Traction Podcast

Hosted by Traction Podcast

BusinessInterviews guests

Website RSS feed

Episodes

173

Latest episode

Jun 2026

Language

About the show

The Traction Podcast provides founders with the tools to optimize their mind, body, and business for peak performance.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

June 3, 202647 min

The GLP-1 Revolution Explained by a Doctor Running 20+ Pharma Trials

Dr. Tom Elliott has spent more than four decades at the forefront of diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic health.He is the founder and medical director of BC Diabetes, an associate professor at UBC, and has been involved in more than 20 pharmaceutical clinical trials exploring the future of obesity, diabetes, and GLP-1 therapies. In this episode, Dr. Elliott breaks down why obesity, insulin resistance, and prediabetes have exploded across modern society, and why many founders and high performers are quietly damaging their metabolic health through stress, poor sleep, alcohol, sedentary work, and overstimulation.We explore the science behind Ozempic, GLP-1 agonists, retatrutide, testosterone decline, fertility, fasting, aging, addiction, and the future of preventative medicine. Dr. Elliott also explains why some patients in clinical trials “begged to stop” after losing too much weight, and how these drugs may extend far beyond weight loss into addiction recovery and longevity research.You will learn:Why more than 150 million Americans may be prediabeticWhat GLP-1 drugs actually do inside the bodyWhy Ozempic is affecting fertility, appetite, and addictionHow stress and sleep deprivation damage metabolismWhy muscle mass and strength matter as you ageThe relationship between testosterone, aging, and performanceHow modern food environments accelerate obesity and insulin resistanceThis is a wide-ranging conversation on diabetes, longevity, performance, and the future of human health with one of Canada’s leading endocrinologists.

May 20, 202647 min

Julia Klim: When Health Optimization Starts Backfiring

Julia Klim is redefining what it means to live and perform well in a high-pressure world.As former Head of Strategic Partnerships at Equinox Group, she helped transform the brand from a luxury gym into a full-spectrum healthspan platform. She launched Optimize by Equinox, an elite longevity program that pairs members with doctors, trainers, nutritionists, and sleep coaches using deep biometric data.Julia writes the Substack “In Search Of”, where she challenges the idea that health can be “hacked.” She argues that many high performers are quietly dysregulated despite doing everything right, and that nervous system health, immune resilience, and cellular energy are the real foundations of long-term performance.Julia is known for cutting through wellness hype, questioning over-optimization, and exposing why more tools, more supplements, and more protocols often make people worse, not better.In this episode, Julia breaks down why anxiety, fatigue, brain fog, and burnout are usually signs of autonomic overload, not lack of discipline. We explore how chronic stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction quietly erode performance, and why your body must feel safe before any optimization works.You will learn:Why you cannot biohack your nervous systemHow hidden dysregulation shows up in high performersWhat biomarkers and signals actually matterWhy supplements fail in threat modeHow to build real resilience instead of chasing hacksWhy environment, relationships, and routines drive recoveryHow to perform at a high level without burning outThis is a grounded, science-backed conversation for founders and leaders who want to win for decades, not just quarters.Julia Klim- In Search Of: https://readinsearchof.com- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaklim/- X/Twitter: https://x.com/klimjuls- Instagram: https://instagram.com/klimjulsLloyed Lobo- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo- Instagram: https://instagram.com/lloyedlobo

May 6, 202645 min

National Gold Medalist: “Supplements Are Useless If You Ignore These 3 Basics”

Caroline Mundell has been competing at the highest levels of Olympic weightlifting while running two gyms and raising three kids. She is a 7x Provincial Masters Olympic Lifting Champion, 2x National Champion, Bronze medalist at the 2018 World championships Barcelona, and most recently the 2025 National Functional Fitness Gold Medalist.Her background in behavioral neuroscience and sports science is what makes her framework different, she understands both why your brain resists change and exactly what to do about it.In this episode, we cover:Why your metabolism isn't slowing down due to age, and what's actually happening insteadThe real reason busy founders stall despite doing "everything right"Why cold plunges aren't delivering what the wellness industry promised, especially for womenThe supplement mistake costing thousands while three basics go ignoredWhy strength training in your 40s matters more than any biohack on the marketThe mindset shift that separates people who transform their health from those stuck in the planning phaseCaroline Mundell:https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-mundell-9803ba39/Ray Waliahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/raywalia/

