The Best Of 2021: Part Two

12/27/21 • 122 min

If there’s one thing we learned in 2021, it’s that conversation matters.

Allow me to indulge this truth by introducing Part Two of my annual yearbook—a means to reflect upon the twelve months past by revisiting some of the year’s most compelling podcast guests.

It’s been an honor to share my conversations with so many extraordinary people over the course of 2021. Second listens brought new insights—and more reminders that these evergreen exchanges continue to both inspire and inform.

For long-time listeners, approach this episode as a refresher to launch you into 2022 with renewed vigor. For those new to the podcast, my hope is this anthology will stir you to peruse the back catalog and explore episodes you may have missed.

Guests featured in this first of two total anthology episodes (hyperlinked to their respective episodes) are listed here: The Rich Roll Podcast: Best Of 2021: Part Two

Compiling this auditory yearbook is both a joy and a challenge. I have great fondness for all my guests. I take no comfort in leaving anyone out. Should you find one of your personal favorites missing, I get it—please don’t @ me!

Special thanks to Blake Curtis, Jason Camiolo and Dan Drake for the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting required to pull this two-parter together.

To read more click here. You can also watch it all go down on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Thank you for taking this journey of growth alongside me. Here’s to an extraordinary 2022.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

If there’s one thing we learned in 2021, it’s that conversation matters.

Allow me to indulge this truth by introducing Part Two of my annual yearbook—a means to reflect upon the twelve months past by revisiting some of the year’s most compelling podcast guests.

Guests featured in this first of two total anthology episodes (hyperlinked to their respective episodes) are listed here: The Rich Roll Podcast: Best Of 2021: Part Two

Special thanks to Blake Curtis, Jason Camiolo and Dan Drake for the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting required to pull this two-parter together.

To read more click here. You can also watch it all go down on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Thank you for taking this journey of growth alongside me. Here’s to an extraordinary 2022.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

Previous Episode

The Best Of 2021: Part One

As the Earth embarks upon another miraculous arc around the sun, let us prepare by taking space to pause, breathe, and reflect.

A blank slate represents potential energy. Let us infuse the 2022 tabula rasa with the energy of hope and inspiration to catalyze your new year ambitions into reality.

This process requires taking inventory of the twelve months past. Where you were this time last year. Celebrate your victories. Deconstruct your setbacks. Imagine yourself this time next year. Set your intention for that experience. Establish specific time-bound goals and the stepping stones to get there. Create accountability for those benchmarks. And vision the better self laying dormant within, yearning to be more fully expressed.

But first, we pause. Because it is in quiet that we gain clarity—a crucial first step on the trudge towards self-actualization.

It is in this spirit that we indulge a tradition here at the podcast—our annual ‘Best Of’ series—wherein we reflect upon the previous 12 months with a 2-part compilation of clips excerpted from a handful of the year’s most compelling guests. Think of it as a refresher course for the avid fans. An anthology or digest for those newer to the podcast. A love letter to my guests. And most importantly, a way of thanking you, the audience, for taking this journey of growth alongside me.

Guests featured in this first of two total anthology episodes (hyperlinked to their respective episodes) are listed here: The Rich Roll Podcast: Best Of 2021: Part One

Special thanks to Blake Curtis, Jason Camiolo and Dan Drake for the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting required to pull this two-parter together.

To read more click here. You can also watch it all go down on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Here’s to an extraordinary 2022.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

Next Episode

Joe De Sena On True Resilience, Choosing Your Hard & Why Discomfort Is Oxygen

We all have big dreams. But are you willing to pay the price required to make them manifest?

There’s a big difference between those who quit and those who commit.

At the core of that difference is one’s ability to tolerate discomfort.

Discomfort is the price we pay for resilience.

And resilience is the foundation of growth.

Few grasp and practice this truth better than Spartan Race founder and CEO Joe De Sena, returning to the podcast to usher us into the new year correct and jumpstart our new year’s ambitions into action.

Joe last graced the studio in December of 2020 (RRP #567), a conversation that probed his absolutely fascinating backstory and left us with powerful insights on the limits we impose on personal possibility.

Continuing in the spirited annual tradition we have here to launch the new year with an uncomfortable kick in the pants, I thought it fit (literally) to invite Joe back for a more focused elaboration on the truths, mindset tools and motivation to translate ambition into positive results.

For those new to Joe, he’s the entrepreneurial mastermind behind Spartan—the obstacle course racing series that became a global phenomenon, and the evil genius behind Death Race—perhaps the most absurd sufferfest ever conceived.

He’s also an absolute endurance freak. Example A: in a mere week, Joe completed the Vermont 100 mile run, Ironman Lake Placid, and the Badwater 135. In addition, he crushed 50 ultramarathons and 14 Ironman events in a single year (a certain kind of insanity that must be some kind of record). And he’s the kind of guy who, on a whim, once ran from New York City to Vermont.

Joe’s most striking talent is his facility for motivating the best out of people—a skill committed to print in his new book, 10 Rules For Resilience, which is a guide to developing mental toughness.

Today we deconstruct resilience in all its forms—why it’s crucial to growth and how to cultivate it.

We also go deep on discipline, courage, and discomfort. The importance of personal values in adhering to your goals. How to navigate failure. And why your reaction to challenging situations defines you.

And finally, we explore the importance of imbuing these principles into our parenting.

Joe is a force of nature—a bullshit-free and 100% authentic lunatic. But his heart is huge. His experience-based message is powerful. And paired with practical tools fundamental to shattering stagnation.

To read more click here. You can also watch it all go down on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

May his words propel you to craft your own challenge for this impending new year—something extraordinary.

So let’s dive into it 2022 headfirst. Or, as Joe is fond of saying, fire, ready, aim.

Peace + Plants,

Rich