The James Altucher Show

Before building anything, Tom says you can find out in about a day whether people care about the problem, and he explains how to run that test with AI.

A Note from James:

Back in the ’90s, I built websites.

I actually built American Express’s first website.

And I remember walking into places like JPMorgan and saying, “Eventually, every one of your customers is going to interact with you through a website.”

They laughed at me.

They weren’t stupid.

They...

Struggle is part of the price you pay, he says, and his own worst stretch came right after he took the top job.

A Note from James:

Carlos Gutierrez was diagnosed with ADHD at 65.

Sixty-five.

By then, he had already run Kellogg. He had already served in George W. Bush’s Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce.

And only then did someone explain the procrastination, the disorganization, and those stretches where he could lock onto one thing for weeks and almost nothing else existed.

He admits he was so bad at firing people at Carlyle that he sometimes promoted them instead by mistake...

A Note from James:

On this show, I’m usually the one asking the questions.

But near the end of this conversation, David Rubenstein turned it around on me.

He asked why I care whether the Mets win.

And I didn’t really have an answer.

I said, “I guess when I was a kid, it felt like I was winning when they won.”

And Da...

Episode Description:

Before Cal Fussman interviewed Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and hundreds of other extraordinary people, he spent nearly a decade traveling the world without much of a plan.

He would get on buses without knowing where they were going. He had little money, so he often needed to strike up a conversation with a stranger and build enough trust to be invited home.

That became his training.

Cal learned to read people, listen closely, follow curiosity, and ask the question that...

Two weeks after one phone call, four hostages walked free from Gaza...

A Note from James:

After the election, before Trump was sworn in for his second term, Biden’s national security team needed to reach the president-elect about the hostages in Gaza.

According to Bill O’Reilly, they couldn’t get through.

So who did they call?

Bill O’Reilly.

Bill says he set up the conversation, moderated it, and didn’t offer a single opinion. About two weeks later, four hostages were released.<...

Episode Description:

A good outcome does not necessarily mean you made a good decision.

And a bad outcome does not necessarily mean you made a bad one.

That distinction is at the heart of James’s conversation with Annie Duke, former professional poker player and author of Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts.

Poker gave Annie an unusually intense laboratory for studying uncertainty. You can make exactly the right decision and lose money. You can make a terrible decision and win. If you judg...

Ron Johnson built the Apple Store as Apple's SVP of Retail, and is the author of Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius.

A Note from James:

I love the Apple Store.

I can walk into one without needing anything and still want to stay. I like looking at the products. I like touching everything. I like the space. I like the feeling.

I remember buying one of my first iPods at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York. I walked out smiling, listening to music...

Episode Description:

Jon Morrow’s story begins with a diagnosis that was supposed to be a death sentence.

Born with spinal muscular atrophy, Jon was diagnosed at six months old. Doctors told his mother he would likely die by age two. Instead, she fought for him. She fought to keep him alive. She fought to get him into public school. She fought through pneumonia, broken ribs, hospital visits, and a world that did not expect much from him.

That expectation became one of the central forces in Jon’s life.

In this...

A Note from James:

Carlo Rovelli is one of the smartest people I know. He is a theoretical physicist and the author of a lot of great books, including Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, Helgoland, White Holes, and now On the Equality of All Things: Lessons on Physics and Philosophy.

He has been on the show before, and at the end of this conversation I told him I felt like he was just tolerating my questions. He was nice about it.

But the first question I asked was: Do...

Episode Description:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joins James for a From the Archive conversation about basketball, identity, mentorship, faith, writing, civil rights, and his book Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court.

The episode begins with basketball. James asks Kareem how the game has changed since his playing days, and Kareem explains the shift toward the three-point shot, the rule changes around physical defense, and the way modern spacing has altered how teams score.

But the conversation quickly becomes deeper than basketball.

James sees Becoming Kareem as a book about the...

A Note from James:

In 1790, one of the easiest ways to get rich in America was the old-fashioned way: marry someone rich.

George Washington did pretty well that way. Benjamin Franklin, meanwhile, was so deep in debt that he offered to marry a woman if her parents would mortgage their house to pay off his printing press debt. When they said no, he married someone else who had money.

And back then, debt was not just annoying. It could land you in debtor’s prison. Actual prison. And not just you—your wife and...

Episode Description:

This is a From the Archive episode with Seth Godin.

Seth Godin returns to the show for a conversation about making work that matters in a world obsessed with hits, rankings, followers, algorithms, and approval.

James opens by talking about Seth’s long body of work: Purple Cow, Linchpin, Graceful, thousands of blog posts, and Seth’s then-new podcast Akimbo. Seth explains why he had thought about podcasting for years but resisted it because audio creates a different kind of intimacy. In print, the voice in the reader’s head is the re...

Episode Description:

This is a From the Archive episode with Arianna Huffington.

Arianna Huffington returns to the show for a conversation about sleep, success, reinvention, and the cultural delusion that burnout is the price of achievement.

James begins by asking practical sleep questions: Is nine hours too much? Can sleep be split into two four-hour blocks? Arianna explains that for most people, seven to nine hours is the real range, and that sleep should leave a person fully recharged, not limping through the day waiting for a second shift of rest.

...

Episode Description:

Nancy Cartwright is best known as the voice of Bart Simpson. But in this archive conversation, James is interested in the artist behind the voice.

Nancy joins the show to talk about In Search of Fellini, the film she co-wrote with Peter Kjenaas based on her own trip to Italy in the 1980s. At the time, Nancy was already working as an actress and voiceover performer, but she became obsessed with Federico Fellini’s La Strada. She studied scenes from the film in acting class, felt deeply connected to Giulietta Masina’s performance, and...

Episode Description:

Mike Massimino’s path to space was not a straight line. It was a long series of obstacles, failures, second attempts, and decisions not to quit.

In this From the Archive conversation, James talks with Mike about his memoir Spaceman, his two shuttle missions to service the Hubble Space Telescope, his career at NASA, his work at Columbia, and the deeper lessons behind becoming an astronaut.

Mike explains that spaceflight may look impossibly complex from the outside, but NASA makes it possible through preparation, checklists, training, repetition, and teamwork. In space, ev...

Episode Description:

This is a From the Archive episode with Ray Dalio. Ray Dalio built Bridgewater Associates into one of the most influential investment firms in the world. But in this archive conversation, James is less interested in the headline version of success and more interested in the painful turning point that made Ray rethink everything.

At 34, Ray’s business nearly failed. He had been confident—by his own description, arrogant—and a wrong market call left him broke, humbled, and forced to decide whether to quit or rebuild.

That failure became the origin...

Episode Description:

This From the Archive episode features Tyra Banks and her mother, Carolyn London, in a conversation about beauty, business, motherhood, reinvention, and the power of not trying to be perfect.

There is no “A Note from James” section for this episode.

James begins by explaining why America’s Next Top Model mattered to him as a father. He watched the show with his daughters, and what stood out was not just modeling or fashion. It was the way Tyra taught that success depended on personality, presence, charisma, preparation, and knowing how to use...

Episode Description:

This is a From the Archive episode with Dan Harris.

Dan Harris returns to the show for a wide-ranging conversation about meditation without the incense, jargon, or grandiose promises.

James begins with Dan’s story: his work at ABC News, his public panic attack, his substance abuse, his reporting from war zones, and the recovery path that led him to meditation. Dan’s first book, 10% Happier, made the case that meditation could be useful even for skeptics, strivers, journalists, and people who do not identify with traditional spirituality.

This epis...

Episode Description:

This is a From the Archive episode with one of my favorite guests: Steven Pressfield.

Steven Pressfield has spent his career writing about war, creativity, discipline, storytelling, and the inner battle every artist faces. In this archive conversation, James and Steven explore how stories work—and why the same structures that power novels and movies also show up in real life.

They begin with The Legend of Bagger Vance, which Pressfield built from the structure of the Bhagavad Gita. James connects that idea to his own writing, where ancient texts like th...

A Note from James:

I’m doing a big experiment in my life.

I recently started taking a GLP-1—tirzepatide, one of the so-called weight-loss drugs. But I didn’t start taking it specifically for weight loss. I had some blood work done for the first time in a long time, and there was a small indication that I might be pre-diabetic. My doctor suggested trying tirzepatide, and I wanted to understand what I was getting into.

The first person I wanted to talk to was Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit...

A Note from James:

I’ve done several hundred podcasts, but if people asked me who were the one or two people I most wanted to have on the show, Garry Kasparov would be at the top of the list. He was World Chess Champion for twenty years, and I’ve followed his career since the early ’80s.

His book, Deep Thinking, tells the story of his matches against Deep Blue, but it’s really about what may be the most important relationship of this century: humans and machines.

Episode Descript...

A Note from James:

This is a very special episode for me.

There have only been a few times in the history of this podcast when I’ve had the chance to sit down with one of my heroes. This is one of those times.

Frank Miller is one of the most important storytellers of my life. When I first picked up Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, it completely changed what I thought comics could be. This wasn’t just another Batman story. It was a revolution. Frank took Batman out of the...

A Note from James:

I’ve been obsessed with anti-aging and longevity science for a long time. I’ve had many longevity researchers on the podcast, but this episode feels different because something we’ve been discussing for years has now moved into human trials.

David Sinclair first came on the show in 2019, when his book Lifespan was published. He’s a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and that first conversation changed how I lived. I started experimenting with intermittent fasting, paid much more attention to sleep, and began researching many of the suppleme...

Episode Description:

Prediction markets allow people to trade contracts tied to real-world events—from elections and weather to rocket launches, airport traffic, awards, and the words a public figure might use during a speech.

But James argues that having an opinion isn’t enough. Betting on your favorite team, preferred candidate, or a vague feeling about what might happen is speculation without an edge. His rule is simple: only participate when you believe you have an unfair advantage.

In this solo episode, James explains the two advantages he looks for. The first comes from...

A Note from James:

Mark Pincus is one of the true OGs of the internet. You probably know him as the founder of Zynga, the company behind FarmVille, Zynga Poker, and Words With Friends. Zynga was eventually acquired by Take-Two in a transaction valued at approximately $12.7 billion. Before Zynga, Mark started Tribe, one of the first social networks—before MySpace and Facebook.

He has spent more than 25 years building, failing, and studying what gets millions of people to click, play, share, and come back. His new book, Life at the Speed of Play, inspired me to...

A Note from James:

If I could tell my children to read one post of mine, it would be this post.

Influence is how they will navigate a world of uncertainty.

Robert Cialdini is the most influential person in the world. And by that I mean, he wrote the book Influence, which sold 3 million copies and defines the six critical aspects of all influence.

Now he has a new book, Pre-Suasion, going 10x deeper into the concepts of persuasion. I got him on my podcast so I could ask the 1,000 questions...

Episode Description:

In this episode from the early days of The James Altucher Show, James sits down with T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, to examine why earning money, keeping money, and feeling secure about money are three very different skills.

Harv recounts cycling through 14 jobs and 12 businesses before building a successful chain of fitness stores—and then losing much of what he had earned. That experience forced him to confront what he calls a person’s “money blueprint”: the beliefs about wealth, work, success, and self-worth that are often absorbed long bef...

A Note from James:

Oh my gosh, one of my favorite guests ever: Ben Mezrich.

Ben wrote Bringing Down the House, which became the movie 21. He wrote The Accidental Billionaires, which became The Social Network. And now his latest page-turner, Checkmate, is about one of the most explosive scandals in modern sports: the Hans Niemann chess cheating controversy that took over the world.

You remember the story. Magnus Carlsen, the greatest chess player of all time, loses to this completely arrogant, egotistical 19-year-old bad boy of chess. Then Magnus accuses him of cheating...

A Note from James:

Have you ever read The Da Vinci Code?

That book was definitely a page-turner. Before I read it, I had never really heard of Opus Dei. And after today’s conversation with Gareth Gore, you might wish you had never heard of Opus Dei either.

In The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei is a mysterious organization tied to the Catholic Church, secret history, and global power. But today’s guest, Gareth Gore, started investigating Opus Dei from a completely different angle. He was looking into the 2017 collapse of a majo...

A Note from James:

Today on the show, I have a very special guest and a good friend of mine, Brandon Webb.

Brandon has been on the show many times before. He’s a former Navy SEAL, and he also ran the Navy SEAL sniper school that trained some of the best snipers in the world, including the sniper the movie American Sniper was based on. He’s written a ton of books about the military, leadership, confidence, mental toughness, and even military thrillers. A few weeks ago, we talked about what was going on in I...

A Note from James:

Today on The James Altucher Show, I’m excited to welcome back one of my favorite guests, David Epstein.

David is the bestselling author of Range, which completely changed how I think about my own jack-of-all-trades life. In his new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, David flips the usual idea of creativity on its head. We’re always told that creativity comes from total freedom: the blank page, the blank canvas, unlimited resources. But David shows that the opposite is often true. Constraints can make us more crea...

A Note from James:

What is actually going on in Iran?

I have Brandon Webb on the show today. He’s a former Navy SEAL, he’s written a ton of books about the military and life in the military, then he wrote a murder mystery series set in the military, and now he has a parenting book out.

Brandon also runs SOFREP.com, a major military intelligence news site. He came on for a quick episode to answer the big question: what is actually happening in Iran, and what might happen next?

A Note from James:

Imagine going on Shark Tank in front of Mark Cuban, Mr. Wonderful, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and the rest of the Sharks. You’re offering 10% of your business for $700,000, which values the company at $7 million. They all say no. Then, a few years later, Amazon buys your company for a billion dollars.

That's gotta feel really good, and that's the experience of our next guest, Jamie Siminoff.

Jamie built the company behind the video doorbell that lets you see who’s at your door—Ring—and helped turn a simple h...

Episode Description:

James talks with psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin about practical mental strength—the kind you need in the moment, not just in theory. Amy’s earlier books focused on what mentally strong people don’t do. Her new book, The Mental Strength Playbook, turns that work into 50 fast, usable tools for anxiety, stress, worry, conflict, focus, and resilience.

The conversation is personal and tactical. Amy explains why “manage your stress” is useless advice when you’re already overwhelmed, and instead offers small moves that can change your physiology, your thinking, or your next action...

A Note from James:

People are so afraid of AI, and I get it. They’re afraid of how it will affect jobs. They’re afraid of bias, manipulation, or even worst-case scenarios like AI turning on humans.

That’s why I love talking to Peter Diamandis.

He wrote Abundance, came on the podcast 10 years ago, and now he’s back with his new book, We Are as Gods. He also runs the Moonshots podcast and the Meta Trends newsletter, both worth paying attention to.

Peter has this ability to stay optimist...

Episode Description:

In this From the Archive episode, James talks with Cal Newport about a simple but uncomfortable idea: most people are working hard on the wrong things.

Newport breaks down the difference between deep work—focused, cognitively demanding effort that produces rare and valuable output—and shallow work, which fills time but doesn’t move the needle. In a world engineered to fragment attention, the ability to focus without distraction is becoming both rarer and more valuable.

The conversation moves from theory to application. Newport explains why “follow your passion” is misleading, how career...

Notes from James:

I wish I had been Kolin Jones when I was 18 years old.

When Colin was 19, during COVID, he set up his own private jet brokerage out of a college dorm room. No investors. No jets. No connections. Just a GoDaddy website, an email address, and an obsessive willingness to send 2,500 cold emails a day.

Amalfi Jets is on track to do $120 million in revenue this year. And he still doesn't own a single plane.

I love how he thought about competition. He literally calculated: my competitor sends 400 emails...

Episode Description

In this From the Archive conversation, James talks with Yuval Noah Harari about the idea underneath Sapiens and Homo Deus: humans did not come to dominate the planet because they were the strongest animals, but because they learned to cooperate at scale through shared stories—religion, money, nations, and eventually data. The discussion moves from early human history to agriculture, war, terrorism, AI, and bioengineering, but the throughline stays the same: civilization runs on belief systems, and those belief systems shape what humans build next.

What makes the episode useful is that Harari is...

A Note from James:

What is going on in Iran? And once this war is over, what happens to investing? Is the world coming down? I’m bringing on the Invest Diva, Kiana Danial, to talk about both. She wrote Triple Compounding For Dummies, and we’ll get into that, too.

She’s Iranian, and she has a perspective on what’s happening that I think matters. My gut, based on the force of history, is that when this war is over, the Islamic regime won’t survive. Iran has no air force left, no navy left...

A Note from James

One of my favorite people in the world is back on the podcast: Jen Shahade. She’s been on the show before. She’s a great chess player, a great poker player, a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, and the author of the new book Thinking Sideways, about how lessons from chess can help with decision-making.

As a chess player myself, I can say these techniques really do work. And she even talks about me in the book, which I appreciated. So: how are you going to think sideways? Listen...