In this upbeat and friendly conversation, Bruce and I discuss:

• What came first, ritual or religion?

• Why SEC football tailgating fits the definition of ritual

• How Balinese tooth-filing ritual has much in common with modern Western dental customs

• Why so many New Yorkers are jumping on the Knicks bandwagon (including someone’s wife who shall remain nameless)

See clips and leave comments below. In the mean time, subscribe to Bruce’s ‘The Nonlinear Life’ Substack here and to Paul’s ‘Reasonably Happy’ Substack here.

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Some of my favorite clips

Paul asks Bruce about the sacred nature of college football tailgating (00:12:33)

“A ritual is a shared, unnecessary act, that makes us feel at home.”

Bruce on why New York has gone crazy for the Knicks (00:17:09)

“Ritual is essential and it can save us. Because, whatever the problem is—if it’s loneliness, ritual is the answer. If it’s polarization, ritual is the answer. If it’s de-civilization, ritual is the answer.”

The performative nature of life—both online and IRL (00:22:01)

“There is going to be a human response to the tech…but also, the internet can be a source of connection.”

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS BELOW↓↓↓

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Even if you belong to Andy’s army of loyal readers, you might not know that he is also the co-creator of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and wrote on classic 80’s TV shows, The Facts of Life and Square Pegs, which helped to launch Sarah Jessica Parker’s career.

In this fast-paced conversation, Andy and I discuss:

• His career in and out of Hollywood

• How to write succinctly

• His grammatical pet peeve(s)

• Whether AI will ever be able to write comedy

• The best advice he got from Susie Essman (aka, the secret to a happy life)

Subscribe to The Borowitz Report here ↓↓↓↓

The Borowitz Report

Home of Truth

By Andy Borowitz

Some of my favorite quotes

Will Smith and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (00:05:12)

Andy: I realized pretty soon after Fresh Prince went on the air that it was really lightning in a bottle. It was a very fluky success. It was this kid, Will Smith, who had never acted before. Although now it’s very much in the mainstream of TV and it’s like the most wholesome, all-American show in the world, at the time it was really going against the grain because the networks and the media—the corporate media in general—were terrified by hip-hop. Hip-hop was, to them, gangster rap. It was, I would say, the inherent racism of corporate media really showing its true colors—no pun intended. They were very terrified by what they knew that Will Smith had. At NBC, they knew that he had a lot of charisma, but they were terrified by what he might have. So they were always trying to get me to take the edges off—not that I could ever find any discernible edges in Will Smith.

Chat GPT Knock-knock joke (00:16:47):

Paul: I went to ChatGPT and said, write a knock knock joke about Andy Borowitz. And here’s what ChatGPT came back with. Knock knock.

Andy: Who’s there?

Paul: Andy.

Andy: Andy who?

Paul: Andy Borowitz,I just published a story saying 83% of Americans think this joke is funnier than the Constitution.

Andy: That is absolutely horrible.

Andy on Life Choices (00:29:13):

Andy: I say this to my kids—I have three kids and this is maybe my only advice—I say “I do not have a big strong opinion about the choices you make other than I hope that when you make choices they will contribute to your being happy and healthy.” And when you make a choice if it’s going to make you happy for the moment like oh that drug looks kind of fun but it’s going to make you unhealthy, you should probably cross that off your list and just try to think about the choices you make are you going to be happy and healthy as a result of this choice. And even at my age I sort of feel like that’s kind of a good exercise.

See Paul tell jokes near you:

• June 19 and 20 - The Comedy Catch, Chattanooga

• June 25 - ❤️ Happy Couples Show, West Side Comedy Club, NYC ❤️

• July 21 - The Venice West, Los Angeles

• July 23 - Cobbs Comedy Club, San Francisco

• Aug 1 - Sticks and Stones Comedy Club, Southampton, NY

• Aug 8 - Atlanta Country Club (private show)

• Aug 13-16 - McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, Sarasota, FL

That is all - have a wonderful day!

