AI is transforming our world. Yet many people building these technologies have no grounding in the principles of Western Civilization. With the wrong ideas, we could hurtle toward an authoritarian, dystopian future. But with the right values, AI could unleash freedom and prosperity in ways never imagined. What are the philosophical frameworks needed to harness AI for good? And how do we train a new generation of philosopher builders?

We explore these timely issues with Brendan McCord, founder and chair of the Cosmos Institute, a new nonprofit equipping technologists with pro-liberty values. After graduating from MIT and Harvard Business School, Brendan served on Arctic submarine missions for the Department of Defense and later authored its first AI strategy. He went on to build and lead two AI startups that were acquired for $400 million. Now, he's educating our best and brightest minds in the timeless wisdom of Western Civilization and preparing them for the serious ethical questions that AI poses.

We begin with the importance of philosophy throughout history in harnessing emerging technologies for freedom or control. Next, Brendan breaks down the four dominant approaches to AI ? doomsayers, accelerationists, regulators, and techno-authoritarians ? and where each falls short. Alternatively, he offers three principles and their philosophical roots for harnessing AI for human flourishing: reason (John Stuart Mill), decentralization (Alexis de Tocqueville), and human autonomy (Aristotle). We also cover legitimate versus illegitimate concerns with AI and conclude with how the Cosmos Institute is putting these principles into action, from its Fellowship programs to its new AI lab at Oxford University.

00:00 Episode intro

02:04 Submarines to Building AI Companies

06:00 Why Philosopher Builders are needed

13:20 Why AI poses unique challenges

20:50 Doomsayers vs Accelerationists

25:50 Philosophical frameworks for human flourishing

30:10 Regulators & Techno-authoritarians

37:34 AI running for political office?

40:07 LLMs don't know how to reason

42:30 Purpose of the Cosmos Institute

How is AI augmenting software developers? Will it replace or commoditize certain roles? And how should aspiring engineers prepare for the future?

This week, we're joined by Dylan Serota, co-founder and CEO of Terminal, to discuss AI's impact on one of the most important aspects of company building: talent. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Dylan headed to Silicon Valley, where he helped build and scale global teams for Eventbrite. After seeing the flaws in traditional outsourcing firms, he set out to build Terminal ? a new model for a global talent platform. Behind the scenes, Terminal is enabling some of the fastest-growing tech companies, like Hims&Hers, Chime, and NextDoor, to hire and manage teams around the world.

We start our conversation with global hiring trends and how AI is transforming the competition for talent. Specifically, we discuss how new AI tools are augmenting coding and impacting demand for high-skill versus entry-level developers. We also tackle the challenges in building global teams and why some companies are reverting to face-to-face interviews and tests. Next, we explore the misaligned incentives in traditional outsourcing models and how Terminal differentiates itself. Finally, Dylan offers his advice to young engineers on how they should prepare for the AI age.

00:00 Episode Intro

02:00 The state of global talent

05:00 Why is Nike hiring thousands of engineers?

9:00 Will AI replace coders?

13:30 AI screening vs in-person interviews

18:00 Why is traditional outsourcing broken?

22:20 How Terminal helps startups scale

26:00 Advice for young engineers

Raj Bhakta is best known as the founder of Whistlepig Whiskey. But he also served in the Marines, rode an elephant across the Rio Grande while running for Congress, won a spot on The Apprentice with Donald Trump, recently purchased a college, and is reinventing the whiskey game (again). He's a patriot and creator of one-of-a-kind spirits ? with a personality to match.

The son of immigrants, Raj grew up learning his father's hotel business before setting out on his own. After adventures in investment banking, reality TV, and politics, he saw an opening in high-end American whiskey ? and he seized it. WhistlePig quickly became one of the premier craft whiskeys. After exiting in 2019, he secured one of the world's oldest stashes of Armagnac and launched his newest ventures: Hogsworth and Bhakta Spirits.

Raj recently acquired the now-defunct Green Mountain College in Vermont, where he plans to build a new university grounded in our Founding values, along with a world-class spirit library. We sample his newest whiskeys, joke about religion and politics, and learn from a great American entrepreneur.

00:00 Episode intro

01:44 Why Raj bought a college

03:32 Riding an elephant across Rio Grande

08:49 Origin story of WhistlePig

11:32 Growing up in America; joining Marines

18:32 Acquiring world's biggest stash of Armagnac

23:20 Building Hogsworth / how to blend whiskey

24:13 Catholicism vs Judaism

29:11 Working with Trump on The Apprentice

32:03 Bhakta Spirits & why drink Armagnac

39:40 Why Raj is building a new college

44:35 Advice for entrepreneurs

51:25 Bullying and adversity

In World War II, the U.S. government embraced a radical idea: putting scientists and technologists in charge of building advanced weapons. The rest, as we say, is history. What are the radical ideas we need today? And what can we learn from the history of Silicon Valley? 

This week, we talk with Steve Blank ? serial entrepreneur, Stanford professor, and influential author who created concepts that define today's innovation ecosystem. After serving in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, Steve landed his first job at William Perry's now-famous Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory. He went on to launch several companies, from taking on Intel in microprocessor manufacturing to building early versions of CRM. His book, "Four Steps to the Epiphany," is credited as the intellectual backbone of the lean startup movement. He has also studied the Pentagon for decades, served on the Defense Business Board, and co-founded Stanford's Gordian Knot Center. 

We start with Steve's entrepreneurial journey and the evolution of Silicon Valley over the past 50 years, from helping end the Cold War to pioneering the computer and internet age. We also examine the devolution of government and its decline from the engine of technology and research in the 20th century to today's slow, bloated bureaucracy.  Steve outlines his bold ideas for reforming the Pentagon and outpacing China in the technology race; he also breaks down the difference between execution and innovation and how the best organizations, like SpaceX, can manage both simultaneously.  Finally, we discuss why Steve had called for a pause in AI research and, given his concerns over China, if we can afford to pause. 

00:00 Episode Intro

01:40 "Bill Perry was my first boss" 

7:43 The Secret History of Silicon Valley

12:14 How US govt fell behind SV

17:05 SpaceX vs NASA

22:00 Radical ideas for Pentagon 

26:28 Execution vs Innovation

31:13 Lean startup vs fat startup 

40:11 Does industrial policy work? 

43:40 Why did Steve call for AI pause? 

What does political courage look like in action? What does it mean to stand up to special interests? And what are the fights we must take on ? and win ? to keep America free and prosperous? 

I recently interviewed Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt at the Cicero Institute's 2024 Courage Awards, where we recognized him and other bold leaders from across the country for taking on cronyism and corruption in the face of great opposition.  Stitt considers himself a businessman governor: he started Gateway Mortage with $1,000 and a computer before scaling it into a national company. He never sought public office before running for governor, and since he's taken charge, he's run it like a business: balancing budget shortfalls, streamlining permitting, and slashing regulations. More impressively, he's demonstrated real courage in standing up to powerful special interests, like the homelessness industrial complex, and others you might not expect, like the police union. 

Learn how he succeeded in getting real help to the homeless and mentally ill, and why he vetoed a pension increase for police officers. Stitt also explains how woke nonsense and cronyism manifest even in a deep red state ? and how to fight it; why politics shouldn't be a career profession; and how he succeeded in passing one of the boldest school choice programs in the nation. Oklahoma has become one of the nation's fastest-growing states under his leadership, and you'll see why. 

