Episode notes
Steven Pressfield is a bestselling novelist, nonfiction author, and screenwriter. He published his first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, in his early fifties, launching him onto the literary map and leading to a 2000 film directed by Robert Redford. Pressfield’s 1998 Spartan epic Gates of Fire became a modern classic of military historical fiction and is widely read in military circles around the world, selling over one million copies worldwide. He is also the author of the 2002 bestseller The War of Art and subsequent titles like Turning Pro and Do the Work, which have made him a key…
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Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin · Arts & Books · English
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E200 · 9 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 51 min
Episode 200: Max Richter
Max Richter is a composer, pianist, and producer. His albums include Memoryhouse, The Blue Notebooks, and Sleep. His instrumental composition “On the Nature of Daylight” has been featured in films including Shutter Island and Arrival, which he also scored. By combining orchestral writing with electronic and ambient music, his work spans ballet, television, and film, including Mary, Queen of Scots and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. Max's upcoming album ’While The Flood Rages' is out on October 16th Pre-save: https://maxrichter.lnk.to/WTFR Pre-order: https://maxrichter.lnk.to/ShopWTFR ‘ Works mentioned:…
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2 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 45 min
Tom Freston
Tom Freston is a media executive, investor, and the cofounder of MTV Networks. His route to television began after an early entrepreneurial venture sourcing and exporting apparel in South Asia, before he joined the team that made MTV a defining global youth brand and grew the company’s roster to include Nickelodeon, VH1, Comedy Central, and CMT. He later served as CEO of Viacom, overseeing major entertainment businesses including Paramount Pictures and Simon & Schuster. His new memoir, Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu, chronicles his unconventional journey through business, media,…
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E194 · 26 Aug 2026 · 2 hr
Roger Avary
Roger Avary is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer. Best known for co-writing Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino, he shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Avary made his feature-directing debut with the 1994 crime thriller Killing Zoe. He later directed Mr. Stitch, adapted Bret Easton Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction, and returned to the crime genre with Lucky Day. His screenwriting credits also include the horror hit Silent Hill and Robert Zemeckis’s animated epic Beowulf. Additionally, he is the founder of Pulp Time, a social movie platform for…
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E193 · 21 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 59 min
Tyler Cowen: On the Sound of Patriotism - A Musical History
To honor the 250th anniversary of America, Tyler Cowen plays Rick patriotic music from the United States and around the world in this special listening episode. In addition to his work as an economist, professor, and bestselling author, Tyler Cowen is a longtime music enthusiast with an expansive repertoire in classical and choral music, rock n’ roll, and world music. Moving from John Philip Sousa’s vision of classic patriotism and Country Joe and the Fish’s antiwar satire to the Andrews Sisters, Franz Liszt, Béla Bartók, Antonín Dvořák, and the Sex Pistols, Cowen explores how music can…
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E192 · 19 Aug 2026 · 2 hr 34 min
Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is an economist, author, and professor who holds the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center. He co-authors the long-running economics blog Marginal Revolution with Alex Tabarrok, co-founded Marginal Revolution University, and hosts the interview podcast Conversations with Tyler. Cowen’s books include The Great Stagnation, Average Is Over, and Talent; his newest project, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI Revolution, is a free interactive book on the history of…
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E190 · 5 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 46 min
Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges is an Academy Award-winning actor, musician, and photographer. Born into a family of performers, he began acting as a child and has built one of the most enduring careers in American film. His work includes acclaimed performances in The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Big Lebowski, and Crazy Heart, earning him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beyond filmmaking, Bridges is a lifelong musician, photographer, and songwriter who continues to perform with his band, The Abiders. Most recently, he co-founded the WideluxX project, an effort to revive the legendary…
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E189 · 29 Jul 2026 · 2 hr 5 min
Albert Hammond Jr.
Albert Hammond Jr. is a songwriter, solo artist, and guitarist for The Strokes. Since 1999, he helped define the band's signature rock sound across landmark albums including Is This It, Room on Fire, and First Impressions of Earth. Alongside his work with the band, Hammond has built a solo career with albums such as Yours to Keep and Francis Trouble. On July 24, 2026, The Strokes released their seventh studio album, Reality Awaits, marking the band's first new record since the Grammy-winning The New Abnormal. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Anthropic…
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E188 · 22 Jul 2026 · 55 min
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
'Gurudev' Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual leader, humanitarian, and peace ambassador. In 1981, he founded the Art of Living Foundation, introducing meditation, yoga, and the Sudarshan Kriya breathing technique through programs now offered in more than 180 countries. In 1997, he co-founded the International Association for Human Values to support humanitarian and peacebuilding initiatives. He has participated in conflict-resolution efforts in regions including Colombia, Iraq, Kashmir, and Côte d'Ivoire, while speaking at institutions such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum,…
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E187 · 15 Jul 2026 · 2 hr 6 min
Anthony Metivier
Anthony Metivier is an author, memory expert, and the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a training system focused on memorizing complex information through mnemonic techniques and memory palaces. He is the author of several books on learning and cognition, including The Victorious Mind, and is known for combining memory training with mindfulness, reflective thinking, mind mapping, and critical thought. Through his how-to books and courses, including Rules Reborn and the Magnetic Memory Method podcast, he has built a large following around practical methods for improving memory and…
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E186 · 8 Jul 2026 · 2 hr 56 min
Angus Fletcher
Angus Fletcher is an author and professor of story science at The Ohio State University’s Project Narrative. With a degree in neuroscience from the University of Michigan and a PhD in literature from Yale University, he developed narrative-based leadership and decision-making training for the U.S. Army Special Operations, work that earned him the U.S. Army's Public Service Commendation Medal in 2023. Beyond his work with the military, Fletcher has advised organizations including NASA, Disney, Sony, and the BBC on applying storytelling to innovation, creativity, and organizational…
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