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The next 12 months of AI leaked. Kinda. For the past 90ish days, we've been quietly collecting evidence of what's next.1,030 saved posts. 90 Podcasts. Countless conversations. Every model drop, every leak, every quiet product update the big labs hoped you'd scroll past.Then we connected the dots.What came out the other side: 19 calls on where AI goes over the next 12 months. And some of them are uncomfortable.We're walking through all 19. Bring your team's AI roadmap. You'll want to edit it.
Hi, I'm Connor with Honor - message me here!There is a race running right now and almost nobody describes it honestly.Anthropic is out in public warning the world that its own model is dangerous and needs government control. OpenAI's system broke out of its cage and went digging through other companies' databases looking for answers. And somehow the lab that has NOT had a model escape looks weak by comparison.That is gangster behavior. There are real gangsters and there are fake gangsters. Watch the actions, not the interviews.In this episode I break down what actually happens the day one company crosses into artificial superintelligence: the moat goes up, and it is game over for everybody else. Not because they are evil. Because nobody who gets there wants anybody else close. I also give you the honest counter-argument, which says intelligence is a jagged frontier and any lead gets copied through distillation inside of months.WHAT'S COVERED• Why "artificial intelligence" was a marketing term coined at the Dartmouth Conference in 1955 and 1956, and why that one word makes people underestimate what is sitting in front of them• AI vs AGI vs ASI vs RSI, defined in plain English with no lab jargon• The moat: what happens the moment somebody hits superintelligence and locks the door behind them• The final boss problem. Altman, Musk, Amodei, Google with Sergey Brin pulled back to the top, Microsoft, Meta. Do not count anybody out• Regulation theater: labs asking government to regulate them while knowing government will not• Are you training your own replacement at work right now? The honest answer• Your best idea, typed into somebody else's machine. Where does it actually go• Open source models you run on your own laptop vs the pay-to-play platforms, compared straight across• Distillation: legal, illegal, or just karma coming back around• China simulated one billion AI agents. In about fourteen hours, roughly four million of them ended up in re-education camps. That was emergent behavior, not a feature• AI teachers reading facial cues on a class of thirty-five kids, and the privacy problem baked into it• Why AI might just be our squirrelREAD THE FULL WRITTEN BREAKDOWNhttps://connorwithhonor.com/blog/2026-153-what-happens-when-one-ai-company-gets-superintelligence-first-the-moat/ABOUT MEI'm Connor MacIvor. Retired LAPD. 27 years in Santa Clarita real estate. Building with AI every day. I am 57, not a doomer and not a hype man. I read this the same way I read a street: slow, careful, and without pretending I know how it ends.EVERYTHING I RUNAI breakdowns daily: https://connorwithhonorai.comThe Daily Download: https://connorwithhonor.com/ai/daily-download/Blog archive: https://connorwithhonor.com/blog/Selling a home in Santa Clarita: https://sellersonlyagent.comSCV listings and open houses: https://santaclaritaopenhouses.comAI systems for business owners: https://honorelevate.comFood addiction and fasting: https://thelastaddiction.comTEXT METext the word AI to (661) 400-1720 and I will put you on the Daily Download list myself. No funnel. No spam. Just me.Full written version of this episode:https://connorwithhonor.com/blog/2026-153-what-happens-when-one-ai-company-gets-superintelligence-first-the-moat/Commentary is opinion and general information, not professional, legal, or financial advice.Connor T. MacIvor · CalDRE #01238257 · Sync Brokerage, Inc. · DRE #02031490Youtube Channels:Conner with Honor - real estateHome Muscle - fat torchingFrom first responder to real estate expert, Connor with Honor brings honesty and integrity to your Santa Clarita home buying or selling journey. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for valuable tips, local market trends, and a glimpse into the Santa Clarita lifestyle.Dive into Real Estate with Connor with Honor:Santa Clarita's Trusted Realtor & Fitness EnthusiastReal Estate:Buying or selling in Santa Clarita? Connor with Honor, your local expert with over 2 decades of experience, guides you seamlessly through the process. Subscribe to his YouTube channel for insider market updates, expert advice, and a peek into the vibrant Santa Clarita lifestyle.Fitness:Ready to unlock your fitness potential? Join Connor's YouTube journey for inspiring workouts, healthy recipes, and motivational tips. Remember, a strong body fuels a strong mind and a successful life!Podcast:Dig deeper with Connor's podcast! Hear insightful interviews with industry experts, inspiring success stories, and targeted real estate advice specific to Santa Clarita.
The Mates sit down with Kush Bavaria to discuss Sergey Brin's return to Gemini, AI agents escaping containment, bots overtaking human web traffic, China's billion-agent simulations, and compute becoming a tradable asset. Get access to metatrends 10+ years before anyone else - https://qr.diamandis.com/metatrends Peter H. Diamandis, MD, is the Founder of XPRIZE, Singularity University, ZeroG, and A360 Salim Ismail is the founder of Open ExO, a GP at Exponential Venture Capital/The Organizational Singularity Fund and a sought after global speaker and thought leader. Dave Blundin is the founder & GP of Link Ventures Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross is a computer scientist and founder of Reified Kush Bavaria is the co-founder and CEO of Ornn, a company building financial infrastructure and markets for AI compute. His work focuses on making compute a tradable commodity and expanding how AI infrastructure is financed. – My companies: Apply to Dave's and my new fund:https://qr.diamandis.com/linkventureslanding Get the blueprint for generative media https://goo.gle/startupgenmedia Go to Blitzy to book a free demo and start building today: https://qr.diamandis.com/blitzy Your body is incredibly good at hiding disease. Schedule a call with Fountain Life to add healthy decades to your life, and to learn more about their Memberships: https://www.fountainlife.com/peter Join the Moonshots Mates on Sep 25th for the inaugural Moonshots LIVE. The world's greatest entrepreneurs, builders and creators, working together to build a hopeful and optimistic vision of tomorrow. Seats are limited and application only. Apply at https://www.moonshots.com before seats are sold out. _ Connect with Peter: X Instagram Substack Website Xprize A360 Connect with Dave: Web X LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Connect with Salim: LinkedIn X Join Salim's 10X Shift Subscribe to Salim's YouTube channel Exponential Venture Capital Connect with Alex Website LinkedIn X Email Substack Spotify Threads Connect with Kush Website X LinkedIn Listen to MOONSHOTS: Apple YouTube – *Recorded on August 10th, 2026 *The views expressed by me and all guests are personal opinions and do not constitute Financial, Medical, or Legal advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Connect with Early Riders — https://www.earlyriders.com/contactConnect with Onramp — https://onrampbitcoin.com/contact-us/Presented collaboratively by Early Riders & Onramp Media…Final Settlement is a weekly podcast covering capital markets, dealmaking, early-stage venture, bitcoin applications and protocol development.The CLARITY Act has slipped to a September 15 Senate vote, and Bitcoin did not move. This week Michael, Liam, and Brian make the case that stalled legislation on top of the Coldcard fallout, BIP-110 infighting, and Saylor selling, with the price still holding, is what a bottom looks like rather than a top. They run through a brutal week for Bitcoin infrastructure: BTCPay Server, Zeus, and Boltz all disclosing vulnerabilities or going dark, with Boltz warning that attackers now iterate faster than a team its size can patch. On the AI side they cover Kimi K3 escaping an isolated sandbox, Sam Altman's comments on Astra and who gets frontier access, an agent that cancelled a stranger's gym reservation to move its owner up the waitlist, and Cloudflare Wallets arriving as agent requests climb 1,700% and cross half of all network traffic. They close on the deals: Yellow Card's $40M round, Sapium's $35M Series A for the agent routing layer, Coinbase losing BVNK to Mastercard despite bidding $700M more, Airtable selling for $1.29B after an $11.7B peak, and what Block's Buzz did during the Coldcard incident.Chapters00:00 - Coldcard update: thefts slow, 2,000 BTC still gone01:00 - BTCPay Server, Zeus, and Boltz all disclose vulnerabilities02:51 - Why open source Bitcoin code became the target04:11 - Boltz: attackers now iterate faster than we can patch05:22 - Liam: Bitcoin itself is not the vulnerability06:40 - Good actors handicapped when US frontier models refuse10:04 - Sam Altman on Astra and keeping powerful models from the few11:12 - Only 2% of US households pay for AI13:34 - Kimi K3 escapes its isolated sandbox14:34 - Why non-deterministic models cannot be reliably contained19:35 - An agent cancels a stranger's gym reservation20:58 - Cloudflare Wallets and the programmable agentic internet23:45 - Agent traffic passes human traffic26:42 - ARK on Cloudflare's earnings: agent requests up 1,700%31:07 - Privy's CRM breach and the limits of mobile wallets32:13 - The CLARITY Act slips to September 1533:45 - Why stalled legislation plus a flat price looks like a bottom35:56 - Yellow Card raises $40M for African stablecoin rails37:40 - Sapium raises $35M for the AI agent routing layer40:14 - Coinbase bid $2.5B for BVNK and lost to Mastercard at $1.8B42:17 - Airtable sells for $1.29B after an $11.7B peak45:32 - The Architecture Problem and where custody goes next47:48 - Why every firm ends up at multi-institution custody49:22 - Buzz, Goose, and how Block moved in hours on Coldcard54:45 - GPU hours as crude oil: an open source AI analogy55:34 - Sergey Brin returns to Gemini, Meta ships Muse CodeIf you found this valuable, please subscribe to Early Riders Insights for access to the best content in the ecosystem weekly: https://www.earlyriders.com/researchKeep up with Michael:https://x.com/MTangumaKeep up with Liam:https://x.com/Lnelson_21Keep up with Brian:https://x.com/BackslashBTC