Subscribe now

In her new autobiography, Fully Baked: A Messy Memoir, Rosebud shares the story of being the grand-daughter of James Baker, the former Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury who also served as White House Chief of Staff for Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

She also relates unfiltered observations on her parents’ divorce, her addiction to drugs and alcohol, her multiple miscarriages, and the death of her younger sister, Graeme.

Her latest Netflix special is called The Mother Lode. She filmed half of it while eight months pregnant and the other half after giving birth. It was named one of the best comedy specials of 2025.

See Rosebud’s upcoming dates and get the book here.

Some of my favorite quotes

On her tenacious grandfather (

Rosebud: My granddad was just a powerful guy -

Paul: He’s still alive right?

Rosebud: Yeah, he is. He will never die. He won’t die. This man has fallen down the stairs twice in the last year. He’s like 96 or 98 and he’s fallen down the stairs and he won’t take the elevator in his home — like honestly believes it could turn him gay.

Paul: Like Luna bars!

Rosebud: Yeah. He’s like, I will take the stairs every god damn day rather than getting in that gay machine. And I’m like they installed it for you cause you fell down the stairs and broke your spine. But he won’t do it. He’s just that kind of guy. And so there’s a stubbornness and a just a refusal to listen to anyone that sort of is in my blood.

On growing up in an affluent home (00:23:34)

Paul: Do you have guilt for being raised in an affluent environment?

Rosebud: No. Not at all. It was awesome. I look at my life growing up and I’m like holy shit, she didn’t have any idea how good she had it. But I don’t have guilt about it because I wouldn’t have known. That was part of being raised like that— you don’t know anything about anything. So you just get to imagine yourself as whoever you want.

See Paul tell jokes near you:

• June 19 and 20 - The Comedy Catch, Chattanooga

• June 25 - Happy Couples Show, West Side Comedy Club, NYC

• July 21 - The Venice West, Los Angeles (on sale soon)

• July 23 - Cobbs Comedy Club, San Francisco

• Aug 1 - Sticks and Stones Comedy Club, Southampton, NY

• Aug 8 - Atlanta Country Club

• Aug 13-16 - McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, Sarasota, FL

Over the past two decades, A.J. has built a remarkable career by asking questions most of us would never think to ask—and then answering them by turning himself into the experiment.

He’s read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, lived according to the Bible as literally as possible, pursued bodily perfection, traced his family tree to millions of relatives, thanked every person involved in making his morning cup of coffee, explored the world of puzzles, and most recently spent a year trying to live according to the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution.

See Paul’s comedy shows live in NYC, Chattanooga, LA (on sale soon) or San Francisco.

The result has been a string of New York Times bestsellers, including The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, Drop Dead Healthy, Thanks a Thousand, The Puzzler, and The Year of Living Constitutionally. Along the way, he’s become one of America’s most entertaining guides to the intersection of happiness, curiosity, gratitude, self-improvement, and human connection.

What I love about A.J.’s work is that beneath all the humor and outrageous experiments is a serious question: How should we live? And instead of lecturing, he goes out and tests ideas on himself—often with hilarious consequences.

Today we talk about:

• The USA’s 250th Birthday

• Geeking out on compound anniversary words like “semiquincentennial”

• Summer blockbuster movies

• What I should keep in mind while I help my kids search for colleges

Some of my favorite quotes

What Darwin taught A.J about romance (09:14):

A.J.: One of my romantic heroes is Charles Darwin who, before he got married, made a pros/cons list of whether he should get married to his wife. And so, that’s some good thinking.

PAUL: Do you ever break that out and discuss it with Julie (A.J.’s wife)?

A.J.: She does not like that…because on Valentine’s Day I write a card that says “the benefits of being married to you outweigh the costs.” And she does not appreciate that humor So then I’ve stopped doing that joke So yeah, people don’t like pro-con thinking when it comes to love.

What do you think about A.J.’s romantic moves?

