The a16z Show5 Sep 2025

How to Be Free: Shaka Senghor, Oprah Winfrey, Ben Horowitz

Taken from The Oprah Podcast, this special episode brings together Shaka Senghor, a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz, and Oprah Winfrey for a powerful conversation on resilience and transformation.

Shaka, a resilience expert, motivational speaker, and bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs, shares his journey from incarceration to redemption along with insights from his new book, How to Be Free. Full of hard-earned wisdom and practical tools, it’s a guide for anyone seeking freedom in their own life.

Timecodes:

0:00 Introduction
1:30 Shaka’s Journey: From Prison to Freedom
4:10 The Power of Narrative and Mindset
6:10 Active Journaling & Writing My Wrongs
8:45 Escaping Life’s Hidden Prisons
10:00 The Role of Forgiveness
16:40 Healing Family Relationships
21:00 Unconditional Forgiveness & True Freedom
22:40 Resilience as a Spiritual Principle
24:15 Mentorship & Meeting Ben Horowitz
28:55 Lessons on Success and Failure
30:20 The Meaning of a Pardon
31:50 Life After Prison: Finding Joy in Freedom
32:30 Advice for Listeners: How to Begin Your Own Journey
35:15 Closing Thoughts

Resources:

Find Shaka on X: https://x.com/ShakaSengho

Find Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz

Find Oprah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oprahpodcast/

Listen to the full podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381

Stay Updated:

Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(1000)

How Bitcoin Rewired a Classic Computer Science Problem

We're excited to share a special feed drop from The a16z Crypto Show. In the first episode of First Principles: The Scientific Roots of Blockchain Technology, Tim Roughgarden and Ittai Abraham trace t...

10 Jul 21min

Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan: How AI Will Help Cure Disease

As part of our summer replay series, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from the past year. Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan join Ben Horowitz, Vineeta Agarwala, and Erik Torenbe...

9 Jul 45min

Adam Neumann: This Is How You Build Iconic Companies

Adam Neumann joins Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and Erik Torenberg for a candid conversation about entrepreneurship, failure, and building Flow. Neumann reflects on his childhood, military service, ...

8 Jul 1h 30min

Is Software Losing Its Head?

Seema Amble, Steven Sinofsky, and Elena Burger unpack one of the biggest questions facing enterprise software: what happens when AI agents become the primary users of software instead of humans? The c...

7 Jul 1h 1min

Don’t Follow Your Passion | Ben Horowitz’s Advice for New Graduates

In this commencement address to Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science Class of 2015, Ben Horowitz challenges some of the most common advice given to graduates. ...

6 Jul 19min

a16z Goes Global: Why American Tech Must Lead the World

Ben Horowitz is joined by Anne Neuberger, Raghu Raghuram, and Jen Kha to discuss a16z's expanding international strategy and the growing role technology plays in economic growth, national security, an...

3 Jul 42min

Outsmarting Uber: Why Bolt Wins in Europe

What does it take to build a global mobility company from a country of just 1.3 million people? Markus Villig, founder and CEO of Bolt, joins the show to share how he scaled from Estonia to 50+ countr...

2 Jul 41min

Rick Rubin on AI, Creativity, and The Way of Code

Rick Rubin joins Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Anjney Midha, and Erik Torenberg to discuss creativity, artificial intelligence, and his book The Way of Code, which reimagines the Tao Te Ching for the...

1 Jul 1h 15min