TRAILER – Season Five – Literate Leaders Restore The Chaotic World

1
00:00:01,520 –> 00:00:05,200
Because understanding great literature is better than trying to read and understand

2
00:00:05,360 –> 00:00:09,000
yet another business book on the Leadership Lessons from the Great Books

3
00:00:09,000 –> 00:00:12,680
Podcast, we commit to reading, dissecting, and analyzing the great

4
00:00:12,680 –> 00:00:15,920
books of the Western canon. You know, those

5
00:00:16,000 –> 00:00:19,640
books from Jane Austen to Shakespeare and everything else in

6
00:00:19,640 –> 00:00:23,440
between that you might have fallen asleep trying to read in high

7
00:00:23,440 –> 00:00:26,980
school. We do this for our listeners, the owner, the

8
00:00:26,980 –> 00:00:30,660
entrepreneur, the manager, or the civic leader who doesn’t have the time

9
00:00:30,660 –> 00:00:34,300
to read, dissect, analyze, and leverage insights from

10
00:00:34,300 –> 00:00:38,100
literature to execute leadership best practices in the

11
00:00:38,100 –> 00:00:41,420
confusing and chaotic postmodern world we all now

12
00:00:41,420 –> 00:00:44,860
inhabit. Welcome to the rescuing of Western

13
00:00:44,860 –> 00:00:48,500
Civilization at the intersection of literature

14
00:00:48,500 –> 00:00:52,250
and leadership. Welcome to the Leadership Lessons from

15
00:00:52,250 –> 00:00:56,010
the Great Books Podcast. Welcome to the Beginning

16
00:00:56,170 –> 00:00:58,810
of the Next Historical High.

17
00:01:00,890 –> 00:01:04,410
But before I get into why this is the beginning

18
00:01:04,570 –> 00:01:08,089
of the next historical high, let me hit you listeners with

19
00:01:08,250 –> 00:01:12,090
some statistics to start off this

20
00:01:12,170 –> 00:01:15,530
new year. According to the National Literacy

21
00:01:15,610 –> 00:01:18,850
Institute, 21% of adults in the United States were

22
00:01:18,850 –> 00:01:21,192
illiterate in 2024

23
00:01:21,468 –> 00:01:24,950
54% of adults have a literacy rate

24
00:01:24,950 –> 00:01:28,790
below a sixth grade reading level. 20%

25
00:01:29,030 –> 00:01:32,710
of adults are below a fifth grade reading

26
00:01:32,710 –> 00:01:36,350
level. Now. Literary

27
00:01:36,350 –> 00:01:39,990
statistics matter a lot to me as I host

28
00:01:40,070 –> 00:01:43,790
a literary and leadership podcast because they

29
00:01:43,790 –> 00:01:46,960
are a bellwether, usually for other more

30
00:01:46,960 –> 00:01:50,040
substantive and systemic problems,

31
00:01:51,000 –> 00:01:54,600
from voting for someone for the local city council to

32
00:01:54,840 –> 00:01:58,280
avoiding being fooled by the products of an online bot farm.

33
00:01:58,600 –> 00:02:02,400
Being able to read the words on the page or on

34
00:02:02,400 –> 00:02:06,240
the phone is important. But even more

35
00:02:06,240 –> 00:02:09,240
important than being able to read the words on the page is the ability to

36
00:02:09,240 –> 00:02:13,050
understand those words and to be able to make meaning from

37
00:02:13,050 –> 00:02:16,770
the words and make decisions from the meaning behind the

38
00:02:16,770 –> 00:02:20,570
words we understand, and even the

39
00:02:20,570 –> 00:02:24,170
ones we don’t understand. Nothing

40
00:02:24,170 –> 00:02:27,730
begins without people understanding the words they’re reading and

41
00:02:27,730 –> 00:02:30,490
being able to argue and discuss

42
00:02:31,530 –> 00:02:35,210
and contemplate the meaning of those

43
00:02:35,370 –> 00:02:39,140
words. But there’s one other area

44
00:02:39,300 –> 00:02:42,500
where we need to have deep

45
00:02:42,500 –> 00:02:46,020
literacy, and I’m not talking about critical thinking here. Critical

46
00:02:46,020 –> 00:02:49,780
thinking comes after literacy and

47
00:02:50,180 –> 00:02:54,020
even after comprehension. We

48
00:02:54,020 –> 00:02:57,540
need the ability to make plans for the future

49
00:02:58,180 –> 00:03:01,860
based on the meaning of the words we

50
00:03:01,860 –> 00:03:05,540
read, the words we comprehend, the

51
00:03:05,540 –> 00:03:08,460
meaning that we seek to understand.

