3 Takeaways™

Lynn Thoman
  • 4.7 (275)
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3 Takeaways™ features insights from the world’s best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, scientists and other newsmakers. Each episode ends with 3 key takeaways to help you understand the world in new ways that can benefit your life and career. Hosted by Lynn Thoman. A global top 1% podcast.

  1. Why Innocent People Plead Guilty (#286)

    7H AGO

    Why Innocent People Plead Guilty (#286)

    Federal Judge Jed Rakoff has spent decades inside the justice system - as a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and now a judge. In this conversation, he challenges how we think justice works and explains why outcomes often have little to do with guilt or innocence.

    21 min
  2. The Surprising Science of Why We Laugh (#285)

    JAN 20

    The Surprising Science of Why We Laugh (#285)

    We think laughter is a response to something funny. A joke. A punchline. A light moment. But listen closely to real conversations, and laughter shows up in places that are far more important than we realize - and often when nothing is funny at all. Neuroscientist Sophie Scott CBE reveals what laughter really signals, how it works, and why it quietly shapes our relationships, our hierarchies, and our sense of belonging. Sophie Scott is a professor at University College London and one of the world’s leading researchers on the science of laughter.

    20 min
  3. A Smarter, More Hopeful Future of Work - If We Get Artificial Intelligence Right (#284)

    JAN 13

    A Smarter, More Hopeful Future of Work - If We Get Artificial Intelligence Right (#284)

    Elon Musk and Geoffrey Hinton warn of an AI-driven job apocalypse. MIT’s David Autor, one of the world’s leading thinkers on how technology reshapes work, says the real danger lies somewhere else. The biggest risk of AI isn’t mass unemployment - it’s whether human skills and expertise will still matter. David explains how AI could expand middle-class opportunity by lowering barriers to high-value work, why past technologies created more new jobs than they destroyed, and what we need to get right to make this moment a hopeful one.

    21 min
  4. Presidential Power: How It Grows and What Comes Next (#283)

    JAN 6

    Presidential Power: How It Grows and What Comes Next (#283)

    Jack Goldsmith, who once ran the Justice Department office that advises presidents on what they can and can’t legally do, takes on some of the hardest questions about the limits of the president’s power — from changing the government to the use of military force abroad, including the invasion of Venezuela. Drawing on his experience inside the executive branch, he looks at why the limits on presidential power are more fragile than they appear, how precedent quietly expands executive authority, and what that means for the future of the presidency.

    25 min
  5. Why Most New Year’s Resolutions Fail by March - and the Science of What Actually Works (#282)

    12/30/2025

    Why Most New Year’s Resolutions Fail by March - and the Science of What Actually Works (#282)

    Most people quit their New Year's resolutions by March. The reason why might surprise you. University of Chicago professor Ayelet Fishbach has spent decades studying why we fail at goals. Her finding: willpower is overrated. What matters is something entirely different. In this episode, Fishbach reveals what actually separates those who succeed from those who quit and the strategies that make goals stick.

    17 min
  6. Highlights of 2025 (#281)

    12/23/2025

    Highlights of 2025 (#281)

    Some insights change how you see the world. From the White House to the frontiers of AI drug discovery, we’ve gathered the most powerful moments from a year of extraordinary conversations.  This 2025 highlights episode brings you the thinkers and leaders who challenged assumptions, revealed hidden patterns, and reframed the biggest questions of our time.  - Mark Buchanan (Physicist): The hidden patterns behind catastrophes from wildfires to stock market crashes - Cass Sunstein (Harvard Law Professor): What Facebook’s emotional manipulation experiment really revealed - Susan Magsamen (Johns Hopkins): How your everyday environment is quietly reshaping your brain - Jake Sullivan (U.S. National Security Advisor): What surprised him most about Xi and Putin - Admiral James Stavridis (Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander): Navigating the China challenge - Jon Gray (President, Blackstone): The real key to career success (it’s not what you think) - Bonnie Hammer (Former Vice Chair, NBCUniversal): Redefining what “having it all” really means - Christine Rosen (American Enterprise Institute): The hidden costs of a screen-mediated life - Zanny Minton-Beddoes (Editor-in-Chief, The Economist): American polarization through foreign eyes - David Brooks (New York Times columnist): The mistake people make when they turn to politics - Craig Mundie (Former Microsoft Chief Strategist): AI’s biggest unsolved problem - Dr. David Agus (Founding CEO Ellison Medical Institute): How AI is changing drug discovery - Laura Carstensen (Stanford Center on Longevity): What she wishes people understood about aging - Thomas Chatterton Williams (Author): Moving beyond racial identity These are the conversations that expanded minds in 2025.

    33 min
  7. Dr. David Agus on The Hopeful Science of a Longer, Healthier Life (#280)

    12/16/2025

    Dr. David Agus on The Hopeful Science of a Longer, Healthier Life (#280)

    Dr. David Agus, Professor of Medicine and Engineering at the University of Southern California and Founding CEO of the Ellison Medical Institute, treats presidents, CEOs and cultural icons and has spent decades studying one question: What determines how long and well we live? His answer is hopeful: Only 4% is genetic. The other 96% is under your control. In this episode, he reveals why elephants rarely get cancer, why giraffes never get heart disease, and what inflammation does to nearly every organ in your body. He also shares the simple, proven habits that matter more than DNA, and destroys the myths quietly harming millions. Science-backed. Actionable. Hopeful. He is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, including The Book of Animal Secrets, The Lucky Years and The End of Illness.

    24 min
  8. What US Ambassador to China Nick Burns Saw That Terrified Him (#279)

    12/09/2025

    What US Ambassador to China Nick Burns Saw That Terrified Him (#279)

    Nicholas Burns spent 2021 to 2025 in Beijing as US Ambassador to China, witnessing up close the forces shaping the world's most dangerous rivalry. Sitting across from Xi Jinping and living in China, he saw firsthand how dangerously close the world is to a crisis. Some of it genuinely terrified him. Our conventional wisdom about China? Outdated. And dangerously wrong. In this episode, he reveals the alarming "nightmare scenario" almost no one is talking about, why a single unanswered phone call could spark disaster, and what we're getting wrong about China and what China is getting wrong about us. All from someone who lived it.

    24 min
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About

3 Takeaways™ features insights from the world’s best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, scientists and other newsmakers. Each episode ends with 3 key takeaways to help you understand the world in new ways that can benefit your life and career. Hosted by Lynn Thoman. A global top 1% podcast.

Information

  • Creator
    Lynn Thoman
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    287
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 3 Takeaways™
  • Show Website
    3 Takeaways™

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