Why Every Parent or Student Should Read This Book October 31, 2018 If not, the experience will surprise you. The building feels eerily smaller. The teachers seem more human. I visited my grade school when I returned to Philadelphia for graduate school after college in New York City. I saw my fifth grade teacher. We were surprised and happy to recognize each other. After hello, almost immediately she said, “I’m[…] Keep reading →

Last summer, I taught a short version of my course to working professionals. I taught it through NYU, though it’s one of the courses I teach independently online and in corporations. It overlaps with my coaching for leadership clients. Here are the student reviews—as usual, all of them, no cherry-picking. Summer 2018 leadership student reviews Yes, I would definitely recommend this course to others. The combination of interactive classes, consistent[…] Keep reading →

Sometimes you discover a way of doing things so obviously more effective than how you were taught that you can’t believe how twisted our society has become. The new way shows how much the systems we’ve created twist us to fit their goals, however much those goals smother and corrupt our basic humanity that served us for hundreds of thousands of years, living in harmony with our world, and still[…] Keep reading →

Handling Trigger Warnings, Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and Other Outrages Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s new book, The Coddling of the American Mind, takes on offense and outrage with calm resolve and effective insight Jonathan Haidt’s latest book, released today, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, coauthored by Greg Lukianoff, takes on one of the issues of our[…] Keep reading →

NYU, where I teach, is a stronghold of social justice activity, as is Columbia, where I went to school. Since before college I’ve worked on causes to promote equality along genders, skin colors, geography, sexual preferences, and more. I protested Apartheid, my government’s actions in Central America, and more. I work on the environment. The list goes on. The term privilege gets thrown around. Being white, male, and fit, the[…] Keep reading →

My Meaningful Connection exercise is one of my most popular and effective (they’re all effective) from corporate speaking, one-to-one coaching, teaching, my personal practice, and my book. Since I have non-native English speakers in nearly every audience, I’ve decided to ask some to translate the script into various languages. My leadership class this summer afforded my first two translations. If you can help with others, please let me know. I’d[…] Keep reading →

[On March 2, Quartz published my piece, Schumpeter Strikes Again: Why the Ivy League could end up like the big 3 carmakers: utterly disrupted. Here is an earlier, unedited version. Unedited means it has its flaws—too long for a magazine, too short for a book—but it develops some ideas beyond what Quartz had space for.] Uneducated at Any GPA Is the Ivy League Today Big 3 Auto of the 1960s?[…] Keep reading →

Tricia Brouk is an incredible director, TEDx Executive Producer, actress, choreographer, and more. She’s worked with names like Richard Gere, James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon, John Torturo, Eddie Izzard, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, and Bobby Canavale. Wow! As host of the Big Talk podcast, she posted our conversation, “Put Yourself in the Background.” From the liner notes: Put Yourself in the Background – Joshua Spodek Summary What is the[…] Keep reading →

I started to write the following for an Inc. article, but decided it was too controversial. Women, Men, and Equality? Diversity in teams tends to create better outcomes. Why is it missing in some places? This topic ends up being controversial, though I don’t think it should. I feel equality is important to write about, especially in business and entrepreneurship. July saw harassment scandals in Silicon Valley, which prompted stories[…] Keep reading →