1102: College vs. Trades | Skeptical Sunday

Jack Barsky (@DeepCoverBarsky) joins us to discuss his book Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America. This is part one of a two-part episode; part two airs later this week! What We Discuss with Jack Barsky: What Jack Barsky's childhood was like in postwar East Germany. The stickiness of Soviet-style communist ideology and how it appealed to young people on Jack's side of the Iron Curtain. How spies were recruited and trained during the Cold War. What skills Jack used to assimilate seamlessly into American culture. Why caution is a spy's best friend; paranoia is his enemy. And so much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/285 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

3 Des 201945min

While doing a little Facebook stalking recently, you noticed that photos of your wife's ex-boyfriend's youngest look suspiciously like your own youngest. You're thinking about discreetly having your kid take a paternity test, but you're honestly not sure what you'd do if the results confirmed your suspicions. So what should you do? We'll try to help you with this and more on the latest Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Jason DeFillippo (@jpdef) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/284. On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: Should you secretly undertake a paternity test on your 11-year old? You're a cybersecurity student stuck in a career ditch. How do you dig yourself out? You struggle with stammering. What can you do to find your way through? How do you sell ideas without getting them stolen? What does "I'm here if you need anything" actually mean, and how far can you take it? Threatened by hackers, you wonder: where do old passwords go to die? Should you report your ex for a visa breach that could get them deported? How can you get out of spending Thanksgiving with your fiance's family for for much needed "me" time? Life Pro Tip: Next commute, take time to listen to your car without the radio on. Your ears may pick up on sounds you wouldn't otherwise notice that indicate it's time to take it to the shop. Recommendation of the Week: Hail Satan? A quick shout out to Kay for recommending Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator on Netflix! Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Jason on Twitter at @jpdef and Instagram at @JPD, join his podcasting club, and check out his other show: Grumpy Old Geeks. Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! On...See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

29 Nov 201943min

Brian Koppelman (@BrianKoppelman) is a writer, filmmaker, producer, and director. He's currently the showrunner, co-creator, and executive producer of Billions on Showtime and the host of The Moment podcast. What We Discuss with Brian Koppelman: Law school is an expensive (but not completely useless) place to learn life lessons. How do you know when you've done work of "undeniable" quality -- in the absolute sense? The line between being an artist and being delusional is very thin. If you want to be a screenwriter, read a thousand screenplays. We focus so much on the hustle that sometimes we forget to focus on the work. And so much more… Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/283 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

28 Nov 20191h 4min

Ken Perenyi is a former art forger who spent 34 years creating fake paintings that passed muster among the experts in the world's major auction houses and galleries. He comes clean to tell us how he got away with it in his book Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger. What We Discuss with Ken Perenyi: How Ken, as an academically disinclined New Jersey teenager with no artistic background and zero plans for the future, fell headfirst into the New York art scene of the '60s and '70s. What a fortuitous trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art awakened in Ken and how it led from technical curiosity to natural talent to outright forgery. How Ken prematurely aged his work to appear hundreds of years old, the materials he used, and how long it took him to create forgeries that would fool even lifelong, devoted experts. The first nervous deal Ken ever made and how it fed an ambition to take his talents as far as they would go. How Ken survived scrutiny by the mafia and FBI, changed his ways, and now works on the level selling "high-class fakes" rather than "forgeries." And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/282 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

26 Nov 20191h 35min

Your shopaholic wife spends like there's no tomorrow, and is irked that you won't add her to the account for the business you've been running since before you were married. In fact, she loves to gain sympathy from others by telling them you're hiding money away from her -- which irks you. But one practical question did recently come up: What happens to the money in that account if anything should ever happen to you and she doesn't have access to it? On this Feedback Friday, we delve into this and much more! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Jason DeFillippo (@jpdef) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/281. On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: Interested in doing some prison time with Jordan next February? It's filling up fast; reach out to prison@jordanharbinger.com for details! It's been a long day. Are you a jerk for not letting someone cut in front of you in the grocery store checkout line just because they say their child is waiting for them in their car and everyone behind you already let them through? You were able to use the tips you learned about negotiation in our episodes with Alex Kouts and Ramit Sethi to get a raise from your old boss. But now that it's time to ask for an increase, you've got a new boss with whom you haven't yet established rapport. Should you wait? In another nod to the Alex Kouts episodes, you've negotiated the raises to elevate you into a higher tax bracket -- but you're clueless about how to behave in the associated culture. How do you fit in with your new peers without feeling like you just landed on another planet? Even though your parents don't let your 10-year-old sister use Instagram because they don't want her interacting with creepy DMs from predators, she's allowed to use TikTok because of the "funny videos" even though you know the creeps are there, too. How can you keep her safe? Three years ago, you married a widow whose husband died three years before that. You don't really have a problem talking about him with her, but you no longer want to visit his grave with her where she breaks down and makes you feel like a consolation prize. Is this wrong of you? Your shop-happy wife is irked that she doesn't have access to the business account you've had since before you got married, and... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