April 15, 202655 min

He Studied $6.4 Trillion Worth of Founders. Here's What They Shared | Mark Macleod | Traction

Mark MacLeod, founder of Limitless.CEO, has sat with some of the most consequential founders in tech. As Ex-CFO of Shopify and FreshBooks, GP at Real Ventures, Canada's largest seed fund, and founder of a leading SaaS investment bank, he has personally overseen over $1 billion in exits. He has seen exactly what ends a founder's run, and it is rarely the market.After studying 11 founders who built a combined $6.4 trillion in enterprise value, Mark rebuilt his entire philosophy around one idea: your personal health is the ceiling of your company. Today he runs Limitless, a program where CEOs train like elite athletes to scale their companies without sacrificing their health, their families, or their longevity.In this episode, we cover:Why the number one reason founders came to Mark looking to exit was not valuationHow fit CEOs have outperformed the S&P 500 by 2.5x over four years and what that actually means for how you leadThe biomarker dashboard Mark uses to predict his own performance quarters in advanceWhat Zuckerberg, Chesky, and Tobi Lutke share that most founders overlook entirelyThe earliest warning signs that a high performer is headed toward a breakdownWhy your nervous system is your company's operating systemHow to design your role around your zone of genius the way Tobi did at ShopifyIf you are building for decades and not just surviving the next funding round, this conversation will change how you think about the relationship between your body and your business.

April 1, 202647 min

Peter Danenberg: "I've Spent 13 Years at Google. Here's What AI Still Can't Replace."

Peter Danenberg has spent his career at the edge of what humans and machines can do. As a senior software engineer at Google DeepMind, he leads development on Gemini. Before tech, he co-founded CrossFit Crown City, scaling it to 450 members across two locations. He holds degrees from Harvard and USC spanning computer science, philosophy, classics and piano, and has spoken at Davos, the House of Lords, and MIT.His belief is simple: peak performance, human or artificial, is as much a philosophical project as it is a technical one.In this episode, we cover:Why he ran AI-driven workouts for a year and what went wrongWhat AI still cannot replicate in human performance and coachingThe relationship between physical training and cognitive flow stateHow music and sport work together to maintain mental clarityWhat the next generation is telling us about AI dependencyWhy the human in the loop still matters more than we thinkPeter Danenberghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdanenberg/Ray Waliahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/raywalia/

March 18, 20261 hr 4 min

$100M Health CEO: “87% of People Who Do This Reverse Diabetes in 6 Months”

Jim Donnelly knows how to build health empires. As the founder and former CEO of Restore Hyper Wellness, he scaled a cryotherapy and wellness franchise to hundreds of locations before stepping away. Then life forced him to start over. A near-fatal car accident, the loss of his father, and his own regenerative medicine journey completely changed how he thought about health.Today, he leads Humanaut Health, a network of advanced preventive clinics combining deep diagnostics, regenerative therapies, and personalized coaching to add 10 to 20 vibrant years to people’s lives. His mission goes far beyond biohackers and executives. He believes cutting-edge longevity care should be accessible to everyday high performers, not just the wealthy.In this episode, we cover:What a near-death experience taught him about purposeHow Humanaut uses more than 150 data points to identify root causes and reverse metabolic dysfunctionThe difference between regenerative medicine and traditional wellnessThe key protocols that drive the majority of the performance resultsLessons on building mission-driven teams and performance-driven communitiesHow to scale your company nationals and globally without losing qualityWhether you are a founder battling burnout or someone thinking about your long-term health, this conversation is a blueprint for combining entrepreneurship, healing, and performance.

March 4, 202636 min

He Managed $100M at DARPA. Here’s What It Did to Him

Jason Syversen has spent more than 25 years operating at the highest levels of cybersecurity, venture capital, and applied technology.As a Program Manager at DARPA, he managed a $100M cybersecurity portfolio focused on advanced national security systems. He later founded and exited Siege Technologies, building a profitable cyber company in a highly competitive market. Since then, he has invested in more than 45 early-stage companies across AI and cybersecurity.After his exit, Jason donated the majority of his proceeds to combat human trafficking and poverty. Today, he helps fund initiatives that free individuals from modern-day slavery, often for as little as $100 per person.He is now the Founder and CEO of SportsVisio, an AI-driven sports analytics company using computer vision to automate statistics and highlights for athletes and teams.In this episode, we discuss:Managing a $100M DARPA portfolioBuilding and exiting a cybersecurity companyInvesting across 45 technology startupsDecision-making under risk at scaleSustaining physical and cognitive performance long termDeploying capital for measurable impactThe future of AI in sports analyticsJason SyversenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsyversen/

February 18, 202648 min

Whoop's CPO on What Ironman Training Revealed About Building Companies

Silicon Valley legend Ed Baker, CPO at WHOOP and ex growth chief at FB and Uber, is our guest on this episode of Traction.Ed helped Facebook cross one billion monthly active users, joining after scaling and selling his 25-million-user startup, Friendly, to the company.He then became VP of Product and Growth at Uber, where he set weekly trips as the north-star metric and helped take the company's valuation from $17 billion to about $70 billion during his tenure.In 2017, Ed left Uber to rebuild his health. Within six months, he transformed himself into an elite triathlete and went on to win his first Ironman. Along the way, he became deeply focused on recovery, sleep, and performance data.In this episode, Ed shares how he applies the same systems thinking to business, athletics, and life. You will learn:What does elite performance look likeHow to scale without burning outWhy recovery is a leadership advantageChoosing a north star metric for your business and your bodyUsing wearable data and AI to stay in the game longerBuilding teams that execute without destroying your healthWhether you are scaling a startup or pushing your personal limits, this conversation offers a blueprint for achieving extraordinary growth without sacrificing well-being.

February 5, 202647 min

Dr. Wayne Diesel: What World-Class Athletes Teach Entrepreneurs About Performance

What if the reason most high-performance careers end early isn’t effort, but how performance is managed over time?In this episode, Dr. Wayne Diesel, elite sports physiologist and long-time performance leader across the NBA, NFL, Premier League, and international rugby, and Ray Walia explore how founders can apply elite athlete principles to build sustainable, long-term performance.After decades inside the world’s most demanding sports organizations, Wayne has seen firsthand why even the most talented athletes break down, and why a small minority build careers that last. His work focuses on load management, recovery, mental resilience, and decision-making under pressure.Wayne has worked with championship teams and elite athletes across three continents, helping design performance systems where longevity is a requirement, not a bonus.He breaks down the exact frameworks used in elite sport to prevent burnout, manage stress, and sustain peak performance, and why founders who ignore these principles pay the price over time.Dr. Wayne Diesel- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-diesel-3012122a/

January 22, 202647 min

The Peak Performance Code: How to Use Your DNA to Work Smarter, Age Slower, and Recover Faster with Dr Matt Dawson

What if you could extend your healthspan, sharpen your focus, and increase your stress resilience by decoding your DNA?In this powerhouse episode, Dr. Matt Dawson, ER physician and early longevity pioneer turned health tech founder, and Lloyed Lobo discuss how startup founders can optimize their health span while scaling high-impact companies.After years of watching patients suffer from avoidable conditions, Matt left traditional medicine to build companies that keep people healthy before things break.He co-founded and exited Wild Health, a genomics-based performance medicine clinic, and now leads TruDiagnostic, an epigenetics company that helps people measure how fast they are aging and how to reverse it.Matt breaks down the exact systems he uses with elite athletes, founders, and high performers to engineer long-term energy, recovery, and focus. TIMESTAMPS00:00 From ER doctor to healthtech entrepreneur03:12 Why emergency medicine can't fix chronic disease04:49 Treating health as a data problem09:24 Genetics vs epigenetics13:11 Why entrepreneurs age faster than everyone else19:42 Measuring biological aging36:36 Health trends that matter vs ones that don't44:16 Top health hacks you didn't knowDr. Matt Dawson, CEO, TrueDiagnosticTrueDiagnostic: https://www.trudiagnostic.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-dawson-75196040/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trudiagnosticofficial