Latest Interviews

The Future of NFTs

Chris Dixon, Dan Boneh, Ariana

Chris Dixon and Dan Bonet discuss how NFTs fundamentally shift web architecture by enabling true digital ownership and allowing creators to bypass centralized intermediaries through programmable royalty structures. The conversation details how technical advancements like the ERC-721 standard facilitate financial innovation through DeFi composability, enabling assets to be tokenized, collateralized, and traded across interoperable ecosystems. Furthermore, the speakers address long-term security protocols and storage solutions necessary to preserve these digital assets indefinitely while noting the current adoption barriers faced by regulated institutional collectors.

Copper is the New Oil

Nick Snowdon, Alison Nathan

Goldman Sachs identifies copper as the "new oil" essential for global net-zero targets, projecting that green economy adoption will drive demand to nearly 6 million tons by 2030 while creating a structural deficit of over 8 million tons. Despite price forecasts reaching $15,000 per ton by 2025, major mining producers remain hesitant to initiate new greenfield projects due to prolonged permitting, high costs, and a conservative post-2010 balance sheet strategy. Consequently, the market faces an irreversible supply crunch in the mid-2020s that will likely decouple copper prices from traditional Chinese cycles and trigger a sustained multi-year bull market.

The Rising Power of China’s New Consumer Class

Stephanie Hui, Liz

China's private consumption market is surging toward a projected $13 trillion by 2030, driven by a demographic shift toward premium discretionary spending and a Gen Z generation prioritizing durability and cultural individuality over initial price tags. Goldman Sachs is capitalizing on this landscape by investing in infrastructure "enablers" like digital cosmetics visualization and warehouse management software, while focusing on health-monitoring platforms that align with the growing demand for extended health spans. This strategy allows the firm to navigate intense market competition and mitigate risks associated with faddish brands by leveraging deep domain expertise within China's vast, trade-insensitive domestic economy.

Katherine de Kleer: Planets, Moons, Asteroids & Life in Our Solar System | Lex Fridman Podcast #184

Katherine de Kleer, Lex Fridman

Catherine DeClear and her co-panelists discuss fundamental reclassifications in planetary science, such as Pluto's 2006 downgrade to a dwarf planet, while contrasting the tidal heating that drives Io's extreme volcanism with the subsurface ocean habitability potential of Europa and Enceladus. The discussion further evaluates the feasibility of Mars colonization, the tectonic uniqueness of Earth, and the natural explanations for the interstellar object Oumuamua, emphasizing that planetary science should maintain a balance between rigorous skepticism and open speculation. Finally, DeClear advises aspiring scientists to find satisfaction in specific research methodologies and the daily grind of data analysis rather than solely in grand theoretical questions.

Po-Shen Loh: Mathematics, Math Olympiad, Combinatorics & Contact Tracing | Lex Fridman Podcast #183

Po-Shen Loh, Lex Fridman

Lo develops the Novid app, a privacy-first contact tracing system that uses Bluetooth and graph theory to create a positive feedback loop incentivizing voluntary self-protection against pandemics without relying on government mandates. The platform's scalable algorithm calculates infection risk based on social distance within a contact network, aiming to allow societies to remain open while managing outbreaks through individualized behavioral adjustments. Beyond this public health application, Lo applies similar principles of invention and mechanism design to education, where he challenges students to solve unsolved problems to build "invention muscle" rather than memorizing existing solutions.

Dr. Dambisa Moyo, Economist and Author of "How Boards Work"

Dr. Dambisa Moyo, John Waldron

Dr. Dambisa Moyo warns that the global economy faces a precarious rebound rather than a true recovery, driven by structural threats such as human capital shortages, inequality, and a credibility crisis for the Western capitalist model compared to China's strategic approach. To address these challenges, she proposes radical governance reforms inspired by Singapore, including extended public terms with performance-based penalties, alongside a shift toward data-driven investment in infrastructure and social outcomes by institutional asset owners. Her advocacy further emphasizes that diverse leadership and initiatives like the "One Million Black Women" program are essential to unlocking capital access and correcting the market failures that currently threaten long-term growth.

Covid-19: how many people have died?

Sondre Ulvand-Solstad

The Economist's statistical model revises global pandemic mortality to approximately 10 million deaths, significantly exceeding official counts due to severe underreporting in developing nations and specific outliers like Russia. By analyzing 121 demographic and geographic indicators, the study reveals that current daily death spikes, particularly in India, signal a shift where the virus is driving mass mortality in less internationally connected regions. These findings reclassify several countries based on excess deaths while noting that demographic age structures and reduced transmission of other infectious diseases create complex regional disparities in fatality rates.

Malcolm Gladwell, Author and Staff Writer at "The New Yorker"

Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Chirr

Malcolm Gladwell traces the rise and fall of the "Bomber Mafia," a 1930s group of American aviators led by Haywood Hansell who sought to revolutionize warfare through precision bombing, only to have their doctrine discarded by Curtis LeMay in favor of mass firebombing that killed one million civilians. The narrative uses this historical pivot to argue that intellectual revolutions require the spontaneous, in-person collisions of a physical "crowd," a thesis Gladwell applies to critique modern remote work and highlight the transformative power of immersive audio formats. Ultimately, the story contrasts LeMay's remote execution of destruction with the Bomber Mafia's failure, underscoring how technological detachment alters the psychological and political thresholds of modern conflict.

How the Transportation Sector’s Recovery Is Shaping Investment Opportunities

Kevin Martens, Liz

The transportation sector navigated a volatile 2020 shift where commercial aviation grounded 17,000 aircraft and triggered a 100–200% surge in air freight rates, while West Coast port congestion and labor migration exposed systemic logistical vulnerabilities. As consumer spending drove e-commerce penetration from 11% to 14% and truckload capacity rebounded to 99%, investment focus has pivoted from distressed airlines to undervalued industrial plays like railroads and less-than-truckload carriers. Despite record truck orders signaling imminent supply expansion that may compress trucking margins, analysts anticipate sustained pricing power for sectors leveraging the permanent structural shift in global supply chains.

E32: Behind the scenes of Elon hosting SNL, CDC failures, America's real-time UBI experiment & more

Elon, Chamath, Calacanis, Friedberg, Jason, Stanley Druckenmiller, David Sacks

David Sacks detailed Elon Musk's culturally impactful *SNL* appearance and a viral monologue joke, while also criticizing CDC guidance on outdoor transmission and alleging political collusion with teachers' unions. Macroeconomic analysts Stanley Druckenmiller and Sacks condemned federal overstimulation and California's misallocated surpluses as drivers of inflation and labor shortages. The conversation further explored a potential "Netscape moment" for synthetic biology, highlighting breakthroughs in stem cell therapy and nitrogen-fixing microbes alongside critiques of traditional media's declining influence.

John F. Crowley, Chairman and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics

John F. Crowley, Jerry

Amicus Therapeutics Chairman John F. Crowley leveraged his military background and personal family history with Pompe disease to guide the company through a strategic pivot that led to FDA-aligned pivotal trials for its candidate ATGAA. The therapy demonstrates significant clinical benefits in muscle strength and respiratory function, positioning the firm for a global launch to treat this underserved patient population. Building on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, Amicus aims to expand its portfolio of rare disease treatments by replicating the accelerated collaboration and regulatory agility established during that crisis.

Is Myanmar a failed state?

Following a February 1st military coup that has resulted in over 780 deaths and 3,800 arrests, the junta has detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on multiple charges while facing a nascent civil war as the Bamar majority joins ethnic militias in armed resistance. Although international sanctions and diplomatic pressure from the West have targeted senior generals, robust intervention remains blocked by veto power wielded by China and Russia, who prioritize regional infrastructure and strategic arms sales. Consequently, Myanmar risks becoming a failed state plagued by collapsing health systems, uncontrolled drug production, and cross-border refugee flows, while the military inherits a devastated economy despite its current control.

Fostering Innovation Within Companies: An Inside Look at GS Accelerate

Tanya Baker, Hasan Malik, Daniel Kovenat, Allison Nathan

Launched 3.5 years ago to validate cross-divisional innovations lacking a clear home, Goldman Sachs' GS Accelerate program has selected 15 investments from nearly 2,000 employee submissions to create seven live products. Co-led by Tanya Baker and Hassan Malik, the initiative empowers independent teams with patient capital and senior sponsorship to transform internal assets, such as the enterprise software ClearFactor, into external market solutions. Operating under themes of Financial Cloud, Digitization, and Sustainability, the program enforces a strict two-year tenure to ensure rapid validation before integrating, spinning out, or partnering ventures.

From Growth to Value: Where We Are in the Equity Markets

Lou Miller, Liz

Led by market strategist Liz, the discussion outlines an ongoing economic rotation from high-multiple growth stocks to value sectors as vaccine rollouts and reopening drives higher interest rates and commodity prices. The analysis highlights that the market is only halfway through this transition, with significant opportunities remaining in energy, materials, and industrials as U.S. GDP peaks and European or emerging market trades remain in early stages. While retail investor behavior and potential inflation risks pose short-term volatility, the narrative expects sustained performance in "growth at a reasonable price" stocks driven by the anticipated U.S. infrastructure plan and global economic recovery over the next six months.

Professor Green: How To Overcome Life’s Hardest Challenges & Find A Purpose | E80

Professor Green, Stephen (Professor Green), Stephen Bartlett

Professor Green details a lifetime defined by cumulative trauma, including childhood instability, a fatal confrontation with his father, and early involvement in the drug trade, which collectively shaped his defensive behaviors and mental health struggles. Now a father and entrepreneur behind Huel and Giz, he is actively dismantling generational cycles of abandonment while shifting his focus from fear-driven creativity to sustainable wellness and business autonomy. By rejecting perfectionism and redefining closure as an internal choice, Green advocates for proactive mental health management and community accountability over external validation.