New episodes every month. Life advice that doesn’t suck by a 3x #1 NYT bestselling author. I’ve spent two decades calling out everything wrong with the self-help world: the bad science, the guru nonsense, and the advice that preys on people's insecurities. This podcast is my no-BS, research-backed answer to all of it.
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You've been told your whole life to explore, keep your options open, try new things. And you've done exactly that. Moved cities, pivoted careers, taken every personality quiz. But here's what nobody warns you about: all that freedom might be the thing keeping you stuck.
This episode digs into a depressed 19th century Danish philosopher who diagnosed our entire modern crisis 180 years before we lived it. We tell the story of Casanova, history's most famous fuckboy, who had more adventures than anyone alive and died completely alone with nothing but 2,000 pages of memories nobody believed. We break down Dan Gilbert's research on why your brain is actually better at justifying your choices than you give it credit for. We walk through Kierkegaard's three stages of commitment, from the aesthetic life of endless options to the point where commitment stops feeling like a choice at all. And we talk about the grief that nobody tells you about when you finally pick one life and let all the others go.
Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/commitment/
CHAPTERS
Chapters
00:00:00 The Paradox of Too Many Choices
00:08:16 Kierkegaard's Crisis: The Engagement He Couldn't Keep
00:22:26 Anxiety as the Dizziness of Freedom
00:43:30 The Media Environment That Makes Commitment Impossible
01:01:00 Cultural Forces Engineering Indecision
01:11:45 The Aesthetic Life: Casanova and the Trap of Endless Novelty
01:19:24 Five Predictions Kierkegaard Got Right About Modern Life
01:37:55 Why We're Biologically Wired to Keep Our Options Open
02:18:30 The Ethical Life: Learning to Choose With Your Eyes Open
02:41:20 The Cold Pool Metaphor: Why Commitment Feels Like Liberation
02:49:28 Self-Concordance: Aligning Decisions With Who You Actually Are
03:14:01 The Grief of Cutting Off Alternative Selves
03:19:17 The Religious Stage: When Commitment Becomes Absurd
03:30:00 Finding Your Calling: It Chooses You, Not the Other Way Around
03:50:26 Going Pro Before You're a Professional
03:57:10 The Leap of Faith: What It Means to Commit Religiously
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How to Get Lucky, Solved
Episode 24
Wednesday, August 5, 2026 • Duration 03:48:53
Ask most successful people how they got where they are, and the answer is usually some version of "good timing." Everyone else swears they earned it. We're terrible at seeing our own luck clearly, and even worse at realizing how much of it we could create.
In this episode, Drew and I get into why: the psychology that makes us deny luck even exists, and what changes the moment you stop pretending everything is earned.
We start with Warren Buffett - why a man worth tens of billions says the single most important thing that ever happened to him was where and when he was born. Then there's Napoleon, who picked his generals by skipping the résumé and asking one question: "Is he lucky?" And we brought in Annie Duke, a former World Series of Poker champion who’s spent more than a decade studying decision-making, to explain why we keep confusing good decisions with lucky outcomes.
There's also a stretch on survivorship bias that'll make you rethink every success story you've ever heard.
Luck comes in three layers. And the research shows you have far more say over two of them than anyone ever told you.
If you want to take the hand you were dealt and play it better, this episode is for you.
Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/luck/
CHAPTERS:
Chapters
00:00:00 Will Smith's Dad and the Luck Paradox: When Success Meets Fortune
00:02:23 Why We Avoid Thinking About Luck: The Uncomfortable Truth
00:16:13 The West's Struggle With Luck: From Greek Goddesses to Probability
00:21:05 The Three Types of Luck: Introducing the Sansai Framework
00:36:18 Heaven Luck: The Birth Lottery You Can't Control
00:40:56 The Norway vs Sierra Leone Thought Experiment: Luck Is Always Relative
00:46:20 The Farmer and the Horse: Good Luck, Bad Luck, Who Knows?
00:54:01 Gratitude as Expanding Your Frame of Reference
01:00:48 The Two Ways to Screw Up Heaven Luck
01:07:23 Napoleon: The Bullied Boy Who Mastered Earth Luck
01:09:32 Spotting High-Leverage Opportunities: Artillery and Knowledge
01:13:55 Acting Ferociously on Openings: Crossing the Alps
01:23:30 Richard Wiseman's Four Principles of Luck
01:25:26 Maximizing Opportunities and Surface Area
01:47:35 The Environment Matters More Than Personality
01:59:47 Power Laws and Game Selection: Why the Table You Choose Matters Most
02:05:19 Power Law Moments in History: Catching the Wave
02:12:50 Meet Annie Duke: Poker Champion Turned Decision Scientist
02:13:42 Why Every Decision Is Actually a Bet
02:20:15 The Marriage Bet: Choosing Under Uncertainty
02:22:08 No Decision Is Ever 100 Percent or 0 Percent
02:32:31 Resulting: Why Good Decisions Can Have Bad Outcomes
02:41:38 The Self-Serving Bias: Protecting Present You vs Future You
02:44:25 Loss Aversion: Why We're Afraid to Quit Bad Jobs
02:53:34 Making Decisions Explicit: Pre-Mortems and Forecasting
03:09:56 The Volume Approach: Why More Reps Equal Less Volatility
03:16:45 Annie's Bad Decision That Worked Out: The King-Queen Bluff
03:42:43 The Luck Paradox: Full Control Forward, Honest Reflection Backward
03:43:39 Four Practical Ways to Get Luckier Starting Today
03:47:36 Closing: When Opportunity Meets Preparation
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How to Build Confidence, Solved
Episode 24
Wednesday, July 1, 2026 • Duration 03:56:57
Confidence isn't something you build. It's what's left over. You've done the pose. Hands on hips, chest out, an affirmation on a sticky note stuck to the mirror. And then you walked into the room feeling exactly the same, or worse. Here's what nobody tells you: the entire concept of confidence you've been sold was invented by an anxious preacher in the 1940s who mistook his own coping mechanism for a universal law. The research is even uglier. Affirmations reliably make insecure people feel less secure. Visualizing success decreases motivation. The most famous confidence technique in history was built on a study of 42 people that the lead author eventually had to abandon. In this episode we trace where it all went wrong, from Norman Vincent Peale to power poses to the self-esteem movement that quietly failed a whole generation. Then we get into what actually works: a discovery made in a room full of snakes, a 2,000-year-old framework that turns out to be empirically correct, and why the sequence runs exactly backwards from everything you've been taught.
Get your free PDF guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/confidence.
CHAPTERS:
Chapters
00:00:00 CHAPTER 1: Why Confidence Advice Is Backwards
00:07:46 Norman Vincent Peale and positive thinking
00:10:44 The Peale Fallacy
00:16:09 When confidence was a sin
00:27:41 Do affirmations work?
00:31:19 Does visualization work?
00:47:01 CHAPTER 2: How Confidence Is Actually Built
00:53:59 Why confidence generalizes to the rest of your life
01:03:04 Self-efficacy and its four sources
01:09:35 The "Do Something" Principle
01:18:56 Mark's coaching story: lower the stakes
01:32:28 The case for a little delusion
01:40:25 CHAPTER 3: Confidence vs. Competence
01:46:09 Calibration and the Dunning-Kruger effect
01:51:46 Imposter Syndrome and the high-performer trap
02:02:05 The Spotlight Effect
02:04:04 Narcissism: why it gets mistaken for confidence
02:11:20 How to actually tell confidence from narcissism
02:26:56 CHAPTER 4: What the Self-Esteem Movement Got Wrong
02:30:26 Where self-esteem came from (William James)
02:44:49 Why the self-esteem movement backfired
02:54:10 How you actually build generalized confidence
03:06:52 Meta self-efficacy
03:16:20 CHAPTER 5: Is Confidence Even the Point?
03:17:02 When confidence was an insult
03:29:04 Courage over confidence
03:36:20 Facing fear: the driving-lessons experiment
03:40:23 Why pursuing confidence is the wrong goal
03:45:13 The takeaway: competence first, confidence follows
03:50:41 The 80/20 of Confidence
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How to Change Your Life, Solved
Episode 23
Wednesday, June 3, 2026 • Duration 04:58:44
If you've ever tried to change something about yourself, failed, tried again, and concluded you must just be broken, here's some good news: you're probably not broken. You've just been aiming at the wrong target for years. Who you are is actually a layered system. Most people fail at change because they treat behaviors like permanent traits and traits like behaviors they can flip overnight, spending years aiming at the wrong layer.
In this episode, Drew and I map out the full system. This is the longest and most personal episode we've ever done.
Get the free PDF episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/change/
CHAPTERS
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction: What Does It Mean to Change?
