Rad Awakenings With Khe Hy

Our first guest Tiago Forte returns to close out the first season of Rad Awakenings. Tiago's the founder of Forte Labs, an education company focused on productivity and learning. He believes that technology has fundamentally changed the way we work - as entrepreneurs or as knowledge workers. With new multi-billion dollar industries being created each year, there are countless opportunities to create new "lanes" of expertise and ultimately "product-ize" that knowledge. This is a pragmatic conversation where he breaks down how to identify these new pockets of opportunity, become a full-stack freelancer, and create a distributed digital company - all because sharing knowledge is one of life's greatest privileges. + SHOW NOTES: https://radreads.co/tiago-forte3/ + THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR: Does your life insurance policy match your life circumstances? Whether you’re newlyweds, new parents, or new entrepreneurs, Cambridge will work with you to protect what matters most: your family. As an independent broker, Cambridg

April Rinne cannot be described with simple labels. She helps companies, policy makers, and non-profits navigate the new economy. She's a global citizen, having visited over 100 countries in her lifetime and a "career portfolioist." And while she works for herself, don't for a second think that this limits the scope of her work: she's a strategist, start-up advisor, and a World Economic Forum Young Leader who's unafraid to tackle thorny questions. April's life has been deeply influenced by her parents who died in a car accident when she was in her 20s. She lives their values of gratitude, adventure, and financial autonomy by constantly reinventing herself and her career and blazing her own trail each and every day. + SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/april-rinne + SUBSCRIBE: http://rad.family/subscribe

Sergio Brown played high school basketball with Derrick Rose, was coached by Bill Belichick in the NFL, has two degrees, and has worked at Google. Despite barely playing football in high school, Sergio learned the ins and outs of the game at Norte Dame and ultimately joined the Patriots as an undrafted free agent. We discuss his 8 year career in the NFL, the glamor of game day, the physical toll on his body and the transitory life bouncing from team to team. And on current NFL issues, he shares his thoughts on kneeling during the anthem and if he'd let his future son play because of concussions. But an NFL career can only last so long, imagine the loss of identity when you go from being an NFL player to a former NFL player. So with his body pretty much intact, he started his next act, at Google. + SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/sergio-brown + JOIN THE RAD COMMUNITY: http://rad.family/subscribe

Corporate jobs and Sarah Peck do not mesh well - being slouched in front of a laptop under fluorescent lighting isn't her idea of a career. Sarah's mantra has always been: You don't have to do things the way they're always done. To give herself career options, she started a blog as a side hustle and within 3 years it was generating $30k. That, in combination with a minimalist lifestyle gave her the confidence to quit. Her career is now “a collection of projects” - she's a writer, a startup advisor, yoga teacher and podcast host. She shares a DIY playbook to create, market, and sell digital products and her thoughts on credentialing and expertise in the digital age. We look at the work required to achieve diversity both in our networks and our ideas, and what her podcast, Startup Pregnant, can teach us about productivity, prioritization, and professional growth from bad ass new moms who are also entrepreneurs. + SHOW NOTES: http://rad.family/sarah-peck + JOIN THE RAD COMMUNITY: http://rad.family/subscribe

Scott Norton is your prototypical millennial - a tinkerer with a creative and entrepreneurial streak . There's a narrative that the financial crisis crushed economic mobility for an entire generation of Millennials - in fact, Scott's first job was at Lehman Brothers in 2008. Yet for Scott, the crisis catalyzed a trip around Asia on a foldable bike spanning 23 countries and 100 cities. Upon his return he co-founded Sir Kensington's, challenging the consumer goods "complex" of ketchup and mayonnaise. We explore mission-driven businesses - are they marketing hype or changing the world? Regardless, big business has taken to the idea; last year Unilever acquired them for a pretty penny. Scott's got the belt notches: he's a touch above 30 with a spectacular exit.  How does this change someone? For sure, it takes failure off the table. But contentment, being present with loved ones, a quiet mind, and yes - even freedom - don't appear overnight and can remain viscerally elusive. + THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR: Does your lif

