Latest Interviews

The No.1 Brain Doctor: This Parenting Mistake Ruins Your Kids Brain & Alcohol Will Ruin Yours!

Dr Daniel Amen

Dr. Daniel Amen leverages data from over 260,000 brain scans to demonstrate how lifestyle factors like alcohol, sugar, and technology directly degrade cognitive function and increase dementia risk. He advocates for a holistic approach to mental health that replaces generic psychiatric medication with targeted interventions, including specific nutritional strategies, exercise protocols, and trauma-informed care. The presentation concludes by outlining practical preventative measures for parents and communities to build "brain reserve" and foster resilience against neurodegenerative disease and mental illness.

Silver Threads: Weaving the Caregiving Tapestry | Global Conference 2024

Richard Lui, Yvette Nicole Brown, Hon Pak, Naimish Patel, Dor Skuler, Kai Walker, Ellicote

Moderated by Richard Louie, the "Silver Threads" panel convened entertainment, technology, and finance leaders to address the U.S. caregiving crisis affecting 53 million unpaid caregivers who collectively represent $3/4 trillion in unrealized economic value. Experts highlighted that while financial models remain misaligned, innovative solutions like Intuition Robotics' AI companion Ellie Q are beginning to offer scalable, cost-effective alternatives to traditional institutional care. The session concluded with a consensus on the urgent need to normalize the caregiver identity and reform policy to support the 30 million workers currently navigating the dual demands of employment and family responsibility.

DOGE vs USAID, Crypto Framework, Google's $75B AI Spend, US Sovereign Wealth Fund, GLP-1s

Antonio Gracias, Sacks, Chamath, Friedberg, Jason Calacanis

David Sacks and Antonio Gracias lead the Department of Government Efficiency in auditing USAID for potential fraud and waste while simultaneously pushing for a US Sovereign Wealth Fund to monetize government assets like TikTok stakes and federal land to reduce the national debt. The administration further advances a crypto regulatory framework prioritizing stablecoin legislation and proposes a tax plan eliminating levies on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits for seniors. Amidst these policy shifts, market participants analyze Google's record-breaking earnings and $75 billion AI infrastructure investment, while medical experts review new VA data suggesting GLP-1 drugs offer significant cardiovascular and neurological benefits beyond weight loss.

How To Get AI Startup Ideas

Gary, Jared, Diana, Harj

YC is hosting its inaugural AI Startup School in San Francisco on June 16th and 17th, featuring high-profile speakers like Elon Musk and Sam Altman to guide eligible CS students and recent graduates through cutting-edge venture creation. The program emphasizes deriving viable startup ideas by leveraging unique domain expertise or conducting undercover research in underserved industries, illustrated by case studies of founders who transformed personal observations at companies like Tesla and Cohere into seven-figure ventures. Participants receive full travel support and strategic advice to persist with ambitious AI projects, moving beyond transient trends to build companies with sustainable competitive advantages in rapidly evolving sectors.

Brian Tolkin, Head of Product @Opendoor: How to Hire the Best Product Teams | E1257

Brian Tolkin, Harry Stebbings

This session analyzes critical product failures and successes, highlighting how UberPool's upfront pricing optimized user experience while a flawed UI toggle caused confusion, and how Opendoor corrected its strategy by shifting from buyer-focused expansion to leveraging seller tools. Speakers discuss the necessity of balancing rapid growth with technical debt, the strategic shift toward defining problems over solutions in one-pagers, and how AI will compress traditional design roles while elevating the value of strategic product leadership. The discussion concludes with insights on navigating real-world entropy, adapting prioritization frameworks for short and long-term horizons, and the importance of "dictatorial" leadership styles to maintain velocity in early-stage scaling.

It could happen to you: introducing “Scam Inc”

Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, Su Lin Wong, Simon Rabinovich, Tim Cross

Podcast series *Scam Inc.* reveals a multi-billion dollar online fraud industry utilizing violent coercion, AI-driven voice cloning, and psychological exploitation across the globe. Concurrently, the US administration has aggressively implemented sweeping tariff threats on major trading partners, creating significant market volatility while seeking to revitalize domestic manufacturing through protectionist policies. In the sports sector, Magnus Carlsen and Tim Cross are launching a rebranded Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour that employs randomized starting positions and F1-style broadcasting to transform chess into a mass-market entertainment product.

Innovators Rethinking Criminal Justice Systems | Global Conference 2024

Zack Carpenter, Baz Dreisinger, Hilton Freund, Jessica Hicklin, Teresa Hodge, Ari Melber, Alex Spiro

Global and domestic speakers including Jessica Hicklin, Theresa Hodge, and Dr. Baz convened to address the $250 billion U.S. criminal justice crisis and its disproportionate impact on racial minorities and the 50% rise in female incarceration worldwide. These innovators argued that data-driven reforms, such as implementing earned-time credits and sport-based skill building, could prevent 350,000 years of unnecessary incarceration while addressing a projected 22 million worker shortage in the energy sector. Despite significant barriers like funding mismatches and political volatility, the event emphasized shifting from "second chances" to "first chances" to leverage the 95% of released prisoners who will integrate into the workforce.

What DeepSeek Means For The Future Of AI | Tech Veterans Weigh In

Martin Casado, Steven Sinofsky

Following the surprise release of the DeepSeek-R1 model, which matched top-tier Western capabilities for an estimated $5–6 million, global markets experienced a trillion-dollar correction while the technology disrupted industry scaling norms through permissive licensing and public reasoning traces. This event challenges the necessity of brute-force compute investment, signaling a strategic shift toward application-layer value capture and exposing the limitations of current U.S. export controls in stifling foreign AI innovation. Ultimately, the release forces a reevaluation of competitive dynamics, suggesting that future progress will rely on engineering efficiency and specialized enterprise workflows rather than traditional parameter scaling or closed ecosystems.

Leeward: we meet South Korea’s probable president

Marianne Faithfull, Jason Palmer, Noah Snyder, Claire McHugh, Anne Rowe

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol faces removal following an attempted martial law imposition, while opposition leader Lee Jae-myung emerges as a frontrunner despite facing disqualification hurdles from past election law convictions and pending corruption charges. Simultaneously, Colombia's Catatumbo region endures a severe humanitarian crisis with over 53,000 displaced persons resulting from intensified violence between the ELN and FARC dissidents, prompting President Gustavo Petro to declare a state of internal commotion and suspend peace negotiations. In cultural history, singer Marianne Faithfull passed away as a symbol of redemption after a dramatic fall from 1960s counterculture fame to street life due to heroin addiction, followed by a critically acclaimed musical resurgence in the 1980s.

The Insulin & Glucose Doctor: This Will Strip Your Fat Faster Than Anything!

Dr Benjamin Bikman, Steven

Dr. Bickman outlines insulin resistance as the central metabolic driver for chronic conditions like Alzheimer's and heart disease, highlighting how chronic lifestyle factors, environmental toxins, and visceral fat expansion create slow-lane resistance. He contrasts the temporary efficacy and significant risks of GLP-1 receptor agonists with a comprehensive management strategy focused on four pillars: eliminating processed carbohydrates, prioritizing protein and healthy fats, and utilizing intermittent fasting alongside resistance training to preserve muscle mass. The presentation concludes by emphasizing that longevity depends on excellent glucose control and high cholesterol levels rather than strict salt or carb restriction, while noting that early family support was crucial to his ability to pursue this research mission.

How AI is Powering Payments, with Greg Ulrich of Mastercard

Greg Ulrich, Marc Andrusko, Mark

MasterCard Chief AI and Data Officer Greg Ulrich outlines a strategic framework that segments artificial intelligence into four pillars—Safer, Smarter, More Personal, and Stronger—to address specific business needs ranging from fraud detection to internal operational efficiency. This approach has yielded concrete implementations such as the "Decision Intelligence" system for ecosystem-wide security, the "Shopping Muse" chatbot for personalized recommendations, and a Retrieval Augmented Generation-based onboarding assistant that maintains accuracy through human oversight. Looking ahead, the organization emphasizes cautious adoption of generative AI in regulated environments while prioritizing data security, multi-modality, and the development of reasoning models that explicitly acknowledge uncertainty.

Max Levchin, Founder & CEO @ Affirm:The Biggest Surprise Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

Max Levchin, Harry Stebbings

The speaker articulates a leadership framework that prioritizes hiring extreme, opinionated individuals while strictly terminating those who breach integrity, asserting that true talent differentiation occurs only after post-hire performance on complex projects. Organizational culture is reinforced through a disciplined writing-first approach, clinical post-mortem analysis, and a hybrid work model that balances high-speed execution with the necessity of in-person relationship building. Strategic execution hinges on distinguishing between reversible and irreversible decisions, leveraging a "lean startup" philosophy that requires rebuilding successful prototypes for production, and maintaining a focus on substantive operational growth over market speculation.

The Engineering Unlocks Behind DeepSeek | YC Decoded

Diana Hu

DeepSeek unveiled its open-source R1 reasoning model and V3 base architecture, delivering performance parity with top-tier proprietary systems like OpenAI o1 through novel algorithmic optimizations such as native FP8 training and Group Relative Policy Optimization. The announcement triggered significant market volatility, erasing nearly $600 billion from NVIDIA's capitalization, while demonstrating that software stack efficiency can rival the hardware advantages of major US tech ecosystems despite strict GPU export controls. This breakthrough validates a new trajectory for the industry by proving that high-cost AI development can be drastically reduced, thereby lowering barriers for startups and accelerating the adoption of accessible, locally deployable intelligence.

As a next resort: Trump’s vision for Gaza

Trump, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, Anshul Pfeffer, Avantika Chilkoti

Donald Trump's proposal to economically redevelop the Gaza Strip by relocating its two million Palestinians has drawn immediate rejection from Arab foreign ministers and the governments of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, while garnering ecstatic support from Israeli far-right figures. Analysts widely characterize the plan as practically unfeasible and morally indefensible, suggesting it may serve as a political distraction for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rather than a viable diplomatic strategy. Simultaneously, rising tensions over the 1943–1944 Volhynia massacres threaten to strain Poland-Ukraine relations, while global baby industry spending surges despite demographic shifts and economic constraints.

The Future of Software Engineering

Language models are projected to reduce software development costs to near zero while driving demand for human engineers to shift from direct coding to managing autonomous agent teams. These agents are expected to assume specialized responsibilities spanning quality assurance, operations, and compliance audits, fundamentally transforming the engineering workflow. Consequently, the speaker is seeking funding for startups that provide generalist developers with tools to coordinate these large agent forces for high-volume software delivery.