00:13:18 The Dictionary Study: How 17,953 Words Led to the Big Five
00:49:06 Why the Myers-Briggs Is Basically a Horoscope for Smart People
01:02:17 The Barnum Effect: Why We Believe Tests That Tell Us Nothing
01:20:52 The Maturity Principle: How Personality Drifts With Age
01:36:08 Layer Two: Your Adaptations Are Not Who You Are
02:25:55 Why Relationships Are Adaptation Machines
02:37:55 Layer Three: Why We Don't Do What We Know We Should Do
02:44:06 The Checklist That Saved 1,500 Lives
02:56:57 The Do Something Principle: Start With the Smallest Step
03:04:32 Environmental Design: Make the Right Thing Easier Than the Wrong Thing
03:20:18 Social Pressure, Strong Whys, and the CrossFit Effect
03:44:35 Quantum Change: The Night Josh Died
03:54:55 Values Collapse: What Actually Changes in a Quantum Change
04:17:55 Bill Wilson: The Man Who Invented AA (And Still Struggled)
04:32:00 The Messy Middle Nobody Shows You
04:50:27 Should You Even Change at All? The Three Selves
04:57:13 Final Takeaways: Pain Is a Great Teacher
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Wealthfront Details and Disclosure:
This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. Mark Manson receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage for paid endorsement in his podcast, creating a conflict of interest. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.30% on cash deposits as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If eligible for the overall boosted rate of 4.05% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period. Additional terms and conditions apply, which can be found on wealthfront.com/solved. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. Same-day withdrawal or instant payment transfers may be limited by destination institutions, daily transaction caps, and by participating entities such as Wells Fargo, the RTP® Network, and FedNow® Service. New Cash Account deposits are subject to a 2-4 day holding period before becoming available for transfer. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value.
Why We Stay in Bad Relationships, Solved
Episode 22
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 • Duration 01:42:18
Why do smart, emotionally aware people stay in relationships that are clearly destroying them? Drew and I dug into the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard marriage, to walk through the seven psychological mechanisms that quietly lock people inside bad relationships and make leaving feel impossible.
If you have ever watched someone you love stay in a relationship that is destroying them, or if you have been that person yourself, this episode will shine a lot of light on what is really going on under the hood.
Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/bad-relationships/
CHAPTERS
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction: When Smart People Stay Stuck in Bad Relationships
00:05:05 Meet Johnny Depp: From Kentucky to Captain Jack Sparrow
00:12:44 Meet Amber Heard: Growing Up in Texas and Breaking Into Hollywood
00:14:40 Mechanism #1: Normalization - The Water You Swim In
00:25:11 Mechanism #2: The Identity Trap - Filling the Void
00:40:07 Mechanism #3: The Slot Machine Effect - Addicted to Volatility
00:47:08 The Escalating Violence: From Breaking Things to Breaking Trust
00:49:58 Mechanism #4: Cognitive Dissonance - Rationalizing the Unacceptable
00:59:37 Mechanism #5: The Sunk Cost Fallacy - Throwing Good Years After Bad
01:10:00 Mechanism #6: The Guilt Cage - Blaming Yourself for Everything
01:13:52 Mechanism #7: The Terror of the Void - Learned Helplessness
01:21:38 The Legal Aftermath: When Nobody Wins
01:27:33 Practical Takeaways: How to Escape the Seven Traps
01:39:00 Final Reflections: Compassion for the Trapped
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How to Overcome Anxiety, Solved
Episode 21
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 • Duration 02:10:29
Here's the uncomfortable truth about anxiety: most of what people reach for to fix it was chosen because it feels easy, not because it works. The supplement that went viral on TikTok, the CBD gummy, the glass of wine after a hard week... they range from doing nothing to actively making things worse.
We ranked 17 of the most popular anti-anxiety interventions from the absolute worst to the number one most effective, according to the research. Along the way, we get into why alcohol is the anxiety cure that 2 billion people use that actually creates more anxiety in the long run. We talk about the UGC marketing conspiracy behind the magnesium craze. We break down the difference between harmonious and obsessive anxiety, why your brain is literally doing therapy on itself every night while you sleep (and what happens when you don't let it), and why exercise is essentially practice for being afraid. The pattern that emerges is painfully clear: everything that actually works is a lifestyle change, and everything that doesn't is a quick fix. The real question isn't which intervention is best. It's whether you're willing to be uncomfortable long enough for the right ones to work.
Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/anxiety/
CHAPTERS
Chapters
00:00:00 Welcome to Solved: Ranking 17 Anti-Anxiety Interventions
00:04:07 What Is Anxiety and Why Does It Exist?
00:07:26 The Causes of Anxiety: Genetics, Age, Trauma, and Existential Dread
00:17:34 The Bullshit Category: Why Alcohol Makes Anxiety Worse
00:26:37 Not Helping, Not Hurting: Magnesium, Journaling, and CBD
00:45:34 Digital Detoxes and Breathwork: Short-Term Relief, Not Long-Term Solutions
00:55:55 The Complicated Truth About Benzodiazepines
00:59:39 Probiotics, Yoga, and Adaptogens: The Maybe Depends Category
01:14:43 SSRIs: Effective But Probably Overprescribed
01:26:00 Psychedelics: Massive Effect Sizes But Still Early Days
01:40:01 The Top Five: Social Connection as Nervous System Regulation
01:41:58 Sleep Optimization: Your Brain Doing Therapy on Itself
01:48:20 Exercise: Training Your Body to Be Afraid and Act Anyway
01:54:09 Meditation: Changing Your Relationship to Anxious Thoughts
02:01:05 Therapy Wins: CBT's Durable Advantage and When to Stop
02:10:55 The Pattern That Emerges: Quick Fixes vs. Lifestyle Changes
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WEALTHFRONT DISCLOSURE:
This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. Mark Manson receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage for paid endorsement in his podcast, creating a conflict of interest. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.30% on cash deposits as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If eligible for the overall boosted rate of 4.05% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period. Additional terms and conditions apply, which can be found on wealthfront.com/solved. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. Same-day withdrawal or instant payment transfers may be limited by destination institutions, daily transaction caps, and by participating entities such as Wells Fargo, the RTP® Network, and FedNow® Service. New Cash Account deposits are subject to a 2-4 day holding period before becoming available for transfer. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value.
Your Questions On Manifestation, Confidence, and Getting Over Your Ex, Solved
Episode 20
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 • Duration 01:06:56
It's been one year of SOLVED. 20 episodes, 20 million downloads, 3 million YouTube subscribers, and a truly unreasonable number of poop jokes. To celebrate, I sat down with over 200 of your questions and picked the ones that hit the hardest.
We get into why most people fail at quitting addictions (hint: the problem isn't the feelings, it's that you never planned for them). I explain why, if you have ADHD and can't stop procrastinating, you need to treat yourself like a dog that shits on the carpet. We talk about the real science behind manifestation, why it sort of works but not for the reason TikTok thinks it does. I break down the difference between trait confidence and state confidence, and why "build evidence" is only half the equation. We cover how to handle panic attacks, getting over a "perfect" ex (spoiler: they're not perfect, and thinking they are is the problem), the uncomfortable truth about self-love, the difference between a boring relationship and being bored in a relationship, the purpose vs. money question, what FIRE retirees never tell you, and what I'd reincarnate as. Plus some big announcements: we're going back to the mega episode format in June, the PDF guides are returning, and our first topic is going to be how to actually change your life.
CHAPTERS
Chapters
00:00:00 One-Year Anniversary and Show Announcements
00:04:37 Overcoming Addiction and Relapse
00:08:18 Procrastination and ADHD
00:11:30 The Science of Manifestation
00:16:11 Panic Attacks, Siblings, and Getting Over a "Perfect" Ex
00:20:18 Self-Love, Gratitude, and Religion
00:27:12 Relationships, Purpose, and Money
00:36:07 Maladaptive Daydreaming, Personality, and Growing with Friends
00:39:59 Nomadic Living, FIRE Retirement, Purpose Anxiety, and Reincarnation
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Passion, Solved: Is It Really Worth Pursuing?
Episode 19
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 • Duration 02:01:46
Nearly 60% of American workers are checked out at their jobs. Meanwhile, every graduation speech in history tells you to follow your passion and you'll never work a day in your life. So which is it?
In this episode, Drew and I debate both sides. I argue for passion. He argues for practicality. And what we discover along the way is that the whole question is kind of a false dichotomy. We get into the psychology of harmonious vs. obsessive passion (and why one leads to fulfillment while the other led Kurt Cobain to write "I don't have the passion anymore" in his suicide note). We talk survivorship bias, Maslow's hierarchy, and why financial stress literally impairs your ability to think creatively. I share the story of quitting my investment bank job at 24, living on a friend's futon, and knowing within a month that I was never going back. We look at how Jane Goodall took a secretarial job and stumbled into becoming the world's preeminent primatologist. And we land on a phrase I think is way more useful than "follow your passion": develop your passion... because passion isn't something you find, it's something you grow.
Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/passion/
Chapters:
Chapters
00:00:00 The Great Debate: Passion vs. Pragmatism in Your Career
00:05:04 Round One: The Case for Passion and J.K. Rowling's Story
00:12:38 The Dark Side of Passion: Kurt Cobain and Obsessive Passion
00:23:53 Round Two: Financial Stability as the Foundation for Passion
00:38:47 The Regret Minimization Argument: Why Time Matters More Than Money
01:02:34 Round Three: Developing Passion Through Adjacent Opportunities
01:24:33 Cal Newport's Career Capital: Getting So Good They Can't Ignore You
01:32:34 Round Four: Passion Is Developed, Not Found
01:41:27 The Aptitude Reality Check: When Passion Meets Natural Ability
01:51:47 Finding the Balance: The Best of Both Worlds Approach
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Self-Help, Solved
Episode 18
Wednesday, April 1, 2026 • Duration 02:02:18
We pulled over 2,600 studies and ranked 19 of the most common self-improvement techniques across three dimensions: research quality, consistency of results, and actual effect size. Then we sorted them into four tiers: legitimately works, works sometimes, probably not helping, and straight up bullshit. Microdosing landed in the bullshit tier. Crystal healing outperformed several "serious" techniques. And the number one most effective strategy is something so stupidly simple it's almost annoying.
We also get into why everything at the bottom of the list shares one thing in common, why the middle of the list is mostly a fancy placebo, and why nearly everything at the top has been around for thousands of years.
Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/self-help/
CHAPTERS
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:02 Category 4: Bullsh*t
00:06:13 Suppressing Negative Thoughts
00:10:53 Microdosing Psychedelics
00:17:29 Intuitive Decision-Making
00:24:11 Catharsis / Venting Anger
00:27:29 Category 3: Probably Not Helping
00:27:45 Crystal Healing
00:30:11 Willpower / Ego Depletion
00:35:02 Power Posing
00:39:57 Learning Styles
00:41:18 Positive Affirmations
00:44:58 Morning Routines
00:51:37 Category 2: Works Sometimes
00:52:36 Positive Visualization
00:59:59 Energy Healing
01:09:35 Cold Water Immersion for Mental Health
01:16:53 Speed Reading
01:23:50 Category 1: Legitimately Works
01:23:54 Gratitude Interventions
01:29:45 Meditation for Stress/Anxiety
01:33:31 Eat the Frog / Hardest Task First
01:38:42 Bibliotherapy
01:47:30 Behavioral Activation
01:59:19 Conclusion
⇨ Sign up for my newsletter, Your Next Breakthrough. It will help make you a less awful person: https://go.markmanson.net/cdi1xzha
⇨ Get clarity on what actually matters. Try Purpose, Mark's AI mentor app that learns your patterns, challenges your blind spots, and helps you take action. Get started at https://go.markmanson.net/217i5ys5
FOLLOW MARK
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmanson/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IAmMarkManson
Meditation, Solved: Is It Actually Worth It?
Episode 17
Wednesday, March 18, 2026 • Duration 01:21:17
Meditation has been sold to us as a magic pill for so long that the backlash is almost as overblown as the hype. I spent years deep in Buddhist practice, went on retreats, meditated daily — and then slowly discovered that half the gurus evangelizing it were alcoholics, abusers, or running Rolls-Royce-funded cults. Here's what the more careful research actually shows: there are three things meditation does reliably well, and they’re probably not what you've been promised. More importantly, almost everything you've been told about how to do it is wrong — starting with the idea that the goal is to quiet your mind. If your brain turns into a chaotic mess the moment you close your eyes, that's not a failure. That's the whole point.
Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/meditation/
CHAPTERS
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:08:15 Skeptic Claim #1: Meditation Is Overhyped
00:22:45 Skeptic Claim #2: "Meditation Isn't for Me"
00:41:36 Meditation Isn't Safe or Helpful for Everyone
00:48:33 Skeptic Claim #3: The New-Agey, "Woo-Woo" Crowd Turns Me Off
01:01:01 A Secular, Grounded Alternative: Meditation Without Metaphysics
01:07:40 Are We Losing Something by Secularizing Meditation?
01:17:35 Conclusion: What Meditation Really Is
⇨ Sign up for my newsletter, Your Next Breakthrough. It will help make you a less awful person: https://go.markmanson.net/cdi1xzha
⇨ Get clarity on what actually matters. Try Purpose, Mark's AI mentor app that learns your patterns, challenges your blind spots, and helps you take action. Get started at https://go.markmanson.net/217i5ys5
FOLLOW MARK
Mark's IG: https://www.instagram.com/markmanson
Solved IG: https://www.instagram.com/solvedpodcast/
Twitter: https://x.com/markmanson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmanson/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IAmMarkManson
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