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Big Questions with Cal Fussman: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Curiosity Media
As a bestselling author, speaker and one of the greatest interviewers of this generation, Cal Fussman has sat down with some of the world's most influential individuals: Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, Serena Williams, Jeff Bezos, Jack Welch, John Wooden, Al Pacino and hundreds of others, digging deep into their hearts and delivering their wisdom to the rest of the world. Now, in Big Questions, Cal continues his journey. Uncovering the heart, head, and soul of his guests in thoughtful, deep and entertaining conversations.
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- 2 days ago29 min
Gollum Goes to Silicon Valley: How SNL Framed AI
When a CEO who most of America wouldn't recognize on the street gets impersonated by Saturday Night Live, he stops being an expert on the news. He becomes a character in the great drama of our time. Cal starts there and then runs through the week the AI conversation changed, all curated into short clips so you can get caught up without scrolling YouTube at 2 a.m.
- 1 weeks ago40 min
What? Relationships Outperform Algorithms?
Cal becomes curious when he hears about a book that proves just that. He learns from The New Social Code that the most successful people aren't the ones who get the most social media likes – but the ones who have three or four powerful human connections. Authors Greg Pryor and Michael Arena show how those types of connections came together to enable Robert Prevost to become Pope Leo. And they also prove how success in our time can be attained by getting the most out of AI while doubling down on human connections that are based on deep trust.
- 2 weeks ago53 min
Mentors In The Age Of AI
Cal's ongoing look at how humans can get the best out of AI while avoiding the worst goes to an unanticipated place: Mentorship. In the time of a loneliness crisis, will young people rely on AI too much for guidance? Will those who refuse all interaction with AI miss out on its benefits and pay a price? It turns out there's never been a more important time for humans to find the people who can put them on the right path. A conversation with Georgetown professor Eric Koester, author of Super Mentors, shows us where ambition meets guidance in our time. And we're in luck! Eric reveals the best ways humans can connect with the right mentors and use AI as an accelerant, whether you're 18 or 52.
- 3 weeks ago52 min
The Trip That Beats The Bonus
Three young girls leave the United States for the first time and head to Paris on a trip that has been awarded to their mother for extraordinary work. It lands them in a restaurant where they encounter escargot for the first time. Do they devour the snails? Drown them in lemon juice to avoid the taste? Or scramble for the nearest detour?!!! The story is a portal into how the workplace has changed through a report called the Recognition Disconnect. Now, with more than 50 percent of employees surveyed feeling burned out and many fearful of being replaced by artificial intelligence, people desire workplace rewards that are about time with family that actually replenishes. The human connection in this trip shifts the narrative away from the dystopian nightmare of AI taking everybody's jobs. It's told through Xceleration CEO Ben Levenbaum – who commissioned the survey. And seasoned by Frank Congiu, a global thought leader at Randstad – which helped 1.7 million people find jobs last year. In the end, it defines how this podcast has evolved into ways of getting the best out of AI and avoiding the worst. For these reward trips are an innovative way of enabling humans to feel confident and thrive in the age of artificial intelligence.
- Sep 8, 202651 min
Building New Muscles With AI
Cal goes to the heartland to talk with a man who's spent decades teaching kids how to build strength the right way for a conversation on how his training approach overlaps with AI. Turns out, Michael Ockrim uses the same disciplined tactics to build digital muscles that can wrestle down insurance payments. This episode is a real-world look at how anyone (not just tech people) can start putting AI to work in their own life. Michael is a husband, father of four and founder of Mighty Oak Athletic in Westmont, Illinois. Consider this episode solid advice from the heartland.
- Sep 1, 20261h 12m
Tower 2 Fell On His Head: 25 Years Later
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Cal replays one of the most powerful conversations in Big Questions' archive: his interview with Michael Wright, a survivor who was buried alive when Tower 2 of the World Trade Center collapsed on him. Michael was a 30-year-old account executive on an ordinary Tuesday morning when the hijacked planes hit. Cal interviewed him for Esquire Magazine just days after the attack and has replayed his taped recollections every year since Big Questions started. This year, Cal introduces curated archival images from that day, synced to Michael's narrative. The visuals can be found on youtube.com/@bigquestionspodcast. This is the story of how Michael survived after being buried alive near a fireman. He crawled to the fireman and stuck to him "like a sticky burr on a bear's ass." The fireman hacked them both out with an axe. When the story was first published, Esquire called it "the fastest 3,863 words you will ever read." It's a story about adaptation under the worst possible pressure, and about the connection between two strangers that made survival possible. Twenty-five years later, all of those involved still have everything to teach us.
- Aug 25, 20261h 2m
The Future, Interrupted by a Tornado
Mike Bechtel doesn't just study the future — he makes a living seeing it before the rest of us. As a historian, futurist, and professor at the University of Notre Dame, he spends his days tracing the throughlines between what's come before and what's coming next in technology and corporate innovation. In this conversation, Cal and Mike go deep. It's the kind of conversation that makes you lean forward, laugh and stop to ponder. But then a tornado warning cut it short. As Mike went off to safety, Cal realized he'd been in on a treasure of a conversation. We can all be grateful that Mike and his family came through the storm okay . . . and that Mike will be back for some more Big Questions.
- Aug 18, 202658 min
Seeing the Path
Lachi is a blind musician who has produced GRAMMY nominated projects. She's also a GRAMMY trustee. And the voice behind Diseducation — a song built on the idea that the world needs a new way of thinking about disabilityHer latest album, Magnificent, features more than 70 human collaborators at a moment when many in the music industry worry about how AI might be coming to replace them. Cal sits down with her to work through the question at the center of this podcast: How do we get the best out of AI without taking on the worst? For Lachi, AI can open vistas that are closed to the disabled. For a musician, it can also take away a livelihood and steal IP. Lachi and Cal talk about accessibility, authorship, the environmental cost of the data centers powering the future, and what happens when we let AI do the thinking our minds were built to do. It's a conversation about what we all need to do to recognize our best path forward.
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About Big Questions with Cal Fussman
As a bestselling author, speaker and one of the greatest interviewers of this generation, Cal Fussman has sat down with some of the world's most influential individuals: Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, Serena Williams, Jeff Bezos, Jack Welch, John Wooden, Al Pacino and hundreds of others, digging deep into their hearts and delivering their wisdom to the rest of the world. Now, in Big Questions, Cal continues his journey. Uncovering the heart, head, and soul of his guests in thoughtful, deep and entertaining conversations.
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