As a bestselling author, speaker and one of the greatest interviewers of this generation, Cal Fussman has sat down with some of the world's most influential individuals: Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, Serena Williams, Jeff Bezos, Jack Welch, John Wooden, Al Pacino and hundreds of others, digging deep into their hearts and delivering their wisdom to the rest of the world. Now, in Big Questions, Cal continues his journey. Uncovering the heart, head, and soul of his guests in thoughtful, deep and…
Subscribe:.rss.atom.json.md.m3u.pls
Live Last read · last published · next check
Saves to your Listen queue, to pick up on another day or another device.
Lachi and the Search for AI's Best, Without Its Worst Lachi is blind. She's also a Grammy-nominated recording artist, a Grammy trustee, and the voice behind Diseducation — a song built on the idea that the world needs a new way of thinking about disability. Her latest album, Magnificent, features more than 70 human collaborators at a moment when many in the music industry worry about how AI might…
"If you want to know what life's like when you're not the apex of intelligence, ask a chicken."That's the line that Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning "Godfather of AI" dropped on Steven Bartlett's podcast. It stopped Cal cold. Along with a lot of other people. One of them was a digital anthropologist and best-selling author named Brian Solis, who's spent decades watching technology unfold.…
Everybody's telling you that AI is coming for your job. Kevin Surace is here to tell you what they're not telling you. Kevin's the father of the artificial assistant. A CNBC Top Innovator of the Decade. He's the holder of more than 90 patents. And now he's the author of The Joy-Success Cycle – a book that is going to make you happy. Kevin has spent decades watching new technology arrive, and he's…
A patient kept showing up in the Emergency Room. Most insurance reps would approve or decline each claim and move on. One customer service representative at Devoted Health called to ask the patient why there were so many repeated visits. Didn't take long for the rep to discover the problem. It was created by mold in the patient's home. The deeper problem was the patient had no money to move. The…
Cal has a suspicion that the little-known K Economy explains more about where the world is headed than most of what you hear on the news. So he reaches out to one of the world's most masterful interpreters of geopolitics and finance to break it down for the Big Questions audience. As founder of Tanto Capital, Ozan Ozkural flies from one city to the next — advising boards, governments, and…
We've all heard how AI has been eliminating entry level jobs. Byron V. Garrett has a different story to tell. He's a Time Magazine Visionary Honoree and CEO of Genesys Works, and he runs a draft day. Not for football. Not for basketball. For high school students from the most underserved zip codes in the country, drafted by JP Morgan, Target, Deloitte, and 240 other companies across 9 cities.…
For the first time, you can ask Cal what you want to know about asking better questions. About your next podcast. A business move. A personal situation. Cal will get back to you personally with the help of AI. AI Cal isn't trained on the internet. It's trained on Cal. On five decades of conversations with U.S. presidents, world leaders like Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev, Muhammad Ali,…
The change in front of all of us right now may be the most radical humans have ever faced. Who do you want guiding you through it? Courtney Harrison would be an intriguing choice. She's a rare breed of HR leader — one who doesn't just advise organizations on change, but who puts people inside the experience of it and shows them they're capable of far more than they believed. She once strapped…
Every teacher struggling with AI use in the classroom needs to hear this episode. Jamie Metzl has a Ph.D. from Oxford, a law degree from Harvard, and has run 60 marathons. He spent nine years writing his first book. When he sat down to co-write The AI Ten Commandments with GPT-5 he didn't surrender his thinking, creativity or his soul. Jamie doubled down by documenting the process. It's the first…
Cal resumes his conversation with Dr. David Bach, the Harvard-trained neuroscientist who is about to give you an opportunity to upgrade your brain. Dr. Bach is the founder of Optios. His company's work is unlocking a door to a new kind of human potential. Cal learns how Optios will help him get in the zone to learn about the science he could never pay attention to when he was in junior high…
Charles Gaudet has coached thousands of CEOs over the years. Yahoo Finance has called him "The CEO Whisperer." In this episode, Cal asks him to turn what he's learned toward a big question: What can everybody do to protect their jobs in the age of AI? Charles has some answers. The employees who thrive will be the ones who use AI to make themselves more valuable by leveling up their productivity.…
