Be honest: How bored are you right now? In all this push to get seen, to be consistent and on-brand, you’ve managed to become more machine than human. Your processes all have systems that talk to each other, dashboards measure what matters instantaneously letting you know whether you’re succeeding or failing, and social media keeps you jacked in and distracted to what’s really going on within you. Boredom is often portrayed as something to be avoided, but what if it’s actually what you need? What if instead of clicking, swiping, scrolling, and tapping, you did absolutely nothing? What could you learn from a period of disconnection and introspection? The answers to these questions are anything but simple, but they are instructive and personal, specific to your circumstances and dreams. And perhaps, just the very thing to guide you into a more favorable future.

• Episode photo from Envato Elements: Teenagers Holding Decorative Colorful Masks on a Sofa
• edX: CS50’s Introduction to Programming with Python
• Coursera: Figma UI/UX Design Essentials
• Coursera: Google AI Professional Certificate

When was the last time you listened to your inner broadcast? You know the one. It’s your unique internal monologue full of beauty, curiosity, hope, imagination, wonder, and intrigue. It’s always broadcasting and we have the opportunity to tune in or drown it out with the noise of the world. I’ll be honest, it’s been hard to hear my inner broadcast lately. Focus is reserved for a handful of daily scattered moments of productivity. But the rest of the time? My mind wanders in the desert of this season of life. As I’ve talked about before, there are a lot of changes right now, but what I’m realizing is that no matter what happens, I need to listen to what’s going on within. If I don’t, I’m going to get steamrolled by the discordant soundtrack of the world, which just gets louder by the hour.

1. Create intentional moments of silence and solitude where you can tune in to your inner broadcast.
2. Pay attention to what’s being broadcast and write down what you hear.
3. Spend 15 minutes in active curiosity mode with something that comes up.
4. Spend 15 minutes in active creation mode with what you learn.
5. Reflection allows you to gauge the quality level of your inner broadcast. It is through reflection where you see what needs to be strengthened, added, changed, or removed.

• “Input, More Input!” Johnny 5 Goes Crazy | Short Circuit (1986)
• Episode photo from Envato Elements: Aerial view of highway junctions. Bridge roads shape in structure. Top view. Urban city

For almost 50 years, today’s guest didn’t talk about what happened to her on September 6, 1970 when the plane she was on was hijacked. But in her new book, Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience, Mimi Nichter recounts her story of what happened before, during, and after her hostage experience. In our conversation, we talk about her work as a cultural anthropologist and the ways observation and listening inform our ability to understand others. She also touches on how she found her voice in the writing process, choosing to write from memory instead of interviewing others, how images and stories helped memories to emerge, reconciling our past and present selves, the value of compassion, and why we need to talk about what happens to us. When we share our stories with one another, either in memoir or conversation, we connect not only to moments in time, but bear witness to the experiences that shape history itself.

• Mimi Nichter
• Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience by Mimi Nichter
• Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
• Episode photo from Envato Elements: Aerial Drone, Where Desert Meets the Ocean, Sandwich Harbour, Namibia, Africa

What do you do when you get stuck? Maybe you’re like me and you let doubt and despair slow you down or even stop you. Today’s guest has a different answer: keep it moving. Bishop Kevin Foreman, “The People’s Bishop,” is a man of many pursuits—pastor, church planter, bishop, success coach, speaker, author, philanthropist, and entrepreneur—and in this conversation he shares how curiosity, faith, and divine conviction help him to keep his life and work moving. We talk about his insatiable thirst for knowledge, the art of letting go, building the essential skill of reframing, liberating versus limiting beliefs, how faith and data work together when making decisions, why prioritization matters more than balance, and his constant drive to bring the best out of people.

• Bishop Kevin Foreman
• History Makers by Bishop Kevin Foreman
• Sins of the Fathers: Breaking Generational Curses by Bishop Kevin Foreman
• Evolutionaries: Unlocking the New You by Bishop Kevin Foreman
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Episode photo from Envato Elements: Texture of layers in orange and gray colors

Do you ever feel like you’re making the same mistakes over and over again? Yeah, me too. There are some parts of my life and work where curiosity and experimentation are endless, but when it comes to money, I’m stuck on a treadmill of feast and famine. I know enough of the lingo to talk a good game, but really, I’m still doing business like I did when I started 20 years ago. Underneath it all, I’m stuck in a shame spiral wondering if it will ever change. The truth is that something broke a long time ago and instead of fixing it, I kept repeating my mistakes making the break worse and worse. But as I watch my wife heal from a broken leg, it’s time for me to heal my own brokenness.

• Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat. by Ryan Holiday
• Shrinking (TV Series 2023–)
• Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato
• The Daring Creatives
• Episode photo from Envato Elements: broken glass, impact, overlay, realistic

Rejection is on my mind today. Yes, it’s because I got rejected for something I actually wanted. But there’s also a deeper reason: Somewhere along my creative journey, I learned to minimize rejection by playing-it-safe, making my dreams small, and maximizing my chameleon tendencies. Recently, Shae Omonijo shared a short video on Substack about her plan for 2026: “Collect 1K rejections.” A lot ran through my mind after seeing the video, “1,000 rejections? One hurt enough! Are you a glutton for punishment?” I think my brain short-circuited when I watched it, but it didn’t take long for the truth to be revealed: I’m a chicken and I’m tired of being scared. If you are someone who has big dreams, but shove them aside because you have an unhealthy relationship with rejection, then this episode’s for you. Oh, and don’t worry, I’m preaching to the choir here because this is the work I need to do for myself as well.

1. Know what you actually want.
2. Adopt a rejection mindset.
3. Stop waiting and start moving.
4. Dream bigger and share often.
5. Allow yourself to change.
6. Learn to separate rejection from failure.
7. Become an advocate for yourself, your wants, and needs.

• Shae O. – “Collect 1K Rejections” video
• Finding Mastery
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
• Episode photo by Jan Antonin Kolar on Unsplash