Latest Interviews
Showing 2491–2505 of 3,501 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Y Combinator1h 2m
There's an Art to Getting Brilliant People to Surprise Themselves - Kevin Slavin of The Shed
Kevin Kelly's peripatetic career bridges disparate fields, from bootstrapping the mobile game company Area Code to shaping the operational philosophies of MIT's Media Lab and New York's The Shed. His work redefines cultural institutions as "synchronizing signals" that counteract social fragmentation through adaptive architecture, such as The Shed's 120-foot moving shell, and digital strategies like total smartphone ticketing. Looking forward, Kelly advocates for a future where innovation emerges from cross-disciplinary agility rather than traditional domain expertise, a perspective he applies to his analysis of the nascent virtual reality industry.
- Milken Institute1h 4m
Expanding the European Economy: The Role of Capital Markets
Michael Milken, Robert Kricheff, Damian Lillicrap, Giuseppe Naglieri, Grace Peters
At the 2017 Milken Institute London Summit, financial leaders from J.P. Morgan, QSuper, Verde, and Shankman convened to diagnose Europe's overbanked structure and fragmented capital markets as primary obstacles to middle-class prosperity. Panelists argued that excessive regulation and the dominance of traditional lending have stifled small business growth and pension innovation, necessitating a Capital Markets Union to diversify funding sources and disintermediate the banking sector. The discussion concluded with a strategic imperative to deploy capital into SMEs, emerging markets, and ESG-focused initiatives to counter populist backlash and ensure the Eurozone's economic viability.
- Lex Fridman1h 1m
Chris Gerdes (Stanford) on Technology, Policy and Vehicle Safety - MIT Self-Driving Cars
Stanford professor and former USDOT Chief Innovation Officer Chris Gerdes outlines the dual trajectory of autonomous vehicle development, highlighting the high-performance "Shelly" research car's ability to replicate human driving instincts while navigating the constraints of a U.S. regulatory framework based on self-certification. He critiques the lag in formal rulemaking compared to rapid AI advancements, noting that current voluntary guidelines address operational design domains and fallback conditions but struggle to resolve conflicts between rigid traffic codes and safety-critical maneuvers. Gerdes ultimately advocates for data sharing to improve neural networks, the elimination of human error in programming, and a potential redesign of vehicle physics to reduce mass and energy consumption through enhanced safety.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Immigration, Workforce and the New Europe
Robert Guest, Elizabeth Collett, Paul Collier, August Hanning, Syed Kamall, Parag Khanna
Former German intelligence chief August Hanning, economist Paul Collier, and other global security experts convened to analyze the economic, political, and security dimensions of the European migration crisis. The panelists distinguished between refugees and economic migrants, arguing that Europe's disproportionate political focus has undermined global stability while driving polarization that empowered nationalist movements from the AfD to Trump. Ultimately, the discussion concluded that resolving displacement requires a fundamental shift from border-centric policies to investing in governance and economic development within origin countries to address the root causes of migration.
- Jane Street56 min
How Jane Street Does Code Review
Jane Street engineers utilize Iron, a custom Mercurial-based review platform, to enforce mechanical code reading and branch-level state management that eliminates redundant reviews during rebases and merges. The system integrates feedback directly into source code and centralizes safety policies to support nested branch workflows, treating entire branch sequences as atomic units rather than individual commits. By combining a specialized Emacs client with a persistent task dashboard, the tool facilitates collaborative editing, automated file ownership obligations, and the review of non-code assets like configuration files and trading limits.
- Y Combinator57 min
Microbes, Robots, and Ambition - Robin Sloan on His Novel Sourdough
Robin Sloan, Kat Manalac, Craig Cannon
During a discussion on the intersection of artificial intelligence and literary craft, the author details the unprecedented creation of the *Sourdough* audiobook, which features machine-generated alien music synthesized from Croatian Klapa folk recordings. The conversation further examines the technical reality of the "Egg Problem" in robotics, the author's philosophy of viewing technological convergence as a cumulative "glorious crash" rather than an adversarial force, and the fragility of digital preservation in contrast to physical media. Looking toward the future, the author outlines plans to integrate text generation as a core stylistic tool in a new novel while reflecting on how current cultural narratives have shifted from Silicon Valley's early optimism to a more critical examination of power and labor.
- Goldman Sachs46 min
Talks at GS – Ron Chernow: Lessons in Leadership – The Unlikely Rise of Ulysses S. Grant
Ron Chernow, Ulysses S. Grant, Lloyd Blankfein
Biographer Ron Chernow reconstructs Ulysses S. Grant's arc from a failed businessman and dismissed officer to a strategic genius who secured Union victory and championed Reconstruction through the Department of Justice. Chernow utilizes Grant's presidency to challenge the "Lost Cause" narrative, highlighting the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and the unprecedented political representation of African Americans before the era's eventual collapse. While documenting Grant's tragic financial ruin and his unique psychological capacity for calm under fire, the work reframes the general as a modernizing leader whose legacy has surged from historical obscurity to the center of civil rights history.
- Jane Street1h 13m
Nate Foster: Verifying Network Data Planes
Nate Foster, Bill Hallahan, JK Lee, Cole Schlesinger, Steffen Smolks, Robert Soule, Han Wang, Ron
Cornell Professor Nate Foster and Barefoot Networks have developed an automated verification tool for P4 programs running on programmable data planes to prevent catastrophic network failures caused by configuration errors. This system transforms P4 code into guarded commands to efficiently compute weakest preconditions using the Sacks and Flanagan algorithm, checking safety conditions against the Z3 SMT solver to generate counter-examples for invalid header accesses without requiring manual annotations. By modeling the separation between data and control planes through ghost state, the tool validates programs up to 20,000 lines of code in minutes, establishing a critical foundation for verifying complex software-defined network topologies.
- Milken Institute58 min
Alternative Small Business Financing: Keeping California on Top and Sharing the Wealth
Carolyn Karo, Autumn Burke, Manny Fernandez, Chris Hameetman, Victor Parker, Richard Swart
California's 2016 dominance in U.S. alternative financing, capturing 41% of the market and 58% of funds, is driven by the state's tech wealth effect and university density, yet this success masks severe structural biases where 99% of capital flows to graduates of top universities and only 4% reaches female minority entrepreneurs. While Regulation Crowdfunding has helped California lead the nation with nearly $8 million in offerings, industry experts warn that high compliance costs and low funding caps currently disadvantage early-stage startups outside of software, prompting calls for legislative reforms that include interstate exemptions and tax incentives. To maintain competitiveness against other states and prevent capital flight to Initial Coin Offerings, panelists recommend leveraging data science for risk assessment, introducing revenue-share instruments, and expanding financial literacy education to underserved communities.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Tech or Bust: Maintaining California's Edge in the Workforce
Patt Morrison, Marcie Jastrow, Shawn Layden, Tobias Sherman, Jay Tucker, Jeff Wong
A panel discussion highlighted how California's dominance in video games and film is eroding due to global competitors offering superior financial incentives and the state's high cost of living driving talent away. Experts emphasized an urgent need to address critical infrastructure gaps and a finite labor shortage by expanding early education initiatives and diversifying recruitment beyond traditional tech hubs. Recommendations include establishing integrated academies to teach adaptable skills, fostering inclusive internships for underserved communities, and leveraging virtual reality to sustain future industry growth.
- Milken Institute1h 3m
Big Cities, Big Data: How "Smart Cities" Improve Lives & Save Money
Sean Arian, Lilian Coral, Stephen Engblom, Robert Garcia, Rohit Gupta, Steve Swartz
Hosted by Sean Arian at the LA Chamber of Commerce, the "Big Cities, Big Data" panel featured long-term strategies from Los Angeles, Long Beach, and private sector leaders to transform municipal operations through data-driven equity and efficiency. Speakers detailed how officials like Mayor Robert Garcia and former Chief Data Officer Lillian Corral restructured procurement, launched real-time transparency tools, and utilized philanthropy to bridge digital divides while shifting from asset acquisition to service models. The discussion concluded with a consensus on the urgent need to integrate governance across silos, adopt user-centric design, and establish living labs to foster sustainable civic innovation.
- Milken Institute59 min
California's Solutions to Health Care
Anna Gorman, Kimberly Evon, Yiwen Li, Josh Ofman, Hugh Waters, Claudia Williams, Kim Avon
A multi-stakeholder panel addressed California's $378 billion chronic disease burden and an impending home care workforce crisis by advocating for a transition from volume-based to value-based care models. Industry leaders and policymakers highlighted precision medicine, targeted genomic testing, and community health workers as critical strategies to reduce inefficiencies while opposing direct price controls that might stifle innovation. The consensus emphasized establishing a common data infrastructure and robust payment reforms to enable California to lead the nation in preventative care and universal access.
- Milken Institute59 min
Green Gold: California's New Cash Crop
Joe Mathews, Hezekiah Allen, Adam Bierman, Matthew Dababneh, Cat Packer, Karan Wadhera, John McCurry Jr., David Levinson, Matthew Hendershotain Jr., David Windmueller
California's $7 billion medical marijuana industry, which produces 16 million pounds annually, faces a critical transition as only a fraction of existing retailers and growers secure licensure amidst a persistent gray market and federal Schedule I restrictions that block banking access. While experts predict inevitable consolidation driven by high compliance costs and an equity gap affecting African American communities disproportionately, ancillary investors are simultaneously targeting technology and lifestyle sectors to mitigate federal risks. Long-term industry normalization and social equity will depend on Congress removing cannabis from Schedule I to enable interstate commerce and fully integrate the market into the mainstream economy.
- Milken Institute48 min
Immigration and the California Economy
Andrea Bernstein, Gray Davis, Maria Elena Durazo, Iliana Perez, Perry Wong, Caroline Walker, Krishna Thangavelu
Panelists including Perry Wong, Governor Gray Davis, and Maria Elena Durazo convened to address the economic instability caused by shifting U.S. trade policies under the Trump administration and the looming uncertainty surrounding DACA and immigration reform. The discussion highlighted California's heavy reliance on immigrant labor to fill critical roles in technology and healthcare while warning that the proposed sunset clauses in NAFTA and restrictive immigration enforcement strategies threaten billions in economic activity and workforce continuity. Participants emphasized the necessity of comprehensive legislative solutions to stabilize the labor market against a coming demographic shift as the Baby Boomer generation exits the workforce.
- Milken Institute1h 10m
Investing in California's Future
Michael Milken, Melanie Lundquist, Dominic Ng, Antonio Villaraigosa, Steve Westly
A diverse panel of civic leaders, educators, and philanthropists including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Steve Westly addressed California's paradox of high productivity paired with critical deficits in education, housing, and infrastructure. The group highlighted transformative outcomes from the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, where graduation rates in partner institutions nearly doubled, while advocating for urgent public-private investments in early childhood education, green technology, and workforce-ready curricula. To sustain economic growth and address systemic inequality, the discussion concluded with recommendations to redefine infrastructure for the autonomous age, leverage California's demographic diversity for global trade, and implement housing cap-and-trade mechanisms to ensure equitable access.