The Thermostat in Your Brain: Pushing Past Your Limits with Nick Thompson (#276)

What if fatigue, fear, and even failure aren’t real limits, but signals from the brain trying to protect us?Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and former Editor-in-Chief of Wired reveals the surprising psychology behind fatigue, focus, and fear and how our biggest limits often come from within.Nick isn’t just one of the most thoughtful leaders in media, he’s also a record-breaking ultramarathoner who’s learned that endurance begins in the mind.This conversation will change how you think about performance, aging, and the power of effort itself.Nick's wonderful new book is The Running Ground. 

We’re told youth is life’s peak — but what if that story is wrong?Stanford psychologist Laura Carstensen reveals how time itself reshapes what we value and how we find meaning. Her research offers profound lessons for living well at every age — and for finding more meaning in the moments we have. It’s a conversation that will change how you think about time, happiness, and life itself.

We’ve entered a new age. Where nature once took a million years to make a few genetic changes, scientists can now make billions in an afternoon — and even imagine adapting humans for life beyond Earth.George Church, a Harvard geneticist, pioneer of the Human Genome Project, and founder of more than 50 biotech companies, helped lay the foundation for CRISPR, personal genomics, and even de-extinction.In this episode, he explains how biotechnology, AI, and materials science are converging to transform life itself -  from reversing aging and curing disease to resurrecting lost species like the woolly mammoth, and one day, helping humanity thrive among the stars.

AI doesn’t just predict our behavior — it can shape it.Cass Sunstein, Harvard professor and co-author of Nudge, reveals how artificial intelligence uses classic tools of manipulation — from scarcity and social proof to fear and pleasure — to steer what we buy, believe, and even feel.Its influence is so seamless, we may not even notice it.The battle for the future isn’t for our data — it’s for our minds.In a world this personalized, how do we keep control of our own minds?

When Vladimir Putin first rose to power, few expected him to become the world’s most confrontational autocrat. Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who has studied and worked with Putin for decades, explains what changed — and why. From paranoia about democracy to the drive to rebuild Russia’s sphere of influence, McFaul shows how personal power and national destiny became one and the same. His insights reveal not just who Putin is, but what he wants next.

The dollar has been one of America’s most powerful weapons and a major source of global influence, in ways few fully realize. It doesn’t just shape trade and finance; it also gives the U.S. a unique window into the world’s financial flows. But what if that power is beginning to slip? Harvard’s Ken Rogoff examines the mounting pressures that could threaten the dollar’s supremacy — and reveals how a cornerstone of U.S. power could also become its Achilles’ heel.

Grief and trauma are part of being human, yet most of us have little idea what to expect. We picture them as overwhelming, endless, and all-consuming. But what if that story is wrong? Columbia professor George Bonanno reveals a surprising truth about how people actually cope — and it may change the way you think about loss.

Artificial intelligence isn’t just another invention — it may be humanity’s first non-biological species. Craig Mundie, former Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer and co-author of Genesis with Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt, explores what happens as AI begins to make decisions once made by humans.Who decides what AI should do? Who makes it obey? And what if it doesn’t?The stakes? Nothing less than the future of human civilization.

What do kitchen renovations, Olympic Games, and nuclear power plants have in common? Most of them fail — spectacularly. World-renowned expert Bent Flyvbjerg explains why 199 out of 200 big projects go over budget, over time, and under expectations — and what the rare successful ones do differently. From Pixar films to the Empire State Building, learn the principles that separate disasters from triumphs.

Populists on the right and left say globalization gutted America’s middle class. David Brooks says that story is “75% bonkers.” In this episode, he reveals what’s myth, what’s true, and the deeper crisis shaping our politics today.