The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson became an ultramarathoner in his 40s. Recommitting to the sport helped him break records and even get faster as he aged. The discipline he built also helped transform his approach to nearly every aspect of his life. His latest book, The Running Ground, focuses on his own personal journey with running, a sport he began with his first mile at 5 and that that helped him cope with a cancer diagnosis in his 30s and later process his relationship with his complicated father. In this special conversation, he shares what running can teach leaders about the healthy habits that underpin success, pacing for the long game, and breaking through the mental barriers that derail progress. He details some of the strategies that help this father of 3 make time for what matters most including setting 'non-goals' that help him manage energy and not just time. As the leader driving digital transformation at a 169-year-old publication, he also reflects on navigating historic disruption and what he's learned from The Most Interesting Thing in Tech, the daily videos he posts exploring most compelling tech trends of our time.

About this episode:
Transcript: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/nicholas-thompson-focus-running-ground
Youtube: https://youtu.be/Xh9PLsyptgA

About this guest:
https://www.nickthompson.com/

The Most Interesting Thing in Tech

https://www.tiktok.com/@nxthompson

Related Annual Meeting 2026 sessions:
Next Phase of Intelligence:
https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/next-phase-of-intelligence/

Regulating at the speed of code:
https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/regulating-at-the-speed-of-code/

Internet up for grabs
https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/internet-up-for-grabs/

Related podcasts:

Meet the Leader - Adam Grant: Future leaders won't succeed without this key trait https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buVVIpttzUA

Meet The Leader - 'I'll show you a real leader' - Platon, the photographer of power, on finding humanity in all of us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIUGFUza2ec&t=117s

While prospects for women in tech and AI have improved over the years, women still comprise just a fraction of the tech workforce. Ayumi Moore Aoki is the founder of Women in Tech Global, an organization with a presence in over 60 countries around the world, one designed to empower women in the sector. She shares how a leaky talent pipeline makes opportunity harder to seize, what's needed at each stage of women's careers to bridge gaps and what leaders can do to ensure they make the most of their team's talents. She'll also explain how women can distinguish themselves in AI and the one topic that will define that technology in the year ahead. Lastly, this advocate and founder also details how her background has prepared her to run WTG, from her time in South Africa during apartheid to her lessons learned as an entrepreneur.

Related links:
Women in Tech Global: https://women-in-tech.org/
Ayumi Moore Aoki: https://ayumimooreaoki.com/

Related reports:
Global Gender Gap Report: https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2025/ Global Gender Gap Report

Global Parity in the Intelligene Age: https://www.weforum.org/publications/gender-parity-in-the-intelligent-age-2025/

Related episodes:
Be your own role model - a female rocket scientist, pioneer and science influencer explains
Listen here: https://tinyurl.com/y4n9cmec

7 women leaders on the books that shaped their lives
Listen: https://tinyurl.com/vuketc78

Women comprise just a fraction of the aerospace sector - a field research says is poised for trillion-dollar growth in the years to come. Mishaal Ashemimry is the head of the Centre for Space Futures where she works to improve space policies and unlock the next phase of the space economy. She shares her experience as a woman not just in a male-dominated sector but in a region that for much of her life didn't have a formal space agency. She explains what slows the growth of women in aerospace and what's changing for the better in this sector. She also shares the mindsets and strategies she used to get her ideas heard and to create opportunity for herself, tactics that helped her become the first female aerospace engineer in the Gulf Cooperation Council and to found her own rocket startup.

About this episode:
Mishaal Ashemimry:
https://www.mishaalashemimry.com/home
https://www.youtube.com/@MishaalAshemimry/videos

Related World Economic Forum Initiatives:
Centre for Space Futures
https://www.spacefutures-sa.com/home

Report - Space: $1.8 Trillion Opportunity for Global Economic Growth
https://www.weforum.org/publications/space-the-1-8-trillion-opportunity-for-global-economic-growth/

Transcript:
https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/mishaal-ashemimry-role-model-space-gender-gap

Related Episodes:
He's building 'gas stations' in space. How it can drive the space economy - Orbit Fab
Transcript:
https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/daniel-faber-orbit-fab-space-economy
Episode: https://tinyurl.com/2s3tscms

Meet the startup building the first commercial space station - Axiom
Transcript: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/tejpaul-bhatia-space-economy-axiom/
Episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3FjNtzxmBucpgnZ4xhagxe

An energy company is building the world's largest airplane. Here's why - Axiom
Transcript: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/mark-lundstrom-radia-climate-change/
Episode: https://tinyurl.com/3n3edcyc

How can leaders navigate a world roiled by a host of uncertainties, from the impact of AI to jobs and economies, to an ever-warming world and increasing geopolitical conflicts? They can start by asking the right questions. In this special episode, with interviews recorded in Davos, leaders share what's top of mind for 2026. They give their thoughts on how leaders can navigate the unknown, their strategies to focus on what matters most and the key questions they're looking to answer at the start the year.

