Podcast
Big Questions with Cal Fussman
Hosted by Curiosity Media · EN
As a bestselling author, speaker and one of the greatest interviewers of this generation, Cal Fussman has sat down with some of the world's most influential individuals: Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, Serena Williams, Jeff Bezos, Jack Welch, John Wooden, Al Pacino and hundreds of others, digging deep into their hearts and delivering their wisdom to the rest of the world. Now, in Big Questions, Cal continues his journey. Uncovering the heart, head, and soul of his guests in thoughtful, deep and entertaining conversations.
22episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Big Questions: The Future Of Work
2d ago00:53:24Tap to summarizeIn an age when AI has everyone asking what's next for humans, Cal goes looking for answers. He finds them in some unexpected places. A five-year-old girl who walked through a Transylvanian forest to save her sister's life. A New York publicist who followed a hunch to Charlotte and built something nobody had ever seen before. And a guy with a borrowed bicycle who turned a single crazy idea into a quarter-century movement that has raised $31 million for cancer victims. These aren't tech stories. They're human ones. And the thing that connects them is that irreplaceable gut instinct that no algorithm can replicate. It just might be the most important skill you have right now. Big Questions: The Future of Work with Cal Fussman. Every Tuesday. Powered by Moments.
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Where Grief Meets Promise
1w ago00:07:47Tap to summarizeCal opens this deeply personal episode of Big Questions with a flood of remarkable medical breakthroughs. 3D-printed windpipes. A pancreatic cancer drug that doubles survival rates. Nanotechnology clearing toxic proteins from the body. And he explains why he's sharing them: to balance the grief of losing his friend Sally, a highly-ranked senior tennis player taken too soon by gallbladder cancer. Out of that grief, Cal finds promise. From a man who rode a bike for 24 straight hours 25 years ago who's gone on to raise $31 million for cancer patients. To a vision of the future where technology doesn't kill jobs — it creates them. This episode is exactly what Cal is promising as his podcast evolves toward the Future of Work. Sunshine. Even through difficult times. It'll be a Central Park for the soul. See you every Tuesday.
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Old School Rules, New Age Tools.
2w ago00:17:48Tap to summarizeA professor at an elite university noticed something alarming: every student's work was flawless . . . and nearly identical. All of it generated by AI. So she did the unthinkable (for the students, anyway). She banned devices and allowed only pen and paper. What happened next surprised everyone, including her students. But going Old School isn't the overall point of this episode. Cal uses this story to give a taste of the evolution of his podcast Big Questions: The Future of Work. In this episode, best-selling author Jamie Metzl describes how he used the work ethic he'd developed over decades to combine with the speed and scope of AI in the writing of his new book: The AI Ten Commandments. Meanwhile CEO coach Charles Gaudet predicts how we are close to a day when people will apply for jobs with AI at their side. Job applicants will soon hear the phrase BYOA. That's: Bring Your Own Agents. In both cases, this runway answers the question of how to get the best out of ourselves and AI together. With Old School values and New Age tools.
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The Man Who Wanted to Live Forever . . . And The $3 AI That Might Let Him
3w ago00:44:56Tap to summarizeCal stumbles on a Chinese company offering to digitally resurrect the dead for three dollars. His first thought? Larry King would have loved this. In this episode, Cal sits down with Larry King Jr. to explore what it really means to preserve a life. The stories. The voice. The questions. From Larry Sr's relentless chase for immortality. To the Larry King Cardiac Foundation that literally saved hundreds of hearts. To the bobblehead-sized AI facsimile that might one day let your great-great- grandchildren hear your voice. It all adds up to a conversation about legacy, technology, and what we leave behind. Plus! The story of how Larry Zeiger became Larry King in ten minutes flat through a liquor ad and a door that was kicked down.
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He Could Be Golfing. Instead, He's Upgrading Your Brain.
