Latest Interviews

From 9/11 to covid-19: can New York recover?

Jon Fasman, Mike, Dan Doktoroff, Wellington Chen, Eric Adams

New York City compares its $14 billion pandemic relief to the $20 billion allocated for post-9/11 reconstruction, highlighting severe fiscal gaps that contributed to the permanent closure of over 3,000 small businesses and a $933 million annual tax revenue loss from high-income departures. The crisis disproportionately affected communities like Chinatown through delayed aid and a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, while housing policies failed to produce affordable units for new workers, exacerbating pre-existing inequality. Incoming mayoral candidate Eric Adams faces the challenge of funding recovery initiatives without massive federal support, aiming to replicate the ambition of the post-9/11 era while rectifying past exclusions of vulnerable populations.

Covid-19: how tech will transform your kids' education

The 2020 pandemic disrupted education for 1.4 billion students globally, exposing structural inequities that spurred major government interventions and a projected doubling of EdTech spending to over $400 billion by 2025. Industry leaders like Century founder Priya Lakhani and Mersion are deploying AI-driven platforms and simulation software to personalize learning and revolutionize teacher training, shifting focus from consumer tools to classroom-specific efficiency. Despite these innovations, experts warn that without targeted infrastructure investment in under-resourced schools, the emerging hybrid model risks widening the digital divide, even as hybrid learning gains acceptance for combining physical instruction with technology-enabled skill acquisition.

Covid-19: Can vaccines keep up with variants?

Alok Jha, Natasha Loder

Driven by the Delta variant and potential mutations within immune-suppressed hosts, the pandemic persists as unchecked global transmission threatens to create vaccine-evading "omega" variants. Experts warn that while current vaccines remain effective against severe outcomes, the primary risk lies in uncontrolled spread leading to higher absolute death tolls and future immune evasion. To prevent this nightmare scenario, scientists advocate for proactive surveillance at human-animal interfaces and the development of rapid variant-specific vaccines alongside stricter laboratory and environmental security protocols.

Thomas Dyja, author of "New York, New York, New York"

Thomas Dyja

Thomas Deidja's *New York, New York* chronicles the shift in municipal governance from the fiscal chaos of the Beame era to the data-driven command structures of the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. The text details how technological mandates replaced manual record-keeping to solve crime and management crises while critiquing specific policy failures regarding the AIDS crisis and racial disparities under Koch and Dinkins. Ultimately, the work argues that the pandemic disrupts this historical model of urban vitality by eliminating the face-to-face interactions that previously allowed the city to rely on density to solve social problems.

Afghanistan: how the Taliban weakened America

Robert Guest

The Taliban's rapid seizure of Afghanistan marks the end of a twenty-year US campaign defined by strategic failures in intelligence, nation-building, and centralizing power that ultimately collapsed the Afghan government without significant battlefield resistance. President Biden oversaw a chaotic withdrawal that prioritized the evacuation of American citizens over allies, causing severe damage to US global credibility while triggering internal displacement and fears of a resurgent al-Qaeda. Despite public promises of an inclusive government, the new regime has immediately enacted severe restrictions on civil liberties, including bans on women working and media censorship, signaling a high risk of further regional instability.

Should covid-19 vaccines be mandatory?

Natasha Lodo

Debate over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies intensifies as approximately 30% of U.S. adults remain unvaccinated, creating a polarized divide between public health advocates and those defending bodily autonomy. While jurisdictions like Italy and U.S. states such as California have implemented employer mandates and federal testing requirements, the nation lacks a uniform national strategy due to constitutional limitations and stark political opposition. Historical precedents from the smallpox era and mixed results from financial incentive programs suggest that future vaccine mandates will remain highly localized, varying significantly by state politics and legal frameworks.

Nicolas Hamilton, Racing Driver

Nicolas Hamilton, Kene Ejikeme, Kanae Jukame

Nicholas Hamilton, born with cerebral palsy and trained exclusively on a £20 button-based simulator, overcame physical limitations to win the 2009 British Championship and subsequently secure a spot in the professional British Touring Car Championship. After two years of securing his own sponsorship by acting as his own marketing director, he became the first disabled driver to score BTCC points since 2015 and currently holds the distinction of being the most followed driver in the touring car paddock. His career, defined by a "90% mental, 10% physical" philosophy, serves as a high-visibility platform to inspire others to pursue unique routes despite external constraints.

Henry Kissinger: how Biden should handle China

Henry Kissinger, Biden

Henry Kissinger outlines a precarious escalation in US-China tensions, warning that mutually exclusive narratives on hegemony and interference require a foundational agreement to exclude high-tech warfare and enforce mutual restraint. He evaluates the Biden administration's diplomatic tone as an improvement over the previous era, yet notes that its approach remains a strategic balancing act between domestic political pressures and the urgent international necessity of coexistence. Kissinger concludes that the unique challenge of sustaining a relationship between a democratic United States and a "Confucian Marxist" China demands the explicit definition of specific issues rather than reliance on a rules-based order that is not currently applied to Beijing.

Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks

Ali Ghodsi, George Lee

Databricks CEO Ali Ghadzi outlines a strategy for enterprises to leverage data and AI as the "early first inning" of industry disruption, guided by a leadership philosophy rooted in empathy and a corporate culture of customer obsession. The company employs a self-cannibalization innovation model that open-sources core technologies like Spark and MLflow to drive adoption while monetizing secure, high-performance SaaS services that reduce total cost of ownership by up to 100x. Ghadzi advises organizations to immediately build foundational data infrastructure on the cloud and rely on open-source standards to avoid vendor lock-in, ensuring they can fully capitalize on the inevitable integration of AI into all software.

The ESG Case for E-Commerce

Derek Bingham, Liz

Goldman Sachs Research highlights three primary tensions between e-commerce expansion and ESG goals: carbon efficiency from consolidated logistics, packaging waste accounting for 20% of the market's total, and opaque labor conditions within rapidly growing fulfillment networks. While delivery fleets transition to low-emission vehicles, industry leaders like Amazon and MercadoLibre are launching pilots to address plastic recycling and reusable container systems, though significant challenges in workforce transparency remain unresolved. The firm advises investors to demand standardized data on job quality and cyber risks to mitigate potential regulatory and reputational exposures as the sector's reliance on customer data intensifies.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and CEO of Bumble

Whitney Wolfe Herd, Kim

Founded by Whitney Wolf Hurd in 2014, the dating platform Bumble became the first company led by a woman under 31 to go public in 2021, currently serving over 40 million users globally. The company differentiates itself by requiring women to initiate conversations in heterosexual matches and has expanded into platonic and professional networking through its BFF and Bizz features, supported by a strategy that blends digital interaction with physical venues like its Soho coffee shop pilot. Backed by a core mission to foster safe, equitable connections, Bumble leverages its brand trust to target a total addressable market extending far beyond traditional dating into health and wellness as part of its long-term vision.

Behind the Numbers: Goldman Sachs’ CFO on Second Quarter Earnings Results

Stephen Scherr, Liz

Goldman Sachs reported a robust second quarter driven by record investment banking backlog levels, $1 billion in equity underwriting revenues, and a 18% return on equity in global markets. The firm is accelerating a strategic transition toward a fund-format model while prioritizing capital returns through doubled dividends and variable share repurchases to support stock value. Despite facing macroeconomic, geopolitical, and cybersecurity risks, management remains confident in the outlook, noting a significant return to physical office collaboration and strong sponsor-led M&A activity.

Avi Loeb, Professor and Author

Avi Loeb, George Lee

Physicist Avi Loeb argues that anomalous data regarding the interstellar object Oumuamua and recent Pentagon-reported UAPs warrants rigorous investigation despite mainstream skepticism favoring conventional natural explanations. He critiques the dismissal of unexplained phenomena by prominent scientists, asserting that prejudice hinders scientific progress and calling for the creation of open datasets to facilitate transparent analysis. Complementing this advocacy for inquiry, Loeb co-chairs the Breakthrough Starshot initiative, a project designed to propel gram-scale light-sail spacecraft to Proxima Centauri at 20% the speed of light within two decades.

At the Half: Taking Stock of Market Performance and Themes to Watch Ahead

John Storey, Liz

During Q2 2021, global equity markets delivered robust double-digit gains driven by a significant value-over-growth rotation and surging European capital inflows that have reached their highest levels since 2015. Hedge funds, systematic quant strategies, and mutual funds all posted strong year-to-date returns, coinciding with record-breaking ESG asset growth and a buoyant outlook for M&A activity fueled by over $2 trillion in available dry powder. While historical data suggests favorable momentum for the remainder of the year, investors are beginning to moderate risk appetite as the market navigates potential inflation concerns and the absence of a standardized global ESG framework.

James Citrin, Leader, Spencer Stuart North American CEO Practice

James Citrin, David, Jim Citrin

Spencer Stewart's analysis identifies the "20-80 Principle" as a key differentiator where top 1% performers redefine roles by initiating unrequested value-add projects, a strategy that extends from interns to CEOs. The discussion also addresses the "Permission Paradox" by showcasing how candidates like Jim Citrin manufactured specific experiences to secure roles, alongside the RAMP model for hybrid leadership that balances relationships with rigorous processes. Finally, organizational leaders such as those at Goldman Sachs and Google emphasize clear return-to-office mandates and protected discretionary time to drive innovation and prevent workforce ambiguity.