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Reminder to be grateful (11:03):

PAUL: What about America are you grateful for?

A.J.: I am grateful for quite a bit, I have to say. Well, I talked about this in my book. I’m grateful for, first of all, for democracy, for balance of powers. But I’m also grateful for progress — things like elastic in my socks. Because during this constitutional year, I tried to dress the part, because I was trying to get into the mindset of the founders and I wore these socks, and they didn’t have elastic in them. They had these woolen, knitted socks and they would just fall down and puddle around the ankles. All those little things that we take for granted—there’s a lot of horrible stuff going in the world, but let’s be grateful for elastic socks and elastic underwear!

Subscribe to A.J.’s Substack, ↓↓↓↓

I understand that sometimes you don’t have time to read everything I send you. You’re busy and on the move—working out, running through an airport, or re-arranging your sock drawer. And that’s okay.

So for this week’s podcast—as I do occasionally—I’m sharing an audio recording of me reading a few recent Substack essays right into your ears. And now you don’t have any excuses to not enjoy my wonderful writing.

You’re right - it’s quite generous of me, but you’re worth it! See links to the articles below.

Have a great day.

Which one is your favorite?

Leave a comment

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Dave’s column was syndicated to hundreds of newspapers around the globe for several decades. He has published dozens of books on myriad topics that sold millions of copies—of books, not topics—in 22 languages. The New York Times called him “the funniest man in America.” (And when has the NYT ever been wrong?)

In other words, he’s accomplished an incredible amount in the funny game, and I was thrilled to talk to him. In this fast-moving 30-min chat, we talk about:

• What he’s looking for in a nursing home.

• Advice for shepherding my kids through the college search process (even though it doesn’t matter where they end up)

• The rock band he plays in with Stephen King, Amy Tan, Roy Blount, Jr., Scott Turow, and many other best-selling authors

• Which other writers make him laugh

• What Baby Boomers could learn from Gen Z (and vice versa)

Thank you all, including , , and many others for tuning into the live stream! See my favorite clips below.

Oh, and here’s the photo I shared at the top of the show…

Some of my favorite quotes

What Dave wants in a nursing home (00:14:49):

Paul: What are the top three amenities you are looking for in a nursing home?

Dave: Okay, number one would be there can be no other residents of this nursing home…I’m basing this on the last time I went to a class reunion, Westonville High School class of 1965. And the last thing you want to see when you’re my age is people who are your age. They’re all the walking dead and it’s very depressing to think, oh my god, that’s her. She was hot in high school.

Paul: And now she’s pulling an oxygen tank.

Dave: Yeah. So I don’t want to have any other residents in my nursing home. And there should be somebody who can make a decent vodka gimlet there. Really important to me Not the kind where they just pour a mix I mean the kind they shake it with a shaker I want to see the shaker when I go to the nursing home That’s the first thing I want to see Where’s the shaker? So no residents, and good vodka gimlet.

Advice on parenting college kids (00:24:19):

While your child is in college, move to a different house and do not tell your child where that house is. And that way, when it’s time for them to make their way into the world, they will have to.

What Boomers could learn from Gen Z (00:12:07):

Dave: What am I going to learn from Gen Z? Well, I think one thing, I will say this, and it’s often used as a criticism of them, but there’s some truth to it, I think. They’re not, like, killing themselves. You know what I mean?

Paul: From a work perspective?

Dave: Yes, From a work perspective. And I don’t mean to generalize all of them or anything like that. But I mean, when I was in my mid-20s, I think most of us were kind of intense about whatever career we were pursuing. I was at newspapers and I had friends who were like various other things. But they seem a little more chill about that. And it could be because the boomers have so screwed up the world that they realize there’s absolutely no point in trying to succeed so maybe it’s just they’re reacting to us but they do seem to have a little bit more like you know what we’re gonna enjoy ourselves.

