The goop Podcast

“Why should you believe that just because you have an opinion that that's the right opinion?” asks Ray Dalio, founder of prestigious investment management firm Bridgewater Associates and author of Principles . GP and Dalio talk about how they hear and hold criticism, how to have tough conversations, and how we can engage in thoughtful disagreement. They explore the rare culture Dalio created at Bridgewater—one of radical transparency, where people are both encouraged and required to speak straight, and where decision-making processes are recorded so that everyone has full visibility into the choice made. And they push us into curiosity. “If you love knowing and you’re attached to knowing, it’ll stand in the way of your learning,” says Dalio. (For more, see ).

“I have not been able to find a single piece of research that tells me that anything bad happens when women have more money,” says Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and cofounder of Ellevest. Krawcheck joins chief content officer Elise Loehnen to talk about why women make reallygood investors and how money can mean freedom. She talks about how she became the most powerful woman on Wall Street (“in the day,” Krawcheck insists). She shares what she’s learned about the ways men and women look at money and why women are taught to feel so much shame and guilt around it. And she teaches us what to do with money and how to start investing with whatever we have. Bonus: Krawcheck is giving all interested listeners $50 to start investing at hub.)

Brian MacKenzie doesn’t like when people tell him to “just breathe” either. So even though he’s the founder of a (great, practical, helpful) breathing app (State), you won’t hear those words coming out of his mouth. MacKenzie, the founder of Power Speed Endurance and a performance junkie, joins chief content officer Elise Loehnen to talk about tools for dealing with stress and anxiety. He explains the difference between sympathetic and parasympathetic personalities and how we can use this knowledge to plan our day in a way that avoids burnout. He explains why we don’t make good decisions when we’re stressed out (we default to habitual responses). He convinces us of the power of breath, tells us the times and places where mouth breathing is okay, and challenges us to get through a workout with our mouths shut. Learning to control our breath, MacKenzie says, helps us run our nervous system—rather than letting it run us. (For more, see hub.)

“Ninety-nine percent of the time when we use the word ‘can’t,’ it’s really a euphemism for ‘won’t,’” says entrepreneur Marie Forleo, the author of Everything Is Figureoutable. Forleo’s specialty is bridging the gap between thinking about doing something and doing it. She believes that clarity comes from engagement, not thought. And that fear is directive, and that most of the time, it’s “trying to nudge us to a project or a possibility or a growth edge where there’s magic.” She shares her tools for following fear and for pushing beyond the mental blocks that keep us from tackling our goals. She acknowledges how scary it can be to admit what we dream of doing—and how difficult it can be even to decipher what we want. She encourages us to imagine the worst-case scenario first and figure out how to work our way back from it. And then: Imagine the very-best-case scenario. And take a step, even a small step, toward it. (For more, see hub.)

Peggy Orenstein, bestselling author of Girls and Sex , explores the gaps and nuances of intimacy. Today, she talks to Elise about how girls and women are taught that being sexy is important, but being “sexual” is reserved for men. They talk about why women are groomed to think about the potential dangers and harms of sex first—and why we often never learn to prioritize joy (or orgasm). Orenstein’s research involves a lot of fieldwork—she visits fraternities the morning after a party to find out why texting a sexual partner the next day can be so fraught. She helps us reframe the way we think about sex and pleasure. She helps us take back control of our own sexual experience. And she guides us as we try to help our children and the generations behind us to grow into their own fulfilling intimate lives.  (For more, see hub.)