The Playbook with Colin Jonov
Formerly The Athletic Fortitude Show.... Colin Jonov’s Athletic Fortitude Show has rebranded to The Playbook with Colin Jonov, evolving from a sports-centric podcast to a universal guide for mastering life’s challenges. While retaining its foundation in mindset and performance excellence, the show now expands its scope to empower everyone—athletes, entrepreneurs, professionals, and beyond—to live life to its fullest potential
Episodes
134 episodes
Best of The Playbook: "Unsustainable" Only Gets Used When Athletes Start Getting Paid - Jay Bilas
In this episode re-release with Jay Bilas, we challenge the idea that NIL and the transfer portal are “unsustainable” by following where college sports money actually goes and who benefits when budgets keep expanding. We argue that athletes are...
Olympic Gold Medalist: What Nobody Tells You About 'Making It | Taylor Heise
We talk with Olympic gold medalist Taylor Heise about the mental battle of high-stakes hockey, from the gold medal game locker room to the quiet doubts you never see on TV. We get practical about identity beyond sport, routines that help after ...
"You Can't Gain What You Can't Give": An NBA Insider's Brutal Truth About Trust and Ego | Brady Howe
Brady Howe and I talk about what makes the rarest elite athletes stand out, not just in talent but in how they treat people when nobody’s watching. We also get honest about NBA culture, fragile trust, and why meaning has to come from who we bec...
Inside the Mindset of the Most Elite Athletes | Josh Kozuch
Josh Kozuch and I talk through what it looks like to choose agency when your body hurts, your environment is loud, and the path back to competition is not clean. We also break down how high performers build identity through daily intentions, re...
The Hard Truths About Discipline, Details, and Making an NFL Roster- Silas Walters
We sit down with Silas Walters to unpack how faith, discipline, and relentless self-awareness turn an overlooked athlete into a real NFL roster candidate. We dig into delayed gratification, evidence-based confidence, and the mental habits that ...
The Best of The Playbook: Dr. Julie Gurner: The Unglamorous Truth About Ultra Success
In this episode playback, we wrestle with why brushes with death don’t automatically change behavior, then land on courage as the skill that unlocks a life that actually feels like yours. We break down how courage compounds, how fear fades with...
Bridging the Gap Between Western Medicine and Performance | Kyle Baum
Kyle Baum and I unpack why recovery metrics can look perfect while your body still feels off, using HRV and the LF/HF ratio as tools rather than truth. We also dig into adrenal fatigue, low cortisol, caffeine dependence, gut health, and the har...
Discipline Over Motivation: How to Keep Commitments When Life Gets Hard | Kaitlyn Kenna
Kaitlyn Kenna and I start with caffeine withdrawal and end up somewhere much deeper: how discipline, identity, and self respect actually get built when things feel hard. We share what helps us train, recover, and eat with intention without gett...
The Dark Side of Leadership: Ambition, Family, and the Cost of Being “The Guy” | Zach Brandon
Performance and Leadership advisor, Zach Brandon, and I dig into why the traits that drive excellence can also sabotage it when we overuse them. We trade stories and mental models that help leaders, coaches, and athletes stay adaptable, serve o...
The Half‑Truths Holding Athletes Back: Lessons from 30 Years and 120 Episodes
I reflect on turning 30 and break down the lessons that keep showing up across sports, coaching, and life: every decision has downstream effects, and you always have more choice than you think. We challenge popular one-liners about performance ...
Strong Beliefs, Loosely Held: How to Evolve Without Losing Yourself- Josh Chambers
Josh Chambers and I talk about why “unorthodox” often becomes the new standard and how the best performers find an edge by refusing to protect their ego. We connect sports stories to leadership, identity, and habits so you can adapt faster and ...
What Coaches Get Wrong About Building Winning Teams: Greg Berge's 27-Year Playbook
We sit down with retired coach and school leader Greg Berge to unpack what actually lasts after the wins and losses fade. We dig into trust, culture, and parenting pressures, then land on a simple north star: people over plays, every day. ...
Mike Adams: PTSD, Identity Crisis, and Rebuilding After Football
We sit down with former NFL tackle Mike Adams to trace how a random act of violence pushed him into PTSD, identity collapse, and a fight to stay alive. We also unpack how yoga, breathwork, better habits, and honest connection helped him rebuild...
The Best of The Playbook: Justin Su'a- Why Success Feels Empty & How To Engineer Your Identity Beyond Achievement
From one of our top performing episodes of 2025, Justin S'ua and I break down why top performers can dominate on paper but feel empty, anxious, and never satisfied, then map out how to rebuild a healthier relationship with success. We tra...
Matt Rotheram- NIL Deals: The Gap Between Headlines and Reality
Matt Rotheram and I break down how NIL negotiations really work when the public numbers are noisy and the real terms stay private. We also talk about why fit, development, and a long-term plan can matter more than a slightly bigger college payo...
Coach Pat Narduzzi- How to Build a Championship Culture
Coach Pat Narduzzi and I break down why Pitt keeps players and coaches in the building while still producing high character pros and NFL Draft picks. We also get real about the transfer portal and NIL world, from tampering to agents to the hidd...
How Champions Build Their Mindset | Rance Mulliniks
World Series champion, Rance Mulliniks breaks down how winning changes the way we judge a career while reminding us how much of a title is outside any one athlete’s control. We talk about roles, ego, and the daily preparation that turns talent ...
Most People Use Their Past as an Excuse. The Best Ones Use It as a Blueprint. | Dr. Mitch Abrams
Dr. Mitch Abrams and I challenge the one size fits all story about divorce and child development, then get specific about what actually hurts kids and what helps them adapt. We also connect divorce dynamics to sports culture, showing how money,...
"Unsustainable" Only Gets Used When Athletes Start Getting Paid - Jay Bilas
Jay Bilas and I challenge the claim that NIL and the transfer portal make college athletics “unsustainable,” and we point out how the industry keeps finding money for everything except athlete compensation. We argue for player choice, smarter s...
You Will Never Outperform Your Purpose- Tim Cortazzo
Tim Cortazzo and I pull back the curtain on how supplements are made, why labels can be misleading, and what it takes to build a product we would confidently give to our own families. We also zoom out into the bigger theme of decision-making, w...
The Unconscious Competence Problem: Thinking Too Much Is Destroying Performance- Dr. Ismael Gallo
Dr. Ismael Gallo and I unpack why young athletes are losing movement fluency and how that loss shows up as injuries, stiffness, and underperformance. We argue for a return to exploration and constraint-led play, then break down how flow-based t...
Jim Malone - The Truth About What Separates Hall of Famers From Everyone Else
I talk with veteran strength coach Jim Malone about why authenticity is the fastest path to trust, buy-in, and better training outcomes in pro sports. We dig into how baseball strength and conditioning changed over the last 30 years, why one-si...
Jordan Colbert- You Will Never Perform Freely Until You Stop Needing the Outcome
Jordan Colbert and I break down what it really takes to go from small-school football to an NFL locker room where every rep feels like a tryout. Jordan shares how he learned complex defenses fast, handled cut-day stress, and rebuilt his mindset...
Jeff Schaefer- Everyone Wants the Big Leagues. Almost Nobody Wants What It Takes to Stay There
Jeff Schaefer and I dig into how a five-year big leaguer turns failure into fuel, why short memory beats loud emotions, and how role clarity plus relentless preparation create staying power. Youth sports culture, parenting, specialization, and ...
20 Lessons From 100 Conversations With the Highest Performers in the World
I share the 20 strongest lessons distilled from 100 conversations with world-class performers, from identity and courage to preparation, chaos training, and leadership. The goal is simple: build proof, narrow your worst days, and fall in love w...