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Better gloves, fewer stand-ups, no cage: the MMA rule changes insiders want
Joe Rogan sets out his rule changes with Israel Adesanya, Jiří Procházka and Belal Muhammad (up kicks, referee stand-ups, better gloves, covered fingers, no cage), while Royce Gracie, Tank Abbott, Rico Verhoeven, John McCarthy, Justin Gaethje with Trevor Wittman, and Matt Serra's group debate gloves, eye pokes, kicks to the knee and rules that make no sense. Rules decide which techniques count and how fighters get hurt, so the changes the sport's own people keep asking for are worth setting side by side.
Zone 2 and breathless intervals: how experts build the cardio week
Huberman's fitness tools start from 150 to 200 minutes of zone 2 cardio a week and add harder sessions, Rhonda Patrick swaps 10,000 steps for 10 breathless minutes, Stacy Sims tells women to polarize their training and sprint briefly, and Vonda Wright's routine pairs walking with sprinting. Seeing how each of them combines easy and hard work helps a reader spend limited cardio time well.
Laugh first: Mel Robbins on owning the embarrassing moment before others do
Mel Robbins turns a bodysuit disaster into the case that laughing at yourself is a learnable skill that builds bonds and respect, uses a wardrobe failure before a keynote to explain the pratfall effect, and with her daughter Kendall advises beating everybody to your inconvenient truth when you feel like an imposter. Naming the awkward thing yourself takes away its power to embarrass you, which gives anyone dreading a slip in front of others a practical move.
Why winners' advice travels badly: survivor bias and the stories nobody hears
Physicist Bernardo Huberman points to the survivor bias behind famous dropouts, Francis Ngannou talks about luck and the stories nobody hears, and Jeff Dye and Joe Rogan discuss heroes whose advice doesn't transfer. They give a reason to be careful with success stories: the people who did the same thing and failed are not there to be heard, and what worked for one person's circumstances may not work for yours.
Decide, don't leap: Robbins, Grisham and Alli Webb on starting on the side
Mel Robbins tells people with a business idea to decide, not leap, and takes up when to go full-time, John Grisham wrote one page a day at 5 a.m. while still working as a small-town lawyer, and Alli Webb ran a mobile blowout side hustle before it became a shop and then Drybar. Their accounts replace the dramatic jump with a stretch of building beside the old life, which makes a big change something a person with bills and a family can actually start.
Fewer lows before more highs: why removing the negative comes first
Adam Alter advises raising the lows before adding highs, Price Pritchett argues that less negative thinking beats more positive thinking and names five hidden habits of it, and Mel Robbins says the biggest obstacle to her own happiness was the three ways she was blocking it, not a lack of good things. All three start by taking away what drags a life down, which gives people who have added habit after habit without feeling better a different place to begin.
Being yourself means disappointing someone: Bilyeu and Robbins on family guilt
Lisa Bilyeu describes wanting a life her traditional family did not expect, hearing her father say no and deciding for her future self, while Mel Robbins makes disappointing someone the first of her seven truths about being yourself, answers a listener's guilt about moving away from a close family, coaches a law graduate held back from moving by guilt toward her parents, and coaches a new novelist whose mother-in-law disapproves. Together they treat a family's disappointment as a cost of choosing your own life and not as a sign the choice is wrong, which is what people stalled by guilt most need to hear.
The second arrow: pain comes from the event, suffering from the mind
Mel Robbins teaches the Buddhist image of a first arrow that hits you and a second one you fire at yourself, Martha Beck separates clean suffering from dirty suffering and flips the painful thought, stress scientist Elissa Epel says the harm lies less in the event than in how long we keep it alive in our minds afterward, and Peter Sage traces most suffering to life not fitting the pictures we hold of it. Seeing which part of a bad day was the event and which part was added afterward shows a person the only part they can actually reduce.
Protocol overwhelm: why health experts keep returning to a few core habits
Rhonda Patrick says you do not need 50 health hacks, Rangan Chatterjee reduces health to four pillars, Mel Robbins boils expert advice down to breathing, walking and sleep, and Huberman answers a listener's question about protocol overwhelm by saying optimization should serve your life. Their shared answer to endless health information is a short list of basics, which gives an overloaded reader a place to start.
Inspire, don't compete: how comics and MrBeast treat others in their field
Bert Kreischer and Joe Rogan talk about why comics should inspire one another and not compete, Sam Tallent and Rogan discuss why comics need other comics, and MrBeast sees every other creator as a collaborator. For anyone building a career in a crowded field, their accounts make the case for treating peers as company on the road.
