The Future is How | Best of 2025

We are living in a time where the future feels uncertain. So the question becomes, how do we create what comes next best? In this best-of episode of The Future Is How, you'll hear moments chosen to change how you think, feel, and act when the future feels uncertain. A Michelin-star chef who cooks with uncertainty. A musician, Tahim, who turns sound into a doorway to presence. An illustrator whose work has shaped magazines around the world. A Stanford University communicator who helps ideas move, not just impress. The former chief evangelist of Apple and Canva who understands how belief travels. A Harvard professor behind the longest study ever conducted on a good life. A sleep expert reminding us that tomorrow Begins Tonight. An AI expert and a leadership professor helping us stay human as technology accelerates. And my wife Angela, working with plant medicine and Reiki energy healing, reminding us that creating the future also means listening inward. The godmother of Silicon Valley sharing her trick for reimagining education. A master storyteller who shows how meaning is made. A vulnerability expert and mental health advocate naming what we usually hide. And a modern Socrates asking the questions that gently unsettle what we think we know. This best-of episode is a mosaic of those moments. Short passages chosen not for answers, but for invitations to pause, to reflect, to try something new. And if a moment stays with you, I invite you to listen to the full episode it came from and then take one idea, one question, one small experiment into your own life. Because the future isn't something we predict, it's something we practice. Welcome. To the best of The Future Is How. Today we're actually diving into a topic that has the power to really transform both of our present and our future. Sleep. And sleep isn't just about rest. It's where our minds process, renew, and create the foundation for a better tomorrow. And our guest today, which I'm super excited about to introduce to you, is Els van der Helm. She's a sleep expert, New York scientist, and a junk professor and lecturer, and one of the top 5 sleep experts in the world. When COVID hit, I was super pregnant with our second kid, and I was really stressed about everything. And I thought, okay, I, you know, I need to I need to write about this because I need to release some of this stress. And what I really use my journal for, and I call it almost like a worry dump, I just write down things that happened that day that might otherwise pop back in my mind as soon as I close my eyes and I want to go to sleep. You'll see when you write about it, physically write about it, don't type, physically write about it, it's like a therapy session with yourself. Where you can reframe. You've written down your worry, and as soon as you see it, you know it doesn't really make sense. And then I try to end with kind of thinking about something that I'm grateful for that happened that day, so that I go from kind of this, you know, negative worry stuff over to, okay, but even if I'm worried about that, what are all the good things? What am I grateful for? And we know from scientific studies that focusing on what you're grateful for actually shortens the time that it takes to fall asleep. It's like a brain trigger where your brain knows, oh, diary time, oh, reading time, now come sleep. Today we're diving deep into something fundamental to our well-being. Relationships and happiness. Our guest is someone who knows this terrain intimately, Dr. Robert Waldinger. He's not only a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the director of the world's longest study on happiness, he's also a Zen priest. What are some ways to really improve relationships I'm starting to work on a new book. The working title of the book is Nothing to Fix. And it's about our temptation to feel like we have to fix everything, to fix ourselves, to fix other people. If we all think about trying to fix other people, how well does that work out? It doesn't. So the question is, how do we live with each other? There are always going to be things that don't work so well, that we don't like, that annoy us about the other person, just as we're annoying, right? And so the question is, are these differences livable? And that's something we can check out and discern. I think you and I each have partners, right? And it isn't blissful every moment, right? There are things we get on each other's nerves. And I think that the question is, how do we figure out, how do we live with each other in a way that allows us to be ourselves, but also allows us to accommodate what the other person needs? Today, I'm thrilled to bring you an exciting conversation about futures thinking. Our guest is Lisa K. Solomon, a futurist, author, and designer in residence at the Stanford D School. And her work centers on empowering leaders, communities, and organizations to use futures thinking to design a better tomorrow. So Lisa, it's an absolute pleasure to have you here today. Thanks for joining us. Fredrik, thank you so much for having me. Congratulations on the book and this podcast. I get up every day thinking about how we can get more people feeling that they can shape better futures. So this is a great place for me to be. Wonderful. What is something that you practice and really try to weave into your daily routines as something that allows you to become a better futurist, a better person to really see opportunities in your future too? I try to stay as curious as possible about things going on. I don't need to be the expert on, particularly here living in Silicon Valley and the heart of emerging tech. I'm not the AI expert. I'm not the expert on any emerging tech, but I am curious about