What can data tell us about our own humanity? Giorgia Lupi is an information designer, artist and author with a love for creatively representing all types of data. She's the co-founder of the design firm Accurat and few years ago, embarked on a small creative project with a friend. Every week they tracked a feeling, behavior, or event and then hand drew a postcard visualizing the observations. These post cards are delightful and were aggregated in a book called Dear Data and last year were acquired into MoMA's permanent collection. Yet, even with this milestone contentment felt so elusive. Dear Data revealed that tracking the “mundane details” of our lives has the unintended consequence of putting us more in touch with our thoughts; forcing us to hit “pause” on our frenetic lives. And at the end, Giorgia shares a simple way for all of us to set up a small data project on our own lives. + THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR: Does your life insurance policy match your life circumstances? Whether you’re newlyweds, new parents

Chris Schumacher was a hard partying Californian who dealt weed to support his lifestyle. Then one day a suitcase of drugs disappeared - and his life was forever changed. In the mix of rage over the stolen drugs and fear of the consequences, Chris took a man's life and was sentenced to 16-to-life. Chris walked into "The Yard," navigated the gangs, racial tensions, and the unwritten rules all while knowing that as a “lifer” there's a good chance he was never getting out. Chris committed to taking responsibility, getting sober, and preparing himself, just in case, he was given a second chance. He got a college degree and joined a program from The Last Mile where he learned software engineering and developed the Fitness Monkey app. In 2017, after serving 17 years, a parole board granted him his freedom. We discuss his re-entry into society, how he explains his dating status on Tinder, what he'd tell naysayers who don't believe in second chances, and what he misses most about jail. + SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family

What's happening in our brains as we mindlessly scroll social media? Or worse, when we angrily retweet posts from our tribe. Molly Crockett is an assistant psychology professor at Yale University, where she integrates classic social psychology with neuroscience. She explains how our brain's reward system works and how this ties to digital moral outrage. Does outrage serve an evolutionary purpose? What are the social costs and incentives to the outraged individual? And what about the opposite, humble bragging and virtue signaling? Molly also shares how she applies her insights to lead a more focused and productive life. + SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family/molly-crockett + LOOKING FOR A COACH? Whether you need to get unstuck or are committed to self-exploration but don’t know how to begin, the Rad Family has got you covered. We’ve handpicked a group of talented coaches over at http://rad.family/coaching.

Adam Schwartz is the co-founder and COO of TeePublic an e-commerce platform for independent creators. TeePublic is a high growth company with 50+ employees yet is completely self-funded. Is it a lifestyle business? We explore the negative connotation of the term and how it translates into constraints, profitability, and the "life" part of lifestyle. One thing's for sure, irrespective of the name, entrepreneurs have very little mindspace for anything but their companies. And therein lies some of Adam's anxiety around becoming a new father. How does one make room for a new person, when life and work are already all consuming? And consistent with the RadReads ethos, it comes down to the repeated topics of time scarcity, financial security, achievement and how this all ties into our sense of self worth. + SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family/adam-schwartz + LOOKING FOR A COACH? Whether you need to get unstuck or are committed to self-exploration but don’t know how to begin, the Rad Family has got you covered. We’ve han

Liz Flock is a reporter for the PBS NewsHour and the author of The Heart is a Shifting Sea: Love and Marriage in Mumbai. Liz showed up in Mumbai at the age of 21, with no friends, no job, and $100 in her pocket. The story follows three couples in Mumbai where globalization and a growing middle class are budding up against traditions of caste and religion, pitting a newfound sense of agency for many Indian women against a longstanding patriarchal system. These couples as they navigate issues such as mental health, infidelity, divorce, and even the proliferation of pornography. For Westerners, it's an opportunity to contemplate our hyper-individualistic natures and the pursuit of happiness as a cingular goal. Liz and I have a broader discussion around love: Is a couple's natural tendency a drift apart or a pull towards one another? Do we have a mismatch between our expectations and reality? And what lessons can we take from Liz's eight year study on marriage? + SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family/liz-flock + LOOKING