22 Nov 201942min

Dr. Sarah Hill (@sarahehillphd) is a leading researcher in the dynamic and rapidly expanding field of evolutionary psychology, and the author of This Is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences. What We Discuss with Dr. Sarah Hill: How hormonal birth control affects women -- and the world around them -- in ways we are just now beginning to understand. Why a woman will be attracted to a certain partner while taking hormonal birth control -- and the problems this could cause for a relationship when she stops taking it. On a hormonal contraceptive, a woman is twice as likely to have attempted suicide as a woman who was not on a hormonal contraceptive. Why, in spite of its drawbacks, Sarah credits the pill to her own ability to achieve a doctorate and career success. Why these new findings should be a rallying cry for women to demand more information from science about how their bodies and brains work and to advocate for better research. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/280 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

21 Nov 20191h 19min

Dennis Quaid has been a Hollywood leading man for decades, fronts a band called The Sharks, and now stars in a new scripted musical podcast called Bear and a Banjo. What We Discuss with Dennis Quaid: Whether or not getting rejected for a coveted job in Hollywood ever gets easier -- even when you've been getting cast for decades. Why Dennis considers fear his greatest motivator -- and what this indicates to him when he feels it upon being offered a role. The hardest place to get respect, the greatest things our kids teach us, and where dad jokes go to die. Listening versus improvising, and how Dennis brings his characters to life without strictly memorizing his lines before arriving on set. Accents, biographical misinformation, and how learning to play a real-life astronaut led to Dennis learning how to fly real-life planes. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/279 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! On Morning Brew's Business Casual, Kinsey Grant sits down with the biggest names in business to talk about the biggest stories in business. This week, they're tackling the streaming wars with none other than Matthew Ball. Subscribe to Business Casual here or wherever you listen to podcasts! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

19 Nov 201949min

When you were kids, you and your brother moved to the other side of the country with your mother and stepfather not long after your parents divorced. You never saw your father again, and believed your mother when she said that he and his mother -- your grandmother -- had died. Fast forward to now. You and your brother are adults, and he's got a bombshell to drop: your grandmother is still alive, and your father only recently passed away. Feeling betrayed, you've pieced together your mother and stepfather's systematic strategy to estrange you from your dad's side of the family (who, by the way, tried to find you over that time without success) -- and you're angry. You feel robbed of the time you could have spent with them, and you're wondering how you should raise the issue with your mother -- or if you should. This is obviously a sensitive situation, but we'll do our best to help you with this and more on the latest Feedback Friday. And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Jason DeFillippo (@jpdef) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/278. On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: Interested in doing some prison time with Jordan next February? It's filling up fast; reach out to prison@jordanharbinger.com for details! When you have to cover for your kid's friend's expenses on a movie and pizza night because his mom neglected to provide him with any cash, is it wrong for you to expect his mother to recompensate you for those expenses even though she works two jobs and says you look like you can afford it? Your 80-year-old grandmother insists on bringing your bedridden and nonverbal father home instead of putting him in a place where he can get the constant care he needs. Putting your grandmother's strong will aside, what's the most responsible call to make here? As kids, you and your brother moved across the country with your mom when your parents divorced. Until recently, you never saw your dad's side of the family again because, your brother recently discovered, your mom lied about your father and your grandmother's deaths. How do you confront your mother -- or should you? You have a serious case of wanderlust. You have no debt, no children, and above average savings. But your friends and family look at you like you're insane whenever you mention leaving a job you love in order to travel. You know that the amazing experiences will be worth it, but can't help but wonder: are you crazy? You work in an incredibly cutthroat sales company where only 10%-15% of employees hired retain their employment, and you're in that top 15%. But you don't love your job and only stick around because you've got the "golden handcuffs" to keep you tethered. You're an underperforming... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

15 Nov 201942min