The Driving Forces Behind American Greatness

Ron Chernow is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer whose work has deepened our understanding of the men who made history in America, and even inspired Lin Manuel Miranda to write his musical about Alexander Hamilton. In this episode, he and Adam discuss Ron’s new book on Mark Twain, analyze what fuels outsized accomplishments, and dig into what it takes to uncover new insights into the lives of historical figures.

Follow

Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: adamgrant.net/)

Guest: Ron Chernow (Website: ronchernow.com/) 

Links

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow 

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Subscribe to TED 

Instagram: @ted

YouTube: @TED

TikTok: @tedtoks

LinkedIn: @ted-conferences

Website: ted.com

Podcasts: ted.com/podcasts

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/worklife/worklife-with-adam-grant-transcripts

Want to help shape TED’s shows going forward? Fill out our survey!

Learn more about TED Next at ted.com/futureyou

For the Idea Search application, go to ted.com/ideasearch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.