The Courageous Podcast with Ryan Berman

Ania Smith learned early that you can’t control everything that happens to you, but you can be intentional about what you do next. After moving from Poland to South Dakota at 12 without speaking English, she developed a curiosity and adaptability that would eventually take her to companies including Airbnb, Uber Eats, Walmart, and now Taskrabbit, where she serves as CEO. In t...

Everyone wants change to be easier. Ryan Berman thinks that's exactly the wrong goal. In this solo episode, Ryan challenges the growing belief that transformation should be effortless and makes the case that the strongest teams don't avoid friction—they create the right kind of it. Ryan explains why hard conversations are the real starting point of change, why leaders should ...

Elle McCarthy is drawn to transformation. It's the thread that connects everything she does, from challenging outdated ways of thinking to helping some of the world's biggest brands—including Ford, PayPal, EA, and now McAfee—reinvent themselves from the inside out. In this conversation with Ryan, Elle shares why real change starts by getting people to believe in what's possib...

Adam Markel has built his career around helping people navigate change, but lately he's been asking a bigger question: what if the real challenge isn't changing ourselves, but changing the systems we work in every day? After years advising Fortune 500 companies and studying resilience, Adam has become convinced that culture isn't a byproduct of leadership—it's the reason orga...

Helen Calcraft believes the best creative work can't exist without joy. At a time when fear, AI, and constant change are reshaping the advertising industry, the co-founder of Lucky Generals joins Ryan for a thoughtful conversation about what leaders can do to protect creativity instead of stifling it. Together, they explore why saying no is sometimes the most important decisi...