Episode Description:

James talks with psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin about practical mental strength—the kind you need in the moment, not just in theory. Amy’s earlier books focused on what mentally strong people don’t do. Her new book, The Mental Strength Playbook, turns that work into 50 fast, usable tools for anxiety, stress, worry, conflict, focus, and resilience.

The conversation is personal and tactical. Amy explains why “manage your stress” is useless advice when you’re already overwhelmed, and instead offers small moves that can change your physiology, your thinking, or your next action. She and James talk about scheduled worry, reverse worry lists, psychological distance, “smell the pizza” breathing, half-smiling, doing something kind for someone else, and why solving problems can help with depression.

What makes this episode useful is that it treats mental strength like a playbook, not a personality trait. Life deals different hands—money stress, relationship friction, anxiety, public speaking, aging, creative blocks—and the goal is to have a strategy ready for the hand you’re holding.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why Amy wanted to write a “painkiller, not a vitamin” book for mental strength.
• How scheduling worry can reduce rumination and help your brain reset.
• Why a reverse worry list can turn anxiety into excitement before high-pressure moments.
• How simple physical tools—breathing, half-smiling, psychological distance—can calm the body before the mind catches up.
• Why doing something kind for someone else can interrupt rumination and restore a sense of agency.
• How values help you play the long game when current frustrations feel overwhelming.

Timestamped Chapters:

• [02:00] Amy on grief, stress, and why vague advice doesn’t help
• [03:22] Articles as a testing ground for books
• [03:36] Amy’s life on a sailboat and the simplicity it created
• [05:48] From 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do to The Mental Strength Playbook
• [06:41] Why people need immediate tools, not abstract advice
• [07:53] Financial anxiety and the first question to ask yourself
• [09:00] Scheduling time to worry
• [10:05] Why 3 a.m. worries often shrink by afternoon
• [11:02] Amy’s own worries about family and what she can’t control
• [12:37] The reverse worry list for acute anxiety
• [13:42] James’ public-speaking anxiety technique
• [14:37] Psychological distance and separating yourself from anxiety
• [15:12] The good-vibes boomerang: doing something kind for someone else
• [16:53] Why not all charity or service feels emotionally useful
• [18:00] Neuroplasticity and rewiring the brain
• [20:08] The half-smile technique
• [22:16] Handling heated political or family arguments
• [23:12] “Smell the pizza” breathing
• [24:45] Happiness vs. wellbeing
• [25:48] Brain chemistry, dopamine, serotonin, and purpose
• [27:17] Amy’s origin story after loss and the viral article that changed her career
• [28:42] How Rush Limbaugh unexpectedly revived her first book
• [32:01] Life after becoming an accidental bestselling author
• [34:25] How writing books changed Amy as a therapist
• [35:11] Anxiety disorders, treatment, exposure therapy, and medication
• [37:46] James on writing, anxiety, and the danger of addictive medication
• [40:05] The power of writing 10 ideas a day
• [42:16] Why mental strength requires multiple plays for different situations
• [43:11] Chess, focus, aging, and cognitive load
• [48:29] Why simplicity may protect attention
• [49:08] The secret to long-term relationships
• [52:54] Committing to the long game
• [56:05] Closing thoughts on The Mental Strength Playbook

Additional Resources:

• Amy Morin’s official website
• The Mental Strength Playbook official page
• Amy Morin’s books page, including her mental strength titles
• Amy Morin’s podcast page

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A Note from James:

People are so afraid of AI, and I get it. They’re afraid of how it will affect jobs. They’re afraid of bias, manipulation, or even worst-case scenarios like AI turning on humans.

That’s why I love talking to Peter Diamandis.

He wrote Abundance, came on the podcast 10 years ago, and now he’s back with his new book, We Are as Gods. He also runs the Moonshots podcast and the Meta Trends newsletter, both worth paying attention to.

Peter has this ability to stay optimistic about the future—whether it’s AI, longevity, robotics, or virtual worlds. Everything is moving at light speed right now, and while I’m generally optimistic, I still sometimes wonder: what if the pessimists are right this time?

But Peter always pulls me back. His view of the future is bold, optimistic, and surprisingly concrete. And honestly, it’s exciting.

Episode Description:

In this conversation, James reconnects with Peter Diamandis to explore what may be the defining shift of our time: the transition into an AI-driven world of extreme abundance—and extreme uncertainty.

Diamandis argues that we’re not heading toward a traditional crisis, but an “emotional pandemic of fear.” As AI accelerates faster than any previous technology, people are struggling to process its implications: job disruption, societal upheaval, and a complete rethinking of how value is created.

But his perspective is fundamentally different. Instead of scarcity, he sees exponential growth—potentially even “triple-digit GDP expansion.” Instead of job loss alone, he sees a massive shift toward entrepreneurship and creation. And instead of humans being replaced, he sees humans amplified.

The episode moves between near-term reality and long-term speculation: AI partners that run your daily life, personalized health systems, humanoid robotics, brain-computer interfaces, and even the possibility of digital consciousness.

What makes this conversation compelling is not just the optimism—it’s the framing. The real divide ahead, Diamandis suggests, won’t be between rich and poor, but between consumers and creators.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why Diamandis believes the next global crisis is a “pandemic of fear,” not disease
• How AI could simultaneously cause job disruption and massive economic expansion
• The emerging divide between AI-powered creators vs passive consumers
• Why mindset—not skills or resources—will determine success in the next decade
• How AI may reshape daily life through personalization, automation, and decision-making
• What “humanity’s forks” look like: longevity, space, AI integration, and digital consciousness

Timestamped Chapters:

• [02:00] The coming “emotional pandemic” of fear
• [02:34] Triple-digit GDP growth and AI-driven abundance
• [03:07] A Note from James: optimism vs fear around AI
• [04:29] Why AI is accelerating faster than anyone can track
• [05:53] The problem with traditional publishing in exponential times
• [07:42] Why abundance and fear are rising at the same time
• [08:49] Hollywood’s role in shaping dystopian tech narratives
• [10:00] Rewriting the future through optimistic storytelling
• [11:49] Industry-wide disruption and job anxiety
• [12:23] AI as the most powerful force ever accessible to humanity
• [13:10] Partnering with AI vs competing against it
• [14:20] Scarcity mindset vs abundance mindset
• [17:41] Why mindset is the ultimate competitive advantage
• [19:00] The two critical mindsets: curiosity and purpose
• [20:02] How to find your purpose in an AI world
• [22:23] The creator vs consumer divide
• [23:54] Using AI for everyday problem-solving
• [24:33] When exponential change becomes visible
• [25:00] Economic disruption and universal income scenarios
• [27:44] Corporate downsizing vs entrepreneurial explosion
• [29:00] Inflation vs massive cost reduction through AI
• [30:10] Free healthcare, education, and transportation?
• [31:23] Breakthroughs that surprised Diamandis
• [33:32] Brain-computer interfaces and knowledge uploading
• [35:39] The future of learning vs effort
• [37:33] Civilizations, AI, and the scale of the universe
• [41:00] Are we creating a new “alien” intelligence?
• [43:46] Humanity’s major “forks” ahead
• [44:35] Longevity and doubling human lifespan
• [45:48] Digital consciousness and mind uploading
• [47:06] What daily life will actually look like with AI
• [49:00] Personalized AI controlling environment, health, and decisions
• [51:40] How every industry will be restructured
• [53:00] AI entering the physical world (robots, sensors, health)
• [55:00] Will AI become a commodity?
• [56:38] The real value: breakthroughs built on top of AI
• [57:20] Centralized vs decentralized AI systems
• [58:00] Closing thoughts and future outlook

Additional Resources:

• We Are as Gods: A Survival Guide for the Age of Abundance
• Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
• XPRIZE Foundation
• Moonshots Podcast
• Meta Trends Newsletter

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Episode Description:

In this From the Archive episode, James talks with Cal Newport about a simple but uncomfortable idea: most people are working hard on the wrong things.

Newport breaks down the difference between deep work—focused, cognitively demanding effort that produces rare and valuable output—and shallow work, which fills time but doesn’t move the needle. In a world engineered to fragment attention, the ability to focus without distraction is becoming both rarer and more valuable.

The conversation moves from theory to application. Newport explains why “follow your passion” is misleading, how career capital actually drives opportunity, and why deliberate practice—not repetition—is what builds real skill. The thread tying it together is practical: if you want meaningful work and success, you have to train your ability to concentrate and aggressively eliminate distractions.

What makes this episode useful is that it reframes productivity entirely. It’s not about working more hours or hustling harder—it’s about doing fewer things, better, with full attention.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why becoming “so good they can’t ignore you” is more reliable than chasing passion
• The difference between deep work and shallow work—and why most people overvalue the latter
• How career capital (rare and valuable skills) creates leverage for autonomy and success
• Why deliberate practice—not repetition—is the fastest path to mastery
• How attention residue and constant distraction quietly destroy cognitive performance

Timestamped Chapters:

• [02:00] The attention economy and why distraction is engineered
• [02:17] The “deep life” and prioritizing focus
• [03:01] Why success comes from rare and valuable output
• [04:16] Why better content beats growth hacks
• [05:00] “Be so good they can’t ignore you” explained
• [05:57] Why deep work is becoming rare—and valuable
• [06:29] The Steve Martin story and mastery over shortcuts
• [08:08] Innovation only happens at the cutting edge
• [09:00] Why passion is often discovered, not predefined
• [10:00] Passion follows skill—not the other way around
• [11:11] Career capital: what it is and why it matters
• [13:00] How to build leverage in your career
• [14:53] Real-world example: designing a flexible life through skill
• [16:00] Deliberate practice vs repetition
• [17:34] Why discomfort is required for improvement
• [19:50] The cost of distraction and attention fragmentation
• [20:20] The “deep life” as an intentional lifestyle
• [21:21] Why eliminating low-value communication matters
• [23:25] Training focus as a skill, not a habit
• [25:00] Fighting your brain and attention residue
• [27:00] How deep work actually improves output
• [30:12] Balancing academic work and writing
• [32:00] Why audience engagement has diminishing returns
• [34:00] The danger of the “any benefit” mindset
• [36:00] Why busyness is not productivity
• [38:00] Limits of deep work and cognitive intensity
• [39:25] Embracing boredom to retrain attention
• [41:05] The future of knowledge work
• [42:20] Goals vs process: a historical perspective
• [44:29] Why biographies teach excellence best
• [45:07] Teddy Roosevelt as a deep work example
• [46:43] Deep work as a “superpower”
• [47:15] Handling disappointment through craft
• [48:22] Passion follows skill—final takeaway

Additional Resources:

• Deep Work
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You
• Cal Newport's official website
• Little Bets by Peter Sims
• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

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Notes from James:

I wish I had been Kolin Jones when I was 18 years old.

When Colin was 19, during COVID, he set up his own private jet brokerage out of a college dorm room. No investors. No jets. No connections. Just a GoDaddy website, an email address, and an obsessive willingness to send 2,500 cold emails a day.

Amalfi Jets is on track to do $120 million in revenue this year. And he still doesn't own a single plane.

I love how he thought about competition. He literally calculated: my competitor sends 400 emails a day, I'll send 2,500 — that means I'm doing six of his days in one of mine. Do that for a month and I'm four months ahead. That was the whole strategy at the start. Beautiful.

And then TikTok changed everything. One video about a client who chartered two jets — one for his wife, one for his mistress — got a million views. 150,000 people hit their website. 15,000 flight requests in a single day. The entire trajectory of the company shifted because of a free video.

He also talked about losing money on purpose on his first sale — selling a $24,500 flight for $20,000 to lock in loyalty. Pure Amazon thinking. I love that.

And there's a story about a client stranded on the Galapagos Islands whose plane broke down. The client's assistant asked about bribing customs officials. Listen for how Kolin handled it.

This is a great template if you're an entrepreneur, a creative, or anyone trying to build something from nothing. Please listen.

Episode description:

Kolin Jones was 19 years old, in his college dorm during COVID, when he noticed something: commercial flights were grounded, but private jets were surging. He got his pilot's license at Van Nuys Airport — the busiest private jet airport in the world — and launched Amalfi Jets with nothing more than a website, a cold email strategy, and a plan to out-hustle every competitor through sheer volume.

James and Kolin break down exactly how the private jet charter brokerage model works, why you can legally set one up today with zero certification or licensing, why Amalfi turns down roughly $1M/week in deals over safety concerns, and what separates a legitimate broker from the hundreds of unregulated players flooding the market. They also get into the social media strategy that transformed the company — why Kolin was initially against TikTok, what changed his mind, and how one viral video created 15,000 flight requests in a day.

Plus: what it actually costs to own a private jet, the real economics of flying private vs. first class, why the richest clients show up in jeans and an Uber, what happens when a client punches the pilot mid-flight, and the watch Kolin bought himself the first month Amalfi crossed $2M in revenue.

What you'll learn

• How a private jet charter brokerage works — and why it requires zero licensing or certification to start
• The cold email strategy Kolin used to out-hustle every competitor from his college dorm
• Why Kolin intentionally lost money on his first few sales — and why it paid off
• The real cost of owning a private jet (it's about $800K/year just to park it)
• Why Amalfi turns down ~$1M/week in business due to safety and legal concerns
• How one TikTok about a client's mistress generated 150,000 website visitors and 15,000 flight requests in a single day
• Why Kolin tracks which shirt color makes his videos go more viral (black = +36%)
• When flying private is actually cheaper than first class — and the math behind it
• The Galapagos breakdown story: a stranded client, a broken jet, and a customs bribe request
• What ultra-high-net-worth clients actually look like vs. the Instagram version
• Kolin's plans for Amalfi: acquisitions, possible PE partnership, and why he won't go public

Timestamps:

00:00 Why flying private ruins you for commercial forever

06:00 What Amalfi Jets actually is — and how the charter brokerage model works

09:00 The real cost of owning a private jet

13:00 The wild west of jet brokerage — zero regulation, zero licensing required

16:00 The Galapagos story: broken jet, stranded client, and a near-bribe

20:00 Colin's origin story: COVID, flight school, and cold emailing 2,500 people a day

26:30 The first sale: losing $4,000 on purpose and the Amazon strategy that built loyalty

30:00 How one TikTok about a mistress changed everything36:00Inside Amalfi's content machine — and the clients who punch pilots

41:00 When private is actually cheaper than first class — the real math

46:00 The tech behind Amalfi: AI fleet optimization, 72K-member app, and social listening

50:00 Burying competitors with relevance — and what's next for Amalfi5

7:00 The first splurge: an Omega Seamaster and what it represents

Additional Resources:

• Amalfi Jets
• Kolin's Instagram
• Kolin on TikTok
• Amalfi Jets on TikTok

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Episode Description

In this From the Archive conversation, James talks with Yuval Noah Harari about the idea underneath Sapiens and Homo Deus: humans did not come to dominate the planet because they were the strongest animals, but because they learned to cooperate at scale through shared stories—religion, money, nations, and eventually data. The discussion moves from early human history to agriculture, war, terrorism, AI, and bioengineering, but the throughline stays the same: civilization runs on belief systems, and those belief systems shape what humans build next.

