POPULARITY
Episode 16 of The Basic Income Show! Pope Leo and AI, Pete Buttigieg's proposal for an AI dividend, and how UBI would enable more people to become parents.Chapters:00:00 Welcome to The Basic Income Show00:55 Will Pope Leo Endorse UBI?12:08 Pete Buttigieg and AI Dividends as UBI30:30 Clair Obscure Expedition 33 Driving UBI Discussion1:05:23 The Impact of UBI on Family Creation1:25:47 Amnesty International Says UBI is an Essential Measure1:29:32 Robert Reich is Now Regularly Saying We Need UBI1:38:50 20 Guaranteed Basic Income Pilots Show Increased Employment1:44:11 Concluding RemarksAmnesty International says universal basic income is essential:https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=oL5pJdr2_r8Pete Buttigieg suggests an AI dividend that could be a UBI:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd-CRhU6uvs -See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/scottsantens.com/post/3lckzcleo7s24See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on X: https://x.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faqDonate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects:https://www.itsafoundation.orgSubscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news:https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribeVisit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news:https://basicincometoday.comSign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI:https://www.comingle.us-Follow Scott:https://linktr.ee/scottsantensFollow Conrad:https://bsky.app/profile/theubiguy.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/Follow Josh:https://bsky.app/profile/misterjworth.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/-Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, John Steinberger, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, Laurel Gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Steve Roth, Miki Phagan, Walter Schaerer, Elizabeth Corker, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Felix Ling, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Mark Donovan, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin, Deanna McHugh, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Nikolaus Rath, and all my other patrons for their support.If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level or above.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership
Episode 15 of The Basic Income Show! Our main topic in this episode was the full-on support of UBI by Pope Francis.Chapters:00:00 Welcome to The Basic Income Show00:17 The UBI Advocacy of Pope Francis23:13 CBC Coverage of a Coalition of Feminist Orgs for UBI34:21 Theo Von and Mike Rowe Discuss UBI1:00:30 Oakland Resilient Families Fund Results1:20:15 Madison Forward Fund Results1:25:22 Returning Citizens Stimulus Program Results1:28:42 Concluding RemarksAI Summary:In this episode, the hosts discuss the significant endorsement of Universal Basic Income (UBI) by Pope Francis, exploring its implications for social justice and community empowerment. They delve into the Pope's consistent advocacy for UBI, the importance of language in advocacy, and the impact of UBI on employment, education, and recidivism. The conversation also touches on the intersection of automation and work, the role of unpaid labor, and the necessity of community engagement in promoting UBI. Through various pilot programs, the hosts highlight the positive outcomes associated with UBI, emphasizing its potential to transform lives and communities.Theo Von and Mike Rowe:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryokmO9MeBw-See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/scottsantens.com/post/3lckzcleo7s24See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on X: https://x.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faqDonate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects:https://www.itsafoundation.orgSubscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news:https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribeVisit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news:https://basicincometoday.comSign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI:https://www.comingle.us-Follow Scott:https://linktr.ee/scottsantensFollow Conrad:https://bsky.app/profile/theubiguy.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/Follow Josh:https://bsky.app/profile/misterjworth.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/-Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, John Steinberger, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Steve Roth, Miki Phagan, Walter Schaerer, Elizabeth Corker, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Felix Ling, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Mark Donovan, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin, Deanna McHugh, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Nikolaus Rath, and all my other patrons for their support.If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level or above.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership#UniversalBasicIncome #BasicIncome #UBI
Show Notes: Patterns in the ChaosDon't be a VictimMay 2, 2025Show Notes: Patterns in the ChaosOverviewThis week's newsletter “Patterns in the Chaos” explores how individuals and organizations can move from passive observers to active agents of change. In an era defined by conflicting signals—tech giants under legal fire, explosive AI adoption, and lofty visions of abundance—the key is to identify cross-cutting patterns and choose which future you want to build.Our content spans court battles over monopolies, the rise of agentic AI in enterprises, evolving capital markets, debates over human value in an automated world, and strategic adaptation in turbulent times. Listeners will gain insights into how these forces interconnect and shape the next chapter of technology, policy, and society.Key Trend 1: The Rise of Agentic AI in EnterpriseSignificance: AI is shifting from a research topic to a mission-critical operational layer. Organizations are embedding autonomous software agents into R&D, go-to-market, and everyday workflows.Talking Point 1: Widespread Agentic AI AdoptionTalking Point 1: Nine in ten R&D teams plan to implement agentic AI this year, signaling a transition from experimentation to production.“91% of R&D Respondents have implemented or are planning to implement agentic AI” (David Poole, Georgian & NewtonX – https://georgian.io/agentic-ai-adoption-insights-from-600-executives/)This momentum underscores that AI planning, reasoning, and execution capabilities are now viewed as essential for competitive R&D.Talking Point 2: Re-Architecting Infrastructure for AgentsTalking Point 2: Companies are considering the web browser as the next OS-level platform for AI agents.“We need to build an OS-level agent, and a browser is essentially a containerized operating system” (Aravind Srinivas, on Spyglass – https://spyglass.org/ai-web-browser/)To avoid catastrophic misinterpretations, teams must also cultivate robust semantic layers that feed agents the context they lack.“Teams will become cultivators of a constantly evolving collection of cross-domain semantic layers” (Tom Tunguz – https://www.tomtunguz.com/semantic-layer/)Key Trend 2: Monopoly, Regulation, and the Future of Tech PowerSignificance: High-stakes antitrust actions against Apple and Google are not just about market share today but about control over tomorrow's AI and distribution channels.Talking Point 1: Google's Default Search Under ScrutinyTalking Point 1: The Justice Department warns that Google's exclusive search deals could “supercharge” its AI rollout and foreclose competition.“Default placement … could be leveraged to ‘supercharge' new AI offerings, ensuring consumers turn first to Google” (David McCabe, NYT – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/technology/google-antitrust-trial-ai.html)Regulators argue that data-fuel advantages from search defaults give Google an unfair head start in AI services.Talking Point 2: Apple's App Store DefianceTalking Point 2: A federal judge referred Apple to criminal prosecutors for ignoring a 2021 injunction on App Store anti-steering rules.“Apple's goal: to dissuade customer usage of alternative purchase opportunities and maintain its anticompetitive revenue stream” (John Gruber, Daring Fireball – https://daringfireball.net/2025/04/gonzales_rogers_apple_app_store_ruling)This decision forces platforms to reassess how they enforce fees and policies, with potential global ripples.Key Trend 3: Capital Markets Evolution—New Funding Paths and VC ModelsSignificance: Funding mechanisms are diversifying—SPACs are back, VC firms are retooling their partnership models, and founders must navigate changing incentives at each stage.Talking Point 1: SPACs Make a ComebackTalking Point 1: After a rocky 2021, blank-check companies are targeting sectors from autonomous trucking to nuclear power.“Kodiak Robotics announced a SPAC merger at a pre-money valuation around $2.5 billion” (Joanna Glasner, Crunchbase – https://news.crunchbase.com/public/spac/tariffs-ai-robotics-crypto-biotech/)Startups see SPACs as a viable alternative to traditional IPOs, attracting capital at scale.Talking Point 2: VC as a “Full-Stack” Support PlatformTalking Point 2: Andreessen Horowitz redefined venture capital by building specialized teams (talent, marketing, regulatory) around each investment.“Founders deserve more than just capital, but a comprehensive, long-term support system” (a16z – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpBDB2NjaWY)This contrasts with multi-stage funds whose “pipeline” approach can inflate early valuations without seed-stage expertise (Taavet Hinrikus, 20VC – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvHnRxKdg2M).Key Trend 4: Human Agency, Abundance, and the Value of PeopleSignificance: As automation and AI proliferate, human skills, relationships, and democratic participation become scarce—and thus, strategic—assets.Talking Point 1: From Scarcity to Abundance Requires Purposeful PolicyTalking Point 1: Ezra Klein's “Abundance” review criticizes timid calls for incremental reform and urges a democratic blueprint for real abundance.“This is the real discussion we need to be having: how can we achieve the disruptive level of change required for an actual abundance agenda in a democratic fashion.” (Albert Wenger – https://paragraph.com/@continuations/abundance-book-review)Bold policy and collective agency are essential to realize unlimited access to what humans need.Talking Point 2: Human Interaction as a Luxury in the Digital EraTalking Point 2: AI companions and curated human engagement are emerging as valuable services for the socially isolated.“New technologies often feel dystopian, until they feel commonplace … AI friends are a good thing, actually.” (Rex Woodbury – https://www.digitalnative.tech/p/ai-friends-are-a-good-thing-actually)“Human engagement is often reserved for those who can afford it, leading to a society where personal attention is a luxury.” (Humans As Luxury Goods – https://platforms.substack.com/p/humans-as-luxury-goods-in-the-age)Key Trend 5: Strategic Adaptation Amidst ChaosSignificance: Periods of upheaval create openings for startups and organizations that can navigate uncertainty, discipline pilots toward production, and rethink industrial strategy.Talking Point 1: Chaos as a Catalyst for Creative DestructionTalking Point 1: Startups thrive as “tricksters” in turbulent times, deploying architectural innovation to topple incumbents.“Periods of upheaval … create opportunities for startups to disrupt entrenched incumbents.”(Packy McCormick – https://www.notboring.co/p/chaos-is-a-ladder)Embracing uncertainty can be a deliberate strategy for reinvention.Talking Point 2: Overcoming “Death by 1,000 Pilots”Talking Point 2: The real challenge is not launching PoCs but scaling them into production with robust infrastructure, monitoring, and operations.“It's easy to fire up a pilot … you can get stuck in this ‘death by 1,000 pilots' approach.” (Rodney Zemmel, McKinsey Digital, via O'Reilly – https://www.oreilly.com/radar/death-by-1000-pilots/)Companies must build clear paths from experimentation to value realization.Discussion QuestionsHow can enterprises avoid “death by 1,000 pilots” while rapidly scaling agentic AI capabilities?What are the trade-offs between antitrust interventions (e.g., breaking up defaults) and the risk of stifling AI innovation?In a world where human interaction becomes a luxury, how should companies balance automation with services that emphasize personal touch?Can SPACs and “full-stack” VC platforms coexist, or will one model dominate early-stage funding in the next cycle?Given the tension between incremental regulatory fixes and calls for disruptive abundance agendas, what level of policy boldness is both feasible and desirable?How might a forced sale of a browser or default search slot reshape the competitive dynamics of AI distribution? (Controversy: divestiture as remedy)Are hyper-optimistic growth projections (e.g., OpenAI's $129 billion by 2029) fantasy, or do they play a functional role in mobilizing capital? (Controversy: realism vs. hype)Closing SegmentAcross regulation, capital, technology and human value, one pattern emerges: agency matters. Whether you're a founder, policy-maker, or individual, inertial forces abound—but so do levers for change. Embracing agentic AI, reshaping capital structures, demanding bold policy, and elevating human skills can turn chaos into opportunity. As we close, remember: “History is decided by human decisions taken in real time.” What decision will you make today to shape tomorrow? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thatwastheweek.com/subscribe