how the tech is unfolding. And so I do try to, even without a technology background, you know, look for things that pop up that may like go over your mind, but be like, huh, I wonder what's going on there. So I really try to hold a curiosity and a wonderment about the world that requires an openness, a stance. And certainly, look, Fredrik, I don't need to tell you or others listening, it has been a very hard few years. When we are in a place of reaction and defense, it is hard to be open and to be creative. So that has become the reminder to be open and curious has actually become way more intentional and conscious than it ever was. But I have to do it. Welcome back, Future Ready community. Like in each episode, we explore how to create a better tomorrow through mind state, stories and practices that shape the futures we want to live. I'm beyond excited to have my dear friend and former Google colleague Newton Chang with us. Hi Newton, such a pleasure to have you. Hi Fredrik, good to see you. He's actually the director of health and performance at Google at the moment, and he's also a fitness enthusiast, a leadership expert, and someone who has not only transformed his life but also redefine what it means to thrive in work, well-being, and personal achievement. So let's dive right into that future. It really brings to life this power of vulnerability, right? And when we actually make use of it, it also brings to mind another principle you've been promoting, which is called ikigai. And for those listening, ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning a reason for being. It's about finding the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you get paid for. How has that concept of ikigai shaped your life and helped you to navigate life as well? And how do you use it to guide your decisions? I think I learned that framework maybe about, let's say, 10 years ago. I think I really started pondering some of the components of that, like what do I love and what does the world need. That would have been really during my first job after my undergraduate studies in electrical engineering. So the beginning of my career, I started as a disgruntled engineer, and the company I worked for, the team was great, the people were great, They were all top-notch, and yet I was really discontent. And so you suddenly start bringing up these questions of what's wrong, or what's wrong with me is like the narrative that I was coming up with. It was very self-judgmental because it's like, all, everything's good. Like, you know, there's a career path here, cool technology, great people. Why don't I feel happy? At the time, if I think about what I took stock of in terms of ikigai, in terms of what I loved, I knew I was interested in helping people improve their health and well-being. In terms of what I'm good at, I had a lot of knowledge there. I was good at relationships. And then what I could get paid for, I could do that either again in the fitness industry or companies such as the Googles of the world were starting to actually staff people to care for the health and well-being of their workforce. This shifted me from the electrical engineering world off to business school to study how health and well-being intersects with businesses. And I came out of that and managed to land this role at Google. And that was 16 years ago. 3 years ago is when I went on my mental health leave. I had kind of thought up until then I'd have a singular ikigai. And now that I'm a little older, you see, that's a little naive. I thought my job at Google was my ikigai. It is to a large extent, or a lot of it is. But then life hands you something like a mental health leave, and then it gives you, for whatever reason, this fire to tell your story. You tell your story, you start to see change happening. And so now I feel like life has given me this new tool. I learn about what the skill of vulnerable leadership looks like. I don't know exactly how to get paid for this. You get paid to do talks and workshops. There's something emergent there, but I feel like the world needs it. And then, I'm sure in about 10 to 15 years, life will hand me something different and my ikigai will evolve again. I'm super excited to welcome Kalle Ryan to the show. Kalle is a great friend, creative writer, poet, and a former colleague from Google, where he led communications and helped craft narratives that really inspired and connected teams across the organization. Kalle, it's so great to have you here. It's great to be here, Fredrik, and that's a wonderfully generous and lyrical introduction. I will try and live up to that. But thank you, Master of Words. Maybe I should— I have a t-shirt that says Poet, but maybe I should put Master of Words. That sounds like a great title. But thanks for having me. It's great to talk creativity. It's great to talk storytelling. And generally, it's just always great to talk to you. Creativity isn't just the domain of artists. Sure, it is, and some people are naturally more creative than others. What I always talk about creativity, and certainly in the workshops I do, is it's a way of seeing the world. And I think that really relates to your body of work here around sort of the future mind state. That like, if you choose to see the world through a creative lens, you're gonna see so much more and you're gonna see more opportunities. And of course, all the things that surround you that are challenging and tough and all that, they still exist. But if you're looking at things slightly differently, you're probably going to see more opportunities or you're going to see ways of doing things differently. So I guess what I say is creativity is my compass the whole way along, you know, and communications is kind of the North Star. Storytelling is what I'm always trying to do. Today we're diving into a conversation about inspiration, how it shapes our lives, drives our decisions, and empowers us to lead ourselves and others into what's next. Today's guest is someone who has spent his career understanding the science and power of Adam Galinsky, a renowned expert in leadership, decision-making, and diversity, and a good friend of mine. Adam is also a professor at Columbia Business School and co-author of Friend and Foe, a book exploring the science behind collaboration and competition. His latest book, Inspire: The Universal Path For Leading Yourself and Others, delves into the science of inspiration, how we find it, harness it, and use it to lead more effectively. He has delivered one of the most watched TED Talks ever, How to Speak Up for Yourself, with over 6 million views, helping people finding their voice and expanding their personal and professional boundaries. Welcome, Adam, to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Frederic. I'm so happy to be here. I usually like to start these podcasts with a quick imagination exercise where we imagine it's 5 years into the future, and I want that our guests share their future bio instead of talking about the past that already has happened. So what impact will you have had, and what will you be known for in 5 years, Adam? I was not expecting that question, but I really like it a lot. I think that one of the things about what inspiration is, is inspiration is about having a positive impact on other people. When I inspire someone, I've changed them inside. I've given them this wellspring of hope and possibility. I've made them see a better world. I've filled them with a little bit of courage. I've helped animate them forward. And so, you know, what I want with this book and with the ideas and the research I've done on inspiration is to have that positive impact on others, to help them be more inspiring. And I think one of the things that I truly and fundamentally believe in, and especially with the title of this podcast, The Future Is How, like, how do we do that? How do we get there? What is it? Is really that end result of that. If we can discover that how to be more inspiring, we actually start the process of creating a more inspiring world. Because I truly believe it's this sort of virtuous cycle. Like when I give you inspiring energy, you're more likely to give someone else inspiring energy and they're going to give someone else inspiring energy and we're going to be more inspiring. And so when I'm able to control my emotions, I'm going to help other people control their emotions, et cetera. So my dream is that people read this book, they study the research, they practice the how, and we can get into a lot of how do we do this? How do we become more inspiring? That the world will be a less insecure, anxiety-ridden, lacking control, uncertain place in which people feel more confident and secure that they are in a world full of inspiration. If you could send a message to your future self, what would it say? Probably, you can make things better. There's some way, something different that you can do, whatever the world is like at that moment, you can make it a little better. And just to always be on the lookout for opportunities to make not just your own life better, but other people's lives better. And just be sort of subtly vigilant for the possibilities of a small change that could make the world a better place to be. Today we're talking about something we all need to shape the future: our words. And I couldn't think of a better guest than Matt Abrahams. So Matt is a Stanford lecturer, a communication expert, an author, and someone who is helping thousands become more confident communicators. So Matt, welcome to the show. I'm thrilled to be here. I look forward to our conversation. How do you engage in your podcasts, in your teaching? Like, what are some of the ways you're using to engage with students, with leaders, with maybe your family, right? Or friends or other people? So for me, engagement is really sustained attention. I believe attention is the most precious commodity we have in the world today. Our attention is constantly being pulled in different directions. And sustained attention is engagement. So First and foremost, it comes down to appreciating those that you're speaking with. You have to understand what's important and relevant, salient to them. Many of us, when we communicate, we just broadcast information. Success is getting it out, but that's not correct. Success is landing it, making sure people understand and can act on what you're saying. So engagement, first and foremost, means you have to understand those you're speaking with. And many of us don't take the time to do that work of understanding. Once you understand, you then have to give people something to latch onto so that they stay focused. And there are many ways to do this. I tend to divide it into 3 different ways. One is physical, get people doing something. Second is mental, get them seeing something or engaging in a mental way. And then finally is linguistic through the language and framing that we use. So, a physical engagement tool might be to take a poll or to ask people to watch something. A mental engagement tool might be to use an analogy or to ask a question. And then a linguistic tool might be to ask people to see something in their mind's eye, say, imagine this or picture what it would be like if. So in using all of those tools, you garner focus. And if it's on something that's relevant or framed as relevant for people, they'll pay more attention to it. So I try to do that in all of my communication. And my teaching, my personal, my professional life to really try to help people. Welcome everyone and warm welcome, Mark Champagne. So Mark Champagne is not only the best-selling author of Personal Socrates and host of the Behind the Human podcast, he's here to show us that the mind can be actually trained like a muscle and that one powerful question can shift everything. And that inner clarity might be just our greatest superpower in shaping what's next. So you're also known for someone who loves questions, right? You wrote the book that I have right here, Personal Socrates, where there are just many questions that are super inspiring. What's the one question that you would say What is the most powerful question that you've ever asked? Ooh, that's a powerful question in itself. To get directly to what you asked me, the one that I actually come back to that's probably the most relevant, at least for me, in all use cases is, what am I pretending not to know? And another version of that is, what am I hearing in the whispers? And that's always just a really good check-in at any point to see, okay, is my ego coming up in a situation right now? Am I getting ahead of myself about maybe an opportunity that seems really, you know, bright and shiny? Like, what am I really pretending not to know? Am I leaving wisdom on the table because I'm kind of being, again, the ego being pulled down a track, which is situations I've been in or simply as practical as if I pick this thing up and I put it in my body as food, am I pretending that this is healthy? Right? Same thing with mental nutrition. Am I pretending that I'm going to spend a certain amount of time on this website or that website and it's, I've got to do this for market research, or am I avoiding something? We have the answers to that. It's just, we're also very intelligent in the sense of negotiating ourselves out of actually what we're doing or we want to be doing, and we bring in all these distractions and so forth. Thanks for sharing that. Yes. Yeah. Do you have a question on your side that you come back to often? That is a question that Naveen Jain asked, and that is, what if it were possible? What if it were possible? That optimism, right? That might put a smile on your face and say like, yeah, What if it were possible? I'm joined by someone who's shaped my life and my future more than anyone else. She's a healing artist, a Reiki master, a master gardener, She's my wife, my partner, and probably one of my greatest teachers on this planet. Angela, maybe we can talk about some myths that are around psychedelics, and maybe you can unpack some of them. As you're a certified microdosing facilitator, you are practicing with a lot of clients, but you also follow the research very closely. So One of the myths I think is that we can become addicted to psychedelics. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Okay. Maybe I break it down into answers. The first answer is a personal one. Working with psychedelics, I see it as a way of, of cleansing. I see it as something that you can do once a year or whenever you feel ready. Personally, I do not see it as something that you want to do, like, often, simply because it takes time to integrate and to understand. And so this is the first part of my answer. The second part of my answer is pointing to the research and pointing to the scientists and all those great people out there doing the work on the research side that we heavily rely on. And They say it's quite the opposite. So it actually helps getting off of addictions. Ista Wurtsiki is an educator, journalist, and author of How to Raise Successful People. Her TRICK philosophy, which she hopefully shares more about in today's show, has inspired parents and teachers and leaders across generations and across the world. When did you realize that your approach, what you now call TRICK, and you have to explain what that stands for, was different and needed to be shared? So first, let me explain what TRICK is. TRICK is Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness. And my theory is that you need to, as a parent, trust your child. Because when you trust them to do something, like even when they're small, get dressed by themselves, or pick up their room and clean it up by themselves, they begin to trust themselves. They realize that someone big and important in their life thinks that they're capable of doing this. And by thinking that they're capable, they become capable. So trusting, respecting their ideas means listening to them, not necessarily doing what they say, but giving them the opportunity to explain what's important to them. And independence— everybody wants to have as much independence as possible. We're all human beings, and I would say one of the first things that we all want is independence. As small children, you know, as teenagers— teenagers are— that's a time in life when independence is probably the strongest drive. You want to do things independently. And then collaboration. You know, no one likes to be told what to do. No one, whether they're 3 years old, 10 years old, or 30 years old. They all want to be participating or collaborating with whoever is coming up with the idea that it's going to be happening. K stands for kindness. And honestly, kindness If the world would be governed by kindness, we would not be having all these terrible wars that we have. If people understood that we all want the same thing, we all want to have a home, food, family, love, they would actually work together, hopefully. But with kindness, people will forget what you said, and they may forget what you did. But honestly, they will never forget how you made them feel. Everyone wants to be treated with kindness. Today we're entering the world of art and visual storytelling. My guest today, Francesco Ciccolella, is a Vienna-based artist, illustrator, and designer whose work has been appearing in the New York Times, the Guardian, the New Yorker, MIT Technology Review, Spiegel, Welt, and many, many other covers of books and ideas that have shaped our thinking. And I'm personally very thrilled to say that he has also brought my ideas to life through the incredible sketches, including the one-line illustrations in my book, What's Next Is Now. So your illustrations often reduce things to their essence, as this is really like, I think, one of the most interesting skills to have, right? Like bringing a really complex idea to life in a way that reduces it to their essence. How do you choose what to leave out? I think it's trying to keep in mind what the message or what the essence is. And then I, I think I personally, I just find beauty in this also in this reduction and keeping everything else out that doesn't contribute to the story being told through the image. I think there's this level of communication where it helps to communicate clearly, but there's also this aesthetic level and a level of beauty to it. And I think it was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who said that real beauty or something like this. Real beauty is not when there's nothing more to add, but when there's nothing left to take away, right? It sums it up. And this thinking just resonates with me very much. Today we are not just talking about the future. We're gonna listen to it and we will feel it. My guest Tyler Winnick is an explorer of self, a facilitator of deep inner work, and the creative force behind TAHUM, where his music guides people into presence and discovery. I'm curious about your artist's name, TAHUM. What does the name really mean to you? I think you put a lot of energy and thought into choosing that name. Yeah. But how did you arrive at this being your artist identity, right? And if TAHUM itself was a person, what would their personality be? Interesting. Yeah, so the name TAHUM, it was kind of like a multi-layered gift, I guess. And so when I was first beginning to create this project 5 or 6 years ago, I was doing a lot of the deep inner work. I was going to therapy consistently, working with my mentor every week, and I was speaking with him. I'm like, I'm looking to sort of name this project and I'm not, you know, I'm having trouble figuring out something that like sticks, something that's meaningful and that's not taken. 'Cause you know, nowadays it's pretty hard to name something and that's not already taken. He explained to me that back in ancient times or, you know, tribal societies, Oftentimes the name for something would be the biggest challenge in life. For me, my biggest challenge has been knowing that I am enough. And because I didn't think I was good enough to do my own thing, I sort of would get behind somebody that had a clear vision, produce for them, but then try to skew their vision to what I wanted it to be because I was afraid of doing my own thing. And it was until I read the book, The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. In that book, they speak to the concept of a shadow artist. And so that's when I realized like, oh my God, I'm totally a shadow artist. I've been hiding behind other people because I don't think I'm good enough to share my music. And that was my core trauma anyways. And so TAHUM is essentially, it means the opposite. It means thank you, I am enough. It's actually a combination of two words. So while I was in yoga teacher training, I was studying Sanskrit language. And ta means thank you. And I was also doing a lot of qigong at that time, and then there's like a so hum thing. So I was saying hum a lot, which means like wholeness, enough, oneness. And so I wanted to bake that into the fabric and the DNA of the project with like gratitude for being here and knowing that I am enough so that others may feel the same. Today, I'm joined by Jeremy Utley, one of the sharpest thinkers on creativity, ideas, and now AI. Together, we'll explore what happens when you stop asking what AI can do and start asking what we can create with it. Jeremy teaches at the Stanford D School, co-authored the book Idea Flow and hosts the podcast Beyond the Prompt. I think you said you are the prompt. What do you exactly mean by that? Well, the prompt is the spark. It's what sets things off. You have to be what sets things off. For example, and I'm getting to be the prompt, right? But there's kind of some kind of, you call it, there's priming or context behind that thought. We will do an exercise with students, for example, we say, hey, think of all the things that you can't do. I can't go to the movies this weekend. I can't see my parents this summer. I can't decide on what I want to study. I can't take this class that I really wanted to take, right? We have them write a long list and we have them pair up. We say, okay, now here's the assignment. Frederick, do you have something that you can't do right now? Yes, I can't be with my wife at the moment. She's leading a retreat, actually. Yes. So then the assignment is, in our partners, your partner swaps one word. They replace can't with won't, and they just say, Frederick, you won't be with your wife this weekend. And the student's partner would say, you won't decide what you want to study. You won't take that class. You won't see your parents this weekend. You won't— right? And We'll do another exercise where, what do you have to do? Is there something you have to do, Frederick? Yes. So we just got 3 barn cats this afternoon, so I have to probably feed them later this afternoon. So then your partner would say, replace have to with want to. You want to feed your barn cats later this afternoon. And some of them you're like, well, of course I do. But