Hacks & Hobbies

What if the stories you tell yourself are the biggest thing holding you back? In this episode of Hacks and Hobbies, Junaid Ahmed sits down with Jon Bassford, a former lawyer turned nonprofit founder, startup scaler, and organizational strategist, whose superpower is curiosity. Jon shares how being “the inquisitive kid who always sat with the adults” turned into a career of challenging the status quo, rebuilding cultures from the inside out, and helping leaders create teams that feel safe enough to innovate. This conversation dives deep into psychological safety, ego, fear, and the silent stories that run our lives and our companies. From Google’s Project Aristotle to meditation, mindset work, and the book that helped Jon dismantle his shame, this episode is about what really changes when leaders stop pretending to have all the answers—and start getting genuinely curious. Curiosity as a superpower – How Jon discovered that curiosity was his core advantage and used it to transform organizations rather th