4w ago00:38:23Tap to summarizeWhat if AI didn't replace you — it made you a better you? Dr. David Bach, Harvard-trained neuroscientist and founder of Optios, is using artificial intelligence to help people think faster, learn better, retain more, and perform at their peak. He's stepping into what is his most consequential work yet while others his age are out on the golf course. From walking on fire to unlocking the science of "the zone" this conversation offers something rare in the age of AI: genuine hope. Cal says: If you know someone who feels unsettled by artificial intelligence, send them this episode.
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The Stranger Inside of You
Apr 2100:30:00Tap to summarizeCal was 12 years old, bored out of his mind in junior high science class, waiting for the bell to ring. He had no idea his wandering brain was doing exactly what it was built to do – tell stories. We all carry the most extraordinary thing in the known universe around with us every day — and never really stop to look into it. This episode of Big Questions does just that. Cal sits with Claude — Anthropic's AI — for a chat about consciousness, memory, gut intelligence, and what the brain is actually up to when we think it's doing nothing. Along the way, Cal finds out how a boy from Michigan who also wasn't paying attention in class changed the digital world. And how a scientist on the cutting edge is asking the most important performance question of our time. But mostly, this episode is an invitation. To slow down and get acquainted with the blob between your ears that has been with you every moment of your life. You might be surprised by what you find. . .
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What? A Cowgarithm?????
Apr 1400:07:47Tap to summarizeWhat do Clint Eastwood, a Montana snowstorm, and a herd of cattle have to do with artificial intelligence? Cal starts with the romance of the old cattle drives and the sound of the old show Rawhide, remembers the pull of the open range and a freezing night that made him question whether he'd even make it to the ranch alive. Then he finds something on the internet that stops him cold. No cowboys. Just cows . . . being guided by AI. The technology inside a cow collar is being called a "Cowgorithm." That discovery leads somewhere unexpected—into a late-night experiment with AI that stretches until sunrise… and opens a door Cal didn't see coming. Step inside.
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The Theater That Taught Me How To Survive AI
Apr 700:15:13Tap to summarizeCal Fussman walks into a theater expecting to see a documentary about artificial intelligence. He walks out with a new understanding of the future of work. Through a surprising connection to Super Mario, a landlord named Mario Segale, and the power of human serendipity, he uncovers a simple truth: The people who adapt will thrive. The ones who don't may disappear. If you've ever wondered whether AI is something to fear—or something to grow with—this story will change how you see what's coming next.
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Founder vs. Cancer: A Real-Life Hail Mary
Mar 3101:01:02Tap to summarizeAfter watching Project Hail Mary, Cal sees more than a sci-fi story about saving the stars—he sees a blueprint for how humans might survive the age of AI. That insight leads him to a real-life story even more extraordinary. When tech founder Sid Sijbrandij is diagnosed with a rare, aggressive cancer, the traditional medical system eventually runs out of answers. Most people would accept that outcome. Sid does the opposite. He treats his own disease like an open- source problem—gathering data, building a team, and chasing solutions across the globe with the same mindset that helped build GitLab into a billion-dollar company. With the help of AI, Cal translates this complex scientific journey into a human story anyone can follow. One that's filled with pancakes, partnerships, love, and a radical idea: What if the future of survival—against disease, against uncertainty, against AI itself—belongs to those who adapt fastest? This episode is about more than cancer. It's about how humans fight back.
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Who Buys the Future If AI Takes Your Job?
Mar 2400:10:31Tap to summarizeThe headlines keep leading us to believe that AI is coming for your job. But Cal Fussman poses a question no one else is asking. If humans stop earning… who's left to buy what AI and the machines produce? As companies race toward automation, Nvidia's Jensen Huang insists new human jobs will be created. Cal believes him. The catch? Many of those jobs may not exist just yet. This episode points to the evolution of Big Questions into something bigger. Big Questions: The Future of Work. A place to step away from the dystopian drumbeat and be excited about what happens next.
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