Come see me tell jokes (or give a talk), in person:

• June 4 - Atlanta Athletic Club

• June 5 and 6 - Laughing Skull Lounge, Atlanta

• June 12 - Wade Hampton Country Club, Cashiers, NC (Talk)

• June 19 and 20 - The Comedy Catch, Chattanooga

• June 25 - Happy Couples Show, West Side Comedy Club, NYC

• July 21 - The Venice West, Los Angeles (on sale soon)

• July 23 - Cobbs Comedy Club, San Francisco

• Aug 1 - Sticks and Stones Comedy Club, Southampton, NY

• Aug 8 - Atlanta Country Club

• Aug 13-16 - McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, Sarasota, FL

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” -Aeschylus

Whenever I go back and re-listen to one of my podcast interviews, I always discover elements of the conversation I didn’t recall.

Upon revisiting this 2025 conversation with best-selling author , I of course remembered that she is a warrior for happiness and the practices that help her huge readership attain it.

But listening again, I was struck by how cool Gretchen is. Not “cool” in a biker-jacket / beat poetry / clove cigarette way, but in the “I know who I am, what I’m committed to, and how I can add value to the world” way.

I don’t claim to know Gretchen, but it seems logical to me that this self-awareness is a by-product of the kind of work she evangelizes.

And it is work. As Aeschylus advised in the quote above, happiness is always there if we choose it, but only if—in the hard times—we are willing to get off the couch or smile through the pain.

In times like these, Gretchen’s writing can help us find a path through the noise and, as she describes it, “identify ways we can take happiness from the transcendent to the concrete.”

A great way to start that process is to listen (or re-listen) to this episode and take her happiness quiz here. You can also find many more applicable insights on Gretchen’s Substack, Secrets of Adulthood.

Remember, happiness is growth—keep growing!

Subscribe now

Some of my favorite quotes (and a couple of clips)

On Process v. Outcomes (07:50)

One of my 12 my personal commandments of happiness is to enjoy the process. Because, the fact is, if you enjoy the process, you don’t care as much about the outcome. Still you might really want to have a positive outcome, but if you enjoy the process, if it doesn’t work out the way you want, it’s not as bitter.

Do actions follow feelings or vice versa? (37:20)

We think that actions follow feelings, but to a great degree feelings follow actions. And so if you want to change your emotional state, it’s often by changing your conscious thoughts and actions—that’s often a good way to get into your emotional state. So if you’re feeling tired, if you act with energy you’re gonna start to feel more energetic. Or if you’re feeling shy, if you act you push yourself to act friendly, you’ll feel more friendly. Yeah, that’s fake until you feel it. That’s not “be inauthentic and present a totally imposter false sense to the world and then that somehow will become your truth.” That’s more about when people want to change their own emotional state, when they’re like, “I don’t want to feel this way.” It’s “okay, I have to stand up in front of an audience and I don’t feel like doing it.” It’s like, okay, well, stand up straighter, act with more energy. Command the room.

On money and happiness (41:20)

Money may not buy happiness, but it buys many things that contribute mightily to happiness. It’s like health where if you have it, you never think about it. But if you don’t have it, it’s really going to pull you down. So the lack of it will pull you down very much. But having it is very easy to take it for granted.

— Gretchen Rubin

How to think about happiness (45:30)

If you’re thinking about how to make your life happier, you should think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right in an atmosphere of growth.

The importance of growth (47:25)

You want to feel like you’re growing. We want to feel like we’re making progress, like we’re fixing things, we’re learning things, we’re gaining skills, we’re putting something into the world.

Is happiness a choice? (52:03)

It always confuses me when people say that happiness is a choice. I just don’t understand what they mean by that. Clearly for people, it’s very meaningful because people say that to me, it just sort of doesn’t make sense, but this idea that it requires effort—that you would do things deliberately, thinking this is gonna make me … I’m gonna tackle ‘Feeling Good / Feeling Bad / Feeling Right in An Atmosphere of Growth by doing things with my conscious thoughts and actions — I completely agree. It does take effort.

