The School of Greatness

Latest Episodes:

Wildly Successful and Quietly Falling Apart | Joel Kinnaman May 27, 2026

Show notes

You can be wildly successful and still be quietly falling apart inside.

Joel Kinnaman has appeared in some of the most talked-about shows in Hollywood. He has starred in The Killing, Robocop, House of Cards, Altered Carbon, and is currently in his fifth season of For All Mankind. And he will be the first to tell you that none of that made the war inside his head any quieter.

Before every live theater performance for three straight years, he threw up. He kept a bucket backstage. The negative voices in his mind were relentless, and he spent years drinking heavily, using drugs, and force-feeding himself in a desperate attempt to hide the shame he felt about a physical condition that had left him feeling deformed since childhood.

What changed everything was not a breakthrough moment. It was a choice to stop running from the fear and bury himself in the work. He memorized a 105-minute one-man show in 10 days, playing 16 different characters, and walked on stage without throwing up for the first time. That experience taught him something he still carries: preparation is armor. The deeper a role is in your bones, the more freedom you have to be alive inside it.

He is still working on the personal side. He describes himself as a disaster in relationships, not from a lack of care, but from years of treating his career as the only thing that could not touch him. He talks about wanting to find the balance between the structure that builds trust and the childlike wonder that keeps him creative. That tension is where this conversation lives.

Joel’s IMDB

In this episode you will:

Understand how shame about a physical condition called pectus excavatum triggered an eating disorder that took years to unpack and overcome
Discover how Joel turned debilitating stage fright and a 3-year pattern of pre-performance vomiting into a breakthrough that rewired his relationship with fear
Learn why preparation is the most underrated performance skill and why Joel insists on being at least 3 nights ahead on every scene he shoots
Hear why Joel sees himself as a different man in his career versus his personal relationships, and what he believes he needs to change to close that gap
Explore how Joel uses psilocybin experiences, breathwork, and the Buddhist concept of shepa to create space between triggers and reaction in his daily life

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1933

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Too Many Options Are Ruining Your Best Work | David Epstein May 25, 2026

Show notes

Too many options isn't freedom. It's paralysis dressed up as possibility.

David Epstein, investigative journalist and author of the bestseller Range, is back with a counterintuitive idea: the constraints you've been avoiding might be the exact thing that unlocks your best work. His new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, makes the case that boundaries don't limit you. They focus you.

You'll hear how a company in the early nineties assembled arguably the greatest collection of tech talent ever, had unlimited resources, and still collapsed under the weight of its own options. Meanwhile, two people who left that company with small, focused projects built eBay and the Palm Pilot. The lesson isn't about talent. It's about the bounding box.

David introduces his BCS Press Release framework: batch your work so you're not toggling all day, make your commitments visible so you can actually subtract the right ones, use satisficing rules to make decisions without drowning in choices, and write the press release before you start anything, so you know what matters before you're too deep in to see clearly.

This conversation also gets personal. David talks about the childhood arm injury that ended his baseball career and pushed him toward running and memory techniques he still uses today. He opens up about forgiveness, about the grudges that are hard to shake, and about the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest study of human happiness ever conducted, which concluded that happiness is love. Real relationships. Mutual obligation. The stuff you keep forgetting to schedule.

David’s socials:

Website

Instagram

David’s books:

In this episode you will:

Discover why having too many options can kill your creativity and how the psychology of the path of least resistance explains it
Learn the BCS Press Release framework for batching work, making commitments visible, and using satisficing rules to stay focused
Understand the difference between kind and wicked learning environments and why the 10,000-hour rule only applies to one of them
Explore what MIT, Northwestern, and Census Bureau research reveals about the average age of fast-growing startup founders and why late bloomers have an edge
Apply the subtractive neglect bias and the subtraction game to cut commitments and create more clarity in your work and relationships

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1932

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

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Lewis Howes Solo [5-Step Mental Reprogramming Process]

Emma Grede

Kevin Love

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A Divorce Judge's Rules for Choosing the Right Person | Faith Jenkins May 22, 2026

Show notes

Most people learn how to love the hard way. What if you didn't have to?

Faith Jenkins is a TV judge who has presided over more divorce cases than most people will ever witness in a lifetime. She has also been through roughly 10 serious relationships of her own, waited until 42 to marry, and did both pre-engagement and premarital counseling before saying yes. She knows this terrain from every angle.

What she learned will shift the way you think about every relationship you are in or hoping to find. The true measure of someone is not who they are when things are going great. It is who they are under pressure. Pain is inevitable, she says. Suffering is optional.

You cannot be cynical about love and expect to attract it at the same time. That single idea might change everything. Somewhere between the heartbreak and the closed doors is the version of you who is finally ready, and that is the person your partner actually gets to meet.

