Strategic Implications of an AI Age.
Image via MidJourney
What is strategy?
Strategy is Future Competitive Advantage.
What will the future look like? What will people need and expect? How will demographics, technology and other global shifts create new competitors or recharge current competitors and how will categories blur, blend and maybe even disappear?
Amidst these new expectations and changing competitive dynamics what advantage does a company offer? A differentiated or better product? A competitive moat of network effects, scale or some other dynamic? A better experience?
Many companies underestimate the exponential impact of technology and they also make the cardinal mistake of defining their category and competitive set looking backward versus forward.
One example among many is the auto category which defined the key drivers of their category in ways that did not see a Tesla or an Uber or a BYD for years after they began to scale. How could software be as, if not more, important than hardware? How could electric be better than internal combustion engines? Do most people need the expense of owning cars or do they just need access to mobility?
Image via Pete Blackshaw
Strategy in an AI Age.
Companies today make the mistake of working on an AI strategy rather than asking how AI will impact every element of their strategy and business model.
AI is like electricity. Every competitor will have access to it and just like electricity is not a differentiator for companies neither will AI.
At this stage a few things appear to be clear:
1) AI is exponentially increasing its capability at speeds never seen. The AI we have today is the worst it will be and is likely to be twice as powerful within months.
2) In data and logic areas such as mathematics it has far surpassed human intelligence.
3) In areas such as medicine, a combination of AI and biotech will truly change the contours of human health before the end of this decade.
4) The workplace will now have three forms of producers. Raw AI or Alien Intelligence. Agentic AI or replicants. And Humans. All markets and workplaces will combine and need to engage with Aliens, Replicants and Humans.
5) The world of media and marketing will see three dramatic shifts which will need every firm to question their brand, data and communication strategy and investments to date.
a) The three current interfaces of streaming, scrolling and searching will be supplemented and soon dominated by the interface of conversation. This conversation will not just be between companies and their replicants (agents) but customers and customers agents. The conversations will involve information sharing, transactions, real time customization and pricing and much more.
b) Every company will need to revisit its data strategy and possibly write off many of their investments: For years companies leveraged data to find the right person at the right time in the right place. This was plumbing. Now the key will be to ensure the right interactions and messages are sequenced in the right order. This is the poetry. The future is plumbing and poetry. In addition the conversations between consumers and their agents and a firm and their agents reveal much more about real time preferences and interests than much of the so called valuable first and second party data that companies have bought and hoarded. People are spending much more time with their answer engines than their search engines and the data is far richer, deeper and emotional.
c) Brands will continue to matter but they will be architected and re-enforced differently: My friend and colleague Pete Blackshaw just published a book called “The Answer Economy” and also writes a great Substack with the same name. He reminds us that in this age, visibility, vulnerability and readiness matter a great deal more than many other metrics of marketing. Read this amazing overview in which Pete summarizes the key issues that many top business leaders recently discussed at The Athena Project’s Third Annual Salon at Boston Consulting Group. A ten minute read that will put you and your firm ahead of the curve!
Image via MidJourney
Key Strategic Implications.
1) AI is less about technology and more about talent and organizational design: AI is like hydrochloric acid that burns through an organizational structure . AI focuses on outcomes and does not care about the silos and processes. Companies have to realize that AI is less about technology and more about people, power, politics and partnering! Messy stuff that is not solved through an AI partnership or a press release or nonsense about how one is replacing people with AI.
2) AI is about existential opportunities and risks: Every company should leverage the efficiencies and effectiveness that AI enables. But they are unlikely to provide any sustainable strategic advantage since every company will be leveraging the same AI to gain the same results.
The real opportunities and risks are to re-imagine one’s business model. This is because AI means consumers and customers now have superpowers, behave differently and have different expectations. In addition the competitive landscape has changed with AI first or new business model companies without legacy structures or tech debt convincing companies to rethink their existing partnerships, suppliers and vendors.
If strategy is future competitive advantage and the competition and the consumer/customer expectation have changed due to AI why are firms applying AI to their current strategies vs re-imagining their strategies?
An example of a company that re-imagined its business for the previous revolution (analog to digital age) is the New York Times. It did not just find ways to use digital to cut the costs of gaining subscriptions or distributing the print paper but instead re-architected the future of a primarily local (New York) , print driven, news focused company into a global, multi-media, life-style company with news!
