More Human Than Ever: Summer Special 2026

Every August, I offer you something different. Not a new conversation, but a pause. 

This was the year AI stopped being a headline and became part of our daily lives as leaders. I dedicated a whole series to it, from robotics to education to medicine to trust. And one paradox kept coming back, conversation after conversation: the more powerful the technology becomes, the more the difference is made by what is deeply, irreducibly human. 

So for this summer special I went back through the season and selected seven moments around one conviction. This era demands that we show up with our humanity at its best. More human than ever. 

We explore four powers together. 

→ Power one, prepare your mind. Ethan Kross on chatter, the voice inside your head, and the toolbox to master it. The brain does not come with a user's manual, so you build your own. 

→ Power two, own your story. Nicholas Thompson on recognising the generational patterns he inherited, and Raj Sisodia on why trauma cannot heal in silence and in shame. Know yourself, love yourself, be yourself. 

→ Power three, magnify your purpose with AI. Stéphane Bancel on why the CEO has to be the chief AI officer and must not delegate it, and MacKenzie Price on the school where children learn academics in two hours a day. 

→ Power four, keep humans at the center. Rana el Kaliouby on emotional intelligence and privacy by principle, and Raffi Krikorian on the hardest question of all: who owns your window to the world? 

I close with four lessons, one per power, and one practice I want to leave you with for the summer. I call it the summer walk. Fifteen minutes a day, no phone, no podcast, not even mine. Just you and four questions. 

Pick one tool, one idea from this episode, and practice it before September. 

Thank you for listening, for your messages and your ideas for guests. This community of positive leaders across so many countries is what keeps this podcast alive and growing. If this episode resonates, share it with one person who needs a spark this summer. 

I will see you in early September with a brand new season. 

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