What “Good Sleep” Really Means and How to Get It

Taylor Swift just released her latest album, Evermore. It is wonderful. It is also the second album she's released this year, following Folklore, which is also wonderful, and was released back in July. The crazy thing is this: Swift didn't start working on either of these albums until April of this year. This means that she averaged writing a song about every 7 days for 225 days. Originally, Folklore was slated to come out in March of 2021, and Evermore significantly down the road from there. As context, before this creative burst, Swift put out an album about once every two years.  Yet many critics say these two recent albums, in a span of just a few months, may be her best yet. In this episode of The Growth Equation podcast, we explore Swift's hot streak as a way to better understand the science, and art, of getting into a groove more broadly. We discuss entering a rhythm, maintaining a rhythm, and exiting a rhythm; as well as the common cycle of mastery: from simple, to complex, to simple but different.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Taylor Swift and the Principles of Hot Streaks appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 Dec 202039min

A few weeks ago, Zappos founder and CEO Tony Hsieh tragically died in a house fire. It is unclear whether the death was accidental, if Hsieh was intoxicated at the time, or if he locked himself in a room. What is clear is that during the last few months of his life, Hsieh was spiraling downward into substance abuse (nitrous oxide) and biohacking (starvation and nonsensical sleep schedules), while at the same time latching onto utopian fantasies. This somber but important episode takes Hsieh's devastating story as an inroad to explore how even the smartest, kindest, most optimistic souls can all too easily veer off the path, and how if we are not careful, we can too.Forbes article on Hsieh's “American Tragedy of Self-Destruction” mentioned in the show.Brad's new post on a toxic culture that says you should be happy and healthy always. Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post The Trappings of Unchecked Striving: Zappos and Tony Hsieh's Tragic Death appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

16 Dec 202049min

In 2010, the writer Katie Arnold welcomed her second daughter into the world. Three weeks later she lost her father, also her best friend. Dealing with the grief was discombobulating. As she told us in this week's podcast, “I could not talk my way out of it. People could not reassure me the fears I was facing about my own mortality were not true…I tried lots of different healing and therapies, some worked a little, others did not, but really what worked for me was running. Moving on my own two feat through the wilderness.” Arnold followed her drive to run all the way to being the women's champion of the grueling and highly competitive Leadville ultramarathon in 2018. In this fascinating podcast, we discuss everything from running's role in processing grief and other challenging emotions; to the commonalities between Zen, running, and writing; to how instill in children a love of movement and nature. This was a fun conversation, and Katie is full of actionable wisdom. We hope that you enjoy it!Katie's memoir is titled Running Home.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post The Zen of Running and Writing appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9 Dec 20201h 22min

Earlier this week, the New York Times broke a story detailing how the prestigious consulting firm McKinsey and Company “proposed paying pharmacy companies rebates for Oxycontin [a popular opioid] overdoses.” Worse, partners at McKinsey allegedly tried to cover the evidence of their recommendation. In this episode of The Growth Equation podcast, Brad, a former McKinsey consultant himself, and Steve use this moral failure as a jumping off point to discuss ethical creep in high-performance organizations and cultures—from the corporate world, to start-ups, to sports—and what we can do to prevent it in ourselves and those we coach, parent, teach, and lead.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagness(NYT Story on Opiods: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/business/mckinsey-purdue-oxycontin-opioids.html)The post McKinsey, Opiods, and The Dark Side of High Performance appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 Dec 202046min

In this episode of the Growth Equation podcast, Brad and Steve dive into an underground classic from the 1980's: Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman. The main premise of the book is that the medium via which we consume information is a metaphor for the culture; our brains, both as individuals and as a collective, become what we pay attention to and how we pay attention it. At the time Postman wrote the book, he was concerned about how television news was becoming more and more about entertainment and less and less about serious discourse. If only Postman, who died in 2003, could be alive to see the current information environment. Brad and Steve do their best to update Postman's argument for modern times and share tips and tricks on how you can protect your attention, be a better citizen, and create space for serious and meaningful discussion in a world of nonsense and noise.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show! You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Amusing Ourselves to Death appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

25 Nov 202059min

Rich Roll is a globally renown ultra-endurance athlete, wellness advocate, bestselling author, husband and father of four.  He also hosts the wildly popular Rich Roll Podcast, one of the top 100 podcasts in the world with over 100 million downloads.   On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve welcome Rich.  He shares how his experiences in competitive swimming, law school, and addiction and recovery help him when preparing for his podcast.  He discusses why he made the decision to evolve his podcast from evergreen topics to speaking to matters of the day and how to have meaningful conversations with those with whom we vehemently disagree.  Rich also offers a glimpse into how his family views his successes, failures, and public image.  Finally, the three discuss Rich’s latest book, Voicing Change, which features timeless wisdom and inspiration from the Rich Roll Podcast.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show! You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Rich Roll: The Art of Meaningful Conversation appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

18 Nov 20201h 17min

A wise professor once told Brad, “Trust is the most important thing there is and all inefficiencies at their core are created by a lack of trust.”  On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve discuss the importance of trust and what it means to trust yourself and to trust others.  They consider what it means to “trust your training” and review the research and science behind how to build trust with others.  The pair offer ways to identify trust gaps in personal or working relationships and reflect on their own relationship to identify their trust gaps and how to bridge them.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show! You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Trust: The Most Important Thing There Is appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

11 Nov 202046min

In this raw, uncut, and immediately uploaded episode, Brad and Steve explore the still-unfolding chaos around the 2020 US presidential election, how we got into this mess, and how we can get out. For the two articles we reference in the podcast:Driven Apart or Coming Together: It's Our ChoiceThe Simple Reason that the 2020 Polls were WrongYou can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Special Episode: Election Madness appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5 Nov 20201h 5min