52
00:03:11,100 –> 00:03:14,860
Why is this important? Why am I talking about this right now?

53
00:03:14,860 –> 00:03:18,700
Well, during times of chaos, during times of disruption, during times of a

54
00:03:18,780 –> 00:03:22,420
shifting consensus in a dynamic country like the

55
00:03:22,420 –> 00:03:26,140
United States of America, where I live, making meaning of

56
00:03:26,140 –> 00:03:29,780
words matters quite a bit in the pursuit of defining,

57
00:03:29,780 –> 00:03:33,500
developing, and determining the the nature, depth, and breadth

58
00:03:33,660 –> 00:03:37,300
of problems, the meaning of words

59
00:03:37,300 –> 00:03:41,140
and the ability to Understand the meaning of words becomes even more critical to

60
00:03:41,140 –> 00:03:44,620
track and determine in the transition from a time of chaos

61
00:03:45,420 –> 00:03:49,020
into a time of historical prosperity and

62
00:03:49,500 –> 00:03:53,140
peace. There’s an

63
00:03:53,140 –> 00:03:56,460
idea in business around

64
00:03:57,430 –> 00:04:00,630
signal and noise, and words

65
00:04:01,190 –> 00:04:04,470
can be both the signal and the noise. But literacy,

66
00:04:05,350 –> 00:04:09,150
comprehension, and critical thinking, these three are

67
00:04:09,150 –> 00:04:12,989
the tools that we use to separate the signal from

68
00:04:12,989 –> 00:04:13,670
the noise.

69
00:04:17,590 –> 00:04:21,350
Now, I’m going to use a word here or a term here,

70
00:04:21,350 –> 00:04:24,640
and I want you to. I want you to hook onto this one.

71
00:04:26,240 –> 00:04:30,080
The transition from a historical low of chaos and collapse

72
00:04:30,480 –> 00:04:33,360
to a historical high of prosperity and construction

73
00:04:34,160 –> 00:04:37,680
could be defined by the term, by the

74
00:04:37,680 –> 00:04:40,080
words golden age.

75
00:04:41,600 –> 00:04:45,440
But how you comprehend that term, what meaning you make

76
00:04:45,440 –> 00:04:49,130
from it, well, you might need some help

77
00:04:49,130 –> 00:04:50,250
with that part.

78
00:05:00,650 –> 00:05:04,330
A couple of years ago, I expressed the frustration that I have

79
00:05:04,330 –> 00:05:08,170
with our constant mastication over problems without

80
00:05:08,170 –> 00:05:11,050
moving people towards solutions to problems.

81
00:05:12,170 –> 00:05:15,510
Over the last couple of years on this podcast, I have taken time to, at

82
00:05:15,510 –> 00:05:19,270
the end of each of our episodes to discuss with our guests

83
00:05:19,270 –> 00:05:22,870
the solutions or the potential solutions to leadership problems

84
00:05:22,950 –> 00:05:26,310
that are present in our society and culture.

85
00:05:26,710 –> 00:05:29,750
Here at the close of the fourth turning,

86
00:05:30,550 –> 00:05:33,830
which I suspected the fourth turning was beginning to close

87
00:05:34,630 –> 00:05:36,310
back in 2023,

88
00:05:38,150 –> 00:05:41,830
this ongoing frustration over the constant

89
00:05:41,830 –> 00:05:45,150
chewing over of problems led me to cover books

90
00:05:45,630 –> 00:05:49,190
with guests like Shop Class as Soulcraft by

91
00:05:49,190 –> 00:05:52,750
Matthew Crawford, the Omni Americans by Albert Murray,

92
00:05:52,990 –> 00:05:55,950
as well as Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald and

93
00:05:55,950 –> 00:05:58,510
1984 by George Orwell.

94
00:05:59,630 –> 00:06:03,270
These books, along with many others, opens the

95
00:06:03,270 –> 00:06:06,950
door to allow me to talk with my

96
00:06:06,950 –> 00:06:10,760
fellow guests and to talk with you as listeners about the problem

97
00:06:11,000 –> 00:06:13,480
of respecting the followers you have as a leader,

98
00:06:14,520 –> 00:06:17,640
the problem of a return to collectivist thinking,

99
00:06:18,120 –> 00:06:21,960
and not in the way that Lenin or Marx would define it, and

100
00:06:21,960 –> 00:06:25,720
resurrecting such collectivist or collective or communal

101
00:06:25,720 –> 00:06:29,480
thinking from the rubble of the idolatry of individualistic

102
00:06:29,480 –> 00:06:33,320
thinking. These books opened the door to me

103
00:06:33,320 –> 00:06:37,000
being able to talk about putting aside personal trauma in order to

104
00:06:37,000 –> 00:06:40,600
develop other people. And these

105
00:06:40,600 –> 00:06:44,400
books opened the door to me being able to talk with guests about how

106
00:06:44,400 –> 00:06:47,840
to develop serious speech that would

107
00:06:47,840 –> 00:06:51,400
demonstrate the depth of serious thinking

108
00:06:52,039 –> 00:06:55,880
that a leader and quite frankly, everybody should have.

109
00:06:58,760 –> 00:07:02,040
We talked about these problems and we proposed

110
00:07:02,200 –> 00:07:06,010
solutions. And in each one of these areas, along with many

111
00:07:06,010 –> 00:07:09,850
others, we propose solutions that we covered on the show last season.

112
00:07:10,570 –> 00:07:14,050
We actually talked about solutions, some

113
00:07:14,050 –> 00:07:17,530
radical, some more pedestrian, but all

114
00:07:17,850 –> 00:07:21,530
solution based. The guests that we

115
00:07:21,530 –> 00:07:24,970
had actively explored all those potential solutions

116
00:07:25,210 –> 00:07:28,840
and engaged with these ideas in the realm of I

117
00:07:29,070 –> 00:07:32,630
ideas, which of course is what a podcast I believe

118
00:07:32,630 –> 00:07:36,150
fundamentally is for and

119
00:07:36,150 –> 00:07:39,750
now, in 2026, starting the fifth season of the

120
00:07:39,750 –> 00:07:43,510
Leadership Lessons from the Great Books podcast, we are going

121
00:07:43,510 –> 00:07:46,950
to level up yet again and we’re going to begin to

122
00:07:46,950 –> 00:07:50,630
explore ideas. Not only those ideas that

123
00:07:50,630 –> 00:07:54,110
lead to solutions, but also ideas

124
00:07:54,190 –> 00:07:57,040
of restoration in preparation

125
00:07:57,840 –> 00:08:01,680
for a future that I believe we are not

126
00:08:02,000 –> 00:08:04,800
quite yet prepared for.

127
00:08:05,840 –> 00:08:08,720
Whether that is spiritually, morally,

128
00:08:09,360 –> 00:08:12,160
ethically, much less materially,

129
00:08:12,880 –> 00:08:15,440
scientifically or even

130
00:08:15,920 –> 00:08:19,760
biologically. We will be

131
00:08:19,760 –> 00:08:23,400
doing this. We will be holding this

132
00:08:23,400 –> 00:08:27,200
conversation around restoration and preparation for

133
00:08:27,200 –> 00:08:31,000
the future through exploring essays like the Great Instauration

134
00:08:31,080 –> 00:08:34,440
by Francis Bacon. And we will go

135
00:08:34,600 –> 00:08:38,360
through there all the Way to east of Eden

136
00:08:38,440 –> 00:08:42,120
by John Steinbeck. We will wind our way

137
00:08:42,120 –> 00:08:45,560
through A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion, and

138
00:08:45,800 –> 00:08:49,630
we’ll talk about the Great book Ben Hur A Tale of the Christ

139
00:08:49,870 –> 00:08:53,710
by Lew Wallace. And towards the end of this

140
00:08:53,710 –> 00:08:57,350
year, we will end up in the space of the U.S. army and Marine

141
00:08:57,350 –> 00:09:00,830
Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual edited by General David

142
00:09:00,830 –> 00:09:04,630
Petraeus, Sarah Sewell and John Nagel. And finally, we

143
00:09:04,630 –> 00:09:08,310
will close out the year by exploring Tolkien and

144
00:09:08,310 –> 00:09:10,590
the children of Huron.

145
00:09:12,270 –> 00:09:16,060
We will use these books to connect with literate leaders

146
00:09:17,260 –> 00:09:20,460
with high comprehension, deep compassion,

147
00:09:20,940 –> 00:09:24,380
and literate leaders who have impatience,

148
00:09:25,260 –> 00:09:28,620
who are experiencing impatience with the speed

149
00:09:28,940 –> 00:09:31,660
of the coming historical high,

150
00:09:33,020 –> 00:09:35,980
and of course who are looking for ideas,

151
00:09:37,100 –> 00:09:40,220
looking for solutions to what restoration

152
00:09:40,860 –> 00:09:42,860
would potentially look like.

153
00:10:06,740 –> 00:10:10,510
So here’s a few questions to sort of set yourself up

154
00:10:10,670 –> 00:10:14,310
for the upcoming podcasting

155
00:10:14,310 –> 00:10:17,990
season. Why do smart leaders read Voltaire instead of the

156
00:10:17,990 –> 00:10:21,630
Harvard Business Review? What are the implications

157
00:10:21,710 –> 00:10:25,070
of addressing diversity challenges as a conflict of visions

158
00:10:25,470 –> 00:10:29,310
rather than as a world ending existential crisis?

159
00:10:30,350 –> 00:10:34,030
What is a Tim show? And why does knowing what it is matter

160
00:10:34,190 –> 00:10:37,860
to building for the good rather than just maintaining a position

161
00:10:39,060 –> 00:10:42,860
in stasis? And what is the

162
00:10:42,860 –> 00:10:46,020
importance of decentralized decision making?

163
00:10:48,020 –> 00:10:50,820
I am fascinated by the difference between

164
00:10:51,779 –> 00:10:55,460
what questions and why questions. Why

165
00:10:55,460 –> 00:10:59,220
questions tend to be problem oriented and the

166
00:10:59,300 –> 00:11:02,990
endless pressing of the algorithm in our

167
00:11:02,990 –> 00:11:06,430
lives has flooded us with why questions,

168
00:11:06,910 –> 00:11:09,790
why this, why that, and why the other.

169
00:11:10,670 –> 00:11:14,430
But what questions are solution focused?

170
00:11:14,910 –> 00:11:18,110
What is the problem? What can we do about it?

171
00:11:19,470 –> 00:11:23,070
What are the options? These

172
00:11:23,150 –> 00:11:26,510
types of questions, questions that begin with the word what

173
00:11:27,060 –> 00:11:30,420
are more interesting than asking endless why? Questions that

174
00:11:30,420 –> 00:11:33,900
merely serve to drive or

175
00:11:33,900 –> 00:11:37,660
feed the algorithm. These are the questions

176
00:11:37,660 –> 00:11:41,300
that drive thinking about solutions and implementing

177
00:11:41,300 –> 00:11:45,060
those solutions rather than continuing to drive a problem

178
00:11:45,300 –> 00:11:49,140
based narrative. The lessons we can learn from

179
00:11:49,140 –> 00:11:52,860
reading the great Books have been the primary focus of this show for

180
00:11:52,860 –> 00:11:56,370
the last five years and great

181
00:11:56,370 –> 00:11:59,970
books Ask and Answer what

182
00:12:00,210 –> 00:12:03,810
Questions this

183
00:12:03,810 –> 00:12:07,610
year we are moving with several partners and current

184
00:12:07,610 –> 00:12:11,090
and former guests into two areas of

185
00:12:11,170 –> 00:12:15,010
great impact and of great interest in 2026 that will

186
00:12:15,170 –> 00:12:19,010
further allow us to explore the answers to what questions.

