The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown and Adam GrantRethinking Leadership, Work, and Human Connection in the Age of AI | The Curiosity Shop
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 1:00
AMA kickoff: themes on leadership, AI, rethinking, and writing
Adam Grant opens an Ask Me Anything episode sourced from audience questions. He previews the main buckets—leadership, careers and AI, rethinking beliefs, and a few personal productivity/writing curiosities—and sets a “thinking out loud” tone.
- •Episode format: audience Q&A across multiple themes
- •Expectation-setting: some questions get deeper treatment than others
- •A willingness to revise answers as a sign of growth
- 1:00 – 4:02
Making employees feel heard without promising every idea will be used
Adam tackles how leaders can invite employee voice while avoiding the trap of implied guaranteed adoption. The core is clarity: define what “having a voice” means, and transparently explain how ideas will be evaluated and prioritized.
- •Risk of being perceived as “too inclusive” and losing prioritization
- •People want a say even when they don’t get their way
- •Leaders should state decision filters (mission/values, feasibility, affordability)
- •Close the loop: explain why some ideas were adopted and others weren’t
- 4:02 – 5:33
Inclusion basics: ensuring low-power voices are actually seen and invited in
He argues the bigger problem than over-inclusion is silencing—especially of junior or lower-status groups. Small leader behaviors can materially change who speaks up, including intentional attention and explicit invitations to disagree.
- •Silencing disproportionately affects low-power/status groups
- •Simple cues matter: eye contact and visible attention increase participation
- •Virtual inclusion tactics: chat prompts and calling in quiet voices
- •Model healthy dissent by explicitly inviting objections and challenges
- 5:33 – 9:36
Turning good ideas into culture change: passion, timing, and influence tactics
Adam answers what separates people who successfully drive culture change from those whose ideas never land. He emphasizes regulated emotion, choosing the right moment, and delivering messages in ways that build allies—especially by seeking advice upward.
- •Effective voice requires both persistence and patience
- •Emotion can spur speaking up but also impair timing and delivery
- •Choose moments when leaders/organizations have bandwidth
- •Upward influence: seek advice to activate empathy and shared ownership
- 9:36 – 12:39
Transformational leadership habit built early: weekly feedback-seeking
He argues leadership development can’t wait until you have authority—it’s a lifelong practice. Using MLK’s early, deliberate practice as an example, Adam recommends a steady habit of soliciting specific feedback and accountability.
- •Leadership skills should be practiced long before formal leadership roles
- •Deliberate practice works best with feedback loops
- •Weekly question: “What’s the one thing I can do better?”
- •Anyone who follows you (peers included) can be a coach/feedback source
- 12:39 – 13:39
Sponsor break: Mint Mobile
A short ad read for Mint Mobile’s promotional pricing and plan details. He highlights ease of switching, online setup, and network features.
- •$15/month equivalent promo for new customers (initial term)
- •Unlimited talk/text, high-speed data, hotspot limits noted
- •Bring your device/number; online signup
- •Link and plan term caveats
- 13:39 – 18:42
When he didn’t follow his own advice: hiring mistakes and better selection methods
Adam recounts an early-career hiring error—rejecting a candidate based on irrelevant cues—and the lesson it taught him about structured criteria. He shifts to work-sample testing and introduces the idea of “do-overs” as a signal of learning agility.
- •Misjudgment based on eye contact for a phone-sales role
- •Fix: define success criteria before evaluating candidates
- •Use work samples (e.g., “sell a rotten apple”) to level the field
- •Newer evidence: improvement between interviews predicts trajectory
- •Practical do-over: pause mid-interview and let candidates retake answers
- 18:42 – 20:13
Reversing a belief about tradition: from ‘dead peer pressure’ to values-building rituals
He explains how writing his book changed his view of tradition. Instead of rejecting tradition outright, he differentiates mindless routines from thoughtful traditions that encode and strengthen shared values in families and teams.
- •Old stance: tradition can be stale adherence to “how we’ve always done it”
- •Traditions can preserve obsolete practices if unexamined
- •New stance: thoughtful traditions symbolize and reinforce values
- •Traditions help build culture in families, teams, workplaces, and friend groups
- 20:13 – 22:45
Why political identity becomes rigid: uncertainty, belonging, and loyalty confusion
Adam revisits ideas from Think Again with updated learning on why people fuse ideology with identity. He emphasizes how uncertainty and group dynamics drive polarization, and reframes loyalty as fidelity to principles rather than parties.
- •Uncertainty discomfort pushes people toward ideological certainty
- •Belonging needs and echo chambers fuel group polarization
- •People equate mind-changing with disloyalty to the group
- •Reframe: integrity is the highest form of loyalty—loyalty to principles
- 22:45 – 24:17
Quick personal round: magic, favorite foods, and how he chooses blurbs
A lighter segment covers his occasional magic performances, favorite foods, and his increasingly selective approach to book endorsements. He lists five criteria he uses to decide whether to blurb a book.
- •Still performs magic occasionally; hasn’t learned new tricks in decades
- •Favorite foods: Cotton Candy Blizzard and his wife’s cornbread soufflé
- •Blurb criteria: evidence-based, engaging, practical, new, and where he adds unique value
- •Sometimes declines simply due to time needed to read deeply enough
- 24:17 – 26:12
Role models: biggest scientist alive and leadership lessons from an athlete
He names Jennifer Doudna as the most impactful living scientist and points listeners to a biography for deeper context. He also highlights Tom Brady as a controversial but instructive example of discipline and team leadership, including an HBR piece co-authored with Nitin Nohria.
- •Jennifer Doudna cited for influence and impact (CRISPR)
- •Recommendation: Isaacson biography for how the work happened
- •Tom Brady example: discipline, long-term improvement, extreme achievement
- •Suggested reading: HBR article on leadership lessons from Brady’s career
- 26:12 – 27:18
Sponsor break: Shopify
A short ad read promoting Shopify as an e-commerce platform for starting a business. It emphasizes templates, AI tools, streamlined checkout, and an AI assistant for support.
- •Shopify positioned as end-to-end e-commerce infrastructure
- •AI tools and templates for fast site-building without coding
- •Checkout designed to reduce friction and increase conversion
- •Sidekick AI assistant for troubleshooting and guidance
- 27:18 – 28:49
Jobs AI will struggle to replace: live experiences and human connection
Adam answers an AI/careers question by focusing on work grounded in human connection and lived presence. He predicts automation will expand, but argues roles requiring tone, body language, judgment, and making people feel seen remain hardest to substitute.
- •Live experiences and service/entertainment are difficult to automate well
- •Human connection framed as uniquely valuable and worth protecting
- •Creativity and judgment remain key differentiators
- •Fields mentioned: healthcare, education, teaching, coaching
- 28:49 – 31:52
Remote work vs. career development: hybrid as a learning design problem
He agrees remote work can risk development—especially early career—if it eliminates informal observation and feedback. But he argues hybrid structures can preserve learning while enabling deep work, and notes evidence that simple unstructured check-ins can boost remote interns’ trajectories.
- •Qualified yes: fully remote can reduce tacit learning and informal feedback
- •Hybrid model: co-locate part of the week; use remote days for deep work
- •Workplace learning can mirror education: solo practice + regrouping
- •Evidence: regular unstructured manager check-ins improve remote intern performance
- •Remote access can expand observation opportunities across geographies
- 31:52 – 34:53
Rethinking ‘that’s not my job’: job crafting as a path to motivation and growth
Adam closes with research-backed guidance for overcoming job-description rigidity. He frames job crafting as shaping responsibilities to fit strengths and meaning while staying aligned with team and organizational goals—and distinguishes bad, good, and great bosses by how they support that evolution.
- •Job crafting: actively shaping tasks, relationships, and projects
- •Can increase happiness without harming performance (with alignment)
- •Answer to resistance: jobs shouldn’t be permanently static
- •Boss spectrum: bad = rigid; good = develop within role; great = develop even if talent leaves
- •Long-run payoff: boomerangs and referrals from invested employees
- 34:53 – 35:25
Wrap-up: closing the AMA and what’s next
Adam thanks listeners for the questions and ends the AMA format. He previews Brené Brown returning in the next episode and closes with production/network notes.
- •Gratitude and recap of the AMA reflection format
- •Preview: Brené returns next week
- •Show production and network credits
