Latest Interviews
Showing 376–390 of 1,076 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute56 min
Hail to the Chief: A Conversation With Presidential Insiders
Richard Sandler, Stuart Eizenstat, Stewart McLaurin, David Brooks, Mark Shields, William Brangham
At the Milken Institute Global Conference, former White House insiders Stuart McLaren and Stu Eisenstadt analyzed the structural limits and political necessities of the modern presidency without partisan bias. The panelists compared historical administrations, noting that while presidents like LBJ and Reagan achieved power by mastering politics and public opinion, leaders such as Carter struggled to balance diplomatic achievements with base mobilization in an era of 24/7 media scrutiny. Concluding with a call for improved civic education and a return to moderate governance, the discussion highlighted how fragmented news cycles and investigative pressures have eroded the deliberative space traditionally required for effective executive leadership.
- Milken Institute1h 14m
Building Better Cities and Scaling Housing Solutions
Diane Helfrey, Ross DeVol, Mary Mack, Jonathan Rose, Jesse Vaughan
Experts and corporate leaders convened to address a 20-million-unit U.S. housing deficit driven by coastal economic concentration and demographic shifts, highlighting how essential workers like teachers and first responders are increasingly priced out of the market. The dialogue detailed specific interventions, including Landed's equity-sharing model for down payments, Wells Fargo's LIFT program, and Microsoft's $500 million investment, while emphasizing that preserving existing affordable stock and reforming zoning laws are equally critical to expanding supply. Despite strong public support for mixed-income housing, the event concluded that overcoming local NIMBY opposition and aligning fragmented advocacy groups are necessary to unlock the policy consensus required for systemic change.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Can America Afford to Retire?
Josh Barro, Andrew Biggs, Marcie Frost, Jarvis Hollingsworth, Dan Houston
A panel of public and private sector leaders, including CEOs from CalPERS and Texas Teachers Retirement System, examines the divergent financial realities of retirement affordability across defined benefit and contribution models. While current retirees enjoy record wealth, the discussion highlights critical structural vulnerabilities in public pension funding assumptions and the longevity risks facing workers in defined contribution plans. Experts propose policy interventions such as federal funding mandates, auto-enrollment mechanisms, and annuity integration to address projected solvency gaps and ensure long-term system stability.
- Milken Institute1h 4m
Open Data, Open Banking: Creating a More Competitive Financial Services Ecosystem
Melissa Koide, Gilles Gade, Sima Gandhi, Sahil Kini, Craig Schachter, Rachel Bronson, Aaron Pakles, Lee Hutter
Moderated by Melissa Coit, a panel of global fintech leaders debated the balance between top-down regulatory frameworks and bottom-up market demands in the evolution of open banking. The discussion highlighted divergent regional models, contrasting India's public infrastructure-driven success with the fragmented, principle-based approach in the US, while addressing the critical need for consumer data ownership and liability clarity. Participants concluded that modernizing legacy core banking systems and establishing clear consent mechanisms are essential to enable real-time data flow and prevent market consolidation from stifling innovation.
- Milken Institute52 min
How Drug Trafficking Is Fueling the Opioid Crisis
Anita Gupta, Michael A. Davis, Lynn Goldman, Adriaan Louw
This event convenes experts to address the escalating opioid crisis, characterized by a 2017 overdose death rate six times higher than in 1999 and a fatal third wave driven by synthetic fentanyl trafficking from China. Through the DEA's "360 Strategy" in Los Angeles, authorities are coordinating enforcement, diversion control, and youth outreach to combat transnational cartels and prosecute distributors of lethal mixtures. Simultaneously, clinical and policy leaders advocate for treating addiction as a chronic brain disease, promoting non-opioid pain management, and dismantling regulatory barriers to expand access to life-saving medications like naloxone.
- Y Combinator1h 1m
Advice on Organizing and Running Growth Teams from Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer
Dan Hockenmaier, Gustaf Alströmer, Craig Cannon, Toni, Michael Savage, Justin LaRosa, Mark Mandelbaum, Francesc Campoy, Dan Galpin, Dan Gallup
Dan Hockenmeyer of Basis One and Gustav Alströmer of Y Combinator discuss a growth strategy centered on prioritizing a single high-leverage channel and achieving product-market fit before scaling paid acquisition. They argue that early-stage teams must rely on analytical generalists who can model the entire business equation, using retention graphs to test high-impact hypotheses rather than chasing superficial metric tweaks. The discussion highlights critical lessons from Airbnb and Thumbtack, emphasizing that sustainable expansion requires building growth functions in-house, treating referrals as paid marketing with strict ROI calculations, and avoiding structural distractions like premature VP hires or reliance on saturated ad platforms.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Institutional Investors: Managing for the Long Term
Christopher Ailman, Jerry Albright, Jingdong Hua, Kim Lew, Amy McGarrity, Hiromichi Mizuno, Chris Ailman
Five CIOs managing over $1.6 trillion across diverse institutional structures, from Carnegie's $3.5 billion foundation to Japan's $1.6 trillion GPIF, convened to analyze how unique liability profiles and time horizons dictate long-term investment strategies. The panelists detailed operational shifts toward sustainable "universal ownership," highlighted the World Bank's leadership in green bond markets, and emphasized the critical need to align staff incentives and board education with multi-decade fiduciary duties rather than short-term volatility. Despite diverging views on the necessity of formal ESG mandates and the degree of market influence asset owners should wield, the group collectively identified global development gaps and market structure fragilities as paramount risks requiring coordinated action.
- Milken Institute1h 2m
Outsmarting Superbugs: What Are the Alternatives?
Margaret Hamburg, Matthew Hepburn, Peter Jackson, Nancy Knight, Jeanette Mucha, Peter Piot, Peggy Hamburg, David Wallace, Lance Price
Global leaders and organizations including the WHO, CDC, and the U.K. government are coordinating a multi-faceted response to antimicrobial resistance, which threatens to cause 10 million annual deaths by 2050 and mimic the 2008 financial crisis through massive economic losses. Innovative initiatives such as the CDC's AMR Challenge, Carb-X's $80 million funding for 40 development projects, and the U.K.'s "pull incentive" trial aim to revitalize the antibiotic pipeline by supporting SMEs and rewarding disease prevention rather than sales volume. Despite these advances, experts warn that rigid intellectual property laws, inadequate wastewater treatment, and capital gaps in microbiome startups hinder the deployment of new therapies needed to combat untreatable superbugs like drug-resistant tuberculosis.
- Milken Institute1h 22m
Toward a Healthier Future
Will Durant, Mike Milken, Tanisha Carino, Michael Milken, Francis Collins, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Bernard J. Tyson, Seema Verma, Sue Desmond-Hellman
Representatives from the Gates Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, CMS, and NIH converged to outline a unified strategy shifting global health systems from reactive treatment toward proactive prevention and precision medicine. Leaders highlighted specific breakthroughs in gene therapy, AI-driven neural decoding, and data interoperability while proposing structural reforms to align financial incentives with long-term population wellness and disease eradication. The consensus among these major institutions emphasizes that future economic prosperity and reduced healthcare costs depend on integrating community infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and innovative financing models to address challenges ranging from mental health crises to rare genetic disorders.
- Milken Institute1h 2m
Envisioning the Future of Media and Entertainment
Julia Boorstin, Jeffrey Hirsch, Gale Anne Hurd, Charles D. King, Asif Satchu, Jeremy Zimmer, Jeff Hirsch
Industry leaders project a fragmented streaming landscape where major consolidators like Netflix and Disney+ coexist with premium add-on services, driven by a shift in creator leverage toward aggressive upfront deals over traditional backend participation. While writers face income compression due to shortened production cycles and structural residual gaps, the market is simultaneously evolving toward data-driven meritocracy that could reinstitute performance-based royalties. This evolution extends globally, with content featuring underrepresented demographics and non-U.S. productions becoming central to international revenue growth alongside a compressed theatrical window strategy.
- Milken Institute56 min
The City for All Ages: Harnessing the Promise of Longevity
James Anderson, Dan Buettner, Carol Coletta, Rodney Slater, Jan Vapaavuori, Jim Anderson
Leading urban experts and policymakers converge to address the unprecedented demographic shift where the global population over 65 now exceeds those under 5 by advocating for built environment interventions over individual behavioral changes. Drawing on longevity strategies from Blue Zones and Helsinki's intergenerational housing models, the panel proposes that mayors and civic leaders actively redesign cities to make healthy choices the default option through walkability, social integration, and regulatory nudge policies. These initiatives aim to transform the "silver economy" into a catalyst for civic innovation, ensuring that aging populations remain healthy, employed, and socially connected while reducing the strain on healthcare systems.
- Milken Institute1h 2m
The Age of Private Equity and Credit
Jim Moglia, Glenn August, Victor Khosla, Greg Lippmann, Virginie Morgon, Raymond Svider
Leading alternative asset managers including Oak Hill Advisors, Strategic Value Partners, and BC Partners are redirecting capital from public markets to private credit to secure higher yields amid a 45% decline in public U.S. companies. Panelists highlight that rising institutional return targets, combined with tight investment-grade spreads, are driving a $5.7 trillion migration into private capital while disintermediating traditional commercial banks. Despite late-cycle valuation concerns, these firms are expanding direct lending capabilities and integrating ESG and diversity frameworks to mitigate liquidity risks and maintain long-term operational competitiveness.
- Milken Institute59 min
Common Sense from Uncommon Investors
Michael Milken, Jonathan Coslet, John Danhakl, Mitchell Julis, Brian Sheth, Steven Tananbaum, Mike Milken
Industry leaders from Leonard Green & Partners, Canyon Partners, Vista Equity Partners, GoldenTree Asset Management, and TPG convened to discuss evolving strategies in private equity, corporate debt, and technology investing. These executives detailed critical shifts in their operational frameworks, ranging from Canyon's resistance to AI in bespoke financial structuring to Vista's data-driven talent acquisition and GoldenTree's transformation of CLOs into fund structures. The dialogue further examined the necessity of aligning investor and management interests through diverse ownership models and the strategic preference for absolute value over relative metrics in a shifting macroeconomic environment.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Blockchain Technology: What Is It Good for, Really?
Staci Warden, Elad Gil, Sandra Ro, Stefan Schulz, Bill Tai, Tomicah Tillemann
Milken Institute moderator Stacey Worden led a panel including Elad Gil, Sandra Rowe, and Bill Tai to define blockchain's superior utility in scenarios requiring trustlessness, open ledgers, privacy, or programmability, while arguing that centralized databases remain optimal for all other applications. The discussion highlighted transformative real-world adoptions ranging from Power Ledger's peer-to-peer energy trading and Bill Tai's $35 million real estate tokenization to Estonia's governance models and New York City's digital benefit wallets. Panelists concluded that overcoming regulatory fragmentation and data integrity risks is essential as the industry shifts from financial speculation toward building a global infrastructure for financial inclusion and automated asset management.
- Milken Institute57 min
Right or Left: Who's Best for Freedom?
Josh Barro, Kenneth Hersh, Rich Lowry, Gene Sperling, Felicia Wong
In a debate contrasting FDR's positive liberties with classical negative freedoms, Felicia Wong and Gene Sperling argue that true liberty requires protection from want and fear, while Rich Lowry and Kenneth Hirsch contend that freedom is strictly defined by the absence of government coercion. The panel further explores how economic policies like the Affordable Care Act and anti-discrimination laws either expand individual agency or threaten consumer choice, while noting that shifting political narratives now force conservatives to defend liberty against a backdrop of authoritarianism and rising public demand for government intervention. Ultimately, the discussion highlights a deep ideological divide over whether freedom entails securing material security and dignity through state action or preserving it through limited government and market competition.