187
00:12:20,140 –> 00:12:23,940
We are starting to bring together ideas we’ve explored on this show

188
00:12:23,940 –> 00:12:27,740
since season one into writing a book series

189
00:12:27,980 –> 00:12:31,580
with contributions from current and former guests, focusing

190
00:12:31,580 –> 00:12:34,900
on our discussion of the potential

191
00:12:34,900 –> 00:12:38,380
leadership models that arise when you read

192
00:12:38,860 –> 00:12:42,620
books written by Jane Austen, plays written by William

193
00:12:42,620 –> 00:12:46,020
Shakespeare, books written by John Steinbeck and Ernest

194
00:12:46,020 –> 00:12:49,410
Hemingway, or even solutions to life

195
00:12:49,490 –> 00:12:53,130
proposed by Booker T. Washington and

196
00:12:53,130 –> 00:12:56,930
many, many others. It turns out that a

197
00:12:56,930 –> 00:12:59,410
lot of these books have the

198
00:13:00,370 –> 00:13:04,130
answers to the why embedded in the

199
00:13:04,130 –> 00:13:07,570
what deeply in

200
00:13:07,810 –> 00:13:09,490
narrative structures.

201
00:13:11,570 –> 00:13:14,290
We’re also exploring

202
00:13:15,510 –> 00:13:19,150
a project, and I’m not going to give the name of it right now, but

203
00:13:19,150 –> 00:13:22,990
we’re exploring a project, developing it

204
00:13:22,990 –> 00:13:26,550
with other partners to leverage the insights, the commentary

205
00:13:26,630 –> 00:13:30,470
and the conclusions from the podcast

206
00:13:30,470 –> 00:13:33,590
episodes we’ve done over the last few years,

207
00:13:34,630 –> 00:13:38,190
moving those into a working leadership

208
00:13:38,190 –> 00:13:41,680
education platform. This idea

209
00:13:41,680 –> 00:13:45,040
is still in its genesis, it’s still

210
00:13:45,680 –> 00:13:49,520
in the planning stages, it’s still in the paper and pencil

211
00:13:49,600 –> 00:13:53,400
sort of mode. And so stay tuned for

212
00:13:53,400 –> 00:13:55,920
more details as we move this project

213
00:13:56,880 –> 00:13:57,280
forward.

214
00:14:18,090 –> 00:14:21,850
I once heard years ago as an entrepreneur, and I’ve taken this

215
00:14:21,850 –> 00:14:25,250
throughout my entire life, that and my

216
00:14:25,250 –> 00:14:28,890
career actually, that it takes 10 years to become a

217
00:14:28,890 –> 00:14:32,340
quote unquote, overnight success, whether you’re an

218
00:14:32,340 –> 00:14:36,180
entrepreneur or a business owner. Over the course of my

219
00:14:36,180 –> 00:14:39,380
life, over the course of my adulthood, I’ve. I’ve taken on

220
00:14:40,180 –> 00:14:43,860
a lot of other hard things. And you know what I found out? I found

221
00:14:43,860 –> 00:14:47,020
out that it takes 10 to 12 years to get your black belt in the

222
00:14:47,020 –> 00:14:50,860
martial art of jiu jitsu. It takes 10,000 hours or

223
00:14:50,860 –> 00:14:54,700
10 years to move from being a novice to beginning to

224
00:14:54,700 –> 00:14:58,270
starting to be a master at any pursuit worth

225
00:14:58,270 –> 00:15:01,990
taking up. Anything worth doing takes

226
00:15:01,990 –> 00:15:05,710
about 10 years to begin to get even remotely good at

227
00:15:07,790 –> 00:15:10,510
the same thing. It turns out with

228
00:15:10,750 –> 00:15:14,430
podcasting, I’m heading into the fifth year of

229
00:15:14,430 –> 00:15:18,270
hosting this show. Hosting a podcast

230
00:15:18,270 –> 00:15:22,070
like this, with a lot of moving parts involves learning, developing and executing

231
00:15:22,070 –> 00:15:25,620
the skills of writing, speaking, recording, editing,

232
00:15:25,620 –> 00:15:28,220
marketing, and finally distributing.

