#881: Tales of Overcoming The Odds, and How to Turn Losses Into Wins — Tim McGraw, Terry Crews, Dax Shepard, and More

This is a special episode about overcoming mistakes and failure. What do you do when your work is rejected, when the big bet fails, or when the path ahead suddenly disappears? As you’ll hear in this episode, setbacks can often present opportunities, if you know how to look for them.

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In this episode: 

• BJ Miller, a triple amputee, on his years-long quest to ride a motorcycle.
• Terry Crews on missing a season-ending shot—and the mindset shift that stayed with him for life.
• Tim McGraw on his debut album flopping and betting his career on next steps.
• Jessica Lahey on being told her first book was “unpublishable” and turning brutal feedback into a New York Times bestseller.
• Dax Shepard on the collapse of an identity and career he thought he wanted—and the unexpected much better life it made possible.
• Cathy Lanier on becoming a teenage single mother, passing her GED by a single point, and beginning an unlikely climb.
• Janna Levin on the liberating realization that life is not a smooth path interrupted by obstacles—life is the obstacles.
• Boyd Varty on using the mindset of a lion tracker to move through uncertainty and the paralysis of not knowing what comes next.

Dr. BJ Miller is a triple amputee, longtime palliative-care physician, cofounder of virtual palliative-care service Mettle Health, and coauthor of A Beginner’s Guide to the End.

Terry Crews is an actor, artist, author, television host, and former NFL player best known as Terry Jeffords on the Emmy-nominated TV series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and as the longtime host of America’s Got Talent.

Tim McGraw is a three-time Grammy-winning country-music superstar, an actor, and a 2026 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee.

Jessica Lahey is an educator and the New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation.

Dax Shepard is an actor, writer, and director and the co-creator and host of the hit podcast Armchair Expert.

Cathy Lanier is the NFL’s chief security officer and the first woman—and longest serving chief—to lead Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department.

Janna Levin is a theoretical cosmologist, the Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College, a Guggenheim Fellow, a PEN-winning author, and the founding director of sciences at Pioneer Works.

Boyd Varty is a lion tracker, wildlife activist, TED speaker, and author of The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Introduction from Tim

01:23 — BJ Miller: Making an Impossible Motorcycle Dream Real

05:35 — Terry Crews: Why You Have to Take the Shot

16:28 — Tim McGraw: Failing on Your Own Terms

27:31 — Jessica Lahey: From “Unpublishable” to Bestseller

31:48 — Dax Shepard: When Failure Saves You From What You Want

38:11 — Cathy Lanier: Rebuilding a Life

47:33 — Janna Levin: Life Is the Obstacles

54:36 — Boyd Varty: Finding the Next Track When You’re Stuck

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