Why don't people celebrate their birthday?

Why don't people celebrate their birthday?

In a society where we’re not having enough fun, birthdays feel like a layup. They come around every year, they’re personal, they’re a reason to get together and celebrate someone you care about. So why do so many of us act like they’re no big deal? In this episode Simon, Maria Van Buskirk and Biz Anderson dig into why birthdays can make people uncomfortable, why we don’t like talking about ourselves and why we still secretly want people to make a fuss. From the pressure of planning to the fear of seeming self-involved, the group tries to crack what’s getting in the way of bigger, better birthdays. Give it a listen!

How do we improve networking?

Networking is responsible for countless jobs, partnerships, friendships, and business opportunities. It’s also one of the most universally disliked activities in professional life. Why does something so valuable feel so terrible? Ahead of their first trip to Cannes Lions, Jesse, Simon, and Romain attempt to redesign networking from the ground up: from debate-club panels and no-phoned allowed hot-take sessions to banning the question “What do you do?” Can they crack networking in an hour?

What happened to dressing up?

The global athleisure market is on its way to $900 billion. Formal wear? About $4 billion. Comfort won. But at what cost? This week, Romain brings the problem: how do you get people to dress up again? What starts as a data drop (enclothed cognition, productivity hits, one in twelve remote workers in pajamas every single day) turns into a deeper conversation about confidence, identity, and why "formal wear" might just be the worst two words in fashion. Simon's plotting a suit phase. Jesse won't budge (but she has found a jacket with beaded Minions on it). And somewhere between rebranding formal wear as "intelligent wear," the case for fashion-as-rebellion, and a truly compelling argument for wearing a cane in Cannes, the crew lands on something worth cracking: what does formal wear look like when it actually starts a conversation? Check it out!

Don't be tardy for the party!...Or maybe do.

Being late seems like one of those small everyday annoyances, but it turns out there’s a lot more going on under the surface. On this episode Simon brings the topic of lateness to Romain and Biz, and the gang gets into the strange ripple effects of people not showing up on time. When is being late understandable? When is it unacceptable? Why does it bother us so much? And what would it actually take to make people stop doing it? A surprisingly big conversation about a seemingly small problem. Check it out!

3 Problems: Cooking, email and plane boarding.

We're back with only our second-ever lightning round — three hosts, three problems, 20 minutes each. Nobody knows what's coming. Jesse kicks things off asking why we can't get more people to start cooking. Romain admits cooking stresses him out (it's the time pressure, not the talent), Simon reveals a rampant cocaine addiction — which, for the record, is just Romain mishearing "cooking" — and we land on a surprisingly solid framework: ditch the perfectionism, remove the steps you hate, and just make the one-pot meal. Then Romain brings the problem that literally started this whole podcast — the one we've been sitting on since a cold, wet night in Boston in January 2025. Why has nobody solved plane boarding? We go deep on window-to-aisle loading, the overhead bin chaos nobody enforces, why Southwest actually had it right all along, and Jesse's bold pitch to give everyone a boarding score. Simon closes it out with a big one: fixing email. Is it even fixable, or is it just a war of agents vs. agents from here on out? We pitch important.com, mailer.com, and garbage.com as the holy trinity of a better inbox — and somehow that feels like the most reasonable solution we've heard anywhere. Check it out!