Latest Interviews

Illuminating Success Stories on HBCU Campuses | Milken Institute Global Conference 2024

Troy Duffie, Michael Ellison, Darlene Goins, T.D Jakes, Michael Lomax, Gregory Vincent

Leading philanthropic organizations and financial institutions, including UNCF, Wells Fargo, and the T.D. Jakes Foundation, launched a strategic partnership to deploy up to $1 billion in capital for historically Black colleges and universities to address urgent challenges in STEM education and AI-driven workforce displacement. This initiative funds diverse interventions ranging from a $370 million pooled endowment and new technical programs at schools like Talladega College to the Milken Institute HBCU Fellowship, which places fellows in internships with major corporations like Apple and JPMorgan Chase. By prioritizing entrepreneurship instruction, direct institutional funding, and digital infrastructure through the HBCU Virtual platform, the coalition aims to secure economic mobility for non-traditional students and counteract systemic barriers in higher education.

Choose this podcast: abortion and the election

Charlotte Howard, Sacha Nauta, Idrees Kahloon, Mary Ziegler, Stevie Hertz, Daniella Raz, Sasha Nada, Idris Kalloun, Deanna Fellows, Lisa Dan, Lauren Brunzel

Following Donald Trump's conviction for falsifying business records, the upcoming election centers on abortion rights, a defining issue in sixteen states including the critical swing states of Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. Grassroots efforts in Florida have secured a constitutional amendment for abortion up to viability, though it faces a 60% supermajority threshold while Democrats leverage high spending to mobilize young and female voters despite abortion ranking as the top issue for only 7% of the electorate. Amidst these campaigns, legal experts warn that a potential Trump administration could exploit the 1873 Comstock Act to impose a federal ban, while the Supreme Court simultaneously prepares to rule on Mifepristone access and federal emergency care statutes that could further entrench the post-Dobbs landscape.

Radiant CEO Doug Bernauer on Portable Nuclear Microreactors & the Future of Clean Energy

Doug Bernauer, Molly O'Shea

Radiant is advancing the development of a portable one-megawatt nuclear reactor designed to replace diesel generators in remote locations, backed by $60 million in venture funding and seven government contracts. Led by former SpaceX engineer Doug Bernauer, the company utilizes helium-cooled TRISO fuel and a factory-based manufacturing model to achieve mass production and eliminate on-site nuclear waste storage. With a first fuel test scheduled for 2026 to break a fifty-year hiatus on U.S. reactor designs, Radiant aims to deliver safe, off-grid power by 2025 through its partnership with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Out on a ledger: Trump convicted

Trump, Ora Okunbiyi, Jason Palmer, Sumi, Kenneth Werner, John McDermott

Former President Donald Trump became the first U.S. ex-president criminally convicted on 34 felony counts, a verdict he attributes to political retaliation while likely facing a suspended sentence and using the outcome to bolster his fundraising ahead of the November election. Simultaneously, South Africa's African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994, forcing President Cyril Ramaphosa into difficult coalition negotiations between pragmatic centrist partners and populist allies. In personnel news, The Economist's Auret van der Merwe transitioned from on-air host to its Africa correspondent in Lagos to lead coverage of the continent's emerging business and cultural landscape.

Harnessing the Power of David Beckham’s Global Brand | Milken Institute Global Conference 2024

David Beckham, Jamie Salter, Michael Milken

Authentic Brands Group has solidified its status as a global leader in brand management by expanding its portfolio to include high-profile estates and the David Beckham partnership, while simultaneously driving a 25% revenue share from its new entertainment division, Studio 99. This strategic collaboration, finalized in 2022 after a decade of negotiations, leverages Beckham's 164 million social followers to accelerate content production and support Inter Miami CF's rise in Major League Soccer through the strategic acquisition of Lionel Messi. Looking ahead, the partnership aims to capitalize on the 2026 World Cup to establish soccer as the United States' premier sport, with ABG targeting substantial growth in its asset-light media model over the next five years.

Startup Experts Discuss Doing Things That Don't Scale

Paul Graham

Paul Graham's 2013 essay "Do Things That Don't Scale" challenges Silicon Valley orthodoxy by urging early-stage founders to manually solve immediate user problems before prioritizing technical infrastructure, a strategy exemplified by companies like Airbnb and DoorDash. This approach prioritizes rapid learning and product-market fit over theoretical scalability, allowing startups to validate demand through direct customer engagement while avoiding the pitfalls of building unwanted solutions. Although manual operations risk trapping founders in consultancy models, successfully transitioning to automation after securing initial traction provides a critical competitive advantage by ensuring software development addresses genuine market needs.

The Intelligence: Rishi Sunak’s report card

Rishi Sunak, Jason Palmer, Ora Ogunbiyi, Matthew Holhouse, Ana Lankas, Katrin Braik

Britain's July 4th general election concludes Rishi Sunak's technocratic yet polarizing tenure, pitting a disunited Conservative Party struggling with a twenty-point polling deficit against a disciplined Labour opposition amidst a global security landscape resembling the Cold War. Concurrently, Latin America faces a homicide crisis driven by shifting drug markets, prompting Ecuador to adopt El Salvador's "iron fist" military strategies despite expert warnings that the region's wealthy, diversified gangs differ fundamentally from the impoverished extortion networks previously targeted. In a third distinct domain, climate-induced ice melt is altering the Earth's rotation by redistributing mass toward the equator, a phenomenon that temporarily offsets core-driven acceleration and delays the technical need for a negative leap second in global timekeeping systems.

Dr Mike: The Top 10 Lies Health Experts Have Told You!

Dr Mike, Doctor Mike, Dr. Mike Vershefsky

Dr. Mike Vershefsky leverages his platform of 12 million followers to dismantle healthcare misinformation while promoting evidence-based strategies for diet, exercise, and the dangers of unregulated supplements. By advocating for balanced lifestyle modifications over hyper-optimization and "gray zone" medical trends, he has successfully influenced public policy, including the widespread adoption of EpiPens on commercial aircraft. Furthermore, he utilizes his personal history of trauma and professional medical expertise to educate the public on emergency response protocols like hands-only CPR and to rebuild trust in the medical system through transparent communication.

China’s Investment Outlook: Optimism or Caution? | Milken Institute Global Conference 2024

Susan Li, Shenglin Ben, Goodwin Gaw, Fred Hu, Weijian Shan, Lu Zhang, Kevin Rudd

A panel of experts characterizes the current U.S.-China relationship as toxic and downward-spiraling, with Biden and Trump administrations jointly enforcing a hawkish stance that risks global recession if a Taiwan Strait conflict materializes. Despite these geopolitical tensions, investors are capitalizing on China's undervalued stock market and property sector corrections, leveraging the country's significant monetary policy space to support private sector confidence rather than direct stimulus. The discussion concludes that while a "China Plus One" strategy will persist for decades, the most effective path forward involves U.S. policymakers avoiding zero-sum thinking and recognizing that global technological advancement requires engagement with Chinese counterparts in sectors like AI and climate tech.

Exploring the Hidden Secrets within OCaml’s Local Function Types | OCaml Unboxed

Jane Street's OCaml compiler branch enforces strict region safety by automatically inferring hidden `local` annotations on partial applications of functions with local arguments, preventing closures from escaping their intended stack scope. This mechanism triggers compilation errors when such intermediate closures are passed to standard functions like `List.map`, as they attempt to store local data in global heap structures, though these issues can be resolved by fully applying the function or utilizing explicit type expansions. Consequently, the team is considering syntax modifications to function definitions to make these constraints more explicit and prevent accidental region escapes during currying.

AI Without Rules? Ben & Marc Debate the Future of Regulation

Ben, Marc

Speakers advocate for an innovation-friendly regulatory framework that targets specific harmful applications of AI, such as discriminatory lending and unauthorized voice cloning, rather than restricting the underlying mathematical models. They argue that dangerous uses are already illegal under current laws and suggest that new legislation should focus on closing gaps in copyright and voice rights while leveraging blockchain to verify content authenticity. This approach seeks to balance technological advancement with public safety by avoiding gatekeeping that could consolidate control in the hands of large corporations.

Can private equity bounce back?

Alex Blostein, Allison Nathan, Mike Nickols, Gina Lytle

Following a period of exceptional growth, the private equity industry is navigating a cyclical reversion marked by subdued returns and a record $2.5 trillion in dry powder, driven by a valuation gap between buyers and sellers and limited institutional capital availability. Goldman Sachs projects a shift toward multi-asset platforms and global expansion, with firms increasingly relying on private credit, secondary markets, and GP-led continuation funds to manufacture returns and provide liquidity in a higher-rate environment. This consolidation trend suggests that future market success will depend on diversification and operational value creation rather than financial leverage, as the sector matures and normalizes its growth trajectory.

Charlamagne tha God Opens Up About His Depression & Childhood Trauma!

Charlamagne tha God, Stephen Bartlett

*The Breakfast Club* co-host Charlemagne Tha God details his journey from a childhood marked by trauma and a decade-and-a-half of criminal involvement to his professional breakthrough and subsequent mental health crisis at the peak of his fame. After undergoing extensive therapy and spiritual work to overcome anxiety and suicidal ideation, he now leverages his platform to fund the *Mental Wealth Alliance*, a non-profit dedicated to providing free therapy to 10,000 Black and Brown individuals. His narrative serves as a critique of social media inauthenticity and consumerism while advocating for a generational shift where healing becomes accessible rather than a luxury reserved for the elite.

Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI, Nvidia's trillion-dollar problem, a vibecession, plastic in our balls

Scarlett Johansson, Chamath, Friedberg, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks

Amidst legal challenges regarding Scarlett Johansson's unauthorized voice cloning and internal equity clawback disputes following the AI Safety team's mass resignation, OpenAI faces scrutiny over its governance and liability. Simultaneously, Nvidia reported record $26 billion revenue driven by hyperscaler demand, though analysts warn that concentration risks and competitor development could eventually erode its market dominance. While these tech giants navigate regulatory and financial shifts, a Harris Poll reveals a stark public perception gap where economic anxiety persists despite official growth data, and emerging studies link widespread phthalate and microplastic exposure to significant reproductive health crises.

How New Technology Creates New Businesses

Dalton, Michael

Leveraging historical precedents like the internet and cloud computing, the event argues that emerging technologies like AI drastically reduce capital barriers, enabling individuals to build high-leverage businesses with minimal headcount. By targeting unsaturated "green field" markets within niche online communities, founders can replicate past successes such as Flappy Bird's rapid monetization or the rise of live-streaming entrepreneurs. This strategic shift promises a structural transformation toward widespread self-employment, allowing creators to bypass traditional corporate hierarchies and establish industries before competition saturates the landscape.