Faith married the right person six months after writing down that she would. She did not fight the breakup that made space for him. She radically accepted it, let it go, and stepped into the biggest open door of her life.

Faith’s book: Sis, Don't Settle: How to Stay Smart in Matters of the Heart

Faith’s website

Faith on YouTube

Faith on Instagram

In this episode you will:

Understand why emotional maturity, not chemistry, is what separates a healthy ending from a destructive one
Learn Faith's practice of radical acceptance and how separating your feelings from the facts protects your peace through breakups
Discover why doing pre-engagement counseling before getting engaged gives you real clarity on alignment before pressure sets in
Recognize the hidden reasons so many people settle, from fear of loneliness to past experiences that erode self-worth
Apply Faith's approach to staying open to love after betrayal, and how reframing your past protects your future partner from paying for it

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1931

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

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Sleep Doctor: Why Everyone Wakes Up Between 1 and 3 AM | Dr. Michael Breus May 20, 2026

Show notes

You already know sleep matters. What you don't know is why you keep waking up at 2 AM, why your tracker is probably lying to you, and why the rules you've been following may not be meant for you.

Dr. Michael Breus is one of the world's leading sleep doctors - not just a sleep expert, but a clinical psychologist who actually treats patients and pressure-tests every theory in real life. The difference matters. The rule saying you need a pitch-black, 65-degree room with no TV and no partner? He sleeps with two French bulldogs and a big screen on. His point isn't that sleep hygiene doesn't matter. It's that it has to work for your actual life.

One thing that might reshape how you think about your body: every human on earth wakes up between 1 and 3 AM. It's biology. Your core body temperature drops to prevent hypothermia, and your body briefly surfaces. Most people roll over and go back to sleep. If you don't, the fix isn't pills - it's understanding what's happening and using tools like 4-7-8 breathing to lower your heart rate below 60 and let sleep return naturally.

Your chronotype - lion, bear, wolf, or dolphin - is genetic. It shifts across your lifetime. Forcing a wolf to be a lion doesn't make them a better performer; it makes them worse. The biggest unlock, according to Dr. Breus, isn't more sleep. It's doing the right things at the right time for your specific biology.

Dr. Breus has a five-step daily framework he gives every patient. It's specific, it's sequenced, and most people are violating at least three of the steps without knowing it.

Dr. Breus’s books:

Take The Chronotype Quiz!

Dr. Breus on Instagram

Dr. Breus on LinkedIn

In this episode you will:

Learn the five-step framework Dr. Breus uses with CEOs, elite athletes, and patients to dramatically improve sleep quality without medication
Discover the 4-7-8 breathing technique developed by Dr. Andrew Weil and how it lowers your heart rate to unlock sleep when your mind won't stop
Understand chronotype science - whether you're a lion, bear, wolf, or dolphin - and how aligning your schedule to your biology changes everything from performance to sex drive
Uncover the truth about sleep trackers, melatonin supplements, and why eight hours is not the universal target you've been sold
Master the Napa Latte protocol and non-sleep deep rest (Yoga Nidra) as emergency recovery tools when life disrupts your sleep

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1930

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

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Andrew Huberman

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Shawn Stevenson

TOPICS

chronotype, circadian rhythm, sleep drive, adenosine, 4-7-8 breathing, Yoga Nidra, non-sleep deep rest, Napa Latte protocol, melatonin, chrono longevity, sleep anxiety, Dr. Michael Breus

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The 5 Steps to Reprogram Your Mind and Break Every Ceiling | Lewis Howes May 18, 2026

Show notes

Your effort isn't the problem. Your programming is.

Lewis Howes spent years outworking everyone around him, and it still wasn't enough. He had the discipline, the results, even the New York Times bestseller. But inside he still felt like that broke kid on the couch who wasn't enough. That gap between outer success and inner peace is where this episode begins.

Most people are running a mental operating system they never chose. The beliefs you hold about money, love, and what you deserve weren't decisions you made. They were copied and pasted from your past, reinforced by your environment, and mistaken for facts. If you don't question that program, you'll keep repeating it for the next 10, 20, 30 years.

This episode walks you through five specific steps to change that. Not just a mindset shift. A full identity shift. Because people don't fail for lack of effort. They fail because they try to change their behavior without changing who they believe they are. And your identity always wins.

You can't build a new mind in an old environment. That means auditing the content you consume, the people you let in, and the conversations you keep having. Lewis shares what it actually cost him to walk away from relationships and environments that were quietly anchoring him to his old self, and why it was the only move that made everything else work.

If you do the work here for 30 days, you won't just think differently. You'll start showing up differently. And that's when your results begin to match the version of you that you're building inside.

Make Money Easy: Create Financial Freedom and Live a Richer Life

The Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life Today

The Mask of Masculinity: How Men Can Embrace Vulnerability, Create Strong Relationships, and Live Their Fullest Lives

The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy

In this episode you will:

Discover why your default mental programming, not your effort, is the real ceiling on your results and how to become aware of it for the first time
Learn the pattern interruption method Lewis used to stop old triggers from running his life and how to apply it in real time throughout your day
Understand the identity shift principle and why changing behavior without changing identity always fails, using the concrete example of how identity must lead behavior
Apply the two keys to subconscious rewiring, repetition and emotion, so that daily practices actually lock into lasting change instead of fading after a week
Build a mental environment protection plan that guards your mind from the people, content, and conversations quietly pulling you back to who you used to be

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1929

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

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More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:

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Fast Like a Girl: Timing Your Diet to Your Hormones | Dr. Mindy Pelz May 15, 2026

Show notes

Every diet you've ever tried has failed you for one reason: it never told you when to eat.

Your body runs on two energy systems. One burns sugar. The other burns fat. Most people never spend a single day in the second one.

Around eight to ten hours without food, the switch flips. Ketones flood your brain. Hunger quiets. Mental clarity hits. Healing turns on. This is what fasting expert Dr. Mindy Pelz has been teaching for over 25 years, and what her book Fast Like a Girl made impossible to ignore.

For women, timing is everything. Day 1 to 10, fast longer and lift heavier. Day 11 to 15, testosterone surges and libido climbs. Day 16 to 19 is for deeper fasts. After day 20, progesterone needs you to back off and rest. Fast like a man during the back half of your cycle and you'll tank the very hormones keeping you calm and regular.

Underneath all of it sits the hormonal hierarchy. Oxytocin at the top. Cortisol below it. Then insulin. Then sex hormones. When you feel safe and connected, the whole stack works. When you don't, nothing else matters. Connection isn't optional for women. It's biology.

Dr. Mindy’s books:

In this episode you will:

Learn the fasting cycle for women, Dr. Mindy's day-by-day framework that syncs your fasting window, workout intensity, and food choices to your menstrual cycle
Uncover why your menstrual cycle is a monthly detox rather than a burden, and what an irregular or absent cycle is actually telling you about your body
Discover why timing your eating matters more than what you eat, and how the ketogenic energy system unlocks fat burning, mental clarity, and steady energy
Understand the hormonal hierarchy, how oxytocin, cortisol, insulin, and sex hormones stack on each other, and why female community and connection function as biological medicine
Find out what long-term birth control does to the gut microbiome and the brain-ovary connection, and why so many women struggle with hormonal imbalances after coming off the pill

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1928

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

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Break the Money Beliefs You Locked In at Age 7 | Mrs. Dow Jones May 13, 2026

Show notes

Your money beliefs were locked in by the time you were seven years old. The patterns showing up in your bank account right now started somewhere in your childhood. And most of the financial advice you have been given is aimed at the wrong target.

Financial educator Haley Sacks, a.k.a. Mrs. Dow Jones, author of Future Rich Person: The New Rules for Building Wealth, breaks down why obsessing over lattes and pre-chopped vegetables is a waste of your financial energy. Negotiating your salary, understanding compound interest, learning to earn more. That is what actually moves the needle.

There's a real difference between looking rich and being rich. Looking rich is the designer logo, the signal, the illusion. Being rich is driving a Jeep, buying back your time, and not needing anyone to notice. Haley shares how she blew her first $3,000 windfall on an oversized fake Louis Vuitton bag on eBay and couldn't make rent that month. The bag is still on her shelf as a reminder.

Haley calls it learned financial helplessness. When you feel like the system is completely stacked against you and there is no real path to win, you stop trying and start looking for shortcuts. Faking rich becomes the move. But once you name what is working against you, you take back some of the power. That is where her IBIZA money mindset program (Identify, Blame, Interrupt, Z, Action) comes in.

You do not need a high salary to build wealth. A janitor named Ronald died with $8 million because he always kept action money, the money left after expenses, and put it to work in low-cost index funds consistently over time. The billionaires are investing in the same vehicles available to you right now. The only question is whether you start.

Get your copy of Future Rich Person: The New Rules for Building Wealth

Financial Tea Podcast

Haley on Instagram

In this episode you will:

Discover the three rules to becoming a Future Rich Person and why money mindset has to come first before any financial strategy will stick
Learn the difference between action money and the rest of your budget, and why understanding this gap is the key to actually building wealth
Understand learned financial helplessness and how to use the IBIZA framework (Identify, Blame, Interrupt, Z, Action) to shift your money self-identity
Break down the real difference between looking rich and being rich, and what your spending patterns reveal about your deeper beliefs around value and self-worth
Find out what to teach your kids about money early, including how to talk from abundance instead of scarcity, how to tie chores to pay, and how to introduce taxes through an allowance system

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1927

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

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Your Preferences Are Your Ceiling | Brendon Burchard May 11, 2026

Show notes

Most people don't realize they have a ceiling on their success. Not a skill ceiling. A preference ceiling. Brendon Burchard calls it the complexity ceiling, and it's the invisible line where your comfort wins over your vision.

The highest performers in the world share one non-negotiable: their preferences never outrank their aspirational self. They don't wait to feel ready. They generate the feeling they need and act from that place.

Brendon introduces his FREE framework (Feeling, Responsibility, Expression, Expansion), a four-part system for creating your internal state on purpose, every day, regardless of what's hitting you from the outside. It's the methodology he breaks down fully in High Performance Habits.

Lewis and Brendon also go deep on what happens when you succeed beyond what you believed was possible, and why that moment can trigger imposter syndrome or total emptiness if your belief never caught up to your achievement.

This one is about becoming the person your future self already is. It starts with one question: does your preference win today, or does your vision?

Join ULTRA now: https://lewishowes.com/ultra

Brendon's books:

In this episode you will:

Learn Brendon's FREE framework (Feeling, Responsibility, Expression, Expansion) for clarifying exactly what you want to feel, do, and become
Discover the "complexity ceiling" and why your preferences, not your circumstances, are the real limit on your success
Understand why succeeding beyond your belief system leads to imposter syndrome and how to close that gap before it derails you
Shift from being stuck in stimulus-response mode to actively generating the energy and focus high performance requires
Build a dialogue with your future self that turns long-term vision into decisions you can act on today

Topics: high performance habits, complexity ceiling, FREE framework, imposter syndrome, future self visualization, mindset, personal development, Brendon Burchard

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1926

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

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The 3 Boring Habits That Built His First Million | Graham Stephan May 08, 2026

Show notes

Graham Stephan was relentless about one thing before he had anything else: not spending money he did not have to spend. He calculated the gas cost of visiting a friend and decided it was not worth it. Most people would call that extreme. He calls it the foundation.

The habits he built early, consistency, focus, and ruthless saving, did not feel heroic in the moment. They felt boring. But boring done every single day is what compounded into real estate commissions, YouTube income, and an investment portfolio split evenly between property, index funds, and cash.

What he did not do was wait until he felt ready. He held off on starting his YouTube channel for years because he did not have a Lamborghini like the other guys. When he finally started, none of that mattered.

The deeper conversation here is about what money actually means once you have enough of it. Graham is not chasing a bigger number. He wants to buy back his time, to read a book on a Tuesday if he feels like it. That shift from accumulation to freedom is where this episode gets genuinely interesting.

Graham on YouTube

Graham’s website

Graham on Instagram

In this episode you will:

Discover the three specific habits Graham used to go from nothing to his first million and why saving was the most underrated one
Learn how he structures his investments today across real estate, index funds, and cash, and the simple daily routine he uses to stay consistent
Understand why waiting until you feel credible is the trap that keeps most people from ever starting
Rethink what you believe about renting versus buying a home and when each choice actually makes financial sense
Shift how you think about the end goal of building wealth, from hitting a number to designing a life that gives you your time back

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1925

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

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Lewis Howes Solo [From $0-1M in 2026]

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The Fear Was Killing Her, Not the Cancer | Anita Moorjani May 06, 2026

Show notes

Anita Moorjani did everything right. She ate organic, avoided sugar, studied cancer prevention obsessively. She still got lymphoma. That contradiction is the entire point.

Growing up as an Indian woman in Hong Kong, caught between British culture and a community that valued sons over daughters, Anita learned one thing above all else: make yourself small and keep everyone happy. That lesson followed her for 40 years, through a canceled arranged marriage, a cancer diagnosis, and a four-year deterioration that ended with her in a coma, 85 pounds, and organs failing.

Then she left her body. In that expanded state, she saw clearly for the first time: it wasn't the cancer that had been killing her. It was the fear.

When she came back, every trace of cancer was gone within three weeks. Doctors flew in from the US just to study her case. None of them could explain it.

What Anita brought back is a message she's been sharing for 20 years: you don't need to earn your place in the world, you already are what you've been spending your life trying to become.

Anita’s books:

Anita's Sedona Healing Retreat

Anita's Website

Anita's Facebook

Anita's Instagram

In this episode you will:

Understand why living in constant fear can manifest as serious physical illness - and how shifting from fear-based choices to love-based ones changes everything
Discover what Anita experienced during her 30-hour coma, including what she saw, heard, and understood outside her physical body
Learn the mirror exercise that helped Anita rebuild self-worth from scratch after coming back from the edge of death
Recognize how people-pleasing and self-repression show up in the body, and why your authentic self will keep demanding to be heard
Apply Anita's framework for replacing fear of what you don't want with a focused attention on what you actually want to create

For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1924

For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960

Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness

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