What makes the episode useful is that Harari is not just offering sweeping history. He keeps tying big ideas back to practical questions: why modern war has changed, why terrorism works by hijacking imagination, how technology may widen inequality, and why meditation might be one of the few ways to separate reality from the stories people live inside.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Harari argues that the real human superpower is the ability to believe in shared fictions—and how that enabled large-scale cooperation.
• Why the agricultural revolution may have strengthened humanity collectively while making everyday life harder for individuals.
• Why modern war has declined in some forms as economies shift from material assets to knowledge-based wealth. Source transcript:
• How terrorism operates by capturing attention and imagination more than by raw military strength.
• Why Harari thinks the next major divide may be biological inequality, where the rich can upgrade themselves in ways the poor cannot.

Timestamped Chapters

• [02:00] Why Homo sapiens conquered the planet
• [02:18] The human superpower: fiction
• [02:39] Introducing Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens, and Homo Deus
• [04:25] Other human species and why sapiens were not obviously superior
• [06:00] What changed 70,000 years ago
• [07:20] From tribes to mass cooperation
• [08:39] Trade, trust, and imagined kinship
• [10:24] Money as the most successful shared story
• [11:35] How sapiens may have overtaken other human species
• [13:29] What changed in the human brain
• [15:29] The history of humanity as the history of stories
• [16:08] Why successful stories stay simple
• [17:29] Expansion, Australia, and the destruction of large animals
• [19:46] Violence and unification in human history
• [21:42] Why the agricultural revolution made life worse for many individuals
• [23:30] Hunter-gatherer intelligence versus modern specialization
• [24:53] Why modern war is changing
• [27:18] Terrorism as psychological warfare
• [29:07] Human enhancement, dataism, and the future of intelligence
• [33:18] Humanism versus data as the next source of authority
• [35:36] The danger of biological inequality
• [37:04] Longevity, wealth, and who gets to live longer
• [41:15] Engineering happiness and the danger of inner imbalance
• [43:48] Automation, uselessness, and the future job market
• [46:24] How Harari’s ideas changed his own life
• [47:17] Vipassana meditation and separating reality from story
• [49:15] A practical test: can it suffer?

Additional Resources

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind — https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens
• Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow — https://www.ynharari.com/book/homo-deus/
• Yuval Noah Harari official site — https://www.ynharari.com/

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A Note from James:

What is going on in Iran? And once this war is over, what happens to investing? Is the world coming down? I’m bringing on the Invest Diva, Kiana Danial, to talk about both. She wrote Triple Compounding For Dummies, and we’ll get into that, too.

She’s Iranian, and she has a perspective on what’s happening that I think matters. My gut, based on the force of history, is that when this war is over, the Islamic regime won’t survive. Iran has no air force left, no navy left, missile strikes are way down, and many of its top leaders are gone. That’s my opinion, but it’s based on what I’m seeing.

What’s interesting to me is the parallel to the Soviet Union in 1991. When that collapsed, there was a peace dividend. For about 10 years, the stock market had enormous growth. Yes, the internet mattered too, but when countries stop trading bullets, they start trading dollars. The whole world opened up.

Iran has been one of the biggest threats in the region for decades. So if the regime falls, I think the peace dividend could be enormous, maybe even bigger than what followed the Soviet collapse, simply because we have no real relations with Iran right now. That’s why I wanted to bring on Kiana Danial, author of Triple Compounding For Dummies, to talk about Iran and what it could all mean next.

Episode Description:

James talks with investor and entrepreneur Kiana Danial about two subjects that usually stay separate: Iran and personal wealth-building.

First, Kiana gives a lived, Iranian-born perspective on what she believes ordinary Iranians want, how propaganda shapes the conversation outside the country, and why she thinks markets may move past the current war headlines faster than most people expect. Then the conversation shifts into her framework for building wealth: “triple compounding,” the idea that real financial progress starts by compounding skills, income, and businesses you control before you rely too heavily on outside assets like stocks.

