Advertise on podcast: The Art of Deciding

When did you last use the Pythagoras theorem? Most of us were taught plenty at school, but almost nothing about systems thinking, the skill that quietly shapes how we sleep, schedule our time and decide what matters. Ben Meer is the author of How to Be Good at Life, an instant #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestseller. Forbes calls him “The Systems Guy”. A Cornell MBA graduate and former Ernst & Young consultant to Fortune 500 companies, he realised that the systems that drive business growth could also make everyday life easier. He turned that insight into System Sunday, a weekly newsletter with more than 250 000 subscribers, and a following of more than 2 million.  The book is endorsed by thought leaders and productivity experts Seth Godin, Sahil Bloom, Nir Eyal, David Epstein and Arthur C Brooks.In this episode, Meer tells Bruce Whitfield why you don’t need more time or willpower. Systems aren’t just for planning Olympics or colonising Mars. We all use them every day, whether we know it or not. A little upfront thinking creates space for what you actually want to do, and good systems remove stress rather than add to it, from your sleep to time with the people who matter. It’s a conversation about trading willpower for design, and making better decisions with less effort. This podcast is sponsored by Momentum Health. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Tuesdays at 17:00.

Three generations of Jordans made shoes. Gary Jordan became a geologist, fell in love with wine and, with his wife Kathy, built Jordan Wine Estate in Stellenbosch into one of South Africa’s best-known wine brands.Then he made a leap few saw coming: making wine in rural England. After driving 6,000 miles in search of the right soil, he found Mousehall, a medieval estate in East Sussex listed in the Domesday Book, and persuaded the owner to sell it for less than he had paid for it.In this episode, Jordan tells Bruce Whitfield why he decided to bet on English wine, how he took on British red tape, and what South African tenacity can teach a gloomy Britain.It’s a story about recognising opportunity, doing the work, and finding a way when others say it can’t be done.This podcast is sponsored by Momentum Health.

We like to think our biggest decisions are rational, but beliefs and biases shape how we approach a choice, and how we approach that choice shapes the outcome.Coenraad Jonker was the young CEO of Africa’s biggest corporate law firm when an MBA class changed his life. Inspired by economist Hernando de Soto’s work on financial inclusion, he left law to pursue an idea most banks dismissed: that people at the base of the pyramid are bankable.That idea became Tyme, the digital banking group behind TymeBank in South Africa and GoTyme in the Philippines. It now has more than 25 million customers and reached unicorn status after an investment from Brazil’s Nubank.In this episode, Jonker tells Bruce Whitfield why he turned down a comfortable job in Sydney to lead a buyout of the business, how he steered the bank through COVID after 217 investors said no, and how close he came to being replaced as CEO of the company he built.It’s a conversation about conviction, character and the courage to keep going when nobody else believes in you.

We like to think our biggest decisions are rational, but beliefs and biases shape how we approach a choice, and how we approach it shapes the outcome. Mohamedou Ould Slahi was detained at Guantánamo Bay for nearly 15 years without ever being charged. He was tortured and eventually confessed to a crime he says he did not commit. His account of those years became the bestselling memoir Guantánamo Diary and inspired the 2021 film The Mauritanian. In this episode, Slahi talks to host Bruce Whitfield about why he confessed, and about the decisions that followed his release: to live, to forgive, and to change. This podcast is sponsored by Momentum Health. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Tuesdays at 06:00.