Latest Interviews

Leadership in Turbulent Times

Julia Boorstin, Carmine Di Sibio, Barbara Humpton, Alfred Kelly, Jr.

CEOs Barbara Humpton, Carmine DeCibio, and Alfred Kelly Jr. addressed the challenges of leading EY, Siemens, and Visa during the pandemic by pivoting toward digital resilience and remote work models that have permanently reshaped their operations. The panelists outlined specific commitments to support small businesses, accelerate contactless payments, and launch targeted diversity initiatives to address systemic racial and gender inequities exposed by the crisis. Furthermore, they detailed strategies to reduce carbon footprints through travel cuts and to maintain workforce stability by avoiding layoffs while redefining office spaces as collaboration hubs.

A Conversation with Muriel Bowser, Mayor of Washington, DC

Muriel Bowser, Ryan Shadrick Wilson

Mayor Muriel Bowser guides Washington D.C. through Phase 2 of reopening while launching a strategic economic recovery plan led by Susan Rice and Michael Chertoff to retain jobs and address severe health disparities affecting African American residents. The administration has simultaneously fortified food security networks, confronted federal overreach during protests, and advanced D.C. statehood momentum by drafting a constitution modeled after Tennessee. These multifaceted efforts aim to balance public health safety with long-term social equity and financial stability following an initial $800 million budget gap caused by pandemic shutdowns.

What’s Next for Emerging Markets Equities

Basak Yavuz, Liz

Emerging market equities have rallied due to pandemic recovery, fiscal stimulus, and resilient corporate earnings, with a specific structural shift occurring as manufacturing capacity relocates from China to nations like Mexico. The sector's diversity drives distinct opportunities across fintech, where China and India lead adoption, and e-commerce in Latin America, which is projected to double its penetration rate within five years. Although near-term earnings may decline, Goldman Sachs maintains a positive outlook based on projected regional growth of 7% to 8% and the current discount of EM valuations relative to historical levels and developed markets.

I'm back at it: 1,000 total push-ups, pull-ups, squats every day

After recovering from an upper-body injury sustained during the eighth day of a 30-day challenge, the creator resumed a rigorous regimen of 34 daily rounds comprising push-ups, pull-ups, and squats to test mental endurance over conventional health metrics. Rejecting standard wellness advice in favor of high-risk self-discovery, the speaker frames this physical strain as a method to develop a trainable "mental muscle" capable of withstanding intense daily grind. While prioritizing core passions in artificial intelligence, the creator advocates for academics and engineers to adopt similar high-volume physical habits to maintain immunity and clear the mind.

Face Masks and GDP

Jan Hatzius, Liz

Goldman Sachs Research proposes a national face mask mandate as an economic alternative to lockdowns, projecting that increasing U.S. compliance from 70% to 85% could lower daily infection growth rates from 1.6% to 0.6%. The report argues this strategy would avoid the estimated 5% GDP reduction associated with equivalent restrictions on economic activity, citing data from East Asia and Southern Europe where mandates successfully slowed viral spread. While the analysis acknowledges potential measurement errors, it concludes that federal or decentralized mandates offer a statistically viable path to mitigate the Sunbelt's accelerating crisis.

You Are Your Own Existence Proof (Karl Friston) | AI Podcast Clips with Lex Fridman

Karl Friston, Lex Fridman

The Free Energy Principle proposes that any system maintaining a boundary against its environment must minimize variational free energy to maximize the evidence of its own existence, a mathematical necessity that applies from non-living oil drops to biological organisms. This framework distinguishes living systems by their possession of a Markov blanket enabling active inference, where agents use internal models to plan actions and resolve uncertainty rather than passively processing data like traditional machine learning models. Ultimately, the theory posits that consciousness and self-awareness emerge as complex generative models required for distinguishing an agent from others in a social world, driving the fulfillment of specific existential narratives to maintain structural integrity.

Small Cap Stock Performance

Greg Tuorto, Liz

Following a post-March market bottom where small-cap stocks outperformed large-caps by 30%, investors are capitalizing on a recovery trade focused on domestically generated revenues. Portfolio managers have strategically avoided pandemic-impacted sectors like energy and retail, instead positioning capital in healthcare, technology, and consumer digitization companies capable of sustaining market share. This active, bottom-up approach leverages deep fundamental analysis to identify inflection points in firms pivoting toward therapeutics, educational technology, and cybersecurity, reinforcing the strategy's efficiency advantage over passive small-cap investing.

Robert Langer: Edison of Medicine | Lex Fridman Podcast #105

Robert Langer, Lex Fridman, Bob Langer

MIT Professor Bob Langer, one of history's most cited researchers, has launched over 40 biotech companies and driven the field forward by pioneering controlled-release polymer systems for drug delivery and scaffold-based tissue engineering. His career highlights the rigorous 28-year journey from initial angiogenesis discovery to the 2004 FDA approval of Avastin, emphasizing that successful commercialization requires strategic business acumen alongside scientific innovation to navigate high clinical trial costs. Looking ahead, Langer predicts that curing cancer will depend on integrating deep biological insights with advanced engineering, while he maintains that his enduring legacy lies in mentoring nearly 1,000 students who now lead major research institutions and corporations.

Real Numbers – Episode 10, The Art Thief at the Window

Sawyer

A geometric puzzle challenge asks viewers to calculate the maximum height of a rigid three-meter wide rectangular painting that can pass through a composite window formed by a one-meter square topped with a semicircle. The episode also details a river crossing scenario where a boat with a motor speed five-thirds of the current's velocity requires an upstream aiming point of 127.5 meters to reach a specific dock. Both problems are solved using algebraic quadratic equations and verified through geometric properties like similar triangles and the tangent double-angle formula, inviting the audience to submit their own solutions for the window problem.

Stress Testing the Big US Banks

Richard Ramsden, Liz

The Federal Reserve implemented a new Stress Capital Buffer Framework for the 10th annual stress test, allowing 32 banks to bypass prior approval requirements for capital returns while withstanding simulated scenarios of 10% unemployment and a 50% market decline. All participating institutions passed with $140 billion in excess aggregate capital, positioning the banking system with double the 2008 reserves and liquidity sufficient to support over $1 trillion in incremental lending. To address projected unemployment peaks exceeding 15%, banks will resubmit capital plans in late 2020 while leveraging robust capital market activity to offset rising loan loss reserves and maintain operational profitability.

In Search for a Cure: Are We Nearing a Treatment for COVID-19?

Esther Kofa, Meg Terrell, Dr. Tony Fauci, Albert Bourla

The Milken Institute Summer Series concluded by analyzing the U.S. resurgence of COVID-19 infections and the global development of nearly 250 treatment compounds, featuring critical insights from Dr. Anthony Fauci and Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla. Dr. Fauci warned of severe fall surges driven by behavioral shifts while outlining a vaccine timeline with Phase III trials expected to begin in July, whereas Dr. Bourla detailed Pfizer's autonomous mRNA strategy aiming for safety and efficacy data by September. As the organization prepares its 23rd Global Conference for a likely online format in October, these discussions underscored the urgent need for robust public health protocols alongside rapid medical solutions.

Val Ackerman, Commissioner of the Big East Conference

Val Ackerman, Katie Koch

On March 12, the Big East Conference suspended its tournament quarterfinals following a strategic assessment by its Board of Directors amidst state mandates on large gatherings and the broader coronavirus response. Under the leadership of President Val Ackerman, the conference simultaneously launched a diversity working group across its 11 member schools and advocated for NCAA rule changes permitting student-athletes to monetize their names, images, and likenesses. With UConn's recent addition strengthening its competitive profile and an expanded digital network, the conference is navigating complex return-to-play logistics while leveraging its status as the largest producer of collegiate women's sports programming.

Make Disadvantage Your Superpower | Lex Fridman | AMA #6

Lex Fridman, Zachariah

Dr. Lex advises Libyan high school student Zachariah to transform his educational disadvantages into a competitive advantage by leveraging online resources to build and publicly share practical AI projects. He urges Zachariah to prioritize bold passion and early risk-taking over seeking traditional stable careers or elite university admissions, emphasizing that meaningful engineering impact arises from startups or applied work in diverse sectors. This mentorship reframes early struggles as the necessary foundation for a future "great story," assuring the young student that consistent hard work and kindness will ultimately yield significant professional fulfillment.

If You Could Live Forever Would You? (Ben Goertzel) | AI Podcast Clips with Lex Fridman

Ben Goertzel, Lex Fridman

A speaker advocates for abolishing involuntary death and pain through transhumanist technologies, aiming to replace the biological inevitability of aging with a future defined by joy, growth, and choice. The discussion highlights specific scientific efforts, such as Christian Schaffmeister's work on "spiral ligamers" to reverse extracellular matrix stiffening, while calling for a $10 trillion investment in bio-AI and open biological databases to accelerate longevity research. Ultimately, the argument urges regulators to permit radical self-experiments and fund large-scale automated studies to overcome the current limitations of human biology and institutional silos.

David Patterson: Computer Architecture and Data Storage | Lex Fridman Podcast #104

David Patterson, Lex Fridman, John Hennessy

This comprehensive review traces the historical evolution of computing from the invention of microprocessors to the current slowdown of Moore's Law, highlighting key architectural shifts like the RISC vs. CISC debate and the rise of RISC-V as an open-source alternative. It details how industry giants and researchers have adapted to performance plateaus by developing domain-specific accelerators for machine learning and establishing transparent benchmarking standards through initiatives like MLPerf and RAID principles. The narrative concludes with David Patterson's insights on the synergy between research and teaching, alongside a realistic outlook that predicts quantum computing will not become commercially viable until around 2030 while immediate progress depends on software optimization and specialized hardware.