It has been almost two years since I posted a “Podcast Favorites.” Not sure why. Time, probably. Or lack of it. But I want to get back into it. Largely because of why I started this blog in the first place, because I hate saying, “Where did I hear that?” and not being able to find it. Posting them monthly not only allows me to review what I’ve learned, it keeps them here, safe from an absent memory, ready for whenever I need them again.

Here are my favorites from the month of February, 2022:

First Thing, with Kevin Manno

Every morning, Kevin will distill all of the important headlines and trends into an easily digestible, 10 minute show.

Kevin is an old high school buddy of mine, so admittedly I’m a bit biased, but his show really is great. From production to information, it is a quick and calming way to start the morning. My daughter, who rides with me to work, also loves it.

Give What You Have with Mark Bustos, with Simon Sinek

When people want to do good they often get stuck because they don’t know what they can do. Mark Bustos figured out that to do good, all we need to do is what we are already good at, but to do it for someone else. Mark is a hairstylist turned humanitarian who will inspire anyone who hears his story to give more.

This one inspired a Friday Thought: Why We Thank our Crossing Guards

Leaders Can’t be Pleasers, with Patrick Lincioni

As a leader, it’s tempting to try and make sure everyone in your organization likes you and approves of you. However, good leaders know that this simply can’t happen, and that’s okay.

In a time where leaders are so easily accessible and everyone has an opinion on how we can do it better, this one was both convicting and encouraging.

Is it Safe to Speak Up at Work? with Adam Grant

Are you afraid to share bad news, ask for help, or admit you were wrong? These are signs of being in a psychologically unsafe work environment. Adam breaks down the importance of psychological safety in preventing errors and promoting innovation and inclusion, and examines what it takes to build a culture of voice rather than silence.

The Real Book, 99% Invisible

Since the mid-1970s, almost every jazz musician has owned a copy of the same book . . . But if you were going to music school in the 1970s, you couldn’t just buy a copy of the Real Book at the campus bookstore. Because the Real Book was illegal . . . The full story of how the Real Book came to be this bootleg bible of jazz is a complicated one. It’s a story about what happens when an insurgent, improvisational art form like jazz gets codified and becomes something that you can learn from a book.

I just love these kind of hidden stories. So fun. So interesting.

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, Christianity Today

Founded in 1996, Seattle’s Mars Hill Church was poised to be an influential, undeniable force in evangelicalism—that is until its spiraling collapse in 2014. The church and its charismatic founder, Mark Driscoll, had a promising start. But the perils of power, conflict, and Christian celebrity eroded and eventually shipwrecked both the preacher and his multimillion-dollar platform.

It’s a 15 episode podcast, and although I am just under halfway completed, I am LOVING it. Not only is it done well, I believe it is done fairly. Mark Driscoll isn’t let off the hook or given any sort of pass, but he is fairly and appropriately put into context, and I appreciate that.

No matter if you are a church goer or believer in any way, this podcast is a great dissection and case study of when charismatic personalities advance faster than their character development.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff : Podcasts

“Every time we interact with another person at work, we have a choice to make: do we try to claim as much value as we can, or contribute value without worrying about what we receive in return?”
- Adam Grant, Givers and Takers

For the past several years I have concluded morning announcements, classes, and presentations with, “Do GREAT things!” And in many instances, the phrase has caught on. Partly because I say it often enough that it sticks in peoples minds, but also because it’s catchy and people easily connect with it.

Who doesn’t want to do great things?

Recently though, as my school has begun to absorb this phrase and I’ve continued to promote it, I’ve begun to ask myself, “What does it mean? What does it look like?”

Because in my mind, to “do GREAT things” has never been synonymous with being successful. It also has never meant not being successful largely because to do GREAT things is to transcend success. I believe it can and will lead to success, both individually and communally, but I also believe it is so much bigger than simple monetary rewards.

So what does it mean?

In his newest book, Givers and Takers: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, Adam Grant writes this about givers:

Givers and takers differ in their attitudes and actions towards other people. If you’re a taker, you help others strategically, when the benefits to you outweigh the personal costs. If you’re a giver, you might use a different cost-benefit analysis: you help whenever the benefits to others exceed the personal costs . . . if you’re a giver at work, you simply strive to be generous in sharing your time, energy, knowledge, skills, ideas, and connections with other people who can benefit from them (pg 5).

Givers are people who consider others as more important than themselves. Or at least they consider the needs of others as more important than their own personal gain and glory.

They’re the ones who use their gifts and talents and resources to help others. People like Chef Andres who takes his expertise of running high-end, highly efficient, and well sought after cooking skills and runs TOWARDS chaos and world catastrophes so he can serve over 150,000 meals a day to those in need.

Givers are people like Mark Bustos, an upscale hair stylist who gives haircuts to the homeless for free.

Givers are the kind of people who inspire the world to be better by using their gifts and talents to make the world better. Because here’s the thing about giving. When we give to others, it inspires others to give to others. However they can, whenever they can.

To do GREAT things we don’t have to pay off someone’s mortgage, donate our last kidney, or jump in front of a bullet. To paraphrase Simon Sinek, we don’t have to find something new or do something dangerous to be givers. We simply need to do what you’re already doing, what you’re good at, and then do it for someone else (via). Doing GREAT things does not mean we need to change the whole world., it simply means we need to change our world.

And if it feels good, that’s okay too.

For a long while I struggled with the argument that we should give because of how it makes us feel because I wanted giving to be something completely selfless. I didn’t want to give because it made me feel good but because it was the right and noble thing to do. Doing it because it made me feel good made the act selfish which seemed to defeat the purpose. (Friends did an episode on this too, if you remember.)

But so what!

So what if giving makes me feel good! I enjoy doing a lot of things that make me feel good, things like writing, reading, camping with my family, and having Saturday morning backyard fires. And because I enjoy them I want to do them more. So if giving to others makes me or you feel good and therefore inspires or encourages us to do it more, THAT’S GREAT!. That means more people are being fed, more families are being blessed, and more people are being cared for. It means more GREAT things are happening!

And that’s the point.

To do GREAT things is to do little things greatly. It means to Give, whatever we can, whenever we can, to whomever we can. It means using our gifts, talents, passions, and resources for the benefit of others.

But that is only the be beginning.

: do GREAT things :

Give. Relate. Explore. Analyze. Try.