Poets & Thinkers
Poets & Thinkers
Podcast Description
Poets & Thinkers explores the humanistic future of business leadership through deep, unscripted conversations with visionary minds – from best-selling authors and inspiring artists to leading academic experts and seasoned executives.Hosted by tech executive, advisor, and Princeton entrepreneurship & design fellow Ben Lehnert, this podcast challenges conventional MBA wisdom, blending creative leadership, liberal arts, and innovation to reimagine what it means to lead in the AI era. If you believe leadership is both an art and a responsibility, this is your space to listen, reflect, and evolve.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast delves into themes of creative leadership, ethics in business, and the importance of collaboration over competition, with episodes like The Myth of Greatness featuring conversations on values, sustainable practices, and the notion of 'good-enough' leadership shaping the future of society.

Poets & Thinkers explores the humanistic future of business leadership through deep, unscripted conversations with visionary minds – from best-selling authors and inspiring artists to leading academic experts and seasoned executives.
Hosted by tech executive, advisor, and Princeton entrepreneurship & design fellow Ben Lehnert, this podcast challenges conventional MBA wisdom, blending creative leadership, liberal arts, and innovation to reimagine what it means to lead in the AI era.
If you believe leadership is both an art and a responsibility, this is your space to listen, reflect, and evolve.
What if the future of business isn’t human at all—and maybe that’s exactly what will liberate us to become more humane?
In this first episode of season 2, Ben sits down with Tim Leberecht, co-founder and CEO of the House of Beautiful Business, and author of The Business Romantic. Speaking from Istanbul, Tim doesn’t mince words: business is fundamentally broken, caught in an unholy alliance of technocracy, late-stage capitalism, and rising authoritarianism. Yet in this darkness, he sees the seeds of something radically different.
Key Ideas:
- Business is hitting rock bottom—the perfect moment to imagine something radically different
- The false gods of modern management: optimization, efficiency, and winning
- Why the future of business may not be human, but must remain humanist
- From economy of efficiency to economy of care and wonder
- Supercuration: the art of benevolent exclusion and caring for ideas
- The death of agency and the birth of new forms of dignity
- Why the only dignified work is the work we do for ourselves as artists
- Love, care, and world-building as essential leadership qualities
Resources & References
House of Beautiful Business – Global community humanizing business
The Business Romantic – Tim’s manifesto against optimization
Against the Tyranny of the Winners (published in German)
Supercuration – Forthcoming book on the art of curation
The Poly Opportunity – Series examining intersecting positive trends
Douglas Rushkoff on attention and human connection
Hartmut Rosa’s Resonance – Sociology of vibration and attunement
Gianpiero Petriglieri on love and leadership
Shoukei Matsumoto’s Work Like a Monk
Connect with Tim Leberecht:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tleberecht/
Website: https://timleberecht.com/
Company: https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poetsandthinkerspodcast/
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poets-thinkers/id1799627484
Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4N4jnNEJraemvlHIyUZdww?si=2195345fa6d249fd
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