ReThinking

Dolly Parton's hit songs — like "9 to 5," "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" — have captured generation after generation. In this episode, recorded around the release of "Run, Rose, Run" (her novel co-written with James Patterson and paired with a full-length companion album), host Adam Grant talks with Dolly about her creative process, how she balances getting things right with getting things done and how she manages the hefty cup of ambition she pours herself each morning.

(This episode originally aired in 2022.)

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 Julie Bowen is an Emmy Award-winning actress best known from her roles as Claire on Modern Family and Virginia in Happy Gilmore. She’s also a former host of the podcast Quitters, which she eventually quit. In this episode, Adam and Julie are joined by developmental psychologist Aliza Pressman for a delightful conversation about authenticity, emotional intelligence, and parenting. Julie makes the case for why sometimes quitting is the most mature thing to do, and shares what she’s learned from coaching her sons through commitments they no longer wanted to uphold. She interrogates Adam about his inability to get angry, and he and Aliza speculate on what would happen if everyone was perfectly emotionally regulated. The three also reflect on the difficult truth that you cannot change how others act, and explore strategies for teaching kids (and yourself) how to handle conflict between the values you hold and the way you actually behave.

Featured guests

• Follow Julie Bowen on Instagram and TikTok
• Follow Aliza Pressman on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, and at draliza.com/

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam joins an improv comedy workshop and comes away with new insights about facing failure, building resilience, boosting creativity, and elevating collaboration. He takes the stage in Authors@Wharton with a pair of past Re:Thinking guests, data scientist Andrea Jones-Rooy and animal cognition researcher Justin Gregg, who happen to moonlight as improv comedy performers. In this unique episode, Andrea and Justin throw Adam headfirst into a series of improv exercises and lead a lively, often hilarious discussion of the practical lessons.

Featured guest

• Follow Andrea Jones-Rooy on Instagram, LinkedIn, and https://www.jonesrooy.com/
• Follow Justin Gregg on Instagram, Substack, and at justingregg.com/
• Listen to Andrea's podcast, Behind the Data
• Buy Justin's books here

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maria Sharapova is one of only 10 women to complete a Career Grand Slam in tennis, and was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2025. After retiring in 2020, she has also become a mother, an investor, and podcast host. In this episode, Adam talks with Maria about resilience, motivation, and the evolution of her rivalry with Serena Williams. Maria reflects on the moments in her career that forced her to take a step back and rethink her mindset, from hard losses and wisdom from coaches to relationships with her peers and opponents. Adam offers insight on two different kinds of winning in psychology, and why sports aren’t really as zero-sum as they seem.

Featured guest

• Follow Maria Sharapova on Instagram, YouTube, and X
• Subscribe to Maria's Substack Pretty Tough
• Buy her book Unstoppable: My Life So Far

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your beliefs about yourself and the world have a big impact on your mental health, relationships, and success. As a positive psychology evangelist, Shawn Achor has spent his career studying how to challenge and change the core beliefs that might be holding you back, and shares his insights in his new book, The Power of Beliefs. In this episode, Shawn and Adam dive into the surprising connections between happiness and success, and discuss the science of optimism and pessimism. Shawn also describes seven key important beliefs that underlie happiness, breaks down strategies for shifting beliefs, and asks Adam to weigh in on how to convince leaders to care about the well-being of their people.

Featured guest

• Follow Shawn Achor on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at https://www.shawnachor.com/
• Buy The Power of Beliefs

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many people regularly plunge into ice-cold water to soothe soreness or boost energy—but for some, the plunge itself is a sport. As a sports journalist, Chris Ballard was reporting on cold water immersion when he got into ice swimming himself and ended up competing on the US team at world championships. In this episode, Adam dives into Chris’s book The Plunge, and the two discuss the psychology behind risk taking, endurance, and resilience in the face of discomfort. They explore why people seek out extreme challenges that push their minds and bodies to the limit, and separate myth from science about the health benefits of cold water immersion.

Featured guest

• Follow Chris Ballard on Instagram, LinkedIn, and chrisballardwritings.com/
• Buy The Plunge: Maverick Swimmers, an Unlikely Quest, and the Transformative Power of Cold Water

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI has become a part of all of our lives in recent years—even for kids. Dana Suskind is a pediatric cochlear implant surgeon and the author of the new book Human Raised, a science-backed guide to parenting in the age of AI. In this episode, Adam and Dana take a closer look at the impact AI can have on kids, and they break down the key components of healthy development that only human caregivers can provide. Dana also shares her HOPE framework for navigating our relationship with this new technology and she emphasizes the importance of friction in relationships when it comes to learning valuable soft skills.

Featured guest

• Follow Dana Suskind on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at https://humanraised.org/
• Buy Human Raised

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Corruption in organizations is one of the biggest problems of our time, and many people believe it may be unsolvable—but Eric Ries doesn’t think so. As entrepreneur and author, Eric has dedicated his career to helping businesses succeed and do the right thing. His new book, Incorruptible, focuses on how to help organizations stay aligned with their ideals. In this episode, Adam and Eric break down why it’s so easy for modern companies to go astray from their missions, the incentives that encourage organizations to deprioritize their principles, and what differentiates companies that have managed to avoid corruption over long periods of time. Eric recommends a series of practices that any workplace can adopt, and shares what he learned from establishing a stock exchange anchored on long-term value instead of short-term returns.

Featured guest

• Follow Eric Ries on LinkedIn
• Buy Incorruptible

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ann Patchett is an award-winning novelist—her most recent bestseller is Whistler—and she also owns an independent bookstore in Nashville. In this episode, Adam asks Ann about where she finds her ideas and how she shapes them into great stories. Along with the craft of writing, they discuss the mindsets and skillsets involved in seeing and bringing out the best in others. Ann also recounts the challenge she set herself to rethink her stance on social interaction.

Featured guest

• Follow Ann Patchett on at https://www.annpatchett.com/
• Follow Parnassus Books on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and at https://parnassusbooks.net/
• Buy Whistler

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before Alexander Stubb became the president of Finland, he left his position as prime minister thinking he’d never return to politics. But after returning to academia and writing his book The Triangle of Power, public service eventually called him back. In this episode, Adam asks Alex about his path to leadership and the relevant lessons from his days as a political scientist and an athlete. Alex shares what he learned from golfing with Donald Trump and meeting Vladimir Putin, and makes the case for listening as an underrated skill in leadership.

Featured guest

• Follow President Alex Stubb on Instagram
• Buy President Stubb's book The Triangle of Power

Connect with the team

• Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
• Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Granted
• Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.