00:00 Episode Intro

01:58 Entrepreneur to governor

05:29 Passing school choice

8:33 Taking on the homeless industrial complex

12:20 Vetoing police pension increase

15:45 Slashing regulations

19:05 Fixing the nursing shortfall / workforce readiness

22:13 Limiting the growth of government

For Episode 100, we have a special conversation with Elad Gil, one of Silicon Valley's great thinkers, builders, and investors. Elad has been involved with many of the leading technology companies of the past 20 years ? and likely the next 20 years. Learn how he's backed dozens of unicorns, why he thinks AI is underhyped, and where he sees investment opportunities amid this new wave of disruption. 

An early leader at Google, Elad helped build the initial mobile team, before founding MixerLabs, which was acquired by Twitter in 2009. Elad stayed on as VP of Corporate Strategy and became a key "fixer" during Twitter's hypergrowth phase. Later, he co-founded Color Health, a genetic testing company specializing in cancer detection. Over the past decade, he's backed nearly 40 unicorns, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Figma, Instacart, and Stripe. He's also invested in Harvey, Mistral, Perplexity, Pika, and other leading AI startups. 

In this episode, Elad takes us behind the scenes of the early days of Google and Twitter, and how Silicon Valley culture has evolved. He explains his three categories of exceptional founders and how he positioned himself to become one of the top angel investors. We also dive deep into AI, from the trajectory of LLMs to frameworks for investing in the AI value stack. Finally, we discuss AI's impact on education and the most exciting possibilities for the decade ahead. 

00:00 Episode intro

01:16 Building Google?s mobile team

06:01 Early days at Twitter

11:37 Building Color Health

15:57 How he?s backed dozens of unicorns

21:52 How small clusters of talent change the world

25:20 Where are the young people in government?

27:25 Where are the young startup founders?

30:17 Why AI is underhyped

36:40 Will LLMs get exponentially better?

39:10 Investing in the AI value stack

41:33 AI and the future of education

The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. The wealthiest among us don't pay their fair share in taxes. The American Dream is disappearing... Are these claims true? What data are they based upon? And does it stand up to scrutiny?

This week, we analyze the debate over income inequality and mobility in America with economist and former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm. In his book, "The Myth of American Inequality" (winner of the 2024 Hayek Prize), Gramm lays out the oft-cited data for widening inequality and exposes where it falls short. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the top 20% of earners possess 16.7 times the income of the bottom 20%. However, Gramm reveals that this data excludes nearly all government transfer payments to the poor, like food stamps, and fails to subtract the high taxes paid by top earners. Adjusting for these factors, inequality drops from 16.7X to 4X!

Gramm also points out that benefits to the poor have increased from $9,700 per household in 1967 (adjusted for inflation) to nearly $50,000 today. He argues that we suffer, not from extreme inequality, but from welfare-driven equality that encourages huge numbers of low-and-middle income Americans to drop out of the workforce.

Senator Phil Gramm served in Washington D.C. for 25 years, first as a Congressman and later as a three-term Senator from Texas. He's an economist by training who taught at Texas A&M before entering public service. His book is a must-read for understanding the inequality debate, the truth about the super-rich, and the state of the American Dream.

00:00 Episode intro

03:32 Is inequality extreme and growing?

10:45 Elon Musk and the super-rich

16:19 Is Warren Buffet cheating the government?

22:55 Industrial Revolution ? setting the record straight

29:35 Do billionaires pay their fair share?

33:40 Is the American Dream dying?

Founded in 1913, the Anti-Defamation League has played an important role in protecting the Jewish community and fighting for civil rights. But in recent years, many believe it has lurched too Left and promoted content that ends up harming Jews. I sat down with its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, to discuss what the ADL has gotten right and debate where it's gone wrong.

Jonathan started his career in President Clinton's administration before finding success as an entrepreneur and later returning to the Obama White House. We don't align on politics, but we have mutual respect and I visited him at the White House during Obama's tenure to discuss policy issues. Many of the ADL's core activities are noble: report illegal threats against Jews, push back aggressively on anti-Semitism, and provide legal assistance for Jewish students harmed or threatened on college campuses. But recently, many on the Center and Right have taken serious issue with some of the ADL's actions, including its pressure campaigns against social media platforms and embrace of progressive politics that may be making Jews more vulnerable.

In our candid discussion, I challenged Greenblatt on ADL's Left-wing stances and its promotion of critical race theory and Ta-Nehisi Coates' earlier work. I was encouraged to hear about the ADL's aggressive actions against Harvard, Penn, and other institutions after October 7; his agreement that oppressor vs oppressed frameworks foment hate against Jews; and his call for regime change in Iran, not appeasement.

I?d like to see the ADL stop demonizing many on the Right and promoting woke nonsense on their site, distracting from its core purpose of fighting the actual enemies of Jews. But Jonathan and I agree that the ADL is an organization with a storied history and a valuable role to continue to play, especially given the pressing need to combat antisemitism today.

00:00 Episode Intro

02:15 Jonathan's background

05:14 ADL's History

08:39 Lessons from October 7

15:33 Have things improved on college campuses?

17:20 Iran funding antisemitism in the US

20:20 Has ADL gone hard Left? Does ADL teach CRT?

24:00 Will ADL stop promoting Ta-Nehisi Coates?

28:36 How wokeness causes antisemitism

At 19 years old, Jimmy John Liautaud dropped out of college to start his own sandwich shop. He spent 10 years perfecting his first 10 stores, before franchising his model and scaling to nearly 3,000 Jimmy John's locations nationwide. Then the government almost destroyed it.

This week, we sit down with the billionaire sandwich king to discuss his remarkable journey, the impact of government policy, and the consequences of elections. We dive into the business model that made Jimmy John's a national success, and how the Department of Labor under President Obama changed the regulations, sued his stores, and eventually caused him to sell the business. He now encourages business leaders to stand up and speak out, and explains why he's backing President Trump in the upcoming election.

He shares a wealth of lessons learned, including the qualities he looks for in managers and how he can tell if a restaurant will succeed or fail by looking at the front door. Along with his personal success, he's also created hundreds of millionaires within the company, including many who started as sandwich makers, and he donates millions to wildlife preservation and scholarships for disadvantaged youth. Jimmy loves his country, his family, and his community; he's a true American success story and you'll see why.

00:00 Episode Intro01:40 The first Jimmy John's store05:05 How Jimmy scaled nationwide07:03 How government almost ruined his business13:17 Why every election matters18:39 Want to win? Nail the details21:10 Turning around failing stores23:59 Minimum wage & AI + robots29:49 Final advice for entrepreneurs

Roland Fryer is a profile in courage; the Harvard economist follows the data where it leads, no matter the outcome. He studied the impact of paying kids for positive behaviors. He demonstrated how charter school best practices can transform even the worst public schools. And most controversially, he conducted a comprehensive study of police use of force, finding that racial discrimination exists at low levels of force but not in shootings. His colleagues at Harvard pressured him to shelve the study; he received death threats. Learn why he didn't cave and why says he would do it again tomorrow. 

