Human Success Stories

David Bigge spent 16 years at the U.S. State Department arguing America’s cases before the International Court of Justice, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, and the UN. At the top of his field, he left to launch the Washington office of the international arbitration firm Wordstone. He’s also David and Jonathan’s stepbrother. In this episode, he explains why credibility beats volume in a hearing room, what a rotating motions bench taught him about doing your homework, and why he’s more optimistic about international law than the headlines are. He also describes how he defines a successful day, and it has little to do with winning. Human Success Stories is a One Wealth production, hosted by David Steele and Jonathan Steele, co-founders of One Wealth Advisors. One Wealth helps people simplify the financial complexity of their lives so they can be more present for the moments that matter. Learn more at or reach out at [email protected]. This podcast is provided by One Wealth Advisors, LLC. This post and the content discussed in this podcast should not be construed as investment advice.

In 2009, a chef named Thomas McNaughton answered a Craigslist posting from a payphone in Bologna. Ryan Pollnow was studying criminal justice. Seventeen years later, they lead Flour + Water Hospitality Group, which runs seven restaurants, with an eighth on the way, plus a frozen pizza line. They talk about partnership, the 2020 reset that cut their team to five, and how to scale without losing what made the original worth scaling. Human Success Stories is a One Wealth production, hosted by David Steele and Jonathan Steele, co-founders of One Wealth Advisors. One Wealth helps people simplify the financial complexity of their lives so they can be more present for the moments that matter. Learn more at or reach out at [email protected]. This podcast is provided by One Wealth Advisors, LLC. This post and the content discussed in this podcast should not be construed as investment advice.

Michael Lerner resigned from Yale before tenure to build a school for kids out of juvenile hall. Three years later, a shaft of sunlight over an abandoned radio station convinced him to found Commonweal instead. Forty years, 234 cancer retreats, and one MacArthur Fellowship later, Michael Lerner explains why he's a hopeful catastrophist — and makes the case for loving your fate, even inside the polycrisis.Human Success Stories is a One Wealth production, hosted by David Steele and Jonathan Steele, co-founders of One Wealth Advisors. One Wealth helps people simplify the financial complexity of their lives so they can be more present for the moments that matter. Learn more at or reach out at [email protected]. This podcast is provided by One Wealth Advisors, LLC. This post and the content discussed in this podcast should not be construed as investment advice.

Tony Conrad co-founded True Ventures, where for two decades he's had a habit of writing the first check into companies nobody else believed in yet — Automattic, Blue Bottle Coffee, Sweetgreen, FitBit, Slack, Peloton, years before any of them were sure things. He talks about growing up in a small Indiana farming town, working as his fraternity's janitor to pay for college, a decade at Groupe Danone that took him from Paris to Jakarta, and co-founding Sphere and About.me — including the unusual story of selling About.me to AOL, buying it back, and selling it again. He also tells the handshake story behind the Blue Bottle Coffee investment, and how he's come to measure his own success by the people he's helped rather than the outcomes. Human Success Stories is a One Wealth production, hosted by David Steele and Jonathan Steele, co-founders of One Wealth Advisors. One Wealth helps people simplify the financial complexity of their lives so they can be more present for the moments that matter. Learn more at or reach out at [email protected]. This podcast is provided by One Wealth Advisors, LLC. This post and the content discussed in this podcast should not be construed as investment advice.

Jordan Kurland started collecting Kiss records at six and never really put them down. This episode traces how that turned into a career managing artists — most notably Death Cab for Cutie, who he signed on just months before Transatlanticism changed both their trajectories, and later The Postal Service, whose stadium tour together last year sold out Madison Square Garden in hours. Along the way he co-founded the Noise Pop Festival, now in its 33rd year, and built a decades-long partnership with Dave Eggers on election-season fundraising. It's a grounded conversation about patience, timing, and what counts as success after three decades in a business with, as he puts it, no rule of thumb.Human Success Stories is a One Wealth production, hosted by David Steele and Jonathan Steele, co-founders of One Wealth Advisors. One Wealth helps people simplify the financial complexity of their lives so they can be more present for the moments that matter. Learn more at or reach out at [email protected]. This podcast is provided by One Wealth Advisors, LLC. This post and the content discussed in this podcast should not be construed as investment advice.