Smart People Podcast

You don't have to be a comic book fanatic to love superheroes. And even if you've never picked up a comic book in your life, you've almost certainly seen a comic book movie. A recent surge in comic book movies has brought us blockbusters such as The Avengers, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and many more. Given the success of this genre of movies, we are honored to interview the man who has been credited with bringing comic books to the big screen, and has been dubbed "The Godfather of comic book movies", Michael Uslan. Michael is the owner of the Batman series, producer of the Batman movies, and was the first instructor to teach an accredited course on comic book folklore at any university. Michael Uslan is a film producer with numerous award winning projects to his credit. He is Executive Producer of all of the Batman features from Batman to The Dark Knight Rises and won an Emmy Award for TV's "Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?" He has been a speaker at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at the Smithsonian Institution. Michael recently teamed up with Stan Lee and the Smithsonian Institution to create a free online course titled the Rise of Superheroes. Take the course here! ____ "When I was in my twenty's, I bought the rights to Batman from DC Comics with my business partner, I quit my job, gave up all security, and rolled the dice. With Batman in my back pocket I went to Hollywood." - Michael Uslan Quotes from Michael: What we learn in this episode: How Michael turned a passion for comic books into a very lucrative career doing what he loved. What is the most disturbing comic book of all time? What is it like creating and producing the Batman movies? Why is the Smithsonian Institution teaming up with Michael Uslan and Stan Lee to create an online course on super hero's Resources: The Rise of Superheroes Course with Stan Lee and Michael Uslan - Free Trailer - The Rise of Superheroes The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for free with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many of us, the suburbs hold a magical place in our heart. We grew up in an environment where we knew our neighbors, we played outside, we didn't lock our doors, and the word "community" meant something. But despite how hard we try to relive those times, todays suburbs are a far cry from what we remember, and many of us are looking for a new type of neighborhood. This week we discuss what happened to the suburbs of the 80's and 90's, and what will our neighborhoods look like in the future. Our guest is Leigh Gallagher, Assistant Managing Editor at Fortune magazine, and author of the book, The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving. We also talk to Leigh about new media vs. old media, the Kardashians, the job of an editor, and much more!  Leigh Gallagher is an Assistant Managing Editor at Fortune magazine, where she edits feature stories on a variety of subjects, oversees Fortune franchises including the magazine’s 40 Under 40 rankings and writes The Urbanist column on Fortune.com. She is also a co-chair of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, speaks regularly at Fortune and other business and economics conferences, and is a seasoned business news commentator, appearing regularly on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CBS News’ Face the Nation, CNBC’s Squawk Box, CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, public radio’s Marketplace and a wide variety of other programs. She is also a co-chair of the Fortune U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership and a visiting scholar for the Business and Economic Reporting program at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Before joining Fortune in 2007, Leigh was a senior editor at SmartMoney magazine and a reporter and writer for Forbes. Originally from the “urban burb” of Media, Pennsylvania, Leigh is a graduate of Cornell University and lives in New York. ____ "The new model of suburbs has put people in their cars all the time...That's a lifestyle that increasingly has failed to deliver on its promises." - Leigh Gallagher Quotes from Leigh: What we learn in this episode: How is the democratization of media affecting our culture? Is it good or bad? What are the responsibilities of the top editor for an enormous media brand such as Fortune? Where did the American Dream come from?  Why are people opting to leave the "typical suburb"? What will the new neighborhood look like? Resources: The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving www.endofthesuburbs.com www.fortune.com http://fortune.com/tag/fortune-live/ Twitter: @leighgallagher -- This episode is brought to you by: Highfive: Go to highfive.com/smartpeople to request your free trial and start meeting face-to-face with Highfive. Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople. Aspiration: At Aspiration, their investment strategies are built for the middle class. Signing up takes as little as $500 and five minutes of your time. You can sign up and find out more information at aspiration.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you think about professional blogging, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Mommy bloggers of course! The term "mommy blog" has become part of our common lexicon due to the insane success of so many mothers turned bloggers. And this week we are fortunate to interview the queen of mommy blogs, Deedra Determan. Deedra created a blog initially targeted towards moms in her local community and quickly turned it into a 7-figure business with national reach. In this episode Deedra teaches us how to start small, find your niche, create a profitable business, market on a zero dollar budget, and much more.  