FOMO Sapiens with Patrick J. McGinnis

Hosted by Patrick J. McGinnis

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553

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Oct 2026

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About the show

FOMO Sapiens is the podcast for anyone who wants to make smarter decisions, take action, and thrive in an unpredictable world. Hosted by Patrick J. McGinnis—the guy who coined FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)—this show brings you insights from world-class entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders who’ve mastered the art of navigating uncertainty. Each episode is packed with real-world strategies, powerful stories, and actionable advice to help you cut through the noise, take control of your choices, and build a life you actually want—without the fear of missing out. Listen now and start making decisions on your own terms.

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60 recent

October 29, 202636 min

S15 E5 Craig Robinson on Why Success Is the World's Most Convincing Happiness Trap

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Craig M. Robinson, former Chief Growth Officer of Industrious, CEO of Global Corporate Services at Newmark, and President of the U.S. Region at Colliers International, to talk about the book he wrote after decades at the top of corporate America left him pre-diabetic, on Zoloft, and quietly unfulfilled. The Happiness Reboot: The Path to Reclaiming Your Joy is part memoir, part research-backed framework, and part direct challenge to the scripts most high achievers never stop to question. Craig, now an executive coach and adjunct professor at Emory's Goizueta Business School, breaks down why the pursuit of success is structurally designed to fail as a happiness strategy, what the happiest countries in the world actually have in common, and why the research says you have less than a one percent chance of being fulfilled in life if you are not fulfilled in your work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October 22, 202637 min

S15 E4 DJ DiDonna: A Sabbatical Might Be the Most Strategic Career Move You'll Ever Make

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with DJ DiDonna, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, founder of The Sabbatical Project, and author of Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One (Simon & Schuster, July 2026). DJ spent nearly a decade researching why extended time away from work is one of the most impactful experiences a person can have, interviewing almost 250 sabbatical alumni to learn what makes the difference between a transformative break and an expensive vacation. The conversation covers the three pillars of an effective sabbatical (duration, disconnection, and experimentation), why most people take sabbaticals involuntarily after a crisis rather than by design, how companies can build sabbatical programs that pay back in retention and resilience, and why the concept of "regret insurance" might be the most honest argument for stepping away before you have to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October 15, 202636 min

S15 E3 What Drives Every Human Decision You've Ever Made, with MacArthur Genius Rebecca Goldstein

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, MacArthur Fellow, National Medal of the Humanities recipient, and author of the new book The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us (Liveright, 2026), for one of the most philosophically rich conversations the show has had. Rebecca holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton, has taught at Yale, Columbia, NYU, Dartmouth, and Harvard, and has spent more than 40 years developing a theory she calls the mattering instinct: the universal human drive to prove to ourselves that we genuinely deserve the attention we give ourselves. Her argument is that this single instinct is the source of our species' greatest achievements and deepest atrocities, that it explains depression, tribalism, religious belief, entrepreneurship, and the need for love, and that understanding where you sit on what she calls the mattering map is one of the most clarifying things you can do for your own life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October 8, 202640 min

S15 E2 Karim Jouini on Why AI Is Breaking Software Faster Than Anyone Can Test It

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Karim Jouini, co-founder and CEO of Thunders.ai, to explore a problem most people in tech are ignoring: as AI writes code at unprecedented speed, no one has figured out how to test it fast enough. Karim brings a rare perspective to this conversation: he started his first software company at 16 in Tunisia, running a cyber café management system, spent seven years at Microsoft growing from software engineer to engineering manager, and then co-founded Expensya, an AI-based expense management platform that was acquired by Medius for over $120 million. Now he's building Thunders.ai, which deploys AI agents that build, run, and debug software tests using plain natural language, making enterprise-grade testing accessible to every team. The conversation spans entrepreneurship timing, the AI infrastructure bubble, digital sovereignty, and why the most intellectually challenging job in software might be the one everyone underestimates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October 1, 202636 min

S15 E1 Marketing Guru Allan Dib on Why Marketing Is Simpler Than You Think, and How AI Is Raising the Stakes

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Allan Dib, serial entrepreneur and author of the million-copy bestseller The 1-Page Marketing Plan, to make the case that most businesses are overcomplicating marketing, and that AI is about to make that mistake far more costly. Allan breaks down his signature nine-block framework across three phases (before, during, and after) and introduces the PVP Index, a tool for identifying the ideal target market based on personal fulfillment, value to the marketplace, and profitability. The conversation also gets into why niching down is counterintuitive but essential for discoverability in both search engines and AI assistants, why the technical moat that agencies relied on for years is rapidly disappearing, and why the most underpriced marketing asset right now might be a handwritten note. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 2, 202638 min

S14 E36 Gotham FC’s Emily Tisch Sussman on Building a Dynasty in Women's Soccer From the Inside.

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Emily Tisch Sussman, co-owner of the two-time NWSL champion New York/New Jersey Gotham FC, creator and host of the award-winning iHeart podcast She Pivots, Tony-nominated Broadway producer, and Democratic political strategist. Emily's career has moved from federal policy to cable news to podcasting to sports ownership, and the through line is a relentless instinct for white space. The conversation covers what it actually takes to own a championship team in women's sports, why brands keep coming in at the wrong price point and missing the opportunity, and what it was like to fight the White House, the NYPD, and the transit authority all in one championship season. If you have any FOMO about the women's sports moment, Emily has one message: you are right to feel it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 25, 202645 min

S14 E35 Marcus Buckingham on Why Love Is the Most Powerful and Most Measurable Force in Business

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis welcomes back Marcus Buckingham, New York Times bestselling author, psychometrician, and one of the most influential voices in leadership over the last 30 years, to discuss his new book Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business, published by Harvard Business Review Press. Marcus spent decades resisting the word "love" in a business context — until the data made it impossible to ignore. His research shows that the relationship between experience and behavior isn't linear but follows a J-curve, meaning only extreme positive experiences — the fives — drive any behavior at all. And when you study the fives, the word people instinctively use to describe them is love. The conversation gets into why Net Promoter Score is measuring the wrong thing, what love actually means when it's predictive of behavior, and how leaders can intentionally design experiences that make both customers and employees say "I love that" and mean it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 18, 202640 min

S14 E34 How to Change Your Behavior to Make GLP-1s Work Long-Term with Noom CEO Geoff Cook

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Geoff Cook, CEO of Noom, the leading digital health platform combining psychology, technology, coaching, and clinical care. Geoff co-founded The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed social entertainment company he led for 18 years through its $500 million sale, before joining Noom to tackle something bigger: the full picture of human health. The conversation gets into why GLP-1s are only as effective as the habits built around them, what the real data shows about weight regain after discontinuation, how Noom's behavior change stack actually works, and why microdosing is quietly becoming one of the most interesting developments in preventative health. Geoff also shares why he started microdosing himself, what it did to his running habit and A1C, and how AI is making it possible to deliver genuinely personalized health guidance at scale for the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 11, 202635 min

S14 E33 Former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb on Raising Resilient Kids in a World That's Protecting Them to Death

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Brandon Webb, former U.S. Navy SEAL, Course Manager of the elite SEAL Sniper Program, and New York Times bestselling author, to talk about his new book, Puddle Jumpers, and the uncomfortable argument at its center. The same mental management principles Brandon used to transform sniper training, including the visualization and self-talk frameworks developed by 1976 Olympic gold medalist Lanny Bassham, turned out to be just as powerful when applied to raising kids. The result is a parenting philosophy built not on protection but on preparation: letting children fail, experience consequences, and do hard things early so that they develop the roots to withstand whatever comes later. It's a conversation that will make a lot of parents uncomfortable and probably make their kids' lives a lot better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 4, 202642 min

S14 E32 Max Marchione: Building a New Health System From the Ground Up at 25

In this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick McGinnis sits down with Max Marchione, co-founder and President of Superpower, a fast-growing preventative health platform making concierge-level medicine accessible for $199 a year. Max founded Superpower after a decade of misdiagnosis across more than 20 doctors, a frustration that led him to ask a simple but radical question: What if the best healthcare available to billionaires could be made available to everyone? The company has raised over $50 million, tests hundreds of biomarkers to build a digital twin of each member, and uses AI to deliver the kind of personalized health analysis that used to cost tens of thousands of dollars a year. But the conversation isn't just about health tech. It's about what it takes to build something from nothing as a first-time founder in your mid-twenties, why clarity comes from action rather than thinking, and why the single most important variable in your outcomes might be where you choose to live. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices