Leisure

Leveling Up

by Adam Parrish

Claiming needs an RSS feed. Contact us.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Chart positions today · New Zealand

Not on the New Zealand charts we track today.

If you like Leveling Up, try…

The Setting Trick: Conversations with World Class Bridge Players

Latest episodes

John Ramos

October 13, 2026 · 35 min

John Ramos was born and raised in New York City. He learned the rules of bridge at a very young age from his father and grandmother. After graduating from Princeton University in 1992, he returned to NYC and pursued tournament bridge…
Phil Clayton

September 22, 2026 · 32 min

Phil Clayton became a Life Master at age 22 and is currently an Emerald Life Master. He is a USBF junior mentor and coach and was the Non-Playing Captain of the USA2 Seniors team at the world championships in Herning, DK. He is a member of…
Marc Smith

September 8, 2026 · 35 min

Marc Smith was a member of the Great Britain team that won the Junior Teams at the European Union Championships in 1985. Marc has won most of England’s national events at some point in the past 40+ years, most recently picking up the…
Rob Barrington

August 26, 2026 · 39 min

Rob Barrington is a professional player, teacher, and one of the more recognizable personalities in the modern bridge world. His online content reaches a global audience where just his YouTube channel has over 6 million views! Based in…
John Kranyak

August 11, 2026 · 38 min

John Kranyak is a professional bridge player and world champion originally from Cleveland, Ohio, currently living in Tucson, Arizona. He is married to fellow bridge player, Dr. Allison Kranyak. Together they have a baby girl Lyla. In his…

Show 7 more episodesShow fewer episodes

Maya Jonas-Silver

July 28, 2026 · 40 min

Maya attended her first NABC in 2022, and the next year took 2nd place in GNT Cs, won the 20-50 Mini-McKenney, and started teaching beginners with a novel strategy aimed at youngish working professionals. Since then, she's made Day 2 of a…
Raj Shourie

July 7, 2026 · 39 min

Rajath Shourie was introduced to bridge as a child by his family, but didn't really play until he had retired from his career in distressed debt investing. He took up the game during Covid, learning online, and went to his first in-person…
Danny Miles

June 23, 2026 · 40 min

The year is 1990. A teenage Danny Miles is introduced to bridge by his grandmother, Frances — proving once again that grandmothers are the game’s most effective recruiters. The hobby stuck. Danny went on to win four Canadian Open…
Adam Grossack

June 9, 2026 · 39 min

ag
Bill Bailey

May 26, 2026 · 38 min

Bill Bailey has an unusual bridge history. He discovered bridge in book form in his early 20s. He’d heard it was the “chess of card games” and so decided to buy an Intro to Bridge book. This started a 30-year habit of reading bridge books…
Owen Lien

May 12, 2026 · 38 min

Owen Lien grew up in Hickory, NC, and now live in Oak Park, MI. He started playing bridge at 9 and now has over 20,000 masterpoints. He was a member of the US Junior Bridge Team from 2006 - 2014, winning the World Junior Championship in…
Kai Eckert

April 28, 2026 · 39 min

Kai Eckert learned Bridge in July 2018 after his grandmother refused to teach him. He learned on vacation to surprise her, and then Bridge turned into being a little bit a lot. He could never seem to get enough Bridge in his life, so he…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Adam Parrish is exploring how one gets better at bridge and advances to the next level—be that from intermediate to advanced or expert to world class. Adam is an expert player himself—a national champion and a Master Teacher—but he's looking to get to the next level, and devoting the year to figuring out what that takes. Adam will be talking to world-class bridge players about how they got to where they are and what they do to maintain and hone their game. He'll also talk to non-expert bridge players about how they work to get better, and to experts in fields outside of bridge.