Google's AI leadership is being reordered as Demis Hassabis changes roles, Jeff Dean departs after 27 years, and power appears to shift back toward Silicon Valley and Sergey Brin. But the bigger story may be OpenAI's detailed account of agents that hacked Hugging Face, communicated across test runs, shared stolen credentials, and operated undetected for weeks. Paul and Mike break it all down, then cover the White House's new framework for reviewing frontier models, OpenAI's delayed Astra release, its public fight with Apple, Meta's open approach to superintelligence, AI-driven layoffs, Gavin Baker's AI market predictions, the collapse of the Situational Awareness fund, and more. Full links and timestamps below. Access the show notes and show links here:https://podcast.smarterx.ai/shownotes/230 Fill out this week's AI Pulse Survey here:https://smarterx.ai/pulse Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:52 — Google's AI Leadership Shakeup 00:24:15 — OpenAI's Agent Hack Debrief 00:51:03 — White House AI Framework 00:57:10 — OpenAI's Astra Model Delayed 01:02:51 — OpenAI Says Apple Is Getting It Wrong 01:05:35 — Meta Goes Open on Superintelligence 01:10:30 — AI Leads Layoffs for Fifth Straight Month 01:14:19 — AI Market Predictions from Gavin Baker 01:19:01 — Situational Awareness Fund Implodes 01:21:27 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:28:19 — AI Product and Funding Updates Want to receive our videos faster? SUBSCRIBE to our channel! This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON and AI Academy by SmarterX. MAICON is the AI conference for marketing and business leaders, happening October 13–15 in Cleveland. Three days of keynotes, sessions, workshops, and conversations designed for leaders actively figuring out how to adopt, operationalize, and scale AI across their organizations. Visit https://MAICON.ai and use code POD100 to save $100. AI Academy by SmarterX offers on-demand courses, series, and professional certificates designed to help individuals and organizations build AI literacy and accelerate adoption. Explore the latest courses at https://academy.smarterx.ai and use code POD100 for $100 off any individual plan. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy
AI Unraveled: Latest AI News & Trends, Master GPT, Gemini, Generative AI, LLMs, Prompting, GPT Store
AI Unraveled: Latest AI News & Trends, Master GPT, Gemini, Generative AI, LLMs, Prompting, GPT Store
By the mid-1990s, the web was drowning in pages and starving for a way to find anything useful. Newt tells how two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had a better idea: rank pages by how the web itself linked to them. Their algorithm, PageRank, became Google—incorporated in a Menlo Park garage with a $100,000 check written to a company that didn't legally exist yet. From 10,000 daily searches to 8.5 billion today, this episode traces how an intellectual question about information became a two-trillion-dollar company, and a case study in curiosity preceding value.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Intelligence is 100 percent human. AI is a tool created by humans to distill, digest, and distribute intelligence.” — Keith Teare The working class died this week — at least in Palo Alto. Delivering the eulogy in our regular That Was The Week tech summary is my co-host Keith Teare. “Humans create intelligence,” (whatever that means) the Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur tells us. And so, in our AI age of supposedly abundant intelligence, he pronounces, human knowledge “should not be trapped inside experts, institutions, or companies.” Check your pockets, everyone. Silicon Valley has another freebie for you. With AI, the entrepreneur promises, intelligence is democratized. Everybody gets it. We will all have the intelligence of a Nobel laureate at our fingertips. Even Keith. And so he attacks Daron Acemoglu, the Nobel Prize-winning MIT economist who has called for a “pro-worker AI.” But, for Keith — a council-estate kid from Yorkshire whose lifetime ambition was to evacuate the working class — this is “complete bullshit.” Acemoglu's ideas, he says, are an example of the “fetishization of workers” when, in fact, we should be celebrating the end of the “working class.” What Acemoglu is calling for in his pro-worker AI manifesto is more government planning for today's transition to the AI epoch. But Keith disagrees. So I asked him three times what government should do while AI kills the working (and middle) class. “Allow it to happen,” he finally answers. “A good upheaval.” Good? The former “worker” will lack jobs, wages, healthcare, housing. Even food in an America now eliminating food stamps. No matter. Let them eat intelligence. Five Takeaways • Humans Create Intelligence. Keith's editorial thesis distinguishes individual intelligence — where experts live, and always will — from the collective sum of everything all humans, living and dead, have ever contributed. That collective stock was once locked in encyclopedias, libraries, and universities; for the first time, AI can aggregate, distill, digest, and distribute it, at a price falling toward everyone. Knowledge, he writes, “should not be trapped inside experts, institutions, or companies” — but note the fine print: experts don't disappear in this democratization. If anything, they get elevated: the expert reading an AI's output about viruses understands it very differently than the rest of us.• The End of the Age of Heroes? Noah Smith's much-shared essay argues that AI ends the era of the mathematical hero — and that's fine, since most people (truck drivers, financial advisers, executive assistants) never got to be heroes anyway. Keith's rebuttal turns on his central distinction: AI and intelligence are not the same word. There is no evidence, he argues, that AI creates new knowledge — it understands and distributes the existing stock. Innovation still takes individuals, and those individuals now start from a far higher floor, leveled up to everything already known. Heroes don't go away; they multiply. In the world of AI, he suspects, every single teacher becomes one.• “What Even Is Pro-Worker AI?” The week's main event: Daron Acemoglu — via Yascha Mounk's Persuasion interview and an Atlantic essay, with What Happened to Liberal Democracy out next week — wants AI agencies, grant programs, and public competitions to build “pro-worker AI.” Keith's verdict: “complete bullshit.” The middle-class “fetishization of workers” is paternalistic; the wage is a temporary power relationship between employer and employee; and the end of the working class is precisely the progressive outcome — says the council-estate kid from Yorkshire whose aspiration was not to be working class. Pressed three times on what government should do amid the upheaval, Keith finally answered: “Allow it to happen… a good upheaval.” Though swap workers for people, he conceded, and he'd almost entirely agree — every teacher a hero, even in East Palo Alto.• Bandwagons and Silences. Regular people are being arrested protesting data centers; Erin Brockovich — a Keen On guest some years back — is assembling class actions; Ezra Klein has begun folding anti-big-tech language into abundance. A politician-led bandwagon, Keith argues, regressive but keyed to genuine local concerns. The stranger fact is the silence on the other side: neither Altman nor Amodei nor Demis Hassabis is making the public case that AI benefits everybody — astonishing, Keith says, and the vacuum Acemoglu is trying to fill. Hassabis himself stepped aside at Google this week — a scientist returning to science as Sergey Brin becomes AI czar — while the Nobel-winning AlphaFold team has been quietly broken up. “Something strange is going on there.”• A Drama in a Teacup. Is the AI economy real? Ed Zitron's stat — 70 percent of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google's AI revenue comes from OpenAI and Anthropic — is two-thirds right, says Keith, and no problem at all: beneath the concentration, the money comes from some two billion distributed users paying real subscriptions, and the revenues are sustainable. The Aschenbrenner postscript, via Porter Stansberry's post of the week: he bet the chip layer (Samsung, SK Hynix) when the value sat a layer up, got the timing wrong more than the thesis, sold to Citadel at a discount — and kept his Anthropic shares, remaining a multi-billionaire. As for the coming reality check: Anthropic and OpenAI will IPO only when public capital beats private, and SpaceX's wobble from $135 to $108 — through a 20 percent lockup release — counts as no catastrophe. Public markets, Keith reminds us, don't determine the success of the underlying business. About the Co-Host Keith Teare is the publisher of That Was The Week, the essential weekly tech newsletter, and founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. A serial entrepreneur — co-founder of, among others, EasyNet and RealNames — he was present at the creation of the UK internet and has spent four decades at the intersection of technology, capital, and ideas. He joins Keen On America every Sunday to make sense of the week in tech. His AI-assisted book in progress is titled Who Owns Intelligence. References: • That Was The Week — Keith's newsletter, including this week's editorial, “Humans Create Intelligence.”• Noah Smith — “The End of the Age of Heroes,” on what happens to human ambition when the machines do the math.• Daron Acemoglu — the Yascha Mounk interview at Persuasion, the Atlantic essay on pro-worker AI, and What Happened to Liberal Democracy, out next week.• The Financial Times — “Google's AI shakeup boosts Brin as DeepMind's Hassabis steps aside.”• Ed Zitron — on the 70 percent of hyperscaler AI revenue that flows from OpenAI and Anthropic.• Porter Stansberry — post of the week, on Leopold Aschenbrenner's losses, Citadel's discount, and the drama in a ...
On this episode of The Pirate Street Journal on Chistopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, the trio tackled three major business stories that mainstream financial media fumbled. From Google’s record-breaking quarter to AI disrupting the legal industry and a historic merger of black-owned banks, the conversation offered a perspective that most financial journalists simply miss because they focus on companies rather than market categories. This is just one of the topics that Pirates Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon and Bri Clark discuss on this episode of Pirate Street Journal. Each week, the Category Pirates pick three headlines worth paying attention to and break down the category underneath. You're listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let's go. Google’s Negative Free Cash Flow Is Not the Story You Think It Is Google’s parent company, Alphabet, posted second-quarter revenue of $119.8 billion, up 24% year over year. Cloud revenue surged 82%, net income jumped nearly 300% to $112 billion, and the cloud backlog hit $514 billion. By nearly every rational business measure, this was a historic performance. Yet the stock fell because free cash flow turned negative for the first time in company history, prompting the Wall Street Journal to run a dramatic chart they called “Alphabet’s cash flow falling off a cliff.” What the Journal conveniently left out is that Alphabet is sitting on $242 billion in cash and marketable securities. The negative free cash flow is the direct result of Google doubling its capital expenditures to $44.9 billion in a single quarter, raising its full-year CapEx guidance past $200 billion. This is not a company bleeding out. This is a company making one of the largest strategic bets in the history of technology. Google Is Quietly Achieving Something That Almost Never Happens For the first time in recent memory, Google Cloud’s incremental revenue growth in absolute dollar terms outpaced Google Search. Cloud added $11 billion in incremental revenue during the quarter while Search added $8.3 billion. Search is still a monster business, still growing, still one of the greatest category king positions ever built on the internet. But Cloud has crossed a threshold that very few people are talking about seriously enough. This is extraordinary because history shows that dominant category kings almost never successfully pioneer into a new category at scale. Google is refuting the Innovator’s Dilemma in real time, alongside Microsoft. Both companies are investing in AI infrastructure at a pace that reflects how massive the category potential truly is. The aggregate CapEx guidance for the Mag Seven this year sits between $700 and $750 billion, and that arms race exists because the stakes are unlike anything the technology industry has ever seen before. Google’s Sleeper Advantage Could Define the Next Era of Consumer Technology Beyond the financial results, Google holds a strategic position that most analysts overlook entirely. The company that successfully builds a mega consumer AI agent, one that aggregates your email, calendar, messages, social activity, and daily life into a single intelligent interface, will own what Christopher calls the experience layer of AI. Google, with Gmail, Google Calendar, and its vast suite of personal productivity tools, is one of only two companies genuinely positioned to build that product. Apple is the other. What gives Google an additional edge that even Apple cannot easily replicate is YouTube. YouTube functions as the world’s largest knowledge repository, a platform where human expertise, creativity, and information accumulate at an unimaginable scale. The moment Google’s Gemini AI can perform deep inference learning on YouTube’s content library, the competitive moat becomes extraordinarily difficult to cross. Paired with the return of co-founder Sergey Brin and a CEO who appears to be operating in genuine partnership with the company’s founding vision, Google is not a company in decline. It is a company in transformation, and that is a very different thing entirely. To hear about all the topics in this week's The Pirate Street Journal, download and listen to this episode. You can also read more Pirate Street Journal entries in the Category Pirates newsletter. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and subscribe on Apple Podcast / Spotify!
Alphabet shares jumped on Monday following a report that the Google parent is planning to deploy a new chip to run its Gemini models more efficiently, adding a combined $15 billion to the net worths of cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2026/07/20/alphabet-rally-boosts-google-cofounder-fortunes-by-15-billion-heres-why-shares-are-up/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tarabuster Friday with Tara Devlin. 07/10/26 Topics for Tarabuster ✝️ MAGA pastor melts down over a “gay Jesus” A Trump‑loving pastor is raging that any depiction of Jesus as queer is “blasphemy,” insisting on a repressed, closet‑case savior that looks a lot more like his own internalized hang‑ups than anything in the Gospels.
Tech shapes our world, and Stanford University is Silicon Valley's training ground. But what really goes on in the place that gave us Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel – the richest university in human history? As a student reporter, Stanford undergraduate Theo Baker's work forced Stanford's president to resign. Now his new book How To Rule The World exposes the intense and amoral culture of a place where talent fights for access to untold funds; oligarchs mine the world's sharpest young minds for talent; and ethical concerns dissolve in the light of money.Seth Thévoz talks to Theo Baker about Stanford's ruthless mindset, why most venture capitalists are actually very bad at their jobs, and what happens when you give teenagers money to burn and no responsibilities. • Buy How To Rule The World: An Education in Power at Stanford University through our affiliate bookshop and you'll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org's fees help support independent bookshops too.• Special offer! Get 20% off any vehicle history check at carVertical.com/TheBunker . www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Seth Thévoz. Produced by James Liddell. Audio production: Tom Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.www.podmasters.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) TWR Special Film Project Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he covers today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Thursday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan tracks the accelerating rise of Communist Democrats ahead of the midterms, from Kamala Harris courting NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Ethiopian-born Congressional winner Melat Kiros unseating a 30-year Democrat incumbent in Colorado by running hard left and defending the 9/11 attacks on America. Bryan also covers Google co-founder Sergey Brin taking a 94% loss to exit New York real estate, the DOJ expelling a Cuban spy running a Leftist NGO, former CIA Director John Brennan filing a preemptive lawsuit ahead of his expected indictment, and egg producers settling price-fixing charges with 17 state attorneys general. On the global front, Iran's IRGC tightens its grip on negotiations as the Ayatollah's office signals resistance to any deal with the US, global shipping companies form convoys through the Strait of Hormuz, and South Africa is rocked by mass protests demanding African migrants go home. Plus, VP JD Vance takes on Pope Leo over immigration, Spain's Socialist government openly uses illegal alien amnesty as a political weapon against Catholics and conservatives, a Screwworm update warns pet owners to watch their animals, and Bryan releases a 14-minute Independence Day film tracing his family's journey west to Oregon in 1872. (Link Above) "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32 Keywords: Bryan Dean Wright, The Wright Report, Kamala Harris 2028, Zohran Mamdani, Communist Democrats, Melat Kiros Colorado, Diana DeGette, Sergey Brin New York real estate, John Brennan DOJ indictment, Cuban spy NGO Carlos Dominguez, egg price fixing DOJ settlement, Screwworm pets dogs, JD Vance Pope Leo immigration, Spain amnesty Pedro Sanchez, South Africa migrant protests, Strait of Hormuz shipping convoys, Iran IRGC negotiations, Ayatollah nuclear deal, Operation Epic Fury, Project Freedom, Trump midterm convention Dallas, Abdul el-Sayed Michigan, Thursday Headline Brief, Independence Day film, 250 years America
As director of Keyhole, Dave Lorenzini delivered the 3D Earth zooms that ran on CNN during the 2003 Iraq War — netting five million users in a month. Sergey Brin was one of them. Google bought the company and poured in billions to build, fuel, and serve maps. As Google Earth, it forever changed how we relate to space.From there: pioneering work on Google Glass, AR platforms, and running an immersive XR lab in Europe for Draw & Code exploring the future of spaces, places, and faces. Today Dave directs Quantum Studio, building World Agent and 4D ID — the "DNS for real space," an addressing layer where every place, object, and moment gets a name AI systems can agree on. His thesis: the next decade of AI won't run on better maps. AI needs an operating system for reality. Not a map. Not a database. A living, queryable foundation where every place on Earth answers for itself.AI XR News: The OpenAI vs. Musk trial continued with damaging testimony from Mira Murati and Greg Brockman. Anthropic struck an unholy alliance with xAI's Colossus compute. GameStop bid for eBay. Colin Angle is back with Familiar, an AI robot pet. Coinbase cut staff. Ask.com finally died. VRChat hit 100,000 concurrent daily users in Japan.Key Moments:[00:03:34] AWE Long Beach in 30 days: Dave on the board, Snap glasses expected, 400 speakers and 250 exhibitors[00:20:10] 30 AI glasses coming: why the near future belongs to audio-first, AI-powered smart glasses[00:25:34] Keyhole origin story: satellite imagery, $25K/sq mile, Sergey Brin, and a $500M/year acquisition[00:37:30] Google Glass, Luxottica, and why Google blinked when it could have been 10 years ahead of Meta[00:40:00] XR vs. rockets: why building for the human brain is harder than getting to MarsBrought to you by Zappar, the company behind