Deedra has 20+ years of marketing experience starting on the agency side at Ackerman McQueen Advertising Agency to 10 years in the television industry launching news at KOKI Fox 23 making it one of the top Fox affiliates in the country. She went on to launch niche websites for moms including 918moms.com, 405moms.com, and MoneySavingQueen.com with over 100,000 moms visiting the websites each month. After one year from launching, she sold the websites to Griffin Communications. Determan then followed her true passion in launching D2 Branding, an innovative marketing firm igniting brands to be the market leader in their industry through marketing, public relations, social media, advertising, strategic partnerships, sales, website creation, search engine optimization, content creation, video production, graphic design, and more! Deedra is also a mentor at Thrive15.com. "You can be passionate all day long, but until you realize what your revenue streams are going to be, passion will only take you so far." - Deedra Determan Quotes from Deedra: What we learn in this episode: Your business doesn't have to be huge, just find your niche How to start small, find your market, and pivot How to find your revenue model for your business or blog Resources: Thrive15.com Sales Training with Deedra https://www.thrive15.com/mentors/deedra-determan Twitter: @deedradeterman -- This episode is brought to you by: Highfive: Go to highfive.com/smartpeople to request your free trial and start meeting face-to-face with Highfive. Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For most of us, we don't need to know about how to get media coverage...until we need to get media coverage. You could come up with the most brilliant business idea, or write the next best seller - but if no one talks about it, it's just another particle out there in an atmosphere full of noise. But how do you get coverage? How do you convince a powerful media outlet to cover your story? It turns out, there are very specific tricks that you can use to give yourself the best shot of becoming the next new headline. Listen up this week and learn how to become a media darling (or at the very least how not to waste money on PR firms). This week our guest is Conrad Egusa. Conrad is an entrepreneur and the Founder of Publicize, which is a PR firm focused on startups. The company's mission is to change the way startups approach PR. He has been featured on publications including The Financial Times, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch.Conrad is a guest writer for VentureBeat, and he is currently a Mentor at The Founder Institute, ANDI (Asociación Nacional de Empresarios de Colombia), and the Spanish accelerator Zarpamos. He is also the Co-Founder of ESPACIO, which is a coworking space/entrepreneurial center in Medellin (coverage on TechCrunch is here: http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/11/espacio-medellin/). Conrad is the Co-Owner & Chairman of Colombia Reports (www.colombiareports.co), which is the largest English news publication in South America. Colombia Reports was founded in March 2008 and is frequently cited by the New York Times, BBC, CNN and Fox News. Conrad has consulted for Y Combinator startups, global brands (Intercontinental Hotels Group), and leading internet businesses. "You have to make your story and your company as interesting as possible through using social proof." - Conrad Egusa Quotes from Conrad: What we learn in this episode: Do press releases actually get you earned media? Why is the PR world still operating on an old model? How do you create a good PR strategy for your business? What is the best way to reach out to a media person to get earned media? Resources: http://www.publicize.co/ http://techcrunch.com/contributor/conrad-egusa/ LinkedIn - Conrad Egusa -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for free with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople. Aspiration: At Aspiration, their investment strategies are built for the middle class. Signing up takes as little as $500 and five minutes of your time. You can sign up and find out more information at aspiration.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexandra Horowitz - The mysteries of human perception. In this episode we speak with author and cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz on what it means to be attentive. In her most recent book, On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, Alexandra shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinary. In this book, Alexandra goes on a series of eleven walks with experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. She also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. What they see, how they see it, and why most of us do not see the same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer.  Alexandra Horowitz teaches psychology, canine cognition, and creative nonfiction writing at Barnard College, Columbia University. She earned her PhD in Cognitive Science at the University of California at San Diego, and has studied the cognition of humans, rhinoceros, bonobos, and dogs. For seventeen years she shared her home with an unwitting research subject, Pumpernickel, a wonderful mixed breed. Now her Dog Cognition Lab studies the behavior of owned dogs to keep discovering what they see, smell, and know. "The problem is we are not focusing that well anymore on the things we deem important. There is too much distraction at once." - Alexandra Horowitz Quotes from Alexandra:  What we learn in this episode: What is attention? What does it mean to be attentive? How individuals view the world and their environment differently. Why do we feel so disconnected from strangers? How does the human animal respond to cognitive overload? Resources: On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes http://insideofadog.com/author.php https://psychology.barnard.edu/profiles/alexandra-horowitz Twitter: @DogUmwelt -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for free with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It has been called “the great destroyer” and “the evil.” The Pentagon refers to it as “the pervasive menace.” It destroys cars, fells bridges, sinks ships, sparks house fires, and nearly brought down the Statue of Liberty. Rust costs America more than $400 billion per year—more than all other natural disasters combined. Journalist Jonathan Waldman traveled from Key West, Florida, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to meet the colorful and often reclusive people who are fighting our mightiest and unlikeliest enemy. He went into an abandoned steelworks with a brave artist, and then he nearly gets kicked out of Ball Corporation’s Can School. Across the Arctic, he followed a massive high-tech robot that hunts for rust in the Alaska pipeline. On a Florida film set he meets the Defense Department’s rust ambassador, who reveals that the navy’s number one foe isn’t a foreign country but oxidation itself. Through all of these adventures, Jonathan (Jonny) uncovered more about the destructive nature of rust and the implications on our society than anyone ever has, and in this episode we ask him all about it! His newest book is titled, Rust: The Longest War. Jonathan has written for Outside, The Washington Post, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and the Utne Reader, and also worked as a forklift driver, arborist, summer-camp director, sticker salesman, climbing instructor, and cook. Before landing in the book world, he put in time at a newspaper, a website, a magazine, a radio show, a TV production company, and a couple science museums. He studied writing at Dartmouth and Boston University’s Knight Center for Science Journalism. "We need to re-engineer engineering. Engineers are busy fixing all of the problems we don't have, but they're ignoring all of these problems we do have." - Jonathan Waldman Quotes from Jonathan:  What we learn in this episode: Why is a soda can the most engineered object on earth? What are the dangers of plastics and why are they used in almost everything? Why is rust one of the most costly items in our national defense budget? Resources: Rust: The Longest War jonnywaldman.com -- This episode is brought to you by: Lynda.com: Do something good for yourself in 2015 and sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to Lynda.com by visiting Lynda.com/smartpeople. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time Management. We all need it. We all could be better at it. Personally, I need to be much better at it. When we recognize that we could be better at something, in Smart People Podcast fashion, we reach out to leaders in the field. This week we discuss time management with Lee Cockerell. Lee is the former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort. During his time at Disney, Lee led a team of 40,000 Cast Members (employees) and was responsible for the operations of 20 resort hotels, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, a shopping & entertainment village, and the ESPN sports and recreation complex. Lee's book, Time Management Magic: How To Get More Done Every Day And Move From Surviving To Thriving, walks you through how to organize your schedule and how to get things done. Want to learn from Lee on Thrive15? Use our link for a free 30 day trial! Quotes from Lee:  What we learn in this episode: How Disney created their magic What it means to run Disney from top How to organize your schedule and prioritize Resources: Time Management Magic: How To Get More Done Every Day And Move From Surviving To Thriving  http://www.leecockerell.com/ Twitter: @LeeCockerell -- This episode is brought to you by: Future Advisor: Let new technology give you complete clarity on all of your investments and a plan to meet your goals sooner - Go to www.futureadvisor.com/smartpeople for your 3 month free premium portfolio management service. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free. Davinci Virtual: Davinci Virtual offers friendly live receptionist services, killer business addresses and fully loaded meeting spaces – anywhere you need themGet a risk-free trial right now at davincivirtual.com/SMART and make it happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Korb - The most common psychological disorder in America. It affects more than 1 in 10 Americans and is the cause of more than half of the suicides committed each year. More people suffer from this disorder than coronary heart disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS...combined. It strains our healthcare system as we seek out treatments and cures. It affects every aspect of life and can leave sufferers feeling alone, isolated, misunderstood, and helpless. It is depression. Depression is the most common mental disorder in the United States. Its prevalence is often masked by the fact that sufferers don't always talk about it with family and friends. Further, there is prejudice against depression as a disorder, with some people even feeling that it isn't a real condition. Depression can feel like a downward spiral, pulling you into a vortex of sadness, fatigue, and apathy. But there are ways to cope and recover. Depression is one of the most treatable of psychiatric illnesses. In our episode this week we speak with Neuroscientist Alex Korb, PhD. Alex is the author of the book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time. Alex Korb, PhD, is a neuroscientist who has studied the brain for over fifteen years, starting with an undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Brown University. He received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he wrote his dissertation and numerous scientific articles on depression. He is currently a postdoctoral neuroscience researcher at UCLA in the department of psychiatry. Outside of the lab, he is a scientific consultant for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, and is head coach of the UCLA Women’s Ultimate Frisbee team. He has a wealth of experience in yoga and mindfulness, physical fitness, and even stand-up comedy. "The emotions that we experience are all in contrast to each other. The more capable you are of experiencing despair, the more you can experience joy." - Alex Korb Quotes from Alex:  What we learn in this episode: What are some of the proven methods of improving depression? Why does anxiety and depression still exist? How have we not "evolved past" these types of destructive tendencies, behaviors, and characteristics? Does "shock therapy" work as an effective treatment for depression? What exactly is the nervous system? And is it possible to strengthen the nervous system? Resources: The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time facebook.com/prefrontalblog http://alexkorbphd.com/ Twitter: @prefrontalblog -- This episode is brought to you by: Future Advisor: Let new technology give you complete clarity on all of your investments and a plan to meet your goals sooner - Go to www.futureadvisor.com/smartpeople for your 3 month free premium portfolio management service. WealthFront: The automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. Visit wealthfront.com/smartpeople to to get your first $10,000 managed for free. Davinci Virtual: Davinci Virtual offers friendly live receptionist services, killer business addresses and fully loaded meeting spaces – anywhere you need themGet a risk-free trial right now at davincivirtual.com/SMART and make it happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clay Clark - Entrepreneur of the Year. For many of us, starting a business is the only thing that feels right. The idea of a cubicle, a demanding boss, and a 9-5 schedule is downright depressing. We feel as though we were born to do things our way, to make our own path, and to build our own future. If this sounds like you, you don't want to miss this episode! This week we speak with Clay Clark, Founder of Thrive15.com. Thrive15 is the world’s premier online education platform that helps entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and “in-trepreneurs” (entrepreneurial-minded people who work within an organization) learn how to start or grow a successful business. Thrivers have unlimited access to the ever-growing, entertaining, and gamified library of 15-minute training courses taught by millionaires and everyday entrepreneurial success stories. Clay is also an author, consultant, speaker, and disc jockey... yeah, that's right. Clay Clark is the former "U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year" who has been described by the folks at Yahoo as the "Jim Carey of Entrepreneurship." He was "Metro Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year" at the age of 20 and the "U.S. Chamber National Blue Ribbon Quality Award Winner" at the age of 27. As the result of his tireless tenacity and honey badger work ethic, he's been able to found or co-found several successful companies including: DJ Connection, Elephant in the Room Men's Grooming Lounge, Thrive15.com, etc. while finding the time to co-produce five children. Clay once ran for mayor and lost.  "No matter what job you have right now, you need to do the following three things: over deliver, build your network, and learn." - Clay Clark Quotes from Clay:  What we learn in this episode: What does Clay mean when he says we all hit 'jack-assery' at approximately 21 years old? Who should consider being an entrepreneur? What are Clay's keys to success? Resources: www.thrive15.com http://www.makeyourlifeepic.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Michael Gazzaniga - Left Brain vs. Right Brain. We often hear that if we're creative we must be "right-brained" but if we're logical we must be "left-brained". Science tells us that each hemisphere controls certain cognitive functions, so it only makes sense that there is a dominant side that gives us our tendencies - but is it true? Are we either "left-brained" or "right brained"? Or better yet, what happens when you disconnect the two regions from each other entirely? For over 40 years, our guest this week has been studying patients who have had their left and right brain disconnected via surgery, and he is here to set the record straight.  Michael Gazzaniga, is one of the leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience and is the worlds top expert on split-brain research. Michael is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience. He received a Ph.D. in psychobiology from the California Institute of Technology, where he worked under the guidance of Roger Sperry, with primary responsibility for initiating human split-brain research. In his subsequent work he has made important advances in our understanding of functional lateralization in the brain and how the cerebral hemispheres communicate with one another. Gazzaniga founded the Centers for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California, Davis and at Dartmouth College, the Neuroscience Institute, and the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, of which he is the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Gazzaniga was a member of U.S. President George W. Bush's Council on Bioethics. He was also the Director of the Law and Neuroscience Project, a project to study the intersection of law and neuroscience. "The brain is built for us all to make decisions to achieve goals." - Michael Gazzaniga Quotes from Michael:  What we learn in this episode: Is there such things as left brain and right brain people? Why can our brain function fairly normally when it is essentially cut in half? What is split brain research? What happens when our brain is split in the middle (split brain surgery), disconnecting the left and right hemisphere? Resources: Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gazzaniga -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for free with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Future Advisor: Let new technology give you complete clarity on all of your investments and a plan to meet your goals sooner - Go to www.futureadvisor.com/smartpeople for your 3 month free premium portfolio management. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices