TruthWorks

Latest Episodes:

Uber's CHRO: Why Your Company Culture Is Failing & The Secret To "Strategic Calmness Feb 24, 2026

Show notes

In this incredibly candid conversation, Nikki Krishnamurthy (Chief People Officer at Uber) joins Jessica Neal (former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix) to discuss the high-stakes reality of leading people through crisis, transformation, and the AI revolution.

Nikki opens up about the "Strategic Calmness" required to navigate Uber’s most turbulent years, from handling global layoffs to dismantling a culture of leaks and entitlement. She shares the internal mechanics of her 13-year partnership with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, explaining why a Chief People Officer must act as a business leader first and why being "the mirror" for a CEO is the most important, and loneliest, part of the job.

We dive deep into:

The C-Suite Burden: Why the HR role has shifted into a hybrid of Chief Medical, Diversity, and AI Officer.
The "Entitlement" Trap: How Uber moved from "investigating everything" back to a culture of high judgment and "doing the right thing."
Managing Up: The exact moment Nikki gave Dara feedback and how that blunt honesty built a foundation of radical trust.
AI vs. Innovation: Why Nikki is prioritizing "AI-native" college grads and her warning to big companies: Don't let efficiency kill your ability to invent.
The Art of "Disagree and Commit": Navigating executive hires and knowing which hills are worth dying on.

This is a masterclass in leadership, human psychology, and the raw reality of what happens behind the closed doors of the world’s biggest tech companies.

HBO to $50,000,000: How I Built a Fortune, Lost Everything, and Reclaimed My Life | James Altucher Feb 17, 2026

Show notes

James Altucher is a name that carries both the weight of massive success and the scars of public collapse. He has built and sold companies for millions, lived the life of the elite, and then—through a series of "stupid" decisions and a warped psychology of money—watched it all evaporate.

In this episode, James sits down with Jessica Neal for a masterclass on the human ego. He takes us back to the "least respected" basement office at HBO, where he was just an IT guy with a secret dream of making TV, and explains how he accidentally stumbled into a $50 million fortune.

But the real story is what happened next.

James opens up about the "sickness" that strikes when you reach the top—the belief that if you aren't making $100 million, you're failing. He reveals the visceral shame of lying to business partners while his house was being foreclosed on, the depression that followed, and the radical "Four Bodies" framework he used to crawl back to the light.

This isn't just about money; it’s about the "blood flow" of creativity, the danger of being a salesperson who is too easily sold, and the 1% compounding rule that can change your life in 20 days.

If you feel like you’re treading water, or if you’ve achieved success only to feel more anxious than ever, this conversation is for you.

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 The HBO basement: Where it all started.
05:12 Having $50M and losing it all: The psychological "sickness."
12:45 The "Four Bodies" Framework: Physical, Emotional, Creative, Spiritual.
18:20 Why you must write 10 bad ideas every single day.
25:30 Being a "Human Lie Detector": Detecting BS in the startup world.
33:15 The future of Humanoid Robots and the next trillion-dollar shift.
42:10 Why "Freedom" is often scarier than "Failure."

Why Your Best Employees Are Quietly Quitting (and How to Fix It) - Ashley Herd Feb 10, 2026

Show notes

In this deep-dive conversation, we strip away the HR jargon to look at the Truth behind high-performing cultures. We explore why most "leadership training" fails and how the Manager Method is flipping the script by prioritizing radical honesty over comfortable lies.

In this episode, we uncover:

The "Toxic Nice" Trap: Why avoiding conflict is actually the most unkind thing a manager can do.
The Death of the Performance Review: Why annual check-ins are a waste of time and what the "Truth-Based" alternative looks like.
The Power of the "Human Script": How to handle the most awkward workplace conversations (layoffs, pay gaps, and poor performance) without losing your soul.
Managing Up: How to handle a boss who refuses to hear the truth.

This isn't just a podcast about business; it's a masterclass in human psychology for anyone who is tired of the corporate "performance" and ready to do the real work.

Snowflake’s Chief People Officer: The High-Performance Culture Secret Feb 03, 2026

Show notes

Arnnon Geshuri is the legendary Chief People Officer behind the world's most iconic workforces. From the early days of Google to the high-stakes scaling of Tesla under Elon Musk, and now leading the charge at Snowflake, Arnnon has mastered the art of "human engineering" at a scale very few on Earth have ever seen.

In this conversation, Arnnon pulls no punches on what it actually takes to build a high-performance culture. We discuss the "performance DNA" required to survive in a hyper-growth environment, the truth about hiring for grit over skill, and why most leaders are too afraid to demand excellence.

We discuss:

The Elon Musk Era: What it’s really like building a team at Tesla.
The High-Performance Secret: Why some people thrive under pressure while others crack.
The "Zero Gravity" Culture: How Snowflake maintains its hiring edge while scaling to billions.

This is a masterclass in leadership, psychology, and the brutal reality of what it takes to build a world-class organization.

The Work Expert: Why Your Obsession With Speed Is Destroying Your Team | Bree Groff Jan 27, 2026

Show notes

Why do 70% of organizational transformations fail? It isn't because of bad strategy, poor funding, or a lack of talent. It is because we have fundamentally misunderstood the psychology of change.

In this episode, we sit down with Bree Groff, a Senior Advisor at the global transformation consultancy SYPartners and the former CEO of NOBL Collective, to discuss the counter-intuitive truth about innovation: you cannot build the future until you mourn the past.

Bree explains that what leaders often label as "resistance" or "laziness" is actually a form of grief. Drawing on her unique background—which spans cognitive psychology research, a tenure as a high school physics teacher, and over a decade advising C-suite leaders at companies like Google, Pfizer, and Calvin Klein—she breaks down the "Six Types of Loss" employees experience during a pivot.

We dive deep into why the "move fast and break things" era is ending and why the most successful modern companies are those that allow teams to "metabolize" the loss of their old identities. Bree also previews insights from her book, Today Was Fun, challenging the toxic positivity of corporate culture and offering a scientific framework for why we need to stop forcing agility and start designing for closure.

About Bree Groff: Bree Groff is a renowned expert in organizational psychology and transformation. Currently a Senior Advisor at SYPartners, she previously served as the CEO of NOBL, a global change agency known for pioneering new ways of working. She holds a Master’s in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Psychology and Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Before entering the corporate world, Bree explored human behavior from two very different angles: as a psychology researcher studying decision-making and as an actor and math teacher—experiences that shaped her belief that work should be designed for humans, not just efficiency.

From $0 - $1 Billion Company: How this Founder went from suffering Migraines to Building in Nutrition Jan 20, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, I sit down with the man who is on a mission to completely dismantle the way we think about modern medicine. Aidan Dewar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nourish, and he believes that the healthcare industry has been ignoring the single most powerful tool for human longevity: what we put on our plates.

We live in a world where we treat sickness rather than preventing it. In this conversation, Aidan exposes the cracks in the insurance system, reveals why "food as medicine" isn't just a buzzword but a biological reality, and shares the brutally honest lessons he learned while building a company that is fighting to make nutritional care accessible to every single American.

We discuss the hidden crisis in our diets, the psychology of eating, and how to build a business that actually changes lives.

Who is Aidan Dewar? Aidan Dewar is a healthcare disruptor and the CEO of Nourish. After witnessing the inefficiencies of the traditional medical system, he co-founded Nourish to bridge the gap between patients and registered dietitians. His goal is simple but revolutionary: to make evidence-based nutrition a standard part of healthcare for everyone, regardless of their background.

The Blueprint Of Apple & Netflix.The World’s #1 Tech Strategist: "We Are Working Wrong!" Jan 13, 2026

Show notes

We are taught that great businesses are built on process, management, and roadmaps. But my guest today says that this exact mindset is what kills innovation and drives your best people to quit.

Marty Cagan is the "Godfather of Product." He is the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group and has worked with the giants that defined the internet, including Hewlett-Packard, Netscape, and eBay. He is the man the world’s most successful CEOs call when they stop growing.

In this conversation, Marty exposes the "Feature Factory" trap that 90% of companies fall into, explains why you should never hire a "Mercenary," and reveals the specific leadership secrets used by Apple, Amazon, and Netflix to dominate their industries.

If you are a CEO, a founder, or a leader who wants to build something that actually matters, this is the warning you need to hear.

Behind Duolingo's Multi-Billion Product Strategy, Scaling to 100M users - Cem Kansu Jan 06, 2026

Show notes

How do you take a free language app and turn it into a multi billion juggernaut that users are literally addicted to?

In this episode of TruthWorks, Jessica and Patty sit down with Cem Kansu, the Chief Product Officer at Duolingo. Cem has spent nearly a decade architecting the product strategy that grew Duolingo from a struggling startup into the world’s #1 education app.

This isn’t just a conversation about "product-market fit." It’s a raw look at the operational culture required to run thousands of A/B tests a year without losing your soul. Cem pulls back the curtain on Duolingo’s famous "unhinged" marketing, the reality of managing a "freemium" model that actually makes money, and why they decided to make their AI mascot, Lily, a depressed teenager.

Key topics discussed include:

The "Mini-CEO" Mindset: Why Duolingo empowers product managers to run their own P&Ls and how that changes the culture of accountability.
Monetization vs. Mission: The hard conversations and trade-offs involved in making money while keeping the core product free for millions.
The Truth About Gamification: How to use streaks, leaderboards, and "passive-aggressive" notifications to drive retention without burning out your team (or your users).
Hiring for Taste: Why data is critical, but product intuition is what actually builds a brand people love.
Navigating the AI Shift: How Duolingo is integrating GenAI to teach effectively, not just efficiently.

Whether you are scaling a product team or trying to build a culture that embraces experimentation, Cem offers a transparent look at the machinery behind the owl.

The $150M Founder: Why You're Failing To Grow & How To Fix It. Dec 30, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of Truthworks, Jessica sits down with Guillaume Moubeche, the founder and CEO of Lempire and the creator of Lemlist. Known for building one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world, Guillaume joins the show to unpack the operational and strategic realities of scaling a business from an idea to a global enterprise.

Moving beyond financial headlines, this conversation explores the practical mechanics of growth. Guillaume shares his unique approach to B2B sales, the power of community-led growth, and how modern founders can leverage personal branding to drive tangible business results.

Key topics discussed include:

The "Community-First" Strategy: How to build a loyal user base that acts as your marketing team.
Redefining B2B Outreach: Why traditional sales tactics are failing and how to personalize at scale.
Operational Excellence: The challenges of managing a rapidly growing team and maintaining company culture.
Founder Evolution: Transitioning from a hands-on builder to a strategic CEO.

Whether you are an early-stage founder or a seasoned executive, this episode offers a transparent look at what it takes to build a sustainable, high-growth technology company in today’s market.

Harvard Psychologist: The #1 Hack To REVERSE Aging & Heal Your Body! Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

Is it possible to reverse aging simply by changing your mind? In this episode of Truth Works, we sit down with Dr. Ellen Langer, the legendary Harvard psychologist known as the "Mother of Mindfulness."

Dr. Langer challenges everything we think we know about the mind-body connection. She breaks down her groundbreaking "Counterclockwise" study, where elderly men reversed signs of aging by living as if they were in their younger years, and the famous "Chambermaid" study, which proved that simply believing your work is exercise can lead to weight loss and lower blood pressure.

If you feel stressed, burned out, or stuck on autopilot, this conversation will change how you view your health, your work, and your potential.

In this episode, we cover:

Mindfulness vs. Mindlessness: Why "active noticing" is the key to health and vitality.
The Illusion of Absolutes: Dr. Langer explains why 1+1 doesn't always equal 2 and how context changes everything.
Reversing Aging: Inside the famous study where participants improved their hearing, vision, and strength just by changing their environment.
The Placebo Effect in Daily Life: How hotel maids lost weight just by being told their job counted as exercise.
Managing Stress: Why prediction is an illusion and how to stop creating tragedy out of inconvenience.

About the Guest: Dr. Ellen Langer is a professor of psychology at Harvard University and the author of multiple best-selling books, including The Mindful Body. She has spent 45 years researching the effects of mindfulness on health, business, and competence.

About Truth Works: Hosted by Jessica Neal and Patty McCord, Truth Works digs into the nitty-gritty of leadership and work. We’re here to redefine rules to work for us, not against us.

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