Groups can bring us together to accomplish things none of us could achieve alone. They can also fuel prejudice, division, and conflict. The groups we belong to shape whom we trust and how our brains respond to the people around us.

NYU psychologist Jay Van Bavel has spent his career studying what makes groups so powerful and how we can harness that power for good. In this episode of Power & Impact, Jay and I explore the influence groups have on everything from our relationships to our politics.

We discuss what happens when people lose their connections to groups and communities, including rising loneliness among young adults and the decline of traditional community institutions. Jay also talks about whether AI companions, with their tendency to tell us what we want to hear, could further weaken the social bonds that bring us together.

In the workplace, Jay explains how groups develop their own cultures, why influential employees often have no formal leadership role, and how psychological safety helps teams work together more effectively. These ideas are central to his forthcoming book, Smarter Together.

Perhaps nowhere is the power of group identity more apparent today than in our deeply polarized politics. Jay explains why we exaggerate our differences with people on the other side, how those perceptions fuel hostility, and what it might take to bridge the divide.

When Andrew Yeung moved to New York, he landed jobs at Facebook and Google — and almost no one to hang out with. So he started bringing people together, beginning with a casual meetup in Central Park that drew 50 people.

Those early gatherings grew into Fibe, a community that now hosts 100 events a year for some 20,000 entrepreneurs and tech leaders. Along the way, Andrew became such a fixture in New York's tech scene that he's been dubbed the "Gatsby of Silicon Alley."

In this episode of Power & Impact, Andrew talks about leaving Google to build his own company, why helping others can be one of the best ways to get ahead, and how his own shyness taught him to create events where people connect.

He also shares his perspective on ambition and community after growing up in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Shanghai, and explains why he sees AI as a tool for creating more time for human relationships — including an app he built to preserve his parents' stories.

Andrew came to New York looking for connection. He found his calling in creating it for others.

What happens when you stop worrying about where your career is supposed to lead and start paying attention to what interests you? Craig Dubitsky has built a career on exactly that. He began on the floor of the commodities exchange and worked his way up to trader. Then he made a sharp turn into entrepreneurship, helping build Method and EOS before founding Hello Products. His latest venture is Happy, the coffee company he launched with Robert Downey Jr.

On paper, those moves have little in common. To Craig, they're the same story. Each began with curiosity about something he couldn't leave alone, and with one question: Why does it have to be this way? In this week's Power & Impact, Craig explains how some of the biggest turns in his life began with simply saying yes to a meeting or starting a conversation. He makes the case that relationships have mattered more to his career than any carefully constructed plan. We also explore what great brands understand about human behavior, and why Craig believes curiosity and human connection will only grow more valuable in the age of AI.

His career may look unconventional, but one idea runs through it: Pay attention to what interests you, and don't be afraid to follow an idea somewhere unexpected.