Latest Interviews

Ash Carter: Former US Secretary of Defense

Ash Carter, Sharmeen Mosavar-Rahmani

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense James "Ash" Carter discusses the unprecedented operational scale of the Pentagon, which rivals global corporations in budget and personnel, while emphasizing the critical need for a permanent leader to provide direction. Carter outlines a complex strategy for managing the United States' sustained competitive relationship with China, arguing that traditional containment or free trade models are insufficient and requiring a new playbook centered on multilateral rules rather than bilateral coercion. He further details his tenure's focus on combating ISIS as an existential threat and highlights the volatile risk of unintentional conflict with Iran due to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' operational autonomy and regional instability.

Don Jones: 13 Years in a Shell: Lessons, Practices, and Achievements in PowerShell

Don Jones, Jeffrey Snover, Arnold, Doug Fake

Hosted by Arnold and Doug Fake, the New York PowerShell community meetup featured veteran practitioner Don Jones discussing his evolution from Navy maintenance to modern DevOps strategy. Jones emphasized critical technical anti-patterns such as avoiding Format-* cmdlets and global variables while advocating for Test-Driven Development, Git integration, and the Single Responsibility Principle to ensure script maintainability. The session concluded with guidance on organizational alignment, noting that true DevOps requires cross-functional product teams and continuous skill investment to remain competitive in a fast-moving market.

Can America Afford to Retire?

Josh Barro, Andrew Biggs, Marcie Frost, Jarvis Hollingsworth, Dan Houston

A panel of public and private sector leaders, including CEOs from CalPERS and Texas Teachers Retirement System, examines the divergent financial realities of retirement affordability across defined benefit and contribution models. While current retirees enjoy record wealth, the discussion highlights critical structural vulnerabilities in public pension funding assumptions and the longevity risks facing workers in defined contribution plans. Experts propose policy interventions such as federal funding mandates, auto-enrollment mechanisms, and annuity integration to address projected solvency gaps and ensure long-term system stability.

Open Data, Open Banking: Creating a More Competitive Financial Services Ecosystem

Melissa Koide, Gilles Gade, Sima Gandhi, Sahil Kini, Craig Schachter, Rachel Bronson, Aaron Pakles, Lee Hutter

Moderated by Melissa Coit, a panel of global fintech leaders debated the balance between top-down regulatory frameworks and bottom-up market demands in the evolution of open banking. The discussion highlighted divergent regional models, contrasting India's public infrastructure-driven success with the fragmented, principle-based approach in the US, while addressing the critical need for consumer data ownership and liability clarity. Participants concluded that modernizing legacy core banking systems and establishing clear consent mechanisms are essential to enable real-time data flow and prevent market consolidation from stifling innovation.

Arianna Huffington: Thrive Global and the Huffington Post | Take It Uneasy Podcast

Arianna Huffington, Lex Friedman

Arianna Huffington outlines a philosophy where life's meaning stems from spiritual evolution and resilience rather than legacy, citing her own near-bankruptcy and recovery as the catalyst for her "Thrive" methodology that prioritizes human energy laws over relentless work. Transitioning from Republican to Democrat due to the need for government action on inequality, she argues that political polarization requires a renewed reverence for objective facts and scientific literacy to heal societal divides. Looking toward the future, she posits that while artificial intelligence will replace technical tasks, uniquely human capacities like love will define economic success, necessitating a shift away from burnout and toward a balance of intense effort with dedicated recharging.

How Drug Trafficking Is Fueling the Opioid Crisis

Anita Gupta, Michael A. Davis, Lynn Goldman, Adriaan Louw

This event convenes experts to address the escalating opioid crisis, characterized by a 2017 overdose death rate six times higher than in 1999 and a fatal third wave driven by synthetic fentanyl trafficking from China. Through the DEA's "360 Strategy" in Los Angeles, authorities are coordinating enforcement, diversion control, and youth outreach to combat transnational cartels and prosecute distributors of lethal mixtures. Simultaneously, clinical and policy leaders advocate for treating addiction as a chronic brain disease, promoting non-opioid pain management, and dismantling regulatory barriers to expand access to life-saving medications like naloxone.

George F. Will: Author of "The Conservative Sensibility"

George F. Will, Jake Stewart

George Will's new book, *The Conservative Sensibility*, argues that American conservatism has fundamentally shifted by prioritizing individual liberty over majority rule, a stance he applies to criticize the Republican Party's current uncritical support for Donald Trump's expansive executive power. Will contrasts the Madisonian system of checks and balances with Woodrow Wilson's advocacy for concentrated authority, contending that Congress has abdicated its legislative responsibilities to the executive branch through vague statutes while failing to defend true capitalism against what he terms a misleading socialist narrative. Having effectively severed ties with the GOP over its alignment with the current administration, the veteran columnist champions judicial review as essential for protecting minority rights and defends the virtues of market societies against both modern socialist misconceptions and government economic planning.

Jason Rezaian: Author of "Prisoner"

Jason Rezaian, Andrew Williams

On July 22, 2014, Washington Post columnist Jason Rezaian was arrested in Tehran and falsely accused of being a CIA operative, subjecting him to seven months of solitary confinement in a sensory-deprived cell at Evin Prison. Rezaian argues that his eventual release resulted from sustained global public attention and political will rather than the legal system alone, while criticizing the U.S. for failing to leverage Iran's vast economic potential and for neglecting the six remaining Americans currently detained there. He further contends that American soft power and press freedom must remain a guiding global standard despite domestic challenges, urging renewed diplomatic engagement with Iran instead of isolation.

Nandan Nilekani: Co-Founder of Infosys

Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani and his team pioneered Infosys's global scaling strategy before architecting the Aadhaar digital identity system to authenticate 1.2 billion citizens and drive massive financial inclusion. This infrastructure enabled the Unified Payments Interface, a public-bank-owned platform that now processes hundreds of millions of real-time transactions monthly while catalyzing a domestic services-led economic model. As India transitions toward a young, tech-enabled workforce, the event highlights how these foundational systems position the nation to achieve sustained GDP growth despite global manufacturing shifts.

Advice on Organizing and Running Growth Teams from Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer

Dan Hockenmaier, Gustaf Alströmer, Craig Cannon, Toni, Michael Savage, Justin LaRosa, Mark Mandelbaum, Francesc Campoy, Dan Galpin, Dan Gallup

Dan Hockenmeyer of Basis One and Gustav Alströmer of Y Combinator discuss a growth strategy centered on prioritizing a single high-leverage channel and achieving product-market fit before scaling paid acquisition. They argue that early-stage teams must rely on analytical generalists who can model the entire business equation, using retention graphs to test high-impact hypotheses rather than chasing superficial metric tweaks. The discussion highlights critical lessons from Airbnb and Thumbtack, emphasizing that sustainable expansion requires building growth functions in-house, treating referrals as paid marketing with strict ROI calculations, and avoiding structural distractions like premature VP hires or reliance on saturated ad platforms.

Goldman Sachs at 150: Part 10 – Going Forward (2019)

David Solomon, Al

David Solomon has succeeded Lloyd Blankfein as Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, initiating a strategic shift toward digital-first growth through the launch of the consumer platform Marcus and the gender-lens investment vehicle Launch with GS. This new era emphasizes "stakeholder capitalism" and aggressive diversity targets to secure uncorrelated perspectives, while the firm maintains its traditional emphasis on rigorous recruitment and consensus-driven teamwork. By balancing its 150-year heritage with these forward-looking adaptations, the institution aims to efficiently allocate global capital while serving a broader demographic of clients and communities.

Goldman Sachs at 150: Part 8 – Around the World (2000)

Goldman Sachs successfully navigated its transformation from a private partnership to a global public entity by adapting its culture to rapid expansion across BRICS nations while maintaining core partnership values under leaders like Hank Paulson and Lloyd Blankfein. The firm leveraged strategic foresight regarding global economic shifts, including a $100 million investment in the "10,000 women" initiative to close gender gaps and drive development in emerging markets. Looking ahead, the organization commits to evolving its structure and hiring practices to preserve excellence and adaptability within an increasingly integrated global financial marketplace.

Institutional Investors: Managing for the Long Term

Christopher Ailman, Jerry Albright, Jingdong Hua, Kim Lew, Amy McGarrity, Hiromichi Mizuno, Chris Ailman

Five CIOs managing over $1.6 trillion across diverse institutional structures, from Carnegie's $3.5 billion foundation to Japan's $1.6 trillion GPIF, convened to analyze how unique liability profiles and time horizons dictate long-term investment strategies. The panelists detailed operational shifts toward sustainable "universal ownership," highlighted the World Bank's leadership in green bond markets, and emphasized the critical need to align staff incentives and board education with multi-decade fiduciary duties rather than short-term volatility. Despite diverging views on the necessity of formal ESG mandates and the degree of market influence asset owners should wield, the group collectively identified global development gaps and market structure fragilities as paramount risks requiring coordinated action.

Who will challenge Donald Trump in 2020?

Donald Trump, John Prideaux

The 2020 Democratic primary acts as a decisive ideological referendum that will narrow a large field to a nominee by September. Vice President Joe Biden leads as the moderate frontrunner focused on electability, while Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren compete for progressive voters with distinct policy platforms. Secondary contenders including Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Senator Cory Booker seek to capitalize on the race's central tension between generational change and broad electoral appeal.

Outsmarting Superbugs: What Are the Alternatives?

Margaret Hamburg, Matthew Hepburn, Peter Jackson, Nancy Knight, Jeanette Mucha, Peter Piot, Peggy Hamburg, David Wallace, Lance Price

Global leaders and organizations including the WHO, CDC, and the U.K. government are coordinating a multi-faceted response to antimicrobial resistance, which threatens to cause 10 million annual deaths by 2050 and mimic the 2008 financial crisis through massive economic losses. Innovative initiatives such as the CDC's AMR Challenge, Carb-X's $80 million funding for 40 development projects, and the U.K.'s "pull incentive" trial aim to revitalize the antibiotic pipeline by supporting SMEs and rewarding disease prevention rather than sales volume. Despite these advances, experts warn that rigid intellectual property laws, inadequate wastewater treatment, and capital gaps in microbiome startups hinder the deployment of new therapies needed to combat untreatable superbugs like drug-resistant tuberculosis.