In this episode we discuss how you can create success by mashing two seemingly unrelated ideas together, why energy is the currency of the biological world (and how that impacts the evolution of money within our society), we go deep into understanding money and its role in our lives, and we look at why you should investigate your own biases about money with Kabir Sehgal.

Kabir is a former a vice president in emerging markets at JP Morgan. He is the new york times and wall street journal bestselling author of the book Coined and has served as a speechwriter for the John Kerry presidential campaign, having been featured in Fortune, The Harvard Business Review, and other publications. Kabir is a CNBC contributor as well as a grammy winning producer, composer, and Jazz musician.

We discuss:

• Creating an opera about the financial crisis

• How you can create success by mashing two seemingly unrelated ideas together

• The idea of lateral combination vs incremental growth and how it amplifies possibility

• What is Money?

• Unit of Value

  1. Instrument of Exchange

  2. Counting mechanism

• Why Kabir defines money as a symbol of value

• The neurological triggers associated with money

• How a trip to the Galapagos islands transformed the way Kabir thought about money

• The “biology of exchange” and how money expresses something deeply biological and rooted in evolution

• Why energy is the currency of the biological world (and how that impacts the evolution of money within our society)

• The rich history of money

• Looking at financial decisions through brain scans and MRIs

• How talking about money can change the electrical conductivity of your skin

• Fascinating research data about how money impacts

• How making money creates a brain state almost identical to cocaine addicts

• What does research show makes men more excited - dead bodies, naked women, or money?

• How your genetic composition impacts your psychology of money

• How twin studies demonstrate people’s genetic preference for certain financial behaviors and risk profiles

• The anthropology of debt

• The history of bartering and how social debt was actually the first currency

• Think of money as a measurement of debt

• What’s the difference between currency and money?

• What does Genghis Khan have to do with the history of money?

• What are Native American potlatches and what do they tell us about tipping behavior?

• What is Soft Money, what is Hard Money, and what are the differences?

• Does the weather impact your financial decisions?

• What is the Soul of Money?

• Misquoting Jesus?

• Do Jesus and the Hindu scriptures offer the same financial advice?

• Understanding money and its role in our lives

• Why you should start with investigating your own biases about money

Thank you so much for listening!

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SHOW NOTES, LINKS, & RESEARCH

• [Book] Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology by Kabir Sehgal

• [Book] Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us by Kabir Sehgal

• [Book] Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright

• [Bio] Brian Knutson

• [Wikipedia] Nixon in China

• [Musical] Hamilton on Broadway

• [SoS Episode] Trading Your House For A Tulip, Your Love Life, And What It All Has To Do With Making Better Financial Decisions with Dr. Daniel Crosby

• [Book] Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

• [Personal Site] Kabir Sehgal

Episode Transcript