast about corporate governance and corporate culture it was less about numbers and more about people!

If you have any interest in corporate governance or corporate culture then this episode is a must-listen.

(Episode record on 6th July 2021.)

Ronnie Beiner, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, was alarmed when one of his grad students became enamoured with the work of Russian neofascist Aleksandr Dugin.

Beiner had assumed that far-right ideology had been consigned to the dustbin of history following WWII, but further research after his student's revelation taught him otherwise.

He went on to write a book to elucidate the philosophical foundations of far-right ideology, Dangerous Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger and the Return of the Far-Right.

Straight after the book was published, Beiner was confronted on twitter with a link to a 5,000-word rebuttal by a neofascist intellectual who explicitly identified him as Jewish to his followers.

In this episode, we discuss some of the ideas and values that threaten democracy today.

(Episode recorded on 2nd July 2021.)