Latest Interviews
Showing 481–495 of 1,099 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- Goldman Sachs20 min
Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon on the business environment, AI, and private credit
On January 27, 2025, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and host Allison Nathan discussed a macroeconomic outlook defined by regulatory optimism alongside persistent uncertainties in immigration, trade, and energy policy. Solomon projected a robust 2025 recovery for capital markets and M&A activity while highlighting artificial intelligence as a critical productivity driver, even as he flagged geopolitical instability and complex inflation dynamics as key risks. The firm further emphasized its strategy to deploy excess capital buffers through private credit expansion and asset management growth, contingent on the appointment of key financial regulators and the resolution of stress testing ambiguities.
- a16z37 min
How AI Is Changing Warfare, with Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf
Founded in 2017 by former Palantir executives and Oculus creator Palmer Luckey, Zandrel challenges the stagnant defense acquisition model by deploying autonomous systems and a data-processing "Lattice" platform to solve critical military scaling problems. The company leverages commercial supply chains and AI-driven decision-making to drastically shorten development cycles, contrasting its rapid prototyping approach with the decade-long timelines that typically render legacy weapons obsolete. By prioritizing human augmentation over autonomous lethality and advocating for fixed-price contracts, Zandrel aims to redirect billions in defense spending toward high-tempo innovation that outpaces adversarial technological iteration.
- The Economist25 min
Bot against America: a Chinese AI jolts markets
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Guy Scriven, Sarah Larniuk, Tim Cross
DeepSeek's cost-efficient AI model triggered a global market sell-off by challenging the expense narrative of American tech giants, while US officials like Donald Trump framed the event as a competitive wake-up call for domestic industry. Simultaneously, Canada's Liberal Party faces scrutiny over unachievable 2030 goals to replace diesel in remote Indigenous communities due to climate-altered logistics and historical trust deficits with local First Nations. In the health sector, major fitness operators are pivoting from cardio to strength training to address metabolic health and counteract muscle loss linked to age and weight-loss pharmaceuticals.
- The Economist24 min
Gaza, stripped: Palestinians return to ruins
Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, Greg Karlstrom, Wendell Stevenson, Gavin Jackson
While a fragile ceasefire allows thousands of Palestinians to return to northern Gaza amid stalled hostage exchanges, geopolitical tensions escalate as Egyptian and Jordanian leaders firmly reject US President Donald Trump's proposal to resettle Gaza's displaced population. Simultaneously, diplomatic efforts to implement the Israel-Lebanon truce face deadlock as Israeli troops block the Lebanese army's deployment, prompting a formal request for a 30-day extension while Hezbollah continues to violate withdrawal protocols. In the eastern theater, Russian forces in Kherson have shifted from indiscriminate shelling to deliberate drone attacks targeting civilians, a tactic observers identify as an effort to depopulate the region and a potential war crime distinct from standard military operations.
- Goldman Sachs29 min
The pace of innovation in biotech: Mirador’s Mark McKenna
Former Prometheus Biosciences CEO Mark McKenna discusses the transformation of the biotech landscape from a pharma-dominated field to one driven by agile, high-risk companies like his current venture, Mirador Therapeutics, which recently secured $400 million in rapid fundraising. Drawing on his experience leading the $11 billion Merck acquisition of Prometheus, McKenna emphasizes that success now relies on leveraging generative AI for precision medicine, operating with a "speed as currency" philosophy to parallelize trials, and maintaining strategic secrecy to protect intellectual property against global competitors. The dialogue further outlines critical industry challenges, including the need to reform drug pricing models dominated by PBMs and to de-risk supply chains from over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing.
- Y Combinator40 min
AI Revolution: What Nobody Else Is Seeing
Paul Buchheit, Harjit, PV, Diana, Gary, Sam, Venkatesh Rao, Aaron Levy, Mark Mirchandani
The YC Spring Batch reports that AI-driven startups are achieving unprecedented growth rates, with several companies scaling to $12 million ARR in just one year by leveraging high-leverage operations and automated service models. This rapid expansion is fueled by immediate enterprise adoption of AI agents, which has shifted competitive barriers from sales to technical execution and enabled teams to bypass traditional hiring and software procurement hurdles. Looking forward, industry leaders anticipate a structural economic shift where "machine money" drastically reduces the cost of goods while valuing human agency, fundamentally altering how businesses operate and how value is generated.
- The Economist21 min
In with a chancellor: dissecting Britain’s growth plan
Rachel Reeves, Jason Palmer, Zannie Minton-Pettos, Eleanor Whitehead, Fraser McIlwraith
Over 200 days into its term, the UK's Labour government under Chancellor Rachel Reeves confronts stagnant growth and bond market volatility through a £40 billion tax increase and a supply-side strategy aimed at unlocking business investment. Simultaneously, Australia's 2025 federal election campaign is defined by a culture war over Australia Day, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's reforms clash with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's "anti-woke" pledge to restore traditional citizenship ceremonies. In a separate historical context, The Economist's "Archive 1945" series analyzes the Soviet capture of the industrial Silesia region, detailing how this January 1945 advance crippled German war production and liberated victims from Nazi concentration camps.