when somebody says I have to do my calculus 'pset,' and their partner says, 'You want to do your calculus pset.' What they realize— all that to say, I mean, there's a long drawn-out exercise with a lot of different words, but the point is our words matter. And importantly, saying 'won't' instead of 'can't,' saying 'want to' instead of 'have to,' they're high agentic postures. You are causal, not an effect. You aren't the victim of your professor, whatever. You're a cause in the matter. So when we say be the prompt, it's another way of being causal. We are joined by Dalat Kambou, Michelin-starred chef, a creative force, and someone who has really reimagined what food and especially Thai cuisine means in Berlin and beyond. And here's what I want to explore with Dalat today, and what you'll take away from this conversation as well: how food is not only nourishment, but also imagination. How cooking can be a classroom for creativity and empathy, and how every meal can become a ritual of gratitude. If you had to design a future recipe, What would that dish be and what ingredients, preparation, and meaning would go into it? I think in the future that we will all, whatever that dish would be, I can't say exactly one dish, but whatever that dish would be, it would be plentiful of fresh local ingredients that is so diverse and available everywhere. And that is full of nutrition when you eat them. And I think that's something that I wish for the world because, you know, nowadays, if especially in the US, there's a study show that the same vegetable that you grow 5 years or 10 years ago and grow now, they have less nutrition. And I can only hope that the food in the future will reverse that. And everything that we eat is full of nutrition and good for our mind and good for our body, is good for our soul. What's one thing everyone should try differently from today when thinking about food? Learn to share. To share, yes. What do we all get wrong about food? That there is not enough food in the world to share with everyone, or that food is not a part of the culture and it can't be evolved. Food is a part of culture so that it can be evolved, but people often think it can't. Have you ever cooked a meal that completely failed? And what did you learn from it? Absolutely. And even though I didn't learn it right then, now I've learned that preparing is the most important thing ahead of time. If you could invite any historical figure to dinner, who would it be and why? Maybe Einstein. Why him? I would love to talk to him and explore and feel his brain. This is The Future Is How. Today with Suzy Welch, we'll turn purpose from a slogan into a daily behavior so your choices start shaping a future you actually want. You've helped millions navigate work and life with more clarity. Today, I'd love to get very practical. Not find your purpose, but how to feel it and act on it in the middle of real constraints. Suzy Welch is a bestselling author, journalist, educator, and one of the most authentic voices in leadership and purpose today. So let's actually start in the future. Imagine it's 5 years from now. Okay. So introduce future Susie to us. Where are you contributing and what do your days feel like? Okay. What a fabulous question. Look, I hope that future Susie is— I can think of one major difference, but I think I hope future Susie is doing what she's doing right now because I have found my purpose and I'm living it, which is to help other people find their purpose. I have a methodology, it's called Becoming You. I help people learn about and do Becoming You in all sorts of ways, in my classes at NYU, in my open enrollment classes. I just finished doing Becoming You with a couple as part of my own podcast, and we hope to expand the Becoming You process more to couples. And so I actually hope in 5 years I'm doing that just with more people doing it with me, you know, that there'd be more people who know about the methodology and that they'd be practitioners of it themselves, and that we certify coaches in it now, and that there'd be more certified coaches. And that, you know, I would love future Susie to be smiling at all of the people doing this work because I've seen this work change lives. I will say that I hope that future Susie is surrounded by her two existing grandchildren and additional grandchildren yet to come with my, because my other children are now in this place in their life where they're seeking to have children themselves. And so I look forward to continuing to being, my grandchildren call me Kins. It's an old family nickname for me. And so I'm looking forward to being Kins to more than two grandchildren. It's just totally selfish because there's, but they make me so happy. Thanks for sharing that. That's an exciting future. Yes. Today I'm joined by someone who's made a life's work of practicing courage in the face of uncertainty. He's an international keynote speaker, social entrepreneur, and bestselling author of Be More Pirate. Please welcome Sam Conniff. Hello, Fredrik. Thank you very much indeed. What a lovely and concise introduction. That usually makes me squirm. And actually everything you just said there makes me really proud. So thanks very much. So what does being a pirate mean in our world today? And how can rule-breaking actually become the responsible course of action? I think, you know, your journey is well known and a similar, you know, when we spoke, you said you left this role that you had in innovation and futurism and people thought you were mad. I left Liberty where I'd worked for 15 years. We'd won, you know, Agency of the Year, Campaign of the Year. We'd won the Queen's Award. It was, and it was the most joyful thing to work on because not only did we do great client work, but the work itself was a platform for young talent. And I couldn't have been more frustrated by the end of it. Good ideas would be sent to their death on Post-it notes and PowerPoint slides and email threads, and we'd end up doing the same shit under a different name. And it's Einstein, isn't it, who says if you continue to face the same problems with the same solutions that made them in the first place, it's a form of insanity. I'm paraphrasing. Anyone listening who thinks there's, you know, this is catching something with them, hitting a nerve ending, ask a group of people what the last rule they broke was. And I've asked this many, many times, and there'll always be someone who's speeding, uh, and then there'll be someone who's stolen something, and there'll be someone who's very proud that they, um, overwrote a policy at work, or that somebody wasn't getting their expenses, or that they weren't hiring the right people because their filtering process was biased, or whatever it was. And they made an assumption, they made an assessment, they made an adult intelligent decision. And as a result, they felt one of three things. And it's usually pride, because they took a risk and it paid off, or they learned something. Agency, they felt some control over their life. And then either accountability or responsibility, because you've now gone off the edge of the map and you've taken matters into your own hand. And now you feel responsible. Even the people who say they're speeding, it's like, They've assessed that the motorway or freeway is clear. They're late or it's important. They made a judgment about what is safe for them, and then they got to their destination. You know, the assumption that we can't make such decisions is part of the paralysis that comes with it. And who would have thought, if you asked anyone immediately, what are the feelings that come with rule breaking, it might be guilt, shame, regret. Who would have thought that the consistent emotions connected when someone genuinely tells you where they've broken the rules of life is agency, accountability, responsibility, and pride. And I think that speaks to the conundrum that we're in. My guests today, Rich Brayden and Tessa Forshaw, taught innovation at Stanford and Harvard, worked with organizations like Airbnb and Google, and just published a book called Innovation Niche. So you didn't call it just innovation or like the next book on innovation. You call it innovation-ish. So just help me understand what's the ish about. Yeah, we have had students for years who've come into classrooms at Harvard and Stanford as well as boardrooms, and when we have asked them to, you know, step into this place of being innovative and creative, many of them have a physical reaction and shrink back from it. They step away from the brainstorm, they change their body language, and when you ask them about it, that's because to them innovation just feels like this huge, big myth, magical creature thing that's not for them and that they can't do it because they weren't born creative. So we decided the problem wasn't with them. The problem was with the word innovation. And so we decided to make it innovation-ish. And so that you could, you know, kind of sort of do it. And it makes people kind of laugh, just like I saw you did, a small smile. It changes their posture. It changes their relationship to the expectation that's being put on them and how they think that they can engage and show up. Yeah, I think ish means welcome to the party. It means you can do it. It means you have everything you need and you can get better at it. It just, yeah, lowers the bar. Today I'm joined by someone who has spent his life helping people believe. Apple's legendary Chief Evangelist, Canva's Global Voice, and bestselling author, of Wiser Guy and host of Remarkable People, one of the most insightful podcasts on the planet. Guy Kawasaki, welcome to The Future Is How. Wow. You sure you got the right person, man? That is a hell of an introduction, man. Absolutely. I'm pretty sure, yes. So, Guy, before we dive in, I need to share something with you. I wanted to just share a big heartfelt thank you. And I mean that in many ways because you mentioned in your, one of your books that we should take every moment to thank the people that inspired us or even believed in us. And so you probably don't know that you believed in me, but I share a quick story that really, I think, shows that this is something very important and you really help people to believe in themselves and believe in the better. So the very first time I arrived in Silicon Valley, I wasn't at Google yet, right? I was a young researcher at Stanford, full of curiosity but really short on cash. So all I could afford was a secondhand bike. And one day I scrapped together just enough money for a bus ticket to go to the Apple Developer Conference. And I couldn't afford the ticket, so I printed out like a fake press pass, like these IDs that you can get, and I had a Nikon camera, which looked quite impressive. And so they let me in. That bus ride really changed everything for me because in that hall with thousands of others, I came across you and your work. And there was this electricity in the room, the sense of that the future was being created right in front of us. And at the end of the event, I lined up like a fanboy to get one of your books, which Apple was giving away for free, I think, at that time. And when you signed it for me, you didn't just put your name. You wrote something special in it, which stuck with me till now. You wrote, then I can show that, "Kick butt, Frederic." And at that time, I didn't know what that means. What does he mean, like, kick butt, right? German, like, arriving here in Silicon Valley, I, I