3) Margin will need to come from new ways to differentiate: Story-telling, communication, big budgets, wide distribution and many of the levers of generating revenue and growth will still matter but diminish in a world of individuals as media companies, consumers with superpowers, agentic/replicant transactions and interactions plus the rise of conversation as interface.
4) Talent/Humans will be key: For every dollar companies allocate to AI they will have to allocate as much to attracting, retaining, and upgrading talent. It is unlikely in a fast moving and highly competitive AI world that a tech moat will stand for long. Rather it will be in re-imagining of organizations, re-wiring processes, innovating new markets and inventing new ways to build brands and revenue. There may be fewer people in some organizations as they are supplemented by AI but many companies will use AI to grow into new businesses while leveraging talent in new ways. We will see an increase in revenue per human but that does not mean fewer humans.
A Book of Life.
Credit: Creative Commons
Earlier this week friend Thomas Stat (more on Tom at end of post) sent me a piece of writing which I am sharing here with his permission. Hope you find it as moving as I did:
A Book of Life.
His were the well-worn hands of a farmer whose retirement was a 10-hour day in the fields rather than leisurely walks in the park with his grandchildren. Thickly calloused, muscled, and tan, these were hands that had baled wagon upon wagon of hay, birthed dozens of calves, and changed more than a few stubborn old tractor tires in the searing heat of the summer sun.
One hand gently, but firmly, clutched a pair of small leather address books. The other held a pen taken from an Iowa City Holiday Inn. The two books were identical in every way except for their age and condition. Both leather-bound, one was new and polished with the manufacturer’s band still holding it together, its pages yet to be exposed to daylight. The other was as worn and cracked as the farmer’s hands, much of the leather reduced to a powdery-orange, except for the binding, which was smooth and dark, polished with the oil of a thousand handlings.
My seatmate on that flight from Dallas to Chicago, a man visibly nearing 90, perched his hands prayer-like on the seat-back tray he had extended before take-off. He was poised to get to work with a clear mission in his eye, an obvious task at hand, and nothing but time between getting started and his goal. Only by accident did I catch his eye and gain a quick tip of his head and a subdued smile as he maintained his focus, staring straight ahead and waiting to start work.
There are still those people in their later years, who almost religiously refuse to abandon the analog world of handwritten address books for the modern affordances of a cloud-based contact file. I suppose there’s comfort to be found in tangible and tactile permanence. The physical relationship between names and pages instills a calming confidence that some computer virus, hacker, or hard drive crash is loathed to steal away. Ink and paper create a physical permanence in your connections and friendships.
Real relationships. Real paper. Real ink. Real people.
But now, having obviously run out of pages in the 60 or so years since he started entering his friends and family in this frayed and tattered book, it was clear this man was planning to launch a new chapter, a next chapter, not his last chapter. Despite his age, he planned to start, or in some way build on the past, an entirely new book of connections, of friendships, of life. The daunting task ahead was simply to transcribe every name, every address, and every telephone number from that old book to the new one.
Old friends were being given a new lease on life.
Despite the unfortunate constraints of occupying the middle seat next to me, he was well prepared and well supplied. It was a job the man was obviously looking forward to. His only interruptions were the flight attendant reminding him to raise his tray before take-off and his wife sitting next to him, deeply engrossed in needle point. I readied my laptop for some long overdue digital correspondence, planning to boot up my more modern connection to friends and family once we reached the proper altitude.
The familiar “ding” of the seat belt sign going off signaled we were now “free to move about the cabin,” a sound that was quickly followed by a cacophony of laptops booting up throughout the plane. I casually glanced over as my farmer seatmate lowered his seat tray again, carefully removed the label band from the new book, and gently opened his address book relic, being careful not to lose a page or further crack the binding. While most of the gold-gilded and alphabetical divider pages were flaked and dull, he easily found “A.” It was hard not to stare.
I could not look away. As far as I could tell, his friend, “Benjamin Alpers,” had moved at least 6 times. His street names, phone numbers, and the names of his three wives and 10 kids had been written over, crossed out, erased, and squeezed between lines in ink and pencil, almost to the point of illegibility. “Robert and Ruth Andrews” came next. They seemed to have settled down in Des Moines after a stint on an Air Force base somewhere in Guam. Every new entry, every scratched-out change and correction told a rich story that no computer or cell phone contact file system could ever hope to capture. Old entries were now so clouded by edits, erasures, and new entries that they were almost impossible to read. His task became even more daunting as he reached for the pen, opened the new book to itsproper place, and looked intently at the first two blank pages.
Through the rush of cabin air, endless clicking keyboards, and crying babies, I could hear my neighbor let out an impossibly long and disturbing sigh. He pushed the new book aside, slowly placed his pen on the seat tray, and leaned back as if readying himself to hear some bad news or read a Bible. I couldn’t stop staring at the drama unfolding next to me. I was mesmerized by his focus, his angst, and his challenge.
For over two hours, the man slowly read every name in his old book as if carefully sampling and relishing a vintage wine or playing an old family movie for the hundredth time. He paused to delve into every change and the detailed memories of every friend and family member he had honored and kept track of in his book of life. Not a page went by where the man didn’t come to a full stop, conjure up the life ofone of his friends and then, as slowly and respectfully as possible, gently draw a line though an entire name, sometimes redrawing the same line a dozen times with honor and grief. This was not merely an act of deletion, but a moment of true grief and mourning. Every page found the man deeply remembering a long-lost army buddy, a forgotten neighbor, the seed-corn dealer he once scared thewits out of with a well-outfitted scarecrow, or that distant relative who reliably kept in touch throughtheir impossibly tortuous annual Christmas letter.
When the pilot announced to prepare for landing, the man had made it up to “Joe Jackson.” He leaned over to ask his wife if she remembered or had heard anything from Joe. She whispered something softly and my seatmate reluctantly penned yet another line through Joe’s name and address. With pages and pages to go, my seat mate had yet to enter one name in his new leather book.
His face was pained with exhaustion, as if he’d attended a dozen funerals. As he raised his seat tray and stowed his pen away in an ink-stained shirt pocket, I could sense his frustration at not being able tofinish, let alone start what he had planned to accomplish on our flight.
I looked at this man and felt sorry for him at first. So many friends, so few left, so little time. My sorrow quickly turned to delight when I realized how blessed he’d been to have so many names in his book of life and all the rich stories behind every single entry.
As seatmates often do at the end of a flight, as we gathered up our belongings and crowded the aisle, the man stretched out his leathered hand to me and, with one of the warmest smiles and warmest handshake imaginable, looked me straight in the eye and said, “my name’s Weston Briggs, young man. What’s yours?”
About Thomas Stat
Tom is an innovation strategist and experience designer with a background in aerospace engineering, behavioral science, architecture, fine arts, and business. After his leadership roles in architecture industry, Tom co-led the Chicago office of IDEO, one of the world’s premier innovation consultancies. Throughout his career, he has contributed to the conception and development of new-to-the-world products, services, environments, and experiences in a wide range of industries including technology, healthcare, education, food and beverage, transportation, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, financial services, consumer packaged goods, hospitality, consumer electronics, real estate, and the performing arts. He holds 11 U.S. patents.
Tom actively collaborates with clients through his independent consulting company, 11 Consulting Group and is an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management, where he teaches a class in “Innovation Strategy” focused on the power of empathy, curiosity, optimism, courage, and persistence in making the world a better place.
He is an investor and advisor to a novel news app called “Beacon,” is curating a book of photography called “Looking,” actively journals his observation of people, writes fictional news articles depicting alternative futures, is in the early concept stage of “Goddard” a movie focused on the father of the space age, and is contemplating a book on what he believes to be the world’s principal problem - zero-sum game thinking.
Make Time Count.
Photo by Rishad Tobaccowala
Life is a journey through time in search of meaning.
A definition of success is the ability to spend time in the way that gives one joy.
To understand what is important before it is too late.
Some ways to make the most of one’s time:
1. Eliminate: Many of us recognizing the limitations of time tend to try to do as much as possible. We multitask and run around in a frenzy. Usually all we achieve is more multi-tasking and more frenzy. Doing more stuff is not the same as achievement.
Activity is not productivity. Showing how busy one is does not indicate much other than we have lost control of time.
