THE PLANK WAVE HITS LAND: The Power of Gabi Ury By Michael Schulder May 2, 2014 The Wave that began right here on Michael Schulder’s WaveMaker on March 27th, what I…
HOW (AND WHY) TO JOIN THE PLANK WAVE By Michael Schulder April 8, 2014 I am asking you to join what I have named The Plank Wave. The proof of its…
The Plank Wave “The Performance Enhancing Edition” By Michael Schulder April 2, 2014 Oh, to begin a Wave with a strong breeze. That’s what is happening right now with The Plank Wave.…
The PLANK Wave Part 1 By Michael Schulder March 27, 2014 I’ve never asked anyone to get down on the floor before reading one of my stories. But I suggest that you…
I can’t tell you how old my mother would have been today, on her birthday, if she were still alive. She would not have wanted me to share that detail. My mother…
Valentine’s Day: The Gift of the Pause I thought I had come up with the best Valentine’s Day Gift ever earlier this week when I wrote The Gift of the Magic Ratio. …
I’m always trying to figure out original ways to make special holidays happy occasions for my wife. That’s just the kind of husband I am. Often I think of these original happiness-inducing…
As the Seattle Seahawks were holding their official Super Bowl Victory celebration this morning I was celebrating my own victoy. Super Bowl 2014 proved that I am not a Monday Morning Quarterback.…
Please join my campaign to make this Super Bowl Sunday “Center Awareness Day.” I ask for your support because of how many people are not aware that the Center is the most…
Image Credit: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater The Best Super Bowl Half-Time Show Ever I’m beginning a campaign to reshape the Super Bowl Half Time show for 2015. I like Bruno Mars, and…
Image Credit: William Brawley When yesterday’s Atlanta snowfall turned my carpool ride home with 4 children from a 25 minute cruise into a 5-hour crawl, my son brought up his current literature…
The indignity! While Michelle Obama was celebrating her 50th birthday this weekend, she was unceremoniously kicked out of a club. It’s a big money club – a major driver of American culture.…
Sam Berns 1996-2014 Sam was a boy with an old man’s face, an old man’s body, an old man’s diseases, and a young man’s ambition, drive and dreams. Sam is still,…
THE LOVE GENE On July 19th, during a heat wave, the author David Epstein texted me that he’d just gotten back from his morning run and was ready to talk about setting…
For nearly 30 years I have wanted to sit down and have a conversation with Elie Wiesel. I finally got my opportunity a few weeks ago, on the eve of the 20th…
He signed Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, Alicia Keys, Patti Smith, to name a few. He tells me: “I didn’t specialize… I approached music just being open to what moved me.”
As a child raised in a strict Baptist community, he was directed, with a red leather Bible in hand, to find lost souls and save them. Some upbringing for one of the great horror film directors.
Barbara Arrowsmith spent the first 26 years of her life unable to read a clock. She spent the first 26 years of her life having to read and reread sentences dozens of…
Dear Fellow Parents: When Geoffrey Fletcher was about 13 years old his father sat down beside him to teach him about F-stops on a camera. F-stops help determine how much light gets…
I think I hit the jackpot when I sat down with Wendy Williams for this CNN Profile. She may be Exhibit A in the case I’ve been building since I turned 50…
This conversation with The Chopra Brothers, who took very different paths in medicine, begins with a physician in India who had amazing ears: Their father.
Once a success, always a success. You know who said that? Nobody. At least nobody I know of. Often when we see a great success, whether it’s an individual like Steve Jobs,…
I have just spoken to one of the most influential women in the fashion world. I tried to unlock the mystery of how she decides which designers should make the cut.…
Dear Fellow Parents who are worried about what college their children will get into and, after those children graduate from college, what will become of them in their professional and personal lives.…
Dr. Sanjay Gupta was talking about the signature injury of the Boston Massacre last night on CNN: the limb wounds that have led to amputations. He explained how some survivors still face…
There’s an old quote from Mister Rogers that has been circulating on Facebook since the Boston Marathon bombings. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news”…
CNN’s founder reveals the backstory of how he became an Eco-Capitalist – redefining his bottom line. Plus, Turner the Classics lover recites a poem about a Roman soldier that inspires his approach to leadership.
Sixteen-year-old Elie Wiesel in second row, seventh from left, days after his liberation from Buchenwald. Editor’s Note: Today marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was Elie…
How many executives does it take to make an executive decision? As many as possible. I just made that joke up as I thought about what I learned from our guest this…
by Michael Schulder Think of an executive you can’t imagine saying no to. Not the kind of executive who elicits the yes through fear or leverage or deference to the job title.…
Before you click play on our conversation with best-selling author Jodi Picoult, ask yourself this: Would you forgive Ieng Sary? I never heard of Ieng Sary either until I stumbled upon his…
When the CNN Profiles guest booking producers recommended we interview Emily Bazelon about her new book on bullying I was reluctant. Sure, Bazelon is a household name to those of us who…
Tyrese tells me how he “dreamed beyond the reality I was living in.” Rev Run, a founding father of Hip Hop, shares how his highest moment became his lowest. Both have something to teach us.
How a child with leg braces grew up to become a dancer, choreographer, and the Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Have you seen the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild? If you have, I believe you will emerge with a question: What was real and what was imagined? There is no simple…
Way before Matchmaker.com, and eHarmony, and J-Date, in the days before 21st century computer technology – when mobile meant the fascinating object above your crib – there was: Operation Match. The year…
Leigh Anne Touhy is not Sandra Bullock. Touhy is the real thing. Nothing against Bullock. She deserved her Oscar for best actress in the film adaptation of Michael Lewis’s football masterpiece, The…
I’ve never heard anyone ask CNN’s senior political analyst, David Gergen, about his role in developing one of the most memorable lines ever in a presidential debate. I’ve never heard anyone ask…
If the anchorman in “Broadcast News” had been based on Peter Jennings, it would have been a very different movie. In the movie, the producers in the control room talk to the…
My son’s most treasured possession these days is a stick. It’s an ordinary looking stick. But I’m told it has extraordinary powers. Can you imagine what powers this stick possesses? My son…
“You know you’re an extreme parent if your child, who does not have a documented learning disability, has more than three tutors.” “You know you’re an extreme parent if you imagine that…
Why doesn’t a winner smile. That’s the first thing we wanted to know when we spoke with the third winningest manager in baseball history, Tony La Russa. We tried to find a…
I got the email in a plane on the runway. Last night at 8:22pm. HE – the man who was responsible for my most embarrassing panic-inducing moment as a journalist – is…
We journalists aren’t allowed to root for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney in Tuesday night’s debate. But we can root for our own Candy Crowley. We’ve been rooting for her for many…
A baseball tradition is about to end. This week, Major League Baseball announced it would no longer allow the use of chewing tobacco when fans are present. If you’ve got it, says…
This could get nasty, this podcast with Ed Falco. Falco has written a violent book. It must be violent. It’s “The Family Corleone,” the prequel to “The Godfather,” by Mario Puzo. But…
I met a fascinating guy at a recent gathering here in Atlanta. He was telling someone how well his son was doing in college. What made his story interesting was this: His…
This week Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been on CNN a lot talking about his documentary this Sunday: Big Hits, Broken Dreams. It’s about the dangers of concussions, especially for high school football…
I’ve been obsessing over “The Scream” ever since the painting sold for a record $120 million at Sotheby’s last week. Most others have dwelled how disturbing that contorted, anxious face is. But…
On a cold November afternoon in 2008, in lower Manhattan, as HER candidate was serving his final weeks as President of the United States, HE was inspired. He wasn’t a Bush man.…
To paraphrase what Senator Charles Schumer said about tickets to the inauguration, this week’s CNN Profiles is not for sale. This edition of CNN Profiles is a chance for people from all…
Last night I suspected my son had snuck onto my iPad and read “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others,” by this week’s CNN Profiles guest, author Daniel Pink.…
One of America’s leading students of violence tells CNN that trying to prevent future massacres like the one at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School should not be the driving force of America’s…
I hope listening to this podcast will be like getting the door to your mind kicked open. I wish I’d been the one to turn that phrase – getting the door to…
Something tells me if Rachel Held Evans were my childrens’ Sunday School teacher they’d never want to miss a Sunday. Evans is an evangelical Christian and my family is Jewish. Evans lives…
From the sounds of a piano prodigy to the sounds of war, from the fight in Iraq to the fight on SARS, from the laughs of Buddy Hackett to those of his…
I’ve been on a journey to come up with the best Mother’s Day gift ever. I think I’ve got it. I began my search by reaching out to a master negotiator: William…
This afternoon – the wealthiest coach you’ve never heard of will be taking the college football team you’ve never heard of to a playoff game they were not expected to make. In…
This holiday season give yourself the gift of serendipity. I don’t know if Hallmark will buy that line. But a number of successful CEOs have. That’s because of the work of our…
With the last presidential debate upon us, we felt it was time for a real education in the art of debating. We decided to go out on a search for the best…
Are you or is someone you know a psychopath? Wait – let’s reframe that question. Do you or someone you know fall somewhere on the psychopathic spectrum? You may not know for…
This story is the beginning of a personal mission. A mission that I know many of you will want to join me on. In 50 days I will turn 50. And when…
I admit it. I couldn’t resist the headline. My confession doesn’t rival David Letterman’s. But I have to get it off my chest. When I was reading CNN.com’s home page yesterday, as…
I must interrupt my 50th birthday campaign – my campaign to bury the worshipers of the18-49 audience “demo” – so that I can tend to company business. The deadline has arrived for…
As I continue my countdown to age 50 (49 days away) and dig into the apparent myth that ages 18 through 49 is the sweet spot audience, my gut, which tells me…
I bumped into a trial lawyer acquaintance of mine at Starbucks in the CNN Center the other day. Somehow we got into talking about what litigators look for when choosing a jury.…
I just learned some things that have me really excited about turning 50 – and more excited than ever that this 50on50 series may help bury the 18-49 audience demo worshipers in…
As I approach 50, I must remind myself, despite my “vast” life experience, always be prepared to be surprised. For example, this morning at 10:30am, CNN was covering the “balloon boy” parents’…
I was ready for my closing argument. The information I gathered from leading trial attorneys for my past two pieces added so much additional weight to the premise that the 18-49 year…
It happened again. My on-the-verge-of-50 savvy and life experience could not prevent my jaw from dropping. I’m aware lobbyists have influence in Congress. But this was another case of “I didn’t know…
As I was saying the other day, I’ve finally spoken with the man whose hoax put me in the most embarrassing position of my journalistic career. The author, Christopher Buckley, had written…
This is the time in the school year when parents really have a sense of whether their children are struggling academically. For those parents whose children are having a hard time with…
Remember how John McEnroe used to go ballistic over what he thought were bad calls by referees? Youtube has a beautiful selection. Perhaps a new study in the journal Current Biology will…
I was proudly telling our 30-something year old babysitter of my 30-something minute jog this week in the cold, hard rain. Another example, I thought, of why, as I turn 50, her…
I went fly fishing for the first time in my life this weekend. According to my experienced guide, I made a common mistake that often separates the novices from the veterans. I…
Within an hour of arriving as a freshman at Vassar College in the 1980s, Andrew Zolli met a woman. They clicked. But this CNN Profile is not a love story. It’s a…
My campaign to destroy the 18-49 demo is based in part on the wisdom I’ve gained as I approach my 50th birthday. There are people in this world you can trust. And…
I feel safer now at work than I did yesterday. Not that I didn’t feel safe in the first place. Turner Security is first rate. But something one of the female security…
It’s true. A Nobel Peace Prize winner let me know he’s puzzled by my productivity. No, not today’s Nobel Peace Prize winner. As far as I know, President Obama is not following…
Yesterday it was a Nobel Laureate emailing me with ammunition here to take down the 18-49 year old “demo.” Today, the clergy is beginning to weigh in. This is what Rabbi Michael…
I believe the sequence of events I’m about to recount happened for a reason. It started with a surprise birthday cake from my CNN friends and colleagues for my 50th. I ate…
To repair a country after a genocide, in a nation like Rwanda, where the killers and the survivors still live in the same neighborhoods, takes a lot of time, to say the…
I picked out a basket at Macy’s and read the name of the artist to Rwanda’s master weaver, Janet Nkubana. The weaver’s name was sewn to the inside of the basket. Who…
I’ve been to Rwanda before. But I was never invited into a backyard. Now I know why. Janet Nkubana, Rwanda’s master basket weaver, tells me the backyard is where the women of…
When Rwanda’s master basket weaver Janet Nkubana walked me through the symbolism of her basket’s designs, the image you see here left a big impression. I asked her how long it took…
I love receiving holiday gifts. Especially when they’re gifts of knowledge. I feel like I received at least five gifts of knowledge when I met Janet Nkubana on a recent night. I…
I learned something new today about Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s resume. I now know which line item most intrigues me. 1998: Co-Founder, Iranian Tunneling Association I did not know Mahmoud Ahmadinejad helped found…
My wife broke the news to me. The mail just arrived. I’d received a letter. She didn’t have to say another word. It was less than 24 hours from the moment I’d…
Forty-seven days before I turn 50, I must interrupt my mission to destroy my industry’s worship of the 18-49 audience demo, to bring you urgent health news. Today, we’re all part of…