The Self-Help Empire
From Mind Games by Kaleidoscope
February 10, 2026 · 38 min · Season 1 · Episode 4
About this episode
The episode explores the commercialization of self-help through Tony Robbins and the application of NLP techniques.
How do you turn mind games into hundreds of millions of dollars? We ask Tony Robbins, who discovered Neuro-Linguistic Programming, adapted its techniques, and built an empire of infomercials and firewalking, all while spawning a self-optimization craze he’s ambivalent about today. Meanwhile, Alice tests NLP on Zoë’s mom to see if they can use Bandler’s techniques to conquer an unusual fear. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
People in this episode
Host: Alice
Guest: Tony Robbins
Topics covered
- self-help
- Neuro-Linguistic Programming
- personal development
- infomercials
- firewalking
- fear conquering
Keywords
- self-help
- Tony Robbins
- NLP
- Neuro-Linguistic Programming
- firewalking
- personal development
- fear
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming
More episodes of Mind Games
- Meeting Bandler · March 17, 2026 · 47 min
- NXIVM · March 10, 2026 · 39 min
- The Pickup Artist Playbook · March 3, 2026 · 36 min
- Murder in Santa Cruz · February 24, 2026 · 38 min
- A Human Technology · February 17, 2026 · 27 min
- All In Your Head · February 3, 2026 · 42 min
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