Surprise Me, Joel Podcast
Imagine an unpredictable audio porch where Joel slings stories, facilitates conversations, and conjures up experiments to help you make friends with people, possibilities, and ideas.
One day he's teaching you how to bring people together or think differently about everyday life to restore some faith in humanity. And then he's exploring lovely ways to redefine the status quo or decode one of life's mysteries so you can focus on what's most important.
Surprise Me, Joel is like a curiosity club for doers and thoughtful dreamers. Expect long thoughts, short sparks, and strange delights. Oh, and a healthy dose of practices you can run in your street, car seat, or spreadsheet.
Hear for Yourself
Easy Ways to Subscribe
Imagine an unpredictable audio porch where Joel slings stories, facilitates conversations, and conjures up experiments to help you make friends with people, possibilities, and ideas. One day he's teaching you how to bring people together or think differently about everyday life to restore some faith in humanity. And then he's exploring lovely ways to redefine the status quo or decode one of life's mysteries so you can focus on what's most important. Surprise Me, Joel is like a curiosity club for doers and thoughtful dreamers. Expect long thoughts, short sparks, and strange delights. Oh, and a healthy dose of practices you can run in your street, car seat, or spreadsheet.
My Original Podcast: Smart and Simple Matters
Looking for my original podcast, Smart and Simple Matters?
Go here to explore it and step into the time machine of our culture and my life.
SMJ Archive (Newest First)
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When Craft Paper Dreams Become Real Life with Emilie Wapnick – SMJ 005
Joel and Emilie Wapnick – champions of multipotentialites everywhere – wander through a conversation about trusting your intuition, designing an intentional life with a partner, and the tricky art of parenting without pushing too hard. From island life and quests sketched on craft paper to the fear of being discredited for believing in astrology or…
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Belonging, Honesty, and the Art of Radical Peopling with Becca Campbell – SMJ 004
Joel and Becca Campbell get into the deep end fast and swim without the backpack. They explore how building a life around your brain's actual design – not a borrowed one – unlocks honesty, evolving relationships, and joy in the smallest things. The goo in the meat sack has never been more relatable.
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Bring It In: How to Give a Great Hug – SMJ 003
What if the handshake is a dominance ritual and the hug is the antidote? Joel breaks down the energetics, mechanics, and cultural context of giving truly great hugs in 15 surprisingly nuanced tips. From the five-second rule to the one last squeeze, this episode might just change how you wrap your arms around the world.
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Rocks, Frogs, and the Flexible Mind with Ryan Nicodemus – SMJ 002
What if there are no objective truths, no real rules, and the most radical thing you can do is just stay open? Ryan Nicodemus joins Joel for a deeply personal conversation to explore forgiveness, the concept of formlessness, why everyone is doing the best they can, fear versus love, and why emotions – unlike apples…
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Be Beautifully Boring with Charlie Gilkey – SMJ 001
After a seven-year hiatus, Joel Zaslofsky returns to podcasting with a longtime friend, Charlie Gilkey, for an unscripted, wide-ranging conversation. They cover Charlie's evolution from “do epic shit” to “be beautifully boring,” navigating chronic illness, creative constipation, grief, holding gratitude amid global chaos, and the real trick to thriving through life's in-between seasons.
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Lighting the Fuse – SMJ 000
Imagine an unpredictable audio porch where I sling stories, facilitate connections, and whip up experiments to help you make friends with people, possibilities, and ideas. That's the lovely promise with Surprise Me, Joel.