Andy Puddicombe is not your typical entrepreneur – in his early twenties, he gave away everything he owned to train as a Buddhist monk. But after ten years, he decided he wanted to bring the benefits of his meditation techniques to more people. While running a meditation clinic in London, Andy met Rich Pierson, who had burned out on his job at a high-powered London ad agency. Together, they founded Headspace in 2010. Nine years later, Headspace’s guided meditation app has users in 190 countries and an annual revenue of over $100 million.

This info-packed and entertaining interview with Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, dive deeps on advertising, persuasion, and why humans do some of the silly things we do. This episode is so good I started reading Rory’s book Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense.

Andrew Yang, a former tech executive, remains one of the least known candidates in a Democratic presidential field that includes senators, mayors, a governor and a former vice president. But by focusing on the potential impact of automation on jobs, he has attracted surprisingly loyal and passionate support. I have minimal/no interest in politics but Andrew’s views on the impact of automation and the future of work were very interesting.

This brought back distant memories of studying sustainability-related textbooks during my Energy Engineering undergraduate! Although it’s a little heavy on stats and graphs, it makes for a sobering read.

PS - Many of Paul Graham’s essays are awesome…prepare to get lost down this rabbit hole!

A curated showcase on curiosity from Twitter’s brightest minds. Eg. What’s an overlooked subject that everyone should know more about? What advice do you have for your younger you?

Drag and drop countries around the map to compare their relative size. Is Greenland really as big as all of Africa? You may be surprised at what you find! (Kudos to Dan for the find)

First shared 5 years ago(!), my packing list has been refined after visiting almost 40 countries, backpacking trips in Asia & Central America plus over a year living out of Airbnbs in London!

Every Thursday, James sends out his “3-2-1” newsletter with 3 ideas from him, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question for you. This is one of my favourite newsletters.