Crazy Money With Paul Ollinger

This week I speak to three distinguished guests about how money can be used to make the world a better place and how investors large and small can influence corporations to be more responsible global and local citizens.  Up first is Dr. Judith Rodin, former President of both The Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania where she was the first woman to permanently lead an Ivy League Institution. Judith is the author ofThe Power of Impact Investingand Making Money Moral: How a new Wave of Visionarires Is Linking Purpose and Profit, which we discuss today. Judith earned a BA from University of Pennsylvania, her PhD from Columbia and did a post-doctoral fellowship at UC-Irvine. She has also received honorary degrees from Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth and 16 other institutions. She has served on the boards of Citigroup, Comcast/NBC Universal, Young & Rubicam, the NYSE, and many other major corporations and non-profit organizations.  In addition to Dr. Rodin, I speak with Joan King Salwen, CEO of Blue O

That voice in your head isn’t all bad. Sure, it sometimes tells you you’re not good enough or that Bob from Accounting is plotting to get you fired, but your inner dialog can be your friend if you take the time to get to know it. Dr. Ethan Kross is the author of Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It. A Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan and one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind, Ethan studies our internal chatter and methods we can implement to get the good stuff out of it and leave the negative stuff behind. In this most excellent conversation, Ethan and I discuss why it’s so hard to live in the present (and if that’s actually a problem), how to distinguish between rumination and obsession (Bob’s out to get me!), and how social media turns up the volume on some of the more negative aspects of chatter (damn you, Instagram!). He also shares pointers on how I can use my inner voice to improve my golf game. (Full disclosure: these

Lisa Birnbach is the author of over 20 books, includingThe Official Preppy Handbook, which became a cultural phenomenon in the early 1980’s. The book sold more than a million copies, has been cited as an inspiration to the founder of J. Crew and is thought to have boosted the growth of LL Bean.  InT.O.P.H., Birnbach celebrated, skewered, and democratized the concept of preppiness with writing the The New York Times described as “affectionate but acerbic.” Upon re-visiting the book, I found her reflections on money, fashion, status, and the social hierarchy as insightful and hilarious today as they were forty years ago. In this thoroughly enjoyable interview, we talk about the preppy aesthetic, Connecticut, and how the world has (and hasn’t) changed since she launched this juggernaut into being.  Celebrated for her keen eye and sharp wit, Lisa Birnbach is an award-winning journalist, cultural commentator, and best-selling author. She has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Parade, Rolling Stone, an

What would happen if the richest neighborhood in your town declared itself its own municipality, taking with it the tax dollars of the richest 20% of citizens? That is what might happen here in Atlanta where a well-funded group is petitioning to carve the wealthy neighborhood of Buckhead (coincidentally, where I live) away from Atlanta, into its own city. This initiative has gained traction and has a very real chance of making it to the ballot in November of 2022.  Not that Buckhead residents don’t have good reason to be frustrated with local government. Our police force is diminished and demoralized, and crime is simply out-of-control. Aggravated assaults in Buckhead are up 52% this year over an already violent 2020. And at Lenox Square, a mall that is 2 miles away from my home, there have been a half-dozen shootings and many more armed robberies over the past year or so. It’s a total freaking mess.  On today’s episode, I talk to Bill White, the CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, the group behind the initia

Educated at Brigham Young and Emory Universities, Dr. Daniel Crosby is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who studies and writes about the intersection of financial markets and the human brain. A New York Times best-selling author, Daniel has published several books, including The Laws of Wealth and The Behavioral Investor, which we discuss in this episode.  His ideas have appeared in the Huffington Post and Risk Management Magazine, as well as his monthly columns for WealthManagement.com and Investment News. Daniel was named one of the “12 Thinkers to Watch” by Monster.com and a “Financial Blogger You Should Be Reading” by AARP.  In this substantive yet light-hearted conversation, Paul and Daniel examine: • Evolution and how we are the descendants of paranoid, twitchy, and skeptical ancestors • The role of self-esteem in achieving positive financial outcomes • How financial advisors (don’t call them “brokers!”) can keep yo from your own • And, of course…gazelles. He also shares insights into his gu

J.R. Martinez joined the Army to give back to the country that accepted his immigrant, single mother and to earn money for college. As a 19-year-old, handsome Infantryman, he quickly deployed to Iraq. One bad day, his Humvee hit a roadside bomb, trapping J.R. inside where burning fuel literally melted the skin from his face and consumed one of his ears. J.R.’s buddies pulled him clear but not before he suffered third-degree burns over almost half body, broken ribs, damaged lungs and physical scarring that remains to this day. Putting J.R. back together required 34 surgeries over the next few years and lots of emotional work to help him come to terms with his new reality.  Yet after all of that, J.R. calls this devastating event “a blessing.” Early in his long recovery, doctors invited him to visit newly-injured soldiers. By serving these young men and women, J.R. realized his life still had a purpose and that he could contribute to the well-being of others even with his limited physical capacity. The positiv

Stevie Van Zandt is best-known as guitarist and founding member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, and for playing Silvio Dante on HBO's The Sopranos and Frank Tagliano on Netflix's Lilyhammer. But as he shares in his new memoir, Unrequited Infatuations, Stevie has done so much more with his time on this earth, even if it all didn’t go exactly as he might have hoped.  As a producer, songwriter, and arranger, Stevie has helped countless artists make beautiful music. His songs have been performed by Jackson Browne, Pearl Jam, Nancy Sinatra, and many more. He co-produced Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s The River and Born in the USA, acted in the role of Jerry Vale in Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman, programs and hosts two radio channels on Sirius/XM and—somewhere along the way—found time to fight for causes he believed in, most notably Artists Against Apartheid for which he was honored by the United Nations.  In today’s conversation, Stevie shares the frustrations and occasional disappointments of p

(originally posted Sept, 2020) Would you consider yourself a success if you died with $1 million? How about $10 million? Well, what if you died with $0.00?  In his new book, Die With Zero: Getting All you Can from Your Money and Your Life, Bill Perkins challenges you to flout conventional wisdom and spend your money not just before you’re dead, but while you’re still young enough to enjoy it. That’s right, instead of maximizing your net worth at death, he wants you to die having lived a life rich in experiences that your hard-earned money made possible. And he’s not saying you should blow it all on parties or ignore the needs of your kids or charities. He’s just saying that the time to decide how to best invest, spend, gift, or bequeath your fortune--big or small--is while you are still on this side of the dirt and still mobile enough to enjoy it. After all, travel is no fun when you’re too infirm to explore and savor the local culture. So dither not! There will be plenty of time to watch Family Feud and The

(Originally posted June, 2019) Gianni Le Nguyen fled Vietnam at the age of 5. Late one night in the early 1980s, her father wrapped his two young daughters in a fishing net, then rowed a basket boat out to meet a more seaworthy vessel a quarter mile offshore. They spent five days battling storms, illness and pirates who took everything Gianni’s dad possessed, including his official papers. Thus began a beauracratic mess that left her family in refugee camps for over two years before they finally made their way to Beaverton, Oregon. Almost 40 years later, Gianni is a successful entrepreneur, mother of four, and wife to an American dude named Brian. Her journey fits a pattern of Asian immigration that has strengthen the USA. According to Pew Research, "Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other American

Robert H. “Bob” Frank teaches economics at Cornell and is the author of a dozen books, including the one that caught my eye for this week’s topic: Luck and Success: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. Bob cares a great deal about recognizing luck’s role in our success because doing so, he argues, would make us all more grateful, happy, and generous. He also cares because without the “lucky” proximity of an ambulance one cold November morning, he wouldn’t have survived the heart attack that laid him out on the tennis court in Ithaca, NY a few years back. But survive he did and he forged on to continue teaching and writing about status, ambition, spending, social signaling, and the evolutionary traits that lead to such behavior. The Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management Emeritus at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business, Bob’s other books include Luxury Fever: Money and Happiness in an Era of Excess, Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work, and Principles of Macroeconomics, the text

