Radical Candor Podcast

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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Office culture is a fascinating topic. It can be the special sauce that brings a team together to achieve excellence. But what happens when the culture becomes a toxic mess? What happens when a charismatic CEO becomes obsessed with cataloging people's weaknesses and broadcasting them across the company? What happens when that same CEO mandates “internal reporting” on coworkers, in techniques drawn directly from the Stasi playbook? Why would people join — and remain at — such an organization?

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with New York Times business reporter and bestselling author Rob Copeland about his deeply researched book The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend. It's a cautionary tale about what happens when a charismatic, immensely wealthy leader decides his mission is to dictate how people should live.

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Wealth inequality and the concentration of political power can feel like the unique problems of our era. But there are lessons to be learned from the past — sometimes from the most unlikely places.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Yale Law School professor John Witt about his book The Radical Fund — the story of the Garland Fund, established by Charles Garland in the early 1920s, and how that one philanthropic experiment helped lay the foundation for some of the 20th century's most consequential civil rights, labor, and free speech wins.

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Wealth concentration in the United States is top of mind these days. While it's tempting to see this as a recent trend, it's instructive to look at what was happening in American politics decades ago — and see how many of these forces were already set in motion in the 1970s.

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Prof. David Gibbs about his book Revolt of the Rich: How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America's Class Divide — and the Nixon and Carter administration decisions that still reverberate today.

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We all love the convenience of our digital devices and connected services. But what about the ever-expanding pile of digital breadcrumbs we leave behind every day? Those crumbs get swept up by private companies to target us with ads, and by government agencies who might use them for legitimate police work — or, in some cases, political repression. So a lot of people are asking: should I be doing more to protect my personal privacy, and how?

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with tech evangelist and prolific author Guy Kawasaki about the journey that led him to start using Signal — and then to co-author Everybody Has Something to Hide, a hands-on guide for using it well.

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When tech is at its best, it’s a group of people working together to solve hard problems in a way that makes the world a better place. That goal is what motivated so many folks in Silicon Valley to come here. How then did we cede the microphone to a small number of people who espouse an authoritarian, rich-get-richer algorithm? How can we take action to advocate for our vision of a better future?

On this episode of the Radical Candor Podcast, Kim talks with Lisa Conn — founder of Gatheround and former Meta employee — and Anne Wootton — co-founder of Pop Up Archive and current senior engineering manager at Apple — about the ICEout.tech movement, why they signed the pledge, and how tech employees can organize for change without compromising their day jobs.

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