Football is the American passion, but in many cases, it’s more than just a sport: it’s literally life or death. Acclaimed sports writer Kent Babb witnessed how football and the great coaches that emerge from the sport, help save lives in some of the most impoverished communities across the country. Kent has been a longstanding sports writer for The Washington Post and his work was included three times in The Best American Sports Writing Anthology and was selected in the inaugural edition of The Year's Best Sports Writing. His books include “Not A Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson,” and “Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City.” In the book, Kent recounts his year spent with the Edna Karr High Cougars in the New Orleans Neighborhood of Algiers. Led by the larger-than-life Coach Brice Brown chasing his fourth consecutive title, Coach Brown is focused on something else, giving his kids opportunity, keeping them in school, and keeping them alive. Amidst an epidemic of gun violence, broken homes, and severe poverty Coach Brown often finds himself pushed to his own limits, doing his best to keep his community together. Kent chronicles the euphoric highs and the devastating lows throughout a football season that may seem one-of-a-kind, but unfortunately is far too common across America. And, not every high school like Edna Karr has a Coach Brice Brown, who Kent calls “the greatest manager of human talent ever.” This may be our greatest podcast yet, so with that…let’s bring it in!

“Games are won and lost in practice.” To a lot of people, the pandemic was a show stopping almost world ending event that threw everything into chaos. However, for some people the pandemic was a “forced timeout,” and what do you do in a timeout? You adjust, you re-strategize, you rest, and you rethink your goals. For Paul Epstein, when the pandemic hit, he knew exactly what to do. Prior to the pandemic, Paul took some time to really think about his purpose. What were his non-negotiables, what did he stand for, what really drove him. After a lifetime of working with some of the most prolific franchises in the NFL and NBA, including the San Francisco 49ers, the Sacramento Kings, and the L.A. Clippers, Paul switched gears and founded his purpose and culture driven consultancy group, Purpose Labs. Now a renowned speaker and consultant for hundreds of enterprises across the sports and corporate landscape, Paul put together his findings in his latest book, “The Power of Playing Offense: A Leader's Playbook for Personal and Team Transformation.” Since the pandemic Paul’s teachings have gained a new level of relevance and urgency, as companies everywhere grapple with how to lead with purpose. This is another podcast you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

If you don’t think that culture is a big deal for your organization, then why do 60% of employees who leave a full-time job say it had nothing to do with the pay? Why are rates of burnout hitting new all-time high levels? Why are some industry leaders and coaches creating whole movements about building good culture? Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton are some of the world's premier experts on building a safe, successful, and winning culture. With over 20 years of experience, they founded The Culture Works, helping big-name brands like P&G, Intel, and Nationwide develop their own internal cultures. Chester and Adrien have written multiple New York Times Bestselling books, All In, Leading with Gratitude, Anxiety at Work, and most famously The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their Employees, Retain Talent, and Drive Performance. Adrian and Chester have a lot of great actionable techniques to build a great culture, but their chief tenant is all about empathy. In a time where managers are struggling to connect with employees, and employees are looking for better workplaces, having a manager who can empathize with a workers anxieties, worries, and goals is a person in a very powerful position to build your company. Adrian and Chester have hundreds, if not thousands other strategies to build a winning culture, so with that…let’s bring it in!

Sports are kind of a big deal. Not just among the pro leagues across the world, organized sports are also where a lot of future members of the workforce meet coaches and teammates for the first time. Like our K-12 educational system, organized athletics are a massive influence on future members of our workforce. Despite this, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports because sports culture has taken the ‘play’ out of ‘play ball’. No wonder we’re seeing only 15% of employees being engaged in our workforce. John O’Sullivan focuses on making sports fun again. A member of the 1990 Patriot League Championship team, the fmr. Executive Director of Oregon Rush Soccer Club, and founder of the Changing the Game Project, as well as the author of the Changing the Game book, John has taken to heart the coach teachings of figures like John Wooden, leading teams with equal parts X’s and O’s and genuine empathy. With the Great Resignation still in full swing, managers and coaches need to make sure their employees know that they’re safe and cared for. John’s knows the power of caring and keeping things fun in a sports environment, and that’s something the workforce is in desperate need of now. This is another episode you don’t want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

There are millions of institutions, programs, supplements, and hacks that claim to help you learn better. Among all this noise though, no one’s really answering a very simple question: how do we learn? What actually works? Joshua Eyler is probably one of the best-suited scholars in the world to answer these question. He’s the author of How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories Behind Effective College Teaching. Joshua has been a dedicated teacher for institutions such as Columbus State University, George Mason University, and Rice University. He’s currently the Director of Faculty Development and Director of the ThinkForward Quality Enhancement Plan at the University of Mississippi, where he optimizes educational programs and strategies to best suit young people's needs. In his book, Joshua took an in-depth look at the biological, sociological, and psychological foundations of how people learn. Through years of study, he turned all of his findings into practical takeaways for hardworking teachers everywhere. At a time when we need to be able to teach and skill up our workforce faster and more effectively than ever, Joshua’s insights into the field of education are something you don’t want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