Watch what people actually do: how Instagram, Banana Ball and stand-up sets evolved
Kevin Systrom turned a failed check-in app called Burbn into Instagram by following what users loved, Jesse Cole invented Banana Ball by watching fans, and Sam Morril and Joe Rogan talk about how the audience shapes a set, with the crowd as editor. In an app, a ballpark and a comedy club, the product improved when its makers let the audience's behavior decide what stayed.
Where good business ideas come from: Drybar, SciPy and Fadell's painkillers
Alli Webb argues that your idea is right in front of you and grew Drybar out of her own mobile blowout side hustle, Travis Oliphant began SciPy by scratching his own itch, and Tony Fadell holds that great ideas are painkillers. Their accounts point people looking for a business or project toward real problems close at hand.
Betting the company: all-in gambles behind Disney, Pfizer, IT Cosmetics and Banana Ball
Acquired's hosts trace Walt Disney's repeated bet-the-company gambles from Mickey to Disneyland, Albert Bourla recounts Pfizer's all-in bet in its COVID-19 vaccine effort, Jamie Kern Lima had a single ten-minute QVC slot with the whole company riding on it, and Jesse Cole went over a million dollars in debt to launch the Savannah Bananas. Side by side, the stories show how much was staked at the moments these businesses were made, which helps anyone weighing a large risk of their own.
Donald Knuth on His First Programs, Literate Programming, Conway and the Giant Component
Donald Knuth recalls his first programs, literate programming, John Conway, the giant component problem, open source and staying curious.
Chris Duffin on Lex Fridman: 1,000-Pound Squats for Reps, the Engineering of Strength and Reinventing Yourself
Strength athlete and engineer Chris Duffin explains how he squatted and deadlifted 1,000 lbs for reps, plus his hard childhood, reinvention, steroids and feet.
Joe Rogan with the Sober October Crew: Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura and Ari Shaffir on Risk, Celebrity, Forgiveness and Lost Civilizations
Joe Rogan, Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura and Ari Shaffir reunite in suits for a rowdy hang about ski wipeouts, fame, fighting, forgiveness and ancient civilizations.
Who wrote the Bible? Where tradition and modern scholars part ways
Tradition credits Moses with the first five books, Solomon with Proverbs and apostles and their companions with the Gospels, and thirteen letters carry Paul's name, yet many of these books name no author, and most modern scholars doubt or still debate the traditional names for the Pentateuch, John, 1 Timothy, 2 Peter and the letters of John, while nobody knows who wrote Hebrews. Seeing which attributions are secure, such as Paul's for 2 Corinthians, and which are disputed helps a reader take each book on its own terms.
Why would God allow suffering? A rabbi, bishop, imam and philosopher respond
Rabbi David Wolpe, Bishop Robert Barron and Imam Omar Suleiman each take up why there is suffering and evil in a world made by God, Suleiman under the heading of trusting the planner, while philosopher Jack Symes, who calls his position honest agnosticism, raises a systemic problem of evil. Setting the replies side by side lets a reader compare how three faiths and an agnostic handle the same hard question.
Mel Robbins on Conquering Fear of Public Speaking: Preparation, "What's the Best That Can Happen?" and the Harvard Excitement Reframe (with Michelle Poler)
Mel Robbins takes listeners backstage in Dallas to share how she beat her fear of public speaking, plus Michelle Poler's 100-fears lessons.
Carl Hart on Heroin, Cocaine, MDMA and Why Addiction Is Mostly Not About the Drug
Columbia psychologist Carl Hart tells Lex Fridman why most drug effects are positive, addiction is about environment, and adults should be free to use drugs.
Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz on Power, Incentives, Doing Hard Things, UFOs and the Craft of Comedy
Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz range from power and media incentives to discipline, vaccines, UFO lore, American pride and why joke thieves fail.
Chris Williamson on Hidden Metrics, Happiness vs. Success and Tribal Thinking
Chris Williamson and Joe Rogan cover success vs. happiness, hidden life metrics, war heroes, tribalism, sex differences in sport and 2024 politics.
Kevin James and Joe Rogan on 30 Years of Stand-Up, Stage Fright, Community and Building the Boss in Your Head
Old friends Kevin James and Joe Rogan talk early comedy days, stage anxiety, writing, a 41-day fast, his daughter's recovery and self-discipline.
Mel Robbins: "What If It All Works Out?" Six Words to Stop the Worry Spiral
Mel Robbins shares six words that interrupt catastrophizing, plus the Buddhist two-arrows teaching and research on how worry hurts.