Following Mark Zuckerberg's big encryption pivot for Facebook, David, Joanna and Christopher unpack the privacy talk. Reporter Katie Bindley comes in to share her own stories of Facebook's creepy ad behavior, then David interviews Frank Yang, CEO of Simplehuman, about why talking trashcans are people too. The Weekly Upgrade: Christopher solves your ducking autocorrect problem.

Can you have a family, a successful company making millions of dollars in annual revenue, and do it all at your own pace, with a remote office company, while having a life that you want to live? Vlad sure can, and we think you can too. Life is too short to live someone else’s dream. The story of Webflow and life advice from Vlad, in this episode.

Sleep is your life-support system and Mother Nature's best effort at immortality, says sleep scientist Matt Walker. In this deep dive into the science, Walker shares the wonderfully good things that happen when you get sleep, and the alarmingly bad when you don't, for both your brain and body. How does sleep impact your brain, your learning, memory, immune system and even your genetic code? What are some helpful tips for getting better quality sleep? All the answers you have been waiting for and then some are all in this episode!

Matt MacInnis is a founder and investor in Silicon Valley, and he’s widely seen as one of the best personal angel investors out there — combining his experience as a founder (and knowing what made his investors actually helpful and others unhelpful) with the insight into what spaces and products are on the rise.

That’s his day job though. He is a profoundly deep thinker, an articulate leader, but most importantly, he’s honest. He’s seen all the ups and all the downs a founder can see, so you throw experience into that equation, and you’ve got a hell of a conversation.

Some of our favorite quotes from the episode:

"It is perfectly acceptable to go start a company with insane odds against you. If you understand the outcome will be beautiful, no matter what, thats the mindset you need to approach it with and it will be beautiful."

"I could not be where I am today without the hard experiences I had to go through, and it sucked… but they were necessary."
"That was the last time I put another person in the slot of alpha, on a pedestal, someone to emulate…" on his experience with Steve Jobs

"You look around and think that everyone else has it figured it out — and they don't…and I am the first to admit that I’m faking it too."

“I knew where I was strong and I knew where I wasn't, and I was fighting that instead of accepting it.”

“When I sit down across from an entrepreneur…and they really want me to invest, and its not one I can invest in…They’re not answering “should Matt be an investor” while they're trying to answer “can I get Matt to invest in this?” — and these are vastly different questions.”

“Don't win job offers. Go see if you test positive for that particular company or role and let “no” be as beautiful as yes because its the right thing. We are not as interested in truth as we are desire...”

I sit down with Julian Weisser, who does Growth for a company called Virta Health which has figured out a way to reverse type II diabetes without the use of medication. Julian was an absolute blast to talk to and is one of those behind the scenes...

Stephen M. R. Covey is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal best-selling author of The SPEED of Trust—The One Thing That Changes Everything. He is the former CEO of the Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his father's book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to become one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine. 

Instant Pot, the multipurpose pressure cooker, is so remarkable that it has spurred an outpouring of enthusiasm from a community of fans around the world. Today, more than 1.8 million “Potheads” of all ages, languages, and backgrounds have joined their Facebook group to share recipes and Instant Pot fandom. Robert and his team opened the group in 2015, imagining it as a space where customers separated by geography could help each other with Instant Pot questions—both connecting superfans and lightening the burden on the company’s customer support team.

Despite what they tell you, the world is a Zero Sum game. That is what Jason Calacanis, a notable angel investor, would make you think. Do you believe him? Jason went from broke to a millionaire, so he knows a thing or two about surviving. Now he is raising his kids to outperform against their peers. How? Take a look at the Smash Notes below and you will find out!

This is one of Brian's first public conversations since the pandemic hit. It is also the first time Brian publicly discusses the layoffs and why they took the approach they did. They also discussed Brian's approach to crisis leadership and the importance of love and compassion. There was a lot to cover, so I decided to release this in two parts.