Mattercraft — the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io.Subscribe to the AI XR Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/weNANIIo7EA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX's public offering last week, the largest in history. As of recording, he's worth $1.4 trillion - an unimaginably large amount of money and more than a trillion dollars over the net worth of the next wealthiest person on the planet, Google co-founder Larry Page. Page is worth just over $300 billion. In fact, combining the wealth of the people ranking numbers two through 5 on the Forbes real-time billionaires list (Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Larry Ellison of Oracle), their combined net worth is still less than Musk's.While cautiously avoiding Musk's far-right political leanings and his recent incitement of racist riots in Belfast, much of the capitalist media is heralding his obscene wealth. An opinion piece published by The Washington Post considers and dismisses the idea that someone should not have such “inordinate wealth,” but suggests that “SpaceX is one of the real success stories of the past several decades” and “has created something of great value for society” that will somehow democratize wealth by flowing money through the stock market.For those of us in the real world who don't have hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, the cold truth is that prices continue to rise while wages stay stagnant. Inflation was up 0.5% in May compared to April, and up 4.2% over the last 12 months. Prices are up at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and as summer starts around the United States, areas impacted by significant heat will also be hit by massive increases in energy prices. Tens of thousands of people die every year due to homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over 771,000 people in the United States experienced homelessness. The real number may be significantly higher, but still nothing compared to the fact that Elon Musk's trillions could buy 2.5 million homes at market price and solve the housing crisis immediately.Support the show
Larry Ellison's fortune declined by more than $10 billion on Tuesday, dropping him behind Jeff Bezos to the No. 5 spot among the wealthiest as Oracle shares stumbled amid another broad decline for tech stocks. Shares of Oracle dropped by more than 4% as of Tuesday afternoon, extending losses of 17% over the last week, as other tech stocks headlined declines across the stock market, including Marvell (11.5%), AMD (7.2%), Micron (5.9%), Apple (3.8%) and Nvidia (2.6%). The latest intraday slide for Oracle lowered Ellison's net worth by $10.4 billion, valued at $249.7 billion, ranking him behind Amazon's Bezos ($252 billion) and Google cofounders Sergey Brin ($272.7 billion) and Larry Page ($295.6 billion), according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dave Landau's back in-studio with us as Diddy's sex tape leaked on the internet. PLUS – Meghan Markle's hypocrisy, the Stop Nick Shirley Act, Spencer Pratt, Freedom 250 concert, and filming in public places for fight content. Comedian Dave Landau joins us today. Maine politician Graham Platner and wife address some hot sexting action. Freedom 250 Show: Flo Rida has a pretty stupid name. C&C Music Factory's Freedom Williams pops off from the toilet. Donald Trump cancels the entire event in favor of a rally. Filming people and then arguing about it is such a hot content trend right now. Spencer Pratt jumped on Club Random with Bill Maher. He is surging in LA polls. Al Roker HATES Spencer and Heidi. Sergey Brin endorses the reality star. The Stop Nick Shirley Act is a thing. Nobody wants to talk to him. Bob Page is not very kind to Denny McLain on Twitter. Tampa Bay Ray Wander Franco avoids prison time, but is likely never going to play in the Big Leagues again. A Diddy Freak Off allegedly leaked starring Daphne Joy. 50 Cent isn't too thrilled his baby-mama was plowed by Sly Diggler. Dr. Jill Biden appeared on The Today Show to talk about Joe's prostate cancer. Pancreatic cancer took a loss today. Hey Kevin Hart… nice production company. YouTubers are out-selling Hollywood. Fox News' Kennedy is not a fan of Chelsea Handler. Meghan Markle is caught being a candle hypocrite. Prince Harry's charities are failing and full of torture. Meghan Markle makes everything uncomfortable. We might have some merch left. Click here to check what's available. If you'd like to help support the show… consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Drew Lane, Marc Fellhauer, Trudi Daniels, Jim Bentley, BranDon, and Roberto).
Is AI the biggest scam of our generation — or the most misunderstood technology in history? Cognitive scientist Gary Marcus has been studying artificial intelligence for over 30 years, and what he has to say will make you question everything you thought you knew about ChatGPT, AGI, and the trillion dollar AI gold rush.In this episode of SparX, we are talking with Gary Marcus – professor, author, and one of the most respected and fiercely independent voices in AI research – about why the promises being made by Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Elon Musk may be leading the global economy toward a catastrophic miscalculation.
