Today on the Blinkist podcast we have an interview with branding expert Denise Lee Yohn, author of the book What Great Brands Do.

In the interview, Lee Yohn and Ben talk about why all branding starts inside, and how exactly Sony implemented that idea when Lee Yohn was there. Then they get into what happened with brands like Saturn and RadioShack – remember them???

They also tried something new: Lee Yohn and Ben read brief bits from some of their favorite branding books. (Hint: neither of them picked Seth Godin!)

A quick intro to Lee Yohn: After her time as brand leader at Sony, she worked on many other big brands, including Land Rover, Jack in the Box, and Burger King. She currently runs her own brand consultancy in addition to giving speeches and writing for the Harvard Business Review blog, her own Brand-As-Business Bites blog, and many other outlets.

Linkage:

- Hop on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

- Let Ben know what you think about the podcast by writing him at [email protected]

- Lee Yohn's blog: http://deniseleeyohn.com/bites-brand-your-business-briefs/

- That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on SoundCloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

Today on the podcast, we welcome Cal Newport. Newport is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University but most of us know him as the author of five excellent books, each of which takes a unique view on how to study better, find a career better, or, with his new book Deep Work, work better.

Deep work, as he defines it, is professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.

Newport argues that the ability to work deeply is the most important skill to have in our knowledge economy.

In our conversation, Newport explains why he thinks we need to teach people a new vocabulary for training focus, and why most of us are living the cognitive equivalent of a couch potato life. He also lays out how anyone can begin learning how to work deeply, right away.

Links!

- Hop on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

- Newport's blog, Study Hacks, also deserves a shout out. It’s full of examples and tips for how people manage to hunker down and make great things. You can find it here: http://calnewport.com/blog/

- That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

*** Podcast programming alert!! ***

Today we have something a little different. Not only do we have Vishen Lakhiani, one of the most forward-thinking CEOs in the world, but we also have him in conversation with one of the Blinkist co-founders, Niklas Jansen. Niklas is a huge admirer of Vishen’s distinctive approaches to his companies, so we figured we should let him ask Vishen whatever he wanted!

Vishen is the founder and CEO of Mindvalley, a transformational education company, and Afest, an invite-only festival for entrepreneurs and change-makers that takes place in exotic locations all over the globe. He’s also an author now, and his book The Code of the Extraordinary Mind is just out and already a New York Times bestseller. (Read it on Blinkist here: http://buff.ly/2c41ZNF)

It’s cool to hear the two entrepreneurs chat. They talk about morning routines, exercise, and how to get the best possible company culture. But they also talk about the book, and get into Vishen’s distinctive way of optimizing his life, focusing on what he calls Consciousness Engineering and Brules (or bullshit rules).

Oh, and as a complement to the new magazine edition on #AlwaysLearning, we have a giveaway! We have five signed copies of Vishen Lakhiani’s book and five memberships to Mindvalley to go with it.

Here's what to do to win: download the Blinkist app, sign up, and open the blinks to The Code of The Extraordinary Mind. If you already have the app (well done you!), simply open up the blinks to The Code of The Extraordinary Mind to be in with a chance to win.

Extras:

- If you like what you hear today, please do hop on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

- Read the key insights to The Code of the Extraordinary Mind on Blinkist: http://buff.ly/2c41ZNF

- That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

Today on the podcast, we’re continuing our Olympics-themed episodes, where we’re talking about world-class athletes, these people who made it to the top, and how they got there. Last week we talked to David Epstein about what makes athletes great, and this week Ben speaks with a champion to find out more.

Andy Lee is 34-3-1, and a former WBO Middleweight Boxing Champion. Known in boxing circles as a tough-as-nails southpaw, Lee’s famous right hook is absolutely devastating. He’s also an Olympian, having competed for Ireland at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens.

In this interview, you’ll hear Andy and Ben get into what actually makes up a perfect right hook, what Lee thinks makes a champion different from a great athlete, and how Lee ended up acting in a Chekhov play.

Linkage:

- Hop on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

- That link to Andy Lee’s knockouts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHZ8_mcuTug

- Lee winning the ‘ship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBd9NfSxiC4

That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

Today, we have the author of the The Sports Gene, David Epstein. The Sports Gene is a New York Times bestseller about exactly what it sounds like: whether or not there are things that make certain people preternaturally more likely to be great athletes.

It feels like a perfect thing to talk about considering, you know, the Olympics start today. So Ben and David talk about some of the greatest physical specimens in the world, one athlete you must watch out for in Rio, and the central weakness of the 10,000 rule everyone always talks about. Oh, and also, if aliens invaded and you had to pick one athlete to compete against the aliens in a competition they decide, which athlete today do you pick?

David’s a journalist at ProPublica whose work appears in places like The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and much more. He just put out an exclusive interview with the former chief investigator of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which you should read here https://goo.gl/u48unt.

- There's a transcript of the interview up here: http://buff.ly/2aG6aQ7

- If you liked what you heard, hop on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

- And read more about the Sports Gene at David Epstein’s website: http://goo.gl/8mJwAz

That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

This is our second podcast in the Eureka! theme. Last week we spoke with Inventology author Pagan Kennedy, and we’re excited to build on that by featuring David Burkus, author of The Myths of of Creativity.

In this podcast, Ben and David focus on a concept called incubation. According to creativity research, this incubation moment often occurs right before a Eureka moment, and the best part? Everyone can incubate. The only question is how.

David Burkus is a professor of management, bestselling author, and award-winning podcaster.

Linkage:

If you liked what you heard, we'd reallllly appreciate it if you hopped on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

More on David Burkus can be found here: http://goo.gl/iZqKPD

Also check out his podcast over here: https://goo.gl/SczJcV

That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

Audio accompaniment to Blinkist Magazine's fourth edition, Eureka.

This article was written by Erik Niklasson and narrated by Cam Drynan. You can find it, and more good stuff, over at the Blinkist Magazine: http://bit.ly/29PbDnJ

Welcome to a brand new era! Hot on the heels of the sleep episodes, this week’s podcast is the first of two episodes on the theme of Eureka. Where do great ideas come from? It turns out it’s not that clear.

So today on the podcast, Ben speaks with Pagan Kennedy, author of the new book Inventology; How we dream up things that change the world. You probably already know Pagan from her time writing the Who Made That column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. She’s an expert on invention, and we grilled her in particular about one central tension in her book: the paradox of serendipitous inventing (like accidentally inventing penicillin) and new technologies that can focus research to look for inventions in certain areas (like bioinformatics).

Hop on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

You can read a transcript of this podcast, and more good stuff, over at the Blinkist Magazine: http://bit.ly/29PaJHT

That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

In this special bonus edition of the Blinkist Podcast, we talk to sleep specialist Max Kirsten. Max is a hypnotherapist and a sleep coach, and he’s worked with stars like Adele and Ewan McGregor.

In the podcast, Max and Ben delve into topics like the right position for optimal sleep, how one even becomes a sleep specialist, the problems some of his most difficult patients experience, and much more.

This is a perfect follow-up to the first sleep-themed episode, which featured Arianna Huffington speaking about her new book The Sleep Revolution, and how we’re killing ourselves with bad sleep hygiene.

Some linkage:

- Also to receive your FREE Better Sleep MP3 Download and find out more about Max Kirsten visit www.thesleepcoach.co.uk

- We also want to give a shoutout to Eve Sleep, who sent us a Mattress so we could build our own little nap station, which we covered in the Blinkist Magazine, here: http://blnk.st/29WJPBE

- Subscribe to Blinkist Radio on iTunes here: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY

- That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].

- If you have any feedback about the podcast, or just want to say hi to Ben, email him at [email protected]

Audio accompaniment to Blinkist Magazine's third edition, Sleep.

This article was written by Tom Anderson and narrated by Gary Tiedemann. You can read the whole thing and find more good stuff at http://blnk.st/29eXeEA