Our guest in this episode is the behavioral scientist Jon Levy, who wrote a book titled You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence which details how Jon had no money, reputation or state-us, but was still able to convince groups of Nobel Laureates, Olympians, celebrities, Fortune 500 executives, and even a princess to not only give him advice, but cook him dinner, wash his dishes, sweep his floors, and then thank him for the experience.

In this episode we sit down with Jennifer Shahade, a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, author, speaker, and professional poker player whose new book, Chess Queens, is the true story of the greatest female players of all time interwoven with her own experiences as a chess champion.

New research suggests people on opposite sides of wedge issues want to listen to each other. We are each eager to hear differing opinions and understand opposing views, and when we do it can change our minds (at least a little), but only when we aren’t triggered by the psychological phenomenon of reactance – one of several ideas we explore in this episode.

In this episode I read an excerpt from my new book How Minds Change detailing the time I spent with canvassers in Los Angeles who went door to door testing different ways to change minds among those opposed to abortion rights, and Chris Clearfield interviews me about that very same book – which is out now and available everywhere.

You can read a sample chapter at this link, and you can subscribe to the new newsletter at this one.

Terry Crews, the actor, the athlete, the artist, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, host of America’s Got Talent  – that Terry Crews joins us to discuss his new book: Tough.

Today, Crews embodies the opposite of toxic masculinity, which one my peers in publishing said we should start calling probiotic masculinity, but in the interview you will hear how that wasn’t always the case. His new book is a detailed, transparent, confessional about who he used to be and what he did to change his mind, change his self, and change his life.

Deliberation. Debate. Conversation. Though it can feel like that’s what we are doing online as we trade arguments back and forth, most of the places where we currently gather make it much easier to produce arguments in isolation rather than evaluate them together in groups. The latest research suggests we will need much more of the latter if we hope to create a new, modern, functioning marketplace of ideas. In this episode, psychologist Tom Stafford takes us through his research into how to do just that.