Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth®

Alan Weiss
  • 4.8 (4)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED DAILY

Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.

  1. Curling

    2D AGO

    Curling

    SHOW NOTES: The winter Olympics had a boring opening ceremony except for Andrea Bocelli. Some of the events seem duplicative, especially figure skating and skiing. Some seem like efforts to avoid death or injury, and not just competing—skeleton, luge, giant slalom, ski jumping, distance skiing. Skiing in ruts is rather boring, and then the women collapsing over the finishing line and gasping for air is frightening. The giant slalom hits about 85 MPH. Luge and skeleton runs are between 80 and 100 MPH. On the ice, men are tossing women around who have knives attached to their feet. The French judge in figure skating obviously downgraded the American and inflated the French scores so that the latter pairs won. That judge has been known to have done this throughout the last year. Now onto curling, which is a game played with stones and brooms, has suffered cheating accusations for the Canadians “double touching” the stone on launch. After a profane, long outburst by the accused, slow reply showed he, indeed, did commit the infraction. In a manner of speaking he “gave them the finger” before tongue lashing them with obscenities. So much for the Olympic spirit. (And for Canadians being nice people.) At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Canadian curlers Marc Kennedy and Rachel Homan were accused of "double-touching" (illegally touching a stone after its initial release) in separate matches. Sweden's Oskar Eriksson initiated the allegation against Kennedy on Feb. 13, while officials flagged Homan on Feb. 14. Curling is basically the same as shuffleboard, which older people play in retirement villages, or bocce which specifically older Italian people play on dirt. Then there’s the cousin, English Lawn Bowls, which I’ve never been able to finish watching without falling asleep. Johnny Weir, the former Olympic figure skater and NBC commentator, is renowned for his highly, flamboyant, and gender-neutral fashion choices while broadcasting, often featuring makeup, jewelry, and avant-garde, designer clothing. He and Sarah Lapinsky are worth the time spent watching people jump around on ice. Yes, it is true that the Olympic Village at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games ran out of free condoms within the first three days, according to reports in La Stampa and The Guardian. Approximately 10,000 contraceptives for about 2,900 athletes were depleted quickly, prompting emergency restocking due to higher-than-expected demand. Now THAT’S the competitive spirit!

    6 min
  2. Reverse Bucket List

    FEB 12

    Reverse Bucket List

    SHOW NOTES: Maybe you have this "bucket list" thing all wrong, where you can never fulfill your expectations. Here's a distinctly contrarian view.

    8 min
  3. Toxicity

    FEB 5

    Toxicity

    SHOW NOTES: • Suddenly we have “toxic workplaces” (and need “psychological safety” and have “unhoused” people and “food insecure people). • We try to wallpaper over real problems with euphemisms and ideologically-biased language. • Can you have a “toxic workplace” without toxic employees? Chicken and egg? • On social media we see complete nonsense such as “52% of all workplaces are toxic,” which is preposterous and without any valid study. • Can we have so many successful businesses with such malicious management? • I’ve witnessed the opposite: Leadership doing its best to deal with underperforming and entitled employees. • The story of Burlington Industries and Bill Klopman. • If people want to do the job but don’t know how, they need skills training. • If people don’t want to do the job even if they do know how, they need coaching (attitude adjustment). If they still refuse to do it, they need firing. • It’s an entitled age, and people demand certain treatments and conditions that please them, but may not please others, and don’t help the business or its customers. • My work at the post office. • “Toxic” often means “I’m asked to do too much, to meet deadlines, to fulfill commitments.” • There are, of course, bad bosses, and hungry people and homeless people. Let’s not conflate the truly bad with those who are merely discontents. • I have to conclude here, I feel “food insecure” so I’m going out for lunch, which would make me, for the moment, “unhoused.”

    5 min
  4. The Schism

    JAN 29

    The Schism

    SHOW NOTES: • Parents and kids were united in what was watched, experiences, and enjoyed in the early 50s. Gunsmoke, Soupy Sales, MASH, Bonanza, Sink the Bismark. • Then came Dick Clark and American Bandstand. • The 60s saw the Beatles, Sex/Drugs/Rock and Roll. • Viet Nam and campus occupations. • A man on the moon. • Assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King. • Woodstock. • The Cuban Missile Crisis. • The Schism has evolved into polarization. • We don't trust each other anymore. • We feel entitled. (You can't give an activist enough, ever.) • What can unite? Comedy, trust, tolerance, art, forgiveness? • Unlike climate change, which is highly existential, this is immediate and grave. This is a threat that we need to handle now. • The alternative is chaos.

    5 min
  5. Perfectionism

    JAN 22

    Perfectionism

    SHOW NOTES: • The point is to live with imperfection. • Free of mistakes, we’re free of critique and ridicule is false • Perfectionism leads to huge stress • It’s a fictitious expectation (dining, travel, relationships, etc.) • We think it protects us, but it ruins us • It’s based on the fear of being imperfect—and human!! • Engage in vulnerable conversations and actitivies • Accept results of a task that are “OK” • My wife’s formula for long-term marriages • Perfectionism assumes control you don’t have • Why I don’t guarantee my results • Strong esteem nullifies perfectionism • Self-compassion, the same sensitivity you’d offer others • My “therapy” of trains and models • Small “chunks” of change, not mammoth ones • At extremes we have OCD • Experience rather than orchestrate • Ironically, caused by not feeling worthy or good about yourself • The critical distinction between efficacy and self-worth

    7 min
  6. Character

    JAN 15

    Character

    SHOW NOTES: • Defined as moral and mental qualities; strengths and reputation. • It’s a matter of self-worth, or esteem, of personal dignity. • Also a matter of our willingness to help others, to have an abundance and not a scarcity mentality. • It’s a quiet confidence, not braggadocio. • It’s legitimate and earned, not bogus or borrowed. • The lessons of the Ritz-Carlton. • It’s also with whom we choose to spend our time. • It’s refusing to cheat at golf but trying to cheat in football. • There is the issue of cause and not blame. • There is innate respect for others and not envy or acrimony. • You give back the mistaken, excess change. • Entire cultures can lack character. • The ongoing struggle of politicians to remain in power undermines character. • Yet this is an age of obfuscation, of mistrust, of deep fakes and phony news. • Thinking peoples with opposing views are somehow morally inferior is reflective of poor character. • Intolerance is an absence of character. • “Character” is also about occupying a role, being performative. • Are you real, or just playing a character in your own illusion of reality?

    6 min
  7. Mama!!!

    JAN 8

    Mama!!!

    SHOW NOTES: Did people whine as much years ago as they do now? They won't let me succeed at my job. They won't hire me anywhere else. Maybe "toxic workplaces" are caused by toxic employees? Maybe terrible bosses are just leaders expecting employees to meet deadlines and fulfill assignments? The fault is with the "Boomers" or GenX because they took advantage, they led great lives, and left nothing for us! Nothing but a healthier, safer world and the last decade of constantly improved living standards. I'm not valued! Maybe because you don't create much value and you don't make it visible. Take some accountability, and stop immersing yourself in the internet for that good old confirmation bias from other people who don't take initiative. If you're unhappy in your job, change it or leave it. There's plenty of work out there that pays well, isn't threatened by AI, but does require responsibility and ownership. But just stop whining, stop yelling for your Mama. It ain't your mother's fault.

    2 min
  8. Happy New Year

    JAN 1

    Happy New Year

    SHOW NOTES: New Year celebrations date back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, where the festival of Akitu marked the new year around the spring equinox with religious rituals, debt-paying promises (early resolutions), and kingly renewals. Early civilizations linked it to agricultural cycles, like Egyptians with the Nile's flood. The Roman calendar, shifted to January 1st by Julius Caesar, became the basis for our Gregorian calendar, solidifying the date, though many cultures still celebrate at different times (Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah). The Babylonians made promises to their gods during a 12-day Akitu festival (their new year in March) to repay debts and return borrowed items for good fortune, a practice later adopted and adapted by the Romans and evolving into today's personal goal-setting tradition for self-improvement and a fresh start. New Year's Eve celebrations became huge in Times Square starting in 1904, when The New York Times hosted a massive fireworks party for its new building, drawing 200,000 people; the iconic ball drop tradition began three years later in 1907, replacing fireworks and cementing the event as a beloved annual spectacle, as reported by The New York Times Company and Times Square. Make a single resolution, not scores which will not be realized and lead to disappointment and self-doubt. Start it now, today, not some future date. Don’t regret the past or dread the future. Live for today, every day. You can’t change the past and the future will here before you know it. And remember most, perhaps, that all of us deal with trauma and pain of varying types. Pain is inevitable in life, but suffering is voluntary. So mourn your loss, endure the pain, but stop suffering and enjoy the wonderful life of existence. It beats the hell out of the alternative. Happy New Year! (blow a horn)

    3 min
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About

Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.

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