Cal Fussman

Welcome to Big Questions.

This is Cal Fussman, an old school guy showing you where the world is headed.

If you're watching this on the new YouTube channel, which is at youtube.com forward slash at big questions podcast, you might notice that I'm wearing the same shirt and hat in the episode that you're about to see.

that I was wearing when I came to the studio to introduce last week's episode.

Enjoy the show.

So, Cal Fussman, we last spoke on this podcast, what was it, early 2024, and AI was already big.

Now, nearing the end, you know, mid to end of 2026, AI is huge.

And I worry, are we going to lose the art, the heart of what makes us human?

I

was going to say, what's going to

happen? Cal Fussman.

Let's

That is the superpower.

I am so excited to have Cal Fussman, writer-at-large at Esquire, on the podcast.

And Cal, I first heard him on Tim Ferriss' podcast a couple times, and I read about you in Tools of Titans, and I've been reading your stuff ever since, listening to your podcast.

You've written some New York Times bestselling books.

What questions can we ask to figure out how passionate they are?" So I said, "Just tell them the Dr.

Dre story." And the question applies to any business that's looking to hire passionate people.

I feel like you should write a book like Cal Fussman's 100 Questions.

And again, you said earlier you could take your questions, give them to someone else, and they could get- do it completely wrong or have it so all that in, in...

I was really inspired by...

Larry King, uh, and Cal Fussman, um, for, I think like 12 years, they met every Sunday morning with two other gentlemen.

Um, yeah, once a week, uh, just to, they, they met, met at like basically like a Jewish deli and they would talk for like 90 minutes to two hours again, week over week.

And that created consistency in those relationships and created this, like this core group of like, you felt like these people had your back, um, And I think consistency in relationships is also one of those things that like it's hard to ask for help when we don't have a lot of consistency in our relationships because even our friends can feel like almost like strangers.

[upbeat music] Welcome to Big Questions.

This is Cal Fussman, an old-school guy showing you where the world is heading.

I came across a video that millions of people have seen on TikTok and LinkedIn, which is a nice setup for the conversation you're about to hear.

It was obviously scripted out for a group of young people to perform, but that's fine because it stops us in our tracks and makes us see the way we are afresh.

Welcome to Big Questions.

This is Cal Fussman, an old school guy showing you where the world is headed.

I recently was asked to write a letter of recommendation for a student applying to college.

I'm always happy to help.

So why don't you just tell the story? It's immediately going to be understandable.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I think the reason I think it's important to your point, Cal, is that I think a lot of people, when they get into their 30s, 40s, 50s, they're at a point and they have a hard time sort of resetting a new level of ambition, right? So once you get to a certain point, you're like, I've achieved these things now.

Hi.

Welcome to Big Questions.

This is Cal Fussman, an old school guy showing you where the world is headed.

This podcast looks at how we can get the best out of AI, as well as how to avoid the worst.

Last week, you heard about a weightlifting coach who was able to use his own AI agent to solve an insurance problem and save 5,000 bucks a year while getting better coverage.