Latest Interviews
Showing 4771–4785 of 5,623 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute53 min
The Future of Finance
Izabella Kaminska, Geoffrey Duncombe, Antony Jenkins, Brian Oliver, Omar Selim, Anthony Todd
Panelists including Omar Selin, Anthony Todd, and Jeffrey Duncan forecast a radical restructuring of the financial sector driven by artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technology, and a shift toward ESG-integrated investing. This technological convergence is predicted to eliminate traditional intermediaries and contract the workforce by fifty percent while generating alpha through machine learning models that correlate non-financial data with market performance. Despite these efficiency gains, experts warn of systemic risks such as algorithmic overfitting, liquidity mismatches in ETFs, and societal stratification caused by automated credit scoring.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Investment Strategies That Leverage the Longevity Economy
Patricia Milligan, Ben Franklin, Jim Mellon, Andrew Scott, Marc van Weede, Pat Milligan
A panel of experts led by Professor Andrew Scott and Jim Mellon advocates replacing the term "aging" with "longevity" to address a future where developed nations face average life expectancies of 110 to 120 years within three decades. The discussion highlights a critical need to restructure corporate diversity frameworks, pension systems, and education models to accommodate a workforce where retirees increasingly return to employment and ageism is identified as a unique form of discrimination against one's future self. Furthermore, the speakers warn that failing to adapt to these demographic shifts will exacerbate inequality, stifle productivity, and trigger financial shortfalls that could necessitate societal upheaval without immediate policy intervention and investment in biotech and holistic care.
- Milken Institute55 min
Which Way for Emerging Markets in 2018?
Staci Warden, David Bohigian, Scott Mackin, Arvind Rajan, Nicolas Rohatyn, Sev Vettivetpillai
This analysis highlights a structural shift in global economics where emerging markets now drive the majority of GDP growth, fueled by a youthful demographic dividend and synchronized recovery contrasting with stagnation in developed nations. Investors are increasingly pivoting from macro commodity proxies to micro-level opportunities in healthcare, education, and renewable energy, though they must navigate significant liquidity risks in corporate bond markets and capital traps in private equity. Success in this environment requires long-term horizons, rigorous bottom-up due diligence to distinguish good capital absorption, and strategies that blend public and private funding to mitigate political and technological disruption.
- Milken Institute59 min
Lessons in Leadership: Women Breaking Barriers and Battling Bias
Yomi Abiola, Richard Ditizio, Asli Bayram, Jackie Cooper, Lynne Franks, Assia Grazioli-Venier, Brenda Trenowden
This panel of business leaders and activists argues that achieving global gender equality requires structural reforms beyond individual mentorship, citing the "elephant and giraffe" parable and Norway's 40% board quota as evidence that systemic bias must be dismantled through enforceable mandates and diverse executive empowerment. Key speakers including Asya and Brenda Trenodin outlined strategies such as replacing passive mentorship with active sponsorship, utilizing AI to neutralize gendered hiring language, and investing in mixed-gender leadership to normalize female presence in high-stakes corporate and venture capital environments. While acknowledging slow progress highlighted by the World Economic Forum's 2186 equality projection, the group emphasized that accelerating this timeline demands measurable KPIs, top-down accountability, and a shift in corporate culture from tolerance to active inclusion.
- Y Combinator1h 2m
There's an Art to Getting Brilliant People to Surprise Themselves - Kevin Slavin of The Shed
Kevin Kelly's peripatetic career bridges disparate fields, from bootstrapping the mobile game company Area Code to shaping the operational philosophies of MIT's Media Lab and New York's The Shed. His work redefines cultural institutions as "synchronizing signals" that counteract social fragmentation through adaptive architecture, such as The Shed's 120-foot moving shell, and digital strategies like total smartphone ticketing. Looking forward, Kelly advocates for a future where innovation emerges from cross-disciplinary agility rather than traditional domain expertise, a perspective he applies to his analysis of the nascent virtual reality industry.
- Goldman Sachs10 min
Talks at GS – Nick Leschly: The Promise of Gene Therapy
Bluebird Bio is applying a gene-editing strategy to treat genetic diseases like sickle cell disease and cancer by harvesting patient stem cells, inserting functional DNA via viral vectors, and reinfusing the modified cells to achieve a permanent cure. Led by CEO Nick Lashley, the company has overcome a history of industry overpromising by adopting a strictly patient-centric culture that enforces operational frugality and high executive autonomy to ensure focus on therapeutic efficacy. Early clinical results demonstrate the therapy's potential, with treated sickle cell patients reportedly free of pain medication within six months, validating the firm's shift toward "function engineering" rather than simple restoration.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Immigration, Workforce and the New Europe
Robert Guest, Elizabeth Collett, Paul Collier, August Hanning, Syed Kamall, Parag Khanna
Former German intelligence chief August Hanning, economist Paul Collier, and other global security experts convened to analyze the economic, political, and security dimensions of the European migration crisis. The panelists distinguished between refugees and economic migrants, arguing that Europe's disproportionate political focus has undermined global stability while driving polarization that empowered nationalist movements from the AfD to Trump. Ultimately, the discussion concluded that resolving displacement requires a fundamental shift from border-centric policies to investing in governance and economic development within origin countries to address the root causes of migration.
- Jane Street56 min
How Jane Street Does Code Review
Jane Street engineers utilize Iron, a custom Mercurial-based review platform, to enforce mechanical code reading and branch-level state management that eliminates redundant reviews during rebases and merges. The system integrates feedback directly into source code and centralizes safety policies to support nested branch workflows, treating entire branch sequences as atomic units rather than individual commits. By combining a specialized Emacs client with a persistent task dashboard, the tool facilitates collaborative editing, automated file ownership obligations, and the review of non-code assets like configuration files and trading limits.
- Goldman Sachs12 min
Talks at GS – Dan Huttenlocher: Tech and the City – Powering the Future
Cornell Tech Dean Dan Huttenlacher outlined the creation of the Roosevelt Island campus as a strategic response to bridge the gap between university education and the digital economy, mirroring the historic establishment of engineering schools in the 1860s. Drawing on New York's thriving venture capital ecosystem, Huttenlacher distinguished the current technological landscape by emphasizing human dexterity in unstructured scenarios while advocating for AI's efficacy in rule-based tasks. He further addressed the necessity of diversifying the computer science demographic and navigating societal challenges posed by social media and blockchain, urging a corporate framework that prioritizes stakeholders before engaging in proactive societal dialogue.
- Goldman Sachs9 min
Talks at GS – Tony Prophet: Promoting Equality in the Workplace
Salesforce co-founder Tony Profitt describes how the company institutionalized a three-vector innovation model centered on the "1-1-1" philanthropy framework and an "Ohana" culture defined by trust, growth, innovation, and equality. As the organization's first Chief Equality Officer, Profitt outlines a four-lane strategy for societal impact that includes opposing discriminatory legislation, enforcing equal pay, expanding educational access, and mirroring local demographics through inclusive hiring practices. This approach challenges traditional notions of cultural fit to create an environment where diverse talent thrives, positioning long-term societal legacy as a core business objective rather than an afterthought.
- Goldman Sachs12 min
Talks at GS – Ella and Matthew Mills: Deliciously Ella’s Recipe for Success
Following a personal health diagnosis, Ella Mills transformed her recovery blog into Deliciously Ella, a leading international food brand that achieved record-breaking cookbook sales and app downloads without formal marketing or an internal creative team. To scale the operation, co-CEO Matthew Mills joined to provide essential financial expertise, enabling the consolidation of the fragmented free-from market into a single optimistic entity with distribution in 5,500 stores. Driven by Mills' direct daily engagement with 28 million social media followers, the company aims to become the UK's largest health food business by prioritizing general dietary improvement over niche weight loss trends.
- Y Combinator18 min
Preston Silverman on Building out a Marketplace in Education - at YC Edtech Night
Founded by a former strategy consultant and teacher, Raise Me awards nearly $1.5 billion in scholarships during high school to bridge the critical gap between eligibility and college enrollment. The platform secured its initial growth through a $100,000 Gates Foundation grant and strategic partnerships with higher education institutions, bypassing traditional EdTech skepticism to address the $100 billion annual scholarship market. Now a 52-person organization aiming for national ubiquity within five years, the company shifts focus from early-stage survival tactics to scaling its model that prioritizes student guidance and skill development over content-heavy curricula.
- Y Combinator57 min
Microbes, Robots, and Ambition - Robin Sloan on His Novel Sourdough
Robin Sloan, Kat Manalac, Craig Cannon
During a discussion on the intersection of artificial intelligence and literary craft, the author details the unprecedented creation of the *Sourdough* audiobook, which features machine-generated alien music synthesized from Croatian Klapa folk recordings. The conversation further examines the technical reality of the "Egg Problem" in robotics, the author's philosophy of viewing technological convergence as a cumulative "glorious crash" rather than an adversarial force, and the fragility of digital preservation in contrast to physical media. Looking toward the future, the author outlines plans to integrate text generation as a core stylistic tool in a new novel while reflecting on how current cultural narratives have shifted from Silicon Valley's early optimism to a more critical examination of power and labor.
- Goldman Sachs46 min
Talks at GS – Ron Chernow: Lessons in Leadership – The Unlikely Rise of Ulysses S. Grant
Ron Chernow, Ulysses S. Grant, Lloyd Blankfein
Biographer Ron Chernow reconstructs Ulysses S. Grant's arc from a failed businessman and dismissed officer to a strategic genius who secured Union victory and championed Reconstruction through the Department of Justice. Chernow utilizes Grant's presidency to challenge the "Lost Cause" narrative, highlighting the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and the unprecedented political representation of African Americans before the era's eventual collapse. While documenting Grant's tragic financial ruin and his unique psychological capacity for calm under fire, the work reframes the general as a modernizing leader whose legacy has surged from historical obscurity to the center of civil rights history.
- Jane Street1h 13m
Nate Foster: Verifying Network Data Planes
Nate Foster, Bill Hallahan, JK Lee, Cole Schlesinger, Steffen Smolks, Robert Soule, Han Wang, Ron
Cornell Professor Nate Foster and Barefoot Networks have developed an automated verification tool for P4 programs running on programmable data planes to prevent catastrophic network failures caused by configuration errors. This system transforms P4 code into guarded commands to efficiently compute weakest preconditions using the Sacks and Flanagan algorithm, checking safety conditions against the Z3 SMT solver to generate counter-examples for invalid header accesses without requiring manual annotations. By modeling the separation between data and control planes through ghost state, the tool validates programs up to 20,000 lines of code in minutes, establishing a critical foundation for verifying complex software-defined network topologies.