Is there something about being successful that makes you less happy? Do smart people’s over-active brains fill their heads with negative thoughts? If so, how can you calm these voices? These are topics we address today with Raj Raghunathan, the author of the book If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? and the creator of the wildly successful Coursera course called A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment. Raj is also a professor of Marketing at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.  In today’s conversation we talk about how being smart and successful might actually work against you when it comes to being happy, day-in and day-out, why relationships are more important than money, the three main categories of your negative thoughts, and whether happiness is a choice. Learn more about Raj, the book, and take the Happiness Questionnaire on HappySmarts.com. Click HERE to ✍️ RATE / REVIEW Crazy Money! CONNECT WITH PAUL:

Charlie Wheelan is a professor of economics and public policy at Dartmouth College and the author of several books, including Naked Money, Naked Economics, (no nudity in either), and The Centrist Manifesto, all of which we discuss in this episode. The Chicago Sun-Times describes Charlie as someone who “combines a razor-sharp mind with a boatload of charm and impressive expertise in economics and foreign policy,” which might be why his students regularly pick him as one of Dartmouth's 10 best professors. Charlie is also the founder and Co-director of Unite America, a movement of Democrats, Republicans, and independents working together to to put voters first by fostering more representative and functional government. In March, 2009, Charlie ran unsuccessfully for the Congressional seat vacated by Rahm Emanuel who went on to become President Obama’s Chief of Staff. Charlie is a graduate of Dartmouth and holds a Master’s from Princeton and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  In today’s conversation, we talk

Andrew Sullivan’s new book,  Out on a Limb: Selected Writing 1989-2021 captures the best of his three decade quest to identify and share The Truth with his readers. Because his philosophy does not adhere to the predominant narrative of either the Left or the Right, Andrew has made many enemies over the years. He has been called a flaming liberal, a nazi, a misgoynist, a white supremacist, a homophobe, and the Anti-Christ, which is pretty ironic given that he is both gay and a devout Catholic. Yet he forged—and still forges—on, enduring the inevitable slings and arrows that come at anyone who says what few others have the courage or wisdom to articulate. As he shares in this discussion, Andrew writes from a visceral need to make sense of issues that trouble him on a gut level. His work spans social issues from domestic and international politics, to AIDS, religion, cancel culture, and Monica Lewinsky.  Andrew was editor of The New Republic for five years and was a vocal voice in support of gay marriage going b

Oliver Burkeman is the author of the new book, 4,000 Weeks: Time Managment for Mortals, which Adam Grant calls “The most important book ever written about time management.”  In it, Oliver argues that using your life (4,000 weeks = about 80 years) most meaningfully requires abandoning the illusion that we can—or should try to—get everything done. And that the attempt to do so just leaves us miserable and isolated. So indeed, one of the keys to productivity is deciding what to ignore.  Further, Oliver reckons, when you put your existence into the context of the enormity of the universe, you realize that many of our “plans” are just distractions from the knowledge that we will all eventually be dead and won’t be remembered for terribly long. So why shouldn’t we just spend our days taking hikes and cooking for our children? Hey, that’s not a bad question.  I am a big fan of Oliver’s deeply-informed, highly-thoughtful, and quite funny writing. On his first Crazy Money appearance, we discussed his book, The Antidot

Hello! My name is Mike Carano, I edit Crazy Money. At my suggestion I interviewed Paul for this weeks episode, and unexpectedly didn't get to a single question that I painstakingly crafted. In this episode we talk about stand-up (I worked at The Improv comedy club for 30 years), the origin and mission of this podcast, and I attempt to imply his wife is a serial killer. If you're reading this, congratulations, you got to it before Paul could make changes. I sincerely hope you enjoy this conversation, and more importantly, that I'm not boring. If you have an idea for a potential guest or just want to say hi, please email Paul at Paul@CrazyMoneyPodcast.com.  HEY YOU! - Click HERE to ✍️ RATE / REVIEW Crazy Money! CONNECT WITH PAUL:

(Originally posted May, 2020...but so worth another listen) Rabbi Daniel Lapin believes that money is the reward we get when we serve another one of God’s children. Therefore, doing business is doing God’s work. In his videos, courses, and books, Thou Shall Prosper and Business Secrets from the Bible, Rabbi Lapin leverages scripture to weave a passionate and refreshing defense of capitalism. In short: God wants man and woman to be together, to serve one another, and to prosper as a result.  In addition to capitalism, Rabbi Lapin and I discuss Evangelicalism, the Prosperity Gospel (which he completely disavows), the respective financial attitudes of Protestants v. Catholics, and—yes—why Jews are disproportionately good with money.  Full-disclosure: I may be a biased participant in this conversation because the two best financial days of my life were the days I met the late Dave Goldberg and the day I met Mark Zuckerberg. Suffice to say that I have benefited tremendously from my association with The Tribe, even

Life has thrown a lot more than passes at former NFL wide receiver, Mohamed Massaquoi. Born in the United States to parents from Liberia, Mohamed grew up in Charlotte, NC, became a star receiver at the University of Georgia, and was a second round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns. Unfortunately, serious concussions cut his NFL career short, and a couple of years later, an ATV accident resulted in the amputation of his left hand.  As The Dude abides, so Mohamed perseveres. After football and after the accident, Mohamed is pushing himself to new heights and new accomplishments in the field of business. He studied at Harvard Business School and is earning his Masters in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Georgia. The company he founded, Vessol, helps organizations navigate through change, improve their diversity and inclusion, and build stronger teams.  Mohamed and I spoke recently in my basement about his incredible journey. Connect with him on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. === HEY Y

Pete Davis is the author of Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age Of Infinite Browsing. His Harvard Law School graduation speech, which served as the cornerstone of the book, has been viewed over 30 million times.  Pete wants you to commit to some thing, some place, and some one outside of yourself. He believes deeply that doing so will not only be good for your community but it will be GOOD FOR YOU. Because in our modern, connect world, it is just too darn easy spend our lives in Infinite Browsing mode, the state of constantly looking for but never quite committing to a place, person, religion, or way of being in the world. Pete argues persuasively that picking a path and staying on it yields deeply meaningful rewards, including purpose, depth, and community.  Pete lives and writes in Falls Church, Virginia where he works on civic projects aimed at deepening American democracy and solidarity. His opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Daily News, The Guardian, Fast Company and more.  Learn more

(Originally posted September, 2019...but so worth another listen) Princeton economist and Nobel laureate, Sir Angus Deaton co-authored a famous study concluding that well-being peaks at $75k/year in income. But the results of this research are widely misconstrued and go much deeper than that headline. The first question we wrestle with is "what does it mean to be happy?” We also get into health, opioids, and trout-fishing. A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Angus Deaton earned his BA, MA, and PhD at Cambridge. Since 1983, he has been a member of the Economics faculty at Princeton University. He has won many awards, most notably the 2015 Nobel Memorial prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. In 2016, Deaton joined the Order of the British Empire, named Knight Bachelor "for his services to research in economics and international affairs.”  Check out his latest book on Amazon: Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism Write a Review of Crazy Money (for real - do this!

Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Charles Schwab’s popular behavioral economics podcast Choiceology, and the author of the best-seller, How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You are to Where You Want to Be Over the course of her career, she has worked with or advised dozens of organizations on how to spur positive change, including Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, 24 Hour Fitness, Walmart and Morningstar. An award-winning scholar and teacher, Katy writes frequently about behavioral science for major media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, and Scientific American.  She earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (summa cum laude) and her PhD from Harvard University where, she studied Computer Science and Business. === SUPPORT THE SHOW: ✍️ RATE / REVIEW Crazy Money: >> http://ratethispodcast.com/crazyMoney  CONNECT WITH PAUL: