Why do some people seem to create opportunities wherever they go while others spend years waiting for the right break? According to Cate Hall — lawyer turned poker player turned drug addict turned CEO of a $3B foundation — the difference isn't luck. It's the ability to question assumptions, reject the default path, and realize the world is far more malleable than it seems.

In this episode, Rufus and Cate explore what it really means to become a high-agency person — a.k.a. someone who just does things. Together, they unpack why ambition isn't the same as agency, how fear of embarrassment and an obsession with hard work hold us back, and why curiosity, unconventional thinking, and expanding your "surface area for luck" are the keys to creating extraordinary opportunities.

Cate's new book, You Can Just Do Things, is out now.

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

✉️ Follow Rufus on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

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In the age of AI, endless information, and instant certainty, philosopher Lani Watson argues that questions — not answers — are humanity's greatest intellectual advantage. 

Today, she explains why curiosity is a biological superpower, why schools unintentionally teach us to stop questioning, and how learning to embrace a question-oriented mindset can make us better thinkers, leaders, and humans.

Lani’s new book is Q: The Hidden Power of Questions in a World That Wants Answers.

You can take her Questioning Strengths Assessment here.

***

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

✉️ Follow Rufus on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to ⁠granola.ai/idea⁠

IM8 — Athletes, doctors, David Beckham — they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at⁠ ⁠im8health.com/nbi⁠⁠

Momentous — If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to⁠ livemomentous.com⁠ and use code IDEA for up to 35% off your entire first order.

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First, a few numbers. This year Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta will spend more than $700 billion building AI infrastructure. There are 1,500 data centers in development across the country. AI-linked stocks make up at least 40% of the S&P 500.

These are the kinds of numbers that make some economists jumpy. If this whole AI thing doesn't pan out, they warn, we're headed for the mother of all crashes.

But Azeem Azhar is not one of those economists. He and his team recently spent months turning the AI economy inside out, and they just released a report called The State of the AI Economy. It contains surprising answers to what has become an increasingly pressing question: is this the biggest bubble ever blown, or are we building the durable machinery of a radically more abundant world?

In this conversation, Azeem joins Rufus to unpack why AI adoption is growing faster than the internet or mobile, what Wall Street and Silicon Valley may still be getting wrong, and why the most important skill in an AI-powered future may have nothing to do with AI. Along the way, they explore energy, jobs, investing, AI safety, and what exponential change means for the next generation.

💬 PULL QUOTES:

"Two years ago I would have said to [my kids], 'Listen, you need to learn how to use AI.' I don't think that's as true now as it was. They need to know how to engage with it. But more importantly, they really need to know how to think for themselves."

"If you look at revenue per employee at really excellent firms in the traditional economy, it's $400,000 per employee. Anthropic is up at $10 million."

"The thing that shows up in 50 or 60% of investment booms that turn to bubbles is when funding quality gets a bit funky. Last year, the funkiness was low. Now the funkiness is the way the salmon looks at an all-you-can-eat sushi at about 3:30 in the afternoon. It's still edible, but it's not as good as it was at 1:15."

👤 About the Guest: 

Azeem Azhar is the founder of Exponential View, a deeply-researched newsletter that has become essential reading for nearly 300,000 investors, entrepreneurs, academics, and policymakers. He is an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, a visiting fellow at Oxford, and a former correspondent for the Economist. He’s also an entrepreneur, an investor, the author of The Exponential Age, and a past guest on this show.

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.

📱Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

🎁 The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠nextbigideaclub.com⁠⁠⁠, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off).

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to ⁠granola.ai/idea⁠ 

IM8 — Athletes, doctors, David Beckham… they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at⁠ ⁠im8health.com/nbi⁠⁠ 

Momentous — If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to⁠ livemomentous.com ⁠and use code IDEA for up to 35% off your entire first order.

Northwest Registered Agent — They’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at⁠ ⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree ⁠⁠

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Most people think success comes from having an original idea. Mark Pincus thinks that's one of the most expensive mistakes you can make.

After building one of the most successful gaming companies in history, he believes the best products rarely begin as completely new ideas. Instead, they start with a deep understanding of what already works, a relentless focus on making it better, and just enough novelty to make people care.

