Finding Mastery: Conversations With Michael Gervais

This week’s conversation is with Tara Lipinski, an internationally acclaimed figure skater who you might recognize from her performance at the 1998 Nagano Olympic games where – at age 15 – she became the youngest athlete to win an individual Gold Medal in the history of the Winter Games. Tara is also recognized as the youngest competitor to win the World Professional Figure Skating Championships in 1999 at age 17, and the youngest-ever inductee into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2006.In the now 20+ years since her Olympic triumph, Tara has taken the same championship-style approach to her new role as a TV sports commentator for NBC and Universal Sports – she was the analyst for figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing - where her depth of technical knowledge – and more strikingly – her deep authentic nature – was gripping. Tara is an absolute legend and this conversation is about “the how” that sits underneath her  uncommon commitment to become her very best … I

This week’s conversation is with Daniel Pink, the author of New York Times bestsellers A Whole New Mind, Drive, To Sell Is Human, and When. His books have sold millions of copies, been translated into forty-two languages, and have helped readers and organizations around the world rethink how they live and operate.Daniel received a BA from Northwestern University, where he was a Truman Scholar and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Yale Law School. He has also received honorary doctorates from Georgetown University, the Pratt Institute, the Ringling College of Art and Design, the University of Indianapolis, and Westfield State University.And Daniel has a new book out - The Power of Regret: How Looking Backwards Moves Us - about the transforming power of our least understood yet potentially most valuable emotion: regret. In writing this book, Daniel spent three years examining decades of research and analyzing his own study consisting of over 16,000 individual responses on the science of reg

This week’s conversation is with Ulrich Dempfle, the CEO & Co-Founder of CAROL. Ulrich graduated in mechanical engineering from Germany’s leading tech university and after working with Europe’s top automotive manufacturers, moved to London where he pioneered AI healthcare initiatives, optimizing operational efficiency for the National Health Service.A BBC documentary on reduced exertion high-intensity training (REHIT) made Ulrich realize there was massive potential for a new groundbreaking form of cardio. The problem? REHIT was only possible in a lab setting. So, Ulrich co-founded CAROL and partnered with the world’s leading exercise researchers to take REHIT out of the lab. 40 prototypes later, the world’s first and only REHIT exercise bike was launched. I’ve always been intrigued by cutting edge products and innovative tools that help people enhance their lives and explore their potential – that’s one of the reasons I’ve been so excited about our partnership with CAROL and was so exc

This week’s conversation is with Susan Cain, the author of the bestsellers Quiet Journal, Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts, and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.Quiet has been translated into 40 languages, spent eight years on The New York Times best seller list, and was named the #1 best book of the year by Fast Company magazine, which also named Susan one of its Most Creative People in Business. Her record-smashing TED talk has been viewed over 40 million times, and was named by Bill Gates as one of his all-time favorite talks.Susan also has a new book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, which is one of many reasons why I was excited to speak with her. We talk about what it really means to feel sorrow and longing as part of the human experience, as well as the power of introversion.-----Please support our partners!We're able to keep growing and creating content for YOU because of their support. We believe in their mission and wou

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Ranjay Gulati, the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor and the former Unit Head of the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. Until recently, he chaired the Advanced Management Program, the flagship senior leader executive program, at the school. Ranjay  studies how “resilient” organizations—those that prosper when it’s smooth sailing - and when the seas are wild —drive growth and profitability. His work bridges strategy (establishing clear strategic pillars for growth), organizational design (reimagining purposeful and collaborative organizational systems), and leadership (fostering inspired, courageous and caring execution).The Economist, Financial Times, and the Economist Intelligence Unit have listed him as among the top handful of business school scholars whose work is most relevant to management practice. I’ve known Ranjay for a few years, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to him. He’s got a deep understanding of ho

This week’s conversation is with Jay Glazer, best known as a National Football League insider and TV host for FOX Sports’ award-winning NFL pregame studio show, FOX NFL Sunday. The entire cast, including Jay, became the first sports show inducted into the Television Hall Of Fame in 2019. He is also part of FOX’s Thursday Night Football. Jay was one of the first ever minute by minute breaking online news reporters in the NFL. In 2014, he co-founded the Unbreakable Performance Center, a private training facility frequented by Wiz Khalifa, Chris Pratt, and Demi Lovato, as well as numerous NFL, NHL and MMA athletes.And in 2015, Jay and former U.S. Army Green Beret Nate Boyer (a previous Finding Mastery guest) founded the charitable organization MVP (Merging Vets and Players) to assist combat veterans and former professional athletes, who often faced a tough road adjusting to civilian life. Jay has a new book out called Unbreakable, where he offers insights gleaned from his fight through depres