Reasonably Happy is a podcast hosted by me, comedian Paul Ollinger, featuring conversations that explore the connection between success and happiness. From academics to athletes and from pastors to porn stars, I talk to some pretty amazing people.

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Come see me tell jokes (or give a talk), in person:

• June 4 - Atlanta Athletic Club

• June 5 and 6 - Laughing Skull Lounge, Atlanta

• June 12 - Wade Hampton Country Club, Cashiers, NC (Talk)

• June 19 and 20 - The Comedy Catch, Chattanooga

• June 25 - Happy Couples Show, West Side Comedy Club, NYC

• July 21 - The Venice West, Los Angeles (on sale soon)

• July 23 - Cobbs Comedy Club, San Francisco

• Aug 1 - Sticks and Stones Comedy Club, Southampton, NY

• Aug 8 - Atlanta Country Club

• Aug 13-16 - McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, Sarasota, FL

You know him from The Daily Show and from his acclaimed stand-up specials, where he proves that smart comedy can still hit hard.

A native of Birmingham, AL, Roy has that rare ability to make you laugh while also making you think—whether he’s talking about race, class, media, relationships, or the strange little hypocrisies we all live with.

In addition to The Daily Show, Roy has performed on The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, BET’s Comic View, Conan, and many other top TV programs. He is now the host of the CNN current events-comedy show, Have I Got News for You.

His 2025 memoir, The Man of Many Fathers explores—among other things—Roy’s complicated relationship with his father, Roy Wood, Sr., a civil rights journalist and African American radio pioneer.

Today, Roy and I talk about money, family, fatherhood, and we go deep on the craft of comedy.

Speaking of comedy, see my upcoming shows below. Save the date / buy your tickets!

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COMEDY NEAR YOU - GET YOUR TICKETS!

• May 16: QED, Astoria Queens, 9:30

• May 20: Dunwoody Country Club (members only)

• May 21: Atlanta Punchline - ON SALE

• May 22-23: DC Comedy Loft ON SALE

• June 4: Atlanta Athletic Club (members only)

• June 19-20: Comedy Catch, Chattanooga ON SALE

• June 25: Couples Therapy Comedy at West Side Comedy Club, NYC

• July 21: The Venice West, Los Angeles - On Sale soon

• July 23: Cobbs Comedy Club, San Francisco - ON SALE

• Aug 1: Sticks and Stones Comedy Club, Southampton, NY -

• Aug 8: Atlanta Country Club (members only)

• Aug 13-16: Headlining McCurdy’s in Sarasota, FL - ON SALE

• October 15: Capital City Country Club (members only)

“Nobody gets ahead anymore,” says the mainstream press.

And 60% of young people believe that the American Dream is dead!

But my guest today calls this hogwash, baloney, and complete malarkey. is a historian, entrepreneur, investor, and the author of a new book called How to Get Rich In American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice that Worked (And didn’t) in which he explores how ambition, risk, and reinvention have shaped America from the very beginning.

He also reveals the money myths, sacred cows, side hustles, and NAYsayers that have always been a part of our society.

What if so-called timeless beliefs about money like “invest for the long run,” “compound interest builds wealth,” and “real estate always goes up” weren’t always true…and play out less often than you think they do?

Joseph’s book is part history, part playbook, and part reality check. He brings lessons to life with rigor that is deeper than an oil well and a wit that is dryer than the Texas plains. And in so doing he demystifies the past in order to clarify the present for anyone thinking about money, success, and what it really means to “make it” in America.

Follow Joseph here.

My guest today is Dr. Paul Hokemeyer, a psychotherapist who works almost exclusively with ultra-high-net-worth individuals—the kind of people most of us assume have life completely figured out.

Spoiler alert: they don’t.

Dr. Hokemeyer is the author of Fragile Power, a fascinating look at the emotional and psychological challenges that come with extreme wealth, fame, status, and success. In his work, he’s seen firsthand how money can insulate people from consequences, distort relationships, and quietly fuel addiction, anxiety, and isolation.

