TruthWorks

Arnnon Geshuri is the legendary Chief People Officer behind the world's most iconic workforces. From the early days of Google to the high-stakes scaling of Tesla under Elon Musk, and now leading the charge at Snowflake, Arnnon has mastered the art of "human engineering" at a scale very few on Earth have ever seen.
In this conversation, Arnnon pulls no punches on what it actually takes to build a high-performance culture. We discuss the "performance DNA" required to survive in a hyper-growth environment, the truth about hiring for grit over skill, and why most leaders are too afraid to demand excellence.
We discuss:
The Elon Musk Era: What it’s really like building a team at Tesla.
The High-Performance Secret: Why some people thrive under pressure while others crack.
The "Zero Gravity" Culture: How Snowflake maintains its hiring edge while scaling to billions.
This is a masterclass in leadership, psychology, and the brutal reality of what it takes to build a world-class organization.

Why do 70% of organizational transformations fail? It isn't because of bad strategy, poor funding, or a lack of talent. It is because we have fundamentally misunderstood the psychology of change.
In this episode, we sit down with Bree Groff, a Senior Advisor at the global transformation consultancy SYPartners and the former CEO of NOBL Collective, to discuss the counter-intuitive truth about innovation: you cannot build the future until you mourn the past.

Bree explains that what leaders often label as "resistance" or "laziness" is actually a form of grief. Drawing on her unique background—which spans cognitive psychology research, a tenure as a high school physics teacher, and over a decade advising C-suite leaders at companies like Google, Pfizer, and Calvin Klein—she breaks down the "Six Types of Loss" employees experience during a pivot.
We dive deep into why the "move fast and break things" era is ending and why the most successful modern companies are those that allow teams to "metabolize" the loss of their old identities. Bree also previews insights from her book, Today Was Fun, challenging the toxic positivity of corporate culture and offering a scientific framework for why we need to stop forcing agility and start designing for closure.
About Bree Groff: Bree Groff is a renowned expert in organizational psychology and transformation. Currently a Senior Advisor at SYPartners, she previously served as the CEO of NOBL, a global change agency known for pioneering new ways of working. She holds a Master’s in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Psychology and Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Before entering the corporate world, Bree explored human behavior from two very different angles: as a psychology researcher studying decision-making and as an actor and math teacher—experiences that shaped her belief that work should be designed for humans, not just efficiency.

In this episode, I sit down with the man who is on a mission to completely dismantle the way we think about modern medicine. Aidan Dewar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nourish, and he believes that the healthcare industry has been ignoring the single most powerful tool for human longevity: what we put on our plates.
We live in a world where we treat sickness rather than preventing it. In this conversation, Aidan exposes the cracks in the insurance system, reveals why "food as medicine" isn't just a buzzword but a biological reality, and shares the brutally honest lessons he learned while building a company that is fighting to make nutritional care accessible to every single American.
We discuss the hidden crisis in our diets, the psychology of eating, and how to build a business that actually changes lives.
Who is Aidan Dewar? Aidan Dewar is a healthcare disruptor and the CEO of Nourish. After witnessing the inefficiencies of the traditional medical system, he co-founded Nourish to bridge the gap between patients and registered dietitians. His goal is simple but revolutionary: to make evidence-based nutrition a standard part of healthcare for everyone, regardless of their background.

We are taught that great businesses are built on process, management, and roadmaps. But my guest today says that this exact mindset is what kills innovation and drives your best people to quit.
Marty Cagan is the "Godfather of Product." He is the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group and has worked with the giants that defined the internet, including Hewlett-Packard, Netscape, and eBay. He is the man the world’s most successful CEOs call when they stop growing.
In this conversation, Marty exposes the "Feature Factory" trap that 90% of companies fall into, explains why you should never hire a "Mercenary," and reveals the specific leadership secrets used by Apple, Amazon, and Netflix to dominate their industries.
If you are a CEO, a founder, or a leader who wants to build something that actually matters, this is the warning you need to hear.

How do you take a free language app and turn it into a multi billion juggernaut that users are literally addicted to?
In this episode of TruthWorks, Jessica and Patty sit down with Cem Kansu, the Chief Product Officer at Duolingo. Cem has spent nearly a decade architecting the product strategy that grew Duolingo from a struggling startup into the world’s #1 education app.
This isn’t just a conversation about "product-market fit." It’s a raw look at the operational culture required to run thousands of A/B tests a year without losing your soul. Cem pulls back the curtain on Duolingo’s famous "unhinged" marketing, the reality of managing a "freemium" model that actually makes money, and why they decided to make their AI mascot, Lily, a depressed teenager.
Key topics discussed include:
The "Mini-CEO" Mindset: Why Duolingo empowers product managers to run their own P&Ls and how that changes the culture of accountability.
Monetization vs. Mission: The hard conversations and trade-offs involved in making money while keeping the core product free for millions.
The Truth About Gamification: How to use streaks, leaderboards, and "passive-aggressive" notifications to drive retention without burning out your team (or your users).
Hiring for Taste: Why data is critical, but product intuition is what actually builds a brand people love.
Navigating the AI Shift: How Duolingo is integrating GenAI to teach effectively, not just efficiently.
Whether you are scaling a product team or trying to build a culture that embraces experimentation, Cem offers a transparent look at the machinery behind the owl.