Roland is not only a leading public intellectual but also a builder. In 2020, he co-founded Sigma Squared, which uses data science and new AI tools to help employers find the best talent for the job, or as he says, supercharge meritocracy. His goal: bring HR into the AI age and take the hiring process from a well-educated guess to a precise science.

Roland's accomplishments are even more impressive considering his upbringing: his father went to prison and his mother walked out. Yet, he fell in love with economics and worked his way through college ? including stints at McDonald's and Golden Corral ?  to become the youngest tenured black professor in Harvard's history! Roland personifies American optimism, and you'll see why. 

Learn more about Roland's research and read his study on charter school best practices here.

The U.S. Navy dominated in World War II, not because we had the most advanced ships, but because our industrial capacity was unmatched. When we lost a ship in battle, we could instantly replace it with two or three new ones. Our enemies couldn't keep pace. But today, our shipbuilding is a shell of its former self. In 1943, we built over 18,000 ships. Last year, we built eight (and retired 12). China, on the other hand, is producing hundreds of ships and now boasts 250 times the U.S. shipbuilding capacity!

How can the U.S. Navy maintain deterrence? One answer is autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) and harnessing new possibilities in AI to field and simultaneously coordinate hundreds or thousands of unmanned vessels. That's why Dino Mavrookas and his team are building Saronic Technologies ? the leading ASV manufacturer. Saronic is the only company engineering the hardware, software, and AI to create modular platforms that can be produced economically at scale. They currently offer three classes of vehicles that can be fitted with various sensors and weapons (including the possibility of torpedoes!).

Dino believes the push into unmanned, attritable systems is our generation's space race. He served 11 years as a Navy SEAL with eight combat tours before working as a private equity technology investor. He partnered with 8VC through its Build program to launch Saronic in 2022, and it has quickly become one of the fastest-growing defense technology companies. Saronic recently closed a $175 million Series B, making it the newest defense unicorn. Its advisors include former admirals and other naval leaders, and did we mention it's being built right here in Austin, Texas!

Wilbur Ross is one of the great turnaround artists in modern finance. Dubbed the "King of Bankruptcy," he restructured over $400 billion of assets, saving companies ? and jobs ? in distressed industries like steel, coal, and textiles. In 2016, he went to Washington as U.S. Commerce Secretary to take on a similar mission and defend American companies and workers in high-stakes trade negotiations, particularly with China.

We were privileged to host Wilbur for a conversation about his storied career and new book: ?Risks and Returns: Creating Success in Business and Life."  We began with his investment philosophy and how he reshaped Wall Street, including his close relationship with Mike Milken and the inception of leveraged buyouts.  Wilbur also recalls going head-to-head with Donald Trump during the bankruptcy negotiations for the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, and explains how that interaction led him to become one of the first Wall Street leaders to support Trump's candidacy for president. 

Next, we dive into his tenure as Commerce Secretary and the ongoing debates over U.S. trade policy. He shares his favorite Trump story ? an early interaction with Chinese President Xi Jinping ? as well as the accomplishments he's most proud of, like regulatory relief, and what he wishes the administration had done differently: act faster and more boldly! Wilbur is a patriot and leader we can all learn from, and hope you'll check out his new book. 

He predicted Vladimir Putin would attack Ukraine months before it happened. Now he believes similar signals foreshadow China invading Taiwan. What similarities does he see? When and how would a Chinese incursion unfold? And what can the U.S. do to deter this conflict?This week, we're joined by Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of web security giant CrowdStrike, who departed the firm several years ago to focus on the intersection of technology, national security, and global competition as the Chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator. He's the author of an important new book: "World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century."

We begin with Dmitri's entrepreneurial journey, from building a multi-billion dollar cyber security firm to lessons learned on the front lines of Chinese and Russian cyber attacks. Next, we discuss Dmitri's new book, his Cold War II thesis, and the comparative strengths and weaknesses between China and the U.S. He lays out Putin's rationale for attacking Ukraine and the similarities he sees with Xi Jinping and Taiwan ? and even predicts the date China might invade! Finally, he explains the four key technologies where the U.S. must remain ahead of China to prevent a Cold War from turning hot.

Electronic shields are iconic elements of Star Trek, Star Wars, and other great American sci-fi. Once a fantasy, we are now building versions of these in real life! And they're a vital solution to a new type of threat confounding our legacy defense industry.

This real-life force field alternative is called directed high-power microwave (HPM), and it's an answer to drone swarms and the proliferation of autonomous, attritable threats. Founded out of 8VC Build in 2018, Epirus is building the world's most advanced HPM systems, capable of disabling hordes of drones and other electronic devices up to miles away ? and it only costs pennies to fire! This week, we talk with Epirus CEO Andy Lowery about the science behind HPM and why the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Space Force are all pursuing Epirus' technology.

We begin with the changing nature of warfare and why harnessing ? and defending against ? autonomous, attributable systems is essential for any future conflict. Next, we dive into HPM technology and its myriad applications, from taking out drones, missiles, boats, and other vehicles to defending satellites in space. We also discuss the rise of "neo-primes" like SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril and a new model for getting the best technology into the hands of our warfighters as quickly as possible. Finally, we discuss the importance of fusing Silicon Valley's AI and big data expertise with the U.S. defense-industrial base's advanced hardware experience in order to maintain our technological advantages over China and other adversaries.

Learn more about Epirus? approach to electronic warfare, and follow Epirus on Social: YouTube, LinkedIn, X

Ken Langone's father was a plumber and his mother a cafeteria worker ? neither made it past 8th grade ? yet Ken became a multi-billionaire investor, builder, and philanthropist. And he did so as an outspoken patriot, defender of capitalism, and man of honor, famously taking on one of the most corrupt politicians of our time ? and winning! 

In our conversation, we begin with Ken's investment philosophy, including how he became the largest shareholder in Eli Lilly. Next, we dive into leadership lessons and how he co-founded and grew Home Depot into an American icon valued at over $400 billion. But Ken is most proud of the fact that 3,000 associates who began pushing carts in the parking lot have gone on to become multi-millionaires within the company ? a feat only possible under capitalism he says. 

In the 2000s, Ken had a front-page showdown with then-NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Most of the Wall Street bigwigs in Spitzer's crosshairs cowered and ran, but not Ken. He fought back and won, exposing Spitzer's abuse of power. Ken hilariously recounts his epic battles and demonstrates the importance of fighting for justice and defending the honor of your colleagues, no matter the cost.  

Finally, we discuss the impact of Ken's prolific philanthropy, such as his recent $200 million donation to help make NYU Medical School tuition-free. For decades, he's also been a leader in education reform, including one of the greatest urban success stories: Harlem Children's Zone. They have proven that kids from the most difficult areas and family backgrounds can succeed, and have revealed the failings of the teachers' unions and education establishment.  

I'm fortunate to call Ken a friend and mentor. There will never be another quite like him, but we should do our best to follow his lead! 

Is greatness a choice? If so, why doesn't everyone choose greatness? And more broadly, what are the prerequisites for a great society? 

This week, I'm joined by Ethan Penner, author of the new book "Greatness Is a Choice" and one of the most influential figures in modern real estate. In his early 30s, Ethan pioneered the creation of commercial mortgage-backed securities and helped build a new market at a critical moment in history. We discuss his journey from the streets of Yonkers to the heights of Wall Street and what he learned from industry greats like Sam Zell. 

Ethan is also a student of history, religion, and philosophy who cares deeply about advancing freedom and helping others find purpose in life. His new book argues that most people misunderstand greatness and equate it to the top one percent of society. Rather, he believes that greatness is a daily decision to choose excellence, and by deliberately choosing excellence we can bring newfound meaning and fulfillment to our daily lives. Through concise and pointed chapters, like "The Debilitating Effects of the Victim Mentality" and ?Equality Is Not the Point," Ethan diagnoses where our modern culture has gone awry and offers an antidote that can inspire us all to pursue greatness. 

At Columbia University's freshman orientation, Coleman Hughes and his classmates were separated into groups by skin color to discuss the effects of racism, with minorities portrayed as victims and white students as beneficiaries. Why have exercises like this become commonplace in elite institutions? How did this neo-racism take hold? And what are the counter-arguments and better approaches to race and diversity? 

These questions are at the heart of Coleman's new book: "The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America." A talented, rising public intellectual, Coleman was one of the first courageous voices pushing back against the "anti-racist" pablum popularized by Ibram Kendi and Robin DiAngelo. He's a contributor to The Free Press, analyst at CNN, and host of the popular podcast "Conversations with Coleman." 

In this episode, Coleman argues for a return to colorblindness and the ethics of MLK ? not that we pretend we can't see race, but that we strive to move beyond it and focus on character, culture, and merit instead. He makes the case that socioeconomic factors, not race, are more accurate proxies for helping the most disadvantaged in society, and our public policy should be oriented as such. He also exposes the lazy thinking and platitudes that permeate conversations about race, along with some of the worst ideas done in the name of diversity, such as rejecting standardized tests. Finally, we discuss a better way to acknowledge America's past sins while moving forward in a way that unites our country.

Dr. Clarence Jones is a giant of the civil rights movement. As the personal attorney and speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he risked everything to help save the soul of America, including smuggling scraps of papers in and out of Birmingham prison that would become Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail.  In fact, Dr. Jones never thought he'd live to see the age of 50. 

Today, he's 93 years old, and one of the last living civil rights icons. In this episode, we trace the journey of an American hero ? the son of domestic servants who became valedictorian of his high school and studied at Juilliard before becoming a successful entertainment lawyer. That is until Dr. King showed up at his California home asking for legal assistance. After initially turning him away, he went to hear Dr. King preach, and his life ? and the direction of our country ? changed forever. 

We discuss the key moments in his fight for justice, the significance of the black-Jewish alliance, and the legacy of Dr. King, including his thoughts on today's debate over DEI, Critical Race Theory, and colorblindness.  He also shares his powerful approach to radical non-violence and his advice for young people today: pursue excellence. Dr. Jones has lived an extraordinary life, and his wisdom on issues of race should be heeded over many of the voices in popular culture today. 

SHOW NOTES: 

Dr. Jones was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor. 

Last year, Dr. Jones released his memoir, "Last of the Lions." 

Learn more about Dr. Jones' work through his foundation and as Chair of the Spill the Honey Foundation, which continues the legacy of the Black-Jewish Alliance. 

Are government programs and interventions superior to market corrections? According to Dr. Cliff Winston, the evidence to support such a claim doesn?t exist. Many economists obsess over market failures but seldom point the microscope in the direction of government, despite its many failures. And worse, the bureaucracy doesn't hold itself accountable. 

This week, we examine some of the flaws of modern economic theories with Dr. Winston, a microeconomist and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, with a B.A. and Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley, and Masters from the London School of Economics. He is the author of numerous books and papers, including, most recently, ?Indispensable: Market corrections in a U.S. economy beset by government failures.? 

From antitrust to welfare programs and tax incentives, most Americans assume government interventions are preferable to allowing the market to correct itself, but as Cliff explains, we don't have scholarly evidence to back that up. He explains why we need government retrospectives and more widespread experiments to test what does or doesn't work. When has government been effective? Ironically, Cliff says, when it gets out of the way: deregulation. We talk about the benefits of airline deregulation, for example, and Cliff makes the case for deregulating the legal profession and other areas that require occupational licensure. Finally, we discuss scenarios where government involvement could be beneficial, such as setting adoption standards for autonomous vehicles.  

STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) education is the backbone of the innovation economy. Yet at many schools, it's become stodgy and irrelevant to solving real-world problems. Not surprisingly, many of the best minds forgo college or drop out. What would it look like to design a STEM program that is inspiring, cutting-edge, and grounded in timeless truths? And how do you educate the next generation of great entrepreneurs who are also citizens of virtue? 

This week, we discuss a better model for STEM with Dr. David Ruth, Dean of the Center for STEM at the University of Austin (UATX). Dr. Ruth is a retired U.S. Navy Captain who worked on a nuclear attack submarine, an aircraft carrier, and as a war planner in Asia, before teaching advanced mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy for 13 years. 

In this episode, Dr. Ruth lays out UATX's approach to 21st-century STEM: a curriculum that balances first principles with practical application and unparalleled industry engagement. (We're already partnering with The Boring Company and other leading companies in Texas!) Many STEM programs bog down students in unnecessary tasks; UATX is taking a different approach with "computation-enabled thinking" that combines what humans do best (abstracting, modeling, and interpreting) with what computers do best (computation). We also discuss how to safeguard science and math from identity politics, and the importance of making STEM exciting and challenging through innovative games and challenges. If you're a student pursuing a STEM education, we hope you'll check out what we're building at UATX. 

In 1979, Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi was attending fighter pilot school in Lubbock, Texas when the Islamic Revolution overthrew his father's reign. A radical theocracy seized power and began extinguishing freedoms, persecuting minorities, and taking a pro-Western Iran back to the Middle Ages. Since then, the Crown Prince has lived in exile as a leading voice for a secular and democratic Iran. What is his view of the Revolution? Why does he believe regime change is possible today? And how should the U.S. and the West deal with Iran?

Given Iran's recent attack on Israel, we get a rare and timely perspective on the power dynamics within Iran and why the current regime is more fragile than we realize. The Crown Prince paints a picture of his homeland pre-and-post Revolution, and explains why many governments misunderstand the fanatical leadership of Iran. He lays out his strategy of "maximum support" and how combining sanctions and external pressure with internal support, such as internet access and financial resources for protestors, could someday topple the regime. And if it does, he details a post-regime strategy to transition the government toward a secular democracy. We also discuss the longstanding history between the Persian and Jewish people, and how, with the right leadership, the region could once again become dynamic and prosperous.

[NOTE: this conversation was recorded shortly before Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel.]

India?s tech ecosystem has hit an indisputable inflection point in recent years. For decades, American corporations outsourced basic services to India, while India outsourced its top talent to Silicon Valley. But today, India?s tech economy boasts homegrown software giants and a flourishing startup scene.

This week, we get a front-row look into India?s startup evolution with one of its top talents: Sri Ganesan, Founder and CEO of Rocketlane. His first company, Konotor, was acquired into Freshworks, which went public in 2021 for $10 billion and became one of India's biggest wins. Now, Sri is building Rocketlane into a leading solution for SaaS deployment and professional services automation, with teams in the U.S. and India. By combining American know-how with Indian talent, Rocketlane represents an important dynamic for the future of tech and expanding key partnerships around the world. 

