Latest Interviews

How to crunch covid-19 data

Leveraging unprecedented data volumes, The Economist's data team exposed divergent global lockdown strategies through real-time mobility tracking that rapidly convinced Google to release public datasets and prompted immediate adoption in government briefings. Concurrently, the organization's simplified "flatten the curve" visualization, refined by editor Sasha Mostow and academic Drew Harris, established a critical communication standard for illustrating social distancing impacts on healthcare capacity. These efforts collectively transformed raw data into actionable policy tools, fundamentally shaping the global response to the pandemic.

Antoine Flamarion and Mathieu Chabran, Co-Founders of Tikehau Capital

Antoine Flamarion, Mathieu Chabran, Alison

TKO Capital co-founders Antoine Fulmarian and Mathieu Chabron are leveraging private markets, SPACs, and a €1 billion Energy Transition Fund to drive industrial growth and decarbonization efforts. The firm combines a "skin in the game" balance sheet strategy with contrarian thinking to target infrastructure, European private equity, and real SMEs while maintaining offices across the US, Europe, and Asia. By prioritizing creation over competition and advising investors to act with offensive ambition, TKO aims to capitalize on global structural shifts following the post-pandemic economic reset.

The Future of Auto Tech

Chris Buddin, Liz

Goldman Sachs has launched a joint venture merging its software and industrial divisions to capitalize on what it terms the "greatest industrial revolution of our time," a multi-decade shift toward electrified, software-integrated, and autonomous mobility. The firm anticipates this transition will face supply-side constraints driven by global battery manufacturing capacity while leveraging Special Purpose Acquisition Companies to fund capital-intensive ventures across a landscape of mature technologies and emerging startups. Investment strategies will prioritize long-term horizons of up to fifteen years to navigate the sector's unique challenges, aiming to deliver significant reductions in carbon emissions and substantial improvements in global health.

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of NATO

Jens Stoltenberg, Nick Schifrin

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg identifies climate change as a critical security threat that forces military adaptation while describing Russia as an assertive adversary and China as a systemic challenge to the alliance's liberal democratic values. To counter these evolving risks, the organization has implemented its largest collective defense reinforcement since the Cold War, including new battle groups in Eastern Europe, even as it maintains operational readiness during the pandemic and prepares for the planned troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Through the "NATO 2030" initiative, the alliance aims to preserve its consensus-based unity and global dominance by adapting its command structures, reducing fossil fuel dependence, and addressing hybrid threats like disinformation campaigns.

How Hedge Funds are Navigating a Volatile Market

Diana Dieckman, Freddie Parker, Jake Seward, Diana Dykman

Goldman Sachs surveyed nearly 450 allocators representing $1 trillion in assets, revealing that the hedge fund industry generated record AUM of $3.6 trillion in 2020 driven entirely by performance rather than new capital flows. While the sector recovered strongly from early-year losses with average returns exceeding 20%, the outlook for 2021 anticipates $35 billion in net inflows and a strategic pivot toward discretionary macro managers and Asian exposure, particularly China. This shift coincides with a reversal in fee compression, as rising performance prompted average management and performance fees to increase for the first time since 2012.

Christina Swarns, Executive Director of the Innocence Project

Christina Swarns, Huwe Burton

Christina Swarnes and exoneree Hugh Burton highlight critical structural failures in the criminal justice system, citing racial disparities in wrongful convictions and the absence of accountability for officials who secure false confessions. Their discussion emphasizes specific cases like *Buck v. Davis* and Burton's own 19-year incarceration to illustrate the urgent need for mandatory interrogation recording and systemic reforms driven by the post-George Floyd reckoning. Together, they argue that true safety requires local community accountability and robust support structures to assist individuals reintegrating after being wrongly convicted.

Rising Yields, Inflation and Risk Assets

Mike Swell, Liz

Fixed income global portfolio managers oversee more than $700 billion in assets while analyzing rising treasury yields as a temporary repricing of long-term supply driven by new fiscal stimulus rather than a sustained inflationary crisis. The speaker contrasts current market dynamics with the 2013 "taper tantrum," emphasizing that the Federal Reserve intends to maintain an accommodative stance through 2022 to achieve full employment without raising rates until 2023. Consequently, investors are advised to view yields of 2% to 2.25% on the 10-year bond as a buying opportunity and to increase allocations to credit and municipal bonds as bonds resume their historical role as portfolio ballast against equity volatility.

Jack Maynard: The Untold Story: How Being Thrown Out The Jungle Changed My Life Forever | E71

Jack Maynard, Stephen Bartlett

Following the resurfacing of deleted tweets from his youth, YouTuber Jack Maynard was abruptly removed from the Australian jungle set of *I'm a Celebrity* and subsequently diagnosed with PTSD, which severely stalled his career and triggered debilitating anxiety. His recovery trajectory shifted after participating in *The Traitors*, where structured task completion helped him overcome social fear, leading to a stable personal life and a strategic pivot toward business ownership. The discussion further highlights the volatility of the creator economy while contrasting these struggles with host Stephen Bartlett's promotion of his non-fiction book on vulnerability and financial success.

Markets Update: Cryptocurrency Trading

Mathew McDermott, Jake Seward, Matt McDermott

Goldman Sachs reports over 300 institutional conversations revealing a strategic shift from curiosity to active Bitcoin allocation, driven by corporate treasurers seeking balance sheet protection and hedge funds reawakening to digital assets. The firm’s proprietary survey indicates that 40% of clients currently hold crypto exposure with 61% planning increases, prompting Goldman to expand its Marquee platform with derivatives and prime brokerage services to navigate US regulatory constraints. While clients project year-end Bitcoin valuations between $40,000 and $100,000, the institution emphasizes that its product development prioritizes hedging and settlement solutions over direct physical delivery to comply with current banking limitations.

The Active Private Equity Landscape in Europe

Anna Skoglund, Liz

European private equity deal volumes surged 25% year-on-year in early 2021, driven by concentrated investment in Technology, Media, Telecom, and Healthcare sectors that are capitalizing on secular growth trends. Secondary buyouts and carve-outs accelerated significantly as private equity firms justified premiums through value creation theses, attracting diverse participants from multi-line managers to family offices despite elevated valuations. While the market continues to deploy capital aggressively, the industry is simultaneously pivoting toward rigorous ESG integration, prioritizing climate-focused funds and governance reforms to translate commitments into tangible operational results.

Cal Newport: Deep Work, Focus, Productivity, Email, and Social Media | Lex Fridman Podcast #166

Cal Newport, Lex Fridman

Cal Newport defines deep work as distraction-free concentration that maximizes cognitive output, arguing that modern communication habits like the "Hyperactive Hive Mind" severely degrade productivity through constant context switching. He proposes structural solutions including time blocking, a 30-day digital minimalism fast to rewire the brain's response to boredom, and the unilateral implementation of asynchronous workflows to eliminate unscheduled interruptions. Drawing from his background in theoretical computer science and personal philosophy, Newport contends that these cognitive and social optimizations, grounded in prioritizing meaningful relationships over trivial connectivity, are essential for achieving professional fulfillment and combating burnout.

Horacio Rozanski, President and CEO of Booz Allen Hamilton

Horacio Rozanski, John

Booz Allen Hamilton President Horacio Rosansky discussed the firm's strategic integration of private-sector innovation with complex government missions, highlighting advancements in AI, cybersecurity, and sustainability during a "Talks at GS" appearance. Addressing social equity with unprecedented urgency, Rosansky detailed how the leadership team prioritized internal assessments of diversity and race to complement the company's rapid growth in data science and space asset protection under its "Vision 2020" initiative. The conversation concluded with Rosansky's assessment of post-election operational challenges and his vision for accelerating technological adaptation to address exponential changes in the 2020s while fostering a legacy of broadened opportunity.

How the Pandemic is Reshaping Education

Katherine Tait, Catherine, Liz

As remote learning enrollment stabilizes at roughly 12–15%, the higher education sector is accelerating a permanent shift toward blended learning models driven by a 700% increase in faculty digital adoption and a student demand for unbundled, skill-based credentials. This structural transformation is fueled by a record $16 billion in venture capital and a corporate pivot to continuous upskilling, creating emerging market leaders focused on platform-agnostic courseware and institutional revenue diversification. Ultimately, the pandemic has cemented remote technology as the standard infrastructure for both K-12 and corporate training, signaling a long-term evolution from traditional degree tracks to flexible, lifelong learning ecosystems.

How Healthcare CIOs Are Investing Capital Through a Public Health Crisis

Paget MacColl, Stefan Strein, Jake Seward

Recorded on February 16, 2021, Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Paget McCall and Cleveland Clinic CIO Stefan Strein discussed how non-profit health systems navigated 2020 pandemic volatility through strategic liquidity management and accelerated AI adoption. The dialogue highlighted the clinic's $100 billion investment portfolio, which supported global expansion and $1.16 billion in community benefit spending while shifting toward lower-return expectations and enhanced ESG integration. Participants emphasized the critical role of cognitive diversity and specialized technology deployment in sustaining mission-driven outcomes amidst near-zero interest rates and operational uncertainty.

Josh Barnett: Philosophy of Violence, Power, and the Martial Arts | Lex Fridman #165

Josh Barnett, Lex Fridman

Josh Barnett explores the intersection of Nietzschean philosophy, evolutionary psychology, and martial arts to argue that violence and competition are inherent, necessary components of authentic human existence. Drawing on his experiences in catch wrestling and critiques of modern MMA, he posits that society must accept the inevitability of state authority and the raw struggle for resources to manage these primal drives. Ultimately, Barnett asserts that true meaning arises from embracing one's imperfections and engaging fully in life's violent and competitive "games" rather than seeking external validation.