The Brandon Adams Podcast

Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience) is my favorite fitness journalist. This podcast was an absolute pleasure. We had the opportunity to explore his outstanding new book, The Explorer's Gene. We also discuss, in detail, his 2018 NY Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. I rate this book among my top ten favorite works of non-fiction.

Jared Dillian (@dailydirtnap) publishes daily market commentary (The Daily Dirtnap, www.jareddillian.com). He hosts a twice weekly podcast called Be Smart. He has a popular Substack (https://substack.com/profile/450570-jared-dillian), and he's the author of Street Freak and All the Evil of This World. His latest book, Those Bastards: 69 Essays on Life, Creativity, and Meaning, was published in late March.

Scott Fawcett (@scottfawcett) is the creator of the DECADE golf system and he has coached Will Zalatoris, Stewart Cink, Keith Mitchell, and many others. In the first hour, we do a deep dive into golf analytics. He describes his career in professional golf, his early discovery of the PGA Tour's Shotlink Data and Mark Broadie's Strokes Gained Metric, his development of the DECADE system, and his experience coaching PGA players. At the one hour and three minute mark, we are joined by David Epstein (@DavidEpstein), author of the bestselling books Range and The Sports Gene. The three of us discuss talent in sports, similarities between golf and poker, "tilt" in golf and poker, the history of game theory in poker, and the emotional make-up of poker players.

Daniel Negreanu (@realkidpoker) is fresh off a $3.3 million win in the Super High Roller Bowl. Perhaps the most famous poker player on the planet, he is ranked #3 on the all-time money list. We start with a discussion of the new era in poker ("the Solver era") and some recent adjustments he's made in his game. We move on to some deep history - his move from Canada to Vegas; his early years with Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, and John Juanda; some very big gambling in the early years; and the "pump-up years" in the poker economy after WSOP 2003, Rounders, and the Andy Beal games. He tells some great golf-gambling stories from the late 2000s, and he explains how his competitive goals shifted from cash games to tournaments. Daniel goes through his WSOP routine each year, which includes a prep period, followed by extreme intensity during the WSOP (where he often gains ten to fifteen pounds), and then a long rest period.

David Benefield (@DWBenefield) is a poker legend with an incredible story. He started poker at age 16 after watching the movie Rounders. He dominated the biggest games online from ages 21-26. By his own estimate, he worked 100 hours a week during those years. In 2010, he went back to school at St John's University and then Columbia University (transfer after sophomore year). After his first semester at Columbia, he took a year and a half off to play the biggest poker game in the world in Macau. He also made the Main Event final table during this sabbatical. He ultimately finished his degree at Columbia, and then became increasingly interested in the cryptocurrency sphere. Today he employs eight people in a cryptocurrency-focused fund, based out of Dallas.

Brad Delong is an economic historian at UC-Berkeley. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration, he frequently writes about policy issues on Twitter as @delong, where he has over 80,000 followers, and on his popular blog Grasping Reality (https://braddelong.substack.com). He is the author of a new book, Slouching Towards Utopia, that has been widely lauded as the most important book in economic history in many years.

Shaun Deeb is, far and away, the most successful player at the World Series of Poker over the past decade (when evaluated based on WSOP leaderboard points). We discuss, among other things: his daily routine, WSOP fantasy poker, his view on tournament edges, his rise in poker (playing at Turning Stone in NY as an 18yr old) to his near fall (playing in Mexico post Black Friday), mixing family and poker, and his philosophies about learning in poker.

Eric Olson (@IPlayedD1) is the co-founder of Consensus, a leading start-up in natural language processing. I was interested in learning about the specific topic of AI/machine learning in the social sciences, and Eric was a brilliant guide in this area. Eric is a former football player at Northwestern who graduated with a master's in predictive analytics. With co-founder Christian Salem, he build Consensus, a search engine that uses AI to extract findings from scientific research.

