Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth® Podcast By Alan Weiss cover art

Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth®

Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth®

By: Alan Weiss
Listen for free

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.All rights reserved Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Toxicity

    Toxicity
    Feb 5 2026
    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.”
    Show more Show less
    5 mins
  • The Schism

    The Schism
    Jan 29 2026
    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.
    Show more Show less
    5 mins
  • Perfectionism

    Perfectionism
    Jan 22 2026
    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
    Show more Show less
    7 mins
No reviews yet