The Tim Ferriss Show

Soman Chainani (@SomanChainani) is a detailed planner, filmmaker, and New York Times best selling author. Soman's debut fiction series, The School for Good and Evil, has sold more than a million copies, has been translated into more than twenty languages across six continents, and will soon be a film from Universal Pictures. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University's MFA Film Program, Soman began his career as a screenwriter and director, with his films playing at over 150 film festivals around the world. He was recently named to the Out100 and has received the $100,000 Shasha Grant and the Sun Valley Writer's Fellowship, both for debut writers. Special thanks to mutual friend Brian Koppelman for making the introduction! Grab a notebook, pay attention, and please enjoy my conversation with Soman Chainani! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by TrunkClub. I hate shopping with a passion. And honestly, I'm not

Adam Robinson (@IAmAdamRobinson) first appeared on this podcast in the "Becoming the Best Version of You" episode (#210) alongside Josh Waitzkin (chess, jiu-jitsu, investing) and Ramit Sethi (personal finance, entrepreneurship). By popular demand, this is a dedicated episode of Adam's stories and life lessons. Adam Robinson has made a lifelong study of outflanking and outsmarting the competition. He is a rated chess master who was awarded a Life Title by the United States Chess Federation. As a teenager, he was personally mentored by Bobby Fischer in the 18 months leading up to his winning the world championship. Then, in his first career, he developed a revolutionary approach to taking standardized tests as one of the two original co-founders of The Princeton Review. His paradigm-breaking -- or "category killing," as they say in publishing -- test-prep book, The SAT: Cracking the System, is the only test-prep book ever to have become a New York Times bestseller. After selling his interest in The Princeton Re

Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) has been called "Silicon Valley's most feared and well-liked journalist" by New York Magazine. Here's just one example: you can graph the impact on Yahoo's stock price by various posts by Kara. That's just the tip of the iceberg. She attended Georgetown's School of Foreign Service prior to changing course to journalism. It turns out many of the skills that would make a good spy are those that make a good journalist: developing sources, asking good questions, scenario planning, and much more. She forged her reputation at the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, and now she spends the majority of her time as Executive Editor of Recode and the host of the Recode Decode podcast. Over the last 11 years and alongside Walt Mossberg, she has also co-produced D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech conference with interviewees such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and many other leading players in the tech and media industries. In this podcast episode, she and I cover a lot of subje

Martin Gibala, Ph.D. (@gibalam) is a professor and chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. His research on the physiological and health benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) has attracted immense scientific attention and worldwide media coverage. Martin has published more than a hundred peer-reviewed articles, is frequently invited to speak at international scientific meetings, and has received multiple awards for teaching excellence. He is also the co-author of the brand-new book The One-Minute Workout: Science Shows a Way to Get Fit That's Smarter, Faster, Shorter. Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Martin Gibala! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can im

Arnold Schwarzenegger (@Schwarzenegger) told you he'd be back. In our first conversation (episode 60), the former Mr. Olympia, Terminator, and Governator shared lessons learned, daily routines, psychological warfare tactics, favorite books, early entrepreneurial ventures (and tips), meditation, and many stories no one had heard before. This time around, the new host of the Celebrity Apprentice answered your most popular and upvoted questions, including some controversial ones. He does not shy away from anything, and this is no exception. In this episode, among other things, Arnold talks about his recent Twitter battle with President-elect Donald Trump, his investment strategies, politics, the state of bodybuilding, his sleep schedule, and many more never-before-told stories. [Special thanks to Daniel Ketchell for pitching the questions here.] He forgot to plug his latest project, however, so I will: tune into the new Celebrity Apprentice Mondays at 8 p.m., or watch it on the NBC app. I hope you enjoy this inc

Whitney Cummings (@whitneycummings) is a Los Angeles-based comedian, actor, writer, and producer. She is the executive producer and, along with Michael Patrick King, co-creator of the Emmy-nominated CBS comedy 2 Broke Girls. She has headlined with comics including Sarah Silverman, Louis C.K., Amy Schumer, Aziz Ansari, and others. Her first one-hour stand-up special, Money Shot, premiered on Comedy Central in 2010 and was nominated for an American Comedy Award. Her second stand-up special, I Love You, debuted on Comedy Central in 2014, and her latest special, I'm Your Girlfriend, premiered on HBO in 2016. Whitney will be publishing her first book later this year, titled I'm Fine... And Other Lies. In this episode, Whitney answers questions submitted by listeners, including: How to overcome codependency Her updated thoughts on marriage The art and luck of creating something funny The benefits of having dogs (or pets in general) How to maximize your creative energy Tips for more effective writing And much, much

For some of you, this may be most important podcast episode you ever listen to. I don't say that lightly. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with my guest, who walks us through gripping stories, tactical details, humor, pain, and emotional redemption. We cover some sensitive and extremely important ground. Thank you, Debbie. Graphic Design USA has named Debbie Millman (@debbiemillman) "one of the most influential designers working today." She is also the founder and host of Design Matters, the world's first and longest-running podcast about design, where she's interviewed nearly 300 design luminaries and cultural commentators including Massimo Vignelli and Milton Glaser. Debbie's done it all. Her artwork has been exhibited around the world. She's designed everything from wrapping paper to beach towels, greeting cards to playing cards, notebooks to t-shirts, and Star Wars merchandise to global Burger King rebrands. Debbie is the President Emeritus of AIGA (one of on

We're going to kick off the year with an in-betweenisode where I answer the most popular questions you've submitted. If you're wondering what you can do to ask a question that gets answered in the future, these are good criteria to follow: I can answer it in a few minutes or less. It will help more than the one person asking. It will not immediately be irrelevant. In contrast, here are some examples of questions that don't generally get answered: "If you had $100 and six months, how would you turn it into $10,000 or $100,000, etc.?" "If there were one particular home business opportunity where I could make $2,000 additional per month, what would you suggest?" If I had the magical answer to either of these, I'd use it for myself! And if there were an answer to share with one of you, I'd share it with my whole audience -- which diminishes its usefulness as a competitive edge considerably. Without further ado, here are the questions I'm answering this time around. Happy New Year! Show notes and links f

This episode is a review of the past year. Since it's been a common request, I thought I'd run through what I do at the end of a year. For the last 6 years, I no longer write resolutions. Instead, I do a post-game analysis where I really look back at the year behind, including what I've learned and what tips and recommendations had the biggest impact on my life. Thank you for all of your support, and I sincerely hope you enjoy my biggest lessons and takeaways from 2016! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. I reached out to these Finnish entrepreneurs after a very talented acrobat introduced me to one of their products, which blew my mind (in the best way possible). It is mushroom coffee featuring chaga. It tastes like coffee, but there are only 40 milligrams of caffeine, so it has less than half of what you would find in a regular cup of coffee. I do not get any jitters, acid reflux, or any type of stomach burn

A.J. Jacobs (@ajjacobs) is a kindred guinea pig of self-experimentation who chronicles his shenanigans in books that seem to keep winding up as New York Times best sellers. The Know-It-All was about his quest to learn everything in the world. In The Year of Living Biblically, he tried to follow all the rules of the Bible as literally as possible. Drop Dead Healthy followed his well- (and ill-) advised experiments to become the healthiest person alive. My Life as an Experiment is about exactly what it sounds like, and It's All Relative -- which will be out in 2017 -- will aim to connect all of humanity in one family tree. A.J. is also the host of the new podcast Twice Removed, which takes a celebrity guest and introduces them to a surprise cousin they didn't know they had. It could be one of their heroes, an old friend, a teacher, etc. In this episode, we talk about: What A.J.'s learned from his experiments His creative process His writing process Tipping points in his life How he learned to love marketing And

This is a special episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. The audio is from a live conversation with not one, not two, but three guests: Josh Waitzkin, Ramit Sethi, and Adam Robinson. Josh Waitzkin is an endlessly fascinating person who gets mentioned a lot on this show for good reason. For the uninitiated, Josh was the basis for the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. He's perfected the techniques that made him into a chess prodigy and a jiu-jitsu black belt, and he shared them in his book The Art of Learning. Ramit Sethi (@ramit) is a personal finance guru who has built a huge company from his blog. He's the best-selling author of I Will Teach You to be Rich. Adam Robinson is the trusted outside global macro advisor to the heads of some of the world's largest hedge funds and family offices. He's written a best-seller on test preparation, developed artificial intelligence text analysis, been recognized as a chess master, and he's hilarious. I hope you enjoy this special edition of the podcast. Show notes an

My first live podcast in New York City was recorded at the 92nd Street Y to a sold-out crowd of about 900 people. This episode comes from The Random Show segment of the evening when I took the stage with Kevin Rose and Matt Mullenweg. Kevin Rose (@KevinRose) has been my partner in crime for many things. He's one of the best stock pickers in the startup world, the co-founder of Digg and Milk, a general partner at Google Ventures, and CEO of Hodinkee. Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) is most associated with a tool that powers more than 25% of the entire Web: WordPress. He's also the CEO of Automattic, which is a multi-billion dollar, fully distributed startup. We talk about lots of things -- including setting goals and New Year's resolutions. I hope you enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Rhone Apparel. Dozens -- maybe even hundreds of you -- have asked me: "What shirts are you wearing in your recent YouTube videos?" Th

Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) is founder and editor-in-chief of Vox, an explanatory news organization that now reaches more than 100 million people each month through articles, videos, newsletters, and podcasts. Previously, he was a columnist and editor at The Washington Post, a policy analyst at MSNBC, and a contributor to Bloomberg. He was named one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington by GQ. He's written for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, and his primary podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, is a long-form interview show where he talks to the smartest people he can find, including past guests like Bill Gates, Rachel Maddow, Andrew Sullivan, Atul Gawande, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield, The Daily Show's Trevor Noah, and more. He also co-hosts The Weeds, a weekly policy podcast with his colleagues Matt Yglesias, and Sarah Kliff. In this episode, we discuss: Influencing the rules of the game by which this country is run (overall politics -- not partisan) How Ezra lost 60 pounds Ezra's asce

Dr. Brené Brown (@BreneBrown) is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Brené's 2010 TEDx Houston talk, The Power of Vulnerability, has been viewed more than 31 million times and is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world. She has spent the past 13 years studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Brené is the author of three #1 New York Times bestsellers: Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection, and Rising Strong. This episode turned into a therapy session of sorts for me because I felt like I needed a lot of help related to topics she has explored. I thought I would give you a sample of some of the highlights -- the things I applied to my own life and have revisited many times since. It's really a sample of a small profile in my new book Tools of Titans. Please enjoy this distilled collection of highlights from Dr. Brené Brown. Be sure to stay tuned for a surprise at the end! Show notes and links for this episode

This is a special episode of the podcast. It's a sample chapter from my new book, Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers. What follows are 17 questions that have dramatically changed my life. Each one is time-stamped, as they entered the picture at precise moments. Enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. In fact, some of my good investor friends in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it's all through smarter software ins

Mark Bittman (@bittman) is the author of 20 acclaimed books, including the How to Cook Everything series, Food Matters, and his latest, How to Bake Everything -- which is on a coveted shelf in my own kitchen. For more than two decades, Mark's popular and compelling stories appeared in The New York Times, where he was ultimately the Lead Food Writer for the Sunday Magazine. He became the country's first food-focused op-ed columnist for a major news publication. He starred in four TV series including the Emmy Award-winning Years of Living Dangerously. He's been a distinguished fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, a fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and was recently appointed to the faculty of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Throughout his career, Mark has strived for the same goal: to make food and all of its aspects understandable -- and he also extends that to a brand-new podcast called Get Bitt. In this episode, we talk about: My fasting regimen -- why I do

Josh Waitzkin is an endlessly fascinating person who gets mentioned a lot on this show for good reason (and he's been a guest not just once, but twice). He was the basis for the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. Considered a chess prodigy, Josh has perfected learning strategies that can be applied to anything, including his other loves of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (he's a black belt under phenom Marcelo Garcia) and Tai Chi push hands (he's a world champion). These days, he spends his time coaching the world's top athletes and investors, working to revolutionize education, and tackling his new passion for paddle surfing (and nearly killing me in the process). I initially met Josh through his incredible book, The Art of Learning, which I loved so much that I helped produce the audiobook (download here on Audible). This episode is a highlight reel of sorts -- lessons I've learned from Josh and shared in my new book Tools of Titans. Please enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.

David "DHH" Heinemeier Hansson (@dhh) is the creator of Ruby on Rails, founder and CTO at Basecamp (formerly 37signals), and the best-selling co-author of Rework and Remote: Office Not Required. Oh, and he went from not having a driver's license at 25 to winning, at 34, the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world. It is often called the "Grand Prix of endurance and efficiency." Listeners had a million questions we didn't get to last time, so he's back for round two because his episode is about to cross a million downloads -- and that's in barely two weeks! In this episode, DHH discusses: Digital security The value of schooling Three questions you should be able to answer Company culture How bladder relief happens in a 24-hour race And much, much more! Please enjoy my round 2 conversation with DHH! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world's largest marketplace o

Derek Sivers(@sivers) is one of my favorite humans, and I call him often for advice. Think of him as a philosopher-king programmer, master teacher, and merry prankster. Originally a professional musician and circus clown (he did the latter to counterbalance being introverted), Derek created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100 million in sales for 150,000 musicians. In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby for $22 million, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. He is a frequent speaker at the TED Conference, with more than five million views of his talks. In addition to publishing 33 books via his company Wood Egg, he is the author of Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, a collection of short life lessons that I've read at least a dozen times. I still have an early draft with highlights and notes. I posted the following on Facebook while writing this chapter: "I might need to do a second volume of [Tools of Titans: The Tactics

I'm excited to bring you a little taste test of a new show format that I've been working on -- The Tim Ferriss Radio Hour. After 200 conversations with a variety of fascinating people, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Foxx, Tony Robbins, Maria Popova, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Amanda Palmer, Malcolm Gladwell, Rick Rubin, Reid Hoffman, Chase Jarvis, Sam Harris, Rainn Wilson, and so many others, I started to spot patterns. This is the premise of my new book Tools of Titans, which is a compilation of all of my favorite habits, philosophies, and tools of world-class performers. This is where Tim Ferriss Radio Hour comes in. In each episode, we'll take a deep dive into one specific topic or tactic, bringing together the collective genius of past guests -- with some new insights from yours truly -- to help you become world class in your own right (if you aren't already). In this episode, we'll be exploring meditation and mindfulness. You'll hear from Chase Jarvis as he explains his top