5 Episodes Of The Tim Ferriss Show I Think Everyone Should Listen To

No podcast has changed my life like the Tim Ferriss Show. In each episode, Ferriss interviews world class performers from a wide variety of fields about their tactics, habits, and strategies. Additionally, he asks them about their lives in general, and has a knack for uncovering some truly amazing stories.

I think that just about every person on the planet could benefit from listening to this podcast. If you decide to check it out for yourself, I’d recommend starting out with one (or more) of the following five episodes.

(All transcript excerpts were taken from tim.blog/podcast)

Episode 321 — Guest: Brandon Stanton

The interviewee, Brandon Stanton is one of the most heartfelt and wise people I’ve ever heard speak. He is the creator of Humans of New York, a widly popular photography/biography blog.

Stanton creates Humans of New York by approaching random strangers on the street, photographing them, and then interviewing them about their lives. He often begins with the following questions: “What’s your biggest struggle?” “How has your life turned out differently than you expected it to?” and “What do you feel most guilty about?” As you can imagine, the answers are usually captivating, heartbreaking, and or enlightening.

Notes:

• Stanton has interviewed over ten thousand people, the vast majority of whom he never knew before walking up to them and asking them whether or not they’d be willing to be interviewed.
• Prior to starting Humans of New York, he set a goal to read 100 pages of (mostly) non-fiction writing every single day. He followed this regime for over seven years.

Excerpt from the Episode:

• “Biography is the best form of history if you ask me because it cuts through the theory, it cuts through all the speculation of the author, and we get down to the nuts and the bolts of the decisions that people made in their lives. And I think that is the purest form of education that you can get. And it is the advice that I give people who don’t know what they want to do with their lives. Pick somebody that you admire and read their biography.”

Episode 2 — Guest: Josh Waitzkin

Josh Waitzkin is another man of heart. He displayed prodigious talent in the world of chess ever since playing his first game at the age of six. After an very successful chess career, Josh left the game and decided to venture into martial arts. He won the world championship in Tai Chi Push Hands, despite taking up the discipline in his twenties, and facing opponents with over a decade more experience. He also has a blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, is a master foiler, and coaches high performing adults and children.

Notes:

• Just as Brandon Stanton has been shaped by thousands of interviews, Josh Waitzkin has been shaped by thousands of hours playing chess, facing opponents in hand to hand combat, surfing large waves, and teaching others how to achieve peak performance.
• Despite all this combat and competition, his heart is clearly full of love. This truth becomes abundantly apparent every time his speaks about his young sons Jack and Charlie.
• He has written a great book called The Art of Learning which I’d highly recommend.

Excerpt from the Episode:

• “One of the beautiful things about chess is that you can approach it in so many different ways and to be world-class what you need to do essentially is express the core of your being through the art. I think that’s true of many arts...”

Episode 97 — Guest: Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant is one of the cleverest and clearest thinkers out there. He has had a very long and successful career in Silicon Valley, as both a founder and investor. In addition to his skill in the world of business, Naval is very philosophical, and quite unafraid to question conventional “wisdom.” If an opinion of the masses is based in sloppy reasoning, you can bet that Naval will spot it, and be able to deliver a concise description of why it’s fallacious.

Notes:

• I actually disagree with Naval on quite a lot but still think he is well worth listening to.
• Naval has his own podcast. One episode that I particularly enjoyed was an agglomeration of his thoughts on wealth creation, which I’ve attached below:

Episode 347 — Guest: Stan Grof

Out of the over 400 guests who have appeared on the Tim Ferriss Show, Stan Grof is one of the very few that might seem a little “out there.” However, I think that he is a true genius in the fields of psychology and metaphysics. He has conducted thousands of LSD assisted therapy sessions, and developed a style of breathing (known as Holotropic Breathwork) that can mimic the drug’s effects. I have used this breathing technique on numerous occasions and can confirm its ability to radically alter consciousness.

Notes:

• What is perhaps most remarkable about Holotropic Breathwork is not the hallucinations and physical releases that it can induce (though they are quite incredible) but its ability to significantly improve one’s state of mind and creative abilities for months following the literal breathing session. I would recommend it to anyone looking to heal their psyche.
• After my first holotropic breathwork session, the pain from a chronic knee issue (that I had been experiencing for around two years) reduced in severity by approximately 90%. After a few more sessions, it disappeared entirely.
• Grof has written many books about the insights into the mind that he gained by facilitating altered-consciousness therapy sessions. Three of my favorites are Healing Our Deepest Wounds, Holotropic Breathwork, and The Cosmic Game.

Excerpts from the Episode:

• “And so I decided to write a biography. But my life has been pretty intense, pretty rich. So the question was what do I select. And then I decided to select observations and experiences from my life that current materialistic science would consider to be impossible. So it’s these stories. And about one third of this is dedicated to amazing synchronicities that I have experienced in my life.”
• “So I use that term holotropic for a special large subcategory of non-ordinary states that have healing potential, therapeutic potential, that have, according to my experience, transformative potential… when you work with these states, you run into a lot of paradigm breaking observations that challenge the whole way of thinking, not just in psychiatry but in relativistic science.”
• “Looking at my very, very limited personal experience and what I’ve observed in other people, I’ve certainly seen, as you have, some incredible examples of transformation, people who have seemingly resolved chronic depression or anxiety disorders, eating disorders and experienced incredible healing that seems to have a persistent effect after experiencing these deep, psychedelic states.” - Tim Ferriss

Episode 322 — Guest: Adam Robinson

I think Adam Robinson might be from another planet. His energy is unique, and he seems to look at just about everything in an unusual way. His accomplishments include founding the Princeton Review, and achieving the title of Life Master from the US chess federation. These days, he works as an advisor to large hedge funds.

In addition to his mastery in the relatively objective worlds of chess and finance, Robinson is full of cutting insights about the nature of the mind. Many of these insights stemmed from his battles with depression, and can, I think, be useful to anyone who struggles with the condition.

Notes:

• Robinson became friends with the very famous and very reclusive chess master Bobby Fischer, and discusses this friendship during the episode.

Excerpts from the Episode:

• “If you experience any negative emotion — doubt, fear, frustration, anger — it’s almost always a sign to redirect your attention either to the task at hand or to others.”
• “By the time I graduated from Oxford after doing my undergraduate work at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, I had begun to emerge from my interior world to a great extent, but I was still 95 to 5 on the introvert/extrovert scale. I very much enjoyed the company of other people, but only for brief periods — 15, 30 minutes — beyond which I’d reach overload and I’d need to seclude myself to recharge.”
• “I get endless delight covertly ambushing unsuspecting strangers with random acts of kindness. So, for example, after ordering my iced latte, I’ll give a Starbucks barista a $20.00 bill and tell him or her to comp the person right after the person behind me for whatever he or she wants, and to give that person the change as well.”