was, like, confused and said, what does he mean? But now I realize more and more what you actually meant. And that moment really stuck with me. It was more than ink on a page. It was a spark of permission, permission to believe that I could one day play a role in shaping the future too. Is there actually a way to find purpose, or how do we create purpose, you know? Lives. You might not like the answer I have to this question because I cannot ever recall a time where I sat down and set out to find my purpose in life. What I have done through my life, and it has not been planned, is I've gone from things that interest me to other things that interest me. So I fell in love with personal computers when I first used an Apple II, which led to falling in love with Macintosh. I fell in love with many kinds of things. I fell in love with Canva, all these things. And I wish— actually, I don't wish, but you know, maybe from the outside looking in, somebody would say, oh, Guy had a plan. He went to Stanford, he got a degree in psychology so he could understand marketing and behavioral economics. He went to Apple where he was an evangelist. He did this, he did that. He wrote books to position himself as a thought leader that got him consulting and speaking gigs. And Apple brought him back as an Apple Fellow and Chief Evangelist. And then Canva picked him up because Canva was trying to change the world with Canva, and Guy was the man with the plan. And I can tell you that that is all bullshit, because I did not have a plan. I just fell in love with stuff. And I went from one thing to another. I'm not saying I'm recommending this as career advice. I'm just trying to be honest about what I did. And podcasting, I fell in love. And now 6 years later, I'm still podcasting. So that's the way I roll, Frederik. Amazing. I think that's actually the best career advice, right? Is like, don't follow a plan or like don't put a plan in place because you're only going to be disappointed, but experiment, experiment your way forward towards something that interests you and just follow that passion. I think that's a, that's a great advice. Do you think we will all be in love with AI in the future? And that's probably like a bigger question. So, well, I don't know if we will all be in love with AI, but I guarantee you that AI is going to have a bigger impact upon the world than computers and the internet and social media. I think AI is the biggest deal that I have ever encountered in my career. Because I'd like to do what I call a mind state moment. Next, let's take a moment to pause and reconnect. This is your mind state moment, a chance to reset and come back to yourself wherever you are right now. These moments of presence are powerful. They remind us that the future starts from within by shifting how we show up in this very moment. This might be something new to you, Guy, but it's a moment to pause and basically invite our listeners to reflect and practice something for themselves. So let's do this Mindstate moment on evangelism, actually. So I want to make this more tangible for people so that they can probably evangelize something that they care about as well. So wherever you are right now, I invite you to pause. And if you can, maybe just soften your gaze or even close your eyes. If not, if you're driving, totally keep your eyes on the road. Unless you're in a Tesla. Especially if you're in Tesla. Yes, even that recognizes your eyes being closed. And take it just a slow, deep breath in. And now just gently let it go. And I want you to feel your feet on the ground, steady. Feel the air moving in and out of your body. And notice that in this very moment, you are here present and alive. And now bring to mind one idea, one vision, maybe one dream that matters to you. Doesn't need to be big. It doesn't need to be perfect. It only needs to be true. So see this idea as a small flame resting in your hand. And notice its warmth, its flicker, even its fragility, but also its power, because in that light lives possibility. And take a slow breath in and imagine your breath fueling the flame. Take a slow breath out and see the flame even glow brighter. And now I want you to picture yourself sharing this idea, not with the world yet, but with just one person you trust. And see how their eyes lit up when they hear you. Feel how they lean in, drawn to the warmth of your flame. And now imagine that person carries that flame forward to someone else, then another, and another. Your one spark becomes a circle of fire. Your vision becomes a constellation of light across the horizon. This is evangelism at its deepest. Not convincing, not persuading, but igniting a belief. The belief that something better is possible. The belief that we are not alone. The belief that the future is ours to create. So let's breathe in and feel that belief fill your body. Breathing out, and you know already, shaping the future with every choice, every word, every act of courage. When you're ready, you had your eyes closed, just open your eyes again and just carry that flame with you, not as something fragile, but as something eternal, a light to guide you, a light to share, a light for the future. If something in this episode stayed with you, don't rush past it. Sit with it. Try it. Let it change how you show up tomorrow. And if you feel called to share this podcast with a friend or leave a review or a comment, it truly means a lot. It helps these conversations reach people who need them. And if you'd like a quiet moment with your own future, you can also join my next letter. Every edition is a short pause. One question, two perspectives, and one small experiment to try. Because the future isn't something we wait for. It's something we practice. Thank you for listening.