Smart People Podcast

Alan de Queiroz  - Have you ever wondered how the same species of monkey (or tree, or snake for that matter) ends up located on different countries around the world? Keep in mind, they obviously can't just swim across the ocean, and they were there far before humans, so we didn't bring them.  Sure, continental drift explains it in some instances, but definitely not all of them.  So how did it happen? The answer will most certainly surprise you! This week, evolutionary biologist Alan de Queiroz tells us what the research says on this topic as we discuss his book, The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life. Alan de Queiroz is an evolutionary biologist and adjunct faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has written widely-cited research articles on topics ranging from biogeography to the evolution of behavior to the origins of parasites. For more on the Alan and his work, visit his Facebook page and blog. "Most people understand that evolution is very random, it's caused by chance events." - Alan de Queiroz Quotes from Alan: What we learn in this episode: What is biogeography? Why are there no monkeys in Europe? How do mammals that can't swim come to be found on islands? Resources: The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life monkeysvoyage.wordpress.com/ -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Savannah Ellis - If men and women are meant to pair up for a lifetime of eternal happiness with the primary goal of continuing the growth of our species, why is it so damn hard? The communication differences between men and women is so apparent, that we often joke that the two sexes are from opposite planets. Much has been said about these differences, but little has been agreed upon.  So let's do our best to learn how to make nice with the opposite sex in order to have long, healthy, romantic relationships.  As an added bonus, Chris was recently married, so we figured it was our duty to get him some good advice. This week we speak with Savannah Ellis, COO of The Relationship Society, CEO and Founder of the Infidelity Coaching Program, and author of the book, I Cheated: Affair Recovery Advice For When You Have Been Unfaithful. Savannah has coached thousands of couples and individuals from Sydney, Australia to Las Vegas, Nevada to help them achieve their relationship and personal goals. Her passion is to help people be authentic to themselves and others. Savannah holds Psychology degrees from Monash University, Australia: Bachelor Behavioral Science (BBSc), and post graduate degrees in Clinical Psychology. "The three most important factors in a relationship are chemistry, personality, and life goals/values." - Savannah Ellis Quotes from Savannah: What we learn in this episode: How do couples learn to communicate better? How do you move on from heartbreak? What are the main differences between the way men and women communicate? Do men always want sex? Resources: I Cheated: Affair Recovery Advice For When You Have Been Unfaithful http://savannahellis.net/ http://relationshipsociety.com/ Youtube - It's Not About the Nail Twitter @infidelityguru -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Collis Ta'eed - Our guest this week was recently named one of the Top 10 Richest Bloggers in the World! However, that can be slightly misleading because his company is far from a blog (in fact, just insinuating that he is in the same genre as Perez Hilton makes my skin crawl).  Not only is he an extremely successful on-line business mogul, but his entire blog and business is built around educating the world on-line.  In fact, the company motto is, "Helping people learn and earn online." In this episode we discuss what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how you create one of the largest web based businesses in the world, and why on-line education IS the future. Collis Ta'eed is the CEO of Envato, a company that creates websites that help people from all over the world change the way they earn and learn online. Envato is empowering people with tools and services to develop new skills and make a living. They do this in the creative space with marketplaces and education platforms and materials that help people get creative! "As long as the scale of your ambition is realistic, there is usually space for niche businesses." - Collis Ta'eed Quotes from Collis: What we learn in this episode: How do you become one of the top ten richest bloggers on the planet? What is it like to start an internet business from scratch? What are the keys to making money on-line? What are the best traits for an entrepreneur? Resources: Top 10 Riches Bloggers in the World Tuts Plus Envato Wikipedia - Collis/Envato Twitter @Collis -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Squarespace: Squarespace, the all-­in-­one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off your first purchase, go to squarespace.com/smartpeople and use promo code expert.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jared Dean - Have you ever wondered how your Netflix account knows exactly what movies to recommend? Or how Amazon can keep you continually buying random things you never thought you needed? Or how those Facebook ads are always eerily targeted directly at you? Well the answer is simple, Big Data.  Ok - maybe it's not simple, but it is something we can understand and even harness to make a difference in our lives and in our organizations or industries. This week we speak with Jared Dean, author of the new book, Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning. This book was recently ranked the #1 "Big Data Read of the Summer" by The Hive. Jared Dean is a Senior Director of Research and Development at SAS. He is responsible for the development of SAS' worldwide data mining solutions. This includes customer engagements, new feature development, technical support, sales support, and product integration. Prior to joining SAS, Dean worked as a mathematical statistician for the US Census Bureau. He holds an MS degree in computational statistics from George Mason University. "Innovation is largely incremental.  Most of the time we are making small steps forward, not giant leaps.  " - Jared Dean Quotes from Jared: What we learn in this episode: Can you accurately predict the NFL by using Big Data? How do outliers play a key role in data analysis? Is there a difference between an algorithm and an equation? How do the self driving cars from Google use Big Data to operate? Resources: Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning http://support.sas.com/publishing/authors/dean.html Twitter @JaredLDean -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! ting: mobile that makes sense. For $25 off your first device or a $25 credit, use smartpeople.ting.com and save money on your cell phone bill today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Shenk - Want to be great? Then don't go at it alone. Throughout history teams of exactly 2 people have made the biggest impact - think Lennon and McCartney, Wozniak and Jobs, Orville and Wilbur Wright...the list goes on and on. But why? This week we crush the myth of the "lone genius" and learn how the best creations of all time came from people who worked in pairs. Josh Shenk, author of Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, tells us not only why 2 is the magic number, but also how you can find your creative pair and start making history. Josh is a curator, essayist, and author. His magazine pieces include cover stories in Harper’s, Time, and The Atlantic, where his essay "What Makes Us Happy?" was the most read article in the history of that magazine’s website. His work has also appeared in Slate, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first book, Lincoln’s Melancholy, was named one of the best books of 2005 byThe New York Times, The Washington Post,and The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.. He is a curator, storyteller and advisor to The Moth; vice-chair emeritus of the board of directors, he currently serves on the general council. He is also a past director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College, where he curated programs and festivals and directed a small literary press. Shenk consults to the Erikson Institute for Education and Research at the Austen Riggs Center, where he directs the Erikson Prize for Mental Health Media and Arts in Mind, a conversation series on the creative arts and psychology, co-hosted by the New School in New York City. "Creativity is not about being comfortable. It's about moving from where you are to something bigger.  It's all about the encounter of disparate things." - Josh Shenk Quotes from Josh: What we learn in this episode: What characteristics make two people compatible? Why is tension good for partners creative abilities? How does conversation play a key role in creativity? Why is a pair better than a trio? Resources: Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs www.shenk.net Twitter @joshuawolfshenk -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! ting: mobile that makes sense. For $25 off your first device or a $25 credit, use smartpeople.ting.com and save money on your cell phone bill today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karan Girotra - Any system that we use to accomplish a task can be made better with some simple improvements. If you're talking about the system you use to brush your teeth, this might not be a big deal. But what about the way in which a company builds a product, or the way a doctor analyzes a patient? These systems can have enormous effects on society, and it is imperative that we understand how to innovate on these systems to continually create a better society. This week we speak with Karan Girotra who is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD and author of the new book, The Risk-Driven Business Model: Four Questions That Will Define Your Company. Karan earned a doctorate from the Wharton School for his examination of innovation processes and the early stage startups. He took some time off from his doctoral work to help start up TerraPass, a profitable firm that has helped individuals and businesses reduce over a billion pounds of carbon dioxide. At INSEAD, Karan researches and teaches issues related to business model innovation. His research has appeared in top academic journals and has been featured by the Financial Times, Businessweek, the Sloan Management Review and the Harvard Business Review. "Too often, students are narrowly focused on their immediate career goal and they underestimate the power of each one of us.  One you start believing you can make great change, once you give it some conscious effort, most of us can accomplish far more than we can imagine." - Karan Girotra Quotes from Karan: What we learn in this episode: We blend innovation and education to see what is going on and what may be next. How can one individual actually change the world? What is business model innovation and why is it perhaps more important than product innovation? What are the two main ways you can innovate your creative process? Many of the problems we see in business today is due to a misalignment between the producer and the consumer. Resources: The Risk-Driven Business Model: Four Questions That Will Define Your Company http://renaissanceinnovator.com/ Karan in the Harvard Business Review www.girotra.com Twitter @girotrak -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

McKenzie Funk - Almost everyone is aware that climate change is slowly but surely destroying our planet, however very few know that you can get rich off of it! Want to know how? Or at least know what kind of individual would profit from the destruction of our planet?  McKenzie Funk has spent the last six years reporting around the world on how we are preparing for a warmer planet. Funk shows us that the best way to understand the catastrophe of global warming is to see it through the eyes of those who see it most clearly—as a market opportunity. Global warming’s physical impacts can be separated into three broad categories: melt, drought, and deluge. Funk travels to two dozen countries to profile entrepreneurial people who see in each of these forces a potential windfall.  McKenzie is the author of Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming. A National Magazine Award finalist and former Knight-Wallace Fellow, he won the Oakes Prize for Environmental Journalism for a story about the melting Arctic and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for his interview in Tajikistan with one of the first prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, National Geographic, Outside, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The New York Times. Mac is a founding member of Deca, a global journalism cooperative. "People are looking at climate change and saying, 'What's in it for me?"' - McKenzie Funk Quotes from McKenzie:  What we learn in this episode: Why are their wars over the northern regions of the globe? How do you profit from climate change? Is it evil to profit from destruction? Resources: Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming http://www.mckenziefunk.com/ Twitter @McKenzieFunk -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Squarespace: Squarespace, the all-­in-­one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off your first purchase, go to squarespace.com/smartpeople and use promo code expert.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Navarro - Not many can say they were personally approached to join the FBI, but this is exactly what happened to Joe Navarro while he was working as a police officer at the tender age of 23. He accepted their offer and became one of the youngest agents ever to join the renowned investigative agency. Joe is quite literally a human lie detector. Having spent over 25 years as a counterintelligence officer with the FBI, Joe has mastered the art of reading non-verbal communication in order to catch spies, convict felons, and thwart terrorist attacks.  In this episode we will learn what to look for in a liar, which body parts "give away the secret", and how you can use your body language to get people to like you, hire you, and trust you.  Joe is the author of What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People. "Neck covering is one of the most accurate behaviors that lets you know when someone is worried." - Joe Navarro Quotes from Joe:  What we learn in this episode: What is the truth behind recognizing non-verbal cues? Is there a silver bullet to detect lying? What is the science behind human non-verbal communication? Did you know our fear response is freeze, flight, and fight, in that order? How should you stand with someone during an intimate conversation? Resources: What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People http://joenavarro.net/ Forbes Interview with Joe Navarro Twitter @navarrotells -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roger Hamilton - We promise you will be buzzing with excitement after this episode.  Roger is perhaps best known as 'Asia's leading wealth consultant', but in our opinion, he is more of a career and life mentor with a talent for story telling.  Roger is the Founder of Entrepreneurs Institute and creator of the Wealth Dynamics, Talent Dynamics & Genius Test profiling systems, used by over 250,000 entrepreneurs and leaders around the world. His newest book, The Millionaire Master Plan: Your Personalized Path to Financial Success takes you on an amazing journey to help you make a living doing what comes most naturally to you. Roger has designed nine steps - from barely surviving - all the way to the highest level of ultimate wealth for life - and he lays out his nine steps in an easy-to-understand color-coded manner that ranges from red (barely living paycheck-to-paycheck) all the way to ultra-violet (where generating income is simply no longer a worry). Along the way, the reader first takes a quick test to determine where one is on the financial spectrum, and then Hamilton provides key insights and practical tips as to how one can progress to the next level. You track your progress by ascending from one color to the next. "Even Superman has to be Clark Kent some of the time." - Roger Hamilton Quotes from Roger: What we learn in this episode: How to nurture your natural talents and focus less on what is difficult and more on what comes easy to you. What is your natural question? Who, What, When, or How. What is a learning cycle and why is it the most important part of mastering any skill? Resources: The Millionaire Master Plan: Your Personalized Path to Financial Success www.rogerjameshamilton.com www.millionairemasterplan.com www.geniusu.com Twitter: @rogerhamilton Other Resources: The I Ching, or, Book of Changes (as mentioned by Roger) The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! ting: mobile that makes sense. For $25 off your first device or a $25 credit, use smartpeople.ting.com and save money on your cell phone bill today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Nestor - The ocean is the final, unseen, untouched, and undiscovered wilderness. In fact, we know more about other planets and stars lightyears away than we do about our oceans, which cover more than 2/3 of our planet. Join us this week as we follow author James Nestor on an amazing journey to the depths of the ocean. James is the author of Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves which is ranked as one of Amazon's best non-fiction books of 2014. The book follows clans of extreme athletes, adventurers, and scientists as they plumb the limits of the ocean's depths and uncover weird and wondrous new discoveries that, in many cases, redefine our understanding of the ocean and ourselves. James has written for Outside Magazine, Dwell Magazine, National Public Radio,The New York Times, Men's Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, and more.  Nestor’s first book, Get High Now (without drugs) humorously explores the worlds of neurology, biology, and physiology through meditations, illusions, household herbs, and some bizarre anthropological discoveries. The accompanying website, gethighnow.com, was awarded in Time Magazine’s Top 50 Websites of 2009 and receives about 200,000 hits per month. "Our bodies are equipped with reflexes that allow us to withstand the incredible pressures of a deep dive - our bodies completely transform.  It is the most profound transformation that we can naturally experience." - James Nestor Quotes from James:  What we learn in this episode: How does someone make a living as an author? What is the "Master Switch of Life"? What is the sport of freediving? How can the human body withstand the pressure imposed on it at 300+ feet below sea level where lungs shrink down to the size of baseballs? Resources: Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves http://mrjamesnestor.com/index.html Performance Freediving International Twitter: @MrJamesNestor -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices