When this podcast was first launched in 2018, the very first guest was Whole Foods Market CEO and co-founder John Mackey. In that episode, we talked about his book Conscious Capitalism. Well, John has a new book out now, Conscious Leadership, and to commemorate our 50th episode, he rejoins the podcast for a second conversation and rest assured, John does not disappoint.

Have you ever wondered what makes the most successful inventors tick and whether you could develop more of those traits? That exactly what NYU business school professor Melissa Schilling thinks about all the time. And it’s the subject of her riveting book, Quirky.

Father Greg started Homeboy Industries, an organization that would soon become the single largest gang rehabilitation program on earth, largely focused on job training as well as actually creating companies that would hire former gang members wanting to reenter society as productive individuals. Homeboy Industries now runs nine different companies employing 500 people, from a bakery to a silkscreen enterprise to a restaurant at LAX and even one in LA’s City Hall where, yes, former gang members serve elected officials and their staff.

As a student, John Mackey was an idealistic hippie who worked in a vegetarian co-op while studying religion and philosophy. He never took a business class during his whole academic career. In other words, he wasn’t exactly the guy people would’ve placed bets on to become a businessman, let alone one who’d launch a natural foods empire called Whole Foods Market that would get purchased by Amazon for $14 billion. (Note: John long ago stopped taking a salary and even donated all of his Whole Foods stock, so he didn’t see a penny of the sale.)