In part two of our conversation, Mark shares his "Proven, Better, New" framework for building products, explains why AI is creating the greatest opportunity for builders since the birth of the internet, and reveals the surprisingly simple habits that have shaped his career, leadership philosophy, and life.

Along the way, he discusses ambition, parenting, creativity, and why a more playful approach to your career may be the key to doing your best work.

Chapters:

(00:00) The Cheat Code for Building Winners 

(04:29) The Secret Behind Every Hit Product

(12:53) The Best Time to Build Is Now

(18:14) Why Work Should Feel Like Play 

(28:05) The Framework For A Better Year 

(33:04) Parenting Like a Founder 

(38:16) The Screen Time Debate Is Broken 

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

✉️ Follow Rufus on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to ⁠granola.ai/idea⁠

IM8 — Athletes, doctors, David Beckham — they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at⁠ ⁠im8health.com/nbi⁠⁠

Momentous — If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to⁠ livemomentous.com⁠ and use code IDEA for up to 35% off your entire first order.

Northwest Registered Agent — They’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at⁠ ⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree⁠⁠

Upwork — Visit⁠ upwork.com⁠ right now and post your job for free.

Shopify — Stop waiting for permission to build something. Your next revenue stream starts free at⁠ ⁠shopify.com/nbi⁠⁠

Podcasting is lousy with guests who peddle advice about starting businesses, building careers, and living full lives. Few of these gurus have actually accomplished anything. Fewer still have advice that comes anywhere close to revelatory.

Mark Pincus is the rare exception.

The founder of 10 companies, Mark is best known for Zynga, the gaming juggernaut behind FarmVille and Words With Friends. At its peak, Zynga was valued at more than $12 billion and accounted for 20% of Facebook’s page views. It was so big, in fact, that Mark Zuckerberg once admitted to Mark Pincus, “Zynga is the only company that is capable of being an actual Facebook competitor.”

Across his 30-year career, Mark — Pincus, not Zuck — developed a cheat code for building products people love and living a life anyone would admire, and that cheat code winds its way through his new book, Life at the Speed of Play.

Today, he shares how he learned to trust his gut, why most founders build too much and test too little, and how failure taught him to move faster, pivot sooner, and search for real signals instead of hope.

📖 CHAPTERS:

(02:22) The Fight That Changed His Life 

(08:25) The Startup Decision That Matters Most

(17:00) The Fastest Way to Make People Care

(20:42) The Day Mark Zuckerberg Proved Him Wrong 

(31:59) Why Most Startups Build Too Much 

(40:11) How The Founder Is Employee #1

(43:39) The Culture Hack That Scales

(51:37) The Framework Behind FarmVille

📱 This is part one of our conversation with Mark. The second installment will be out on Monday. If you can’t wait until then, you can listen right now in the Next Big Idea app.

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.

✉️ Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea

IM8 — Athletes, doctors, David Beckham — they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at ⁠im8health.com/nbi⁠

Momentous — If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to livemomentous.com and use code IDEA for up to 35% off your entire first order.

Northwest Registered Agent — They’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at ⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree⁠

Upwork — Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free.

Shopify — Stop waiting for permission to build something. Your next revenue stream starts free at ⁠shopify.com/nbi⁠

For years, cardiologist Eric Topol hunted for the rarest people in America: those over 80 who had never been sick. When he finally found 1,400 of them, he made a shocking discovery. It wasn't their genes. These "super agers" were often the last ones standing in families where everyone else died decades earlier. So what separates people who live into their 80s or 90s feeling great from those who battle chronic disease? In his new book, Super Agers, Eric reveals what the science actually shows, shares practical advice you can use at any age, and takes on the bro scientists selling false promises along the way.

This episode first aired in July 2025.

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.

📱Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

🎁 The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠nextbigideaclub.com⁠⁠⁠, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off).

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

IM8 ➡️ Athletes, doctors, David Beckham — they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at ⁠im8health.com/nbi⁠

Northwest Registered Agent ➡️ They’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at ⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree⁠

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Despite decades of urgency and alarm, progress on climate change has felt frustratingly slow. What if we've been going about it all wrong? Elizabeth Dunn and Jiaying "JZ" Zhao think there's a missing ingredient in the conversation: joy.

In their new book, Leave the Lights On, Liz and JZ draw on psychology, behavioral science, and sustainability research to argue that the most effective climate solutions aren't rooted in guilt, fear, or self-denial. They're rooted in easy choices that also make your life better.

Today on the show: why doom-and-gloom messaging backfires, what bacon dipped in maple syrup has to do with saving the planet, how buying more underwear might just protect our species, and why the choices that help most are also the ones that make us happier.

***

Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction 

(02:23) Why Climate Fear Backfires

(09:24) The Case for Making Meat a Treat

(17:44) The BLT Climate Paradox

(20:53) The Hidden Climate Cost of Your Bank Account

(23:50) Fast Fashion, Slow Happiness

(31:10) Why Driving Makes Us Unhappy

(39:08) The Best Trips Are Closer Than You Think

(45:24) The Science of Social Tipping Points

(49:41) The Climate Power of a Single Vote

About the Guests: 

Elizabeth Dunn is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and one of the world's leading researchers on happiness and well-being. Her work explores how people can use their time, money, and relationships to build more satisfying lives.

Jiaying Zhao is a professor of psychology and the founder of the Behavioral Sustainability Lab at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on climate action, behavioral change, and the role of psychology in accelerating the transition to a more sustainable future.

***

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.

📱Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

🎁 The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠nextbigideaclub.com⁠⁠⁠, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off).

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

IM8 ➡️ Athletes, doctors, David Beckham — they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at ⁠im8health.com/nbi⁠

Northwest Registered Agent ➡️ They’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at ⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree⁠

Shopify ➡️ Stop waiting for permission to build something. Your next revenue stream starts free at ⁠shopify.com/nbi⁠

Publisher, scientist, humorist, diplomat — Benjamin Franklin was America's first polymath. Today, with help from Eric Weiner, we revisit Franklin's life, searching for tips about how to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

This episode first aired in July 2024.

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.

📱Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

🎁 The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠nextbigideaclub.com⁠⁠⁠, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off).

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

IM8 ➡️Athletes, doctors, David Beckham — they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at ⁠im8health.com/nbi⁠

Northwest Registered Agent ➡️ They’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at ⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree⁠

Shopify ➡️ Stop waiting for permission to build something. Your next revenue stream starts free at ⁠shopify.com/nbi⁠

"We’re entering our 250th birthday, and we’re not quite in the mood for a birthday party. We’ve been tearing ourselves apart." That's what Walter Isaacson told Rufus when they sat down last year. But, he says, it doesn't have to be that way. "Let's use this birthday party as a chance to try to heal some of the divides."

Walter's latest book is The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. That sentence? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Yes, it’s eloquent, but more than that, it gave the United States a mission statement, one that we are still striving — fitfully, imperfectly — to meet. With America's 250th birthday just a few days away, we think it's the perfect time to revisit this conversation with Walter about how that sentence came to be written, what it meant to the founders, and why it still matters today.

🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠.

📱Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠[email protected]⁠.

🎁 The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at ⁠⁠nextbigideaclub.com⁠⁠, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off).

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

IM8 ➡️ Athletes, doctors, David Beckham — they all drink IM8. Get a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, and 10% off your order when you use code NBI at im8health.com/nbi

Northwest Registered Agent ➡️ They’ve been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree

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On Thursday, Rufus and Robert Wright (The God Test) talked about AI as a new stage in the evolution of intelligence — and about the very human traits already showing up in our machines: empathy, deception, power-seeking, seduction. Today, they ask the harder question: what happens when these machines become the object of a geopolitical arms race?

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

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Does the logic of human destiny now lead to artificial intelligence? Are we creating a higher form of intelligence in our own image? And, if so, what kind of image is that?

These are the questions celebrated author Robert Wright asks in his new book, The God Test, which was published this week.

Bob argues that we should not be surprised to see signs of deception, power-seeking, flattery, and autonomy in AI systems. These are not alien traits; they are behaviors that show up again and again in intelligent systems — including us. And if there is an evolutionary process at work in AI, then we are not just observers: we are part of the selection pressure. In the end, we may get the AI we deserve.

This was such a wide-ranging conversation that we’ve divided it into two episodes. Today, we begin with the cosmic story: how life became mind, how mind became culture, and how culture has now begun to build a new mind — one that may surpass us.

🔗 SPONSORED BY:

Fora ➡️ Build and scale your own travel business by becoming a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/idea

Northwest Registered Agent ➡️ Helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree

Shopify ➡️ Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi