Ep. 294 - Jackie Martling: The Joke Man... I Talk with Howard Stern's Former Lead Writer

I was at a restaurant with this beautiful, thick-cut bacon. The kind you use a knife and fork on. It had fat running through it. And I felt that feeling when you fall in love in junior high school. My friend AJ Jacobs is going to prove bacon is the the path to immortality. "I am very skeptical of health gurus," he said. "You can find a study to support anything." I want him to find that study so I can eat bacon three times a day. And live forever doing it. I'd spend the rest of my life experimenting. That's how AJ lives his life. Every year, he does a new one. Then he writes about it. Most of our lives are lived in our head. Creation is when it leaks out. He's written four New York Times bestselling books. And he's the editor-at-large for Esquire. But you don't need permission. These four words will give you ultimate freedom to do anything you want: "It's just an experiment." Forget the gatekeepers. Just play. AJ has done hundreds of experiments. He learns from them. So do I. Here are 3 lessons I learned from AJ's hundreds of experiments: 1) Filter negative thoughts I believe in authenticity. But I don't believe in saying everything you think. If all the pain we created was just an accident, misunderstandings wouldn't need explaining. AJ stopped gossiping. He had to. It was part of an experiment. "There's a 1-800 number that Orthodox Jews have. It's like a suicide hotline, but for gossip." "How many people call that number a year?" I asked. "I don't know. I called it and found it very helpful." He said his brain is lazy. Mine is, too. I have to watch it. It takes a lot of effort to clear out negative thoughts. But when AJ's brain realized certain thoughts were being filtered, it stopped generating those thoughts. "I started thinking more positively about people." Some people don't know they're negative talkers. Or negative thinkers. Your brain is Jurassic Park occupied by predators. If you take care of yourself and filter them out, positive thoughts will filter through. Good people will want to be around you. The landscape will change. And new opportunities will come. But if you get the urge to gossip, call the hotline.   2) Practice radical positive honesty AJ and his wife ran into some of her college friends at a restaurant. They said, "Oh, we should all get together." But AJ didn't want to. He was doing an experiment where he was being radically honest 100% of the time. "I had to say what was on my mind, which was, 'You guys seem nice, but I just have no desire to ever see you again.' "How did they react?" "As you might expect, they were not overjoyed." "Did your wife yell at you?" "Yes, absolutely, she yelled at me. In one sense it was effective because we've never seen them again." "I don't know how she stays married to you." AJ laughed. And we still got lunch after the podcast. Now he believes in radical positive honesty. I told AJ I'd try it. "Give it a shot. You're very handsome," he said. He was lying. 3) Don't overlook anything One of the top 3 moments in AJ's life was with Chrissy Teigen. I already knew the story because he called me immediately after interviewing her. They were talking about religion and she randomly asked if he read "The Year of Living Biblically." She didn't know he wrote it. "The Bible says you should say thanks all the time. I took it literally," he said. It was one of his experiments. "I would press the elevator button and be thankful it came to the first floor. Then I'd get in and be thankful it didn't plummet to the basement and break my collarbone. It was a very bizarre way to live, but it was also wonderful because you realize there are hundreds of things that go right every day that we totally take for granted." ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

16 Aug 20161h 10min

Beautiful women with laser boobs. If you asked me "What's Playboy's future," that would've been my guess. But then I spoke to Steven Kotler. I asked him, "When are we going to start 3D printing houses and cars?" This was 7 or 8 months ago. But I was too late. China 3-D printed ten homes in two days. And they were cheap. $5,000 a home. Then they 3-D printed a mansion. And a five-story apartment complex. The future is rich in possibility. "We're here," Steven said. "It is really really real." "Today, for the very first time in history, pretty much anyone can have a global impact," Steven said on today's podcast. So I asked him, "If I'm sitting in my cubicle or I'm driving to work and I'm listening to this, how can I improve my life?" He told me about a woman in her 30s who graduated from Harvard, lived with her parents and couldn't get a job. So she disrupted the $256 million a year cosmetics industry. She combined a standard inkjet carton with a 3-D printer. With bio-degradable ink, she can print any type of makeup in any color. Then Steven told me how we're colonizing space. "One of the reasons we're not in space yet is because it costs $10,000 a pound to get something out of Earth's gravity well. It's really expensive. We need to be able to print in space." "My next book," Steven said, "not the one I'm writing now, but the one after that will be about the 4 enormous exoduses that are happening in this century. One is in virtual reality. Another is gonna be in space." "What's the other two?" "One is gonna be climate change migrations." "Meaning we're leaving earth?" "I don't think we're leaving Earth." "What's the fourth exodus? "I actually think the fourth is into our own subconscious... in our own mind," he said." He called them "interior states of consciousness" or "inner-space." Steven wrote some of my favorite books, including "Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World," which is also byPeter Diamandis, the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. Bill Clinton said it's, "A visionary roadmap for people who believe they can change the world." Steven also wrote Tomorrowland, which shows you all the ways science fiction is coming to life. So far no laser boobs. But anything is possible. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

9 Aug 201658min

There was a time when the only word I said was "no." I think that was the best time of my life. But I can't remember it. My memory sucks. It was "the terrible twos." A defining age. You tell your truth. But everyone says you're a terrible person. And somewhere along the way you start listening to them. They make up rules. And send you to school, where girls wear white gloves and can't blow their noses in public anymore. I guess that's why they think it's cute when babies snot on themselves. Freedom. I went to Cornell, studied computer science, got a job at HBO, went back for remedial school because my degree wasn't up to industry standards. Then I tried another job. And another job. I ended up on Wall Street. I lived there. But that didn't stop me from losing everything. I had millions of dollars in debt. Not one million. MILLIONS. I thought my only option was to kill myself. Because I knew this for sure: I couldn't obey any longer... Imagine talking to someone for years. And everything you say gets ignored. You're going to hate that person. I ignored myself. So that's who I hated... I ignored my gut. For 20 years. Your gut reveals itself every time you say how tired you are or some BS like "Happy Friday." It's asking you to sleep, quit your job, be creative. To say "no." Information is power. So even if you make decisions off influences, don't you want to know what the components of your decision are? I did.   So I asked an expert... 1. What are the forces that influence me? 2. And how I can cleanse myself of the negative ones? I interviewed Jonah Berger about his research book, "Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior." He's a Wharton School professor, a New York Times bestselling author and social influence expert. Google is one of his clients. We talked about: - Mirror neurons - "The power of mimicry" - Why I won't let my daughters win at checkers, chess or any game at all. Ever. - How to predict upcoming trends - What influences could be holding you back -And what steps you can take to be "one of the lucky ones..." I was picturing businessmen who ignore themselves everyday. Who don't drink water when they're thirsty. Who just do the same routine. They have no idea they're on autopilot. And it's killing them. They'll get a heart attack one day and never know what hit them. That was me. Until I chose myself and started doing these three things: 1. Find out your influences What's your day, week, year look like? And why? Jonah gives 20, 30, 40 examples in this podcast. He helps you figure out the positive and negative influences that are impacting your life. Things you've never even considered. 2. Check your gut Picture your insides. Your meaty heart. And the deep stream of blood keeping you alive. It knows the answers to your questions already... But you have to check-in. Because sometimes it's so quiet. It's used to being ignored. Listen and notice. 3. Then lean into it Start with small changes. Go to the bathroom when you need to. Stop eating when you're full. Linger a little longer. Give yourself space. When your gut knows you're listening, it gets louder. And more powerful. I'm still learning to choose myself everyday. And sometimes my gut disappears. But at least I know where to find it again. Listen now to hear how to identify the hidden forces shaping your behavior and create the influences in your life. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out!... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

2 Aug 201655min

What you'll learn from today's podcast: [6:58] - Who should everyone be an entrepreneur? [9:12] - How do you decide what a "rich" life is to you? [19:43] - Make $50,000 in one month with a simple site [25:03] - How to attract the right audience/customer [34:00] - Get better than anyone else in your space [43:30] - How to test your idea... before it "tanks" [54:40] - Two marketing myths you need to know [58:58] - If you want to quit your job (and start your own business)... do this step first -- I try noticing when I'm having a hard time. And if I want to ask why. If I ask, "Why do I feel like this?" my thoughts seep further into my brain. And I can't find them. "Where are you going? And why do I feel like this?" But "why" isn't the answer. "You are not your feelings." I've heard this before. It's helpful to have a degree of separation. Negative pressures take away momentum. It makes me lazy. And hungry. I don't think I'm ever really hungry. I'm just looking for a human excuse to get away from responsibility. But sometimes you have to admit where you really are. I don't have advice for you. I have something better. I have Ramit Sethi, author of the New York Times bestseller, "I Will Teach You to Be Rich" and owner of iwillteachyoutoberich.com and growthlab.com. He's been on my podcast before. Every time he's on, people want to know this one thing: "HOW can I live a rich life?" I told Ramit, "The person listening to this doesn't want to hear that it's possible to get rich. Because that's what everybody says. I want to hear specific tactics." And he's giving them all away.  "There's story after story after story of people who have taken your courses and made money..." I said. "Not just made money. Yes. Of course, they made money. That's the least interesting part. A guy gets a $50,000 raise. That happens every day using my stuff." "Tell me a story of someone who's made $50,000 in one month." (Listen at [19:45]) I don't believe 99% of the advice about entrepreneurship. Because that advice is what gets you out of your heart and into your head. It makes you lost. Because you try to sell out. You try to win. You try to get rich. And you stop giving. So Ramit and I talked about a rich life. What is it? We came up with this: I can't tell you what a rich life is to you. I can only say what a rich life is to me. My "rich" life consists of four things. You just need to find what you're OK at. Because if you are OK at one thing and OK at another thing then you can be the best in the world at the intersection. But I'm getting ahead of myself. And that's how people fail. They focus on the wrong things, get lost, give up and never start again. They're at negative zero. Everyone wants to be at 100. But that's impossible. And wanting to be anywhere other than where you are right now is painful. Start by acknowledging where you are. And know that's the only true thing about this moment. Then you're out of the negative. And you have a starting place: you're at zero. Zero is the best place to be. It's where Mark Cuban, Arianna Huffington, every millionaire, billionaire, writer, rapper, author, athlete, and astronaut starts. It's where you'll start, too. And you can start right now. Just follow these two steps: 1. Acknowledge where you are 2. Trust that it's the start And then you can launch a rich life. Whatever that means to you. Listen to my interview with Ramit Sethi to stop asking "why" and start asking "how?" ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

26 Juli 20161h 3min

He denied Bill Clinton's phone call. He just lost the NBA finals championship. "I was inconsolable," John Wallace said on my podcast. "I didn't want to talk to anybody. I didn't want to talk to Bill Clinton. I didn't want to talk to my mom..." "But doesn't that make you a sore loser?" "You show me someone who accepts losing and I'll show you a loser," he said quoting Cam Newton. -- In the 90's, I walked out of my job a loser. I didn't stick with it. The stomach aches tasted like metal. I walked across the street. And played chess against a faceless man. I'll never forget him. I won that game. That's when I learned it's ok to lose. "What do you do?" Carpenter, author, server. "I'm in finance." "I'm in fashion." It's the one question we ask in New York. "What do you do?" I wander. I read. I spend time with people I love. I lost in the corporate world. But I'm winning at choosing myself. "It's one thing to give your time. It's another thing to give your money. And it's a-whole-nother thing to give both consistently. That's what I've been trying to do," John said about his philanthropy efforts. "Certain people won't do business with you if you're not giving back." I take care of myself everyday. Then I show up for other people. I ask them questions. And find out what makes them work...how they grew, shrunk, and then exploded into excellence. John said it best, "Humility turns to fire. And that fire turns to greatness." When I lost, I started over. Just like John. And now, if the president calls, I'm ready. -- Listen now to my interview with John Wallace to hear his "choose yourself" story : "From Carjacking to World Excellence." Then I hope you share yours. Email me at chooseyourselfstory@gmail.com ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

19 Juli 201644min

Mick Jagger fooled around with Keith Richards' girlfriend. I wouldn't be able to work with someone after that. But maybe that's why I'm author. And not a rockstar. The Rolling Stones became a new band every 5-7 years. They were "perpetual amateurs." That's one of the keys to staying alive as an artist. Or as an entrepreneur. Or staying alive at all... "Remain the same but different." And be "open to influence," Rich Cohen said. He wrote "The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones," an incredible book about the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time, fate, creation, sex, influence and the art of reinventing yourself. It was "the gig of a century:" touring with The Rolling Stones the summer of '94. Then Rich worked with Mick Jagger on the HBO series "Vinyl." But this story isn't just about The Rolling Stones. It's about creation, corruption and reinvention. And the 9 ways you can reinvent yourself today. Listen now to hear half a dozen more stories about rock 'n' roll, fate, influence and inspiration. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Juli 20161h 14min

The party at the apartment one floor up lit lanterns and watched them fly into the sky. It's the type of lanterns you'd see in Asia. I heard her yell, "that's my journey right there! I'm going to be a mom and a doctor!" The lantern flew. "Angels! Angels!" She yelled She passed me a lantern from the balcony above. She must have laid on the ground to get her arm to reach mine. "Don't lose the wax. That's what makes it fly." My friends wrote down wishes, lit the lantern and watched it sink down to the floor 20 feet below. It burned to the ground. The ashes smelt like black popcorn. And my friends began to mourn their dreams. I left the party to read. Dr. Sanjiv Chopra gave me 5 ideas to experiment with. His brother is Deepak Chopra. They wrote the national bestseller, "Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny and the American Dream." (highly recommended) Now Dr. Sanjiv just published, "The Big 5: Five Simple Things You Can Do to Live a Longer Healthier Life." Deepak called it "the lazy person's guide to health and longevity." I am the lazy person. When you listen to today's podcast you'll learn: 1. How to rewire your brain [13:00] 2. Dr. Sanjiv's secret to never getting yelled at by his wife [10:14] 3. What exactly influences your health [38:15] She kept yelling, "Father!" "Angels, take them away." My head got heavy while reading. The party ended. But it was still on my mind. The burnt dreams, the way she moaned to God, the connection between strangers, the distance betweens strangers... From Sanjiv, I learned tricks to live longer. And from the party I learned one trick to live fully... Never depend on a lantern to carry your dreams. Unless you're the lantern. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

5 Juli 201658min

I spoke to Kevin Kelly. He's the founding editor of Wired magazine and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, "The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future." He's a futurist. There are only a few people I trust with predictions about the future. He's one of them. "Tracking is coming. AI is coming. Robots are coming," he says on today's podcast. The future is here. "We can mold it to make it work for us, but we're not going to be able to stop it, or be afraid of it, or be scared of it." On today's podcast, he tells you what to expect. He reveals "the inevitable." And what to do about it now. This episode is not just about what we "know" is coming in the future. It answers the one question we'll never stop asking: "Then what?" It's the question that makes us panic until we find the playground. Or the right woman. We look around, worried, unable to see the small joys. Two men sharing photos of their families. A woman leaning forward to hear her friend better. She's not alone. The trees shake and I'm breathing. Then what? More life. We trip someone by accident, make a small joke, they don't laugh and then the stock market crashes. listen to my interview with Kevin Kelly to hear 5 ways to be on the right side of the future and: Kevin Kelly's techniques to predicting the future - [4:39]  How to discover where there's "a need" for innovation [16:16]  Kevin Kelly's predictions for 100 years from now... and 1,000 years from now [26:08]  Learn how to create a business built around the latest innovations [47:00]  Find out the next biggest platform [52:50] "One of the most valuable things you could do today..." [1:02:43] Plus my latest advice for getting 7 streams of income  [1:05:05] ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

28 Juni 20161h 2min