Fit Happens: Why CEOs and Leaders Succeed or Fail

Why 85 Percent of New CEOs Are First Timers, with Anand Eswaran

What actually makes a leader fit a job, when the written job spec says one thing and the company needs another? That is the question at the center of my conversation with

The Hidden Science Of Leadership Potential (And Why Most Companies Get It Wrong)

Are you actually spotting leadership potential, or just rewarding polish and confidence? In this solo episode, I break down the most overused word in succession planning

How Market Research Tricks Leaders into Making The Wrong Decisions

Jon Cohen spent decades calling elections before founding an AI company built to fix his own industry. I sat down with Jon Cohen, founder and CEO of TrueDot.ai, who spen

Stop Hiring The Person Who Wins The Room

A candidate lights up the room in the debrief, and a year later the company is searching again. Here's why. I open this episode with a scene that will feel familiar to a

What Wildfires Can Teach Executives About Leadership

Why does experience in one crisis so often fail a leader in the next one? I open this episode with the story of the 1949 Mann Gulch wildfire, where foreman Wagner Dodge l

What AI Is Doing To Leadership with Liat Ben-Zur

A leader who looks safe on paper might be the riskiest hire you make in the AI era. That's the paradox at the center of this conversation. I sit down with Liat Ben-Zur,

No One Works Here: What AI Actually Changes About Work

MIT built a job title from scratch because Paul Cheek didn't fit any that existed. Now he's ranking the S&P 500 on AI maturity, and the results may surprise you. We get i

Why Nobody Tells the CEO the Truth

Seventy-three seconds after launch, the warning that could have stopped the Challenger disaster had already been softened beyond recognition. In this solo episode, I brea

He Left Silicon Valley to Run a Retreat in the Andes

He traded Silicon Valley for the Andes and built a life around a completely different definition of leadership. In this episode, I talk with Terry Cumes, CEO of Wilkatika

Why Six Months Can Turn You Into a Better CEO Candidate

Boards rarely hire the most capable person. They hire the one who feels the safest to defend. In this solo episode, Jason Baumgarten breaks down signaling theory and wha

Why Krishna Iyer Left Big Tech for a 170-Year-Old Railroad

He spent two decades at the frontier of tech. Then he chose a 177-year-old railroad instead. In this episode, I talk with Krishna Iyer, head of software engineering at B

The 100 Day Plan Is a Lie. Here's What Actually Works for new CEOs

A new CEO's hundred day plan sounds smart. The research says it's mostly fiction. In this solo episode, Jason Baumgarten traces the hundred day myth back to its real ori

Group Intelligence Beats Individual Genius with Lexy Franklin

Loneliness and bad fit can feel identical, but they are not the same thing at all. Lexy Franklin, founder of Sidebar and former Facebook product leader behind Messenger K

Don't Cast a Halo: Why Great CEOs Get Blamed for Bad Luck

One stock price swing can turn the same leader from visionary genius to reckless failure overnight. In this solo episode, I break down the halo effect, the century-old ps

Why Your Best Salesperson Makes Your Worst Manager

Your best salesperson just got promoted to manager. Here's why that's often a mistake. In this solo episode, Jason Baumgarten unpacks the Peter Principle, the half-centu

Why Busy Leaders Still Don't Control Their Own Calendar

If time is your most valuable asset, who's actually deciding how yours gets spent? In this solo episode, I unpack a paradox I see constantly in the leaders I work with:

Why the Obvious CEO Hire Is So Often the Wrong One

What if the same leader, running the same playbook, could fail in one place and win big in another? That's the question at the heart of my conversation with Jim Citrin,

Beyond Employee Engagement: How Mattering Transforms Leadership and Executive Search

What if the thing quietly undermining your team's performance isn't strategy, compensation, or culture decks, but whether people feel like they matter? Jennifer Wallace

The Boardroom Is Broken: How AI Changes Executive Leadership Forever

The boardroom is the last line of defense for AI governance — and most directors aren't ready. Steven Wolfe Pereira has spent 30 years at the intersection of technology,

Your Schedule Is Your Job — How AI Affects Job Fit

What if the job you have today quietly becomes the job you never agreed to take? In this solo episode, Jason Baumgarten breaks down one of the most underestimated risks