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The Knowledge Project

The Knowledge Project

By: Shane Parrish
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Uncovering the timeless principles that drive success.Farnam Street Media Inc. Economics Social Sciences
Episodes
  • How to Repair and Nourish Your Gut | Dr. Giulia Enders

    How to Repair and Nourish Your Gut | Dr. Giulia Enders
    Jun 23 2026
    Dr. Giulia Enders has changed the way millions of people think about the human body. As a physician, microbiome researcher, and bestselling author, she has spent years studying the surprising role the gut plays in everything from digestion and immunity to mood, sleep, metabolism, and long-term health. In this conversation, Giulia explains how your gut shapes your health, how stress quietly damages it, what ultra-processed foods are doing to you, and what your body’s been trying to tell you all along. This episode is packed with practical advice you can use right away. You’ll understand your body better and leave with a simple framework for improving your health, without complicated diets, expensive supplements, or extreme interventions. If you’ve ever wondered why you feel the way you do, this conversation is a great place to start. ------ Timestamps: (00:00) How A Thriving Gut Can Unlock Your Health (02:23) Foods to Eat to Improve Gut Health (07:57) The Link Between Your Gut and Immune System (09:28) How to Get Prebiotics in Your Food (10:22) Why Fiber is Key to a Healthy Gut (10:47) How Cooling Starches Can Help You Lose Weight (12:48) Why Fiber Reduces Your Risk of Cancer (14:13) How Sugar Causes Inflammation (15:40) Are Some Sugars Better than Others? (16:25) What Your Poop Is Telling You (17:53) Healthy vs Unhealthy Poop (20:01) How to Rebuild the Gut After Antibiotics (22:08) Warning Signs You Should See a Doctor (23:11) The Best Position for Pooping (26:26) Constipation: Causes & Solutions (28:06) Importance of Chewing (31:07) How Long Does it Take to Heal Your Gut? (34:25) Why Dopamine is Driving Your Bad Cravings (36:40) Three Things to Watch Out for on Ingredients List (36:56) Effect of Alcohol on Gut (37:55) Is Caffeine Bad for Your Gut? (39:56) Impact of Snacking on Gut and Metabolism (41:28) Do Gut Cleanses Work? (43:07) Are Supplements Worth It? (44:59) The Benefits of Walking After a Meal (49:29) The Number One Thing to Change for Better Gut Health (49:51) Why Sanitizer Isn't the Best Approach to Hygiene ------ Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------ Follow Shane Parrish: X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/shaneparrish⁠ Insta: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet/⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠ ------ Follow Dr. Giulia Enders X: https://x.com/giulia_enders Check out Dr. Giulia’s Books: Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ: https://a.co/d/0hqm72mN Organ Speak: What It Really Means to Listen to Our Bodies: https://a.co/d/07ClmNVu ------ Thank you to the sponsors for this episode: +CoinShares: Delivering Reason to Digital Asset Investing. ⁠https://coinshares.com/⁠ +Granola AI, The AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings: https://www.granola.ai/shane Check out the Granola Notes +HeyGen is a message-first AI video platform that helps people and AI agents turn ideas into professional video in minutes. Try for free at https://www.heygen.com/ +LMNT: My go-to zero sugar electrolytes — get a free LMNT Sample Pack here: DrinkLMNT.com/TKP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 mins
  • Mental Models That Change How You Think | Bill Gurley

