12 Hours Left. One Quick Ask. | Bonus Drop

A very quick bonus episode and an unusual ask from me.

👉 Vote here: https://tophost.org/2026/adam-w-barney

Is Anything Real? is currently #3 in the Top Host competition, and the first cut happens tonight.

12 is lucky. 1 sounds better. 😉

I've spent a lot of time building this show around conversations that challenge assumptions, get past the noise, and hopefully leave people thinking a little differently. And every guest, listener, comment, share, and conversation has helped make it what it is.

So I'm asking for a little help today. If you've enjoyed the show and you'd like to help me make a run at #1, I'd genuinely appreciate your vote.

No big pitch. No elaborate campaign. Just a quick, slightly unusual ask from a guy who's grateful people keep showing up for these conversations.

Vote here: https://tophost.org/2026/adam-w-barney

Thank you. Seriously! ❤️

— Adam W. Barney
Host, Is Anything Real?

Creators and Guests

Host

Adam W. Barney

Adam W. Barney helps transitioning leaders navigate career and leadership inflection points with clarity and momentum. Author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full and creator of EnergyOS. Based in Boston, fueled by family and music.

What is Is Anything Real??

Is Anything Real? is a podcast about questioning the things we've collectively decided are true.

Each week, executive coach and author Adam W. Barney sits down with founders, executives, authors, creators and other interesting humans to get underneath the assumptions, conventional wisdom and occasionally ridiculous rules we use to make sense of work, leadership, success and our lives.

The conversations are prepared but unscripted. No rehearsed talking points. No pretending there's a neat answer when there isn't one. Just curiosity, honest disagreement, lived experience and the occasional detour that turns out to be more interesting than the question Adam planned to ask.

Because sometimes the most useful question is the simplest one: Is any of this actually real?

New episodes every Wednesday.

Hey everybody,

Adam W. Barney here,

and this is just a very quick,

very unusual bonus episode of

"Is Anything Real?".

I almost didn't do this

because I don't really ask you all for much,

but then I thought

this is probably the group I should ask.

If you're hearing this,

you've listened to the show.

You know how much I approach these conversations.

I prepare probably too much.

I ask a lot of questions.

And I'm usually trying to get past

the rehearsed answer

to what's actually underneath it all.

Somehow, that's actually now landed me

in third place in a top host competition,

with only about 12 hours left before the first cut.

And this is actually kind of ridiculous to me,

considering someone told me I should start a podcast

about 15 years ago,

and I basically laughed at them.

So I'm going for it.

There's an opportunity here to host

an iHeartRadio-produced podcast,

and I would genuinely love

to see what I could do with that.

So, if you've gotten something from "Is Anything Real?",

whether it's an idea,

a laugh,

a question you kept thinking about,

whatever really,

I'd appreciate your vote.

I put the link right at the top of the show notes below.

It takes only about 30 seconds,

and I'm sitting at number 3 right now.

Now 12 is technically my lucky number,

but 1 sounds actually pretty incredible today.

So thanks for listening.

Thanks for being part of this weird experiment with me.

And whether we move up or not,

I really appreciate you all.

All right, we'll get back

to regularly regularly scheduled programming soon.

Thank you.