Robert Greene: Why People Manipulate & How to Protect Yourself

The Jefferson Fisher Podcast

Civility Media

Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Relationships

5 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever felt like other people understand power better than you do — like they know the rules of the game and you don’t? In this episode, I sit down with The 48 Laws of Power author Robert Greene to talk about what power really is, how to use it without becoming manipulative, and why feeling powerless can quietly wreck your life. We get into communication, self-love, boundaries, and how to spot people who don’t have your best interests at heart, plus a preview of his new book The Law of the Sublime and what surviving a near-death experience taught him about appreciating life. Order The Next Conversation Workbook: https://www.jeffersonfisher.com/workbook Thank you to our sponsors: Cozy Earth. Upgrade Your Every Day. Get 40% off at cozyearth.com/jefferson or use code JEFFERSON at check out. Monarch Money. 50% off your first year at https://monarchmoney.com/jefferson Momentous. Visit https://www.livemomentous.com/ and use code JEFFERSON for 35% off your first order. BetterHelp. Click ⁠https://betterhelp.com/jeffersonfisher⁠ for a discount on your first month of therapy. Order my new book, The Next Conversation, or listen to the full audiobook today. Like what you hear? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review! Suggest a topic or ask a question for me to answer on the show! Want a FREE communication tip each week? Click here to join my newsletter. Join My School of Communication Watch my podcast on YouTube Follow me on Instagram Follow me on TikTok Follow me on LinkedIn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Think about cheese.
0:02.0	Make your thoughts cheesier.
0:04.2	Now add 100% chicken breast fillet, Chipotle sauce and Amadea cheese melt.
0:08.3	And it's giving the new cheesy chicken stack at McDonald's.
0:12.0	Did we mention it's cheesy?
0:13.9	Cheese.
0:15.8	Availments at the 4th of Jan, 2026 from 11 a.m.
0:18.1	Plus and participation may vary.
0:19.2	Subjects availability.
0:20.4	If you haven't heard of the book, The 48 Laws of Power, well, you might be living under
0:25.7	Iraq. Today, I am privileged to talk to the man himself, the author of the 48 laws of power,
0:33.4	Robert Green. Robert, thank you so much for coming. Thank you for having me, Jefferson. I appreciate it.
0:38.9	This is a conversation I'm very much looking forward to because I, your book is one that
0:44.5	often when I make content or I'm speaking, there will typically be somebody who comes up and says,
0:50.9	oh, have you read the 48th Laws of Power? And I said, yes, I have. And what I want to
0:57.8	talk about and what the listeners are going to get, what you're going to get in this episode is we're
1:01.8	going to talk on can you use power and can you also maintain your own integrity? Because a lot of the times people find those to be conflicting in some way of they hear manipulation.
1:19.0	They don't hear anything that is descriptive, prescriptive that can improve their life.
1:24.3	Robert, how would you define power?
1:31.4	What does power mean to you? Well, power is a tool.
1:36.6	It's totally neutral. Like a hammer, you can use it to build a house, or you could clobber someone over the head and kill them with it. So power is simply a tool. It's neutral. It is neither good
1:42.2	nor bad. It can be used for evil. It could be used for great good.
	...

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