Graduation stages across America erupted in boos this spring when AI came up. That anxiety isn't just for new grads. It's felt by anyone wondering whether they still have a place in a world being reshaped by technology. This episode of Big Questions: The Future of Work tackles that fear head-on. Cal brings in Jay Samit — former Independent Vice Chairman of Deloitte Digital and bestselling author…
In an age when AI has everyone asking what's next for humans , Cal goes looking for answers. He finds them in some unexpected places. A five-year-old girl who walked through a Transylvanian forest to save her sister's life. A New York publicist who followed a hunch to Charlotte and built something nobody had ever seen before. And a guy with a borrowed bicycle who turned a single crazy idea into a…
Cal opens this deeply personal episode of Big Questions with a flood of remarkable medical breakthroughs. 3D-printed windpipes. A pancreatic cancer drug that doubles survival rates. Nanotechnology clearing toxic proteins from the body. And he explains why he's sharing them: to balance the grief of losing his friend Sally, a highly-ranked senior tennis player taken too soon by gallbladder cancer.…
A professor at an elite university noticed something alarming: every student's work was flawless . . . and nearly identical. All of it generated by AI. So she did the unthinkable (for the students, anyway). She banned devices and allowed only pen and paper. What happened next surprised everyone, including her students. But going Old School isn't the overall point of this episode. Cal uses this…
Cal stumbles on a Chinese company offering to digitally resurrect the dead for three dollars. His first thought? Larry King would have loved this. In this episode, Cal sits down with Larry King Jr. to explore what it really means to preserve a life. The stories. The voice. The questions. From Larry Sr's relentless chase for immortality. To the Larry King Cardiac Foundation that literally saved…
What if AI didn't replace you — it made you a better you? Dr. David Bach, Harvard-trained neuroscientist and founder of Optios, is using artificial intelligence to help people think faster, learn better, retain more, and perform at their peak. He's stepping into what is his most consequential work yet while others his age are out on the golf course. From walking on fire to unlocking the science of…
Cal was 12 years old, bored out of his mind in junior high science class, waiting for the bell to ring. He had no idea his wandering brain was doing exactly what it was built to do – tell stories. We all carry the most extraordinary thing in the known universe around with us every day — and never really stop to look into it. This episode of Big Questions does just that. Cal sits with Claude —…
What do Clint Eastwood, a Montana snowstorm, and a herd of cattle have to do with artificial intelligence? Cal starts with the romance of the old cattle drives and the sound of the old show Rawhide, remembers the pull of the open range and a freezing night that made him question whether he'd even make it to the ranch alive. Then he finds something on the internet that stops him cold. No cowboys.…
Cal Fussman walks into a theater expecting to see a documentary about artificial intelligence. He walks out with a new understanding of the future of work. Through a surprising connection to Super Mario, a landlord named Mario Segale, and the power of human serendipity, he uncovers a simple truth: The people who adapt will thrive. The ones who don't may disappear. If you've ever wondered whether…
After watching Project Hail Mary, Cal sees more than a sci-fi story about saving the stars—he sees a blueprint for how humans might survive the age of AI. That insight leads him to a real-life story even more extraordinary. When tech founder Sid Sijbrandij is diagnosed with a rare, aggressive cancer, the traditional medical system eventually runs out of answers. Most people would accept that…
The headlines keep leading us to believe that AI is coming for your job. But Cal Fussman poses a question no one else is asking. If humans stop earning… who's left to buy what AI and the machines produce? As companies race toward automation, Nvidia's Jensen Huang insists new human jobs will be created. Cal believes him. The catch? Many of those jobs may not exist just yet. This episode points to…
Cal plans to go out to the theater to watch the actor save the universe in Project Hail Mary. Cal doesn't know exactly what's going to happen, but he sees the plot as the perfect metaphor for how humans must look at the work in the age of AI. Gosling plays a middle school science teacher who wakes up in a rocket and can't remember, only to use the skills he has to save the universe. We're all…
An electric razor is mistaken for a bomb. Security lines explode in Houston, New Orleans and Charlotte. TSA workers are on the job without pay. So Cal flips the script. Show up hours early and turn airport stress into productive work time that can create a bestseller and more. It's not whistling while you work. But in March 2026 . . . it works.
