Chris Williamson Podcast

This post lists the books mentioned in the episode: 10 Books That Changed My Life!. Mentioned Books Essentialism by Greg McKeown The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart Lying by Sam Harris The Ape That Understood the Universe by Steve Stewart-Williams The Precipice by Toby Ord Lost Connections by Johann Hari The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield Endurance by Alfred Lansing Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker Models by Mark Manson

Dr Max Butterfield is a physician, health educator, and performance coach. Why does love make us do crazy things? Rom-coms make relationships look easy, but real love is far more complicated. So what actually makes a relationship work—and why does love make us act irrationally? Expect to learn what science says about how should people do to recover from a breakup, if the Norwegian skier who confessed to cheating on his girlfriend was doing more harm than good to his relationship, what, Dr Max wished more men and women knew about how to signal interest, why we ruminate so much and how to ruminate less, what healthy communication actually looks like and much more… ...

Dr Peter Salerno is a social psychologist, professor, and researcher. Why are narcissists so manipulative? At some point in your life, you’ve probably encountered a narcissist. They can take control of a situation so subtly that before you realize it, you’re caught under their influence. So how can you spot a narcissist early, and what can you do to protect yourself from their manipulation? Expect to learn why people repeatedly tend to hurt others deliberately, which parts of the brain are actually involved in empathy and self-control, why the idea that “hurt people hurt people” is so attractive, why narcissists often pull someone close and then suddenly push them away, how to spot when flirting or drama turn into manipulation, if someone can be genuinely in emotional pain and still choose to hurt others and much more… ...

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University, a productivity expert and an author. Has AI “workslop” damaged our ability to focus? When AI entered the workplace, many thought it would replace knowledge workers. Instead, we’re flooded with AI-generated noise that feels productive but often isn’t. In this new era, is the real competitive advantage simply the ability to focus? Expect to learn what the future of work will be with major advancements in AI, what most people’s relationship with productivity is like at the moment, why your ability to focus is becoming increasingly more important, how people should deal with a lot of work messages, if new AI tools actually have been as transformative as they have claimed to be, if AI in the workplace has been a huge disappointment so far and why and much more… ...

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden is a psychologist and behavioural geneticist, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an author. Are people born evil, or does evil emerge from circumstance? While we tend to blame genetics for humanity’s darkest behaviors, science and psychology suggest a far more complicated picture. If biology, environment, and experience all shape behavior, how should society judge, or punish, those who may never have had full control over who they became? ...

Scott Solomon is an evolutionary biologist, professor, and author. Since the earliest days of science fiction, we’ve wondered what it would mean to live on Mars. Today, that question is no longer hypothetical. As humanity moves closer to becoming an interplanetary species, a new question emerges: what happens when humans are born and raised on another world? How would Mars change our bodies, our minds, and the future of evolution? ...

Dr Dani Sulikowski is an evolutionary psychologist, professor, and researcher. Female intrasexual competition is more ruthless than most people realize. Just when we think we understand how women compete with one another, the rules shift—and the limits move. So how intense is female intrasexual competition really, and what has social media done to amplify it? Expect to learn what female intrasexual competition is trying to achieve and how it differs from males, why Vogue Magazine said having a boyfriend is cringe now and Dr Sulikowski’s response to that, if reproductive suppression works against men, what some of the more under recognised methods of intrasexual competition that women engage in are, if there are any societal shifts that people are pinning on men that you think are more due to female intrasexual competition and much more… ...

Charlie Houpert is an entrepreneur and YouTuber. Why does life tend to teach its hardest lessons just as we think we’ve arrived? We chase the goals, build the lifestyle, tick the boxes, only to discover that emptiness and insecurity still follow us. Ancient philosophers and writers wrestled with this long before we did, encoding the problem into myths that have endured for thousands of years. So what were they trying to show us? And how can those old stories help us reclaim a sense of identity when we feel most lost? ...

Dave Evans is an entrepreneur, early Apple engineer, former Electronic Arts executive, Stanford lecturer, and author. How does someone genuinely find meaning in their life? We’re often told that when things feel empty, uncertain, or painful, the answer is to “find more meaning”. But what does that actually mean? Is meaning something we discover, like a hidden truth waiting to be uncovered? Or is it something we construct through choice, responsibility, and attention? ...

Oliver Burkeman is a journalist, a writer for The Guardian and an author. How does the insecure overachiever evolve? You think success will quiet the doubt, then you hit 30, and it’s still there. More achievement, more stress. So how do you feel proud of what you’ve built without always fearing it’s not enough? Expect to learn if it possible to be the best in the world and relaxed at the same time, how to deal with uncertainty more effectively, the biggest changes insecure overachievers will face as they age, the cost of constantly asking, “Am I living my best possible life?“, how to know when it’s a good time to settle and much more… ...