Episodes

Welcome to the 5th edition of This is Not Advice, a non-advice column for premium subscribers of What Works. If you’re already a premium subscriber, thank you! If you’re not, I still think you’re great—and you can read a soli...

"Failure" got a glow-up sometime in the last 20 years. Instead of something to be feared, gurus tell us to embrace failure. That failure is a waypoint on the path to success. But this shift in our relationship with failure …

Buckle up—today's episode was inspired by something that got me really worked up this week: "I think home-baking is one of the stupidest things anyone can engage in," says Rick Easton of Jersey City's Bread and Salt. This epi...

"Outsiders" shoulder a disproportionate burden when it comes to fitting in. Can we demand more from the "insiders?" This is a preview of the 4th installment of This is Not Advice, a not-advice column for paid subscribers of W...

What gets labeled as "authentic" is often quite predictable. It's a market-compatible expression of what was once something unique or personal. Authenticity is a vibe— and a valuable one at that. "Predictably unique" is how D...

On June 8, Skye Pillsbury opened the latest edition of her newsletter, The Squeeze , with the header RIP Gimlet. She continued: I’m heartbroken over the news that Spotify has laid off another 200 podcast employees, though I’m...

I’m about to write the most journalistic thing I’ve ever written: I received a tip. I wish I could say it was an “anonymous tip” because that sounds even more journalistic. But it wasn’t anonymous, though I won’t say who …

Welcome to the 3rd edition of This is Not Advice , my advice column that’s not an advice column for paid subscribers of What Works. This week, I am tackling a question that came up during last week’s workshop on …

Today's episode is all about trust and responsibility—and how those qualities impact the cost of doing business and the work that's required for any company to be successful. And specifically, it's about something I'm calling...

What are we really talking about when we talk about our hopes and fears about AI? It's us. We're the problem. Actually, we're not the problem—we're more like the solution. But that's less mimetic. Sure, this is yet another po...

There's a sort of inside joke in the online business space of coaches, creators, and service providers. Or maybe, at this point, it's an "outside joke?" Q: What's the surest way to make more money as a creator or small …

“This cancerous economic principle means that executives and venture capitalists have abandoned the concept of value within a business. Through decades of corporate greed, production has become almost entirely separated from ...

Today’s quick episode is a sample of something I’m creating for paid subscribers to What Works. I’m calling it my “This is Not Advice” column. Or, TINA for short. Not to be confused with TINA a la “ there is …

What does a bad movie from 1992, loss aversion, Steinbeck, pizza, farm animals, and the founder of a software company have in common? Well, you’ll find them all in this episode. This episode will take you places . I don’t …

I am on board when it comes to technological progress. I look forward to updating my devices (although I don’t do it as frequently as I used to). New apps and features excite me. I’m pretty quick to adapt to …

It seems like every company today claims to be "on a mission" to change the world or improve our lives. They bill themselves as social movements more than profit-driven enterprises. It sounds nice. But how does it really func...

At least in my corner of social media, there are a lot of folks asking what makes a business ethical. Or, perhaps more accurately, there are a lot of folks answering that question. And there are probably even more folks …

This Earth Month... buy more stuff?! We're about to be bombarded with messaging about corporate climate initiatives. We'll have the chance to buy merch to "support" the planet. And we'll be incentivized to spend more so that ...

"All parasites have value, Sibling Dex. Not to their hosts, perhaps, but you could say the same about a predator and a prey animal. They all give back—not to the individual but to the ecosystem at large." — Mosscap, in …

I’ve called myself a recovering overachiever. I’m recovering not from the drive to excel but from the anxiety inherent to wondering if anything I achieve will ever be enough . And folks, it’s a struggle. The philosophy Byung-...

We all have deep human needs—for belonging, for autonomy, for creative expression, for safety and security. But modern life can make it a real challenge to get those needs met in meaningful ways. Instead, we’re offered produc...

What makes an idea valuable? What turns it into a product that can be bought, sold, or rented? Ideas turn into capital assets thanks to our system of intellectual property rights. But understanding IP isn’t simply a matter of...

This is Part 2 of The Economics of Getting (and Paying) Attention. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, I highly recommend starting there! In today’s episode, I explore the “right to publicity” and the value of celebrity as an …

How comfortable are you with your own voice? How likely are you to say what's on your mind? Samara Bay, the author of the brand-new book Permission to Speak , is on a mission to change what power sounds like. …