Introducing Season 7: Culture & Courage

Starting with Season 5, I began giving each season a two-word theme.

Season 5 was Authenticity and Joy, and Season 6 was Creativity and Connection.

At first, I thought these themes would simply help me organize the season, but they became much more than that.

They became intentions, changed the way I prepared for interviews, the questions I asked, and the way I listened.

And without forcing it, the conversations naturally began to gather around those ideas.

So when I started thinking about Season 7, I found myself searching for another pair of words.

I thought about innovation, leadership, vision, curiosity, all important ideas, but none of them felt quite complete.

Then I realized I kept coming back to this word, culture.

And for this season, I don't mean culture as something decorative or performative.

I don't mean culture as a label.

I mean culture as a way of seeing.

Culture changes how we understand beauty, meaning, and artistry.

It reminds us that our own experience is not the only lens through which the world can be understood.

To me, culture is curiosity, context, discernment, and the willingness to be shaped by people, places, histories, and ideas beyond our own familiar world.

It deepens our taste, sharpens our questions, helps us create work with more imagination, humility, and humanity.

But culture alone isn't enough.

At some point, culture has to become action.

That's where courage comes in.

And by courage, I don't mean being loud for the sake of being loud.

I don't mean being controversial just to get attention.

I mean the courage to stop beyond the supposed-tos, the expected career, the expected repertoire, expected role, and expected path.

The courage to create something that doesn't exist yet.

The courage to risk comfort in pursuit of meaning.

As I have reflected on nearly 150 episodes of this podcast, I realized something.