In other words, he has a front-row seat to the uncomfortable truth behind the fantasy.

Today, we talk about why power is more fragile than it looks, how wealth can complicate identity and purpose, and what it actually takes—whether you’re worth $10,000 or $10 billion—to build a life that feels meaningful.

That was the question Michael Cruz Kayne’s wife asked him after the death of their one-month-old son, Fisher.

Michael is a comedian, actor and a staff-writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where his work has earned a Peabody Award, a WGA Award, and two Emmy nominations. He made his off-Broadway debut in Sorry For Your Loss, a raw, comedic, and deeply vulnerable one-man show about coping with a parent’s worst fear, the loss of a child.

This is a sad but inspiring conversation. I found Michael’s attempt to make sense out of his grief and to honor Fisher’s brief life to be an uplifting act of service.

You can watch the special today on the Dropout network.

1. It provides a service to those looking for their next great book, and

2. I lack imagination.

But you, lucky reader, get to find out about one of my favorite books of the past several years right now because The Doorman is not just an exhilarating read, but its author is my guest on this week’s podcast.

The Doorman is a thriller set in a semi-fictitious Upper West Side apartment building called The Bohemia. It’s really The Dakota—where John Lennon was shot in 1980— and where Pavone lives with his family today.

The building provides an aquarium-like lens through which to observe the creatures swimming in its tony waters—a microcosm of New York City and how it has changed. Fifty years ago, The Bohemia housed mostly artists, celebrated academics, and diplomats. Today, Pavone writes, “as with everything else in New York, the cultural class (has been) replaced with financiers.”

The intra-1% tension is one of many insightful threads woven into a pitch-perfect dissection of money, race, status, and politics in modern New York City. The comparisons to Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities are inevitable and intentional.

In the podcast that you are going to listen to and love, Pavone told me he set out to write a modern version of Bonfire, a New York crime novel that is “about racism, but also about class…which is often what we’re talking about when we talk about race.”

He brings it to life through his characters. There’s Chicky Diaz, the eponymous doorman who carries crushing medical debt while serving the building’s elite. Among them are the ethereal Emily Longworth and her husband, Whit, a sketchy billionaire with more money than taste.

But the most interesting conflict isn’t between rich and poor, it’s within the rich. Julian Sonnenberg, the Longworth’s art dealer, has cultural capital but fading finances. While he and Whit are neighbors, they definitely are not equals. And each of them is acutely aware of this.

Julian sums it up, “The corrosive thing about New York is that there’s always someone with more — more money, more fame, more power, more respect.”

Nobody needs to feel sorry for Julian, who is part of what Pavone calls the “normal rich,” like lawyers who take nice vacations and belong to a country club or two. They don’t worry about having cash for a taxi, but in NYC they do worry. About the billionaires above them. About being fired for saying something insensitive at work. About the $70,000 tuition at private schools, where teachers wear “Tax the Rich” t-shirts on parents’ day. About where their kids will go to college. Sure, Chicky’s girls got into Ivy League schools, but will Julian’s white children be given the same consideration?

Pavone asks many questions, but answers few. For all his diagnosing the ills of virtue-signaling, inequality, and racism, his politics remain opaque, much to the reader’s benefit. If we were to ascribe motives to the author, we would stop observing the characters and start judging them.

Instead, he just presents us with the aquarium and lets us watch the fish, to notice which ones are circling. And which ones are getting eaten.

THE END (but see comedy dates below ↓↓↓)

New Comedy Dates: Added San Francisco and L.A.!

