2 Pages with MBS By cover art

2 Pages with MBS

By: Michael Bungay Stanier
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  • Summary

  • Discover the best bits of the best books read by people you admire. Michael Bungay Stanier hosts the podcast where brilliant people read the best two pages of a favourite book. Listen as authors, leaders, activists, academics, celebrities, and entrepreneurs dig in with MBS to explore the insights and ideas within. Whether it’s books that inspire leadership, change, self-development and growth, power, strategy, ambition, productivity, or creativity and innovation - this is hand-curated wisdom from people who know. These are the books that change minds, shape lives, and inspire great work and worthy goals.
    2021
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Episodes
  • 194. From the Vault: The Light and the Dark of a Hungry Heart: W. David Ball [reads] ‘Ulysses’

    194. From the Vault: The Light and the Dark of a Hungry Heart: W. David Ball [reads] ‘Ulysses’
    Jun 4 2024
    Today, we're pulling one of our best episodes from the vaults, featuring the brilliant W. David Ball. Get book links and resources at http://2pageswithmbs.com and subscribe to the 2 Pages newsletter at https://2pageswithmbs.substack.com. Where do you find your people? I think I’m still looking for mine, and perhaps you are, too. What often happens is there’s an initial rough sort where you get thrown in with others who have similar labels - but that’s just the start of it. It’s up to you to find your people amongst everyone. I realized that I keep looking for people who make me both think and laugh, meaning I need to seek them out to give them the opportunity to do so. Of course, sometimes your people don’t actually need to be found, they need to be rediscovered; they’re already there, waiting for you to reach out to them and say hello. Today’s guest is a law professor with articles published in the Columbia Law Review, Yale Law & Policy Review, the American Journal of Criminal Law, and many more. His full name is W. David Ball, but I know him as my friend Dave, someone I met when we were newly minted Rhodes scholars at Oxford in the early 1990s. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ Dave reads the poem, ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. [reading begins at 16:45] Hear us discuss: “I’d decided that I was going to be me, because there’s no way I could fake that.” [9:25] | How to keep your artistic spirit alive: “The essence of creativity is being in touch with who you are, what you want to say to others, and how other people have moved you.” [11:48] | The process of keeping an open heart in your closest relationships. [24:20] | Sitting with ambition (as a Rhodes scholar). [28:13] | Work in the criminal legal system: “I have calluses - not in the sense where I don’t feel, but where my skin isn’t being burnt off.” [33:01]
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    49 mins
  • 193. How to be Radically Generous: Vicki Saunders [reads] "Astonishing the Gods" by Ben Okri

    193. How to be Radically Generous: Vicki Saunders [reads] "Astonishing the Gods" by Ben Okri
    May 21 2024
    Vicki is the “Founding Activator” of Coralus, a venture capital company with a unique approach to reimagining the world of entrepreneurship. With a background in social entrepreneurship and a deep commitment to radical generosity, Vicki is a highly hopeful and optimistic individual who is dedicated to making a positive impact on the world. Get book links and resources at http://2pageswithmbs.com and subscribe to the 2 Pages newsletter at https://2pageswithmbs.substack.com. Vicki Saunders reads from "Astonishing the Gods" by Ben Okri. [reading begins at 18:40] Hear us discuss: “I can feel myself being pulled two ways because definitely things are atomizing. Content is coming in shorter and shorter clips. Even paragraphs are shrinking. Shrinking, just like my attention.” [00:00] | "I just don't understand why we… make money, and then give it away to make things better, to solve the crappy things that we did when we made money." [03:04] | “How much energy is this taking? Is it actually creating any impact? And so at some point in the last 30 years, I was like, you know, changing the system is not why I'm here. It's to build a new one.” [11:05] | “How do we want to be together and live together? How do we want to be with one another, to witness each other's gifts, and to share ours with others in this act of reciprocity?” [21:15] | "Dreaming is a muscle. Courage is a muscle. You need to work it, stress it, be kind to it. That's how muscle grows. That's how muscle stays healthy." [37:07]
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    40 mins
  • 192. Learn Faster, Learn Better: Scott Young, Author of “Get Better at Anything” [reads] "The Principles of Teaching Based on Psychology" by Edward Thorndike

    192. Learn Faster, Learn Better: Scott Young, Author of “Get Better at Anything” [reads] "The Principles of Teaching Based on Psychology" by Edward Thorndike
    May 7 2024
    Scott is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, a podcast host, computer programmer, and an avid reader. He’s also an autodidact, who spends his time teaching people how to learn. Scott is the author of “Ultralearning” and “Get Better at Anything,” and he has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. Get book links and resources at http://2pageswithmbs.com and subscribe to the 2 Pages newsletter at https://2pageswithmbs.substack.com. Scott reads two pages from “The Principles of Teaching Based on Psychology” by Edward Thorndike. [reading begins at 20:30] Hear us discuss: "Mastery is a journey that diverts and separates individuals, leading them towards their unique style, voice, and signature move." [01:58] | "The mind is made of specific building blocks, not broad faculties." [26:14] | "The road to improvement is long but sure." [30:26] | "The mysteriousness of talent is that when you get someone who is a real skilled practitioner, they often can't even articulate what the building blocks are." [43:27] | "I feel I'm hungry to find more gaps, not fewer." [44:56]
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    48 mins
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