The Showtime series Super Pumped told the story of the rise of Uber in a swirl of excess and intrigue. But many startups seem to be run by charismatic CEOs with a big vision, which sometimes turns out to be nothing but an illusion fueled by investor cash. In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we present a conversation about startup culture with New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, whose book inspired the TV series, and two experts on entrepreneurship, Chicago Booth’s Steve Kaplan and Starr Marcello.

How does the experience of poverty shape decision-making? Research suggests that, rather than bad decisions leading to poverty, being poor can lead to some poorer decisions. At the same time, research also indicates that the stark financial choices faced by poor people can actually make them better at assessing the trade-offs involved in some decisions. 

Stakeholder capitalism is the idea that business should be about more than just making money. That seems a world away from the brash financial types of Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel ‘American Psycho,’ or the 1987 movie ‘Wall Street.’ But in this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, Chicago Booth’s John Paul Rollert asks how much we have really moved on, and reflects on the continuing relevance of Easton Ellis’s novel.

Airport bookstores are full of volumes claiming to reveal the secrets of effective leadership, and yet business leaders often don’t seem to be getting any better at actually leading. Some people seem to be born leaders, but many executives really struggle with exercising authority, connecting with, and motivating their workforces, and many ultimately fail to do so. In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast we present a discussion from 2017 how leaders can work on their leadership skills featuring, when we invited Chicago Booth’s Harry Davis, George Wu, and Nancy Tennant.

It’s no revelation that the language we use often says more about us than whatever it’s describing. But what about the number of words? The more we’re surprised by something, the more we’re likely to say about it, and that can reveal all sorts of prejudices that we might not be aware of. In this episode, we chat to Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science at Chicago Booth, about her recent paper on “surprised elaboration.”

Rajat Gupta was one of America’s most successful Indian-born businessmen. In 1994, he became McKinsey’s youngest chief executive and the first who had been born outside of the US. Duing his nine-year leadership, McKinsey’s revenues grew from $1.5 billion to $3.4 billion, its number of consultants went from 3,300 to 7,700, and from having 58 offices in 24 countries, it expanded to 81 offices in 44 countries. But in 2010, Gupta was charged with insider trading, a crime for which he was convicted in 2012, and for which he spent two years in jail. Gupta told his side of the story in his 2019 book Mind Without Fear. In this episode, we bring you audio from 2019, when Gupta spoke to John Paul Rollert, an adjunct associate professor of behavioral science, and a columnist for Chicago Booth Review.

Most of us find it hard to achieve our goals. So how can we set better goals and follow through on them? We put that question to two experts on motivation, Chicago Booth’s Ayelet Fishbach and the University of Pennsylvania’s Katy Milkman.

How carefully do you tend your professional network? How does your network shape your ideas and your behavior? Understanding network theory can both help you become more successful professionally, and to explain political and sociological trends such as polarization, nationalism, and anti-globalization.

As hybrid work becomes increasingly common, organizations and managers are trying to come to grips with the challenges of a partly remote workforce. We consider how hybrid work will shape the labor market with three experts in the theory and practice of hybrid work: Chicago Booth’s Steve Davis and Mike Gibbs, and the University of Chicago’s Melina Hale.

What should the uber wealthy do with their money? How can they leave a lasting legacy? And what responsibilities do they have to society at large? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth’s John Paul Rollert reflects on the role of those at the very top of the 1 percent.