The Wall Street Journal called Tiffany Zhong Venture Capital's Teenage Analyst.  At 21, she's worked at Product Hunt, sourced consumer investments, and is the founder of Zebra Intelligence, a consulting firm for brands trying to understand Gen Z. Her journey starts on Twitter where as a teenager she engaged prominent VCs and tech founders, asking them about their businesses and sharing her views on apps and products. Tiffany gives us both a networking and Twitter 101 as she shares the importance of (digital) emotional intelligence, leading with the question “how can I be helpful” and how, irrespective of your age, everyone has at least one thing they can bring to a conversation: Perspective. Tiffany dropped out of Berkeley after a year and we discuss different learning methods, the importance of college, and how she feels about the lack of a safety net in a degree. Tiffany discusses college students and teens - the "side hustle generation," deft at building e-commerce companies and leveraging their social fol

Dan Sevigny was sensitive kid who had learning difficulties and trouble connecting with his peers. He coped by cutting himself and started using alcohol and pills as a teenager. Which kicked off a 10+ year cycle where drug use, aggression, and petty crime would get him kicked out of school and then sent to rehab. The cycle became more destructive, the aggression turned more violent, the rehab leading to juvie and jail. Dan describes the feedback loops of addiction and how depression made him feel like he was "on fire, with no skin and with everything in his body hurting." Dan makes it extremely clear that there's no silver bullet to recovery, but help came in the form of a mentor, learning about Search Engine Marketing while in rehab, and numerous therapists, particularly around DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). And through all of this, Dan honors his family, his mom and sisters in particular and he surprised me by how often he brings up his own privilege. + SHOWNOTES: http://rad.family/dan-sevigny/ + LOO

Mihir Desai is here to demystify and rehabilitate finance. He's an economics professor at both Harvard Business and Law School and author of The Wisdom of Finance where he uses uses stories from the George Orwell to Kanye West to explain concepts such as options, leverage, and herd behavior, then extrapolating them into broader life lessons. For example blindly following society's expectations is a form of the principal-agent problem. And how professionals love “collecting options,” but forget that for options to work, you need to take risks. We cover Wall Street's culture of fear, his "a-hole theory of finance," and the industry's lack of diversity. We talk more broadly about higher education's "crisis moment" and if credentialing is important in the face of technological innovation (such as cryptocurrencies and social), and why the "free-agent economy" is overhyped. + SHOW NOTES: http://bit.ly/MihirDesai + JOIN OUR NETWORKING WEBINAR: Networking doesn't have to be transactional or slimy - it can absolutel

Lindsay Beck was an outdoorsy 22 year old who had just run a marathon when she was diagnosed with tongue cancer. The typical procedure: removing your tongue and communicating via whiteboard for the rest of your life. But at 22? With a life ahead of her and dreams of finding love and starting a family? Furthermore, chemotherapy (not just for tongue cancer) had a 90% sterilization rate - a fact doctors withheld from their patients and then obviously insurance wouldn't cover egg freezing. During her recovery, Lindsay started the non-profit Fertile Hope to fix both of these flaws. Her goal was for Fertile Hope to cease to exist in 10 years... and it took nine. For her second act, she co-founded NPX Advisors to change the way non-profits are funded, adding transparency and accountability while creating a new security, the Impact Security. Oh, and she and her husband have four young kids, and we discuss prioritization, saying no, and what "family first" means. LOOKING FOR A COACH? Need to get unstuck? Ready to tak

Eugene Wei's career cannot be described succinctly or linearly. He worked as an analyst at Amazon in the late 90s, went to film school, worked as a product manager at startups including Hulu and Flipboard and most recently was head of video for Facebook's Oculus VR. Eugene always "seeks to be a novice" and eschews traditional "career rules." I was drawn to Eugene's blog by his grasp of the written word and the fluidity of his interests, ranging from tech, sports, culture, psychology, media, and storytelling. We talk a lot about reading, writing and communicating - why it's important for product managers to read fiction and how great leaders create leverage through compression - tiny, repeatable and memorable messages. We also discuss what makes Jeff Bezos a unique leader, how to use data to become an “expert” and what he's learned by studying high performance athletes. LOOKING FOR A COACH? Need to get unstuck? Ready to take a risk? Or are you committed to self-inquiry but don’t know how to begin? Look no fur

