Latest Interviews
Showing 61–75 of 113 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute1h 1m
Lighting the Globe: Manoj Bhargava in Conversation with Sheryl WuDunn
Manoj Bhargava, Sheryl WuDunn, Eric Schmidt, John McCutchan, Raymond Santos, Jennifer Doyle, Sharon Chandran
Forbes billionaire and 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Parga has launched "Stage 2," a venture dedicated to deploying low-maintenance, scalable technologies in water, energy, and health for underserved populations. The initiative introduces hardware like the $250 Free Electric bicycle to generate power for livelihoods, the energy-efficient Rainmaker desalination unit, and a medical patch for early disease detection, all designed to replace unreliable solar and complex medical diagnostics in rural areas. Parga explicitly rejects proprietary hoarding by offering to train competitors and sell production lines, prioritizing rapid global adoption of simple, functional engineering over traditional philanthropic overhead.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman
With five and a half years of negotiations concluded, the Obama administration is aggressively pursuing ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before its term ends, aiming to secure $130 billion in annual economic gains and establish high regional standards to counter China's influence. Despite facing significant political headwinds from populist figures and the pharmaceutical industry over specific intellectual property and currency provisions, officials argue that the agreement's binding labor and environmental rules offer a strategic alternative to state-driven models. By utilizing Trade Promotion Authority for an expedited congressional vote, the administration seeks to prevent legislative delays that the Peterson Institute estimates could cost the U.S. economy over $90 billion.
- Milken Institute59 min
Conversations with Congress
David Rubenstein, Bob Corker, Kevin McCarthy, Mark Warner
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlines Republican legislative strategies centered on advancing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and comprehensive tax reform while projecting confidence in maintaining House control during the 2016 election. Simultaneously, Senators Mark Warner and Bob Corker emphasize the urgent need for bipartisan solutions to fiscal deficits and foreign policy challenges, including the Iran nuclear deal, while navigating the deep structural frustrations within the Senate. Both chambers reflect a shared determination to restore executive-legislative balance despite rising political polarization and internal party divisions.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Meaningful Work and Relationships: A Conversation with Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio, Raymond Dalio, Robert Kegan, Bob Keegan, Ken Broad, Collin Tate, Larry, Amanda Pullinger, Lewis, Hania Sadat
Bridgewater Associates operates as a globally scaled firm of 1,500 employees built on Ray Dalio's philosophy of radical truth and transparency to drive an idea meritocracy. The organization utilizes data-driven tools like the "Dot Collector" app and believability-weighted decision-making systems to systematically surface conflicts and resolve them through structured feedback. This unique model prioritizes individual development and psychological adaptation over traditional hierarchies, enabling the firm to navigate market crises while generating over two million downloads of its codified decision-making principles.
- Milken Institute1h 26m
Public Health Summit Dinner March 2, 2016
Mike Milken, Tom Frieden, Rob Califf, Fred Upton, Nancy Pelosi, Francis Collins
This event featured key figures including Francis Collins, FDA Commissioner Rob Califf, and CDC Director Tom Frieden discussing critical public health challenges such as the implementation gap between knowledge and action, rising opioid overdose deaths, and the threat of a post-antibiotic era. The proceedings highlighted specific policy responses ranging from Mexico's successful food taxes and "health stops" to the U.S. House passing the 21st Century Cures Act and funding the Brain Initiative, alongside clinical breakthroughs in treating depression and heart failure. To address these systemic issues, officials urged for robust funding, the adoption of global "find, stop, prevent" strategies, and a massive volunteer effort for the Precision Medicine Initiative to accelerate biomedical discovery.
- Milken Institute1h 2m
Lunch Program │ An Update on Zika Virus With CDC Director Tom Frieden
Tom Frieden, Mike Klowden, Michael Gerson, Lynn Goldman
CDC Director Thomas Frieden and other health experts highlight that public health interventions have driven a disproportionate share of modern economic growth by dramatically extending life expectancy through vaccines, global partnerships, and improved chronic disease management. Addressing current threats like Zika, the speakers emphasize accelerated testing capabilities and the Global Health Security Agenda's accountability framework while contrasting rapid biological changes in life spans with slower genetic evolution. The presentation further illustrates how environmental factors, epigenetics, and escalating portion sizes significantly influence health disparities and disease rates independent of genetics.
- Milken Institute1h 5m
2015 CA Summit - Notice to Proceed: Clearing a Path for Infrastructure Financing
Dale Bonner, Samara Barend, Teveia Barnes, Marc Levine, Dean Palumbo
A panel of California Assemblymember Mark Levine, I-Bank official Tavia Barnes, and industry leaders from AECOM and Plenary addressed the state's $64 billion infrastructure maintenance gap and the political hurdles hindering effective public-private partnerships. The discussion highlighted the need for legislative reforms to accelerate project timelines, the adoption of innovative financing tools like third-party verification and tax-exempt bonds, and the potential of technology to reduce costs and increase operational efficiency. Speakers emphasized that while local agencies are successfully leveraging private capital for delivery, the state must overcome risk aversion and bureaucratic delays to meet the 2.5% GDP investment benchmark required for adequate infrastructure growth.
- Milken Institute1h 17m
The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers
Gillian Tett, John Seely Brown, Conrad Kieschel
The event examines the "Silo Effect," a cognitive and organizational fragmentation that drove failures ranging from the 2008 financial crisis to Sony's missed digital opportunity, while offering proven strategies to dismantle these barriers. It details how intentional physical design, data integration in New York City, and cultural shifts at organizations like the Cleveland Clinic and Facebook foster necessary "productive friction" to restore holistic vision. Ultimately, the discussion emphasizes that overcoming rigid classification requires leadership to prioritize unstructured collaboration and individual efforts to consume diverse perspectives to prevent future catastrophic breakdowns.
- Milken Institute1h 4m
Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design
Alvin Roth, Dan Ariely, Peter Purcell
Nobel laureate Al Roth explains how market design distinguishes between commodity and matching mechanisms to address structural frictions like exploding offers and congestion that cause real-world inefficiencies. By applying these principles to complex systems, he has facilitated life-saving kidney exchanges and proposed regulatory shifts for high-frequency trading and healthcare to align incentives with social welfare. Roth argues that intentional institutional redesign, rather than reliance on price signals alone, is essential for optimizing outcomes in labor, criminal justice, and education sectors.
- Milken Institute51 min
Fountain of Age: Unlocking the Secrets of Longer Life
Dr. Craig Venter, Dr. Peter Diamandis, Paul Irving
Human Longevity, Inc. is executing a strategy to sequence one million human genomes and integrate multi-omics data, including microbiome and neuroimaging, to enable predictive modeling that identifies complex genetic traits and anticipates diseases like dementia decades before onset. By leveraging machine learning to correlate vast datasets with phenotypic markers, the company aims to shift healthcare from reactive treatment to preventative intervention while addressing significant privacy challenges through advanced security protocols. The initiative projects to revolutionize the global economy by extending healthy lifespans, potentially unlocking trillions in capital and redefining retirement, provided society navigates the associated ethical frameworks regarding genetic data and discrimination.
- Milken Institute59 min
The Learning Gap: Creating the Workforce Industry Needs
Giselle Fernandez, Felix Ortiz III, Eloy Ortiz-Oakley, Chris Romer, Raul Valentin, Judy Woodruff
A diverse panel of education leaders and industry experts identified a critical national skills gap where 75 million Americans lack qualifications for middle-skill jobs, creating a mismatch between over 1 million unfilled openings and millions of unemployed individuals. Key figures including Felix Ortiz III, Raul Valentin, and Chris Romer argued that bureaucratic educational rigidity, outdated funding models, and insufficient employer engagement are exacerbating this crisis, which they characterize as a national security threat and an economic imperative requiring a shift toward competency-based outcomes. To resolve these barriers, the group proposed a new "employment triangle" that ties state funding to graduation rates, leverages data to align curricula with labor demands, and establishes hybrid credentialing systems to support lifelong learning and demographic surges.
- Milken Institute57 min
A Path Appears: A Conversation With Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Steve Grove, Nick Kristof, Ashley, Derek McKesson, Dan Galpin, Esther Duflo, Brian Mulaney, Dan Pallotta, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl McCarthy, Nick Orloveyski
Google News Lab director Steve Grove facilitated a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn regarding their book *A Path Appears* and its accompanying PBS documentary on transforming social vulnerability into opportunity. The speakers advocate for applying business principles and market incentives to poverty alleviation, citing evidence from randomized trials that effective interventions must measure outcomes rather than inputs and leverage corporate strategies to address systemic issues like missing girls and the "word gap." They further highlight the physiological benefits of philanthropy and argue that future social progress depends on a "double bottom line" model where for-profit enterprises and rigorous data measurement replace traditional charity to solve intractable challenges in education, health, and urban violence.
- Milken Institute48 min
A Conversation With Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz discusses the unexpected broad resonance of his book *The Hard Thing About Hard Things* while detailing the dramatic $2.8 billion valuation of Slack, which emerged from a $18 million failure at TinySpec. He analyzes modern market dynamics, arguing that Silicon Valley avoids bubbles due to lower capital requirements and cloud infrastructure, while noting that regulatory gaps in private markets pose significant risks to liquidity and valuation. Additionally, Horowitz outlines a non-quota hiring strategy that eliminated unconscious bias to achieve 53% female representation and debunks the notion of a ride-sharing monopoly by highlighting driver saturation and the imminent disruption of self-driving technology.
- Milken Institute46 min
Engaging a Curious Mind: Brian Grazer Talks With Bob Iger About Life, Listening
Brian Grazer, Bob Iger, Robert Iger
Producer Brian Grazer attributes his success in film and television to a disciplined practice of seeking diverse conversations, ranging from political leaders like Vladimir Putin to scientists like Jonas Salk, which consistently reshape his creative perspectives. This approach, which he details in *A Curious Mind*, treats curiosity as a strategic superpower that has directly influenced major projects such as *Apollo 13* and *Empire* by connecting disparate experiences into coherent narratives. Executives like Bob Iger have adopted similar metrics for leadership, prioritizing authentic curiosity in hiring and strategic decision-making to navigate complex market dynamics.
- Milken Institute1h 6m
Dealing With China: A Conversation With Henry Paulson
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson details his tenure managing the 2008 financial crisis, highlighting real-time policy pivots involving Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehman Brothers that prevented total economic collapse. He further outlines his strategic engagement with China, noting the establishment of the Strategic Economic Dialogue which secured long-term climate cooperation while navigating tensions over human rights and intellectual property theft. Looking forward, Paulson advises prioritizing pragmatic economic linkages and institutional influence, such as joining the AIIB, to manage the complex spectrum of U.S.-China relations amid rising geopolitical and structural challenges.