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Laura Stokes-Greene, one of the best equine sports medicine doctors in the world.Laura is also an avid entrepreneur, focusing on the intersection of medicine, technology, and creativity. She’s utilizing cutting edge biotech to help competing jumper and dressage horses maximize their performance.  Creating innovative therapeutic programs to optimize strength and mobility, Laura emphasizes regenerative medicine with bio-logics such as PRP and stem cells.  An active lecturer and veterinary mentor, she enjoys educating about the human-animal connection and drawing parallels between horses and ourselves.  So that’s why I wanted to have Laura on the podcast - to better understand the human-animal connection and dive deeper into her innovative medical practices that are relevant for humans as well.----Please support our partners!We're able to keep growing and creating content for YOU because of their support. We believe in their missio

This week’s conversation is with Conrad Anker, an absolute legend who has been pushing the limits of mountaineering for the last 30 years, evolving into one of America’s best alpinists. At age 56, Conrad’s resume continues to grow, having notched the long-awaited first ascent of the Meru Shark’s Fin in India with partners Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk in 2011, which led to the Sundance-winning documentary, Meru. Conrad has climbed Everest three times, including a 2012 trip with National Geographic to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first American ascent of the mountain. Though true alpine routes have been his forte, his résumé also includes big wall first ascents on El Capitan and first free ascents in Zion National Park. In 1997 alone, he completed first ascents in Antarctica, Pakistan’s Karakorum and on Yosemite’s El Capitan.So Conrad operates in high consequence environments, places where the luxury of a mistake is often not afforded. Like so many explorers of nature and human nat

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where in 1995, he founded the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and in 1979, its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic.  Jon’s research between 1979 and 2002 focused on mind/body interactions for healing, on various clinical applications of mindfulness meditation training for people with chronic pain and/or stress-related disorders, on the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on the brain and how it processes emotions, particularly under stress.He is the author of 14 books, including the bestsellers Full Catastrophe Living, Wherever You Go, There You Are, and Mindfulness for Beginners. His books and guided meditation programs describe meditation practice in such commonsensical, relevant, and compelling terms that mindfulness meditation practice has become a way of life for thousands of people

This week’s conversation is with Shalane Flanagan, an American endurance legend, being one of the few distance runners to earn first-name recognition rights. Shalane's remarkable career spans nearly 20 years… she’s a 4x Olympian (Athens, Beijing, London and Rio), becoming an Olympic medalist in Beijing.She’s a New York City Marathon champion, where she was the first American woman to win it since 1977.After retiring from professional running in 2019, Shalane underwent two knee reconstruction surgeries, started a new coaching career and became a mom, all while navigating the realities of a global pandemic. In 2021, she undertook a personal mission: Project Eclipse – to run six major marathons in a span of six weeks - as a way to reclaim her love for the sport of running and to bolster her mental and physical health.Shalane also took on the challenge as a way to inspire others to rise up in the face of their own struggles. She completed all six, including the major races Berlin, London, Chicago, Bosto

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Eric Johnson, a Norman Eig Professor of Business, and Director of the Center for Decision Sciences at the Columbia Business School. He has been the President of the Society for Judgment and Decision-Making and the Society for Neuroeconomics. His academic awards include the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Consumer Psychology, Fellow of the Association of Consumer Research, and an honorary doctorate in behavioral economics from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.Eric’s research examines the interface between Behavioral Decision Research, Economics and the decisions made by consumers, managers, and their implications for public policy, markets and marketing.Among other topics, Eric has explored how the way options are presented to decision-makers affect their choices in areas such as organ donation, the choice of environmentally friendly products, and investments. I wanted to have Eric on because I read his latest book, “T

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Chris Mattmann, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also known as JPL.His work has helped NASA explore space, and helped journalists and governments track international financial crime amongst the world’s elite across the globe.Chris is best known for a 20 year career inventing the most downloaded software on the planet culminating from his membership on the Apache Software Foundation Board of Directors (2013-18), creating technology that powers all the data systems in industry including his pioneering work building the Tika library. Tika, the “digital babel fish” is the key technology that solved the Panama Papers and won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 2017. Chris is a frequent keynote speaker in government, academia and industry and his work helped to define the field of data science.At its core, this conversation is an exploration of what it means to innovate - it's about deep learning (one of the core tenets

This week’s conversation is with Angela Duckworth, the founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help children thrive. She is also the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics.A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs.Angela completed her undergraduate degree in Advanced Studies Neurobiology at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. With the support of a Marshall Scholarship, she completed an MSc with Distinction in Neuroscience from Oxford University. She completed her PhD in Psychology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.We all know Angela from her book, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” the #1 New York Times best seller, which was the impetus for our first Finding Mastery con

This week’s conversation is with Doug Abrams, an author and truth hunter.Doug is committed to helping catalyze the next evolutionary stage of our global culture – and he’s worked with some incredible human beings along the way.He co-wrote The Book of Joy with the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, he’s worked with Stephen Hawking on his last book, the global bestseller Brief Answers to the Big Questions, and has had the privilege of working with other Nobel Laureates including Nelson Mandela, Jody Williams, and Elizabeth Blackburn.  Doug is also devoted to spreading the importance of conservation and fighting climate change.He co-wrote his newest book, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, with Jane Goodall. In this urgent book they explore, through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue, one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. What we hope that you take from this conversation is a recalibration - to reconnect with that part inside of you that

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Tommy Wood, a UK-trained MD with a PhD in physiology and neuroscience.He received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge before attending medical school at the University of Oxford.After working as a junior doctor in central London, he moved to Norway for his PhD work and then to the University of Washington as a postdoc, where he’s now an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics.Tommy's work and research interests include the physiological and metabolic responses to brain injury and how that impacts brain health across the lifespan, as well as developing easily-accessible methods with which to track health, performance, and longevity in both elite athletes and the general population.So, this conversation is far more than just how to “live longer” - it’s about first principles to work from, for health – over time – and we also dive deep into best practices to enhance and optimize your brain functioning.----Please support our partners!We're able t

This week’s conversation is with Hillary Allen, an endurance athlete and one of the best mountain ultra runners in the world.Hillary’s career as an endurance athlete has not been straightforward. Through injury, setbacks and unexpected challenges, Hillary’s had to re-think what she considers impossible. Early in her career, Hillary earned the nickname “Hillygoat” when she proved her ability to run fast on steep, technical mountain terrain – a style of running known as Skyrunning.  Since then, she has raced all over the world, racking up wins and course records, establishing herself as one of the best mountain ultra runners in the world. In 2017 she had a life threatening accident, where she fell 150 feet off of a ridge-line during a Skyrace in Tromsø, Norway. She was told she would never run again. After several years of rehab and recovery, Hillary made a full recovery and returned to elite level racing, racing some of her longest and most challenging events post-accident.&n

This week’s conversation is with Chris Burkard, an accomplished explorer, photographer, creative director, speaker, and author. Chris travels to pursue the farthest expanses of Earth, working to capture stories that inspire humans to consider their relationship with nature, while promoting the preservation of wild places everywhere.Layered by outdoor, travel, adventure, surf, and lifestyle subjects, Chris is known for images that are punctuated by untamed, powerful landscapes. Through social media, Chris strives to share his vision of wild places with millions of people, and to inspire them to explore for themselves.His visionary perspective has earned him opportunities to work on global campaigns with Fortune 500 clients, speak on the TED stage, design product lines, educate, and publish a growing collection of books. In this conversation, Chris shares his desire for discomfort and why he continues to choose the road less traveled.----Please support our partners!We're able to keep gr

This week’s conversation is with a legend, Cody Townsend, one of the most awarded skiers in freeskiing history.Cody has evolved from a California beach kid obsessed with the mountains … to now stand atop the pinnacle of the sport.From a successful alpine ski racing career to stunt doubling for Hollywood films, or skiing the “Most Insane Line Ever”, Cody skis some of the most challenging and dangerous lines on the planet - all with an affable nature and a smile on his face.Cody’s latest project, called “The FIFTY,” is in his words, “simple” - it’s a goal he set to try to climb AND ski all fifty of the lines and mountains chronicled in the classic book, “The Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America.”From Alaska to Colorado, California to Baffin Island, these lines are among the most difficult in the world and all of them have at least one historical descent. But no one has skied them all.Cody’s goal is to change that. And in my opinion, there’s no one more suited to do so.He’s about halfway th

This week’s conversation is with Sarah Stein Greenberg, the Executive Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (the “d.school”).For over a decade, she has helped lead the d.school to nurture creative thinkers and doers and help spread the methods of design.Sarah teaches at the intersection of design and social impact - she likes to tinker with old educational formats and adapt them to today’s learners.She has taught the d.school’s foundational class Design Thinking Bootcamp, an experimental course called Design Thinking for Public Policy Innovators, and the long-running, high impact Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, whose students have gone on to design products and services that have helped over 100 million people worldwide.Sarah is also the author of Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Uncoventional Ways.It’s a timely, highly visual resource for people who seek to choose curiosity in the face of uncertainty, filled with ideas a

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Dan Dworkis, an attending emergency physician and professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, where he works at the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center (one of the largest and busiest emergency departments in the country).Before that, he did his training with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency.ER doctors or not, we all face emergencies in our lives– times when we are called on to make a decision to act, or not act – with skill to meet the demands of the moment – whether that’s in an environment of uncertainty, pressure, or even intimacy.Dan believes deeply that all of us can improve how we function under pressure and in doing so perform at our best when we are needed the most. He’s the founder of The Emergency Mind project which helps individuals and teams perform better under pressure both in and out of the emergency department – and that sets the tone for this conversation.----Plea