The Diary of a CEO, hosted by Steven Bartlett, is a long-form conversation podcast about success, failure, identity, relationships, and money.
In the past few years it has become the destination for some of the most innovative minds of our generation, from billionaires to authors to longevity researchers to politicians. On each episode, Bartlett speaks with his guest about the life they have chosen to leave, the secret to their successes and their take on modern issues.
If you have heard of the podcast but find the multiple episodes daunting, then this list is for you.
Here are 10 of my best, The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett podcast ranked.
Emmanuel Umahi
1. Mo Gawdat — Happiness Expert Returns: Retrain Your Brain for Maximum Happiness
Unlike past conversations over the years that I have had on happiness, Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer of Google X, doesn’t talk about happiness the way most people do.
In the 2-hour 11-minute-long conversation, he doesn't frame happiness as something you chase, earn, or stumble into. He breaks it down like a system: something built through understanding, expectations, perception, and compassion.
What hit me most wasn’t just his frameworks; it was the emotional weight behind them. His ideas are shaped by love, loss, grief, and an almost radical gentleness toward human suffering. Listening to him doesn’t feel like learning. It feels like exhaling.
2. Simon Sinek — Opens Up About His Struggle with Loneliness, Love, Dating
This episode surprised me.
Not because Simon Sinek wasn’t insightful—he always is—but because of how exposed he was.
The podcast episode an exposé into a deeply honest conversation on loneliness, love, emotional vulnerability, masculinity, friendship, and what it feels like to succeed externally while struggling internally.
Simon speaks on how we’re taught as humans how to achieve, but not how to connect. How we learn how to win, but not how to listen. How we have bookshops full of self-help but almost nothing about helping others.
The conversation revolves around making sense of what relationships currently are, in a world that rewards independence but punishes dependence, even though humans biologically need connection.
3. David Bach — Early Retirement Expert: A House vs Stocks, Here’s the Truth
Most financial content stresses me out. I often zone out and just try my best to make sense of them. However, with David Bach, it was different.
He doesn’t talk about money as status. He talks about it as stability. He reframes wealth not as something you chase aggressively, but as something you quietly build through systems automation, consistency, and decisions that compound when no one’s watching.
What stayed with me most wasn’t a number or a strategy. It was the idea that money doesn’t change who you are, it just amplifies how safe or unsafe you feel in your nervous system.
This episode helped me understand the difference between wanting to get rich and feeling secure through the first-hour rule, retirement investing, passive income ideas, and 401(k) to build financial freedom.
4. James Clear — The Habit That Will Make or Break Your Entire 2026
In the 2 hour 11 minute episode with the “Discipline Expert” James Clear, this episode felt like someone finally explaining self-discipline in a healthy way.
He doesn’t talk about motivation, which often is the push for what people do and how they live their lives, but he highlights identity, systems, environment, and momentum.
He explains why willpower fails, why goals don’t always work, and why tiny changes when done consistently reshape entire lives.
But what I loved most is how kind his philosophy is. There’s no grind culture here. No “push harder.” Just “make it easier.” Make good habits obvious. Make bad habits invisible. Build systems that work even when you’re tired, sad, distracted, or unmotivated.
Further, there was an understanding of stopping to become a different person but focusing on becoming a slightly better version of the one I already am.
5. Stuart Russell — 2030 Might Be the Point of No Return: We’ve Been Lied to About AI
Many conversations about artificial intelligence (AI), have felt questionable and lacking in nuance. In this episode, Stuart Russell offers both answers and nuance.
Russell explained how incentives, power structures, and speed make it nearly impossible for companies or governments to slow down, even when the risks of AI are existential. Not because they’re evil, but because the system rewards acceleration over caution.
I left the episode thinking differently about progress, innovation, what is faster and what can be better, and what it actually means to build technology without fully understanding its consequences.
6. Steven Bartlett — E1: Sacrifice, Work/Life Balance & Purpose
This is the first episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast and it’s only 29 minutes long.
Before the global success, before the billion-view clips, before the polished interviews, this episode isSteven talking honestly about sacrifice, burnout, loneliness, relationships, uncertainty, and purpose.
This maiden episode of the podcast showed vulnerability, and how far he has come.
This episode reminded me that hard work and consistency pays.
7. Steven Bartlett — E8: Advice from Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs
The eighth episode of the podcast is actually one of my favourites, simply because it isn’t just about the billionaires mentioned, but their mindset.
Barlett reflects on lessons from people like Musk, Buffett, and Jobs but filters them through his own life: ego management, emotional regulation, long-term thinking, discomfort, risk, and decision-making under pressure.
If you're in the market for bite-sized nuggets from the lives of people who have succeeded in business, this episode is a great place to start.
8. Steven Bartlett — E36: Ambition, Motivation and Imposter Syndrome
This episode felt personal. This is because, over the years, I have suffered with: imposter syndrome.
Bartlett talks openly about imposter syndrome, insecurity, storytelling, motivation addiction, ambition pressure, and the emotional weight of building something while not feeling ready or enough.
What stayed with me most was how normal he made doubt feel. Not as a weakness, but as a huge part of growth. He also made me see it not as failure, but as feedback to keep on.
This episode felt like a poster child for those who have been feeling behind, faking it, or moving from one mistake to another.
9. Nir Eyal — How to Build Habit-Forming Products
This episode permanently changed how I look at my phone.
Nir Eyal explains how habits are built, how attention is engineered, and how products shape behaviour, not through designs but through psychology.
Eyal doesn’t dodge the responsibility that comes with building addictive systems. He talks about agency, distraction, self-regulation, and how creators can design for empowerment instead of dependency.
This episode will definitely provide clarity on how to build properly.
10. Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett — Anxiety Is a Predictive Error in the Brain
My final favourite from the top 10 list made me understand emotions.
Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett explains that your brain doesn’t simply react to reality; it predicts it. And when those predictions go wrong, we experience anxiety, fear, stress, or emotional pain.
She further mentioned that trauma, memory, and emotion don’t work the way we think they do.
Because if emotions are constructed, not triggered, then they’re also malleable.
Emmanuel Umahi
