Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How rejection is normal and even inevitable

Skills to help you learn from and move through rejections toward your goals

Why you need to develop your capacity for patience

How asking people about their own rejections can help normalize yours

A discussion of the book Win or Learn



Today’s book is: Win or Learn: The Naked Truth About Turning Every Rejection into Your Ultimate Success, by rejection expert and New York Times bestselling author Harlan Cohen. Cohen lays the framework for identifying your wants, taking the risks necessary to pursue them, and finding success no matter the outcome. This step-by-step risk-taking experiment will guide you on a journey to understand your worth and fight for your goals—because rejection is a universal truth but not a final destination.
Our guest is: Harlan Cohen, bestselling author of seven books, a journalist, and a speaker who has visited over 500 college campuses. He loves helping people find support, happiness, hope, love, and light. He is the author of WIN or LEARN: The Naked Truth About Turning Every Rejection Into Your Ultimate Success.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:


The Naked Roommate, by Harlan Cohen

Harlan’s TedX talk (watch TEDx talk here).



Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck


The Rejection that Changed My Life by Jessica Bacal


How to Fail podcast by Elizabeth Day

The Museum of Failure website



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