• May 3: Charlotte - Duckworth’s - ON SALE

• May 7: Private School Comedy, West Side Comedy Club, NYC

• May 20: Dunwoody Country Club (members and guests only)

• May 21: Atlanta Punchline - ON SALE

• May 22-23: DC Comedy Loft (tickets available soon)

• June 4: Atlanta Athletic Club (members and guests only)

• June 19-20: Comedy Catch, Chattanooga ON SALE

• June 25: Couples Therapy Comedy at West Side Comedy Club, NYC

• July 21: The Venice West, Los Angeles

• July 23: Cobbs Comedy Club, San Francisco ON SALE

• August 8: Atlanta Country Club (members and guests only)

I originally wanted to talk to Steve because of his experience leading the go-to-market plan of The Beatles Anthology, one of the most commercially successful recording projects of all-time. It was to be the follow-up episode to last week’s interview with Peter Doggett, author of You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Break Up.

And while Steve and I discussed this at length, I found his experience as an executive vice president at Turner Broadcasting in the 1980s even more interesting. Working directly for Ted Turner, Steve’s responsibilities included everything from home video to cable syndication and World Championship Wrestling. He shares a great story about utilizing 1-900 telephone numbers to monetize wrestlers' smack talk. It’s a fun insight into the early days of a pre-Internet media “start-up.”

Steve oversaw the 50th Anniversary celebrations for both Gone With the Wind and Casablanca, then—after Turner— went on to captain the release of Frank Sinatra’s Duets, which eventually led to his work with the Fab Four.

Check it out here or wherever you get your podcast love.

Bye!

I’m writing today to share that I have moved my podcast to Substack. It will still be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and a dozen smaller podcast apps, but will be hosted on the Substack platform, so also available on the Substack app.

The first episode is a new interview with Peter Doggett, one of the great writers of the rock era and a man who has spent decades studying what happens when ambition, fame, and enormous piles of cash (and drugs) collide.

Peter is the author of You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup, a deeply human book about the legendary band, not only at their creative peak, but also at their breaking point. It chronicles the time when the most successful band in history discovered that unimaginable wealth and universal adoration do not, in fact, lead to contentment and enlightenment…but do lead to lawsuits, divorce, and—sometimes—heroin addiction.

Peter has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q, and many others. His work has the rare quality of making you love the music even more while feeling slightly better about your own messy life. His latest book is Surf’s Up: Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys.

Btw, if you like this episode, you’ll also love the new Amazon documentary about Paul McCartney called Man on the Run. Check it out.

• Why beliefs can help us perform at our top potential (or vice versa)

• The difference between facts, faith, and belief

• How beliefs can benefit us, even if they’re not “true”

• The importance of cognitive flexibility

• And, the power of prayer, even for non-believers

Nir also shares a powerful story about the thing he learned by buying his mother birthday flowers from the “wrong” florist. Nir's work has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today, and many more. He attended The Stanford Graduate School of Business and Emory University.

• Please ⁠rate and review⁠ ⁠⁠Reasonably Happy⁠ ⁠HERE⁠⁠  (DO IT!)

• Read ⁠Paul’s ⁠⁠Substack newsletter⁠⁠⁠ ⁠HERE⁠ 

• Learn more about Nir on his website. 

• Please ⁠rate and review⁠ ⁠⁠Reasonably Happy⁠ ⁠HERE⁠⁠  (DO IT!)

• Read ⁠Paul’s ⁠⁠Substack newsletter⁠⁠⁠ ⁠HERE⁠ 

• Buy Gina's book HERE.

• Please ⁠rate and review⁠ ⁠⁠Reasonably Happy⁠ ⁠HERE⁠⁠  (DO IT!)   

• Read ⁠Paul’s ⁠⁠Substack newsletter⁠⁠⁠ ⁠HERE⁠ 

• Buy Matt’s book, I Told You So! here. 

Please ⁠rate and review⁠ ⁠⁠Reasonably Happy⁠ HERE⁠  (DO IT!)   

Read ⁠Paul’s ⁠⁠Substack newsletter⁠⁠⁠ HERE 

Pre-order Tom’s book HERE. 

Please ⁠rate and review⁠ ⁠⁠Reasonably Happy⁠⁠ (DO IT!)   

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Read Ben's book ⁠NYT essay