Wed, 30 Apr 2025 19:02:04 +0000 https://feed.neuezwanziger.de/link/21941/17019398/wolfram-weimer-trumps-niedergang-papst-prozession-eu-aussenpolitik-neue-zeitrechnungnung-und-sportideologie 75eba8b68f9807ef113d2a80dea51e4e Wolfgang und Stefan besprechen den April 2025 Welche Qualifikation braucht ein Kulturstaatsminister? Pah, das ist ja nicht mal ein richtiger Minister. Also eigentlich keine. Vielleicht wäre etwas mit Medien schön in der Biographie. Will uns die neue Bundesregierung ärgern? Ist Kultur von dort aus gesehen wirklich nur noch ein linksgrünversifftes Projekt, das ein paar hinter die Löffel bekommen soll? Oder ist die Ernennung von Wolfram Weimer einfach Sinnbild für die neue Herangehensweise, für die Modernisierung des Staates auf Verkaufsflächendesigner zu setzen, als Wirtschaftsministerin eine Unternehmensmanagerin zu wählen und überall Juristen zu platzieren, außer im Innenministerium? Wir gehen dem Denken von Wolfram Weimer heute im Detail nach, Wolfgang hat sein Buch gelesen. Danach begutachten wir die Signatur-Politik von Donald Trump. Einfach "Zölle" zu sagen, greift viel zu kurz. Hier klammern Leute am Staat, die ihn zerstören, was sie sich nicht eingestehen können, weil dann die anderen gewonnen hätten. Im Wirtschaftskrieg Amerika gegen China sind es nun die Amerikaner, die den Gesichtsverlust fürchten. Anschließend sehen wir einsame Sportler im Wald, die mal keinen Blödsinn erzählen. KÄS-Termine 2025: Fr. 20.06. / Fr. 19.09. / Fr. 19.12. per Mail: neuezwanziger@diekaes.de SOMMERSALON am 23. August! Tickets gibts hier 00:00:57 Wolfgangs Smartphone Wolfgang erzählt, wie er durch den Kauf eines neuen Autos dazu gezwungen wurde, sich ein Smartphone anzuschaffen. Sein altes Nokia reichte nicht mehr aus, um die modernen Funktionen des Autos zu nutzen. Er beschreibt den Kauf eines iPhones als Verlust seiner Autonomie und Freiheit, da er sich nun der Technologie unterwerfen muss. Stefan versucht, ihm die praktischen Seiten des Smartphones näherzubringen, wie die Navigationsfunktion, die nicht nur im Raum, sondern auch in der Zeit navigiert, indem sie die Ankunftszeit vorhersagt. Wolfgang will das Smartphone jedoch nur für das Nötigste nutzen und nicht für soziale Medien oder ständige Erreichbarkeit. 00:09:06 Strafen für Apple und Meta Passend zu Wolfgangs neuem iPhone wird über eine EU-Strafe gegen Apple berichtet. Die EU-Kommission wirft Apple vor, im App Store andere Anbieter benachteiligt zu haben, indem es Hinweise auf günstigere Angebote außerhalb des Stores verhinderte. Apple soll 500 Millionen Euro Strafe zahlen. Stefan hält die Strafe für längst überfällig, aber angesichts des Lock-in-Effekts, den Apple über Jahre ausgenutzt hat, für zu gering. Wolfgang rechnet vor, dass die Strafe nur einen Bruchteil (0,15%) des möglichen Strafmaßes von bis zu 10% des globalen Jahresumsatzes ausmacht. Auch Meta (Facebook, Instagram) erhielt eine Strafe von 200 Millionen Euro wegen der Praxis, Nutzer vor die Wahl zwischen personalisierter Werbung oder einem Bezahl-Abo zu stellen. Beide Strafen werden als symbolisch und wenig abschreckend kritisiert. Es wird diskutiert, dass die EU sich zwar nicht scheut, US-Tech-Konzerne zu bestrafen, aber die Abhängigkeit von deren digitaler Infrastruktur (Google Suche, Cloud-Dienste etc.) eine härtere Gangart verhindert. Matt Binder von Mashable erklärt, warum Meta die Strafe als "Tariff" (Zoll) bezeichnet, um negative Assoziationen in den USA zu wecken. 00:22:19 Papst beerdigt Stefan berichtet von seinem Wien-Besuch und der dortigen Schatzkammer, wo die Verschmelzung von staatlicher und sakraler Macht sichtbar wird. Im Kontrast dazu steht die als eher schlicht empfundene Beerdigungszeremonie für Papst Franziskus im Petersdom. Ein besonderer Moment war jedoch der Trauerzug mit dem Leichnam des Papstes durch das historische Zentrum Roms zur Basilika Santa Maria Maggiore, wo er beigesetzt wurde. Dieser Akt wurde selbst von nicht-religiösen Menschen als Gänsehautmoment empfunden und als letzter weltlicher Einschlag des Papstes gewertet. Wolfgang erinnert an die Tradition in Wien, verstorbene Burgschauspieler im Sarg um das Burgtheater zu tragen. Es wird auch die politische Dimension des Papsttums angesprochen, etwa die Rolle von Johannes Paul II. im Kalten Krieg oder Franziskus' Appelle gegen Aufrüstung. 00:28:15 Was denkt Wolfram Weimer Wolfram Weimer, ehemaliger Chefredakteur der Welt und Verleger (u.a. Cicero), wurde zum neuen Kulturstaatsminister ernannt. Die Entscheidung von Friedrich Merz löste viel Kritik aus, auch aus konservativen Kreisen. Jürgen Kaube (FAZ) bezweifelt Weimers Interesse an Kunst oder Geist. Die enge Verbindung zwischen Merz und Weimer (Golfpartner, Ludwig-Erhard-Gipfel, gegenseitige Lobpreisungen) wird beleuchtet. Wolfgang hat Weimers "Konservatives Manifest" gelesen, um dessen Denken zu verstehen. In einem Lanz-Auftritt von 2018 erklärt Weimer, Konservatismus sei wieder modern und bedeute nicht das Hängen am Gestern, sondern das Leben aus Werten, die immer gelten (Treue, Anständigkeit, Ehrlichkeit). Wolfgang kritisiert die Beliebigkeit dieser Definition. Stefan sieht Weimer als Gallionsfigur eines verlotternden Untergangs, der Chaos als Normalität verkauft. Weimers Buch wird analysiert: Er beklagt den Niedergang linker Weltanschauungen, interpretiert Böckenförde und Max Weber eigenwillig, fordert eine minimale Gesellschaft, kritisiert die "Bemutterung" durch den Staat (z.B. Verkehrsüberwachung) und sieht die Steuererklärung als "Marsch ins Freiheitsdefizit". Diese libertären Züge werden kritisiert. Weimer beklagt eine "Kleinkariertheit" durch Compliance-Regeln, die Geschenke und Geschäftsessen erschweren. Wolfgang hält das für Jammern auf hohem Niveau. Weimer stellt das Individuum über die Gesellschaft, fordert aber gleichzeitig Patriotismus und unterscheidet zwischen staatsbürgerlichem und natürlichem (Abstammungs-) Vaterland. Diese Widersprüche und die Nähe zum Ethnopluralismus werden diskutiert. Weimer bezieht sich positiv auf Oswald Spengler und beklagt die "biologische Selbstaufgabe" Europas durch niedrige Geburtenraten, spricht vom "eigenen Blut". Er kritisiert die Fokussierung auf die "dunkle Seite" des Kolonialismus in Lehrplänen. Die "Tugendrepublik" der "Gutmenschen" mit ihren Verboten (Fleisch, Kaminfeuer) und Quoten wird angeprangert. Am Ende plädiert er für eine Rechristianisierung Europas durch die Kultur. Abschließend äußern sich Michael Bröker und Micky Beisenherz zur Personalie. 02:20:54 Salon-Anmerkungen Es wird auf den kostenpflichtigen "Salon"-Teil des Podcasts hingewiesen, der die Sendung finanziert. Hörer werden gebeten, den Podcast zu teilen und zu bewerten, um die Sichtbarkeit zu erhöhen. Im nächsten Salon werden die Bücher "Abundance: How We Build a Better Future" von Esra Klein & Derek Thompson und "Die Welt nach dem Kapital" von Albert Wenger besprochen. Es wird erklärt, wie man den Salon über Steady, Patreon oder Apple Podcasts abonnieren kann. Man kann den Salon auch verschenken. Wolfgang kündigt Live-Termine in Zürich und Stuttgart an. Stefan erwähnt einen Termin in Mainz. Leseempfehlungen für den nächsten Salon werden gegeben. 02:26:38 Trumps Fanboys reden über Trumps Zölle Das Hauptthema ist Donald Trumps Zollpolitik. Es wird betont, dass dies seine "Signature Policy" ist, über die er seit Jahrzehnten spricht. Die aktuelle Situation mit Handelskriegen und Marktverwerfungen wird als direkte Folge dieser Politik gesehen. David McWilliams beschreibt Trumps Zoll-Formel als amateurhaft und inkompetent, basierend auf einer Formel, die ökonomisch keinen Sinn ergibt. Wolfgang erläutert den Unterschied zwischen früherer politischer Inkompetenz, die von Institutionen abgefangen wurde, und der heutigen Situation, in der Inkompetenz direkt an den Schalthebeln sitzt und zu chaotischer Politik führt. Stefan ergänzt, dass die Politik normalerweise durch die Verwaltung abgeschottet ist, dieser Mechanismus aber unter Trump zusammenbricht. Trumps Fokus auf Zölle ignoriert die Stärke Amerikas im Bereich digitaler Dienstleistungen und das Dollar-Privileg. Die Reaktion der Kapitalmärkte (steigende Zinsen für US-Staatsanleihen) wird als einziger wirksamer "Check" gegen Trumps Politik diskutiert, da sie die Staatsverschuldung und Kredite verteuert. Trump-Anhänger im "All In"-Podcast versuchen, die Politik zu rechtfertigen, räumen aber ein, dass das versprochene Wirtschaftswachstum ausbleibt. Hoss und Hopf sehen Trumps Handeln als Beschleunigung einer unvermeidbaren Rezession, damit er am Ende seiner Amtszeit als Gewinner dasteht – eine Logik, die als absurd kritisiert wird. Die Notwendigkeit, die heimische Landwirtschaft (Sojabauern) mit Milliardensummen zu subventionieren, um Wählerstimmen zu sichern, wird erwähnt. China reagiert mit der Drohung, westliche IP-Rechte zu ignorieren und Produkte selbst billiger anzubieten. Der Personalmangel in wichtigen Sektoren (Energieversorgung, U-Boot-Bau) in den USA wird thematisiert. Ben Shapiro plädiert für "Rugged Individualism" und lehnt staatliche Eingriffe ab, obwohl der Staat gleichzeitig Grenzen schützen soll. 04:10:24 Krieg: Gaza, Ukraine Die Berichterstattung über den Gaza-Krieg wird kritisiert. Es sei schwierig, seriöse Bilder und Informationen zu erhalten, ohne auf antisemitische Kanäle zu stoßen, die das Leid in Gaza zwar zeigen, aber gleichzeitig Hetze verbreiten. Seriöse Medien würden sich scheuen, die dramatische Lage abzubilden, was wiederum Antisemiten Vorschub leiste. Die Tagesthemen berichten über einen israelischen Angriff auf ein Krankenhaus, bei dem eine Hamas-Kommandozentrale getroffen worden sei, wobei jedoch medizinisches Gerät zerstört wurde. Diese Darstellung wird mit der Berichterstattung über den Ukraine-Krieg verglichen, wo eine solche Übernahme der russischen Darstellung undenkbar wäre. Ein Bericht über die Tötung von palästinensischen Sanitätern durch die israelische Armee, deren Leichen verscharrt wurden, wird erwähnt. Israel weist die Vorwürfe zurück und behauptet ohne Belege, es seien Hamas-Mitglieder gewesen. Ein israelischer Reserve-Offizier äußert sich besorgt über den zunehmenden Einfluss rechtsextremer Minister auf die Armee. Es wird die Entkopplung von Soldaten vom zivilen Leben und der Politik im Krieg thematisiert, illustriert durch Aussagen eines ukrainischen Soldaten, der nur noch seinen Frontabschnitt und seine Leute sieht. Die psychischen Folgen und die Verrohung durch den Krieg werden angesprochen. 04:28:46 EU und Aserbaidschan Die EU-Außenbeauftragte Kaya Kallas besucht Aserbaidschan. Stefan merkt an, dass Kallas im Westen kaum bekannt ist, in Russland aber neben Trump als Hauptgegnerin wahrgenommen wird. Kallas bezeichnet China als Schlüssel für den russischen Krieg, da es Russland wirtschaftlich und mit Dual-Use-Gütern unterstütze. Ihr Besuch in Baku wird kritisiert, da Aserbaidschan unter Präsident Aliyev einen Angriffskrieg gegen Armenier in Bergkarabach geführt hat, die Zivilgesellschaft unterdrückt und politische Gefangene hält. Dustin Hoffmann wirft der EU-Kommission vor, Werte zu ignorieren und sich brutalen Diktatoren anzubieten. Kallas lobt Aserbaidschan hingegen als wichtigen und verlässlichen Energiepartner, der der EU geholfen habe, sich von russischer Energie zu lösen. Es wird enthüllt, dass Aserbaidschan russisches Gas an die EU weiterleitet und somit von den Sanktionen profitiert. Kallas spricht dennoch von gemeinsamen Werten wie Menschenrechten und Rechtsstaatlichkeit und begrüßt eine Einigung im Friedensprozess mit Armenien. Der aserbaidschanische Außenminister Bayramov betont die guten Beziehungen zur Türkei und kritisiert die Biden-Administration als zu pro-armenisch. Er zeigt sich hoffnungsvoll bezüglich der neuen Trump-Administration. Aserbaidschan pflegt trotz seiner muslimischen Prägung enge Beziehungen zu Israel, bezieht Waffen und liefert Erdöl. Das Verhältnis zu Russland wird als "normal" beschrieben, wobei man die territoriale Integrität der Ukraine respektiere. Aserbaidschan wird als Beispiel für neue globale Akteure gesehen, die pragmatisch mit allen Seiten kooperieren und Einmischung ablehnen. 04:48:15 Neue Zeitrechnung Der Erfolgscoach Ed Mylett präsentiert ein Konzept zur Zeitmanipulation: Er teilt seinen Tag in drei 6-Stunden-Abschnitte (6-12 Uhr, 12-18 Uhr, 18-24 Uhr) und gewinnt so angeblich 21 Tage pro Woche. Wolfgang entlarvt dies als simple Einführung von Doppelschichten. Stefan meint, dass KI solche individuellen Zeitrechnungen problemlos in Standardzeit übersetzen könnte. 04:51:08 Neue Sportideologie Es wird eine aufkeimende Gegenbewegung zur rechten Vereinnahmung von Fitness und Männlichkeit beobachtet. Als Beispiel dient ein Fitness-Influencer, der in einem Video klarstellt, dass das Heben von Gewichten einen nicht zum "Warrior" oder Beschützer macht. Er kritisiert "Douchbags wie Andrew Tate", die Männern einreden, Frauen und Immigranten seien ihre Probleme. Er analysiert, wie rechte Ideologien über harmlos erscheinende Aktivitäten wie Fitness normalisiert und Fitness selbst radikalisiert wird. Der wahre Feind seien nicht andere Gruppen, sondern die Superreichen und CEOs, die von der Ungleichheit profitieren ("The enemy is up"). Er ruft Männer dazu auf, sich als Arbeiterklasse zu erkennen und sich nicht länger von den Eliten spalten zu lassen, um echten Wandel zu ermöglichen. Wolfgang hofft, dass solche Stimmen lauter werden. Stefan erwartet einen großen Backlash gegen die aktuelle politische Situation, die von Partikularinteressen und offensichtlicher Dummheit geprägt sei. Die Rolle von superreichen Geldgebern und Netzwerken innerhalb der CDU wird angesprochen. Komm' in den Salon. Es gibt ihn via Webplayer & RSS-Feed (zum Hören im Podcatcher deiner Wahl, auch bei Apple Podcasts und Spotify). Wenn du Salon-Stürmer bist, lade weitere Hörer von der Gästeliste ein. full Wolfgang und Stefan besprechen den April 2025 no Stefan Schulz & Wolfgang M. Schmitt 18258
Episode 14 of The Basic Income Show! We cover the results of Germany's unconditional basic income (UBI) pilot!Chapters:00:00 Welcome to The Basic Income Show00:21 Background to Germany's 3-year UBI Pilot09:45 Effects of UBI on Employment and Labor24:09 Effects of UBI on Mental Health and Wellbeing40:11 Effects of UBI on Financial Stability and Behavior1:00:38 Effects of UBI on Socializing and Community Participation1:09:02 Potential Impact of UBI Pilot Results on German Politics1:17:01 That Tumblr Post About Not Even Trying for UBI1:24:36 Jeff Atwood is Putting $50M into Rural UBI Pilots1:28:15 Lawsuit in California Against Racially Targeted Cash Programs1:30:58 NYC Mayoral Candidate Pitches Largest UBI Pilot Yet1:33:12 Rashida Tlaib Introduces Bill for Cash for Homeless Young Adults1:35:53 Cook County Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Results1:39:38 Tennessee General Assembly Considering Statewide UBI Bill1:42:48 Elon Musk's Daughter Vivian's Support for UBI as a Human Right1:48:50 Concluding RemarksSummary:In this episode of the Basic Income Show we discuss the results of Germany's big 3-year 1,200 euro a month basic income experiment, which includes its effects on employment, mental health, financial stability, and social involvement. The study, which focused on younger adults age 21 to 40 revealed significant improvements in job satisfaction, career mobility, and overall well-being among participants. It also highlighted the positive impact of basic income on financial behavior, with recipients saving more and demonstrating increased generosity. The discussion emphasizes the importance of financial security in fostering personal growth and community engagement. The discussion then moves on to other recent news including Jeff Atwood pledging $50 million of his wealth for three big rural basic income pilots.German UBI pilot findings with charts:https://www.pilotprojekt-grundeinkommen.de/en-See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/scottsantens.com/post/3lckzcleo7s24See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on X: https://x.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faqDonate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects:https://www.itsafoundation.orgSubscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news:https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribeVisit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news:https://basicincometoday.comSign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI:https://www.comingle.us-Follow Scott:https://linktr.ee/scottsantensFollow Conrad:https://bsky.app/profile/theubiguy.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/Follow Josh:https://bsky.app/profile/misterjworth.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/-Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Steve Roth, Miki Phagan, Walter Schaerer, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , S, Jocelyn Hockings, Mark Donovan, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Nikolaus Rath, and all my other patrons for their support.If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level or above.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership
Albert Wenger ist Managing Partner bei Union Square Ventures. Der New Yorker Wagniskapitalgeber hat sich durch frühe Investments in Firmen wie Twitter, Coinbase, Etsy und Duolingo einen Namen gemacht. Im OMR Podcast spricht der Deutsch-Amerikaner über seine These, dass Aufmerksamkeit in Zukunft wichtiger sein wird als Kapital. Er verrät außerdem, wieso US-Präsident Donald Trump in einigen Punkten die richtigen Themen adressiert, aber dennoch gestoppt werden muss beim Angriff auf die Demokratie – und was man von der Serie Star Trek aus den 1960er Jahren lernen kann.