Patrik Antonius is one of the biggest winners in the history of poker. Even seasoned poker fans will be shocked by some of stories in this pod. We cover all aspects of his approach; we deep-dive into health, the mental game of poker, fun off the felt (especially crazy prop bets), and key aspects of Pat's personal poker history.

Edward Chancellor is a British financial historian, financial journalist, and former investment strategist. He wrote the bestselling book Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation in 1999 and Crunch-Time for Credit in 2005. He has just published The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest, which I rate as the best book I've read this year. Fortune has called Chancellor "one of the greatest financial historians alive, and the Financial Analysts Journal called him "one of the greatest financial writers of our era." Our chat mostly covers The Price of Time. Jim Grant says this work is "A masterpiece of history, analysis--and property understated outrage."

Matt Kalish (@mattkalish) is the Co-Founder and President of Draftkings. A computer science major from Columbia, Matt is a passionate gamer who also has one of the largest personal collections of NFTs in the world. In this podcast, we take a deep-dive into the new Reignmakers project at Draftkings, where players assemble fantasy teams using player NFTs that they have purchased and compete for tens of millions in prizes.

Peter Jennings (@CSURAM88) is one of the most successful daily fantasy sports players of all times. Notably, he won the first ever six-figure DFS prize, as well as the first ever $1 million Draftkings live final. He is a popular podcaster, and an extremely successful sports entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Fantasy Labs (sold to Action Network), as well as Lucky Trader HQ (an analytics company focused on NFTs), and he has invested in many top companies in the gaming, analytics, and crytpo spaces.

Hugh Hendry was the founder and Chief Investment Officer of the macro hedge fund Eclectica Asset Management. After strong returns before and during the Great Financial Crisis, he became a popular figure in the financial media. He retired in 2017 to run a luxury hotel in St Barts, but has lately been increasingly active in financial media, tweeting as @hendry_hugh (60k followers) and podcasting (The Acid Capitalist).

Ben Hunt (@epsilontheory) earned a PhD in Government from Harvard in 1991. He was a research academic for a decade before founding two technology companies. He then worked in investment management for a decade, before starting a content community at www.epsilontheory.com in 2013. Epsilon Theory quickly found a large audience of over 100,000 email subscribers. For the past several years, Epsilon Theory has been a vibrant, paywalled content community. We discuss three primary topics in this podcast. In the first 50 minutes, we discuss Ben's recent long piece on Fed policy, "NGMI". Ben makes it clear that his stance on risk assets has mostly changed from one of bullishness to one of bearishness, based on his view that there has been a sustained change in the Fed narrative. We then move on to discuss Ben's long piece on cryptocurrency, "The MacGuffin, Part 1". We end with fifteen minutes on the current state of the paid content space (Ben surprised me by being bearish on Substack and the micropayments model).

Kyle Boddy (@drivelinebases) is the founder of Driveline Baseball, the best data-driven baseball development program in the world. I recently taught a course in sports analytics at the University of Miami, and Kyle was gracious enough to provide materials to Nikolai Yakovenko for a guest lecture on "What Makes Good Pitching?" The material is fascinating and surprising for anyone with the slightest interest in baseball. Much of that material is covered in the first half of the podcast. Other podcast topics include: Kyle's transition from poker to sports analytics, the early coaching experience that led to the development of Driveline, the new Driveline metric Stuff+ (which quantifies pitch effectiveness), his recent experience with the Cincinnati Reds, and his future ambitions.

Bill Perkins (@bp22) is a successful hedge fund manager and entrepreneur. Very few podcasts that I've done have changed my thinking so distinctly. Bill, who started on Wall Street at $16k a year and then found extreme success as an energy trader in Texas, noticed that many of his contemporaries were bad at enjoying life (and, worse, they were unhealthy). Seeking to avoid the same mistakes, he sought to throw away all assumptions and examine happiness as an optimization problem involving the inputs of time, energy, money, and health. The result was his book, Die with Zero. Many of the concepts from the book are covered in the first hour of this podcast. An example of his idiosyncratic advice: he argues that most people should use life annuities as a core retirement vehicle. Why? It eliminates anxiety about outliving your money, it allows you to avoid the worst retirement mistakes (going broke due to risk), and it's a bet on yourself (you get more money the longer you live). I found this advice compelling and I'm writing a blog post on it next week. On the health front, he recently went from 22% to 8% body fat in six months. We discuss his approach in the first twenty minutes.

