Latest Interviews
Showing 46–60 of 200 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute48 min
Author Talk: Susan Eisenhower, "How Ike Led" | Global Conference 2025
Susan Eisenhower, James Stavridis, Peter
Susan Eisenhower details her grandfather Dwight D. Eisenhower's leadership style, characterized by a disciplined separation of public duty and private life, his therapeutic use of painting, and his acceptance of full accountability for high-stakes decisions like the D-Day invasion. Her narrative highlights how he transformed the Republican Party into an internationalist force while balancing fiscal responsibility with Cold War defense, ultimately warning against the dangers of the military-industrial complex in his farewell address. Through personal anecdotes and historical analysis, the account establishes Eisenhower as a strategic visionary who prioritized long-term stability, internal debate, and national unity over impulsive action or partisan gain.
- Milken Institute51 min
Author Talk: Jonathan Haidt, "The Anxious Generation" | Global Conference 2025
Jonathan Haidt, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Conrad Kieschel
At the Milken Institute Global Conference, social psychologists Jonathan Haidt and California First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom addressed the youth mental health crisis by identifying the 2012 shift to smartphones as the primary driver of surging depression, anxiety, and social skill atrophy among teenagers. They advocated for four specific policy norms—delaying smartphone access until high school, mandating phone-free schools, raising the age of internet adulthood to 16, and promoting unsupervised free play—to counter the addictive designs of tech giants and facilitate proper neurodevelopment. The session concluded with a call for collective community action and a "mother's rebellion" to enforce these boundaries, aiming to restore physical interaction and resilience for future generations.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Author Susan Morrison, "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live" | Global Conference 2025
Susan Morrison, Lorne, Laraine Newman
Susan Morrison's biography *Saturday Night* chronicles Lorne Michaels' decade-long evolution of *Saturday Night Live* from a conservative variety show into a global franchise that balances alternative comedy with broad national appeal. The narrative highlights how Michaels' management philosophy evolved from personal trauma-induced non-confrontation to a "sports franchise" model, emphasizing operational flexibility, mentorship strategies like *Weekend Update* for new talent, and a strict hierarchy to manage host egos during the high-pressure final dress rehearsal. This deep dive into Michaels' "friendship economy" and adaptive leadership explains the show's thirty-plus year longevity and its successful international licensing, which requires navigating diverse cultural standards while maintaining the show's core identity.
- Milken Institute23 min
It Starts with a Teacher: A Conversation with Armando Christian Pérez (Pitbull) | Global Conference
Armando Christian Pérez, Richard Ditizio
Cuban-American entertainer Armando "Pitbull" Perez co-founded the SLAM Academy to operate a rapidly expanding network of charter schools that have achieved a 100% graduation rate while receiving federal recognition for replicating their model across the United States. Drawing on personal experiences with failure and family resilience, Perez prioritizes tangible educational outcomes over celebrity status to support at-risk youth and break generational barriers in education. By advocating for a "slow but sure" strategic approach, he continues to seek long-term partners committed to sustaining this initiative and fostering the American Dream for future generations.
- Milken Institute21 min
Part 1: A Conversation with The Carlyle Group's David M. Rubenstein | Global Conference 2025
David M. Rubenstein, Melissa Stevens
Jefferson Exchange co-founder Jeffrey Rubenstein addresses the critical threats facing U.S. philanthropy, including politicized historical preservation, potential tax policy changes, and declining civic literacy. He advocates for redefining the sector by honoring the percentage of wealth given rather than absolute sums, promoting in-person historical engagement to counter a crisis where nearly all states fail citizenship tests. Furthermore, Rubenstein highlights the strategic value of soft power assets like pandas while emphasizing that the upcoming 250th anniversary should prioritize deep constitutional understanding over superficial celebration.
- Milken Institute23 min
Time to Act: A Conversation with Noa Tishby | Global Conference 2025
New York Times bestselling authors Noah Tishby and Noah Argamani frame the May 2025 campus encampments as the culmination of a thirty-year ideological war driven by the American Muslim and Palestinian organization to delegitimize Israel through tactics resembling the anti-apartheid movement. Tishby characterizes the core conflict as a clash between Western liberal values and a jihadist ideology, arguing that anti-Zionism functions as a shape-shifting conspiracy theory indistinguishable from anti-Semitism. Despite widespread public opposition to the encampments, the speakers assert that normalizing such anti-democratic sentiment at the local level aims to eventually force a shift in federal policy, while urging allies to educate communities on the October 7th atrocities to counter this narrative.
- Milken Institute21 min
A Conversation with Eric Schmidt | Global Conference 2025
Eric Schmidt analyzes the evolving Ukraine conflict as a volatile stalemate driven by massive drone production, automated sensor-to-shooter loops, and the obsolescence of traditional armored platforms like tanks and aircraft carriers. He contrasts Ukraine's rapid, two-week innovation cycles against the Pentagon's sluggish 16-year procurement process, arguing that rigid bureaucratic structures prevent the U.S. from adopting necessary autonomous systems. Schmidt concludes that to counter modern hypersonic threats and future high-intensity warfare, the U.S. must pivot from expensive stationary assets to affordable, internet-prosecuted robotic forces integrated with its domestic startup ecosystem.
- Milken Institute30 min
Earvin "Magic" Johnson on Legacy, Leadership, and LA's Future | Global Conference 2025
Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Kelly, Earvin Johnson
At the Milken Conference, Magic Johnson and Alex Rodriguez discussed their transformative mentorship and a portfolio of high-impact business ventures ranging from the Washington Commanders to a pioneering Starbucks franchise. Johnson detailed his strategy of securing institutional capital by over-performing on early real estate deals and outlined his leadership philosophy centered on strategic planning, authentic player relationships, and an unwavering winning culture for the LA Dodgers and other owned teams. The dialogue concluded with an emphasis on leveraging athletic experience to mentor the next generation while measuring success by philanthropic impact rather than revenue alone.
- Milken Institute23 min
Preparing for the Second Half: Redefining Retirement with Peyton Manning | Global Conference 2025
Peyton Manning, Brian Sullivan
Manning Cast, featuring Eli and Peyton Manning, recently sold a 10% stake in their Omaha Productions to investors, securing a company valuation of approximately $750 million. The event highlights the duo's strategic transition from the NFL to media and finance, utilizing football metaphors like "audibles" to guide their financial planning and leadership philosophy while producing unifying content that bridges demographic divides. Their partnership with Nationwide reflects a shared decade-long commitment to community impact and financial services, supported by a creative approach that balances high-profile celebrity guests with self-deprecating humor.
- Milken Institute21 min
A Conversation with Former First Lady of the United States Jill Biden | Global Conference 2025
At the 28th annual Milken Institute Global Conference, Dr. Jill Biden and Esther Kroffa outlined the Women's Health Network's strategy to address historical data gaps and the $1 trillion global economic opportunity by shifting funding reliance to the private sector. The initiative targets critical breakthroughs in areas like endometriosis diagnostics and Alzheimer's care while deploying a digital platform and pooled investment fund to dismantle data silos and accelerate inclusive innovation. By reframing women's health as a universal business imperative rather than a niche category, the network aims to impact millions of lives globally by 2025 through enhanced research inclusion and strategic capital allocation.
- Milken Institute38 min
A Conversation with US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent | Global Conference 2025
Scott Bessent, Richard Ditizio, Michael Milken
The 28th annual Milken Institute Global Conference convened 1,000 speakers under the theme "Toward a Flourishing Future" to address critical resource gaps in health, connectivity, and global wealth distribution while urging for inclusive coalitions to bridge societal divides. Concurrently, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined the Trump administration's economic agenda, which prioritizes trade tariffs to boost domestic manufacturing, a "big beautiful bill" of tax cuts and deregulation, and an aggressive strategy to lower the federal deficit by 1% annually. The administration further signaled a shift toward "safe, sound, and smart" financial regulation, strategic partnerships with Ukraine, and a focus on maintaining U.S. dominance in AI and quantum computing to foster a "new golden age" of prosperity.
- Milken Institute30 min
A Conversation with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang | Global Conference 2025
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang frames AI as a $100 trillion industrial revolution that creates "AI factories" to automate labor and reintegrate millions of workers into the global economy. Operating as an end-to-end infrastructure provider, the company builds massive, gigawatt-scale systems while arguing that unrestricted global chip trade is essential for establishing dominant U.S. standards. Through a culture of perpetual resilience and a focus on "Physical AI," NVIDIA aims to close the technology divide and drive GDP growth across healthcare, manufacturing, and robotics sectors.
- Milken Institute23 min
A Caregiving Conversation with Patrick Dempsey | Global Conference 2025
Founded by Patrick Dempsey following his mother's prolonged battle with ovarian cancer, the Dempsey Center provides free holistic care to cancer patients and their families across 32 states and four countries. The organization operates on a wraparound model that pairs medical treatment with services like nutrition counseling, yoga, and peer support while advocating for systemic insurance reforms to cover alternative therapies. Dempsey leverages his acting platform to expand the center's reach and fundraising efforts, aiming to reduce wait times for immediate intervention and establish a culture of caregiving that addresses the root causes of rising cancer rates.
- Milken Institute22 min
A Conversation with Todd Boehly | Global Investors' Symposium Hong Kong 2025
Eldridge Industries recently restructured its private credit businesses into a unified asset management platform with $70 billion in assets under management to align incentives and compete with major firms like Blackstone and Apollo. The firm simultaneously acquired the Golden Globes to overhaul outdated governance and applied a rigorous finance-based valuation model to expand its portfolio in global baseball markets, real estate projects like the Aman Beverly Hills development, and alternative lending strategies. By prioritizing floating-rate assets over fixed-income bonds and focusing on standalone investment viability, Eldridge aims to capitalize on international growth while mitigating interest rate risks in a volatile economic environment.
- Milken Institute28 min
Navigating an Evolving Global Landscape | IEFA's Annual Conference in Paris
Richard Ditizio, Marion Solletty
Global investor sentiment remains bullish as capital flows into U.S. markets driven by anticipated deregulation and the nation's deep liquidity, despite emerging concerns over sovereign debt sustainability and widening wealth inequality. Key policy debates focus on the incoming administration's "333 plan" to stimulate growth while managing risks posed by unregulated private debt and the borderless nature of the rapidly expanding cryptocurrency sector. Long-term investment trajectories are increasingly defined by demographic shifts between aging developed nations and youthful emerging markets, creating a complex backdrop for future fiscal resilience and geopolitical strategy.