In this episode, we dive into the lessons learned from Freshworks's success and how it paved the way for greater entrepreneurial risk within India. We also explore Sri's journey in scaling Rocketlane, from finding product-market fit to positioning the company to take advantage of the AI wave. We discuss what India?s rise to become one of the world's most important economies means for the future of tech and global talent distribution, along with the cultural differences between India and the US, and what it's like building on two continents simultaneously. Finally, Sri guides us through the various tech hubs in India, from Mumbai to Bangalore and Chennai, even down to his favorite restaurant and must-visit destinations for anyone heading to India soon.

Every year, more than 20,000 Americans receive a bone marrow transplant ? a Nobel prize-winning procedure that saves many lives but also carries great risk. For leukemia patients, it's a choice of last resort, as nearly 20% die from the transplant. Ivan Dimov, co-founder & CEO of Orca Bio, and his team have created a novel cell therapy alternative that has already saved over 400 lives in clinical trials with virtually zero rejection!This week, we dive into Ivan's journey, the science behind Orca's cancer breakthrough, and the potential of cell therapies to cure a host of other diseases.  By discovering new, high-precision methods to manipulate cells, Orca is able to provide leukemia patients with a designer immune system that attacks the cancer while nearly eliminating rejection. By safely rebooting the immune system, Ivan and his team believe Orca also has the potential to cure autoimmune diseases like Crohn?s disease and multiple sclerosis, and impact the lives of millions of Americans.Orca is currently seeking the first-ever FDA approval in this space, and since it's a unique one-time curative therapy, they are also commercializing the drug in-house ? a rare move in biopharma. Ivan walks us through the path to bringing Orca's products to market, from collaborating with regulators to negotiating with insurance companies and scaling up its manufacturing. Though many challenges remain, you'll see why we're incredibly bullish on Ivan's leadership and Orca's potential to transform the future of medicine.

What are the forces behind the scenes that drive financial markets? How do bubbles form ? and are we in one now? What do the world's best investors understand and how do they consistently come out ahead? 

This week we dive into global finance with one of the sharpest minds in macro investing: Whitney Baker, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Totem Macro. Whitney previously worked at two of the world's leading investment firms, first in global macro & long/short strategies at Soros Fund Management and most recently as the Head of Emerging Markets at Bridgewater Associates. 

In this episode, Whitney lays out the principles behind macro investing and how credit flows, borrowing cycles, and monetary policy drive global finance. She traces our current-day situation back to the 1970s when President Nixon ditched the gold standard and opened trade with China. She explains how a new age of deficit spending combined with China entering the U.S. bond market paved the way for the dot com bubble, and ultimately where we are today. Whitney makes the case that inflation isn't going away soon and believes the Federal Reserve's actions over the past few decades have exacerbated inequality in America. Yet, despite these headwinds, Whitney believes technological progress can sustain the U.S. through these challenging times, so long as we set the right conditions for our best entrepreneurs to succeed. 

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U.S. e-commerce sales eclipsed $1 trillion last year and are expected to double or triple over the next decade. As online demand increases, how can small businesses compete with retail giants like Amazon and Walmart? What capabilities do they need? And can a new model help level the playing field? 

This week, we explore the future of logistics and e-commerce with Tyler Scriven, co-founder and CEO of Saltbox. Tyler was a star talent at Palantir for many years (his first job title was "Predictor and Crusher" on account of his ability to eliminate operational challenges) before applying his learnings to help entrepreneurs nationwide. He identified a key gap in the market: small businesses have great software tools, but need help in the physical world with supply chain and logistics to compete against large retailers with scale advantages. With a dozen locations in major metropolitan areas, Saltbox provides a unique co-warehousing model to elevate storage and shipping capabilities. 

In this episode, we discuss Tyler's most important lessons from Palantir and how to cultivate a mission-driven culture. We cover his entrepreneurial journey from Palantir to acquiring his own small business and discovering the logistical shortcomings that Saltbox is designed to solve. We also talk leadership lessons and Tyler's compelling perspective on "courage for normal people." 

Leonard Leo is one of the most effective agents of legal and cultural change in America today. What's his playbook?  How can we apply it to other broken areas of society?  And why should the technology world be especially interested in his work?

In the mid-20th century, the U.S. judicial system took a sharp left turn, resulting in hyper-politicized courts, runaway bureaucracies, and many other distortions of our Constitutional system. Through his leadership of the Federalist Society, Leonard has led the charge to repair these broken institutions and, in the process, built arguably the most powerful legal network in the nation. He's been instrumental in the most important judicial elections and nominations of the past few decades. 

Leonard's wisdom is especially relevant for my friends in the effective accelerationism (e/acc) movement ? or anyone who values technological progress.  Standing athwart innovation is the ever-expanding administrative state, and Leonard has spent decades fighting to rightsize government and restore the separation of powers. He explains why property rights, limited government, and decentralized power are the bulwark of innovation, and why technologists must also join the effort to rein in the regulatory state and defend these sacred Constitutional principles. 

What are the single most effective policies for helping the world's poor? And what are we doing right now that's ineffective and should be stopped? The answers may surprise you. 

In his latest book "Best Things First," Bjorn Lomborg reveals the 12 best solutions to address the most pressing global challenges. He gathered the world's top economists to analyze the policies that would do the most good for the least amount of money. It turns out the United Nations and others are getting it wrong ? climate policies didn't make Bjorn's list! 

In 2015, the UN released its Sustainable Development Goals ? a mere 169 promises to achieve by 2030! Yet as Bjorn explains, these are largely virtue signaling or ineffective vows the UN will never make good on. Instead of overpromising or obsessing over climate change, Bjorn says the evidence points to 12 clear and measurable policy solutions: eliminating tuberculosis, investing in education the right way, and establishing clear land rights, to name a few. 

Bjorn is the Founder and Director of the Copenhagen Consensus think tank and one of the world's most influential writers and thinkers. He's made a career challenging misguided narratives, especially on environmental issues, while fighting to restore sanity and fact-based policymaking. His arguments are a direct challenge to the alarmism and doomerism surrounding us today, which is why YouTube and others try to censor him! 

By the summer of 2012, ride-sharing had arrived: Uber launched its everyman product, UberX, and Lyft debuted hot on its heels. Today, Lyft's market cap hovers around $5 billion while Uber's is north of $140 billion. How did Uber explode to global dominance? What was different about its culture? And how did it take on taxi cartels around the world and win? 

This week, we go behind the scenes with Emil Michael, one of Silicon Valley's great operators and dealmakers. As the former Chief Business Officer, Emil helped Uber raise a record $15 billion in two years and led its expansion into the most difficult markets, including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Italy. (Yes, Italy.)  Emil recounts his biggest wins and toughest challenges, including how the Italian mafia threatened to kill Uber employees and why to this day ride-sharing is almost nonexistent in Italy. 

Emil immigrated with his family to the U.S. from Egypt as a young child, and his success and character epitomize the American Dream. He graduated from Harvard, received his J.D. from Stanford Law, and began his entrepreneurial journey at TellMe, an early speech recognition company.  He quickly became known for his dealmaking skills, including transforming a $300 million acquisition offer into a $800 million deal with Steve Ballmer and Microsoft. After TellMe, he served as a White House fellow at the Pentagon and spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan, before later joining Uber. We dive into his unique approach to high-stakes negotiations and lessons learned from his distinguished career. 

Can investigative journalism prevail over sensational clickbait? Is it time to give up on San Francisco? Is the First Amendment sufficient to prevent the government from colluding with, or forcing, Big Tech to censor speech? This week, join us for a one-of-a-kind conversation with Mike Solana, Chief Marketing Officer at Founders Fund and Founder of Pirate Wires, one of the fastest-growing and most influential new media companies. Mike is a must-follow on X for his wit and unique insights, but also for the work he's doing to expose corruption and revive investigative reporting. Pirate Wires recently revealed how San Francisco taxpayers are being forced to fund the protests that shut down the Bay Bridge! We begin our discussion with the broken state of media, and why Mike believes a subscription model is the path to building a successful media outlet that isn't beholden to clickbait. Next, we discuss whether SF can be saved from the far Left and why we need better elites who don't blindly fund radical non-profits. We also cover several of Mike's seminal pieces of writing: the future of free speech when the government and Big Tech create a decentralized censorship regime, and how to revive our country's ability to build great, inspiring works. Can we restore competence in government or should we turn our energy and attention elsewhere? We discuss!

What is e/acc (effective accelerationism) and why is it going viral among tech's elite? Who are the leaders behind this movement and what are their ambitions? 

This week, we explore e/acc with one of its pioneers, Guillaume Verdon (aka @BasedBeffJezos), a theoretical physicist at the cutting edge of quantum computing and AI.  Guillaume worked under Sergey Brin as the quantum deep learning lead at Google X before launching a thermal computing startup called Extropic.  He started e/acc as a cultural counterforce to the degrowth and doomer movements that sow distrust of technology and seek to undermine the advancement of artificial intelligence and other emerging innovations. 

Fifty years ago, sci-fi was some of the most inspiring art in America.  It's no coincidence that it preceded the birth of the space and digital ages ? the stories and narratives we tell ourselves as a society are the ones we tend to work toward.  Not surprisingly, as sci-fi took a dystopian turn in recent decades, society's view of technology and progress soured as well.  E/acc is the antidote; it aims to inspire a cultural, then technological, renaissance in the West.  While e/acc has gained popularity through viral memes on social media, it's also a cohesive framework designed to apply to the modern world.  In this episode, we discuss the first principles behind e/acc, steelman the arguments against it, and explore how it's compatible with religion and other ethical frameworks.  This is an important movement that resonates with us at American Optimist. 

Who should be in charge of the culture of a company? How do you maintain a spirit of innovation as an organization scales? How can executives be transparent about their shortcomings while also improving as leaders?

Scott Cook, the founder and former CEO of Intuit, has navigated these challenges himself while mentoring hundreds of other leaders on how to do the same. Scott is a legend of Silicon Valley. In 1983, he founded Intuit and pioneered consumer finance software, first with Quicken and later TurboTax, Quickbooks, and other products that quickly became household names.

During the 8VC Leadership Summit, I sat down with Scott to discuss some of his most important lessons learned and advice to CEOs and founders. He begins with the responsibility of the CEO to set the company culture, and why leadership doesn't get to play by a different set of rules than its employees. He also explains how success can make organizations slow and stupid, and how to fight the forces of inertia. One way is by orienting decision-making around experimentation, not opinion or status, and he illustrates how Intuit learned to adopt this mindset. Finally, he advises CEOs to advertise their failures, not bury them, and seek out accountability and outside scrutiny from coaches and advisors.

In the wake of October 7, the decadence and rot of our legacy universities have been on full display. We've seen feckless leadership from college presidents, moral cowardice from faculty, and, as a result, shocking displays of anti-Semitism unchallenged on campus. It's time to build anew. 

That's why we founded the University of Austin ? America's first new top university in almost a century. And we are now accepting students for our inaugural class in the fall of 2024!  In this episode, three of UATX's founders ? myself, UATX President Pano Kanelos, and world-renowned historian Niall Ferguson ? discuss this critical moment for UATX, and the nation. We dive into what sets UATX apart: a constitution that safeguards freedom of inquiry and expression; a curriculum that combines the intellectual foundations of Western Civilization with real-world applications; and a faculty and support network made up of the world's leading scholars, writers, entrepreneurs, and builders. 

As Niall and Pano explain, we're training the Navy SEALs of the mind ? the next generation of leaders who can reason, debate, build, and restore our republic to greatness. Right now, we're looking for our first 100 students. If you're a maverick and have what it takes to help us forge a new path in higher education, we encourage you to apply. 

The U.S. spends $280 billion annually on healthcare billing!  It's an irrationally complex and outdated system in which most claims are adjudicated manually, resulting in massive inefficiencies and bogus claim rejections. Why is it so broken? How do we fix it? And what would healthcare look like if it functioned properly? 

That's what I discuss with Nick Perry and Doug Proctor, co-founder & CEO and COO of Candid Health, respectively. Two talented Palantir alumni, Nick and Doug represent a trend I'm watching closely: leading technologists with a top culture, the right software, and new breakthroughs in machine learning taking on the most broken areas of our economy. 

In this episode, they explain the origins of Candid and how they first learned the billing process by hand in order to build the information architecture necessary to process myriad types of claims with extremely low denial rates.  At scale, Nick & Doug envision Candid as Stripe or Shopify for healthcare: the infrastructure layer that automates revenue cycle management and dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for new healthcare startups. And if we ever want the U.S. to move from its broken fee-for-service model to value-based care, we'll need platforms like Candid to enable that shift ? another reason I'm bullish on Candid and the leaders behind it. 

Secret police groups, illegal bio labs, and large-scale influence operations ? China is engaged in these activities inside the United States today. How should we respond? Is economic divorce the answer? And are we destined for conflict, or is there a path toward peace and mutual prosperity?

We discuss these pressing issues with Rep. Mike Gallagher, Congressman for Wisconsin's 8th District and Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A distinguished warrior-scholar, Chairman Gallagher served in the Marines and deployed to Iraq, earned two Master's degrees and a Ph.D., and now leads one of the most consequential committees in Congress.

In this episode, he details some of the CCP's most nefarious activities within the U.S., and our government?s inadequate responses. We discuss the right strategy for addressing the CCP, including when and where economic decoupling makes sense. Chairman Gallagher also provides an update on new legislative efforts he believes will finally succeed at forcing a sale of TikTok, and he explains why China's economic woes and looming demographic crisis might make Xi Jinping more likely to take aggressive action. If you want to understand the extent of the CCP's malign actions and influence campaigns, follow the bipartisan work of Chairman Gallagher's committee.

Ten million students attend community college annually, but only 30% ever graduate!  It's a massive economic loss to students and society.  What if a new model could drastically increase completion rates while maintaining a high-quality education, and leave students with zero debt? That's what Tade Oyerinde is aiming to build with Campus, a new way to conduct community college. 

His approach is two-pronged: improve quality and increase completion rates. First, Campus is pioneering a gig economy for top adjunct professors. Recognizing that adjuncts at elite universities are often underpaid and drowning in debt, Campus offers them the opportunity to teach part-time online ? a win for adjuncts and students alike. Next, they surround students with support designed to reduce attrition: tuition includes a laptop, wifi, and a personal coach, all at a cost less than the annual Pell Grant (currently $7,495). Campus also recently acquired a brick-and-mortar school in Sacramento that offers hands-on skills training for in-demand career tracks, such as medical coding and cosmetology. 

Instead of taking on large sums of debt to attend mediocre private schools, Tade believes community college is the smarter path for most students, and hopes Campus will be at the forefront of a new era in higher education. But it won't be easy. Learn about his journey to reinvent one of America's most entrenched and misaligned sectors. 

In the last generation, the U.S. technology sector created many of the most valuable companies in the world. Has Silicon Valley figured out a better way to build and scale a business? How did this cohort of outsiders ? ?geeks? ? create cultures that continually redefine the limits of science and technology? And how can others, especially our government, learn from the very best organizations?

These are the questions at the heart of best-selling author Andrew McAfee's new book "The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results." A principal research scientist at MIT, Andrew explores the geek mindset ? an obsessive maverick, as he defines it ? and explains how geeks developed a new management philosophy that permeates Amazon, Apple, SpaceX, Palantir, and other pioneering organizations. He breaks it down into four norms: speed, science, ownership, and openness, and details the principles behind each.

He also explains why even the most successful companies are vulnerable to bureaucracy and sclerosis, and that human nature and status-seeking have something to do with it. Instead of fighting it, he describes how geeks have figured out a better way to align these innate tendencies with the mission of the company. I've bought copies of this book for all our CEOs, and hope you'll check it out too!

We've all seen the images ? garbage patches twice the size of Texas accumulating in the Pacific Ocean. Yet nothing was being done, despite billions of dollars a year spent on environmental lawyers and bureaucrats. That is until a young engineer from Holland set out to do what bureaucrats couldn't ? clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and stem the flow of plastic into the oceans.

Boyan Slat is the Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, the most effective organization ever built to rid the oceans of pollution. They're already cleaning up an average of 750kg of trash each hour this year, and Boyan estimates their latest technology will eliminate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within 10 years! Moreover, Boyan and his team have also identified the top polluting rivers in the world and are building interceptors to prevent pollution from reaching the seas in the first place ? all for a tiny fraction of other environmental spend.

But it hasn't been easy. Boyan explains how they overcame numerous engineering challenges, as well as intense criticism and cynicism from media and activists hoping they would fail. Boyan's inspiring journey reflects the power of an innovation mindset, and the ability of a small group of highly-motivated builders to achieve what an entire class of experts and bureaucrats couldn't. I'm a supporter of Boyan's work and hope you'll consider supporting him as well.

Will high interest rates and inflation be the norm for the foreseeable future? Are we living through a 1970s redux? How should investors navigate these uncertain times?

We discuss the volatile financial markets with Jacob Miller, co-founder of Opto Investments [an 8VC Build company] and head of its Advisory Practice. Jacob studied economics and classics at the University of Chicago and cut his teeth at Bridgewater Capital, the world's largest hedge fund. In this episode, he draws on historical parallels to explain why the U.S. is heading into a long-term debt cycle similar to the late 1970s, and why a prolonged period of readjustment is more likely than a major crash.

He discusses the challenges investors face in the coming years, and why it's vital to find differentiated investments that can generate alpha. One area of opportunity is the private markets, but they have been historically difficult to access and navigate. Jacob explains how Opto is equipping wealth managers with a new tech-enabled platform to understand and invest in these markets with confidence.

Nearly half of all Americans don't have investment accounts.  Financial literacy is the exception, not the norm, in most households.  Is it no wonder that so many young Americans distrust capitalism and misunderstand wealth creation??Brad Gerstner is stepping up with a solution: a legislative program called Invest America that would create an investment account seeded with $1,000 from the Treasury Department for each of the 3.7 million children born every year in the U.S.  His aim is to educate the next generation on the merits of free markets and give every child a financial upside in American innovation. With nominal recurring contributions starting at birth, a child turning 30 today would have over $250,000 in an Invest America account!Brad is the Founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, a firm he grew from less than $3 million in 2008 to billions of dollars in assets under management today.  A leading voice in Silicon Valley, Brad is a four-time founder with a knack for identifying major trends early, from Booking.com, Zillow, and Uber to Snowflake and Mongo.  In this episode, he provides his macro outlook on the economy and explains why he believes AI is the next big supercycle but also why being early in a cycle isn't always the right play.

On the morning of October 7, Roni Eshel was stationed at a military base in Nahal Oz, not far from Gaza. The 19-year-old soldier was serving her second year of service in the Israel Defense Forces when Hamas stormed the base and set fire to the compound. Some soldiers escaped, some were killed, but Roni has not been found. Her family is desperately searching for her and fears the worst. Her uncle Elad Levy is speaking out in hopes of locating Roni and bringing awareness to the atrocities committed by Hamas. In recent days, we?ve seen shocking displays of pro-Hamas statements and demonstrations from student groups at "elite" universities, while many in the media cowardly display moral equivalence and fail to speak the truth about Hamas? unspeakable actions. Elad hopes that out of this darkness comes a new moral clarity that will unite the free world behind Israel and make clear that Hamas will meet the same fate as the Nazis and ISIS: complete destruction.

Bob McGrew is at the epicenter of the AI revolution.  As the VP of Research at OpenAI, he's instrumental in breakthroughs that are reshaping the world, from building GPT models and launching ChatGPT to overseeing the Dall-E project.  How was GPT-4 trained and what will GPT-5 look like? Why does ChatGPT respond with certain biases and how do they correct for that? What breakthrough led Bob to believe AGI could be achievable?

Bob and I were in Phi Psi together at Stanford and both interned at PayPal in its early days.  We hired Bob as the second engineer at Palantir, where he built and shipped the first products for the intelligence community and went on to lead engineering and help run the company.  Bob joined OpenAI part-time in 2016 and full-time in 2017, where he's been at the forefront of AI innovation.  In this episode, we discuss the early days of Palantir, how he knew AI's moment had arrived, and the most important research projects underway at OpenAI.  We also look ahead to what GPT-8 could unlock for humanity and what's needed for Large Language Models to move beyond mimicking humans to higher forms of intelligence and creativity.

What's the best optimistic case for AI? Could AI actually save the world? What do the AI doomsayers get wrong? 

We dive deep into the AI debate with Marc Andreessen, cofounder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, for a special conversation held during the 2023 University of Austin Forbidden Courses. We explore Marc's recent essay and why he believes AI could improve productivity, reduce human drudgery, and allow us to spend more time creating art or music, investing in relationships, and doing things that make us more human.  Marc challenges the popular narratives on machine learning ? why do we assume superintelligence will turn evil, for example? ? and applies lessons from history to make a powerful case for embracing the AI age. 

However, his optimism is tempered by the realities of politics, and we debate whether it's the fault of the citizenry or special interests for stymieing innovation and progress.  We also discuss how philosophical frameworks, like the precautionary principle, have been used to inhibit progress, and why, sometimes, it takes great leaders creating exponentially better products or policies to overcome the status quo. Finally, we field a variety of smart and fun questions from students on AI, politics, and venture capital. 

Over the past two decades, Palantir has prevented a large number of terrorist attacks, deployed the most advanced civil liberties data infrastructure throughout Western countries, and changed the course of history. Today, its technology is most evident on the battlefield in Ukraine, where its software has provided the Ukrainians a devastating advantage over Russian forces.  And now, Palantir is quickly becoming the leading AI platform in the world for large organizations. 

