excellence, actually
Steve Magness, Brad Stulberg, & Clay Skipper
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Recent Episodes
Longevity, Actually (with Brian Koppelman)
Brian Koppelman has been writing great films and shows for 30 years — Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen, and Billions, to name a few. Now 60, he's working with as much energy as ever. He'll be back in the…
Lessons on Excellence: Caring, Doing the Work, and Being Antifragile
Today, we discuss three moments from the past week that highlight a few of the key habits of truly excellent performers: what Victor Wenbanyama teaches us about caring deeply and being yourself; how…
Dream Big, Start Small: Lessons from World Record Miler Jim Ryun
Jim Ryun couldn't make his junior high basketball team, track team, or even his church baseball team. Two years later, he was the first high schooler to run a sub-four-minute mile. He'd go on to run…
How to Get Small Wins out of Bad Days
We've all got those days: you can't seem to get started, your motivation is low, or something comes up and throws you off track. It happens to all of us! It only becomes a problem when a bad start to…
The New Science of Pain (and What It Means for You)
We're all going to experience pain in some form or another. Unfortunately, our long accepted model for what pain is — and how to treat it — has been wrong. Today, we're breaking down the…
The Cost of Keeping Your Options Open (with David Epstein)
In 1960, A publisher at Random House bet a writer $50 that he couldn't produce a children's book using just 50 distinct words. That writer was Dr. Seuss, and the resulting book was Green Eggs and…
How to Break Through Barriers (Lessons from the Sub-Two-Hour Marathon)
Not just one, but two (!) men finished this past weekend's London Marathon in under two hours, a time that has never before been beat and was once largely thought to be impossible. Today, we unpack…
How to Save Your Brain (with Cal Newport)
There's a good reason you can't concentrate. That's not just a statement; it's also the title of a viral piece that our friend Cal Newport (author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism) recently wrote…
What Every Athlete Can Learn from Elite Distance Runners
Today, Clay taps into Steve's wisdom as a long-time running coach—which doesn't mean you have to be a runner to get something out of it. The episode covers the most efficient type of aerobic training…
How to Change, Actually (with Eric Zimmer)
Once an addict, Eric Zimmer is now 26 years sober. He has made that one huge change through a series of many small, daily changes, or what he calls "low resistance actions done consistently over time…
Use the “Zero-Zero Reset” to Perform Under Pressure
This past weekend, in the men's NCAA tournament, Duke led UConn by 19 points and had a 99% chance to win and advance to the Final Four. Instead, Duke improbably blew their lead, and UConn stormed…
How to Coach Anyone, Including Yourself
March Madness has given us some incredible moments between coaches and their players. Today, we use one in particular — the viral moment between Maryland's coach Brenda Frese and star player Oluchi…
Stop Self-Sabotaging: How to Get Out of Your Own Way
Today, we unpack one of the most universal performance problems: getting in your own way. Drawing on the "Self 1 vs. Self 2" framework from The Inner Game of Tennis, neuroscience, and child…
Unstuck Yourself: The Art of Building and Keeping Momentum
What do success and failure have in common? They can both trap you. Success can lead to complacency or a plateau, and failure can render you so discouraged or apathetic that you don't feel ready to…
Beautiful Suffering: How Elite Athletes Find Joy in the Grind
How do you have fun while working really hard? For many elite athletes, figuring out how to balance joy and suffering is the key to a long and successful career. Today, we explore how they do it —…
Back to Work: Navigating Success, A.I., and the Unknown
Today, for our monthly round-up, each of us shares a reflection from February: Brad explains what his chaotic book launch taught him about achievement, fulfillment, responding not reacting, and…
Olympics Review: Lessons in Pressure, Courage, and Going All the Way
The Olympics are the ultimate laboratory for human performance. So today we're diving into some our favorite moments from the 2026 edition—and the lessons we can take from them. Between the bizarre…
The Olympian's Guide to Handling Pressure, with Lilah Fear
We're going to go ahead and say that today's episode is more densely packed with wisdom than any episode we've ever released. We are joined by Great Britain's Olympic ice dancer Lilah Fear…
How to Pursue Excellence Without Sacrificing Your Values
Why do so many people sacrifice their values to make it to the top? People in business who commit fraud; writers who plagiarize; athletes who dope — the list goes on and on. At the core of…
How to Get Out of Your Head and Into the Zone
This past weekend, when Alex Honnold climbed Taipei 101's 1,667-foot tower without ropes, he wasn't thinking his way up; he was doing what elite performers across disciplines—from musicians to…
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excellence, actually has published 357 episodes since August 2020, covering topics in Education, Health & Fitness.
excellence, actually is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 41m.
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