The Ryan Meetup group has nearly 2,000 members whose common bond is simple: their first name! David sits down with founders Ryan Rose, Ryan Cousins, and Ryan Le to hear the amazing origin story of these three partners spreading the Ryan gospel.

An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Community Building

Jun 7th, 2023 37m 14s

Before he was a co-founder of General Assembly and founder of Common co-living spaces, Brad Hargreaves was a Meetup organizer hosting tech events in New York. In this conversation with David Siegel, a legendary entrepreneur talks about how he’s

Change Your Negative Thought Patterns

May 24th, 2023 35m 41s

Aldwyn Altuney’s path took her from a rebellious teen who ran away from home to a world-class journalist working with major news organizations on multiple continents. Her latest effort is Good News Day, a campaign to change the tone of the cont

How to Grow from Traumatic Experiences

May 10th, 2023 37m 9s

Amnoni Myers has persevered through addiction, abuse, abandonment, homelessness, and the many difficulties of the foster care system to become an author and nationally recognized child welfare advocate. Her success story (recounted in the new m

Platonic Longing: Make the Friends You Want

Apr 26th, 2023 41m 20s

Kat Vellos is a certified connections coach and the author (plus illustrator!) of We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships. She and David sit down to discuss why platonic relationships between adults are so important

How to Turn Off Your Inner Critic

Apr 12th, 2023 38m 15s

Tara Schuster was Vice President of Talent and Development at Comedy Central, and much of her identity and self-esteem was founded on that Emmy and Peabody Award-winning work. But when she was laid off during the pandemic, a severe identity cri

How to Make Your Own Luck

Mar 29th, 2023 34m 21s

Bakari Akil is a self-described scrappy entrepreneur bridging the gap between the corporate world and homegrown success stories. He’s also the organizer of two Meetup groups. His first, the Alternative Investment Club, has more than 5,000 membe

Listen Up: How to Build Rapport

Mar 15th, 2023 42m 30s

Ximena Vengoechea listens for a living, as an expert in UX Research for Pinterest, and previously for Twitter and LinkedIn. She is also the author of Listen Like You Mean It: Reclaiming the Lost Art of True Connection. Her book is a practical a

How to Prioritize Fulfillment

Mar 1st, 2023 33m 38s

Less than one year ago, Anthony Paul moved from Brooklyn to the Boston area without a single previous social connection. Today, he’s the organizer of the Cambridge "Finer Things" Culture Club, a Meetup group with more than 760 members! Anthony

The Skill of Adult Friendship

Feb 15th, 2023 37m 46s

Dr. Marisa G. Franco is a psychologist, an interdisciplinary professor at the University of Maryland, and a top writer on Psychology Today. In her new best-selling book, Platonic, she shares her expertise in the subtle art and social science of

What Being Loyal to Yourself Means

Feb 1st, 2023 39m 56s

Dr. Rick Hanson is a renowned psychologist and a New York Times best-selling author of several books, translated into over 30 languages with more than a million copies sold worldwide. His latest work, Making Great Relationships, shares the wisd

Life Advice to Take on Your Next Stroll

Jan 18th, 2023 34m 57s

Ann Marie Rakovic and David first met on an eight-mile walk she organized through Meetup. Today they sit down to talk about the transformative power of her group, Central Park NYC Ever Walk, and “the collective effervescence” that springs natur

Practicing Happiness with Jewel

Jan 4th, 2023 41m 57s

Before becoming the world famous singer-songwriter, Jewel was a teen in rural Alaska surrounded by people in pain. Performing in bars with her father, she became acutely aware of the unhealthy ways people deal with their emotions. After leaving

Busting Myths about Introverts

Dec 21st, 2022 43m 58s

Brenda Bea grew up being described as “shy” and “quiet.” In her adult life, she’s owned her identity as an introvert, and helped many other women do the same as an organizer of Introverted Girlfriends of Dallas & Surrounding Cities. This Introv

Embracing Our Differences

Dec 7th, 2022 42m 55s

Known as the Renaissance Rabbi, Dovid Cohen is a spiritual leader, lawyer, therapist, writer, public speaker, and part of an organization that services individuals with special needs throughout the United States. In the course of these many rol

Sowing the Seeds of Joy

Nov 23rd, 2022 47m 28s

Monique Rhodes was adopted into a difficult situation in New Zealand. By her early teens she was quite depressed, and at 19 years old hit rock bottom when she attempted to take her own life. Since then, she’s been on a journey of resilience and

The Power of Introductions

Nov 9th, 2022 38m 8s

From investment banker, to four-time CFO, to operating partner at a top venture capital firm, to board of directors member, to lecturer at Stanford University—Jeff Epstein has done it all. Over the years, his experience, contacts, and willingne

Why Happiness Needs Gratitude

Oct 26th, 2022 44m 11s

Andrew Horn is the co-founder and CEO of Tribute, a company that has been called “Hallmark 2.0” because its modern technology is keeping the old tradition of showing appreciation alive. With nearly 6 million collaborative videos created, Tribut

The Underrated Power of Thinking Big

Oct 12th, 2022 51m 42s

JeVon McCormick has a success story for the ages. The son of an orphaned sex worker and a drug dealer, JeVon grew up poor in the 1970s without reliable access to food, water, and electricity. Experiencing an identity crisis and lack of belongin

A New Chapter of Friendship

Sep 28th, 2022 32m 26s

Alysia Allen is the founder of Mocha Girls Read, a Meetup book club that began with 12 women in Inglewood, California, and now has more than 10,000 members across the United States in 14 cities and two virtual communities. 11 years ago, Alysia

Deepening Connections by Walking

Sep 14th, 2022 42m 19s

Jonathon Stalls spent 242 days walking from the coast of Delaware to the Pacific Ocean. He is also the founder of Walk2Connect - Mile High Ramblers Chapter, a decade-old Meetup group that has linked more than 3,250 members through the spiritual

Intentional Talking & Radical Listening

Aug 31st, 2022 46m 42s

Ken Tucker, the “conversation and relationship expert,” is a Fortune 500 strategist, international speaker, and CEO of the management consulting firm KTA Solutions. As if that weren’t enough, Ken is also the best-selling author of six books on

Using the Agile Approach at Work

Aug 17th, 2022 38m 45s

John Cass is an innovator. 20 years ago, he was on the ground floor of blogging as a marketing tool. In 2001, when he got interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), few of his colleagues knew what he was talking about. A cutting-edge marke

Trust: the Crucial Community Ingredient with Seth Besmertnik

Aug 3rd, 2022 43m 24s

Seth Besmertnik is the CEO of Conductor, an organic marketing and SEO platform. As two CEOs of former WeWork companies, Seth and David sit down to discuss their lived experiences as CEOs working in similar conditions. Seth has developed a leade

An Introverted Bookworm Builds Community

Jul 20th, 2022 34m 21s

Audrey Heller is the founder of The Novel Tourists of Philadelphia, a Meetup book club for adventurers. She attended her first-ever Meetup event one lonely New Year’s Day and had an incredibly heartwarming experience. Ten years later, when she