Fifteen episodes in, Ed and Paul open Season 3 by naming it: a Season of Change. They rumble with the question "When did you realize things weren't going back to normal?", why "normal" feels so comfortable, and how to have a plan for when the plan doesn't go to plan. Then Ed puts ten brand-new questions on the table, the questions that will drive the rest of the season.

**Help shape Episodes 3–7:** join the Thought Partners Discord and add or upvote a question about change by **October 13**.

👉 https://discord.gg/5CU3xW4AD

## Timestamps

00:05 — Welcome to Season 3 (episode 15!)
01:28 — "It's our quinceañera": what 15 episodes has meant
03:59 — 25 engaged listeners or 500 casual ones
05:52 — Naming it the Season of Change
08:17 — Ten years ago today: could you have predicted this?
10:41 — When did you realize things weren't going back to normal?
14:10 — Control, forecasting, and what you're carrying
17:38 — Plans, curveballs, and the Empowered Learner
20:07 — Have a plan for when the plan doesn't go to plan
22:47 — Improv, beats, and why normal feels comfortable
26:14 — Comfortable with being uncomfortable (and Ed's first day teaching)
29:44 — Process people, routine, and whether change ever ends
34:45 — Krispy Kreme, AI, and the human in the loop
38:43 — From "back to normal" to a desired future state
39:03 — Lightning round: ten questions for a Season of Change
41:43 — More than three people: the thought-partner crash
44:11 — What, who, and how you come up with a good question
46:14 — Where the questions came from
49:09 — Anything new under the sun? (and Stoic D-minus days)
51:22 — Wrap

## The ten questions (lightning round, 39:03)

1. What have you stopped waiting for?

2. What does it cost to keep treating change as an event, like the weather?

3. Who did you have to become to keep up, and do you like that person?

4. When everyone's shifting, who do you actually turn to?

5. What change did you fight the hardest that turned out to be the right call?

6. What did the last few years take from you, and what did they quietly hand you?

7. What used to be a crisis for you that's now just a Tuesday?

8. What's the one thing you refuse to change, no matter what?

9. What are you pretending to be fine with?

10. What advice about handling change do you think is just wrong?

Which one would you want us to rumble with? Tell us in the Discord: https://discord.gg/5CU3xW4AD

## Coming up

- Episode 2 (October 13): our first episode with more than three people — a thought-partner crash with Kyle Nelson and Deb Peters.

- Episodes 3–7: shaped by your questions.

## Hosts

Ed Buchanan & Paul Tonden

Music: "Momentum," original Thought Partners theme.