The School of Greatness

James Sexton is a divorce lawyer and the author of If You're in My Office, It's Already Too Late: A Divorce Lawyer's Guide to Staying Together. He tells Lewis Howes that marriage is a technology with tradeoffs, and that it erodes through small unaddressed disconnections around sex and money. They discuss Hit Send Now emails, Go Without or Go Elsewhere, prenups, joint and individual accounts, infidelity, and Mating in Captivity.

Brad Beeler, a US Secret Service agent for 25 years and polygraph examiner for 17, is the author of Tell Me Everything. He argues that people disclose the truth when an interviewer builds safety and curiosity, since body language is a poor lie detector. The conversation covers the Buddy framework, FEEL, the crime equation, horns and halos, tactical empathy, confirmation bias, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Terry Bradshaw is a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and a longtime host of Fox NFL Sunday. He argues that lasting change begins when a person accepts that the common factor in repeated failures is himself and speaks openly about depression. The conversation covers his memoir Looking for Terry, his ADD diagnosis after retirement, years of counseling, and a self-honesty exercise he calls mirror evaluation.

David Bach, author of The Latte Factor and The Automatic Millionaire, spent nine years at Morgan Stanley and co-founded a registered investment advisory firm. He argues with Lewis Howes that automated saving and long term ownership of stocks and real estate build wealth, while get rich quick thinking keeps people broke. The conversation covers Smart Women Finish Rich, the Rule of 72, Acorns, and Federal Reserve data on emergency savings.

Vanessa Van Edwards, behavioral researcher and founder of Science of People, is the author of Cues and Conversation. Conversation is a learnable skill, and moving past small talk through deeper levels of intimacy builds the connection that technology cannot supply. Topics include Dr. Dan McAdams' Three Levels of Connection, the Nine Power Questions, Dream Building versus Dream Killing, Conversational Confetti, the Candor corpus, and charisma as warmth plus competence.

Jo Koy, a stand-up comedian performing since 1989 and the winner of Showtime at the Apollo, talks with Lewis Howes about how repeated failure and rejection built the craft behind a career in comedy. The conversation covers his early days at BET's ComicView, Def Comedy Jam, and The Comedy Store, self funding a special after Netflix passed, selling out SoFi Stadium, plus a special co-produced with Martin Lawrence.

Lewis Howes, host of The School of Greatness, examines the fear of starting before the feeling of readiness arrives. The episode argues that preparation can become a sophisticated form of procrastination, and that confidence follows action rather than preceding it. Examples include his interview with Tony Robbins, a Kobe Bryant interview booked the night before, and the launch of The School of Greatness.

Jonathan Fields, author of Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work That Makes You Come Alive and a former securities lawyer, talks with Lewis Howes about burnout and meaningful work. Each person carries a distinct impulse for effort that makes work feel alive, and aligning with it eases burnout. It covers the Sparketype framework, an Indeed report on burnout, Katie Milkman's behavior change research, and Katie Byron's The Work.

Lewis Howes, host of The School of Greatness and author of Make Money Easy: Create Financial Freedom and Live a Richer Life, lays out seven signs that wealth is close before any bank balance confirms it. The episode works through Myron Golden's four levels of value, why moving up levels beats working harder, the practice of measuring runway in months rather than income, and how Toastmasters built the communication skill behind it.

Codie Sanchez, author of Own or Be Owned and host of the podcast Big Deal, is a former journalist who later worked at Goldman Sachs. Business owners build lasting wealth when their companies run on systems and recurring revenue instead of the owner's constant labor. Topics include the OWN system of profit levers, key man risk, lifetime value, Profit First, the wallet share phenomenon, and the ownerscore.com assessment.

Cal Newport, computer science professor and author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, joins Lewis Howes to argue that concentration is growing more valuable as it grows more rare. The conversation covers productive meditation, solitude, and a 30 day digital declutter Newport ran with 1,600 readers who reported back on what they kept, what they dropped, and what they moved off their phones.

Dr. Kim Foster, a family physician of 20 years turned YouTube creator, coach, and author of Redesigning You, joins Lewis Howes. Dr.Kim argues that lasting behavior change stalls because it is an identity problem rather than an information problem. The conversation covers her Recognize, Redesign, Ritualize framework, the bridge identity concept, her metaphor of identity as an operating system running apps, and her decision to leave clinical medicine.

Lewis Howes, host of The School of Greatness and author of Make Money Easy, breaks down the five inherited money beliefs that build a personal financial ceiling: what people like me earn, pain as the price of payment, guilt about wanting more, spending to prove status, and the taboo against talking about money. Includes the 30-day four-number challenge, the 72-hour rule, real hourly earnings, and the second price tag.

Michael Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center (est. November 30, 1986) and author of seven books including Life Visioning, The Answer Is You, and Spiritual Liberation, discusses his path from Morehouse College and USC psychobiology studies through Black Panther Party-aligned activism to spiritual leadership. Topics include his Synthesis Dialogues with the Dalai Lama, presenting Nelson Mandela the Season for Nonviolence Award, induction with Bishop Desmond Tutu into the Martin Luther King Order of Preachers, and United Nations addresses.

Licensed therapist Kier Gaines, author of “It All Starts When You Do: How To Do The Real Work Of Self Healing,” discusses anger, victimhood versus accountability, and identity formation rooted in his upbringing in Washington, D.C. The conversation references “Sapiens” and “The Mask of Masculinity,” alongside journaling as a therapeutic tool, survivor's guilt, and youth mentorship program experience.

Psychologist Angela Duckworth, former McKinsey Consulting analyst and Duckworth Lab founder, is author of Grit, which has sold over 5 million copies, and Situated: Find the People and Places that Bring Out Your Best. The episode references The Person and the Situation, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, the fundamental attribution error research of Dick Nisbett and Lee Ross, and Bob Rosenthal's Pygmalion effect study.

Dr. Katy Milkman, Wharton School professor, host of Choiceology, and co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative with Angela Duckworth, discusses How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Covers Status Quo Bias, Fresh Start Effect, Temptation Bundling, and If-Then Plans, citing studies with Hengchen Dai, Peter Gollwitzer, Marissa Sharif, Hal Hershfield, Ayelet Fishbach, and Kaitlin Woolley.

Sharran Srivatsaa, CEO and managing partner of Acquisition.com alongside Alex and Layla Hormozi, is a former Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse investment banker with a Vanderbilt University MBA and former professional tennis coach to Richard Branson and Bill and Melinda Gates. He discusses frameworks including the Four Money Monsters, Four Goods, Wealth Ladder, Golden Stairways, TIGA, and the 70/20/10 Rule, referencing Rich Dad Poor Dad and Vanguard ETFs VOO and VNQ.

Dr. Bradley Nelson, chiropractor with 38 years experience and creator of the Emotion Code, Body Code, and Heart Code, founder and CEO of Discover Healing, discusses trapped emotions, Heart-Wall theory, and muscle testing methodology. He has certified over 17,000 practitioners across 108 countries, authored The Emotion Code, The Body Code, and The Heart Code, and references emotioncodenow.com and Albert Einstein’s frequency medicine concept.

Amy Cuddy, social psychologist, Harvard Business School lecturer, and former Kellogg School of Management faculty, discusses power posing, postural feedback, self-affirmation theory, and 4-7-8 breathing. Topics include her TED Talk research, meta-analyses of power posing studies, Alison Wood Brooks’s anxiety-reframing research, and her friendship with Alex Wubbels. References include What Every Body is Saying, 12 Rules For Life, and imposter syndrome data from Harvard Business School students.

Dr. Sasha Hamdani, board certified psychiatrist and best-selling author, discusses ADHD, ADD, and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), diagnostic misclassification, and gender disparities in diagnosis age. Topics include her book “Too Sensitive: Rejection, Resilience, and the Science of Feeling Deeply,” medication versus behavioral modification, amygdala hyperresponsiveness, misdiagnosis cycles involving antidepressants, and her personal ADHD diagnosis history.

Transformational coach, hypnotherapist, and author Jim Curtis joins Lewis Howes to break down his Release, Align, Become framework from his book The Book of Possibility. Curtis explains how subconscious identity, forgiveness practices like the Ho'oponopono prayer, and the Three Gs of grounding, giving, and gratitude shape manifestation, confidence, and wealth.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy, founder of Good Inside and author of Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want To Be, presents frameworks including Same Team, Sturdy leadership, and the three lines, alongside the Good Inside app and membership community. Discussion contrasts timeout- and sticker-chart-based discipline with identity-based, connection-first parenting and boundary-setting; Time Magazine has called Kennedy “the millennial parenting whisperer.”

Peter Crone, a human potential expert and performance coach who has worked with PGA Tour golfers, Major League Baseball athletes, and top executives, joins Lewis Howes to break down the difference between willpower and identity, the mechanics of subconscious conditioning, and why healing requires exiting the level of consciousness that created the problem. Crone also discusses his upcoming 2.0 World membership platform and his three month coaching mastermind.

Anthony O'Neal, personal finance expert and author of Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck: The Proven Path to Break Free From Debt, Build Real Wealth, and Live Free on Any Income, outlines a five-phase wealth strategy with Lewis Howes covering consumer debt elimination, emergency fund building, index fund and 401(k) investing, HSAs, 529 plans, tithing, and estate planning through trusts and wills.

Chris Voss, former lead FBI international kidnapping negotiator and founder of The Black Swan Group, discusses tactics from his bestselling book Never Split the Difference, including the Black Swan Method, calibrated questions, and the accusations audit. Voss explains why yes is often a counterfeit signal in negotiation, why no unlocks real progress, and shares FBI hostage cases alongside everyday tactics for negotiating discounts, upgrades, and raises.

Cell biologist and former medical school professor Bruce Lipton discusses epigenetics, quantum biology, and the subconscious mind's role in shaping behavior, health, and belief. Lipton explains the theta brainwave programming window from conception to age seven, the biology of stress and immune suppression, and the four cultural myths from his book Beyond Darwin: How Epigenetics, Quantum Science, and Cooperation Shape Humanity's Future.

Grief expert and bestselling author David Kessler, longtime collaborator of psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and author of Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief, joins Lewis Howes to explain the sixth stage of grief, unattended grief, trigger work, and the Tender Hearts online grief support groups offered through Grief.com and AboutGrief.com.

Psychologist and emotions researcher Susan David, author of Emotional Agility and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Happiness, joins Lewis Howes to explain forced positivity, emotion granularity, self bias, and why the World Economic Forum names emotional agility a core future skill, drawing on two decades of research into grief, resilience, values, and psychological safety.

Jesse Cole, founder of Fans First Entertainment and owner of the Savannah Bananas, author of Find Your Yellow Tux: How to Be Successful by Standing Out, discusses building Banana Ball from a wooden bat league into a billion dollar entertainment brand inspired by Walt Disney and P.T. Barnum. Cole details the Fans First Playbook philosophy, his family's foster care and adoption journey with wife Emily, and scaling from 100,000 to 3.4 million fans annually across six touring teams.

Patrick Teahan, clinical social worker and childhood trauma educator known for his YouTube channel and PatrickTeahan.com, joins Lewis Howes to break down inner child work, re-parenting, and a three-part healing framework: finishing business with family of origin, re-parenting the inner child, and intimacy work. The conversation covers the ACE study, hypervigilance, imposter syndrome, no contact boundaries, and Teahan psychology-journal-published assessment, the Toxic Family Test.

Rob Dyrdek, professional skateboarder turned MTV personality behind Rob & Big and Ridiculousness, and founder of the venture studio Dyrdek Machine, breaks down the Machine Method, his 80-page Rhythm of Existence life operating system, and exits including Superjacket Productions and Street League Skateboarding. He details daily guided manifestation in a Soma Dome, quantified life tracking, Dr. George Pratt, Ray Dalio, and the Do or Die Foundation.

Stanford neurosurgeon and neuroscientist Dr. James Doty, author of the New York Times bestseller Into the Magic Shop and his new book Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation, joins Lewis Howes to explain the brain science of manifestation, covering the salience network, executive control network, value tagging, hedonic happiness versus true fulfillment, and how the parasympathetic nervous system drives compassion and self worth.

Aaron Doughty, YouTube spiritual teacher with over 1 million subscribers and founder of the Shift Academy, joins Lewis Howes to unpack his SHIFT framework for identity transformation. Doughty discusses family constellation therapy, Dr. Mark Wolynn's book It Didn't Start With You, Psycho-Cybernetics, breathwork, the mother-father-child dynamic, and hypnotherapist Dolores Cannon's research on subconscious patterns and nervous system regulation.

Stanford University health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, author of The Willpower Instinct, The Upside of Stress, and The Joy of Movement, joins Lewis Howes to discuss the stress mindset effect, the biology of willpower, and depression recovery through exercise. McGonigal, founder of the Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training Program, also covers the pause and plan response, exercise induced endocannabinoids, and benevolent beliefs research.

Stanford professor, neuroscientist, and bestselling author Dr. Tina Seelig joins Lewis Howes to unpack the science behind luck, drawn from her book What I Wish I Knew About Luck: A Crash Course on Turning Aspirations into Achievements. Seelig, who also wrote What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 and runs Stanford's Entrepreneurship Center, breaks down her Risk-O-Meter framework, the three-part model for catching luck, and the science of reframing failure, risk, and opportunity.

Jamie Sea, entrepreneur, educator, and author who built an eight-figure company after walking away from two seven-figure businesses, joins Lewis Howes to unpack the Wealth Container framework, the five layers of visibility, loyalty, responsibility, ease, and identity that govern financial growth. The conversation covers nervous system regulation, subconscious rewiring, and Human Design as tools for receiving money without burnout or self-sabotage.

Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey, author of the memoir Greenlights and founder of the just keep livin foundation, joins Lewis Howes to discuss his 20-month departure from Hollywood, the goals he handwrote in 1992, and the spiritual reckoning he experienced during a solo trip through the Amazon.

David Bayer, entrepreneur and author of A Changed Mind, joins Lewis Howes to unpack the Golden Equation, desire plus non-resistance equals desired result, along with the Two States of Being, the Core Program, and the Whole Human Framework, a twelve-step model for personal growth rooted in Alcoholics Anonymous. Bayer also details his Decision Matrix for rewiring limiting beliefs.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Mark McLaughlin, author of Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon's Quest to Outthink Fear, joins Lewis Howes to break down the IRIS protocol and the F.E.A.R. framework he uses to dismantle fear under pressure. Drawing on over 1,000 brain surgeries and 8,000 spine surgeries across 25 years, McLaughlin covers the four fear quadrants, self-esteem versus self-identity, and lessons from Iain McGilchrist, Paulo Coelho, and Joseph Campbell.

Gary John Bishop, Glasgow-born author of Love Unfucked: Getting Your Relationship Shit Together and a longtime speaker alongside figures like Tony Robbins and Arnold Schwarzenegger, joins Lewis Howes to discuss relationship breakdown, blame, childhood identity patterns, vulnerability, and the mindset shift that helped him build what he calls authentic wealth in his fifties

Chris Koerner, serial entrepreneur and host of The Koerner Office podcast, breaks down how to launch a business with no money, the barbell method for choosing what to build, Parkinson's Law, and the post and ghost strategy for beating fear of failure. Koerner also shares the story of his daughter's double lung transplant for pulmonary hypertension and the kidney he and his wife each donated to strangers.

Lewis Howes, host of The School of Greatness podcast and author of the book Make Money Easy, shares five wealth-building secrets on money mindset, the shift from active to leveraged income, multiple income streams, the proximity principle, and generosity as a wealth strategy. He cites the nonprofit Pencils of Promise, founder Adam Braun, and income categories including earned, investment, royalty, rental, and digital income, closing with a 30-day wealth-building challenge.

Colin O'Brady -- world record holder for the Explorers Grand Slam (all Seven Summits plus both poles in 139 consecutive days) and first person to complete a solo, unsupported, unaided crossing of Antarctica (The Impossible First, approximately 1,000 miles in 54 days) -- discusses flow state training, Vipassana silent meditation retreats, and the daily mantra "you are strong, you are capable." He covers his recovery from severe burns in Thailand that doctors said would prevent him from walking, his path to winning the Chicago Triathlon 18 months after his accident, the philosophy of infinite love and untapped human potential, and the 50 High Points speed record. Also discussed: competing against British explorer Lou Rudd, wife and co-creator Jenna O'Brady's role in strategy and logistics, and the universality of human potential beyond elite achievement.

Sadhguru, New York Times bestselling author of Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny and Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy, joins Lewis Howes to reframe karma as memory and liberation rather than punishment, explain the yogic concept of vasana, argue that limited identity is the root of all crime, and teach the Shambhavi practice and Inner Engineering method for creating distance between you and your body and mind.

Spiritual coach Katie Clarke explains shadow work, the process of making the unconscious conscious, detailing how unresolved childhood trauma creates shadow selves, protector parts including perfectionism, people-pleasing, and self-sabotage, and energetic frequency blocks to manifestation. Clarke introduces her Law of Displacement for belief rewiring, the Be-Do-Have order of creation from Genesis, the in-between phase of personal transformation, and masculine versus feminine energy polarity. References include the quantum double-slit experiment, Bob Proctor, Myron Golden, and Genesis 1.

Sheleana Aiyana, author of Becoming the One and founder of the Rising Woman community, joins Lewis Howes to discuss conscious relationships, attachment wounds, trauma bonding, and somatic healing. Drawing on Peter Levine's somatic experiencing and his book Waking the Tiger, Imago therapy from Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, and Gottman Institute research, Aiyana covers nervous system regulation, inner child re-parenting, the father wound, and the shadow vows she created with her husband before marriage.

Dr. Shefali Tsabary, clinical psychologist and pioneer of the conscious parenting movement, returns for her third School of Greatness appearance to discuss her books Raising Conscious Daughters and Raising Conscious Sons. The conversation covers conscious parenting, parental emotional regulation, the seven pillars for raising girls (voice, embodiment, enoughness, boundaries, anti-fragility, sovereignty, sisterhood), male initiation, the manosphere, the youth mental health crisis, and the digital hijacking of attention and attachment. Tsabary references her Conscious Coaching Institute and the work of Scott Galloway.

Lewis Howes, three-time New York Times bestselling author and host of The School of Greatness, breaks down five mindset shifts blocking high achievers from manifesting their goals, citing frameworks and language from Dr. Joe Dispenza, Bob Proctor, Rhonda Byrne, and Price Pritchett's Quantum Leap framework, alongside his book The Greatness Mindset and a 30-day embodiment and alignment challenge.

Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, joins Lewis Howes to explore the neuroscience of deep conversation. Topics include the Harvard Adult Happiness Study, neural entrainment, looping for understanding, the three conversation types (practical, emotional, and social), emotional reciprocity, bids for connection, motivational interviewing, the matching principle, and Verna Myers' work at Netflix.