North Star Podcast

My guest today is Matt Cooper, the CEO of Skillshare — a subscription-based online learning platform where people can take classes on-demand. The main categories are creative arts, design, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, and technology. Before joining Skillshare, Matt was the CEO of Visually, an online marketing place for creative work. And before that, he was the VP of Operations for oDesk, the world’s largest marketplace for online work now known as UpWork. 

My guest today is Hollywood actress, producer and director Jennifer Morrison. She’s known for her roles as Dr. Allison Cameron in the medical-drama series House and Emma Swan in an adventure-fantasy series called Once Upon a Time. She also appeared in movies like Star Trek and TV shows like This is Us and How I Met Your Mother.

Today’s guest is Alex Danco, one of my favorite writers in the world. When I was in college and before I started writing, Alex was one of the first people who made me say “Wow I want to write like this for a living.” For years, he worked on the Discover team at Social Capital where he wrote a weekly newsletter called Snippets. Now, he’s joining the Shopify Money team, where he’s building the future of financing merchants and entrepreneurs with everything they do.

My guest today is Ryan Singer, the head of Project Strategy at Basecamp. Ryan recently published a book called Shape Up where he describes his process for planning, designing, and executing projects at Basecamp.

We talk about the structure of online education, how to take notes, strategies for developing new ideas over time, secrets of creative partnerships, and what it means to do creative work. This conversation begins with a discussion of my online writing course, Write of Passage. I hope you enjoy this conversation.

My guest today is Chris Zarou, the CEO of Visionary Music Group and the behind-the-scenes mastermind behind the success of Logic and Jon Bellion. The episode begins with Chris’ time playing Division 1 soccer before transitioning to artist management. From there, he talks about how he met Logic and what he’s learned from Jon Bellion about the creative process. And finally, we dive into his method of finding new artists, to the economics of concerts and music festivals. I hope you enjoy this episode.

My guest today is Robert Cottrell, the founder of The Browser, which has become my go-to source for articles. Here’s how it works. Every day, he recommends five articles and includes a short summary for each one. They’re wild and random — but that’s what makes his work so exciting. Please enjoy my conversation with Robert Cottrell.

My guest today is Andy McCune, an entrepreneur and creative who co-founded Unfold, a mobile design tool kit for storytellers that was acquired by Squarespace. He also runs an Instagram account called Earth (@earth on Instagram) with 1.1 million followers.

My guest today is Samo Burja, the founder of Bismarck Analysis, a firm that analyzes institutions, governments, and companies for high net worth individuals. Samo is known for an idea called Great Founder Theory, and his research focuses on the causes of societal decay and flourishing. We spoke about high vs. low trust societies, the difference between writing styles in New York and San Francisco, and how the Internet is raising the value of being a good photographer.

My guest today is Tiago Forte, who runs an online course called Building a Second Brain. In this conversation, we reflect on the time we’ve spent working together, explore the key trends in online education, and talk about what we’ve learned by teaching more than 1,000 students combined. Please enjoy my conversation with Tiago Forte.

My guest today is Ryan Holiday. He’s a writer, media strategist, and the author of ten books. He dropped out of college at 19 years old to apprentice under Ryan Greene, author of Mastery and The 48 Laws of Power. He worked at American Apparel and founded an agency called Brass Check. We begin this episode talking about two stories from Ryan’s book, Stillness is the Key. One is about Michael Jordan and the other is about Winston Churchill. Please enjoy my conversation with Ryan Holiday.

My guest today is Cameron Porter, an investor and former professional soccer player.  We begin the conversation talking about AliCorp, an investment firm in New York where Cameron is responsible for new company research and development and due diligence on seed investment. We end the podcast by exploring the societal and personal impact of social media, social clubs, and the decline of religion in the West. Please enjoy my conversation with Cameron Porter.

Emmett Shine: The Eyes of an Artist

Adam Robinson: Searching for Secrets

Renée DiResta: Information Warfare