The McKinsey Podcast
McKinsey & Company
The McKinsey Podcast, our new flagship podcast series, takes you inside our global firm, and features conversations with experts on issues that matter most in business and management. McKinsey & Company is a management-consulting firm that helps businesses, governments, and not-for-profit organizations realize their most important goals. Topics covered in this series include strategy, technology, leadership, marketing, operations, organization, and the role of business in society.
Episodes
Mentioned books
20 snips
Nov 5, 2026 • 22min
Beauty, redefined
Sara Hudson, a beauty and consumer strategy specialist, and Alexis Wolfer, an adviser on growth and evolving consumer behavior, explore beauty’s expanding universe. They discuss wellness trends from cold plunges to GLP-1-related demand, K-beauty’s rise, fragrance personalization, TikTok Shop and livestream discovery, and why brands must appeal to both shoppers and AI agents.
22 snips
Oct 29, 2026 • 23min
The algorithm isn’t the advantage–the team is
Will Lansing, FICO’s CEO and a leader in data-driven financial decision-making, explores why AI alone won’t transform lending. He discusses explainable and fair algorithms, consumer-controlled financial agents, permissioned data, and FICO’s shift to consumption pricing. Lansing also shares perspectives on mission-led culture, employee ownership, innovation, and building the followership needed for lasting change.
28 snips
Oct 22, 2026 • 21min
What trends are influencing the food and beverage industry?
Duncan Miller, a McKinsey senior partner focused on CPG growth, and Frank Sänger, a senior partner specializing in consumer goods, explore why food and beverage valuations have plunged. They discuss consumers trading down and up, smaller brands challenging scale, shifting brand loyalty, generational preferences, and how AI can fund growth. They also examine scaling AI beyond pilots and the new competitive moat.
16 snips
Oct 15, 2026 • 22min
Place, purpose, and the path to economic mobility
JP Julien, a McKinsey partner studying economic mobility, and Diana Ellsworth, a senior partner and former public school teacher, explore what Americans need to build better lives. They discuss shared aspirations for financial security, the rising cost of living, healthcare pressures, and how life stage shapes opportunity. They also examine career pathways, community connection, and why place can determine access to jobs, education, and belonging.
25 snips
Oct 8, 2026 • 17min
The playbook for seeing around geopolitical corners
Ziad Haider, McKinsey’s Global Director of Geopolitics, explores five tools for navigating permanent geopolitical uncertainty: horizon scanning, scenario and contingency planning, simulations, and tabletop exercises. He discusses how AI is reshaping risk assessment, why human judgment still matters, and how companies can build resilience through diversification, new trade corridors, and a stronger approach to strategic foresight.
34 snips
Oct 1, 2026 • 19min
The hidden value of physical AI
Ani Kelkar, a robotics and AI-focused McKinsey partner, and Mark Patel, a senior partner specializing in technology and industrial systems, explore physical AI’s leap into the real world. They discuss adaptive robots, the vast scale of automatable physical work, the emerging robotics market, the complex supply chain behind intelligent machines, and how businesses can prepare for new enterprise workflows.
109 snips
Sep 24, 2026 • 24min
Democratized superintelligence is coming: The world needs to get ready
Bret Taylor, OpenAI chairman and Sierra cofounder, explores AI agents taking on real business work. He discusses customer service, sales, software engineering, cybersecurity threats, and why companies must redesign processes, not just adopt new tools. The conversation also examines open-weight models, the high-stakes data center buildout, community concerns, labor shortages, and AI’s potential to fuel a new wave of entrepreneurship.
22 snips
Sep 17, 2026 • 24min
Why transformations stall—and where only CEOs make the difference
Matthew Lee, a McKinsey partner focused on transformation and culture, and Kurt Strovink, senior partner and co-author of A CEO for All Seasons, explore why organizational change stalls. They examine collective-action traps, warning signs leaders often miss, ambitious targets, radical transparency, incentive alignment, and involving more than the usual trusted few. They also discuss making transformation a continuous management discipline.
37 snips
Sep 10, 2026 • 10min
Is progress behind us, or is ‘plenty’ still possible?
Sven Smit, a senior partner emeritus and coauthor of A Century of Plenty, explores whether broad-based prosperity can continue. They discuss abundance and access, human ingenuity, AI’s promise and pitfalls, misinformation, and why human judgment and better questions remain essential. The conversation also examines global catch-up growth and how leaders can keep progress possible in an uncertain future.
28 snips
Sep 3, 2026 • 25min
Made in America, again? Rethinking US manufacturing resilience
Rebecca J. Anderson, a McKinsey Global Institute senior fellow focused on trade and manufacturing, and Shubham Singhal, MGI chair and industry strategist, examine America’s manufacturing vulnerabilities. They explore concentrated dependencies in electronics, pharmaceuticals, and rare-earth materials; the scale and cost of rebuilding capacity; and how AI, robotics, diversified trade, and innovation could strengthen resilience.