What makes this episode useful is that it doesn’t stay theoretical. Kiana explains how getting fired pushed her to build new skills, create new income streams, and eventually grow a multimillion-dollar portfolio. She also shares how she’s thinking about AI, volatility, oil, defense names, and post-conflict rebuilding opportunities. It’s part geopolitics, part market psychology, and part practical roadmap for anyone who wants more control over how they build wealth.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why Kiana thinks geopolitical shocks often hit headlines harder than they hit markets over time
• What “triple compounding” means: compounding your skills, your income, and your investments together
• How she went from being fired on Wall Street to building wealth by reinvesting in herself first
• Why adapting to AI may be less about protecting your old job and more about learning new tools quickly
• How she thinks about buying market pullbacks, and which sectors she believes could benefit if Iran eventually rebuilds

Timestamped Chapters:

• [02:00] Cold open: freedom, oil, and investing in yourself
• [03:03] A Note from James: Iran, war, and the market question
• [05:57] From Iran to Japan to the U.S.
• [07:17] The scholarship that changed Kiana’s life
• [09:58] Why James wanted Kiana’s perspective now
• [10:53] How war headlines fade and markets recalibrate
• [12:25] Negotiations, bluffing, and the worst-case outcome
• [14:58] What Kiana says ordinary Iranians actually want
• [16:32] Strait of Hormuz, oil, and headline-driven panic
• [18:20] The case for a post-war “peace dividend”
• [20:34] Reza Pahlavi and the idea of a transition plan
• [23:28] How the IRGC recruits and how propaganda starts young
• [25:29] Unlearning propaganda about Israel and the Holocaust
• [26:42] What Triple Compounding For Dummies is really arguing
• [30:10] From Wall Street firing to an $18 million portfolio
• [33:29] AI, job disruption, and learning fast
• [35:22] What Kiana is buying, selling, and watching now
• [38:29] Terror funding, ideology, and what happens after the regime
• [41:01] How propaganda spreads in the West
• [43:43] Family safety and final thoughts

Additional Resources:

• Kiana Danial / Invest Diva.
• Triple Compounding For Dummies by Kiana Danial.
• Reza Pahlavi official statements and background.
• Ray Dalio’s The Changing World Order / Principles.
• Ramsey Solutions / Dave Ramsey.
• Rich Dad / Robert Kiyosaki.

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A Note from James

One of my favorite people in the world is back on the podcast: Jen Shahade. She’s been on the show before. She’s a great chess player, a great poker player, a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, and the author of the new book Thinking Sideways, about how lessons from chess can help with decision-making.

As a chess player myself, I can say these techniques really do work. And she even talks about me in the book, which I appreciated. So: how are you going to think sideways? Listen to this podcast.

Episode Description

James talks with Jen Shahade about what chess and poker can teach us about money, ambition, risk, focus, and decision-making. The conversation starts with income: why salary alone rarely creates real savings, why “big chunks” of money matter more, and why relying on a single job is getting riskier in an AI-shaped economy.

From there, they get into one of the core ideas behind Jen’s book: most people think too narrowly. They frame decisions as yes or no, take it or leave it, this city or that city, this job or no job. Jen argues that stronger decision-makers force themselves to find a third option, and often that third option is the one that changes everything.

They also talk about career reinvention later in life, how AI can help people learn faster, why chess is such a good training ground for focus, and what it means to stay calm when you’ve already made a mistake and the position has gone bad. The deeper point running through the whole episode is that good decisions rarely come from certainty. They come from staying flexible, thinking in chunks, and continuing to move even when the path isn’t obvious yet.

What You’ll Learn

• Why unexpected “big chunk” income is often more useful for building wealth than salary increases alone.
• How AI can make later-life career changes and self-education more realistic than they used to be.
• Why binary decisions are often traps, and how forcing a third option can clarify what you actually want.
• Why focus is becoming a rarer and more valuable skill in a world built around distraction.
• How strong decision-makers try to disprove their own ideas before committing to them.
• Why mistakes, embarrassment, and bad positions are often signs that you are stretching yourself in the right direction.
• How ambition can become dangerous when it gets disconnected from process and values. 

Timestamped Chapters

• [02:00] Big money in surprising chunks
• Why salary usually gets spent, and why real savings often come from sudden wins.
• [02:16] AI, job security, and choosing yourself
• Why relying on a salary feels shakier now, and how AI changes the equation.
• [03:10] A Note from James
• James introduces Jen and the core idea behind Thinking Sideways.
• [03:49] The book, poker, and having at least three things going on
• Jen talks about the book launch, poker income, and diversified income streams.
• [05:35] Why salary increases don’t create savings
• The psychology of earning more, spending more, and feeling punished by success.
• [08:15] AI as threat and opportunity
• The jobs AI may replace, and the new skills it can help people build.
• [09:42] Reinventing yourself later in life
• A story about becoming a lawyer at 47, one step at a time.
• [12:23] Chess and short-term chunks
• Why good decision-making means solving the next problem, not obsessing over the final outcome.
• [13:31] AI, age, and chess intuition
• How computers changed chess learning, and why experience still matters.
• [17:17] Regret, mistakes, and always having another chance
• How losing positions still teaches resilience and opportunity.
• [20:15] Always have three choices
• Why the best decision often appears only after you stop thinking in binaries.
• [22:20] Buying a house vs. not buying at all
• How being stuck between two options can blind you to the real third option.
• [24:31] The Stanford $5 challenge
• A creativity experiment about reframing the problem instead of solving the obvious one.
• [28:00] Focus as a competitive advantage
• Why being fully locked in matters more than just knowing more.
• [29:22] Deep work in a distracted world
• Why focus is becoming a rare skill and how to protect it.
• [33:16] Learning new skills with AI
• Coding, language learning, and using AI to create personalized practice.
• [35:25] Why AI can feel exhausting
• How AI can keep people in a deep-work state longer than they expect.
• [36:00] Why large language models are bad at chess
• Confabulation, pattern recognition, and what that reveals about AI and learning.
• [44:03] Ambition, values, and cheating
• Why Jen included cheating in a book about decision-making.
• [47:00] Chess cheating, Hans Niemann, and online trust
• The difference between online cheating, live cheating, and the damage done to opponents.
• [57:00] Falsifying your own ideas
• Why stronger players spend more time disproving their moves.
• [01:00:00] Balancing doubt with action
• How to stress-test an idea without freezing yourself.
• [01:02:00] Why ambition matters, even if the first move is crude
• Magnus, scholar’s mate, and why it’s okay to start by trying to win.
• [01:04:00] Work harder when things are going well
• Why success is often the moment to press, not relax.
• [01:04:58] Final thoughts on the book
• James closes on why Thinking Sideways works and what makes it different.

Additional Resources

• Thinking Sideways | Book by Jennifer Shahade
• Home - Jennifer Shahade
• Games and The Grid | Jennifer Shahade | Substack
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World - Cal Newport

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A Note from James:

This is why I love doing podcasts—talking to people like Dr. Sheena Howard, author of Why Wakanda Matters. Wakanda is the country where Black Panther is from, and Sheena has written extensively about comics, including work on Black Panther itself.

We talk about comics, race, and storytelling. I asked a question I was almost afraid to ask—whether the Black Panther movie was racist against other Black people—and she gave a surprising answer. We also talk about a time she was abducted in Jamaica, along with a lot of other topics.

I loved this conversation. Please listen. 

Episode Description:

James sits down with Dr. Sheena Howard—scholar, comic book writer, and Eisner Award winner—for a conversation that moves between pop culture, publishing, and personal survival.

They use Black Panther as a lens to examine how stories shape identity, how representation evolves, and why cultural narratives are often filtered through systems that weren’t built to support them. Sheena breaks down the tension between nationalism and isolationism in Wakanda, and why audiences interpret the same story in radically different ways.

The conversation also goes deeper—into how gatekeeping works in publishing today, how creators can bypass it, and why building your own audience may be the most reliable path forward.

And then there’s the story she didn’t tell for years: being abducted at 19. What happened, why she stayed silent, and what it reveals about psychology, fear, and resilience.

This episode is about storytelling—but also about control: who has it, who doesn’t, and how to take it back.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why “Black superheroes don’t sell” is a myth—and how the industry perpetuates it anyway
• The real gatekeeping mechanism in publishing today (and why audience ownership matters more than ever)
• How subtle bias shows up now—not in obvious barriers, but in shifting goalposts
• What makes a story resonate across audiences (and why Black Panther worked at scale)
• The psychology of abusive situations—and how awareness and boundaries are built over time

Timestamped Chapters:

• [03:04] A Note from James
• [03:53] Favorite Superheroes: From Captain America to Black Panther
• [04:27] Why Black Panther Connected Culturally
• [04:43] The $1.2B Question: Why So Late for Black Superheroes?
• [05:17] Luke Cage, Netflix, and the “Myth” That Black Stories Don’t Sell
• [05:39] Tyler Perry and the “Outlier” Problem
• [06:23] Pressure on Black-Led Films to Be Perfect
• [07:00] What Wakanda Represents (Uncolonized Possibility)
• [07:53] Killmonger: Anger, Oppression, and Relatability
• [08:23] MLK vs. Malcolm X Parallel in Black Panther
• [09:00] Identity Formation: African vs. African American Perspectives
• [09:47] Are Black Superheroes Designed to “Feel Safe”?
• [10:28] Gentrification, Stereotypes, and Media Influence
• [11:50] Media Isn’t “Just Entertainment”
• [12:00] Early Representation and Cultural Messaging
• [12:28] Who Created Black Panther—and Why That Matters
• [13:07] Rewriting History: What Would She Change?
• [13:49] Designing a Modern Black Superhero
• [14:47] Why a Modern Hero Might Be “Invisible”
• [15:44] Publishing Barriers and Gatekeeping Conversations
• [16:36] Social Media vs. Traditional Publishing Access
• [17:26] Building 163K Followers—and Still Not Enough
• [21:47] The Instagram Post: “I Was Abducted at 19”
• [22:11] How It Started: Cheap Tour, No Money, Bad Decision
• [23:05] The Trap: Locked House and Escalation
• [25:00] Refusal and Survival Strategy
• [26:02] Car Crash and Escape Attempt
• [27:00] Walking Away and Getting Home
• [28:30] Why She Stayed Silent for Years
• [29:20] Abusive Relationships and Self-Blame
• [30:26] Leaving Abuse: The Role of Her Son
• [31:06] Love Bombing and Early Warning Signs
• [33:02] Recognizing Red Flags in Relationships
• [35:45] Teaching Kids Boundaries and Self-Worth
• [37:21] “Is Wakanda Racist?”—The Big Question
• [38:00] Nationalism vs. Racism Explained
• [39:00] Isolationism vs. Imperialism
• [41:00] Why Some Black Superheroes Don’t Break Out
• [43:00] The Loss (and Survival) of Great Storytelling
• [46:14] How She Got Hired by Marvel (Cold Email + PI)
• [48:29] Why Pitching Ideas to Marvel Often Fails
• [50:00] Cold Outreach: Being Seen Before Heard
• [52:00] Do You Need Social Media to Sell Books? (Yes.)
• [55:01] Building an Audience vs. Waiting to Be Discovered
• [56:00] Email Lists: The Real Asset for Writers
• [59:00] Should You Niche Down or Stay Broad?
• [01:09:36] Do Podcasts Actually Sell Books?
• [01:12:00] Why Publishers Don’t Care About You (At First)
• [01:14:18] Choose One: Money, Readers, or Prestige
• [01:15:10] Quantity vs. Quality Writing Models
• [01:23:56] Success Beyond the New York Times List
• [01:24:25] Owning Your IP vs. Writing for Marvel
• [01:26:18] “Survive the Gap” Concept and Film Project
• [01:27:00] Turning Ideas Into Franchises
• [01:28:44] Why Ownership Beats Gatekeeping
• [01:30:34] What’s Next: Hip Hop and Comics

Additional Resources

• Home | Dr. Sheena C. Howard | Creative Entrepreneur
• Why Wakanda Matters by Dr. Sheena Howard
• Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation by Dr. Sheena Howard
• Nina's Whisper by Dr. Sheena Howard
• Marvel’s Black Panther (film)

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Episode Description

This archival conversation with Jim Kwik moves beyond memory tricks and into something more fundamental: how we think, learn, and make decisions.

Jim breaks down why most people forget nearly everything they read, why repeating the same mistakes isn’t always about logic, and how modern life is quietly degrading attention and memory. He explains how the brain filters information, how habits form, and why focus—not intelligence—is often the real differentiator.

James pushes the conversation into practical territory: decision-making, fear, performance, and building a life around what actually matters. Together, they explore frameworks for improving memory, reducing distraction, and making better choices—along with the deeper idea that learning is the core skill behind everything else.

This episode isn’t just about remembering more. It’s about thinking better.

What You’ll Learn

• Why most people remember only 1–2% of what they read—and how to improve retention
• The difference between reading speed, comprehension, and retention (and why all three matter)
• How the brain acts as a filtering and deletion system, not a storage device
• A practical framework for decision-making using multiple mental perspectives (Six Thinking Hats)
• How digital overload, distraction, and “digital dementia” are weakening focus and memory
• Why habits—not knowledge—drive performance, and how to build them using motivation, ability, and triggers
• The four traits behind high performance: growth, grit, giving, and gratitude

Timestamped Chapters

• [02:00] Introduction to Jim Kwik and memory training
• [02:29] Why people forget what they read
• [03:09] Reading vs comprehension vs retention
• [03:50] The importance of remembering love, life, and lessons
• [04:25] Why people repeat the same mistakes
• [05:05] Emotional memory vs logical memory
• [06:29] Blame vs responsibility in reducing stress
• [07:11] The brain as a filtering and deletion device
• [08:17] Why we remember only 1–2% of books
• [08:24] The Zeigarnik Effect explained
• [10:15] Note-taking: handwriting vs typing
• [11:17] Learning through rewriting and modeling
• [12:18] Decision-making and simplifying life
• [13:40] Maker time vs manager time
• [17:33] Why you shouldn’t check your phone in the morning
• [18:06] Brainwave states: alpha, beta, and focus
• [19:00] Jim Kwik’s high-performance clients
• [20:25] Childhood brain injury and learning challenges
• [21:08] Knowledge as power in the modern economy
• [22:09] Decision-making and outside perspectives
• [23:22] The Six Thinking Hats framework
• [26:46] Decision-making through perspective shifts
• [28:40] Facing fear and building confidence
• [30:33] Digital overload and information fatigue
• [31:17] Social media and comparison psychology
• [33:11] Fear, rejection, and self-worth
• [34:20] Overcoming learning and public speaking fears
• [35:02] “Your mess becomes your message”
• [36:24] Jim Kwik’s turning point and learning journey
• [38:15] Discovering how to learn
• [40:03] Deep immersion vs spaced learning
• [41:34] Speed reading breakthrough moment
• [42:33] Digital overload, distraction, and dementia
• [44:02] Why checking your phone rewires your brain
• [45:17] Outsourcing memory vs training your brain
• [47:00] Busyness vs productivity
• [48:18] Biological decision-making and intuition
• [49:03] Sleep deprivation and performance
• [52:00] Post-traumatic growth vs stress
• [53:00] Learning to say no and focus
• [54:27] Essentialism: “Hell yes or hell no”
• [55:14] Applying the Six Thinking Hats to real decisions
• [58:15] What school fails to teach
• [59:09] Building a career from learning challenges
• [01:01:00] First teaching experience and entrepreneurship
• [01:03:00] Overcoming fear of public speaking
• [01:08:39] Turning knowledge into income
• [01:10:00] The power of learning as a superpower
• [01:11:30] Finding what to learn and why
• [01:12:52] Growth mindset and learning from failure
• [01:13:34] The four Gs: growth, grit, giving, gratitude
• [01:15:12] Building grit through discomfort
• [01:17:19] Why fundamentals matter more than new ideas
• [01:18:22] Habit formation: motivation, ability, trigger
• [01:20:00] Time, priorities, and skill-building
• [01:23:40] Focus vs intelligence
• [01:24:27] Learning through teaching
• [01:25:25] High-performance mindset examples
• [01:27:25] Jim Carrey and freeing people from concern
• [01:29:58] “I don’t get ready, I stay ready”
• [01:32:00] Building daily habits for performance
• [01:33:00] Giving mindset and learning faster
• [01:34:01] Teaching as a tool for mastery
• [01:36:00] Gratitude as a performance tool
• [01:38:00] Health, energy, and peak performance
• [01:41:00] Bringing it all together: love, life, and lessons

