Product Hunt Radio

Steven Johnson is the author of many books, some of which Future Perfect, Where Good Ideas Come from, Mind Wide Open, and How We Got To Now. This episode is all about innovation, where it occurs in our own lives, where it occurs in communities, and how he keeps finding it in his own life. Innovation is one of those terms like "authentic" that has essentially been co-opted. It’s been used so much to describe nearly everything that it’s almost lost its meaning. But Steven’s been writing about innovation for two decades and has interesting and defining things to say about it. Edited by Alex Kontis For any feedback, message me by @eriktorenberg See more Steven Johnson at www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/ and message him at @Stevenbjohnson.

Jane McGonigal is an author and game designer who believes that playing games and adopting gameful mindset can help improve our health, relationships, and her new book, Superbetter, explains how. In this episode we talk about Superbetter and how it works, we talk about not judging games by their content but by how the game is played, co-operative games vs competitive games, the intersection of games & therapy and more. Check out her book here: http://www.amazon.com/SuperBetter-Revolutionary-Approach-Stronger-Resilient-Powered/dp/1594206368 Edited by Alex Kontis For feedback, message me @eriktorenberg

Troy Carter is the founder of Atom Factory and Smashd Labs. Artists he's managed include Lady Gaga, John Legend, Miguel, and many others. Startups in his portfolio include Uber, Dropbox, Spotify, and many others. In this episode we talk about the convergence between entertainment and tech, the music industry, and how Troy wants to be for entrepreneurs what Nike was for athletes. Edited by Alex Kontis For feedback, message me at @eriktorenberg

Chris Schroeder is a successful founder, investor, and now author of "Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution remaking the Middle East" which chronicles startup stories in Cairo, Gaza, Damascus, and other countries throughout the region. In this episode we discuss his book, the role governments play in innovation, the intersection between tech and politics (both in the Middle East and in Washington where Chris lives), the future of cities and much more.

Robert Greene is the author of books such as Mastery, 33 Strategies of War, Art of Seduction, the 48 Laws of Power, and the 50th Law (w/ 50 cent). including mastery, strategies of war, art of seduction, laws of power, one of which is with rapper 50 cent This episode we talk about the ideas in his books (power, mastery, seduction) what in his personal life has inspired the books, but we also talk meditation, writing, not having kids, and bunch more. Edited by Alex Kontis For any feedback, tweet me at @eriktorenberg

James Currier is a prominent entrepreneur and investor. He was one of the earliest to build social networks, starting Tickle in 1999 and then selling it in 2004 He’s since advised/invseted in a bunch of startups including Goodreads, Honeybook and Meerkat, among many others. and most recently started NFX Guild, which is an invite only accelerator program for networks effects businesses. In this episode we discuss what James looks for in founders, common advice he finds himself giving, the concept of personal brand, his involvement in Goodreads and Meerkat, and more. Edited by Alex Kontis For any feedback, tweet me at @eriktorenberg http://nfx.com/

Felix Salmon is a senior editor at Fusion. He's of the rare writers who really understands both media and technology and the businesses and cultures behind both of them. In this episode we discuss media skepticism towards the tech industry, why there’s such an obsession with scale, why good things come from wasting time instead of optimizing it, the future of news delivery and brands, and much more. Edited by Alex Kontis Would love to hear feedback at @eriktorenberg

Kevin Kelly is perhaps most known for being a founding team member of Wired Magazine and for starting the Long now Foundation, which aims to solve problems in a ten thousand year time frame. More than a few people refer to Kevin Kelly as the most interesting person in the world. In this podcast we talk about what happens then robots take our jobs, how success to Kevin means doing things that only you can uiquely do, How Kevin didn’t have his first job till he was 35, and his first drug experience at 50, and a ton of other things. Check out his graphic novel, the Silver Cord, here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Silver-Cord-Kevin-Kelly/dp/1940689015 Edited by Alex Kontis Feedback to @eriktorenberg

Joe Greenstein founded Flixter, the popular movie discovery platform, for nearly a decade before selling it and since has founded Innerspace, a YC company that helps other companies build great companies + company cultures in addition to great products. Joe shares the struggles in his personal life building his company, the tension that comes with selling a company, him wanting to become a father, and much more. Check out Innerspace: http://www.helloinnerspace.org Edited by Alex Kontis Any feedback on the episode to @eriktorenberg

Ben is the co-author of The Start-up of You and The Alliance with Reid Hoffman, served for two years as Reid's chief of staff at LinkedIn, and has founded many different companies in Silicon Valley. In this podcast we chat about career strategy, what it means to live in "permanent beta", loneliness in San Francisco, and much more. Ben's blog: http://casnocha.com/blog The Alliance: http://www.amazon.com/The-Alliance-Managing-Talent-Networked/dp/1625275773 Edited by Alex Kontis Any feedback please let me know at @eriktorenberg