Masculine Psychology

About Masculine Psychology

Beyond Success is the podcast for founders and high achievers asking the bigger questions behind what they're building. You've built a career, maybe a company, perhaps a solid portfolio, and by most measures that's gone well. What brought you here is probably something more specific: a decision you can't make, relationships that keep ending the same way, or a business you're still building at full speed without being sure what it's for. Maybe you exited, and everyone assumes you'll start another one. Maybe you want a marriage and children but keep postponing both. Maybe you have more freedom than you've ever had before but no idea what you should do with it. The usual advice is to get clear on what you want and go after it. But that treats the getting as the hard part. Actually, the hard part comes earlier. A strategy can be excellent and still rest on assumptions you've never examined: needing to stay relevant, needing to prove something, worrying about who you'd be if you stopped. Left alone, they'll keep you working for another decade toward a life you never truly wanted. Then there's a question most advice skips: whether the thing you want is worth wanting, what your way of getting it costs the people dearest to you, and who you're turning into while you go after it. You can succeed at everything you set out to do only to find you've become someone you wouldn't have chosen. Most advice takes the goal as settled and helps you get there faster. This show takes up the goals themselves. I'm David Tian, private adviser to founders, leaders, and high achievers on the bigger questions behind what they're building. My background is in philosophy, psychology, and deep therapeutic work. I was a tenure-track philosophy professor at the National University of Singapore, with a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and fellowships at Harvard and Princeton. I'm also a Certified IFS Therapy Practitioner (Level 3) and a Brown University Certified Leadership Coach. I draw on modern psychology, Asian philosophy, and two decades of work with accomplished people who have achieved a great deal but still aren't sure what comes next. We take up the questions that remain once ambition has done its job: what a good life asks of you, what's worth wanting, what love is and what it requires, how to hold power over other people without damaging them, what you want to have contributed to the world, and how to face death well. Working through them changes what you build next, and usually changes how you relate to the people you're building it with. If the questions behind what you're building have gotten harder to ignore, this podcast is for you. For more about David Tian, go here: https://www.davidtianphd.com/about/ Emotional Mastery is David Tian's step-by-step system to transform, regulate, and control your emotions... so that you can master yourself, your interactions with others, and your relationships... and live a life worth living. Learn more here: https://www.davidtianphd.com/emotionalmastery/

Publisher

David Tian

Category

education · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jul 2021

Latest episode

9 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

140 of 273 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   9 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   #109: Why a Good Decision Can Still Feel Wrong

   Host David Tian, PhD, guides listeners through distinguishing between discomfort and genuine regret after making difficult choices, offering strategies to commit to worthwhile decisions despite challenging outcomes.

2. 

   3 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   #108: When Part of You Wants to Change & Part of You Doesn't (Guided Meditation)

   Host David Tian, PhD, guides listeners through a meditation to understand internal conflict and find a path forward.

3. 

   25 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   #107: How to Trust Yourself When You Keep Changing Your Mind

   Host David Tian, PhD, guides listeners on how to build self-trust by understanding and integrating conflicting inner voices for better decision-making.

Inside a recent episode

#109: Why a Good Decision Can Still Feel Wrong

Published 9 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] So if immediate relief becomes your test of whether you've made a good choice, you'll end up reversing decisions simply to stop that feeling those uncomfortable feelings of regret or fear or anxiety or sadness. And then if you reverse the decision based on those uncomfortable feelings, you end up in the original position, but worse off because now you have wasted time and effort returning to the original problem in the original position with that problem, even after having decided and chosen, come up with good reasons for choosing one or the other. So the way out of this toxic cycle and the way to avoid ever getting into this toxic cycle is to distinguish new reasons to reconsider your decision from the pain or discomfort of giving something up that is worthwhile in its own way. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

4,007,417

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

28 ratings

Spotify

4.3 / 5

218 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 74 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

73

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

94

Contact Masculine Psychology

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Shows with a similar audience

• 

  PsycHacks

• 

  The Mel Robbins Podcast

• 

  The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

• 

  All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

• 

  The Joe Rogan Experience

• 

  The Ramsey Show

Questions about Masculine Psychology