233
00:15:29,420 –> 00:15:32,540
I think at this point I’m about halfway through

234
00:15:33,100 –> 00:15:36,540
a 10 year long process to get

235
00:15:36,780 –> 00:15:39,260
better, to move from

236
00:15:40,140 –> 00:15:43,020
novice to beginning to be a master.

237
00:15:44,300 –> 00:15:48,100
And underneath it all, underneath all of this journey, underneath

238
00:15:48,100 –> 00:15:51,930
all this process, underneath all of this writing

239
00:15:51,930 –> 00:15:55,450
and speaking and recording and editing and marketing and distributing,

240
00:15:55,530 –> 00:15:59,370
the most valuable skill. Well, not even

241
00:15:59,370 –> 00:16:02,410
valuable skill, the most valuable thing I’m earning

242
00:16:02,490 –> 00:16:06,170
consistently by showing up week in and week out every week

243
00:16:06,970 –> 00:16:10,650
is is is permission.

244
00:16:11,690 –> 00:16:15,210
The permission to speak into your ears and the

245
00:16:15,210 –> 00:16:18,370
permission to have your retention to build a future.

246
00:16:18,930 –> 00:16:22,290
To sincerely build a future. I think

247
00:16:23,090 –> 00:16:26,850
we want to actually leave for the people

248
00:16:27,090 –> 00:16:30,610
coming after us. I look

249
00:16:30,610 –> 00:16:34,210
forward to continuing to earn the

250
00:16:34,210 –> 00:16:38,050
ears and attention of some of the most literate leaders, visionaries,

251
00:16:38,050 –> 00:16:41,850
builders and executors who listen to this show in

252
00:16:41,850 –> 00:16:45,680
2026. And I thank

253
00:16:45,680 –> 00:16:49,520
you for what you have given me so

254
00:16:49,520 –> 00:16:53,120
far. Happy New Year

255
00:16:53,840 –> 00:16:57,520
and welcome to the next historical high.

256
00:17:00,640 –> 00:17:04,280
And well, that’s it for

257
00:17:04,280 –> 00:17:07,800
me. Thank you for listening to the Leadership Lessons from the Great Books

258
00:17:07,800 –> 00:17:11,530
Podcast today. And now that you’ve made it this far,

259
00:17:12,010 –> 00:17:15,410
you should subscribe to the audio version of this show on all the major

260
00:17:15,410 –> 00:17:19,050
podcast players, including Apple, iTunes, Spotify,

261
00:17:19,290 –> 00:17:23,130
YouTube, music and everywhere else where podcasts are available.

262
00:17:24,250 –> 00:17:27,970
There’s also a video version of our. Podcast on our YouTube

263
00:17:27,970 –> 00:17:31,730
channel like and subscribe to the video version of this podcast on

264
00:17:31,730 –> 00:17:35,500
the Leadership toolbox channel on YouTube. Just, just search for Leadership

265
00:17:35,500 –> 00:17:38,740
Toolbox and hit the subscribe button there on YouTube.

266
00:17:39,460 –> 00:17:43,300
And while you’re doing that, leave a five star review. If you like

267
00:17:43,300 –> 00:17:46,740
what we’re doing here on Apple, Spotify and

268
00:17:46,740 –> 00:17:50,500
YouTube, just go below the player and hit five stars.

269
00:17:50,980 –> 00:17:54,740
We need those reviews to grow and it’s the easiest way to help grow this

270
00:17:54,740 –> 00:17:58,220
show and tell all your friends, of course, in

271
00:17:58,220 –> 00:18:01,940
Leadership. By the way, if you don’t like what we’re doing here,

272
00:18:01,940 –> 00:18:05,300
well, you can always listen to another leadership show. There are several

273
00:18:05,540 –> 00:18:09,340
other good ones out there. At least that’s

274
00:18:09,340 –> 00:18:12,660
what I’ve heard. All right, well,

275
00:18:13,380 –> 00:18:14,580
that’s it for me.