Our guest is Dr. Michele Gelfand, a professor at Stanford University's business school. Considered to be a cross-cultural psychologist, Professor Gelfand is the author of the cutting-edge 2018 book, "Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World."

She and Professor Arie Kruglanski admire and understand each other's work. In this chat, we consider how people quest for significance in those different kinds of cultures: tight ones (with rules and restrictions) such as Singapore and Japan -- versus loose cultures (where people can seek success or respect in many creative ways) such as the United States or New Zealand.

The result is a half-hour conversation that is both warm and enlightening!

This podcast series is based on a book by Dr. Arie Kruglanski and Dan Raviv, The Quest for Significance: Harnessing the Need that Makes the World Go Round, published in 2025 by Routledge.

Arie Kruglanski is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and author of countless books, articles, and studies that have made him one of the world's leading experts on human motivation. He has been honored by the American Psychological Association for distinguished scientific contributions, and received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Association for Psychological Science. One of his most recent books is Uncertain: How to Turn Your Biggest Fear Into Your Greatest Power.

Dan Raviv was a CBS News correspondent, covering big stories worldwide for more than 40 years. He co-authored a national best selling book, Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. His most recent book about Israeli security and espionage, also co-authored with Yossi Melman, is Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars. He is based in Washington, DC. You can hear his weekly podcast, THE MOSSAD FILES.

On YouTube and other platforms featuring video podcasts, you can find video versions of THE QUEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE PODCAST. Please do.

To purchase our book, we suggest: www.amazon.com/Quest-Significance-Harnessing-Makes-World/dp/103253169X ... or ... (with...

If you think about it, 1.5 billion people who live on the continent of Africa do not get the attention, the respect, and the sense that their lives matter that they surely deserve. They are not being accorded Significance, and like all human beings they crave it and strive to create it themselves.

Victor Mark-Onyegbu says the United States is particularly frustrating, because most Americans know pitifully little about Africa -- and when asked to name three countries there, they invariably include the Marvel-fictional Wakanda (in the "Black Panther" movies).

On a serious and hopeful note, Onyegbu -- who is a leader of an organization called Africa No Filter -- lays out his plan for earning more dignity for Africans in the global media and international relations: "to tell stories better by adopting nuanced, ethical, and balanced story-telling about Africa."

In conversation with the authors of THE QUEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE, Professor Arie Kruglanski and Dan Raviv, Onyegbu -- in Lagos, Nigeria -- emphasizes that "Africa" is not one huge monolith. Each of the countries has its own strengths, weaknesses, and fascinating cultural heritage.

This is a half-hour Americans rarely hear.

On YouTube and Spotify, find our video podcasts. And there are half a dozen audio podcasts at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-quest-for-significance-podcast-arie-kruglanski/id1807928190 .

Our book, published by Routledge, is available here: https://amzn.to/3Y2cawj .

This podcast series is based on a book by Dr. Arie Kruglanski and Dan Raviv, The Quest for Significance: Harnessing the Need that Makes the World Go Round, published in 2025 by Routledge.

Arie Kruglanski is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and author of countless books, articles, and studies that have made him one of the world's leading experts on human motivation. He has been honored by the American Psychological Association for distinguished scientific contributions, and received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Association for Psychological Science. One of his most recent books is Uncertain: How to Turn Your Biggest Fear Into Your Greatest Power.

Dan Raviv was a CBS News correspondent, covering big stories worldwide for more than 40 years. He co-authored a national best selling book, Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. His most recent book about Israeli security and espionage, also co-authored with Yossi Melman, is Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars. He is based in Washington, DC. You can hear his weekly podcast, THE MOSSAD FILES.

On YouTube and other platforms featuring video podcasts, you can find video versions of THE QUEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE PODCAST. Please do.

To purchase our book, we suggest: www.amazon.com/Quest-Significance-Harnessing-Makes-World/dp/103253169X ... or ... (with...

In their book, “The Quest for Significance,” Prof. Arie Kruglanski and Dan Raviv find that from the beginning of humankind, everyone has tried to make their life matter — but how? It isn’t always about money and prestigious titles
or political power.

Professor June Tangney of George Mason University is the author of “Shame and Guilt,” based largely on researching people in prisons and during their readjustment to life in freedom.

Tangney’s thoughtful half-hour discussion with Kruglanski and Raviv explores the loss of — and acquisition — of all-important Significance in its various forms. This includes identifying what the people around you crave — and giving them some Significance, because you’ll get plenty of it back.

Kruglanski and Raviv's book, THE QUEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE, can be purchased where you buy books, including Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Y2cawj

And please tell your friends to look for The Quest for Significance Podcast -- in video and audio forms -- on all the major podcast platforms.

This podcast series is based on a book by Dr. Arie Kruglanski and Dan Raviv, The Quest for Significance: Harnessing the Need that Makes the World Go Round, published in 2025 by Routledge.

Arie Kruglanski is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and author of countless books, articles, and studies that have made him one of the world's leading experts on human motivation. He has been honored by the American Psychological Association for distinguished scientific contributions, and received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Association for Psychological Science. One of his most recent books is Uncertain: How to Turn Your Biggest Fear Into Your Greatest Power.

Dan Raviv was a CBS News correspondent, covering big stories worldwide for more than 40 years. He co-authored a national best selling book, Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. His most recent book about Israeli security and espionage, also co-authored with Yossi Melman, is Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars. He is based in Washington, DC. You can hear his weekly podcast, THE MOSSAD FILES.

On YouTube and other platforms featuring video podcasts, you can find video versions of THE QUEST FOR SIGNIFICANCE PODCAST. Please do.

To purchase our book, we suggest: www.amazon.com/Quest-Significance-Harnessing-Makes-World/dp/103253169X ... or ... (with...