Doomberg (@DoombergT) has become a star of Substack and financial Twitter. Doomberg's in-depth, smoothly written pieces have quickly found a regular audience of nearly 100k per post. We spend the first third of this podcast chatting about his most popular post ("Dollars Ex Machina", on crypto). The second third of the podcast explores his general philosophy on investing, and the last third covers his recent pieces on commodity shortages, including the most recent piece, "Farmers on the Brink" (about likely upcoming food shortages).

Jared Dillian (@dailydirtnap) publishes daily market commentary (The Daily Dirtnap, www.jareddillian.com). He hosts a twice weekly podcast called Be Smart, and he's the author of Street Freak and All the Evil of This World.

Christopher Leonard has written a fascinating new book on the Federal Reserve, The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy. This was one of my top three favorite podcast interviews of all time. Chris, a prominent journalist and author of the acclaimed Kochland, has written an outstanding book, and his knowledge and passion are evident in this interview.

I probably learned more from this pod than any other that I've done. @VonMises14 is a master of the crypto and NFT space. He has held, at various times, more than 60 punks at a time, including some of the most valuable ones, and he has an extensive collection of digital art of every type. His transition from an early btc holder (2011) to the NFT space makes for a fascinating story. Von Mises Timestamps 1:10 - Von Mises pre-crypto experience & financial structures, crypto solution to legacy financial structures 10:08 - Crypto vs. government interests & involvement 14:11 - Von Mises NFT journey 20:30 - Future interests in NFTs, Metaverse 38:51 - Gaming NFTs 45:00 - Increasing NFT supply, projects 52:42 - DeFi 1:06:38 - Generative art

Podcast 37 is an interview with my friend Peter Jennings (@CSURAM88). Peter, perhaps the most successful player in the early years of daily fantasy sports, was a co-founder of the highly successful site www.fantasylabs.com and is a successful investor in the sports analytics and legal sports gambling spaces. He is the co-founder and CEO of LuckyTraderHQ (www.luckytrader.com), which seeks to be the leading analytics site in the NFT space. The first two thirds of the this conversation covers crypto, NFTs, and the vision of the LuckyTrader site.

Cole South (@ColeSouth) has mastered pretty much everything he's touched, and this pod was a great opportunity to learn from him. His ascendency in poker was legendary, but I didn't understand before this podcast exactly how rapid it was: he discovered poker at the very end of 2005, and was one of the biggest winners in the game in the Spring 0f 2006. He then quit school (he later finished) and stayed at the top of the game for almost a decade. In the early-to-mid 2010s, he spent increasing amounts of time in crypto; this is the subject of the second half of our conversation.

Philip Sternheimer is a partner at Hellman and Friedman who also plays in the biggest poker games in the world. In this episode, we cover: his experiences in the Bobby's Room, including his stint in a massive $5k-$10k limit game; his advice for career success, especially for those transitioning from poker; his "Not-to-do List" list for for investing; his advice for time-efficient fitness and nutrition; and his approach to studying poker.

I started getting poker coaching from Cory about six months ago , and then became fascinated by his life story. In addition to studying poker intensively, he's a writer and former Chess Master, and he's keenly interested in rapid skill acquisition (a lifelong learner, he's now most interested in languages).

This episode features an interview with Dan Cates. Known by his online moniker "jungleman", he's one of the biggest winners in the history of poker. In this interview, we dive deep into our respective poker matches with Phil Galfond, and he teases an ambitious match "lock the doors" match against Galfond that might (or might not) happen later this year. Dan previews his new social app (involving reputation in poker and other realms) and his recent charitable giving. Dan summarizes his quarantine life, which involved some poker, some extreme fitness (he recently did 170 push-ups in a row in a bet with Elky), and some new activities far outside his comfort zone, including acting and comedy.

Podcast 32 is an interview with Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond), a top poker player in the world for nearly two decades and founder of training site www.runitonce.com. This interview - for hardcore poker fans only - is a detailed look at his recent heads ups poker challenges. Phil, who is currently undefeated in heads up PLO challenges, details the emotional rollercoaster of his first challenge, where he recovered from an impossible deficit to win with less than 100 hands remaining. We also spend a few minutes discussing the details of our short challenge (coming in late July).

In my third podcast with Barton Wang (@Barton_options), we discuss recent market events, the Archegos Capital saga, and Barton's new subscription newsletter, Liquidity Matters (a 2-3 times a week newsletter that elucidates Barton's long-held view that short-term monetary and fiscal policy changes are the primary driver of market action).

This is a unique 3-way podcast with Nate Silver and Tom Dwan. We hit pretty much everything under the sun, including some fan favorites (betting markets, poker, cryptocurrencies, NFTs).

Doug Polk is the top poker content creator (100 million+ views on Youtube) and a top poker player. The live streams of his recent 25,000 hand challenge against Daniel Negreanu was one of the most-watched pieces of poker content ever. In this interview, we discuss his ascent in poker and in poker content (first 30 min), the details of his match with Daniel Negreanu (second 30 min), and then his views on other high-profile poker challenges.

In this pod, Jason Strasser gives his takes on the recent craziness in $GME stock. Jason (@strassa2) is the co-founder and CIO of Caption Partners. This podcast is for entertainment purposes; it should not be viewed as investment advice.

Tom Dwan (@TomDwan) has been one of the most popular and successful poker players in the world since he first popped on the scene as a teenager playing high stakes under the moniker "durrrrr". His clips on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark are the most widely discussed and downloaded poker content on the internet. This is his first ever podcast.

Jennifer Shahade (@JenShahade) is the host of what might be the greatest poker podcast of all time --- the wildly ambitious Poker Grid podcast. Jen has a fascinating background - a longtime poker player, she is also a two-time US Women's Chess Champion. We spend about half of the time discussing the Poker Grid podcast (which features 169 poker players talking about the 169 possible Texas Holdem hands), and half the time discussing a wide assortment of other topics including her chess background, the best poker books of all time, and the best way to teach kids chess.

Barton Wang (@barton_options) is an extremely popular financial commentator on Twitter. This podcast is a follow-up to our conversation on March 10. That episode was the most popular episode ever on this podcast (30k+ downloads), in part because Barton, whose parents lived near Wuhan, made some detailed predictions about the economic and health consequences of COVID19. In the first part of this podcast, we talk in detail about the fiscal and monetary response to the COVID19, and the market action of late March. We move on to discuss the market action of the summer. Barton then makes some predictions about the future of the COVID19, and presents his view that a vaccine is likely to have limited effectiveness.

Richard Davies is the former economics editor of The Economist. He is also a fellow at the London School of Economics, and a former speechwriter for the Bank of England. In this podcast, we discuss his fascinating new book, Extreme Economies, in which he visits nine places across the globe that are dealing with inequality, technological change, environmental change, or aging populations to an extreme degree. We mostly focus on two chapters during the podcast - a chapter covering Santiago, Chile (inequality focus), and another covering Akita, Japan (aging focus).

Many people consider Chad Schroeder the best season-long fantasy football player in the world. If you have the slightest interest in fantasy football, this is simply a must listen. If you don't like fantasy football, don't listen. If you do like fantasy football, especially auction drafts.... well, Chad will blow your mind. Almost every sentence is loaded with strategic depth. You will realize that you have probably been doing fantasy football the wrong way all along.

A former collegiate tennis player and 15x Olympic distance triathlete, Nelson Peña is now a performance coach with an unusual focus -- fitness in the 40s! He's very easily the fittest 40-something I know, and this interview is full of tips for nutrition, fitness, and mental resilience for men in and around the 40s. Nelson can be found on insta @thenelsonpena and online at www.themontaukmethod.com.

Ben Sulsky is the consensus best poker player in the world. He rarely appears on podcasts, and doesn't do social media. In the first half of this podcast, I ask him questions about poker; in the second half, he asks me questions about economics.

In this interview with Maria Konnikova (@konnikova), we discuss her new book, The Biggest Bluff (available next week on Amazon). Maria, a bestselling author and contributing writer for The New Yorker, originally planned on spending one year on the pro poker tour, where she would study under one of the world's best (Erik Seidel). In fact she spent three years and had major success. Her book about the experience comes from the unique perspective of a clinical psychologist who had just finished a multiyear project of studying the world's best con artists.

In this interview, I had a cherished opportunity to interview Jim Grant, a legend of financial journalism. We discuss his new book on Walter Bagehot, and the Federal Reserve interventions of March and April 2020.

Joe Campanale is a renowned sommelier, restaurateur and wine expert. After co-founding several wine-focused concepts with the West Village-based Epicurean Group (dell'anima, L’Artusi and natural wine bar, Anfora), Joe branched out on his own in 2017 to open Fausto in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Following Fausto’s immediate success, Campanale opened LaLou, a neighborhood wine bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn with a focus on natural wines from Italy, France, Eastern Europe, Spain and Austria. Joe has been named a Food & Wine Magazine “Sommelier of the Year.” Anyone who is passionate about food and wine will love our discussion. In the last ten minutes of the interview, Joe has some sobering comments about the future of the New York restaurant scene. He speculates that perhaps half of the restaurants in New York might close if policy is unchanged.

Brandon Adams Podcast Ep 17: Interview with Jonathan Shecter. Jonathan Shecter (@sheckygreen) co-founded The Source magazine in his Harvard dorm. He then moved to New York, where as editor-in-chief, he oversaw content of The Source as it became the most influential publication in hip hop history. In the early 2000's, he moved to Vegas and became deeply involved with electronic music, ultimately becoming the Director of Programming at Wynn and then CEO of Playback Prodigy.

I really enjoyed this opportunity to interview the brilliant Arnold Kling. Dr Kling (@KlingBlog) is a star of the economics blogosphere. Dr Kling is not shy about giving his predictions about economic growth, unemployment, and financial markets following the extended COVID-19 lockdown. His blog can be found at https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arnoldkling.com&redir_token=nCR-GgMrRthZtuEcc1VL6jyL0pl8MTU4NzU3NDE3OEAxNTg3NDg3Nzc4&event=video_description&v=C67mTwwRCNM (https://www.arnoldkling.com)

Few people are better placed to discuss recent market turmoil than Benn Eifert (@bennpeifert). Benn is the founder and CIO of QVR Advisors, an investment advisor managing data-driven, option-based investment strategies. Topics covered include: 1) the 15 year history of popular option strategies, 2) the concept of "tail risk hedging" and its performance before March 2020, 3) the blow-up of the volatility complex in March 2020, 4) some winners and losers in the March 2020 action (including some details on market participant "50Cent"), and 5) Benn's thoughts on the likely realized volatility going forward.

Aaron Brown was the Chief Risk Manager at AQR Capital Management. He is a Bloomberg columnist (on markets and cryptocurrencies) and NYU adjunct professor. He is the author of Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street, as well as The Poker Face of Wall Street. I could think of few better people to engage in a discussion about recent economic turmoil.

Jason Strasser (@strassa2), co-founder of Caption Partners, shares his thoughts on recent market volatility.

In my second interview with Charles Murray, we cover a lot of ground: a fascinating and in-depth discussion of his work habits and writing techniques; a survey of the literature on cognitive aging; and an in-depth discussion of his new book, Human Diversity.

This is my interview with Blake Stevenson (@empiremaker2). Blake is one of the top daily fantasy sports players in the world (also known for his outspoken Twitter persona).

This is the second podcast I've done with Barton Wang (@barton_options). The episode is entirely dedicated to a discussion of the coronavirus.