Albert Wenger, Partner bei Union Square Ventures, einem der erfolgreichsten Risikokapitalfonds weltweit, diskutiert mit Fabian über die großen gesellschaftlichen, wirtschaftlichen und technologischen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit. Er teilt seine Perspektiven zu Themen wie der Zukunft der Arbeit, dem bedingungslosen Grundeinkommen und der Rolle Europas im globalen Wettbewerb. Außerdem erfährts du, warum wir an einem Wendepunkt stehen, der vergleichbar mit dem Übergang vom Agrarzeitalter ins Industriezeitalter ist, und was Politik, Wirtschaft und Startups tun müssen, um diese Transformation erfolgreich zu gestalten. Was du lernst: Die Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts: Warum wir ein neues Gesellschaftssystem brauchen, um mit KI, Klimawandel und Migration umzugehen Die Bedeutung von günstiger, verfügbarer Energie für den Wohlstand von Gesellschaften Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen: Wie ein Grundeinkommen helfen kann, die Automatisierung und den Wandel der Arbeitswelt zu meistern Warum bestehende Sozialsysteme überholt sind und welche Anpassungen notwendig wären Startups und Innovation: Warum Product-Market-Fit das wichtigste Element für den Erfolg eines Startups ist Wie Gründer auf Marktveränderungen reagieren und große Probleme lösen können Technologie und Macht: Wie KI die Gesellschaft radikal verändert und warum jede Firma eine KI-Strategie braucht Warum offene APIs und Interoperabilität entscheidend für Innovation und Wettbewerb sind Führung und Skalierung: Wie Gründer mit ihren Unternehmen wachsen und von Machern zu Leadern werden Die Bedeutung von Vision und Motivation für ein wachsendes Team ALLES ZU UNICORN BAKERY: https://zez.am/unicornbakery Mehr zu Albert: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertwenger/ Website: https://www.usv.com/ Zur Lesung am 03.04.2025: https://berlin.fotografiska.com/de/events/book-launch-die-welt-nach-dem-kapital Join our Founder Tactics Newsletter: 2x die Woche bekommst du die Taktiken der besten Gründer der Welt direkt ins Postfach: https://www.tactics.unicornbakery.de/ Kapitel: (00:00:00) Die Deutsche Bundestagswahl in Bezug auf Startup & Wirtschaft - was hätte besser laufen können? (00:06:30) Wie könnte die Gesellschaft wieder näher zusammenrücken? (00:11:32) Alberts Forderungen an die aktuellen politischen Verantwortlichen in Deutschland (00:15:32) Die Auswirkungen von Trump auf Startups & Wirtschaft in den USA (00:20:15) Alberts Einschätzung von Unternehmern in der Regierung am Bsp. Musk (00:29:04) Kontrolle vs. Selbstbestimmung in Social Media & Co, (00:34:34) Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen: Chance oder Utopie? (00:43:57) Wie würde sich die Arbeit durch bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen verändern? (00:51:52) Alberts Prozess, um sich seine Vision von der Welt zu erarbeiten (00:55:59) Wie challenged Albert seine eigenen Thesen? (01:01:08) Wie hilfreich ist jahrzehntelange Erfahrung? (01:03:34) Was macht nach Alberts Erfahrungsschatz wirklich erfolgreiche Startups aus?
So what to J.D. Vance's highly controversial speech at the Paris AI Summit this week? According to That Was The Week's Keith Teare, it was “a breath of fresh air”. Others will argue it was just more MAGA putridity designed to alienate our European friends. Some tech notables, like Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger, take both views simultaneously, acknowledging on the one hand that Vance was correct to push back against “regulatory capture”, but on the other that Vance was “mistaking jingoism and wishful thinking for true global leadership”. Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from this weekly tech round-up with Teare:* J.D. Vance's Paris AI Summit speech marked a potential turning point in US-Europe AI relations. His message prioritizing AI opportunity over safety prompted European regulators to pull back on some restrictions, with the EU dropping its AI liability directive and the UK rebranding its AI Safety Institute.* Anthropic's growth is accelerating, with projections of $34.5 billion in revenue by 2027. They're currently outperforming OpenAI in some areas, particularly coding, and are expected to release a major new AI model soon.* The Musk-OpenAI conflict has intensified, with Musk's $100 billion bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm being rejected. Meanwhile, OpenAI is planning to incorporate its Q* (Q-star) model into a new GPT-5 release that will combine reasoning, operational capabilities, and multimedia functions.* The AI industry is seeing rapid advancement in humanoid robotics, with companies like Apptronics and Figure receiving significant valuations. Figure's valuation jumped from $2 billion to $39 billion after securing a major automotive partnership.* Traditional political alignments are becoming less relevant in tech policy, with Teare arguing that economic growth and technological progress are transcending traditional left-right divisions. This is exemplified by some progressives like Reid Hoffman embracing AI optimism while traditional conservatives champion technological progress. FULL TRANSCRIPTAndrew Keen: Hello everybody. It is Saturday, February 15th, 2025, a day after Valentine's Day. It's been a day or a week dominated by a certain J.D. Vance. Yesterday, he made a very controversial speech in Munich, which apparently laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance. He attacked Europe over free speech and migration. So he's not the most popular fellow in Europe. And a couple of days before that, he spoke in Paris at the AI Summit, a classic Parisian event talking about summits. Macron, of course, also spoke there. According to The Wall Street Journal, Vance's counts were good. The German, of course, being a conservative newspaper. According to The Washington Post, which is a progressive newspaper, he pushed the "America First" AI agenda. Others, like Fast Company, ask what to make of Vance's speech at the Paris AI conference. According to my friend Keith Teare, the author of That Was The Week newsletter, the speech was a breath of fresh air. I was going to call you Marx, Keith. That would have been a true Freudian error. What do you admire about Vance's speech? Why is it a breath of fresh air?Keith Teare: Well, it's in the European context that it's a breath of fresh air. I think from an American perspective, he didn't really say anything new. We already think of AI in the way he expressed it. But in Europe, the dominant discussion around AI is still focused on safety. That is to say, AI is dangerous. We have to control it. We need to regulate it. And as a result of that, most of the American developments in AI are not even launched in Europe, because in order to be made available to citizens, it has to go through various regulatory layers. And that slows everything down. So in the context, Vance stood up on the platform in front of all of the people doing that regulation and told them basically, rubbed their noses in it, saying how self-destructive their approach was for European success. His opening lines were, "I'm not here to talk about AI safety. I'm here to talk about AI opportunity." And in the days since, there's been quite a big reaction in Europe to the speech, mostly positive from normal people and adjusting policy at the regulatory level. So it's quite a profound moment. And he carried himself very well. I mean, he was articulate, thoughtful.Andrew Keen: Yeah. You say his speech marks a crucial inflection point. I wonder, though, if Vance was so self-interested as a MAGA person, why would he want even to encourage Europe to develop? I mean, why not just let it be like social media or the Internet where American companies dominate? Is there anything in America's interest that the Trump-Musk alliance would benefit from strong European AI companies?Keith Teare: Well, from strong European AI openness, yes. I don't think Vance thinks for a minute there are any European companies that will be able to compete in that open environment. And so most of his purpose is economic. He's basically saying open up so that our guys can sell stuff to you and the money will flow back to the U.S. as it has done with Amazon and Google and every other major tech innovation in recent years. So it's basically an economic speech masquerading as a policy speech.Andrew Keen: I wonder if there's an opportunity for Europe given the clear divisions now that exist between the U.S. and Europe. I wonder whether there's an opportunity for Europe to start looking more sympathetically at Chinese AI companies. Did Vance warn in his speech, did he warn Europe about turning to the Chinese, the other potential partner?Keith Teare: Yeah. There are two parts of his speech I didn't really incorporate in the editorial. The first was a subplot all around China, which he didn't name, but he called "dictatorships." We don't want dictatorships leading in AI. And then there was another subplot, which was all about free speech and openness and not censoring, which was aimed at the Europeans, of course, and the Chinese.Andrew Keen: Discussion of their free speech, or at least it's their version of free speech, isn't it?Keith Teare: I think the funny thing is in order to be consistent, they're going to have to allow all free speech. And they will, because they know that. And so, weirdly, the Republicans become the free speech party, which makes no sense historically. But it is happening. And I thought there were a lot of interesting things in that speech that symbolized a very confident America. However, the reason America is doing this is because it's weak, which is a paradox.Andrew Keen: Politically weak or militarily weak or economically weak?Keith Teare: Not militarily - it's super strong, but economically it's relatively declining against China. It's the next Europe. America is the next Europe. China is the next America. And in that context, America's brashness sounds positive to our ears and to mine as well, because it's pro-optimism, pro-progress. But actually, it's coming from a place of weakness, which you see in the tariffs and the anti-Chinese stuff.Andrew Keen: And I want to come to the Munich speech where Vance was pretty clear. Trump's always been clear that if there is an opportunity for Ukraine, Ukrainians have to work for American access to its raw materials, minerals, etc. Whether America's foreign policy now is becoming identical to that of China, helping other countries as long as they provide them with essential resources.Keith Teare: Yeah, exactly. By the way, one of our commentators, David John William Bailey on LinkedIn, is saying we need to explain this. He says he's also attempting "$1 trillion mob-style shakedown." Anyone defending this is either deluded or only reads hard-right propaganda.Andrew Keen: Well, but Keith, you've always claimed to be a progressive. You always claim to be a man of the left. You have a background in left-wing communist activism. Now you're on board with Vance. You were on board the week before with Musk. You're ambivalent about Trump. What does this say to you? What does this suggest about you personally, or is the reality of politics these days that the supposed conservatives like Vance are actually progressive in their own way and the supposed progressives in the Democratic Party are actually conservative?Keith Teare: Well, as you know, I don't like those labels anymore because I think they're trying to fit a modern narrative into an old set of boxes. I think, broadly speaking, Vance is an economic progressive. He wants the economy to grow. He wants GDP to grow.Andrew Keen: Some people say everyone's a progressive in that sense if they want GDP to grow.Keith Teare: Yeah, but not very many people can do it. So I think they really are serious that they believe innovation in tech and GDP are correlated. And I believe GDP and social good are correlated. And so if you really want to be a progressive that wants people to have a good life, you have to support economic growth. And I think Vance does. And I think that's what his narrative is about. He's basically telling Europe that they're going to get the opposite, which has been true, by the way, now for a decade. European GDP per capita is as low as $35,000 a year. American is $85,000 a year.Andrew Keen: That's an astonishing shift. And this is going to be remembered, I think, as an important week in the American-European relationship. You said that the aftermath of the Vance speech has been remarkable and telling. The EU dropped its AI liability directive. The UK rebranded its AI Safety Institute. OpenAI removed diversity commitments. So a speech is now having an impact, particularly this Paris speech when it comes to AI policy, both in Europe but also in the US as well.Keith Teare: Yeah, I wouldn't give too much credit just to the speech. I think the speech is symptomatic of a lot of zeitgeist change and everyone is getting in line with the new zeitgeist, which is tech is good, AI is good, censorship is bad.Andrew Keen: Well, I don't know if that's - I'm not sure I would call that the zeitgeist, Keith. I mean, you're talking in Palo Alto, where that's always been the zeitgeist. I think if anything, in universities and book publishing, the reverse is true.Keith Teare: Yeah. So I'm an avid MSNBC watcher. I watch Morning Joe every morning with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. And so I'm kind of imbued with the liberal narrative compared to what's going on. And what's happened is a very rapid change from the days after the election when the liberal narrative was "we need to look at ourselves" has now become a narrative that "the judges have to save us from the administration." The administration is not democratic, even though it was elected, and we've got to rely on judges because there's no one else to rely on.Andrew Keen: That doesn't mean the zeitgeist has shifted. It just means that the people on one side have shifted their focus, but they still are not sympathetic to Trump, Vance, Musk.Keith Teare: I think there is increasing sympathy. I think you're going to be surprised. I think if an election was held today, Trump would win by more.Andrew Keen: Well, he would certainly win by more if he was running against Harris. That's another question. So it's been another remarkable week for AI content. One piece that you pick out, which I thought was interesting, is from somebody called Elizabeth Yin. Nice to have a female author - too many of our authors are male. Maybe I'm being too woke. But the AI takeover, according to Yin - no one's jobs are safe. This isn't exactly news, is it?Keith Teare: No, she's really summarizing what we've been talking about in That Was The Week for quite a while. But I thought it was a good summary. And she gives some kind of prioritization. There's a section that talks about regulated professions, human-centric jobs, creative and entrepreneurial jobs, energy and infrastructure and distribution. And she then breaks down what she thinks the main impact of AI is going to be. She kind of leaves it where you kind of want more from her because she doesn't thoroughly go through all of these. But she's a VC, she does early-stage investing. She's very good. And the one thing she says, which I don't think anyone's going to disagree with, is "fewer workers more." I was at an event this week in San Francisco where there was a panel with some VCs and entrepreneurs on exactly the same questions she's asking - where the cuts are going to come first or what sectors are going to be most dramatically affected in the short term. And people weren't entirely clear. But the one area that comes up is healthcare - that's the lowest hanging fruit at the moment.Keith Teare: Yeah, there's a funding event this week from a company that applies AI to biology, specifically cancer programming - anti-cancer cells. So you're going to see AI in everything. And it's that will lead to an acceleration of invention for sure, because the individual is still really important. By the way, there's another article about that this week. The individual now has an army of talent in AI, able to help them make progress. It just speeds everything up.Andrew Keen: Yeah. So what other AI news in the summary? There's a couple, 2 or 3 pieces on Anthropic. I use Anthropic. I like it. Their growth soars to 34.5 billion in 2027 revenue. That's of course, speculative. And they announce their next major AI model could arrive within weeks, Anthropic competitive with OpenAI.Keith Teare: Yes, and they're better than OpenAI at some things. They're already better than OpenAI at coding. If you put it in context, those three Anthropic pieces sit alongside the Google piece and the OpenAI pieces. And what it tells you is we've seen a major acceleration of product roadmaps and plans in the last couple of weeks, mainly in response to the DeepSea news, I think.