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The School of Greatness

The School of Greatness

By: Lewis Howes
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Lewis Howes is a New York Times best-selling author, 2x All-American athlete, keynote speaker, and entrepreneur. The School of Greatness shares inspiring interviews from the most successful people on the planet—world-renowned leaders in business, entertainment, sports, science, health, and literature—to inspire YOU to unlock your inner greatness and live your best life.© All rights reserved Economics Hygiene & Healthy Living Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Why You're Still Playing Small (And How to Stop) | Emmanuel Acho

    Why You're Still Playing Small (And How to Stop) | Emmanuel Acho
    May 29 2026
    Not everyone is going to like you. And that is okay. Emmanuel Acho built one of the most meteoric rises in media in recent memory. Former NFL linebacker. Fox Sports host of Speak for Yourself. Author of multiple New York Times bestselling books, including Illogical: Saying Yes to a Life Without Limits, published under the Oprah imprint. He has done things no one outside of Oprah herself has done. And still, the criticism came. This conversation is about what you do with that. How do you hold your identity when the world tries to hand you someone else's version of it? Emmanuel turned down comparisons to Michael Strahan because he understood something most people miss: you cannot become the greatest version of yourself by trying to become someone who already exists. He stopped setting goals. Not because he stopped caring, but because he realized goals create a ceiling. Instead he started moving toward objectives, things that stretch beyond what logic says is possible. He fell and got back up. He didn't fail. There is a difference. If you have ever achieved something and felt emptier than you expected, or gotten harder on yourself the more successful you became, this episode will crack something open in you. Emmanuel’s books: Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew AmazonEbookAudio Book Illogical: Saying Yes to a Life Without Limits AmazonEbookAudioBook Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man AmazonEbookAudioBook Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy AmazonEbookAudioBook In this episode you will: Understand why reframing failure as falling, not losing, can keep you moving when everything feels like a setbackExplore the self-love scale Emmanuel used to assess himself at a six and a half, and what it takes to grow that number through success instead of despite itDiscover why Emmanuel Acho stopped setting goals and replaced them with objectives that remove the ceiling on what you can achieveLearn how to protect your identity when success brings comparisons, criticism, and pressure to become someone elseHear the story of how a call from Oprah Winfrey led to Emmanuel becoming the only person outside of Oprah to have multiple books published under her imprint For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1934 For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960 Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness More SOG episodes we think you’ll love: Lewis Howes Solo [Everything You Want In Life Comes When You Let Go] Kevin Love Amy Purdy TOPICS Emmanuel Acho, Illogical, goals vs. objectives, self-love and success, public criticism, identity and comparison, reframing failure, Oprah imprint, mindset and limiting beliefs, breaking through barriers Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Fear, Shame, and the Fight to Get Out of Your Own Way | Joel Kinnaman

    Fear, Shame, and the Fight to Get Out of Your Own Way | Joel Kinnaman
    May 27 2026
    You can be wildly successful and still be quietly falling apart inside. Joel Kinnaman has appeared in some of the most talked-about shows in Hollywood. He has starred in The Killing, Robocop, House of Cards, Altered Carbon, and is currently in his fifth season of For All Mankind. And he will be the first to tell you that none of that made the war inside his head any quieter. Before every live theater performance for three straight years, he threw up. He kept a bucket backstage. The negative voices in his mind were relentless, and he spent years drinking heavily, using drugs, and force-feeding himself in a desperate attempt to hide the shame he felt about a physical condition that had left him feeling deformed since childhood. What changed everything was not a breakthrough moment. It was a choice to stop running from the fear and bury himself in the work. He memorized a 105-minute one-man show in 10 days, playing 16 different characters, and walked on stage without throwing up for the first time. That experience taught him something he still carries: preparation is armor. The deeper a role is in your bones, the more freedom you have to be alive inside it. He is still working on the personal side. He describes himself as a disaster in relationships, not from a lack of care, but from years of treating his career as the only thing that could not touch him. He talks about wanting to find the balance between the structure that builds trust and the childlike wonder that keeps him creative. That tension is where this conversation lives. Joel’s IMDB In this episode you will: Understand how shame about a physical condition called pectus excavatum triggered an eating disorder that took years to unpack and overcomeDiscover how Joel turned debilitating stage fright and a 3-year pattern of pre-performance vomiting into a breakthrough that rewired his relationship with fearLearn why preparation is the most underrated performance skill and why Joel insists on being at least 3 nights ahead on every scene he shootsHear why Joel sees himself as a different man in his career versus his personal relationships, and what he believes he needs to change to close that gapExplore how Joel uses psilocybin experiences, breathwork, and the Buddhist concept of shepa to create space between triggers and reaction in his daily life For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1933 For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960 Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness More SOG episodes we think you’ll love: Lewis Howes Solo [7 Habits To Be Happier] Josh Groban The Jonas Brothers TOPICS Joel Kinnaman, stage fright, eating disorder recovery, pectus excavatum, performance anxiety, preparation as armor, shepa, psilocybin, self-loathing, personal growth, For All Mankind, relationship consistency Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • The Science of Doing Less to Achieve More | David Epstein

    The Science of Doing Less to Achieve More | David Epstein
    May 25 2026
    Too many options isn't freedom. It's paralysis dressed up as possibility. David Epstein, investigative journalist and author of the bestseller Range, is back with a counterintuitive idea: the constraints you've been avoiding might be the exact thing that unlocks your best work. His new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, makes the case that boundaries don't limit you. They focus you. You'll hear how a company in the early nineties assembled arguably the greatest collection of tech talent ever, had unlimited resources, and still collapsed under the weight of its own options. Meanwhile, two people who left that company with small, focused projects built eBay and the Palm Pilot. The lesson isn't about talent. It's about the bounding box. David introduces his BCS Press Release framework: batch your work so you're not toggling all day, make your commitments visible so you can actually subtract the right ones, use satisficing rules to make decisions without drowning in choices, and write the press release before you start anything, so you know what matters before you're too deep in to see clearly. This conversation also gets personal. David talks about the childhood arm injury that ended his baseball career and pushed him toward running and memory techniques he still uses today. He opens up about forgiveness, about the grudges that are hard to shake, and about the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest study of human happiness ever conducted, which concluded that happiness is love. Real relationships. Mutual obligation. The stuff you keep forgetting to schedule. David’s socials: Website Instagram X David’s books: Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us BetterRange: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized WorldThe Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance In this episode you will: Discover why having too many options can kill your creativity and how the psychology of the path of least resistance explains itLearn the BCS Press Release framework for batching work, making commitments visible, and using satisficing rules to stay focusedUnderstand the difference between kind and wicked learning environments and why the 10,000-hour rule only applies to one of themExplore what MIT, Northwestern, and Census Bureau research reveals about the average age of fast-growing startup founders and why late bloomers have an edgeApply the subtractive neglect bias and the subtraction game to cut commitments and create more clarity in your work and relationships For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1932 For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960 Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness More SOG episodes we think you’ll love: Lewis Howes Solo [5-Step Mental Reprogramming Process] Emma Grede Kevin Love TOPICS David Epstein, Inside the Box, Range, constraints and creativity, BCS Press Release framework, kind vs. wicked learning environments, 10000-hour rule, Harvard Study of Adult Development, satisficing rules, subtractive neglect bias Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    1 hr and 9 mins
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I have only recently started listening to your podcasts after following you on Instagram but I’ve already listened to so many great interviews. Keep up the good work!!

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