2. Focus: The key to doing less is to focus. Here are two filters to help one decide what we should focus on.
a) Comparative Advantage: One should spend our time doing things that we can do better than most people. Some focus areas are easy like being a spouse or a parent, since by definition we should be able to do this better than other folks.
However, for many of the errands we run and the assignments we take on at work, it is important to ask if we consider outsourcing or delegating to a person or colleague who is better than us in getting that task or expertise delivered.
Today increasingly that may be an agentic collaborator.
b) Positive Outcome: We should only do things which give us a positive outcome. Either we 1) earn a financial reward, 2) learn something new, 3) help someone else ( sometimes this is a difficult and hard but it creates a positive outcome for another person) or 4) the experience itself feels good.
If it is not at least one or more ideally a combination of these four outcomes why are we doing it?
3. Scale: We can scale ourselves and our impact and therefore have a great impact with our time. Two ways to do this is to use “leverage” and “momentum”.
Much of what we do as white-collar workers are the 4Cs: create, cogitate, communicate and convince. Basically with a few exceptions our success is based in large part on how we operate as creators and sculptors of ideas and points of view.
a) Leverage: Today technology and scheduling allow people to leverage. We can use social media, good writing and speaking skills to reach many people that we need to communicate and convince. We are not limited to small meetings and groups. Today one can move between continents with the flick of a button.
b) Momentum: The trend is our friend. We need to understand the underlying trends that are driving our firm or our business and, in most cases align with it.
Globalization is here to stay even if the flavor has moved from a US dominated to a multi-polar world. AI is unstoppable given the power of open models which are not under the control of any company. Dario may hope to close the gates but the cow has left the barn. Most countries have declining and aging populations.
Similarly when we focus on changing the culture of our firm or correct a relationship it is key to aware of the difficulty, the time and the setbacks we will face and the multi-year persistence that will be needed.
4. Do new things. Tattoo the moment: While the first three behaviors of elimination, focus and scale are logic driven, this one is more emotion based.
In the movie “Into the Wild”, there is a line about how the core of existence are new experiences. Often what we remember, and which slows time and delivers depth of feeling are new experiences. These do not just have to be travels, new relationships or new jobs but could be as simple as walking down a new street, eating at a new place and going to a new cultural event. If there is a way to tattoo the moment into your memory we should try too.
“The business of life is the acquisition of memories. That is all there is.”
5. Give time to others: One of the best ways to use our time is to use it not on ourselves but on others.
To feel better focus on making others feel and get better.
Nothing is as rewarding as helping other people, mentoring younger people, paying attention to those who cannot help or give us much in material or career gain.
A key is to forget about oneself in our time equation. It is in the giving and not the getting, in the helping and nurturing, that many people find the deepest joy.
Respect other people’s time. A big gift is to give people our undivided attention.
6. Be aware of time: If we think not of the lack of time but the beauty of time, we will find that the time we spend is magical.
Life does not have to be lived forward and understood backward if we decide to pay attention.
Be aware of the fading moments of now.
Look around. Watch the special quality of light or listen to the hiss of the air duct.
Treasure the conversations and even the repetition and lack of differentiation of day after day.
Because one day it will not be so…
And in the end, it is the time that we do not measure is the most meaningful of all.
One Single Thing.
Imagine some of the most talented people in the world with a $150 million dollar budget who create a work which fails to clear $10 million in its first weekend despite being exhibited on 3,000 screens.
Most people call it a failure and a sign of hubris.
Digger is actually very good because it is so audacious in risk taking.
It is like nothing one has seen before even if there are strains of everything one has seen before from Wes Anderson to Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove.
It is amazing to behold since so few artists give everything they have to a work.
This was a movie that did not involvE focus group testing, a/b optimization or a multitude of meetings second guessing every move. Just a bunch of amazing talent giving it everything they have.
Acts of madness forged “Apocalypse Now” from Francis Ford Coppola and in time despite the mixed reviews and the deplorable box-office this will be a movie that will age well.
If you can go see it in a theater do so.
What Makes Great Leaders?
Across time, nations and industries the best long-term leaders have exhibited the same six characteristics:
1. Resilient Effort: There is no substitute for hard work. Talent matters but is not enough. Hard work, focus and persistence are what makes for success. They never “call it in”. Tim Ferris and all those books of 4-hour workweeks and stuff are fantasies. If one want to do well, one has to work one’s butt off. Period.
Even if one is wickedly smart.
When we see people we admire do things effortlessly, it is because they have practiced, continuously iterated, and learned. As a result they have sculpted intellectual and emotional muscles that now make their performance second nature.
The effort is also sustained.
They are relentless and constantly resurrecting after setbacks.
2. Growth Mindset: The best leaders are perpetual students constantly growing utilizing three tactics:
a) Exploration: They explore new areas outside their category knowing that the future of their industry is likely to come from outside of it. They seek guides and experts to help them navigate what they do not know. They travel to meet start-ups and to different nations to understand other perspectives and new approaches.
b) Engaging provocateurs/ jesters: Often it is only the clown that can convey the truth to the Crown. Rather than have “yes women and men” chant about the greatness of the dear leader they retain challengers and people who question them.
If they wanted somebody to reflect what they say, they know it is far more cost effective to replace a senior manager with a full-length mirror.
c) Setting aside time for learning: Their calendars have time set aside to learn. Usually they are prolific readers and intensely curious. As Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, notes they display a “learn it all” mindset versus a “know it all” mindset.
3. Integrity and Trust: Integrity is when what one says, what one believes and what one does are aligned.
Integrity is a way of doing. It is a behaviour.
And one does not build a reputation for integrity without principles and sticking to them even if it is inconvenient to a career.
Build reputation by speaking truth to power if appropriate.
Sometimes this may mean going against the grain and what is majority opinion.
By being fearless and calling things out (politely, calmly and often with humor) versus bending the knee to the powerful, the moneyed and the in-fashion.
Among the best compliments one can get is that one is a person of their word.
Integrity is the bank that prints trust.
Trust is the critical currency in business and relationships.
Trust is a way one is perceived. It is a feeling.
Trust is speed because it removes friction and accelerates decision making and risk taking.
If trusted as a leader, our colleagues, our partners, and our investors are open to being innovative, taking risks, moving fast, speaking up, and continuously improving.
Outside of a few cases, leaders give trust to those who work with them till proved wrong rather than get them to earn trust. Trust is often earned and kept by showing the data one is using, being clear about one’s intent and goals and being transparent about the decision making process.
4. Accessibility: Regardless of how powerful or famous or busy they are, leaders find ways for people to get to them easily and feel safe and free to speak what is on their mind and in their hearts.
Whether it be a student, a startup, someone who sounds like a nitwit with a crazy idea, they know it is important to find time to meet these folks. They are wary of over relying on a bevy of executive assistants to filter and shoo away people. To grow it is essential to meet new people, to listen, and to be available.
They encourage people to challenge them. They work to be respected and admired, not feared.
5. Stewardship: Leaders recognize that success is due to those around them.
The talent that delivers the products and services which they need to attract, retain and cultivate by giving them opportunities to build and grow their skills, reputation and wealth.
They recognize that the company they lead is bigger and greater than them. There were leaders before and there will be leaders after. Great leaders never believe they are the company.
They focus on the ensuring the long term success of their customers.
Leaders recognize that it is about others first and not them first.
6. Results: One does not stay a leader without delivering a spectrum of results.
Financial results are a key but they are built on other key deliverables including insights, ideas and imagination to re-think one’s business and help customers re-invent theirs.
The best leaders do not just keep their companies up to date but up to tomorrow and here is why a growth mindset becomes key.
Just as is the reputation for integrity, trust and stewardship since the only way to get from here to there often is convincing investors, customers and talent to go to a new world which feels risky, scary and often lacks clarity.
One Single Thing.
Every picture tells a story…
© Paula Hornickel: Waltraud × Navel Emma
If/Then
All we need is less?
If all we needed is less.
Then why would we pursue more?
All the frenzy of movement and meetings and much more remind one of William Wordsworth …
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers
Among the best if not the single best book on wealth is Morgan Housel’s “Psychology of Wealth”. If you have not read it you are truly missing out on a combination of wealth and life wisdom written with such a fusion of intelligence, insight, illumination and inspiration that you are unlikely to look at money, finance and wealth in the same way ever again.
There are many many lessons and practical applications in the book but a key underlying message is simply one word.
Enough.
