Latest Interviews
Showing 2251–2265 of 6,420 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- The Economist24 min
Talk to EU later: Georgia’s fiery protests
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, David Rennie, Anna Toklikishvili, Shailesh Chitnis, Moeka Iida
Escalating violence in Tbilisi has erupted following the ruling party's decision to pause EU accession talks and enforce a Russian-style foreign agent law, sparking a decentralized grassroots movement that challenges Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and President Salome Zurabichvili over election legitimacy. While Kremlin propaganda frames the unrest as a Western-backed color revolution, international observers warn that harsh state suppression could trigger a bloody revolution while the EU faces a geopolitical dilemma regarding how to respond to the government's authoritarian pivot.
- Sequoia Capital39 min
Using AI to Build “Self-Driving Money” ft Ramp CEO Eric Glyman
Eric Glyman, Ravi Gupta, Sonya Huang
Ramp CEO Eric Gleiman champions a "zero-touch automation" strategy that utilizes large language models to execute invisible financial tasks, allowing over 25,000 companies to automate expense reporting and achieve average annual savings of 5%. This approach replaces traditional chatbot interfaces with self-driving money systems that automatically classify vendors and complete reports, marking a shift from routine data entry to high-value strategic work for finance leaders. By prioritizing enduring customer pains over temporary tech trends, the company positions itself to disrupt legacy financial institutions through non-bank innovation that mimics the operational efficiency of "self-driving" transformations in other industries.
Nik Storonsky, Revolut Founder: What Revolut Needs to Do to Hit $100BN Valuation | E1233
Nik Storonsky, Harry Stebbings
Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky drives a strict, KPI-led leadership framework that prioritizes rapid execution and self-directed generalists, resulting in a firing rate for underperformers within the first three months. The company plans to scale its US banking operations and expand to 50 markets within three years by leveraging a UK licensing prerequisite while launching a machine learning-driven investment arm called Quantum Light. Looking ahead, Revolut aims to become the first European startup to dominate the US market by focusing on binary goal achievement and launching a private banking product for high-net-worth individuals.
- The Economist20 min
Shock and thaw: Syria’s frozen war resumes
Jason Palmer, Greg Karlstrom, Avantika Chilkoti
On November 27, a rebel coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham captured Aleppo and other northwestern territories by exploiting the diminished military capacity of Syrian allies Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah. Concurrently, journalist Avantika Chilkoti demonstrated the futility of attempting to erase digital footprints, highlighting how corporate data aggregation and limited legal jurisdictions prevent individuals from achieving true online anonymity. In financial markets, US stocks rallied following Donald Trump's re-election, with sectors like crypto, private prisons, and finance surging on deregulation expectations, though some industries like steel and oil subsequently corrected due to policy uncertainties.
- The Diary Of A CEO1h 50m
Brian Keating: I’m Spending $200 Million To Explore Existence! How God Fits Into Science Explained!
Brian Keating, Professor Brian Keating, Stephen Bartlett
Physicist Brian Keating details the Simons Observatory's $200 million mission to detect primordial gravitational waves and validate cosmic inflation following the 2015 BICEP2 dust retraction. While maintaining a devout agnostic stance, Keating explores the intersection of scientific rigor with theological philosophy, arguing that ritual and community practice retain value independent of divine belief. The discussion further examines the improbable cosmic conditions necessary for Earth's habitability and personal narratives regarding the transition from career ambition to finding meaning through family and creative connection.
- 80,000 Hours3h 46m
Why global catastrophes probably won't kill us all | Luisa Rodriguez (2021)
Luisa Rodriguez's research challenges the prevailing assumption that catastrophic events killing 50% to 99.99% of humanity would lead to permanent extinction, arguing instead that historical precedents and resource constraints make recovery probable. The study identifies that factors such as geographic survival pockets, pre-existing stockpiles, and the inherent resilience of infrastructure allow civilizations to overcome direct or indirect collapse pathways like nuclear war or pandemics. Consequently, Rodriguez suggests that while preventing immediate mass loss remains a moral imperative, long-term cause prioritization should focus on risks guaranteeing true extinction rather than temporary civilization setbacks.
- 80,000 Hours3h 21m
Dismantling the myth that we can't do anything to help wild animals | Cameron Meyer Shorb
Cameron Meyer Shorb, Luisa Rodriguez
The Wild Animal Initiative is establishing the field of wild animal welfare science to address the massive scale of suffering caused by predation, disease, and environmental factors affecting billions of sentient beings. Through interdisciplinary research, the organization develops and tests tractable interventions such as selective reforestation, contraception, and vaccination while rigorously assessing ecological risks like trophic cascades. By standardizing welfare measurement and training the next generation of experts, the initiative aims to institutionalize ethical considerations of wild animals within legal and scientific frameworks to prevent net negative lives in natural ecosystems.
- Milken Institute20 min
A Conversation with FDA Commissioner Robert Califf | Future of Health Summit 2024
Commissioner Califf reflects on his tenure managing the Abbott infant formula recall and reorganizing the FDA Food Program, emphasizing that the agency faces a healthcare delivery crisis rather than an innovation deficit despite the U.S. global leadership in scientific advancement. He advocates for shifting regulatory focus from pre-approval trials to post-market pragmatic studies and new frameworks for AI decision support to address systemic biases and monitor uncontrolled algorithmic drift in clinical environments. Califf concludes by defining essential traits for future leadership, prioritizing executive listening skills and a commitment to high-quality evidence generation while maintaining a strict separation between science-based product decisions and politically influenced policy mandates.
Guy Podjarny: The Future of AI Software Development - What is Real & What is BS | E1232
The speaker evaluates NVIDIA's market dominance as undervalued yet anticipates a short-term demand trough as enterprises confront the current ROI limitations of AI tools. Future technological progress is framed by massive capital requirements for general-purpose models and skepticism regarding AGI timelines in 2025 due to non-technical societal adoption barriers. Simultaneously, the discussion outlines a strategic pivot where developer roles evolve from coding to system architecture while venture capital success relies on avoiding obvious markets and timing IPOs for long-term sustainability rather than immediate exits.
- The Economist26 min
Milei’s way: Argentina’s president, a year on
Milei, Celeste Caeiro, Rosie Bloor, Kinley Salmon, Marie Zegger, Lisa Honsinger, Anne Rowe
Argentina's President Javier Milei has halved default risk and slashed monthly inflation from 13% to 3% through radical fiscal contraction and the removal of central bank deficit financing, despite pushing poverty rates to 53%. Concurrently, a UN treaty involving 180 nations and major corporations like Coca-Cola aims to bind global plastic production to stricter recycling mandates and biodegradable alternatives, a move supported by startups like Notpla to address the 500 million tonnes of annual waste. The upcoming implementation of this treaty follows the 50th anniversary of Portugal's Carnation Revolution, a non-violent 1974 coup symbolized by worker Celeste Sairu that toppled a 40-year dictatorship.
- The Economist24 min
A losing battle: Sudan’s elusive peace deal
Rosie Blau, Tom Gardner, Ana Lankas, Jason Chow
The ongoing Sudanese civil war between the army and Rapid Support Forces has escalated into a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with RSF forces closing in on al-Fasher despite diplomatic efforts by negotiator El-Zadeen al-Safi that lack immediate traction due to deep mutual distrust and foreign military backing. Simultaneously in Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro faces formal accusations of orchestrating a coup and an assassination plot against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, resulting in potential 28-year prison sentences that have galvanized the political left while right-wing candidates continue to rely on his electoral influence despite his legal bar from public office. In the commercial sphere, Chinese bubble tea chains are aggressively expanding into global markets like London and New York to escape saturated domestic competition, utilizing state-backed soft power strategies to target overseas Chinese diasporas despite facing cultural barriers in Western nations.
- The Diary Of A CEO2h 16m
Ex-CIA Spy: China Is Preparing & We're Not Paying Attention! Here's What Happens If They Takeover!
Former CIA Operations Director Mike Baker and President-elect Donald Trump discuss a global landscape defined by non-kinetic warfare, noting China's drive to reshape the order, Russia's territorial expansion in Ukraine, and Iran's active assassination plots against U.S. officials. Baker leverages his experience in intelligence recruitment to outline a corporate strategy that prioritizes decisive action, or "getting off the axe," amidst rising corporate espionage and disinformation campaigns targeting Western infrastructure. The dialogue concludes with an assessment of how aging leadership and nuclear proliferation, combined with AI integration, create an existential threat that demands clear mission definition and robust risk management for both nations and businesses.
- 80,000 Hours1h 24m
OpenAI's unparalleled gambit to ditch its nonprofit | UCLA legal expert Rose Chan Loui
Rose Chan Loui, Rob Wiblin, Sam Altman, Elon Musk
OpenAI intends to permanently dissolve its non-profit parent structure to form a standalone Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, a shift requiring $6.6 billion in new investor funding contingent on restructuring within two years. This transition sparks intense legal scrutiny from California and Delaware officials regarding the fair valuation of the non-profit's stake, which is estimated between $37 billion and $80 billion, to ensure the organization receives adequate cash and equity for its safety missions. While CEO Sam Altman and investors seek to remove the 100x return cap and secure broader profit rights, the non-profit board must navigate severe conflicts of interest to secure a settlement that preserves its ability to fund AI safety research.
Klaus Hommels: Why "Portfolios are Merely a Construct to Make LPs Happy"? | E1231
Klaus Hommels, Harry Stebbings
A pioneering investor articulates a strategy focused on concentrated, high-impact bets over traditional diversification, backed by lessons from early stock market triumphs and a significant loss that shaped his risk management philosophy. He critiques the European venture ecosystem for its fragmented capital markets and regulatory barriers, while simultaneously launching a defense and deep tech initiative to foster technical sovereignty against reliance on foreign military technologies. His approach prioritizes founder integrity and operational depth over financial metrics, aiming to reshape institutional investing by integrating pension capital into innovation and addressing critical gaps in government procurement.
- The Economist21 min
Moment of truce: a ceasefire in the Middle East
Rosie Bloor, Greg Karlstrom, Anjani Trivedi, Sophie Pedder
A US and France-brokered 60-day ceasefire entered into force, mandating Hezbollah's withdrawal north of the Litani River and Israel's gradual troop pullback while facing skepticism over Lebanon's economic stability and military capacity. In Europe, the bankruptcy of battery maker Northvolt has exposed structural vulnerabilities in the region's EV supply chain, threatening to increase reliance on Chinese-dominated manufacturing and delay green energy targets. Concurrently, French media and public discourse are reshaping societal norms regarding aging, with cultural figures like Sylvie from *Emily in Paris* challenging traditional beauty standards to promote confidence and visibility for women over 60.