{"podcast":{"title":"Is This Working?!","slug":"is-this-working-7581836","podcast_index_feed_id":7581836,"rss_url":"https://rss2.flightcast.com/wbxvf8vgyotuwkiuw1711u1r.xml","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://files.flightcast.com/workspaces/tv31t1erpjv2lb9jp39i59ra/01KCWAXQJ3EJEHSVQ63PH27KW8/final_square_cover__1_.jpg","author":"Connor Diemand-Yauman","episode_count":19,"summary":"What if the most interesting thing about work isn’t what we do—but what it does to us? Is This Working?! dives into meaningful work and the messy humans who do it. As AI reshapes industries and upends old definitions of success, social entrepreneur and Stanford GSB lecturer Connor Diemand-Yauman talks with extraordinary people about both sides of the story: the outer work (what they built, how they pivoted, the tactics that actually worked) and the inner work(the therapy, the doubt, the failure) it took to get there. Because when the world is changing this fast, maybe these stories are the only way to know if any of this is actually working.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-24T12:18:39.044702+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836"},"episode":{"title":"The Overachiever’s Guide To Effective Communication  - Stanford's Matt Abrahams","slug":"the-overachiever-s-guide-to-effective-communication-stanford-s-matt-abrahams","published_at":"2026-03-11T09:27:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836/the-overachiever-s-guide-to-effective-communication-stanford-s-matt-abrahams","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836","url":"https://episode.flightcast.com/01KKCR4VQ4R5FPJN3E4KQ4G1BW.mp3","audio_url":"https://episode.flightcast.com/01KKCR4VQ4R5FPJN3E4KQ4G1BW.mp3","summary":"Matt Abrahams teaches Stanford’s Essentials of Strategic Communication, the university’s most popular communication course. His “Think Fast. Talk Smart” talks and podcast have earned over 80 million views and listens. And the first thing he told us is that the instinct to get it perfect is the exact thing making us worse. Not just at presentations. At everything. Meetings, hard conversations, even arguments with your partner about toothpaste. (He'll explain that one.) This is also a special episode: Connor is joined by his co-founder and co-CEO of Merit America, Rebecca Taber Staehelin. Matt coaches them both live through a high-stakes all-hands that almost went sideways and feedback that made Rebecca rethink how she'd been communicating for years. They also get into what to do when your mind goes completely blank in front of your team, a trick that kills fights with your partner before they start, and why most of the time we think someone didn't listen to us — the real problem is we never checked if they understood. Check out Matt’s podcast and books here: https://www.fastersmarter.io/. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro — Be interested, not interesting 00:07:17 Polished vs. authentic 00:09:59 Being spontaneous is a skill you can practice 00:12:22 Martial arts, breathing, and being present 00:14:40 Repetition, reflection, and feedback — The only way to improve 00:18:06 The toothpaste fight and the zero-to-ten scale 00:23:55 Managing high-stakes anxiety 00:29:30 Why mistakes make you human 00:36:15 Don't assume they'll connect the dots 00:37:57 Wrap-up — Think faster, talk smarter","meta_description":"Matt Abrahams teaches Stanford’s Essentials of Strategic Communication, the university’s most popular communication course. His “Think Fast. Talk Smart” t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2390,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/is-this-working-7581836/episodes/the-overachiever-s-guide-to-effective-communication-stanford-s-matt-abrahams/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836/the-overachiever-s-guide-to-effective-communication-stanford-s-matt-abrahams.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}