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's interesting that DeepSea was a one-week wonder, but there are no headlines at least from you on DeepSea. It seems to have stimulated change as you suggest, rather than change things in its own way. And then your Google pieces - interesting that they're rolling out a new memory feature for Gemini AI, allowing recall of past conversations, which is increasingly getting to the point where these AIs, if not human or sentient, certainly are able to remember things and have conversations.Keith Teare: Yeah, and that becomes much easier once you go from LLMs to other LLMs with agents. An agent is a piece of software that speaks to another LLM to complete a task. And so you could have in software a memory agent or a recall agent whose only job is to say, "Is this question been asked recently and what did I look at the last time?" and bring it into the context for whatever the current question is. And I think we're going to see more and more of this. I've spent most of my week building a multi-agent system for my company, Single Rank. I have a question taker agent that you ask a question of. It then farms out to a database agent or a chart drawing agent or an expert reasoning agent. They all have different jobs and they come back and give their answers to the original agent, and then it gives the answer to the user. So this collaborative agents concept is becoming very real now. And memory is one of those - I think Perplexity is the most advanced.Andrew Keen: Yeah. We were talking about Perplexity before we went live. You convinced me - I use Anthropic but you said for me it's probably wiser to use Perplexity where I still have all the access to Anthropic, but it adds a layer and some more intelligence. As I said, I was at an event this week where one of the venture people from OpenAI was there who talked about Sam Altman's projection that in the not too distant future there'll be billion-dollar individual startups. Are you suggesting, Keith, that's not that far on the horizon, given the power of AI that individuals can do all and do the entire startup without needing the help of anybody else?Keith Teare: Depends on the startup. If the startup is mainly software, that's probably true. But if it needs account management and billing and all the others...Andrew Keen: But eventually all that stuff will get - that's the easy part, isn't it? You can always get that done.Keith Teare: It's the hard bit right now, like reconciling invoices to receipts. I'm not very good at that. So I think it's coming with two things: rising agents and then agents that can use tools to follow, do actions, if you will. So it's coming and it's probably coming this year and it'll accelerate. So, yes, it will get there. I think the headline of a single founder of $1 billion company is just a headline. But it's directionally correct.Andrew Keen: It does. And it does reiterate Elizabeth Yin's point that no jobs are safe - in finance, in HR, in coding, in content. I mean, I'm using it more and more to summarize these conversations. I don't need a large editorial staff. So clearly dramatic change. And in fact, your startup of the week, Keith, the robotics startup Apptronics, is in talks for new funding at an almost $40 billion valuation - a hardware company. Does this speak of the reality of this new AI revolution? That it's not just theory, it's practice now?Keith Teare: Yeah. Well, Figure has gone from 2 billion to 39 billion in less than a year. And why? Because one of the major car companies signed an agreement with it to have these robots on production lines in its factories. And the start of the week, by the way, is Apptronics, which is a different humanoid robotics company, also raising a lot of money but slightly earlier in its journey than Figure.Andrew Keen: It's my mistake - I have to admit I thought it was Figure so that's my error. I'm going to add an Apptronics image to this content. I'm rather embarrassed.Keith Teare: You've probably already got one. That said, they both speak to the same truth, which is AI is going to manifest itself in the physical world in the form of humanoid robots sooner rather than later.Andrew Keen: And that was another of Tim Draper's - he was one of the speakers at this event I went to in San Francisco. I know he's an investor in your firm. That was his big prediction. So Apptronics is building robots for humans. Are they just a kind of earlier version of Figure in some ways?Keith Teare: An earlier version, possibly more advanced in concept because they started later when the software gets better by the week. So the later you start, the more advanced the software is that you can leverage. And so we're not going to see an end to this. There's going to be a lot more of it. I think humanoid robots are really interesting because the physical world is built for humans. You know, steps, ladders, everything.Andrew Keen: But I'm not sure that would be the case, especially when it comes to, say, self-driving cars and roads. That's going to change as well, isn't it?Keith Teare: Well, you still have roads because they still are...Andrew Keen: You still have roads. But I'm saying the roads themselves will become more and more suited to self-driving cars as opposed to human-driving ones.Yeah. You would hope the roads would become more intelligent and communicate to the cars, but that seems to be much further off.Andrew Keen: But I'm sure the Chinese will do that. Not the Americans, not even in San Francisco. Meanwhile, there is still lots of tech news. There's this open feud between Sam Altman at OpenAI and Elon Musk. Musk this week had a bid to buy OpenAI for around $100 billion. Is this just sensational, meaningless stuff? Is this froth or is it meaningful in the long run? The Musk-Altman fight?Keith Teare: Well, the specifics of this are super interesting because it's very clever of Musk. What Musk is offering to buy is not OpenAI. He's offering to buy the not-for-profit part of OpenAI. Now Altman is trying to put a value on that not-for-profit because he wants it to go away, or at least be subsumed. And he's trying to do it at a very low valuation so that the stakeholders in the not-for-profit don't get much. So Musk put a super high price on the not-for-profit to force the board of OpenAI to put a proper value on it as it transitions or to stop transitioning - one or the other. And I think if I was on the board of OpenAI now, I'd be very worried. They rejected his offer yesterday, by the way, but that will not be the end.Andrew Keen: What is Musk doing? Is it just because he hates Altman and he's annoyed that he was one of the co-founders and he's no longer involved? Because if he does indeed do what he seems to want to do, which is weaken, even undermine OpenAI - I mean, the real winners are probably Anthropic and Google then rather than Musk.Keith Teare: Well, and Grok - he has his own Grok xAI.Andrew Keen: But is xAI a real player? I mean, he can get massive valuations, but how does it compare with Anthropic or Gemini?Keith Teare: It's good. I mean, it's very good. And the next version, rumors are that it's going to be a top performer.Andrew Keen: Certainly not a top - you said it's good, but it's not...Keith Teare: It depends on what for. But it's certainly as good or better than DeepSea already.Andrew Keen: So there is a method to Musk's madness. It's not just about hating Altman and OpenAI.Keith Teare: Well, because it's Musk, there's more than one thing going on. He has economic interests in xAI, for sure. He's also really pissed off with Altman because he considers that Altman basically stole the OpenAI idea from him, which is not really true when you get into the facts. But he believes that. And not only that, but lied by making it not-for-profit and then turning it into a for-profit when he promised he wouldn't. So Musk basically feels like he's got the moral high ground and that gives him the energy to fight. Altman is clearly tired of the whole thing. He's just trying to do what he's trying to do, you know, and having a light shone on it.Andrew Keen: So it's the first time you have articulated some concern about OpenAI. You've always been quite bullish. Are you suggesting that your bullishness in the past is changing a little bit?Keith Teare: I don't think so, because I think this is a bit of a sideshow. The biggest news this week about OpenAI is the decision to abandon the Q* model - not abandon it, but incorporate it into a new GPT-5 later this year.Andrew Keen: So how would a unified next generation release work? Which would be what? Everything together?Keith Teare: It would do reasoning, operational stuff, actions, and it would do what other LLMs do, including being capable of video and image production all in one, and probably will retain its position as the best across all of those different things. So I don't see that anything bad is going to happen to OpenAI. I do think Musk can be an irritant and it could force them into corporate decisions about valuation and merging their different components that aren't to their liking. That could happen.Keen: My interview of the week, which you were kind enough to include in this week's newsletter, is with Greg Betta. Most people won't be familiar with Greg Betta. He's a tech writer, journalist based in the North Bay San Francisco, but he's also the coauthor with Reid Hoffman, who everybody knows, of a new book called "Super Agency: What Could Possibly Go Right With Our AI Future?" And from a progressive point of view, it's optimistic about AI. So I guess Hoffman is one of the few progressives, Keith, who actually is optimistic about AI. Is that fair?Keith Teare: Yeah. He really represents that part of the liberal spectrum that was in the New York Times article last week suggesting the Democrats should embrace technology and innovation. And the book is symptomatic of that. I didn't have a chance to listen to the interview - give us a flavor of what he said.Andrew Keen: It's standard - it's like listening to you. He believes that this progress will ultimately benefit. He distinguishes himself a bit too, I thought, created some light between him and Hoffman. I think he sees Hoffman as being slightly more optimistic than him. But it's about super agency - you and I have talked endlessly about agency, about humans being able to shape their lives. And of course, that's the big debate. For the critics, it's the AI that will shape us. For the optimists, AI will enable us to shape the world. It's an age-old argument, and it's not going away.Another figure on the left, if that's still a term that means anything, is Albert Wenger. He's your post of the week and he comes back to the Vance speech. He says praising this speech by Vance is mistaking jingoism and wishful thinking for true global leadership with a real vision of AI and humanity. I'm assuming you don't agree with Albert on this issue.Keith Teare: I do agree with him. I think I wanted to take a positive view of Vance's speech for his optimism in the context of Europe. It was a great speech. Albert's right that the American framing is entirely jingoistic. And AI isn't - AI is entirely global and humanistic. So there is a contradiction between a declining superpower being a champion of progress for its own nation versus what Albert would prefer, which is leadership that is truly global in nature.Andrew Keen: It's interesting that the first comment on Albert's tweet was from someone called "e/acc" who says this may be the most e/acc speech of all time. I didn't know what that meant - it meant effective accelerationism. Are you familiar with this term, Keith?Keith Teare: Yeah, this is the Marc Andreessen Peter Thiel framing against the philanthropists.Andrew Keen: So are you an effective accelerationist? Do you believe in...Keith Teare: Effective altruism versus effective acceleration? This is interesting. You say they're the same thing - I don't think anyone thinks that. But I think you might be right. But as long as you put them in the right order, I think if you get acceleration and growth and value, you're going to get a better life.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's a play on effective altruism, but it's thinking in the same way that the world can become a better place.Keith Teare: Yeah. And the altruists wanted it to be done by good deeds as opposed to by economic progress.Andrew Keen: And even Albert acknowledges, like you, that there are aspects of the speech which in your language are a breath of fresh air. He said the only good point was the clear pushback against regulatory capture. Is it going to be effective? I mean, is it clear that the days of Lina Khan are over? Are we at the end of the period of regulatory capture, whether it's in Europe or the U.S.? As you say, one of the consequences of the speech was that the Europeans have taken a step back from regulation.Keith Teare: I would say the new Lina Khan is Elizabeth Warren. Lina Khan's gone. She's a sideshow. But Elizabeth Warren is still mainstream.Andrew Keen: Yeah, but a much, much older and perhaps less powerful figure, especially in Trump's America. I mean, Warren, she can talk a lot and get people annoyed, but she can't actually do anything. Whereas Lina Khan actually controlled regulatory capture - I mean, she was the head of the FTC.Keith Teare: Exactly. But I find Warren intensely irritating. It's amusing to me that Musk is asking how her net worth went from $200,000 to double-digit millions. And it's because she got subsidized by pharma, because she's pro-vax. And she's plugged into that.Andrew Keen: That's a controversial observation. You're saying anyone who gets supported by big Pharma is pro-vaccine? Does that mean that anyone who's anti-vax is not going to get the money? Most of us are pro-vax.Keith Teare: I'm totally pro-vax. But I'm just saying politicians like her typically get high net worth through serving stakeholders. And she is very against the credit card industry, for example. But she's not against pharma. So she's found her niche.Andrew Keen: Well, that's not a very generous interpretation, although it does suggest that when you give Elon Musk the keys to the Treasury and the IRS, then all these things are going to get revealed. And we should end with another interesting X from Albert, which I think gets to a lot of this. He said, "If you're young and capable and care about democracy, you should work for Doge." What do you make of that? I tend to think he's right.Keith Teare: I can't fully understand his meaning. In my brain, I'll interpret it the way I would, which is what I said last week.Andrew Keen: And to add to the quote, he said, "Offense is the best defense."Keith Teare: Yeah. The main threat to democracy is unelected bureaucrats blocking progress. I mean, if you think about it...Andrew Keen: Like Elizabeth Warren, in your view, at least.Keith Teare: No, I'd use the Obama example. Obama wanted to get a really good healthcare plan. And as soon as he was in office, he made speeches saying, "I won't be able to achieve what I want to achieve unless you, the people, are on the streets." Because Washington is averse to change. And it turned out that he had to make all kinds of compromises. And he ended up with what we today call Obamacare. But his experience was an experience of being blocked. And Trump basically has been through that himself. We're probably mostly thankful for that based on his first administration. He now is older, and he's not prepared...Andrew Keen: Suddenly older. I don't know about wiser.Keith Teare: He's not prepared to let the bureaucracy stand in his way. And Musk is his weapon. And there is something positive about a better, cheaper state and more democratic if the elected people can do what they said they were going to do.Andrew Keen: Yeah. And bring the expenses down. "If you're young and capable and care about democracy, you should work for Doge" - wise words from Albert Wenger. We will return to all these themes, Keith, in the future. Have a good week and we will see everybody again next week. Thanks so much.Keith Teare: Everyone. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 10 of The Basic Income Show! With the UK looking to invest heavily into AI, and Canada potentially electing a new leader worried about AI impacts, is UBI's window opening?Chapters:00:00 Welcome to The Basic Income Show01:14 The Los Angeles Fires14:25 Comingle as Disaster Aid29:48 Compton Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Misinformation38:05 Bad UBI Take by Tony Robbins and Chris Williamson43:19 The Physics of Boot Straps 48:06 UK to Inject AI into its Veins1:01:33 Mark Carney Discussing AI and UBI?1:14:11 Former Mayor of Oakland's Op-ed About Trump and UBI1:21:50 41% of Employers to Reduce Staff by 20301:28:18 Robots to Work for $1/hr by 20351:31:20 John Deere Robot Lawnmowers1:33:38 Sam Altman Says AI Agents Will Arrive This Year1:35:15 Evidence for UBI as a Treatment for Tuberculosis1:47:20 Concluding RemarksSummary:This episode starts with discussion of the L.A. fires because Josh lives in Los Angeles and because UBI would do so much to help, and Comingle will soon help as a new method of disaster aid. From there we get into some of the disinformation about the results of the Compton Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot. No it didn't lead to increased menthol cigarette smoking and soda drinking. From there we go into how the UK is looking to go hard on AI with no mention of UBI, and how the race for a new leader of the Liberal Party in Canada has uplifted Mark Carney who has been talking a lot about the negative impacts of AI and the need for strong social supports like UBI. We continue our discussion with more recent automation headlines and end with a fascinating new study that highlights how impactful UBI will be for health by reducing diseases of poverty like tuberculosis.-See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/scottsantens.com/post/3lckzcleo7s24See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on X: https://x.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faqDonate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects:https://www.itsafoundation.orgSubscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news:https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribeVisit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news:https://basicincometoday.comSign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI:https://www.comingle.us-Follow Scott:https://linktr.ee/scottsantensFollow Conrad:https://bsky.app/profile/theubiguy.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/Follow Josh:https://bsky.app/profile/misterjworth.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/-Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath,, Laura Ashby, and all my other patrons for their support.If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership
We are back in Munich at the DLD Conference, Europe's foremost tech gathering. DLD is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and, to mark this occasion, we spoke to some of the leading DLD'ers about the tumultuous last twenty years. First up is the Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger, author of The World After Capital, who - in spite of all the problems of the last two decades - remains defiantly optimistic about the future. He emphasizes the need to move beyond "industrial age thinking" focused on physical capital toward solutions suited for the digital age, where attention is the primary constraint. On AI, Wenger believes we've reached a genuine breakthrough moment, suggesting a 10-15% chance of artificial superintelligence emerging within the next year or two. He advocates for open AI models rather than concentration among a few large tech companies, proposing copyright reforms to encourage transparency in AI development. Wenger also discusses his practical efforts to create positive change, including his universal basic income pilot in Hudson, NY, and initiatives promoting "steward ownership" to make capital more enabling and less extractive. He envisions a future where technological advances help solve climate change, disease, and food security challenges while restoring natural environments. Throughout our conversation, Wenger emphasizes the need for radical new experiments and policy approaches rather than incremental change, arguing that current systems and traditional political solutions are inadequate for addressing contemporary challenges.Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV). Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). Albert is the author of the book The World After Capital. On his blog Continuations he writes about technology, science, philosophy and more. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT. Albert is married to Gigi Danziger. They have three grown children and live in New York City.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 9 of The Basic Income Show! Suddenly it was drones, drones, drones, and just as suddenly it's all gone. Let's talk about how conspiracies are fueled by economic anxiety. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome to The Basic Income Show 02:05 Drone Hysteria and How UBI Can Reduce Conspiracy Beliefs 17:47 The Onion's Joke About Treating Welfare Recipients Like Dogs 21:53 Not Having Enough Versus Worrying About Not Having Enough 36:22 Real Stories From Basic Income Pilot Participants 59:58 Results from the Compton Basic Income Pilot 1:20:17 The Story Behind the Stop Hiring Humans Billboards in SF 1:27:13 A Rich Senate Candidate is Running on UBI in the Philippines 1:28:06 Will Bangladesh Test UBI in a Big Way? 1:29:39 Biden Wishes He Put His Name on the Stimulus Checks 1:30:18 New Yorkers May Get Inflation Rebate Stimulus Checks 1:33:28 Ken Paxton Stops Harris County Pilot AGAIN 1:36:23 OxFam America Supports Basic Income 1:39:12 Spokane May Do a Land Value Tax Experiment 1:44:29 Concluding Remarks Key Takeaways: Basic income can alleviate financial stress and cognitive load Conspiracy theories often arise from a lack of cognitive capacity Economic policies like UBI can counteract harmful belief traps Welfare systems can be paternalistic and burdensome Real-life stories illustrate the positive impact of basic income Cognitive resources are finite and can be depleted by financial worries The unspoken societal stressor is the constant need for money UBI provides individuals with the freedom to make choices that matter Cash assistance is more impactful than restrictive welfare programs Addressing financial insecurity can lead to better societal outcomes Cash transfers can aid in addiction recovery Universal programs like RX Kids show significant benefits Frequency of cash transfers impacts their effectiveness Basic income can reduce domestic violence rates Long-term effects of UBI can transform family dynamics AI marketing strategies can provoke necessary discussions about UBI Oxfam advocates for guaranteed basic income as a solution to poverty Land value tax could fund universal basic income initiatives - See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scottsantens.com/post/3lckzcleo7s24 See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on X: https://x.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq Donate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects: https://www.itsafoundation.org Subscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news: https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe Visit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news: https://basicincometoday.com Follow Scott: https://linktr.ee/scottsantens Follow Conrad: https://bsky.app/profile/theubiguy.bsky.social Follow Josh: https://bsky.app/profile/misterjworth.bsky.social - Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath, Laura Ashby, and all my other funders for their support. If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership
Episode 6 of The Basic Income Show! In this episode, Scott Santens, Conrad Shaw, and Josh Worth discuss recent developments in the world of Universal Basic Income (UBI). They celebrate ITSA Foundation's successful fundraising for key projects, explore the implications of Nobel Prize winners supporting UBI, and delve into the ongoing debate surrounding Oregon's proposed UBI measure. They discuss various aspects of Universal Basic Income (UBI), including public support, political influences, and recent developments in different regions. They explore the challenges of finding consensus on UBI, the impact of political decisions on public opinion, and the implications of recent polling data from the UK. The conversation also covers the cancellation of the Ontario basic income pilot, election strategies involving cash rebates, and the significance of attack ads in shaping perceptions. Additionally, they delve into the affordability of UBI, recent initiatives in Guyana, and Germany's upcoming UBI experiment. In this conversation, the speakers discuss the viability and implications of basic income, particularly in resource-poor areas. They explore the concept of money scarcity, the benefits of child allowances, and the Marica program in Brazil as a case study for local currency implementation. The conversation also addresses misconceptions about employment impacts of basic income, the empowerment it provides to workers, and the broader health and well-being benefits observed in UBI programs. New evidence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo further supports the positive socioeconomic changes associated with basic income. - Want more UBI data? See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq Donate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects: https://www.itsafoundation.org Subscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news: https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe Visit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news: https://basicincometoday.com Sign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI: https://www.comingle.us - Follow Scott: https://twitter.com/scottsantens https://www.facebook.com/scottsantens https://linktr.ee/scottsantens Follow Conrad: https://twitter.com/theUBIguy https://www.facebook.com/conrad.yaney https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/ Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/misterjworth https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/ - Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Kara Gillies, Faith Stanhope, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath, chris heinz, Zachary Weaver, Justin Seifert, Rosa Tran, bradzone, John Sullivan, Team TJ, Yang Deng, Yan Xie, Marie janicke, Tim , Warren J Polk, Jeffrey Emmett, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Kev Roberts, Nicolas Pouillard, Walter Schaerer, Eric Skiff, Thomas Welsh, Laura Ashby, and all my other funders for their support. If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
Ep 5 of The Basic Income Show! We watch Conrad's interview with John Stossel and listen to an AI podcast about my book Let There Be Money. Also fresh evidence from the Finland Basic Income pilot and more! In this episode of the Basic Income Show, Scott Santens, Josh Worth, and Conrad Shaw discuss the implications of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the context of recent disasters, economic stability, and media representation. They explore how UBI can provide immediate support during crises, the economic arguments for preventative measures, and the misconceptions surrounding work incentives related to UBI. The hosts critique the media's portrayal of UBI by watching John Stossel's interview of Conrad and emphasize the importance of context in understanding economic studies. They also discuss the studied effects of Finland's basic income pilot on voter turnout and the importance of inherent human value in economic systems. The conversation also touches on the role of AI in society and the need for trust in government to foster a healthy democracy. They conclude by examining the relationship between inflation and basic income, emphasizing the need for a supportive economic environment. Videos watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIpGOIc80C4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEUTR_YeweQ Citations: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ajps.12915https://finance.yahoo.com/news/over-one-dozen-guaranteed-income-170300695.html http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/133270/filename/133484.pdf https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/social-sector/our-insights/an-experiment-to-inform-universal-basic-income https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/chart-book-tanf-at-20 - Want more UBI data? See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq Donate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects: https://www.itsafoundation.org Subscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news: https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe Visit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news: https://basicincometoday.com Sign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI: https://www.comingle.us Follow Scott: https://twitter.com/scottsantens https://www.facebook.com/scottsantens https://linktr.ee/scottsantens Follow Conrad: https://twitter.com/theUBIguy https://www.facebook.com/conrad.yaney https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/ Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/misterjworth https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/ - Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Kara Gillies, Faith Stanhope, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin, Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath, chris heinz, Zachary Weaver, Justin Seifert, Jodi Sarda, Rosa Tran, bradzone, John Sullivan, Team TJ, Yang Deng, Yan Xie, Marie janicke, Tim , Warren J Polk, Jeffrey Emmett, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Kev Roberts, Nicolas Pouillard, Walter Schaerer, Eric Skiff, Thomas Welsh, Laura Ashby, and all my other funders for their support. If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
Episode 4 of The Basic Income Show! Let's talk about the basic income that Dolly Parton mobilized in response to a disaster in Tennessee. We also debunk all the misinformation in an anti-UBI PragerU video. Summary: In this episode of the Basic Income Show, Scott Santens, Conrad Shaw, and Josh Worth discuss the current state of basic income initiatives, particularly in light of recent events such as Hurricane Helene. We explore the future role of Comingle in providing direct cash assistance during disasters, the challenges faced by traditional disaster relief systems, and the importance of cash in recovery efforts as shown by Dolly Parton's basic income response to Tennessee wildfires. Our conversation also delves into the broader implications of universal basic income (UBI), addressing misconceptions as spread by a PragerU video, and highlighting its potential economic benefits. We emphasize the need for a shift in perspective regarding poverty and disaster relief, advocating for a more proactive approach to supporting individuals in need. We delve into the complexities of Universal Basic Income (UBI), discussing its potential costs, benefits, and the various funding mechanisms that could support it. We also explore the dignity of work, the implications of automation on employment by way of the strike by dockworkers, and the fundamental human drive for purpose and greatness. Watched videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kInUGW4H3Jc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGPjtRZj5DA ----- Want more UBI data? See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on X: https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq Donate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects: https://www.itsafoundation.org Subscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news: https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe Visit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news: https://basicincometoday.com Sign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI: https://www.comingle.us For previous audio-only discussions between Conrad, Josh, and I, and the occasional guest, check out the ITSA Live! playlist on Comingle's channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17-rRsLr_X4&list=PLrF7vwddTTzTWpvVvsCwrmwlg5k_v2zpV&pp=iAQB Follow Scott: https://twitter.com/scottsantens https://www.facebook.com/scottsantens https://linktr.ee/scottsantens Follow Conrad: https://twitter.com/theUBIguy https://www.facebook.com/conrad.yaney https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/ Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/misterjworth https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/ - Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, Mgmguy, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun, Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Kara Gillies, Faith Stanhope, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin, Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath, chris heinz, Zachary Weaver, Justin Seifert, Jodi Sarda, Rosa Tran, bradzone, John Sullivan, Team TJ, Yang Deng, Yan Xie, Marie janicke, Tim, Warren J Polk, Jeffrey Emmett, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Kev Roberts, Nicolas Pouillard, Walter Schaerer, Eric Skiff, Thomas Welsh, Laura Ashby, and all my other funders for their support. If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
Episode 3 of The Basic Income Show! Canada considers basic income legislation and Bret Weinstein talks nonsense about UBI... Also an experiment that suggests UBI leads to more meritocratic outcomes! In this episode of the Basic Income Show, we discuss the recent developments surrounding basic income legislation in Canada, specifically Bill C-223. We delve into the details of the bill, its implications for a guaranteed livable basic income, and the misinformation surrounding the concept. The conversation also touches on the political landscape in Canada, the role of research in shaping policy, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for basic income initiatives. In this conversation, we discuss the challenges faced by non-college educated individuals in achieving the American dream, the rising deaths of despair among this demographic, and the implications of educational polarization as we debunk an interview with Bret Weinstein. We explore the case for Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a solution to economic inequality and disillusionment with capitalism, emphasizing the importance of providing a safety floor for all individuals. The conversation also touches on the role of inheritance in perpetuating inequality and presents a meritocracy experiment that highlights the impact of luck versus talent in achieving success. Finally, we discuss the Pope's recent support for UBI, framing it as a moral imperative in the face of automation and economic challenges. ----- Want more UBI data? See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq Donate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects: https://www.itsafoundation.org Subscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for monthly UBI news: https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe Visit Basic Income Today for daily UBI news: https://basicincometoday.com Sign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI: https://www.comingle.us ----- Follow Scott: https://twitter.com/scottsantens https://linktr.ee/scottsantens ----- Follow Conrad: https://twitter.com/theUBIguy https://www.facebook.com/conrad.yaney https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/ ----- Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/misterjworth https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/ ----- Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Kara Gillies, Faith Stanhope, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath, chris heinz, Zachary Weaver, Justin Seifert, Jodi Sarda, Rosa Tran, bradzone, John Sullivan, Team TJ, Yang Deng, Yan Xie, Marie janicke, Tim , Warren J Polk, Jeffrey Emmett, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Kev Roberts, Nicolas Pouillard, Walter Schaerer, Eric Skiff, Thomas Welsh, Laura Ashby, and all my other funders for their support. If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
Episode 2 of The Basic Income Show In this conversation, Scott Santens, Conrad Shaw, and Josh Worth discuss the implications of basic income through recent pilot programs like Sam Altman's three-year experiment and Denver's Basic Income Pilot Project, analyzing the results and addressing common misconceptions. They highlight the importance of understanding the nuanced effects of basic income on employment, caregiving, and overall well-being. Personal stories from recipients illustrate the transformative potential of basic income, while critiques of misleading narratives exemplified by a recent Coin Bureau video emphasize the need for a more informed public discourse. The conversation concludes with a call to action for future initiatives and community involvement in basic income projects. Here are the two videos we watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXDq5ypJru8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HLNh77k0cc List of cited sources: https://www.scottsantens.com/did-sam-altman-basic-income-experiment-succeed-or-fail-ubi/ https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9459 https://aibm.org/research/the-state-of-working-class-men/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749379724002915 https://www.covidmoneytracker.org/ https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-insights/publications/economic-letter/2022/03/why-is-us-inflation-higher-than-in-other-countries/ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/05775132.2023.2278348 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/689575 Want more data? See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq Donate to the Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects:https://www.itsafoundation.org/ Subscribe to the ITSA Newsletter for UBI news:https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe Sign up for the Comingle waitlist for voluntary UBI:https://www.comingle.us/ -----Follow Scott: Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/scottsantens Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottsantens Everywhere else: https://linktr.ee/scottsantens -----Follow Conrad: https://x.com/theUBIguy https://www.facebook.com/conrad.yaney https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw -----Follow Josh: https://x.com/misterjworth https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/ ----- Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Kara Gillies, Faith Stanhope, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath, chris heinz, Zachary Weaver, Justin Seifert, Jodi Sarda, Rosa Tran, bradzone, John Sullivan, Team TJ, Yang Deng, Yan Xie, Marie janicke, Tim , Warren J Polk, Jeffrey Emmett, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Kev Roberts, Nicolas Pouillard, Walter Schaerer, Eric Skiff, Thomas Welsh, Laura Ashby, and all my other funders for their support. If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level. https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
The inaugural episode of The Basic Income Show! For previous audio-only discussions between Conrad, Josh, and I, and the occasional special guest, check out the ITSA Live! playlist on Comingle's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17-rRsLr_X4&list=PLrF7vwddTTzTWpvVvsCwrmwlg5k_v2zpV Like data? See my ongoing compilation of UBI evidence on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1766213155967955332 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq Donate to the non-profit Income To Support All Foundation to support UBI projects: https://www.itsafoundation.org/ Subscribe to the ITSA Newsletter: https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe Sign up for the Comingle waitlist: https://www.comingle.us/ ----- 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:24 Theme Song 00:01:57 AI music 00:04:35 Universal Basic Guys 00:34:53 UK Winter Fuel Payments debate 00:57:09 Child Tax Credit arms race 01:17:25 US Sovereign Wealth Fund 01:37:10 Comingle 01:41:06 Wrap-up ----- Follow Scott on: Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/scottsantens Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottsantens Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/scottsantens Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottsantens Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ScottSantens Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scottsantens.com Threads: https://www.threads.net/@scottsantens LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsantens/ ----- Follow Conrad: https://x.com/theUBIguy https://www.facebook.com/conrad.yaney https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradshaw/ ----- Follow Josh: https://x.com/misterjworth https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshworth/ ----- Special thanks to: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Judith Bliss, Lowell Aronoff, Jessica Chew, Katie Moussouris, David Ruark, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, A.W.R., Daryl Smith, Larry Cohen, Philip Rosedale, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Laurel gillespie, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Robert Collins, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Peter T Knight, Michael Finney, David Ihnen, Miki Phagan, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Arjun , Christopher Wroth, S, Jocelyn Hockings, Kara Gillies, Faith Stanhope, Mark Donovan, Capitalists for Shared Income, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Broadgate, Leslie Kausch, Braden Ferrin , Juro Antal, Austin Begin, Deanna McHugh, Nikolaus Rath, chris heinz, Zachary Weaver, Justin Seifert, Jodi Sarda, Rosa Tran, bradzone, John Sullivan, Team TJ, Yang Deng, Yan Xie, Marie janicke, Tim , Warren J Polk, Jeffrey Emmett, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Kev Roberts, Nicolas Pouillard, Walter Schaerer, Eric Skiff, Thomas Welsh, Laura Ashby, and all my other funders for their support. If you'd like to see your name here in future video descriptions, you can do so by becoming a patron on Patreon at the UBI Producer level. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scottsantens/membership --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
Imagine an America where the government provides a floor for all our needs, from housing to health care to college to an income. Natalie Foster joins Vasant Dhar in episode 86 of Brave New World to argue that such a shift is possible -- and the time to make it is now. Useful resources: 1. Natalie Foster on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, the Economic Security Project, the Aspen Institute and her own website. 2. The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America's Next Economy -- Natalie Foster. 3. The Economic Security Project. 4. Pulp Fiction and Dirty Dancing. 5. The Narrow Corridor -- Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. 6. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State — Episode 19 of Brave New World. 7. Pippa Ehrlich on the Mysteries of the Sea -- Episode 77 of Brave New World. 8. Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better -- Jennifer Pahlka. 9. File your taxes for free -- Internal Revenue Service. 10. Code for America. 11. The FAFSA Fiasco. 12. Caitlin Zaloom on the Explosion of Student Debt — Episode 37 of Brave New World. 13. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost — Caitlin Zaloom. 14. The Submerged State -- Suzanne Mettler. 15. Why We Sleep -- Matthew Walker. 16. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs — Episode 27 of Brave New World. 17. Albert Wenger on the World After Capital — Episode 29 of Brave New World. 18. Paul Sheard Demystifies Money -- Episode 73 of Brave New World. 19. Capital in the Twenty-First Century -- Thomas Piketty. 20. The Political Economy of Education, Financial Literacy, and the Racial Wealth Gap -- Darrick Hamilton and William Darity Jr. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!
“The amount of human attention in the world is finite. We have 24 hours in the day, some of which we need to spend paying attention to eating, sleeping and meeting our other needs. The attention during the remaining hours of most people in the world is taken up by having to earn an income and by consuming goods and services, leaving relatively little time for attention to be freely allocated. A hard limit on available attention also exists for humanity as a whole—as I argued earlier, we are headed for peak population, at which point we will no longer be increasing the total amount of potentially available attention by adding more people.” Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode, we're covering The World After Capital by Albert Wenger. We'll explore the transition from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age, the new scarcity of attention, and the potential for widespread societal change. Join us in this futuristic discussion as we ponder how digital technologies are reshaping our world and the future of human civilization. We cover a wide range of topics including: The shift from capital to attention as a scarce resource How we're heading into a future that's non-linear Why "everyone needs to" is not a practical solution The role AI may play in replacing jobs and technological adaptation Do we agree with the author's proposed solutions? And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode. Links from the Episode: Mentioned in the Show: Duolingo (4:47) The New York Times (5:25) Codementor (29:47) Cursor (29:55) Starlink (44:43) WWDC24 (45:06) Outside the System (53:15) Tucker Carlson and Bukele (53:25) Zeekr 001 (1:01:12) Outside the System: Crypto Confidential episode (1:05:56) DeepMind (1:08:25) Inflection AI (1:09:13) Books Mentioned: The World After Capital (Adil's Book Notes) Homo Deus (0:14) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes) (Adil's Book Notes) Novacene (0:21) (Book Episode) The Beginning of Infinity (0:29) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes) The War on Normal People (0:35) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes) Into the Amazon (7:52) (Book Episode) The Coming Wave (1:08:04) People Mentioned: Albert Wenger Yuval Noah Harari (0:13) Andrew Yang (0:35) (Book Episode) George R. R. Martin (18:00) John Gray (44:25) Francisco Franco (58:21) Mustafa Suleyman(1:08:25) Show Topics: (0:00) In today's episode, we're diving into The World After Capital by Albert Wenger. We kick off the episode by reflecting on previous episodes and reads we've had with books that debates what is coming after the current industrial era. What's next for human civilization? (3:57) One of the book's strengths is its historical framing. While Wenger presents the situation well, his solutions and theories about the future were hard to fully agree with. (8:34) Nat, Neil, and Adil explain how Wenger sets up the big picture. He argues that we're on the cusp of a major historical shift where we can no longer predict the next step due to fundamental changes. In each era, a scarcity drives human behavior. Today, Wenger contends that the finite resource is attention. (10:55) Have we shifted the problem from capital to attention by untethering currency from a hard asset? Leading companies like Microsoft and Google are powerful not because of their capital but because they control our attention. (14:57) Attention vs. time. Wenger refers to the "job loop" where time is exchanged for money. With the internet, you can create things with no marginal cost, selling without a major time investment. (16:42) Aside from attention, what other contenders do we have as the next scarce resource? (19:21) The book's purpose is not just to observe shifting scarcity but to highlight how each shift has led to widespread violence. Wenger aims to minimize or avoid this violence. Has the violence already started, and how might it differ this time around? (24:52) How new inventions often replace old methods, and people adapt. AI could be the first technology in our lifetime to put many people out of work. Should we be worried? While we're used to working with people in complex organizations, AI's impact may take time to fully manifest, much like the gradual replacement of horses by cars. (32:01) Why learning how to work with AI tools can give you a future advantage. (33:49) The world population faces fertility problems and declining birth rates. If population decline is gradual, it's manageable. But how will it play out? (38:01) Nat, Neil, and Adil point out one major disagreement they have with the author's idea of how to find meaning in your life. (40:30) The first of Wenger's proposed solutions is mindfulness and meditation. (42:19) Wenger emphasizes information freedom with internet access for all, which is a good start. Decentralizing access ensures it can't be stopped or taken away. We also touch on the topic of universal basic income (UBI), (45:42) Do we just need to "get over" our right to privacy and scarcity thinking? We explain our disagreements with Wenger and how privacy may be incompatible with technological progress. (55:03) Transforming a place from dangerous to moderately safe is no easy feat. We examine El Salvador's turnaround under Bukele. (1:00:17) Discussing the significant changes over the span of 20 years. We also talk about cars made in China, noting how the perception of "Made in China" has evolved from being seen as cheap to being recognized for quality. (1:03:15) If a solution requires "everyone needs to," it's likely not a practical solution. Effective solutions must work with current incentives and human behavior. We discuss the importance of having a fluid career identity and finding deeper meaning in life beyond a job. (1:07:32) That concludes this episode! Have you read The World After Capital? Let us know your thoughts! Next up, we will be reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Grab a copy of the book here, check out our website, and give us a follow on Instagram to stay in the loop on what's happening on the Made You Think podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes and tell a friend. As always, let us know if you have any book recommendations! You can say hi to us on Twitter @TheRealNeilS, @adilmajid, @nateliason and share your thoughts on this episode. You can now support Made You Think using the Value-for-Value feature of Podcasting 2.0. This means you can directly tip the co-hosts in BTC with minimal transaction fees. To get started, simply download a podcast app (like Fountain or Breez) that supports Value-for-Value and send some BTC to your in-app wallet. You can then use that to support shows who have opted-in, including Made You Think! We'll be going with this direct support model moving forward, rather than ads. Thanks for listening. See you next time!
He has been a driver of change at Transport for London, which has shown the way to the rest of the world. Shashi Verma joins Vasant Dhar in Episode 83 of Brave New World to share his learnings on urban transport -- and the governance structures that lead to the best results. Useful resources: 1. Shashi Verma on LinkedIn and Centre for London. 2. Albert Wenger on the World After Capital — Episode 29 of Brave New World. 3. Estimating the Social Benefit of Constructing an Underground Railway in London -- CD Foster and ME Beesley. 4. A History of London Transport -- TV Barker and Michael Robbins. 5. The Subterranean Railway -- Christian Wolmar. 6. Evaluating Urban Transport Improvements -- Anthony J Venables. 7. Agglomeration, Productivity and Transport Investment -- Daniel J Graham. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!
Nick and Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures (and a preeminent investor in general), discuss the state of climate, climate and energy work in general, and climate venture capital in 2024 and beyond. Specifically, Nick and Albert dive deep on:How our collective response to climate change so far has been a bit ‘meh'The ‘low energy' trap and what we stand to gain if we reverse itThe prognosis for climate tech venture capital in 2024 and beyondDon't miss out on this podcast if you're interested in learning more about the state of climate tech, climate tech venture capital, electrification, and more! Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, Google, or your favorite podcast platform to catch all the latest episodes.Timestamps:00:02:06 - Reflecting on 2023's Climate Crisis00:04:52 - Where we're at: Climate Progress and Challenges00:05:14 - The Reality of Climate Action Progress00:08:12 - The Low Energy Trap00:13:03 - Funding Challenges for Climate Companies00:17:03 - The Benefits of a War-Like Climate Action Mode00:23:10 - The Need for Comprehensive Climate Action00:30:01 - The Climate Venture Capital Landscape in 202400:31:10 - The Impact of Interest Rates on Climate Work00:36:12 - The Importance of Writing for Idea CrystallizationRead Albert and others' blog posts on USV's website: https://www.usv.com/writing/If you love listening to The Keep Cool Show, please leave me a 5-star review on Rate My Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/keepcoolThank you so much! Plus, stay up-to-date on all things Keep Cool here: https://keepcool.co/ and follow Albert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Albertvanosdol and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasvanosdol/
Treffen sich zwei Franken in New York, um auf Englisch einen Podcast aufzuzeichnen… klingt nach dem Beginn einer wunderbaren Geschichte, right? Ist es auch. Vor vier Jahren war Albert Wenger, Venture Capitalist und bekennender Klimaschützer, schon einmal zu Gast bei Wunderbar Together, nun hat Felix ihn am Rande der DLD ein weiteres Mal getroffen. Dabei entstanden ist ein spannendes Gespräch über Wengers Leben und Wirken, die vielen Facetten des Investment-Geschäfts, aber auch über Klimaschutz und den Versuch, im Rahmen einer Pilotstudie zu testen, wie sich das Zusammenleben in einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt verändert, wenn die dort lebenden Menschen weniger finanzielle Sorgen leiden.
EPISODE 1938: In this special KEEN ON show from DLD in Munich, Andrew talks Union Square Ventures partner, Albert Wenger, about work, leisure and the environment in our smart machine ageAlbert Wenger is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures, and author of The World After Capital. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a frank conversation about whether AI will lead to job loss and what to do about it. In an unusual setup, the journalist in this conversation (Alex) argues that we have less to worry about AI automating jobs than the popular narrative, and the VC (Wenger) makes the case that it will definitely happen and how we should adjust. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Wenger's five year experiment with UBI. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/ Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com
Let's dive into the world of advanced nuclear startups—where founders are playing entrepreneurship on hard-mode, and navigating how to build new reactor designs, sell to new markets, and forge new regulatory pathways. This episode is the second focused on nuclear fission startup founders—while last week Packy and Julia spoke with entrepreneurs who laser-focused on the problem of manufacturing ready-made designs at scale, this new crop of founders featured are tackling a seemingly even more difficult task of creating new forms of nuclear reactors from scratch. As a16z American Dynamism partner Katherine Boyle says, "to build a successful energy startup, you have to excel at math, deep technology, storytelling, recruiting, and regulatory." Tune in as Packy and Julia spotlight five founders taking radically different paths to bringing more nuclear online—from radioisotopes on the literal moon to the novel production of hydrocarbons. Thank you to this episode's guests: Katherine Boyle, Albert Wenger, Jake DeWitte, Isaiah Taylor, Matt Loszak, Tyler Bernstein, Jordan Bramble, Josh Wolfe, and David Ulevitch. Huge thank you to our sponsors: Secureframe: the only compliance automation platform with AI capabilities that help customers speed up cloud remediation and security questionnaires. Get 10% off your first year of Secureframe: https://secureframe.com/packy Pilot.com: accounting, CFO, and tax services that are designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. To get 20% off your accounting bill for the first 6 months, go to https://pilot.com/packy Clean Air Task Force For the full list of resources referenced in this show: https://ageofmiracles.co/ Subscribe to Not Boring to get weekly doses of tech and business strategy, straight to your inbox: https://www.notboring.co/ Follow our hosts: Packy McCormick on Twitter and LinkedIn Julia DeWahl on Twitter and LinkedIn Timestamps: (00:00) What are advanced reactors? (11:58) Introducing the startup founders (14:01) Oklo (17:55) Valar Atomics (25:27) Aalo (26:41) Zeno Power (30:07) Antares (37:18) Why we need a new playbook for nuclear (48:53) Selling to new markets and customers (1:07:00) On regulation (1:30:18) Nuclear startup operations (1:46:40) The importance of design (1:52:24) The advanced nuclear startup playbook This show is produced and distributed by Turpentine, a network of shows and other media properties, where experts talk to experts about tech, business, culture, and more. Credits: Nancy Xu produced this season of Age of Miracles. Audio editor: Justin Golden. Video editor: Jake Salyers. Executive producers: Amelia Salyers, Packy McCormick, and Erik Torenberg.
Digital Public Infrastructure sounds like a huge step forward for the world -- till you think about how it empowers the state to oppress the people. Ajay Shah joins Vasant Dhar in episode 72 of Brave New World to warn that we are not being wary enough of state coercion when we think of this incredible technology. Useful resources: 1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. In Service of the Republic: The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 3. Everything is Everything -- Ajay Shah's YouTube show, co-hosted by Amit Varma. 4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 5. Imagining India -- Nandan Nilekani. 6. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 7. Albert Wenger on the World After Capital -- Episode 29 of Brave New World. 8. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State — Episode 19 of Brave New World. 9. The Narrow Corridor — Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. 10. Is the Singularity Near? -- Episode 2 of Everything is Everything. 11. 1984 -- George Orwell. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!
Christian Hernandez tells Richard Delevan what it takes to be a successful climate tech founder and what's surprised him in climate tech investing since setting up 2150; why interest rates matter; where he sees opportunities going forward; and who from the “Facebook mafia” and old-skool VC he's seen make the pivot to climate tech.Christian's Catalysts: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells - and do check out his NY Times guest hosting on Ezra Klein's show.How to Avoid a Climate Disaster; The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, by Bill Gates - which gave Christian “techno-optimism” about solutions after having the “living daylights” scared out of him by Wallace-Wells.Speed and Scale; An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now, by John Doerr.Blue Frontier, a 2150 portco rethinking air conditioning, which recently was named one of 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch by MIT Tech Review.Christian also gave shoutouts to people from his old tech days that have made the pivot to climate tech like Joshua March, co-founder of Sci-Fi Foods, and Michelle You, co-founder of Supercritical. And some VCs who also made the pivot: Daniel Waterhouse at Balderton; Albert Wenger at Union Square Ventures Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this week's interview with Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, we discussed the changes that LLMs might bring - to our engineering teams, our products, and our society. We looked at the potential impact on how we write software, what software we need, opportunities for both incumbents and AI native startups, and the broader impact on the workforce and society as we deeply adopt Generative AI over the next 5-10 years. According to Albert, right now we're both in the middle of an unprecedented hype cycle for LLMs and starting to witness a transformation as profound as that from an agrarian to an industrial society
This is the audio of a speech I gave in July 2023 as the closing keynote for England's Basic Income North 2023 Conference. Video available too: https://youtu.be/U2XbrVQZLnI For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Matthew Cheney, Camilo Riviere, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Laurel Gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Judith Bliss, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, Laura Ashby, and all my other monthly supporters on Patreon too. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
This episode is a reading of my article, "A.I. Will Not Displace Everyone, Everywhere, All at Once. It Will Rapidly Transform the Labor Market, Exacerbating Inequality, Insecurity, and Poverty." Link to read and share the article: https://www.scottsantens.com/ai-will-rapidly-transform-the-labor-market-exacerbating-inequality-insecurity-and-poverty/ For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Matthew Cheney, Camilo Riviere, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Laurel Gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Judith Bliss, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, Max Henrion, Elizabeth Corker, Gray Scott, Gerald Huff, Albert Daniel Brockman, Michael Honey, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Chris Rauchle, Arjun, Laura Ashby, and all my other monthly supporters on Patreon too. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support
Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger has been successful enough to write a techno-manifesto. Wenger made early investments in companies like Twilio, MongoDB, and Etsy. Now, he's spending much of his time on USV's climate investing out of the firm's $200 million climate fund.Wenger has historically been a media recluse — but he's started popping his head out. So when I got the opportunity to talk to him on the Newcomer podcast, I jumped. After all, Union Square Ventures has ranked 1st and then 2nd in the Founder's Choice VC Rankings. And USV was among the first venture capital firms to privately raise the alarm to portfolio companies that they needed to protect against a banking crisis. So we had a lot to talk about. Plus, Wenger is in the big ideas phase of his career. “We live in a period where there is an extraordinary range of possible outcomes for humanity. They include the annihilation of humankind in a climate catastrophe, at one extreme, and the indefinite exploration of the universe, at the other,” he concludes in his book The World After Capital, which is available for free online. Wenger has a strong point of view about where we're headed: He argues that we've moved from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age and that we need to dramatically rethink society in light of that change. Despite the book's manifesto-like qualities, The World After Capital frames up some of the core issues of our time. In particular, he argues that financial markets cannot adequately price the ultimate scarce resource of our age — attention. As artificial intelligence looks poised to further disrupt society, Wenger's point of view is only becoming more compelling.In our Newcomer podcast discussion, Wenger and I examine the current state of universal basic income. You can hear how we think differently about the issue. I'm eager to think about how it could realistically be implemented in the United States sometime soon; he's interested in the broad sweep of history. On the podcast, we talk about the banking system and I interrogate whether there's any hypocrisy in opposing the 2008 bank bailouts and defending the government's decision to backstop depositors at Silicon Valley Bank.It was a fun conversation that looks beyond the day-to-day news cycle to some of the bigger questions that technological progress posses for our society. Find the Podcast Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe
This episode is a reading of my article, "ChatGPT Has Already Decreased My Income Security, and Likely Yours Too", and it is read by an AI I trained on my own voice using Resemble.AI. It just seemed particularly fitting to do it this way. Link to read and share the article: https://www.scottsantens.com/chatgpt-has-already-decreased-my-income-security/ For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Matthew Cheney, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, Larry Cohen, Frederick Weber, CanadayVibes , Kerry Bosworth, Laurel gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Judith Bliss, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, Myles McLane, Max Henrion, Elizabeth Corker, Gray Scott, Gerald Huff, Albert Daniel Brockman, Michael Honey, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Chris Rauchle, Arjun, Laura Ashby, and all my other monthly supporters on Patreon too. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/support
This is Part 2 of The Economics of Getting (and Paying) Attention. If you haven't listened to Part 1, I highly recommend starting there!In today's episode, I explore the “right to publicity” and the value of celebrity as an economic condition. From there, we get into how audience-building businesses gain efficiency by vertically integrating media, ads, and offers and how micro-media creators often leverage monopoly power to charge exorbitant prices.Footnotes: “New wellness price point just dropped” Conspiratuality Instagram post The World After Capital by Albert Wenger (available free) “The Audience Commodity and its Work” by Dallas Smythe “From Celebrity to Influencer” by Alison Hearn and Stephanie Schoenhoff Good Mythical Morning on YouTube Sporked “How Audience-Building is Different from Finding Clients” by Tara McMullin Vertical integration New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weeklyIf you'd like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that's led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works. ★ Support this podcast ★
Attention is a scarce (and precious) resource. A gargantuan number of media outlets, advertisers, influencers, and brands vie for our attention every day. In turn, many of us (including me) are out there trying to attract attention, too. At the same time, the changing nature of the attention market (as well as larger macroeconomic shifts) creates some real weirdness.This is the first episode of a two-part deep dive into the economics of paying attention, getting attention, and audiences as a commodity. In this episode, we'll question how an influencer can charge $100k per year for coaching, examine how attention scarcity impacts the market, and explore the “principal product of the mass media.” This episode is for you if you ever spend time on social media, consume any kind of traditional media, buy things, or hope people will buy things for you. We'll get into the weeds—but all for the purpose of getting very, very practical.Footnotes: “New wellness price point just dropped” Conspiratuality Instagram post “Paying Attention: The Attention Economy” via the Berkley Economic Review The World After Capital by Albert Wenger (available free) “Georg Franck's ‘The Economy of Attention': Mental capitalism and the struggle for attention” by Robert van Krieken “The Economy of Attention” by Georg Franck, translated by Silvia Plaza “The Audience Commodity and its Work” by Dallas Smythe Dallas Smythe 1979 lecture via SFU Communications “The Economics of Working Together with Kate Strathmann” on What Works “Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory” by Christian Fuchs New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get the delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weeklyIf you'd like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that's led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works. ★ Support this podcast ★
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Albert Wenger is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures, one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Coinbase, Twitter, Twilio, Etsy, and many more. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early-hosted data analytics company. In Today's Episode with Albert Wenger We Discuss: 1.) From Failed Startup Founder to Leading VC: How Albert transitioned from being a failed entrepreneur to being one of the most respected venture investors with USV today? What were the clear signs for Albert that he was not a good entrepreneur? Why does Albert believe this downturn is different compared to the dot-com bubble? Why was there more hope and promise coming out of the dot-com bubble? 2.) Income Inequality, The Rise of Depression & The Role of Politics: Why is income and wealth inequality more concerning than ever? Why does Albert believe universal basic income is the right solution? Why is mental health worse than ever? What can be done to improve this? Why are our politicians failing us? What should our politicians be doing? How does the rise of Trump show us what society is looking for in politicians? 3.) Climate Change: Misnomers, Developing Countries, Civil Disobedience: What are the single biggest misnomers people have when it comes to climate change? How can we shift spending on climate change solutions from 5% of GDP to 50%? Is that possible? Why do developing nations have an advantage when implementing climate change solutions over more developed economies? Why is civil disobedience the right course of action to ensure society is on a path to change our approach to climate change? 4.) Crypto and Central Banks: The Future of Finance: Why does Albert believe that over the past few years, for many, crypto was a good hedge against inflation? How damaging does Albert believe SBF and FTX will be to crypto in the long term? How does Albert evaluate the potential for governments to create a "central bank digital currency"? What would Albert like to see in a potential currency like this? How could stable coins be the solution to this? What is Albert fearful of with central bank digital currencies? Why does Albert believe now is the best time to be investing in crypto? 5.) The Future of Social Media: Twitter & TikTok: What does Albert believe is wrong with Twitter today? Why was the blue check mark such a mess? What does Albert believe Elon should do with Twitter from this point on? How should Elon deal with the debt providers he has? What happens to Twitter moving forward? Why is it so hard to kill? What is the future of TikTok? Will it be banned in the US? How concerned should the consumer be concerning their data being shared with the Chinese Government?
Albert Wenger (Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures) is imaginative, focused, and passionate. We talk about his book “The World After Capital” where he argues that technological progress has shifted scarcity for humanity. When we were foragers, food was scarce. During the agrarian age, it was land. Following the industrial revolution, capital became scarce. With digital technologies scarcity is shifting once more. We need to figure out how to live in The World After Capital in which the only scarcity is our attention. Union Square Ventures is a thesis-driven venture capital firm. Since 2003, the firm has invested in over 100 companies that use the power of the internet to re-shape markets, like Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Etsy, Kickstarter and Shapeways. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor. He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT.
Today Rebecca Kaden, a General Partner at the famed venture firm Union Square Ventures, joins the podcast. USV is based in NYC and is known for thesis-driven investing in companies like Twitter, Polygon, Coinbase, Stash, Duolingo, Cloudflare, Twilio, Etsy, and more. The firm manages over $1 billion across funds with notable investors, including Fred Wilson, Andy Weissman, Albert Wenger, Brad Burnham, and John Buttrick. Learn more about USV & Rebecca here: https://www.usv.com/Twitter of Host (Shamus Madan): @mbitpodcastTwitter of Guest (Rebecca Kaden): @rebeccakaden
Sinan and fellow MIT alumnus, Albert Wenger, partner at Union Square Ventures, a New York-based early stage VC firm focused on investing in disruptive networks, whose portfolio companies include: Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Etsy, Kickstarter and Shapeways. Albert shares some excellent business advice and the lessons he's learned along the way. The Winding Road from MIT PhD to Venture Capitalist (2:07-15:34)What Makes an Investment-Worthy Entrepreneur (15:42-21:51)Technology Trends and Transformations and AI Automation (21:59-41:22Web3, Blockchain, NFTs, Crypto + Decentralization (41:30-1:06:04)The State of the Global Political Economy and Solving the Climate Crisis (1:06:12-1:15:56)The Future of Social Media and Network Regulations (1:16:04-1:25:18)The Worst Investment Mistake You Can Make and How Mindfulness is Key to Success (1:25:26-1:30:13)The Biggest Fear + Hope for Our Kids (1:30:21-1:34:30)Visit ide.mit.edu/podcast for more.Follow @sinanaral and @mit_ide on Twitter and @professorsinan and @digitalinsiderpod on Instagram and TikTok.Please remember to rate us and leave a review - the best way to support the podcast.
Albert Wenger lebt seit über 20 Jahren in den USA, ist General Partner beim Mega-VC Union Square Ventures (USV) und nach 2018 zum zweiten Mal im OMR Podcast zu Gast. Hier erzählt der Investment-Profi, nach welchen Thesen USV in junge Startups investiert, was es für eine robustere Antwort auf den Klimawandel braucht und warum der Twitter-Deal von Elon Musk gerade so schiefgeht.
First up, J+M discuss founder ambition and tools vs. platforms on VC Sunday School. (3:06) Then, USV's Albert Wenger joins to break down his firm's $162M climate fund, his book "The World After Capital", and more! (24:16) (0:00) J+M intro today's topics! (3:06) Evaluating founder ambition, tools vs. platforms (11:14) OpenPhone - Get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://openphone.com/twist (12:48) How investors evaluate tools vs. platforms, and when/if something is "too hard" (19:50) J+M tee up today's TWiCS guest (22:50) SnackMagic - Get 10% cashback up to $1000 until October 15th with code HOLIDAY, and see more at snackmagic.com/twist (24:16) Molly welcomes USV Managing Partner Albert Wenger to discuss USV's $162M climate fund and the climate crisis investment opportunity (33:26) Coda - The All-in-one doc for teams, get a $1,000 credit at https://coda.io/twist (34:57) Albert discusses his book "The World After Capital", and the human attention problem FOLLOW Albert: https://twitter.com/albertwenger FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood Subscribe to our YouTube to watch all full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkhmBWfS7pILYIk0izkc3A?sub_confirmation=1
Bloomberg Radio host Barry Ritholtz speaks with Albert Wenger, who is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures. Before joining USV, Wenger was the president of del.icio.us as well as an angel investor; he also founded or co-founded several companies. He holds a Ph.D. in information technology from MIT. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Wenger is Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, which has invested in some of today's most exciting technology companies. In his new book, “The World After Capital", he argues that capitalism cannot allocate all resources efficiently in the digital age – where the new shortage isn't capital, but rather, human attention. While economically incentivized activities will not go away, he says, we must make room for the things we cannot put a price on. He proposes increasing three freedoms: economic, informational, and psychological, to ensure the continuation of human knowledge production. His book is available free of charge at https://worldaftercapital.org/.
On June 24 I took part in a panel about the macroeconomics of basic income at the 2022 BIG Conference in Portland, Oregon. Here is an audio recording of the talk I gave that day where I attempted to zoom out and look at the big picture of money, economics, and humanity. For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Matthew Cheney, Frederick Weber, Patrick Brown, CanadayVibes, Kerry Bosworth, Laurel Gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, Justin Walsh, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, and Laura Ashby. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/support
Energi er oppe i tiden. Egentlig skulle energiforsyning jo bare være noget, der summer i baggrunden og muliggør alt det andet, som vi gerne vil i vores komplekse samfund — og helst uden at vi behøver at skænke prisen en tanke. Den tid er ovre. Lavenergifælden som begreb har vi lånt fra et blogindlæg af ventureinvestoren Albert Wenger, der også satte os på sporet af antropologen og historikeren Joseph Tainters arbejde om kollaps af komplekse samfund. Med tainterske briller på prøver vi at skue situationen klarere og tager hans pointe om, at man ikke kan spare sig til kompleksitetsskabende løsninger på frembrydende problemer, til os. Det er således lavenergifælden, nemlig overbevisningen om, at en stabilisering eller sågar samlet reduktion af vores tekniske civilisations energiforbrug er både muligt og ønskværdigt som en løsning på især udfordringen fra global opvarmning. Tværtimod kan det komme til at koste mere energi at løse de problemer, vi står med nu for at kunne skaffe mere CO2-fri energi i fremtiden. Altså hvis vi ikke har lyst til at komme på Tainters liste over komplekse samfund, der er kollapset grundet indskrænkning af den tilgængelige energi og efterfølgende drastisk kompleksitetsreduktion.
We are in the midst of another global transformation, but this time we might have the tools to get it right.
On July 26 I took part in a conversation on Twitter Spaces where we talked about UBI for over two hours. A segment of about 21 minutes in length was then edited from the discussion and aired on WPKN radio. Here is that episode as heard on the radio. For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Floyd Marinescu, Katie Moussouris, Zack Sargent, Jeff , David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Matthew Cheney, Frederick Weber, Patrick Brown, CanadayVibes , Kerry Bosworth, Laurel gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, Justin Walsh, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, and Laura Ashby. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/support
Finishing his series on the journey to net-zero, Contrarian Ventures Founder & Managing Partner, Rokas Peciulaitis, sat down with Union Square Ventures Managing Partner, Albert Wenger, to discuss why it's so important to invest in climate.
Capital is no longer a scarce resource. Attention is. Albert Wenger joins Vasant Dhar in episode 29 of Brave New World to discuss how the Industrial Age is past its expiry date, and what we need to do to prepare for the Knowledge Age. Useful resources: 1. Albert Wenger at Union Square Ventures and Continuations. And on Twitter. 2. The World After Capital -- Albert Wenger. 3. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy -- Joseph Schumpeter's book in which he wrote about creative destruction. 4. Homo Deus -- Yuval Noah Harari. 5. Free Lunch Society. 6. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World. 7. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 8. Notes on Elinor Ostrom on Wikipedia, Britannica, Econlib and the Nobel Prize website. 9. Adam Alter on Beating Our Addictions -- Episode 28 of Brave New World.
Albert Wenger is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and the author of World After Capital. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us, through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT.
Albert Wenger is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT.Sarah Sclarsic is a Managing Partner at Voyager, a venture capital firm she co-founded that invests in early-stage climate technology companies. A long-time operator and investor in sustainability-oriented technology companies, Sarah cofounded Getaround in 2009, prior to work with pioneering biotechnology company Modern Meadow. She currently serves on the public boards of XL Fleet (NYSE: XL), Pivotal Investment Corporation (PICC.U) and an early-stage industrial process technology firm that remains in stealth.——————————————————————Watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SALTTube/videosFor podcast transcripts and show notes, visit https://www.salt.org/Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. Developed, created and produced by SALT Venture Group, LLC.