Kara Swisher: Tech journalist, digital media entrepreneur, and pioneer
Release Date: 02/25/2024
Aimee Boorman: Coaching Simone Biles beyond medals and perfection
The Art of Excellence
Amy Boorman is a decorated and globally respected gymnastics coach, whose career included twelve years coaching the sport’s all-time greatest, Simone Biles. She was named USA Gymnastics Coach of the Year four times and US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year in 2016. She was head coach of the US Women’s Gymnastics Team at the Rio Olympic Games and coached for the Dutch Gymnastics Federation in 2021, including at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Her book is titled: The Balance: My Years Coaching Simone Biles. Summary In this conversation, Aimee Boorman reflects on her evolution from a...
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Elizabeth Rowe: Former Principal Flutist on Redefining Excellence Beyond the Spotlight
The Art of Excellence
Elizabeth Rowe is a leadership and executive coach whose career sits at the unique crossroads of world-class performance, leadership coaching, and advocacy. For two decades, she was the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2018, she made national headlines with a landmark equal pay lawsuit — an act of courage that earned her recognition as one of The Boston Globe’s “Bostonians of the Year,” calling her “The Fighter.” During her TEDx talk The Lonely Onlys, she shared how imagination and vulnerability can help us build connection and community. In her...
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Stanley McChrystal: Four-star General (Ret.) on character and leadership
The Art of Excellence
General Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general and former commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), where he led the nation’s most elite counterterrorism efforts. With 34 years of military service, he’s recognized for reshaping modern warfare and pioneering team-based leadership approaches in high-stakes environments. Today, he is the founder and CEO of the McChrystal Group, a leadership advisory firm that helps organizations adapt and thrive in complex, fast-changing environments. He is the author of multiple...
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Dr. Kwane Stewart: CNN Hero of the Year and Founder of Project Street Vet
The Art of Excellence
Dr. Kwane Stewart is a veterinarian and the co-founder of Project Street Vet, a non-profit that provides free veterinary care for the pets of people experiencing homelessness in cities across the country. His work earned him CNN Hero of the Year in 2023. His book is titled: What It Takes to Save a Life: A Veterinarian’s Quest for Healing and Hope. Summary In this conversation, Dr. Kwane Stewart, a veterinarian and co-founder of Project Street Vet, shares his journey from a successful veterinary career to providing free care for pets of the unhoused. He discusses the...
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Michael Grab: Rock Balancing Artist on Making the Impossible Possible
The Art of Excellence
Michael Grab is one of the world’s premier rock balancing artists. He has created rock art all over the world and has inspired a global movement for stone balancing art. Summary In this conversation, Michael Grab, a renowned rock balancing artist, shares insights into his creative process, the philosophy behind his art, and the technical aspects of balancing rocks. He discusses how he finds inspiration in nature, the evolution of his hobby into a professional pursuit, and the meditative state he enters while creating his sculptures. The conversation also touches on the...
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Dean Koontz: 500 million books sold and counting
The Art of Excellence
Dean Koontz is an author with fourteen number one hardback bestsellers and sixteen number one paperback bestsellers. His books have sold more than 500 million copies in thirty eight languages. His latest book is titled: Going Home in the Dark. Summary: In this engaging conversation, Dean Koontz shares insights into his writing process, the challenges of genre blending, and the impact of his childhood on his career. He discusses the importance of character development, the role of fear in creativity, and the necessity of maintaining a unique voice in writing. Koontz reflects...
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James Lawrence “aka” Iron Cowboy: 100 full distance triathlons in 100 days
The Art of Excellence
James Lawrence has broken two Guiness World Records for endurance racing. He raced a full distance triathlon every day for 100 consecutive days and prior to that he raced 50 full distance triathlons for 50 consecutive days across 50 states. His latest book is titled Iron Hope: Lessons Learned from Conquering the Impossible. Summary In this conversation, endurance athlete James Lawrence shares his incredible journey of overcoming fear, pushing through pain, and achieving remarkable feats in his triathlon quest. He discusses a life-altering bike crash, the mental strategies he employs to...
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Adam Galinsky: Unlocking the formula to inspiring leadership
The Art of Excellence
Adam Galinsky is a social psychologist and a Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. He has published over two hundred scientific articles on leadership, negotiations, diversity, and ethics. He has been a damages expert in numerous defamation lawsuits that have generated more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements, including Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News. His latest book is titled: Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others. Some interesting insights from this episode: · The...
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Diane Boyd: Wildlife biologist and wolf conservationist
The Art of Excellence
Diane Boyd has four decades of experience on behavior, conservation and management of wild wolf populations. In 1979 Diane moved to Montana to study wolf recovery in the Rocky Mountains, from the first natural colonizer to approximately 2000 wolves today in the western United States. Diane has worked for the University of Montana, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Montana. He new book is titled: A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery. Some interesting...
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Laurie Santos: The Happiness Professor on the science of well-being
The Art of Excellence
Laurie is a Professor of Psychology at Yale University. In addition to her work on the evolutionary origins of human cognition, Laurie is an expert on the science of happiness and the ways in which our minds lie to us about what makes us happy. Her Yale course, , teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class became Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years. The online version of the class— on Coursera—has attracted more than 4 million students. She...
info_outlineKara Swisher is the host of the podcast On with Kara Swisher and the co-host of the Pivot podcast with Scott Galloway, both distributed by New York magazine. She was also the cofounder and editor-at-large of Recode, host of the Recode Decode podcast, and co-executive producer of the Code conference. She was a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and host of its Sway podcast and has also worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Her latest book it titled: Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.
Some interesting insights from this episode:
· Her father’s passing when she was just five made her appreciate the ephemeral nature of life and focus on what truly matters.
· A lot of big tech titans have a big deficit in their upbringing and replace it with enablers and fence themselves off from the population, hence their isolation and loneliness.
· With her direct no nonsense approach, she has an uncanny ability to get big people to open up and share unique insights.
· She has been as entrepreneurial and innovative with her career as the tech entrepreneurs she covers for a living.
· She feels Steve Jobs is the most consequential figure of the modern tech era.
· She has called Mark Zuckerberg one of the most carelessly dangerous men in the history of technology.
· “Excellence is doing your very best to get to the heart of something, doing your very best to create something fresh and new, and doing your very best to get it right.”
Notes:
Book: Burn Book: A Tech Love Story
Podcasts: Pivot On with Kara Swisher