Inside Theory Ventures: Tomasz Tunguz’s $688M Thesis on Go-To-Market Disruption
Theory Ventures, led by Tomas Tungus, secured a $450 million Fund II in late 2024 to deploy $1–$25 million investments into early-stage companies exploiting AI-driven market shifts. Tungus forecasts that 2025 will trigger the first reliable mainstream integration of AI agents while identifying energy constraints and shifting search advertising models as critical industry dynamics. The firm's concentrated strategy targets three pillars—modern data infrastructure, labor-scarce workflow automation, and decentralized blockchain databases—supported by an in-house intelligence team managing research operations.
- The Economist27 min
Right turn at a broken traffic light: Germany’s AfD
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Tom Nuttall, Gareth Brown, Ann Rowe
With a federal election imminent, the German far-right Alternative for Germany party has surged to second place in polling by broadening its platform to address economic anxiety while facing a cross-party firewall that excludes it from governing coalitions. Concurrently, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria has triggered a significant return of displaced citizens driven by a desire to rebuild, despite ongoing infrastructure destruction and political tensions between secular and Islamist factions. Additionally, the film world mourns the death of auteur David Lynch, whose career was defined by juxtaposing suburban normality with cosmic dread in masterpieces like *Eraserhead* and *Twin Peaks*.
- The Economist23 min
A tax or attacks: how the Houthis fund themselves
Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, Corbyn Duncan, Stephen Askins, Alex Hearn, Ore Ogunbiyi, Amma Mensah, Sylvanus Ashan
In the Bab el-Mandab Strait, Houthi attacks have collapsed 70% of shipping volume and spiked freight rates fivefold, while major powers like the US and China remain constrained by regional diplomatic frictions that limit naval intervention. Simultaneously, China has rapidly narrowed its artificial intelligence gap with the US through cost-efficient frontier models like DeepSeek V3, challenging American infrastructure dominance despite sanctions on top-tier chips. In Ghana, founder Amma Mensah transformed a loss-making rainforest operation into a luxury spirits brand, boosting farmer salaries by 50% and targeting the global market with high-value rums derived from local botanicals.
- Goldman Sachs24 min
Navigating the volatility in global bond markets
Jonathan Fine, George Cole, Alison Nathan, Jonny Fine
Following a global surge in bond yields driven by stronger-than-expected US growth and revised Federal Reserve policy expectations, investors are now pricing in heightened inflation risks and significant fiscal issuance from the incoming administration. Despite this volatility, corporate credit markets remain robust as earnings outpace borrowing costs, while central banks focus on preventing wage-driven second-round inflationary effects. Goldman Sachs' Jonny Fine projects a favorable bond outlook for 2025 based on underlying inflation moderation and the belief that current neutral rate concerns are overstated.
- Milken Institute28 min
Navigating an Evolving Global Landscape | IEFA's Annual Conference in Paris
Richard Ditizio, Marion Solletty
Global investor sentiment remains bullish as capital flows into U.S. markets driven by anticipated deregulation and the nation's deep liquidity, despite emerging concerns over sovereign debt sustainability and widening wealth inequality. Key policy debates focus on the incoming administration's "333 plan" to stimulate growth while managing risks posed by unregulated private debt and the borderless nature of the rapidly expanding cryptocurrency sector. Long-term investment trajectories are increasingly defined by demographic shifts between aging developed nations and youthful emerging markets, creating a complex backdrop for future fiscal resilience and geopolitical strategy.
- The Economist25 min
Executive orders of magnitude: Trump’s day one
Trump, Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, John Prudhoe, Edward Carr, Nicole Phan
During his second-term inauguration held indoors due to extreme cold, Donald Trump delivered an address centered on reclaiming the Panama Canal, reviving Manifest Destiny, and announcing a goal to plant an American flag on Mars while key Silicon Valley leaders like Elon Musk attended. On his first day in office, he signed executive orders establishing a two-gender policy, declaring a national emergency at the southern border to halt illegal entry, and withdrawing from the World Health Organization and Paris Climate Agreement. Although Trump currently holds peak approval ratings and dominates the Republican Party, legislative constraints from narrow majorities in Congress and potential Supreme Court challenges may limit the long-term durability of his aggressive tariff threats and immigration reforms.
- The Economist24 min
Reunions and rubble: Gaza’s first moments of peace
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Anshul Pfeffer, Duncan Robinson, Dolly Setton
A four-day ceasefire in Gaza initiated a two-stage truce that released three Israeli hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners, while triggering political instability in Israel as far-right ministers resigned and the incoming US administration secured the agreement. This diplomatic breakthrough is followed by complex challenges regarding the billions required for reconstruction and the establishment of a governance model, which remains uncertain without Hamas or the Palestinian Authority leading the effort. Concurrently, the United Kingdom faces wage compression as the new National Living Wage narrows the pay gap between unskilled and skilled labor, while medical research confirms clinical hypnosis reduces procedural pain and anxiety despite barriers to its widespread adoption.
- The Economist29 min
Billionaires boldly go: private space-treks
Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, Erin Braun, Anne Rowe
Blue Origin successfully debuted its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, establishing a direct commercial rival to SpaceX in the satellite launch sector while SpaceX achieved a historic booster catch during its seventh Starship test despite losing the upper stage. Concurrently, the incoming US administration plans to initiate a massive deportation campaign led by Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, though legal and logistical hurdles are expected to significantly constrain the operation's scale. In a related obituary, pioneering psychiatrist Dr. Peter Fenwick is remembered for his groundbreaking research into near-death experiences, which revealed that a majority of subjects reported profound visions of light, deceased relatives, and a conscious choice to return to life.