    Mental Models That Change How You Think | Bill Gurley
    Jun 9 2026
    Bill Gurley spent years on Wall Street, built his career as a partner at Benchmark, worked through Uber’s hypergrowth era, and now serves on the board of the Santa Fe Institute, where he studies complexity and systems thinking. In this episode, Bill shares the mental models he returns to most, including systems thinking, second- and third-order effects, and the importance of understanding both the bedrock of your field and the bleeding edge. He explains what separates great founders, why storytelling and product instincts matter, how he uses AI across different models, and what he sees coming in open source, China, stablecoins, tokenization, payments, and venture capital. ------ Timestamps: (00:00) Key Mental Models (02:02) Investing Journey and Key Players (05:21) Knowing the Bedrock of the Industry (08:50) Obsessive Learning in Founders (10:04) The Silent Edge (11:44) Surprising AI Use (13:13) The Future of AI Models (14:17) Global AI Regulation (18:12) Impacts of AI on Investing (19:53) Are There Limitations on Training AI Models? (23:04) Would You Sit in the Back Seat While Your Tesla Drives? (24:15) Non-Consensus Opinions (24:53) Are We Overfunding this Buildout? (29:40) The Role of Retail Investors and Tokenization (34:26) What is a Stablecoin? (37:58) Competitive Mode: Visa and Mastercard (39:55) AI and Debt Analysis (45:05) The Craft of Storytelling and Writing (48:07) Founder Advantage: Product Instinct (50:12) Real World Lessons from Working With Uber (52:10) Inside Benchmark’s Success (59:42) What is Success for You? ------ Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------ Follow Shane Parrish: X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/shaneparrish⁠ Insta: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet/⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠ Follow Bill Gurley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgurley/ X: https://x.com/bgurley?lang=en Check out Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Thrive in a Career You Actually Love ------ Thank you to the sponsors for this episode: +CoinShares: Delivering Reason to Digital Asset Investing. ⁠https://coinshares.com/⁠ +Granola AI, The AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings: https://www.granola.ai/shane Check out the Granola Notes +HeyGen is a message-first AI video platform that helps people and AI agents turn ideas into professional video in minutes. Try for free at https://www.heygen.com/ +LMNT: My go-to zero sugar electrolytes — get a free LMNT Sample Pack here: DrinkLMNT.com/TKP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • You Don’t Need To Innovate To Be Successful | FarmVille Creator

    You Don’t Need To Innovate To Be Successful | FarmVille Creator
    Jun 2 2026
    Mark Pincus is the creator behind Farmville and Words with Friends. He built Zynga into one of the biggest gaming companies in the world and helped shape the early era of social products on the internet. In this conversation, he breaks down how great founders spot winning ideas early, why most startups build the wrong thing, and how products become part of people’s daily lives. He shares lessons from building Zynga, missing the opportunity behind social networking before Facebook took off, navigating platform risk during Zynga’s explosive growth, and rebuilding his confidence after major failures. You’ll learn how to test ideas faster, what separates products people try from products people love, how to avoid “death by compromise” as a founder, and why the best builders stay obsessed with what users actually want. + Members get the longer, extended version of this conversation, with additional content not included in the public release. Join Now. + +Pre-order Life at the Speed of Play: Launch Products People Love! ------ Timestamps: (00:00) The Principles of Great Products (01:34) How to Test if Your Idea Has "Heat" (04:02) Falling Out with His Father (06:14) Early Career Fails (09:27) The Presentation that Kicked him out of Bain (12:04) The Book of Life System for Making Strategic Decisions (17:56) Why Your Instincts are Good and Your Ideas are Bad (22:29) Copying is the Key to Great Product Design (23:22) System for Building Great Products (24:05) How to Use "Proven Better New" to Build Ideas (27:39) Why Deconstruction Leads to Better Products (29:33) All Founders Go Through This (35:14) How Zynga Changed Social Gaming (37:25) Pitching Zynga to Steve Jobs (40:36) The Fatal Mistake Founders Make (41:24) The Fight Between Peter Thiel and Sequoia (43:03) The Explosion of Farmville (45:45) Zynga's Near-Death Experience on Facebook (48:36) Why Failure Machines Reveal Your Best Ideas (49:28) The Thing that Almost Killed Words with Friends (53:05) Why the Minimum Viable Product Approach is Hurting You (54:03) Building Fast is More Important than Building Right (56:19) How Zynga Missed Their Instagram Moment (58:50) Your Company Should Be a Democratic Dictatorship (1:02:25) How to Build a Meritocracy in Your Company (1:03:44) Jeff Bezos' Invaluable Management Trick (1:05:25) Bezos Hack: Scaling Leadership with Tech Assistants ------ Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------ Follow Shane Parrish: X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/shaneparrish⁠ Insta: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet/⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠ Follow Mark Pincus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markpincus/ X: https://x.com/markpinc ------ Thank you to the sponsors for this episode: +CoinShares: Delivering Reason to Digital Asset Investing. ⁠https://coinshares.com/⁠ +Granola AI, The AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings: https://www.granola.ai/shane Check out the Granola Notes +HeyGen is a message-first AI video platform that helps people and AI agents turn ideas into professional video in minutes. Try for free at https://www.heygen.com/ +LMNT: My go-to zero sugar electrolytes — get a free LMNT Sample Pack here: DrinkLMNT.com/TKP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 10 mins
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Fantastic podcast from Shane & guests. Aways left wanting more. Highly recommended. Don’t miss out. Listen.

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