World Renowned Thinker and Harvard Professor Steven Pinker: Human Action Can Improve the World
Steven Pinker shares why there is so much irrationality in the world – including conspiracy theories, belief in fake news, and medical quackery. Learn why he is optimistic about the future of democracy and the world, despite so much negativity and partisanship happening today.
Steve is one of the world’s most renowned thinkers. He is a Harvard University psychology professor and author. Bill Gates called one of Steve’s books his new favorite book of all time.
His most recent book is Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.
Start with Understanding: Change People's Minds Under Impossible Conditions with Best Selling Author and Wharton School Professor Jonah Berger
Have you ever wondered how you could change someone’s mind or make something go viral? Jonah Berger shares what works to change people’s minds – even under almost impossible conditions – and how to make things “catch on.”
Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an internationally bestselling author. He is a world-renowned expert on change and on word of mouth, social influence, viral marketing, and how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. He has taught tens of thousands of students and executives, and advised hundreds of companies including Apple, Google and Nike.
He is the author of The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind and Contagious: Why Things Catch On.
Live A Better, Happier Post Pandemic Life: The 3 Macronutrients of Happiness with Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks
Happiness expert and Harvard Kennedy School Professor Arthur Brooks shares how you can get better at, practice and share happiness and live a better happier post pandemic life. He also talks about how he managed to accomplish three complete job changes over his career.
Arthur is a Harvard professor, PhD social scientist, bestselling author, and columnist at The Atlantic whose focus is providing a roadmap to living a happier better life. Before joining the Harvard faculty, he was president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), one of the world’s leading think tanks, and before that he was a classical French hornist. He is the author of 11 books.
Arthur is the host of the podcast “The Art of Happiness with Arthur Brooks.” His next book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, will be published in 2022.
How Courageous Companies Thrive by Improving the Lives of Everyone They Touch with Former Unilever CEO Paul Polman
Paul Polman is the former CEO of Unilever, one of the largest companies in the world with over 300 brands. Paul helped redefine what being a good company means long before it was acceptable to think about anything besides profits. Paul shares how Imagine, a movement that he co-founded, brings together a critical mass of CEOs across the value chain to move industries toward sustainable impact goals such as climate change and inequality. Learn more about what a good company is and how your business can thrive by giving more than it takes.
Paul is the author of the highly anticipated book Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.
“The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.” Seeing the “Water” - A Different View of The World: Gillian Tett
Gillian Tett, Chair of the Editorial Board and Editor at Large, U.S. of the Financial Times uses her perspective as an anthropologist to explain a wide variety of business and cultural phenomena. She predicted the 2008 financial crisis. Discover how she sees the world today including new phenomena such as crypto currencies, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), artificial intelligence and gaming.
Her new book is Anthro Vision: A New Way to See in Life and Business. Anthropologist Ralph Linton said, “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.”
Solving the World's Biggest Problem and Creating the Impossible Burger with Impossible Foods Founder Patrick Brown
Meat production is one of the world’s greatest contributors to climate change. Patrick Brown, the creator of the Impossible Burger and the Founder of Impossible Foods, wanted to figure out how to make delicious, affordable meat from plants that is better for the environment and consumers. Learn about his journey from Stanford University professor to creating the Impossible Burger and how he built Impossible Foods into the multibillion-dollar company it is today.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: The Greatest Threat Facing the World Right Now and Individual Rights to Privacy
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper discusses the greatest threats, cyber, surveillance, the information being collected on each one of us and individual rights to privacy. Learn how we can protect ourselves against future health or biological threats.
The Secret to Outstanding Achievement with Character Lab Founder and CEO Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth is the Character Lab Founder and CEO and a University of Pennsylvania Professor of Psychology. Angela studies the character traits and habits which predict success. She has studied West Point cadets National Spelling Bee finalists, teachers, sales people and students to determine who is successful and why. A few characteristics emerged as significant predictors of success. Angela shares what the character traits for success are and how we can nurture them.
General Catalyst Chairman and Former American Express Chairman & CEO Ken Chenault: Leadership, Race & Creating Diverse Workforces
Former American Express Chairman and CEO and current General Catalyst Chairman and Managing Director Ken Chenault, shares his thoughts on leadership, race, creating diverse workforces, responsible innovation, and his hope for the future. Ken covers his early life, growing up, his experience leading American Express for nearly two decades through crises and digital transformation, and the advice he gives founders and CEOs building innovative, enduring companies backed by General Catalyst.
Upon Ken’s retirement from American Express, Warren Buffett, the company’s largest shareholder stated, “Ken's been the gold standard for corporate leadership and the benchmark that I measure others against.” Ken is recognized as one of the business world’s experts on brands and brand management. He has been honored by multiple publications including Fortune Magazine, which named him as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in its inaugural list in 2014 and, most recently, in 2021.
Ken serves on the boards of Airbnb, Berkshire Hathaway, Chief, Guild Education, and the Harvard Corporation. He is a co-founder of OneTen, a coalition of leading executives coming together to upskill, hire and advance one million Black Americans over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement. He also serves on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Smithsonian Institution’s Advisory Council for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Unconscious Bias: What Works To De-Bias How We Live, Learn and Work with Harvard Kennedy School's Former Academic Dean Iris Bohnet
Iris Bohnet, the Academic Dean of the Kennedy School and co-Director of the Women and Public Policy Program, shares how simple, evidence-based changes can reduce and neutralize the biased behaviors in classrooms, police departments, and boardrooms; and in hiring and promotion. She is a behavioral economist, combining insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society.
Designing the Future With Materials That Sense, Adapt, Heal & Grow: Founder of MIT's Self-Assembly Lab Skylar Tibbits
Imagine homes that can grow themselves whenever and wherever they’re needed or buildings that can adapt to their environment. We’re limited only by our creativity in designing materials that physically sense, adapt to their environment, heal themselves and grow. Skylar Tibbits shares how we can design simple and elegant materials that harness nature without electronics and batteries.
None Of Us Are Too Small To Make A Difference: Humanitarian & Author Of I Am A Girl From Africa Elizabeth Nyamayaro
Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the author of I Am A Girl From Africa, Special Advisor at the United Nations World Food Programme and founder of the HeForShe movement. She shares her near death experience and how she used adversity to create an opportunity to do greater things. “None of us are too small to make a difference.”
What Leaders and Corporate Boards Can Learn From Boeing’s Mistakes: Harvard Business School’s Sandra Sucher
Boeing’s fall from grace didn’t happen overnight. Sandra Sucher shares five key mistakes made by the CEO and the board of directors.
Her upcoming book is The Power of Trust.
How to Get People to Say Yes: The Godfather of Influence Dr. Robert Cialdini
Warren Buffett recommends Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book Influence, which has sold over 5 million copies, as one of the best business books of all time. Dr. Cialdini shares his latest findings on how we can all use the tactics of influence and persuasion to get people to say “yes” to us. He recently published a new version of Influence.
The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be: Katy Milkman
Wall Street Journal best-selling author Katy Milkman shares science-based ways to create change in our lives. She is a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and author of How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life: William Green
William Green shares investing and life lessons from the world’s legendary investors. Learn the surprisingly simple rules they follow to stack the odds in their favor in both investing and in life. Discover their common approaches to investing, such as sublime indifference to crowd sentiment. William Green is the author of Richer Wiser Happier.
The Empathy Diaries and How Tech Changes Us and Our Relationships: MIT’s Sherry Turkle
Founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self Sherry Turkle shares her personal discoveries with empathy and how tech changes our relationships. She also reveals the implications of constant connection and artificial intimacy.
Losing Trust & Faith in Institutions - Why It’s Happening and the Unexpected Consequences: Yuval Levin
Yuval Levin, Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and founding editor of National Affairs, talks about the collapse of trust in our institutions – public, private, civic and political – and its surprising consequences. He explains why it has happened and how we can rebuild lost trust.
Investing in Positive Social Outcomes with Social Impact Bonds: Tracy Palandjian
Learn from Tracy Palandjian, CEO and co-founder of Social Finance, about using impact investing and social impact bonds for a wide range of social purposes from improving high school graduation to reducing recidivism. Social Finance is an impact investing and advisory nonprofit that has mobilized over $150 million to transform the lives of more than 20,000 individuals across a wide range of issue areas including workforce development, education, and health. To find out more visit socialfinance.org.
Harvard Business School’s Bill Sahlman: What I’ve Learned from Reading 10,000 Business Plans and Investing in Hundreds of Startups
Of the 10,000 business plans Bill Sahlman has read, only 3 companies met their plan. Find out what it takes to succeed. Entrepreneurs have to be really good at running tests and execution trumps idea. Jeff Bezos is the most effective experimentalist in history. Bill Gates did not invent word processing, the spreadsheet, or presentation graphics; rather he took ideas and out executed everyone else.