Additional Resources

• Jim Kwik — https://www.kwikbrain.com
• Kwik Brain Podcast — https://www.kwikbrain.com/pages/podcast
• Limitless by Jim Kwik — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401958230podcast
• The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1577314808
• Thinking, Fast and Slow (decision-making reference context) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374533555
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671027034
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585424331
• Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399176136
• Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316178314

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A Note from James:

I talked to Nelson Dellis, who’s a six-time USA Memory Champion and has broken multiple Guinness World Records. His book, Everyday Genius, makes a pretty bold claim—that with some practice and the right techniques, you can dramatically improve how your brain works.

We didn’t just talk about memory. We got into everything: mental math, focus, cold reading, even some techniques that feel almost like magic. And I’ve done a lot of episodes on memory over the years—but Nelson showed me things I hadn’t seen before.

What stood out to me is this idea that “genius” isn’t some fixed trait. It’s a collection of skills you can build. Some of them are surprisingly simple once you understand how your brain actually works.

I’m definitely going to spend more time practicing some of these techniques. There’s a lot here that’s immediately useful—and a lot that could take years to master.

Episode Description:

James sits down with world memory champion Nelson Dellis to break down what memory really is—and how far it can be pushed.

Nelson explains how his grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s led him into the world of memory training, eventually becoming one of the best in the world. From memorizing thousands of digits to competing in global competitions, he shows that memory is not a fixed trait—it’s a skill.

The conversation goes beyond memory into focus, reading, learning, and even social intelligence. Nelson shares practical techniques for improving recall, reading faster without losing comprehension, and using visualization to retain more information.

They also explore the edge cases—cold reading, intuition, and even experiments with “remote viewing”—where perception and cognition blur into something that feels almost supernatural.

At its core, this episode is about expanding what you believe your brain is capable of.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why memory is a trainable skill—not something you’re born with
• How visualization and emotional context dramatically improve recall
• The difference between “speed reading” and “focus reading”
• Simple techniques to retain more from books and conversations
• How cold reading works (and why it feels like magic)
• Why reviewing information—not cramming—is key to long-term memory
• The mental habits that create the appearance of “genius”
• How attention and focus are becoming rare—and valuable—skills

Timestamped Chapters:

• 00:02:00 – Nelson’s origin story: Alzheimer’s and the motivation to master memory
• 00:02:16 – Why reading is like living thousands of lives
• 00:03:13 – Introducing Everyday Genius and the promise of trainable intelligence
• 00:04:33 – Memory palace techniques and applying them to real-world skills
• 00:05:13 – Can memory training help prevent Alzheimer’s?
• 00:06:13 – Daily memory training routines and measurable progress
• 00:08:16 – From beginner to USA Memory Champion
• 00:10:00 – Memorizing 10,000 digits of pi: how it actually works
• 00:11:31 – Turning numbers into stories: the core of memory systems
• 00:14:28 – Why emotion and visualization drive memory
• 00:16:00 – Memory competition benchmarks and world-class performance
• 00:18:00 – What “genius” actually means—and how to simulate it
• 00:20:00 – The four pillars: memory, reading, focus, and learning
• 00:23:33 – Speed reading vs. focus reading (and why most people get it wrong)
• 00:25:12 – The finger-tracking technique to instantly read faster
• 00:27:16 – Why you don’t need to read every word
• 00:30:17 – Why cramming fails (and how memory actually forms)
• 00:31:17 – Visualization while reading: turning text into a movie
• 00:34:00 – Active recall, note-taking, and long-term retention systems
• 00:37:16 – Cold reading and social intelligence
• 00:41:00 – Body language cues: attention, interest, and perception
• 00:43:00 – How mentalists create the illusion of mind reading
• 00:46:00 – Psychological “forcing” and influencing choices
• 00:51:00 – Remote viewing experiments and cognitive edge cases

Additional Resources

• Everyday Genius: Hacks to Boost Your Memory, Focus, Problem Solving and Much More

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