What do we mean when we say “hitting our limit?” Especially in a time when reports of burnout are hitting record high for workers across the globe, it’s never been more important for employees and employers to understand how to effectively and safely push themselves. Today’s guest, Alex Hutchinson, has a bold idea. In his book “Endure” Alex claims that hitting your limit and giving up is always a mental decision. As a lifelong runner, 2X Canadian Olympic team member, repetitive ultra marathon runner, a prolific award winning journalist, and even a quantum computer researcher, Alex is no stranger to pushing, and exceeding, one's own limitations. In a time when companies are often having to get more done with less workers, and workers everywhere are feeling more pressure than ever, being able to safely, and effectively push yourself to your limits is an essential skill, so with that it’s time to kick off Season 3 of the pod. Let’s bring it in!

At 1Huddle, we know practice needs to be challenging, it requires feedback, and it needs to be as real world as possible. Unfortunately, not a lot of managers and folks in charge of upskilling people believe that. But, this is a perfect episode for them to listen to with our guest Guy “Bus” Snodgrass, former TOPGUN instructor who shares his take on how to best implement challenging practice. With over 20 years in uniform in the Navy, including flying some of the first aerial missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Guy served as the former Communications Director and Chief Speechwriter for Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis. This culminated in the book “Holding the Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis,” and was quickly followed by another book, “TOPGUN'S TOP 10: Leadership Lessons from the Cockpit.” He now serves as the CEO of Defense Analytics, where he consults and works with leaders around the globe to strengthen their organizations from the ground up. With a new year comes both new and old challenges, and our workforce has to be prepared to face whatever challenge comes next, making hard practice key to a companies success, something that Guy knows well. WIth that…let’s bring it in!

Is it possible to learn anything? Maybe, but only if you’re really young, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” as the saying goes, right? As an author, speaker, and academic for institutions such as NYU, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Design Trust for Public Space, Tom Vanderbilt wanted to understand why so many adults simply stop trying to learn new things. Vanderbilt was inspired by a simple question from his daughter to get to the bottom of why so many adults stop learning new skills. Well into his forties, he committed an entire year of his trying, failing, learning, and being coached on five new skills he’d never attempted in his life. He compiled his adventures and takeaways into his book Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning, where he found as much joy in the process of learning these skills, as he did at attaining a level of skill with them: something he believes every person can and should achieve. In a time when jobs are changing rapidly, it’s critical that we give our workforce, regardless of age, the tools, resources, and support to be able to upskill themselves so they can meet the challenges of the near future. People like Tom Vanderbilt, give us some insight, as to how we can do that. This is another episode you’re definitely not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

It’s no secret that a lot of managers and leaders out there are struggling to get the most out of their people. Between a changing workforce, technology constantly changing the nature of jobs, and the effects of the COVID pandemic still being felt, it’s difficult to lead a cohesive, focused, and fired up team. Coach Aliceann Wilber, though, has nearly perfected this craft. Being the first and only head coach of the women's soccer team at William Smith College, Coach Wilber has accumulated 2 National Championship titles, back-to-back NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Coach of the Year Awards, the NCAA’s prestigious Bill Jeffrey Award, an induction into the United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame in 2018, and having the opportunity to lead 25 first-team All-Americans (the most out of any DIII women’s coach). No matter the time, no matter the circumstances, Coach Wilber has led her Heron’s to over 600 wins over the past 30 years. Even during the pandemic, Coach Wilber has kept her team together by keeping practice tough, fun, and taking it one day at a time. This is another podcast you’re not going to want to miss so with that...let’s bring it in!

The big question employers everywhere, from small size mom-and-pop shops to global enterprises, are struggling with is “how do we attract and keep talented workers?” There are a lot of different and important factors, such as wages, having safe COVID policies, remote work, culture, but one thing very few people are talking about is even in such a serious time, making the effort to make a workplace fun. Kevin Werbach is an Associate Professor and Chairperson of Legal studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton University of Pennsylvania. His recent book, “For the Win: The Power of Gamification and Game Thinking in Business, Education, Government, and Social Impact,” illustrates the ways in which concepts in video games can be utilized to find, and retain the best level of talent for your business. Kevin honed the practices in his book during his tenure as the FCC Review Co-Lead under the Obama administration and as a consultant for the CIA and World Bank, where he developed training programs based on his gamification practices. Even in these very “serious” industries, Kevin used games, and more importantly, the idea of fun to engage, motivate, and build trust and community within his teams, something that employers everywhere right now are struggling to do during The Great Resignation, so with that...let’s bring it in!