Featured in this episode:

• Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, the question to help navigate uncertainty
• Anne Walsh, Chief Investment Officer, Guggenheim Investment Management; Managing Partner, Guggenheim Partners on separating the signal from the noise
• Sunny Mann, Global Chair, Baker McKenzie, on tapping experts and building for resilience
• Nicholas Thompson, CEO, The Atlantic, on if we'll see the democratization of AI
• Jeremy Allaire, Founder and CEO, Circle, on how autonomous work will take shape
• Nikki Clifton, UPS Foundation, focusing on the right challenge
• Jonathan Haidt, author The Anxious Generation, on investing on habits for flourishing
• Suleika Jaouad, author and artist, on valuing meaning over momentum
• Adam Grant, Wharton Organizational Psychologist, on following the right leaders
• Jon Batiste, Grammy-winning musician, on making the future we imagine a reality

About this epsiode:
Transcript: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/questions-davos-leaders-are-asking-2026

Related story: Davos 2026: 10 questions on leaders' minds
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/02/davos-2026-10-questions-on-leaders-minds/

Related sessions:
Davos 2026: Special address by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/davos-2026-special-address-ursula-von-der-leyen/

Davos 2026: Special address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/davos-2026-special-address-by-mark-carney-prime-minister-of-canada/

Related epsiodes:
Meet The Leader: IMF's Kristalina Georgieva on what's next for AI, skills and the global economy
https://tinyurl.com/4ptf5ewp

Radio Davos: What just happened at Davos 2026
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3vB8W0ljH3VQeHAaf2sCuV

Upskilling for an AI era will be critical. While it requires a strong grasp of individuals' skills and potential, data shows leaders wildly overestimate their own capabilities and can misjudge what their teams can offer. CEO Kian Katanforoosh of skills measurement platform Workera shares what's needed to bridge these gaps and what could be ahead to keep pace with changing needs. He offers a sneak peek at what the future could look like, tackling questions on how AI can reshape mentorship and why it might one day be unethical for a human (rather than a machine) to judge another human's capabilities. He also digs into: how prompting AI can help any leader refine their asks when managing humans; How his own assessments have helped him hone key leadership skills, and what war games have taught him about strategic thinking.

About this episode:
https://www.workera.ai/

Transcript:
https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/kian-katanforoosh-upskill-ai-age-workera

Related episode:
Do you need an AI mentor? This tech entrepreneur thinks so
https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/ai-skills-workera-kian-katanforoosh/

JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, the CEO of one of the largest banks in the world, has a frank and lively one-on-one conversation in Davos with Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes on a host of topics, including: what's needed to unlock growth; how rapid technological shifts could spur economic growth; how AI is integrated AI into the typical JPMorgan workday and how policy moves can impact economies and affordability. He also shares what's driven his successes, what his failures have in common and why not every question will have a simple answer.

About this episode:
Watch this conversation here: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/conversation-with-jamie-dimon-chairman-and-ceo-of-jpmorgan-chase/

About the Annual Meeting
https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/

Radio Davos Daily
Meet The Leader's sister podcast Radio Davos will be publishing live from the Annual Meeting in Davos. To listen to these episodes, follow Radio Davos here: https://open.spotify.com/show/36D1oLAmsRimw70XV19Cdf

How will AI's hotly anticipated growth take shape? And what makes this moment different than past technology cycles? Could it really spark labor shortages, not labor surpluses? These questions and others are answered In a special one-on-one session at the 2026 Annual Meeting in Davos where NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang digs into these themes with Larry Fink, the World Economic Forum's own Interim Co-Chair and BlackRock's President and CEO.

Recorded at the Annual Meeting in Davos Switzerland 2026.

Read a transcript of this episode here:
https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/conversation-with-jensen-huang-president-and-ceo-of-nvidia/

About the Annual Meeting
https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/

Radio Davos Daily
Meet The Leader's sister podcast Radio Davos will be publishing live from the Annual Meeting in Davos. To listen to these episodes, follow Radio Davos here: https://open.spotify.com/show/36D1oLAmsRimw70XV19Cdf

How can tech maximize the future of civilization? In a chat with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO discusses the role of robotics in tackling stubborn issues such as global poverty as well as how it could drive an expansion in the global economy. He also explores how reusable rockets will drop the cost of access to space, how he sees AI developing in the years ahead and his take on optimism.

Speakers: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla; Chief Engineer, SpaceX; CTO, xAI; and Laurence D. Fink, Chair and CEO, BlackRock; Interim Co-Chair, World Economic Forum.

This session was recorded at the Annual Meeting in Davos Switzerland, 22 January, 2026.

Read a transcript of this episode here:
https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/conversation-with-elon-musk-davos-2026

About the 2026 Annual Meeting in Davos:
https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/

Radio Davos Daily
Meet The Leader's sister podcast Radio Davos will be publishing live from the Annual Meeting in Davos. To listen to these episodes, follow Radio Davos here: https://open.spotify.com/show/36D1oLAmsRimw70XV19Cdf