In the months after the 2016 election, 16,000 women contacted the non-profit Emily's List to learn about running for office, compared to 1,000 the entire prior year. Alessandra Biaggi is one of these new faces in politics. As a young girl she declared at the dinner table that she wanted to be president. She went on to law school, worked as a lawyer for state of NY and then as Deputy National Operations Director for Hillary Clinton's campaign. After the election, she turned despair into action when she realized that in her own backyard, there was a group of senators who were Democrats on paper, yet caucused with Republicans on issues such as immigration and women's rights. She's running a grassroots campaign against a fourteen year incumbent and “kingpin” of NY State politics. We discuss the impostor syndrome that comes with this high-stakes race, speaking up against injustice, coddling kids versus letting them fail, and her advice for center of left men who are all for equality, but fear that the #MeToo movem

My happy place is interviewing a high energy meditator who curses like a sailor. Jeff Warren is a meditation teacher and the co-author of Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics (alongside Good Morning America's Dan Harris). We talk a lot about mental health and Jeff's longtime struggle with ADD, which to this day impacts his sense of acceptance and belonging. This conversation is nothing like what you'd expect from two meditators - it's high energy, very personal, and pragmatic. We cover the daunting long game (i.e. lifetime) of meditation, how the stories around us can shape our reality (à la Sapiens), and how meditation is one of those small habits that unquestionably improves our happiness AND stops the endless and draining mental chatter. LOOKING FOR A COACH? Whether you need to get unstuck or are committed to uncomfortable introspection but don't know how to begin, the #radfam has got you covered. We've handpicked a group of talented coaches over at http://rad.family/coaching.

Abby Raphel is the founder of the Redwoods Initiative, an investment education company for wealthy families and the creator of the Blank Canvas Method for self-discovery. Abby grew up in a two stoplight town rural Florida, where she raised hogs and swam competitively, and was exposed to leadership at a young age when she joined the Future Farmers of America. She started modeling in college and moved to New York with two bags and two phone numbers. But as a "broke and B-rate model," she went on to teach young girls about self-esteem then founded Redwoods, where she helps the uber-wealthy navigate their money. And yes, just because you have money, it does not guarantee fulfillment and meaning. We also discuss self-improvement and privilege, the role of hyper-agents in effectuating change, and confronting your shadow. WANT TO LEARN TO BLOG? Join us for a free, Rad webinar on the basics of blogging. Learn directly from Khe Hy about how to get started, what platforms to use, and how to share your writing on socia

Here's a controversial statement: contemplating your mortality will make you happier.  Frank Ostaseski is a pioneer in end of life care and holds this to be true. Frank co-founded the Zen Hospice Project, the Metta Institute, and is the author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.  Those who repress their fear of death, are missing what it can teach us. The anxieties we often discuss on this podcast, identity, acceptance, self-judgement, and loving unconditionally are all impacted by our views on death. And at the end of life, everything gets distilled into two simple questions: 'Am I loved?' and 'Did I love well?' SPONSORED BY IEX: Interested in joining a growing company at the intersection of finance and technology? IEX's mission is to build fair markets and they've created a next generation stock exchange. The company currently has thirteen open positions in development, listings, compliance, and for its 2018 summer intern program. Visit http://iextrading.com/car

Lisa Daron Grossman landed in Swaziland as a 22 year old Peace Corps volunteer. The country had the world's highest incidence of HIV and lowest life expectancy. Her team's mission: mitigate the impact of the HIV epidemic. She was surrounded by loss and grieving - in her own words "It literally me open, like a sledgehammer to my chest." Yet she was also surrounded by love, family, and community. She returned to the US with unprocessed trauma, depression and illness and living a dual life of odd jobs that eventually led her to the world of coaching. Today, she's launching a cross-country project called the Connection Cure, trekking around the US looking to reinstill our lost sense of community and belonging. SPONSORED BY IEX: Interested in joining a growing company at the intersection of finance and technology? IEX's mission is to build fair markets and they've created a next generation stock exchange. The company currently has thirteen open positions in development, listings, compliance, and for its 2018 summ