One future says the most human people win. The other says your job costs too much. Gary Vaynerchuk believes that as we become more "AI-ed out," the most human brands and people will dominate. Citrini Research predicts something far colder: Within two years, a Claude agent may do the work of a $180,000 product manager for $200 a month. And when that happens? The top 10% may control over half of all…
One of the richest men in the world quietly became the largest private owner of farmland in America. Why? Is Bill Gates retreating from technology? Or is he making the most important AI bet of all? In this episode, Cal reads from an article that reframes everything. Gates' farmland strategy isn't nostalgia. It's a blueprint for the next economy. AI will build the digital world for free. But every…
As the world worked on last week, something exploded online. An article about AI by Matt Shumer was posted on X. It has already been downloaded more than 80 million times. The title? Something Big Is Happening. The implications couldn't be more personal. Your job. Your family. Your future. Instead of summarizing it or debating it, Cal does something simple and Old School on Big Questions. He reads…
Fifteen of the 66 Super Bowl ads this year featured artificial intelligence. Then Mike Tyson appeared on screen. . .and ate an apple. No algorithms. No spectacle. Just a former heavyweight champion telling America to stop consuming what's destroying it. In a culture addicted to speed, processed food, and machine-enhanced everything, Tyson's message was about discipline. Bringing up a Big Question:…
What does it really take to reach your peak? The answer lies in the Netflix documentary Skyscraper Live, as climbing legend Alex Honnold scales Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan, one move at a time. Watching him ascend the 1,667-foot glass and steel tower as if he were Spider-Man reveals a deceptively simple formula for mastery: Total focus on making your next best move.
Larry King used to tell me: "Nobody loves a hurricane like the weatherman." I learned exactly what he meant during the last winter storm — when the forecast was certain… and reality had other plans. It's why I've stopped trusting forecasts the way I trust people.
A brief encounter with Buddhist monks on their walk for peace from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., leads Cal to wonder what Martin Luther King Jr. might have thought if he'd seen the large crowd of Americans gathered in gratitude for their journey.
A high school student named Matteo Paz uses old NASA data and new AI to find 1.5 million objects never noticed before in space (including planets in other solar systems). AI can now predict 130 diseases (including heart ailments, kidney failure and strokes) based on studying one night of sleep. And a school called Alpha uses only AI tutors, teaches core academics for only two hours a day and…
In the age of artificial intelligence, it isn't a machine that stops Cal in his tracks—it's a deeply human idea. What if playing a video game could help fight cancer? Thanks to Travis Jennings and a small group of friends, a chain reaction begins—turning gamers with little money of their own into philanthropists. A breakout company called Besitos matches their winnings with donations to the…
Imagine a mind that can solve a Rubik's Cube in 17 seconds. A mind that contributed to the development of OpenAI. A mind that directed AI for Elon Musk at Tesla. A mind named one of Time Magazine's Top 100 in artificial intelligence. Now imagine that same mind encountering recent, almost "alien" advances in programming—so startling they prompted a public admission: "I have never felt so behind. "…
When Cal visits an old mentor, he's struck by two realizations. First: Some of the most profound moments in a young person's life can happen in entry-level jobs, when the right person takes you in, opens a door, and points you on the right path. Second: As artificial intelligence wipes out many of those first jobs, it will also erase those connections and moments. What disappears isn't just work.…
There are those believe artificial intelligence will cure cancer, reverse global warming , and unlock human potential. There are others who believe it will end everything we know. For the first time in history, both sides may be right. We are living inside the most consequential argument humanity has ever had — and the clock is ticking .
When Cal returns to Tampa's Ybor City to speak, he keeps a ritual that's become almost sacred: a meal at the legendary 120-year-old Columbia Restaurant, followed by a quiet moment of thanks to the man who first sent him there — Muhammad Ali's doctor, the renowned Ferdie Pacheco. Ferdie wasn't just the "Fight Doctor." He was an artist, a storyteller, and a man with a taste for a good practical…
The future may not be hiding in Silicon Valley. It could be hidden in your childhood. When a bright young grad sits down at Cal's Thanksgiving table worried about AI layoffs and disappearing careers, Cal offers an unexpected roadmap: Don't try to predict the future . . . remember it. Some of the greatest innovators didn't choose their path — their childhood chose it for them. In this episode, Cal…
Here is a question Cal never thought he'd ask. Let's just say a human marries an AI and they get divorced. Does ChatGPT get the alimony? This is the way we need to begin thinking after news came out that a Japanese woman married an AI bot. Buckle your seatbelts. It's the groundswell of statistics on the romantic mingling between humans and AI that will raise your eyebrows to the middle of your…
When Cal looks back on his life, he sees a relentless drive that's guided him to his 69th birthday: Never be bored. His past reveals a simple truth. Boredom ends where curiosity begins.
Cal looks over a bountiful breakfast menu and remembers the statistics he heard about kids going hungry in Tampa Bay — a city that, through his traveler's eyes, appears to be flourishing. When you hear the numbers, you'll understand how giving just a little can make this your best Thanksgiving ever.
When Kobe Bryant watched the Eagles win Super Bowl 52 on television, he wasn't alone — he was holding his 1-year-old daughter, Bianka, in his arms. That moment, captured on home video, wasn't just about football. It was about the way a team becomes a language between generations. Rewatching that clip sends Cal into a reflection of his own: the passion for sporting events his father passed on to…
After actress and author Suzanne Somers passed away, her husband couldn't let go — so he brought her back. Not in memory. But as an AI twin. He created a life-like humanoid to converse with in her voice and keep her spirit alive. When Cal hears the story, questions linger: Is this a way to deal with grief? Or is it evolution? And are there advantages to passing on the lessons and wisdom of a life…
Everything An unexpected e-mail sends Cal spiraling back to a conversation with the actor Johnny Depp — and to Ernest Hemingway's brush with death in back-to-back plane crashes. When Cal opens a book titled What Do You Want to Do Before You Die? he encounters a question that awakens our wildest dreams and forces us to look in the mirror.
A police van that drives itself, launches drones, reads license plates, and streams live infrared video straight to headquarters. Miami-Dade just unveiled it. A cruiser with no cops inside. Cal explores the next wave of law enforcement: part innovation, part surveillance. It's the kind of technology that makes some people uneasy — but after learning that 1 in 93 Americans die in traffic accidents,…
In a week when companies propose growing human eggs from male skin and gestating babies inside robots, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is seen in a viral video shoplifting at Target — bringing laugher to some and raising a chilling question to others: what if we can no longer trust our eyes? We're entering a moment where biotech, AI, and deepfakes collide — and our sense of reality begins to blur. Cal asks:…
Roughly 1 in 93 Americans will die in a car accident. According to the National Safety Council, that's the math—even after seatbelts, airbags, sensors, and the smartest cars we've ever built. Cal found that out the hard way, after being rear-ended by a cement truck on a Connecticut highway. The crash led him to uncover not just some shocking statistics, but also a simple, overlooked way we can…
Cal comes upon a book called The Fourth Turning Is Here which suggests that we're in a historical cycle of crisis when institutions collapse and a new world order emerges. Then he walks through the natural institution known as Central Park and sees a world view that couldn't be better. A short message to think about . . .
Two dates. Separated by decades. Bound by a thread we'd all prefer didn't exist. Cal revisits the first—a day etched in memory that too many now treat as common behavior. He weighs the second—fresh in the headlines, heavy in the heart—and wonders if it's a shadow of what lies ahead. The connections aren't obvious. They aren't supposed to be. But once you hear them, you won't forget.
Raveling passed away early this month at 88 after living a life shaped by being in the right place at the right time — and knowing what to do when he got there. As a boy, after losing his father and seeing his mother institutionalized, he found stability at a Catholic boarding school. That path led him to become the first African-American basketball player at Villanova … to meet coaching legend…