Here is one story:
“At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.” Enough. I was stunned by the simple eloquence of that word—stunned for two reasons: first, because I have been given so much in my own life and, second, because Joseph Heller couldn’t have been more accurate. For a critical element of our society, including many of the wealthiest and most powerful among us, there seems to be no limit today on what enough entails.”
― Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money
And if you need less or can make do with enough you may be able to pursue the dream rather than funding your a lifestyle or pursuing a number.
We should not allow ourselves to be priced out of our dreams.
The Importance of Speed.
If speed is indeed a competitive weapon and moving fast provides one an edge in hyper fluctuating and reacting markets.
Then why do companies not push for espresso action rather than have every decision lovingly percolated like at high tea or Japanese tea ceremony? Months pass between sending a Request for Proposal (RFP), receiving responses and an actual decision being made. Where more time and money is spent evaluating a decision than if the decision had been made and market reaction gauged, and a program adapted with real world data to determine its viability.
The Cost of Differentiated Inputs.
If there is abundant evidence that the difference in productivity and impact between an excellent talent and an average talent can be 10x in knowledge industries because AI provides amazing leverage. That many leaders understanding this justify significant multiples in compensation for their top talent versus that of the average worker.
Then why is then focus of many an organization is to zero base budget costs and find the lowest priced suppliers to whom they can pay the least in the slowest way possible way. This approach may impact who is placed on their business, the attention it gets and the quality of suppliers who might work with the firm.
Indeed , if one believes an hour of input is an hour of input one would also buy meat in volume since after all there is no difference in what part of the cow is purchased since the hoof should have the same quality as Kobe beef !
It’s the quality of the archer not the cost of the arrows that is the point of difference in an AI age.
The Importance of Time.
If one has 75 years of a physically healthy life. Someone in their mid-forties therefore has less than 10,000 days left and someone turning 60 is dwindling down to less than 5000.
Then why is time is taken for granted? By us or by others. When people ask for time for no or little compensation (earning, learning or joy of helping) they are advertising their disrespect while whispering sweet nothings!
When one delays, procrastinates, dithers, and lingers. Or accepts procrastination, dithering and lingering.
All we are losing and paying with is our life.
Walk away from those who suck the time of your life for paltry promises. Most will panic when you do!
The definition of Success.
If the definition of success is to have the freedom to spend time in the way that gives one joy? This joy is often accompanied by a sense of flow when deeply immersed in doing, a feeling of grace and serenity when feeling as one with all around and often excitement and ecstasy of pleasurable pursuits.
Then living in other people’s minds trying to ensure they think highly of us makes little sense.
As does focusing the plumbing and process of life and forgetting the poetry and passion.
Watching the scoreboard and losing track of the ball.
One Single Thing.
The power of HUMAN Story telling
The Moth is a global storytelling nonprofit. Their mission is to inspire people to listen and share openly, think and feel deeply, and expand their understanding of one another.
Founded in 1997 by novelist George Dawes Green, The Moth was inspired by sultry evenings of storytelling in Green’s native Georgia– nights when moths were drawn to the porch light as friends gathered to share true stories. What began in George Plimoton’ds NYC living room quickly grew into a phenomenon, spreading to larger venues throughout the city.
Today, The Moth has presented more than 70,000 true stories — told live and without notes — across 11 countries and 4 continents, in grand theaters, cozy community spaces, prisons, hospitals, and even a graveyard. Through workshops for students, educators, adults, advocates, and professionals, it guided thousands of new storytellers each year in finding and crafting their own stories.
Live shows are at the heart of The Moth. With over 600 shows annually, ranging from open-mic StorySLAMS to curated Mainstage touring shows, they have featured stories by Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth Gilbert, Hanif Abdurraqib, Rachel Dratch, Padma Lakshmi, Mike Birbiglia, Brittney Cooper, Tig Notaro, an astronaut, a pickpocket, a voodoo priestess, a hotdog eating champion, and thousands more.
Most people first encounter the stories through the Peabody Award-winning show, The Moth Radio Hour, which airs on over 540 public radio stations nationwide, and The Moth Podcast, which is downloaded by tens of millions of listeners annually.
The Moth is also a publishing home for stories. They published five critically acclaimed books — four best-of anthologies and the New York Times bestseller How to Tell a Story — as well as a storytelling card deck, and most recently its first guided journal, My Life in Stories (Clarkson Potter, 2026).
Check it out.