Radical Candor Podcast

While the Radical Candor podcast team is on a summer break — the "Radical Sabbatical" — Kim Scott is talking with the authors of books that have shaped her thinking over the past couple of years.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Rob Lalka, Tulane professor and author of The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power, about why some tech founders start out corrupt and others get corrupted along the way — tracing the very different origin stories of Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the so-called "PayPal Mafia," and asking what it actually takes for a leader to resist the pull of unchecked power and money.

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Building high-performance teams is one of the hardest things a leader does — and it's easy for a passionate founder or senior leader to slide from advocate to authoritarian autocrat. Left unchecked, that shift quietly caps what an organization is capable of. So where's the balance between decisive leadership and command-and-control?

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Liz Wiseman, the New York Times bestselling author of Multipliers, The Multiplier Effect, and the Wall Street Journal bestsellers Rookie Smarts and Impact Players. Liz and Kim dig into why authoritarian leadership backfires, the handful of moments where a firmer hand is actually the right call, and practical ways to keep contributing even when your boss isn't a multiplier.

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While the podcast team is on a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is spending the season interviewing authors of the books that have shaped her thinking most in the last two years. This time, that's Dr. Becky Kennedy, the clinical psychologist and mom of three behind the parenting company Good Inside and the #1 New York Times bestseller by the same name.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Dr. Becky about the surprising overlap between raising a family and running a team. You can't send a direct report to their room, but the skills that make someone a good parent — holding a boundary while staying warm, getting curious instead of defensive, repairing a mistake instead of pretending it didn't happen — are the same skills that make someone a good boss.

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While the Radical Candor podcast team is on a Radical Sabbatical, Kim Scott is sitting down with the authors of the books that have most shaped her thinking over the past two years. This week's guest is Oliver Bullough — a journalist from Wales who has spent his career chasing dirty money across the former Soviet Union, the City of London, and the world's quietest tax havens.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Oliver Bullough about how money laundering went from a niche service for tax-dodging celebrities into a global system that hides trillions of dollars for kleptocrats, cartels, and crooks. They trace the line from the post-war Bretton Woods order to today's world of shell companies, crypto, and AI — and what its unraveling means for democracies on both sides of the Atlantic.

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While the podcast team takes a Radical Sabbatical, Kim Scott is interviewing the authors of the books that have had a big impact on her over the past two years. In this episode she talks with historian Gary Gerstle—author of The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order and ten other books—about how the free market came to dominate American life, and what Kim calls her own unwitting role as “the Forrest Gump of neoliberalism.”

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Gary Gerstle about the two great political orders that have governed America over the last century—the New Deal order and the neoliberal order that replaced it—why it can feel like the U.S. has a one-party system when it comes to the economy, and what might rise from the wreckage of the 2008 financial crash.

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While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her over the past two years. In this episode, she's speaking with Steven Johnson — co-founder of NotebookLM and author of fourteen books on science, technology, and innovation — about his latest, The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Steven Johnson about how three intertwined stories — the invention of dynamite, the rise of political anarchism, and the birth of modern detective work — reshaped the world at the turn of the 20th century. They start with Swiss watchmakers in the Jura Mountains, follow Peter Kropotkin's theory of mutual aid into the bottom-up ethos that built early Silicon Valley, and trace how dynamite handed small groups a disproportionate amount of force — and how the state's response built the modern surveillance apparatus. They end on a question worth sitting with: what would the 20th century have looked like if the anarchists had taken a page from Gandhi instead?

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While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her in the past two years.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Luke Burgis about his new book, The One and the Ninety-Nine, Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion. Through stories ranging from the parable of the lost sheep to August Landmesser, the only person in a huge crowd to refuse to salute Hitler, Luke describes the missing skill that makes real community possible: learning how to remain oneself while staying connected to others. He offers practical, tactical advice for how to recognize false belonging, escape coercive dynamics, and pass through the rites of passage that produce people with integrity and courage.

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While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her in the past two years. In this episode, she's speaking with Daniel Coyle about his new book, Flourish: The Art of Building Meaning, Joy, and Fulfillment.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Daniel Coyle about what it means to flourish — not just as individuals, but as teams, organizations, and communities. What is a meaningful life, and how do we make one? How do certain communities foster closeness, fulfillment, happiness, and energy? It turns out that the key isn't command and control. It's connection, curiosity, and the willingness to let go of power.

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All too often, founders start a company and hire an incredible team dedicated to solving an important problem and leaving the world better off. Then they get a taste of success — and the bankers and lawyers swoop in. Demands to “maximize shareholder value” set in. The company succumbs to the gravitational pull of mediocrity, or worse. Compromises are made, rationalizations abound, and after a while people start to wonder: how did this happen?

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Lean Startup author Eric Ries about his new book Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad… and How Great Companies Stay Great — and what it actually takes to build a company that stays true to its purpose.

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Graduation speeches love “follow your passion.” Career coaches love it. Parents love it. But is that really the best way to decide what to do for work — especially in a moment of AI anxiety, when the ground under entire careers is shifting?

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with bestselling author and researcher Tom Rath about his new book What's the Point? — and why a better starting question might be: what's a problem I can help solve?

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