How did a small startup overcome overwhelming institutional resistance to become one of the most important software companies in the world?  And what can we learn from its CEO, Dr. Alex Karp ? How does he attract the very best engineering talent?  How did his dyslexia and outsider upbringing impact his views on the world and how Palantir is designed?  We cover these questions and more in a special conversation between two of Palantir's co-founders. 

Dr. Karp holds a B.A. from Haverford College, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, where he studied under Jürgen Habermas and other leading intellectuals. In this episode, we explore the impact of philosophy on his life and why he ultimately left academia to build.  We share some of our favorite stories from Palantir's early days, discuss how to reform the Pentagon to improve its results, and look ahead to how AI is changing the nature of warfare.  Dr. Karp is one of the wisest leaders I know, and you'll learn how his iconoclastic views on software, patriotism, talent, and innovation have been proven right over the past years, and what they mean for the future.

Eddie Margain quickly ascended the ranks as a Mexican entrepreneur but fled the country when the cartels threatened his family.  How does a nation lose its rule of law and does he see similar trends in America? Why was he inspired to build Austin FC and what did it take to bring the first professional sports team to the capital of Texas? I?m joined by best-selling author Ryan Holiday and we explore these topics and more with Eddie, co-founder of Austin FC and Managing Partner & Founder of Pixiu Investments (current investments include, among others, the historic Scarbrough Building and apparel maker Outdoor Voices). Eddie is a true leader and pillar of the community who serves as President of the Greater Austin Crime Commission and also supports myriad other philanthropic causes. 

His entrepreneurial journey began in Mexico, first by founding an internet access provider and later building companies to manufacture and distribute mobile phones. In this episode, Eddie explains how his homeland surrendered to narcoterrorism, why he fell in love with Austin, and what motivated him to build the city's first soccer club.

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What are the three most important attributes of a successful salesperson? How do you identify talent capable of withstanding constant rejection? And how do you hire hundreds of salespeople while maintaining mission and culture?

Discover how Ben Rubenstein scaled two startups to big exits, and why he believes resumes are largely meaningless for sourcing top sales talent. His first company, Yodle, took on the Yellow Pages by bringing thousands of small businesses online and into the digital age. Ben started as a one-person sales team living with friends, sleeping on an air mattress, and moving every few months until he broke through, eventually building a thousand-person sales team. Next, he founded Opcity, a real estate lead referral service, and once again scaled it into a large salesforce until the company was acquired by Realtor.com.

Ben is currently building Setpoint, a software platform that automates asset-based lending and capital markets operations, enabling real-estate, auto, consumer, and other asset-backed borrowers to offer next-generation credit options to consumers. In addition, Setpoint has launched a second debt fund to support Proptech startups. Learn about the most exciting innovations in real estate and why Ben believes AI will upend how we think about careers and areas of expertise.

How did a high school dropout from Argentina build a multi-billion dollar web infrastructure company that supports many of the world's largest companies and brands? This is the story of Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel. 

At an early age, Guillermo developed a passion for open-source projects and began building websites and products for clients around the world at only 13 years old. He dropped out of high school to program full-time and eventually made his way to the U.S. where he's now leading one of the world's fastest-growing internet infrastructure companies.  Walmart, Facebook, Mr. Beast, and many other industry leaders build and deploy products online using Vercel because of its superior reliability, functionality, and speed.  If you want to learn more about Vercel, check out this helpful explainer.

In this episode, Guillermo details his entrepreneurial journey, the origins of Vercel, and how he cultivates top engineering talent.  We also dive into what precipitated Argentina's fall from global power, and why pessimism and political dysfunction may go hand-in-hand. 

NOTE: This conversation was originally recorded in October 2022.

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Could modernizing one of medicine's oldest practices ? the house call ? dramatically improve care for disadvantaged populations? What if doctors and nurses could treat an entire family in their home through a value-based care model that aligns incentives for both providers and payers? These are the questions Dr. Rebekah Gee aims to answer with Nest Health, a new health startup that's reinventing in-home care.Dr. Gee is uniquely suited to lead this effort; she's a mother of five and OBGYN who led Louisiana State University's healthcare program from 2020 to 2022 and the state of Louisiana's Department of Health from 2016 to 2020. She made a name for herself by deftly managing a $14 billion budget and negotiating drug pricing to make a costly Hepatitis-C drug available for tens of thousands of Louisianans. Previously, Dr. Gee served as the Medicaid Medical Director for Louisiana Medicaid and also worked on the healthcare transition team for President-elect Barack Obama. She's now applying the learnings from her extensive public service to build Nest, which is focused on improving health outcomes for Louisiana families on Medicaid. Dr. Gee explains the hurdles she overcame to innovate within Medicaid and how Nest's in-home care model could scale throughout the country to transform lives, cut costs, and increase productivity in American healthcare.

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In India, "entrepreneur" was once a dirty word; today it's one of the most desirable career paths for young people. How did this transformation occur? How did the world's largest democracy break out of socialism? What does the remarkable rise of India augur for the 21st century??We explore these questions and more with Aditya Berlia, a serial entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and the co-founder and pro-chancellor of the Apeejay Stya University (ASU). Adi discusses his pioneering efforts in India's education sector, including building ASU ? the country's first industry-focused technology and liberal arts university. He also explains his work around the world in biotech and how the U.S. FDA can more effectively partner with international manufacturers looking to access U.S. markets.  Finally, he provides a unique perspective on America's challenges and how the world's two largest democracies can more closely ally and partner in the decades ahead.

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How do we ensure that capital flows more efficiently to the best ideas and creates more value for society? One way is to enable more people to access the best investment opportunities, many of which are in private markets (aka alternative investments) that are notoriously difficult to navigate. It can take a team of lawyers to manage the mountain of paperwork and outdated analog processes ? a stark contrast to one-click retail investing in public markets. Eliot Hodges, the CEO of Anduin, and his team are solving this problem. Anduin's software platform is digitizing the private markets and democratizing access ? they've already helped more than 25,000 investors onboard at nearly 500 funds and raise over $45 billion in capital.  An early employee at Palantir and Blend, Eliot explains his entrepreneurial journey and why Anduin's success is important for the innovation economy. What also makes Anduin unique is that it's a Silicon Valley startup employing top talent in Vietnam.  Eliot discusses how he encourages collaboration across different cultures and why the caliber of engineering skills outside the U.S. is reshaping the tech landscape. 

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Is the U.S. on the verge of an unprecedented banking crisis? Other than Bitcoin, where is Balaji keeping his money? Could the government try to confiscate assets like FDR's gold seizures in the 1930s? Will red and blue states break into a cold civil war over the fiscal fallout?  Learn why Balaji is sounding the alarm and why these scenarios may not be as far-fetched as you might think. We also discuss the roots of the current banking crisis and debate whether America's dysfunctional and broken institutions can be saved, or if it's too late to rescue our republic.  Balaji is one of the leading investors, entrepreneurs, and writers of our time. For years, he's been an outspoken advocate for cryptocurrency and the larger decentralized finance movement, while boldly warning of the consequences of our nation's reckless fiscal policy.  He was formerly the Chief Technology Officer of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.  He's also the author of "The Network State: How to Start a New Country" and host of the Network State Podcast.

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