Big Questions with Cal Fussman

Simon talks about the theme of his upcoming book -- and his message hits Cal’s ears like a symphony. Perhaps this should’ve been expected. The concept behind Simon’s book, Start With Why, led to a Ted talk that reached 42 million people. And Leaders Eat Last was a New York Times bestseller. The Infinite Game shows us that business should not be treated like it’s in a sporting event that has a definite period of time and ends with a win or a loss. If we do treat our business like it’s in a sporting event, Simon warns, there will be a decline in trust, a decline in cooperation and a decline in innovation. Simon makes a case that the most successful companies now tend to be guided by leaders with an infinite mindset. There are so many takeaways in this episode that it might be wise to pull out a notepad before you get started.

After watching the latest Mission Impossible movie, Cal remembers an interview he did with Tom for Esquire Magazine. A snippet from that interview was turned into a video, and it’s played on this week’s episode. You get a glimpse of Tom’s difficult childhood, and see how the solutions he found were seeds to take control of his career and live out the passions of his youth. There’s a lesson in this for all of us. Enjoy.

Chessboxing? What? Do the competitors pound each other in the head as they move pieces on the chessboard? It’s actually a sport that is going to be on display at the Olympics in Paris this summer. It’s not an official Olympic event. Yet. But three hundred thousand people stream events and it’s only getting bigger and bigger. What does it mean for you? Listen to Matt Thomas’s story.

In his quest to go deep into artificial intelligence, Cal comes across a most unusual guest. Theresa Fesinstine speaks to AI in a most uncommon way – as if it were human. Almost as if she were a really good high school English teacher talking to her students in the most caring way. There’s research that says this kind of approach gets the best out of AI. Listen up, and try it out.

Cal talks with Mirthell and Rita Onyx about how they overcame frustrations in their working life by following a desire to spend time with their four children, creating YouTube programming as a family that has now been seen by three billion people and made millions. Rita and Mirthell give Cal many ideas on how to take the platform he’s designing to reshape healthcare to the masses, and they show every listener how research and tenacity can turn an idea into a future that couldn’t be imagined.