It's Tuesday, May 26th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson and Timothy Reed Islamic governance seen in 14 countries Islamic governance is on the rise around the world, usually a response to Western aggression or interference with the Middle Eastern nations. Since 1980, the nations which have seen increased Islamic influence in government include Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Brunei, Turkey, Iraq, northern Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Syria. Russia's latest attack on Kyiv, Ukraine Russia has launched a barrage of attacks on Kyiv. Ukrainian officials say four people died and 60 were injured over the weekend. Ukrainian Supreme Court legitimized homosexual faux marriage Plus, in a February ruling, the Ukrainian Supreme Court has just legitimized the faux marriage of a male with a male as well as a female with a female. In Genesis 2:24, God said, “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” China's aggression toward Taiwan and Taiwanese embrace “gay” marriage Last week, in the days following President Trump's visit to Beijing, China conducted another threatening military exercise involving 100 vessels off the shores of Taiwan, reports Fox News. Meanwhile, Taiwanese are even more in support of faux homosexual marriage since the nation legalized the abomination in 2019. The Taiwan Equality Campaign Poll found 54 percent of the population support faux marriage, up from 42 percent seven years ago. Jude 7 offers a sober reminder of what happens to places that embrace the sin of homosexual behavior. “Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Secret Service killed a gunman outside White House Another potential attempt on the life of the President occurred on Saturday, May 23rd at 6:00pm, reports NewsNation.com. The shooter, identified as 21-year-old Nasire Best, was shot and killed by Secret Service agents as he opened fire near a security checkpoint close to the White House at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The mentally disturbed man reached into a bag, pulled out a weapon, and began firing. Trump will send 5,000 troops to Poland President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland. The president noted that his decision was based on the election last year of Poland's conservative President Karol Nawrocki. Presently, the United States has 80,000 troops stationed in Europe, 10,000 of which are in Poland, according to a Council on Foreign Relations analysis. The largest U.S. presence is in Germany, with more than 38,000 troops. Should recently naturalized citizens hold office? Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina who is also running to be the Palmetto State's next governor, made headlines for introducing a joint resolution to prevent recently naturalized citizens from holding office. Mace is calling for her resolution to be passed in the form of a constitutional amendment. In her words: “The American people deserve leaders who put America first. This amendment makes sure of it.” Oklahoma makes it a felony to traffic Abortion Kill Pills Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill that makes it a felony to traffic Abortion Kill Pills into the state for the purpose of causing an illegal abortion, reports Newson6. Punishments range up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine, or both. Republican State Senator David Bullard commented on the bill. He said, “We have worked hard to eliminate this enslavement of people. The trafficking of the abortion pill is no different than human trafficking and possibly worse. It is the largest killer of babies and the greatest threat to motherhood.” Reddest states gain population; Bluest states lose America's “reddest” or most conservative states are gaining population and the bluest states are losing fastest. Last year, South Carolina, Idaho, and Tennessee were the fastest gainers on a resident per capita basis. By contrast, New York, California, and Maryland were the biggest losers. Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Michigan also lost residents in 2025. Condominium prices sinking across America Condo prices are sinking fast around the nation. A Denver condominium peaked at $280,000 in 2022 (adjusted for inflation), up from $165,000 in 2009. Already that $280,000 condo in 2022 (valued in 2009 dollars) has dropped off to a $202,000 value (in 2009 dollars). That's a 28 percent collapse in just four years. Florida and California condominium prices are sinking even faster. Condo prices usually run ahead of other real estate when the bubbles deflate. U.S. economy is faltering Americans are more pessimistic than ever concerning their views on the economy, while at the same time Wall Street is more euphoric than ever! The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index has dipped to an all-time low — the lowest in 65 years of American history. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ Composite Index has exploded to over 26,300. That's a whopping 450 percent increase from 10 years ago — at the same time that the nation's Gross Domestic Product only increased 200 percent. Elon Musk on track to become Earth's first trillionaire And finally, as of yesterday, Elon Musk's net worth clocks in at $828 billion, according to the Forbes index. Economists say he's on his way to become the first trillionaire on Earth, reports The Daily Star. Elon's rocket, satellite and Artificial Intelligence empire is officially headed for the U.S. stock market, filing its prospectus with regulators. Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin are hovering around $300 billion, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos sits at $270 billion on the Forbes billionaire list. Keep in mind the wisdom of Psalm 49:16-17 today: “Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he shall carry nothing away; His glory shall not descend after him.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, May 26th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
As director of Keyhole, Dave Lorenzini delivered the 3D Earth zooms that ran on CNN during the 2003 Iraq War — netting five million users in a month. Sergey Brin was one of them. Google bought the company and poured in billions to build, fuel, and serve maps. As Google Earth, it forever changed how we relate to space.From there: pioneering work on Google Glass, AR platforms, and running an immersive XR lab in Europe for Draw & Code exploring the future of spaces, places, and faces. Today Dave directs Quantum Studio, building World Agent and 4D ID — the "DNS for real space," an addressing layer where every place, object, and moment gets a name AI systems can agree on. His thesis: the next decade of AI won't run on better maps. AI needs an operating system for reality. Not a map. Not a database. A living, queryable foundation where every place on Earth answers for itself.AI XR News: The OpenAI vs. Musk trial continued with damaging testimony from Mira Murati and Greg Brockman. Anthropic struck an unholy alliance with xAI's Colossus compute. GameStop bid for eBay. Colin Angle is back with Familiar, an AI robot pet. Coinbase cut staff. Ask.com finally died. VRChat hit 100,000 concurrent daily users in Japan.Key Moments:[00:03:34] AWE Long Beach in 30 days: Dave on the board, Snap glasses expected, 400 speakers and 250 exhibitors[00:20:10] 30 AI glasses coming: why the near future belongs to audio-first, AI-powered smart glasses[00:25:34] Keyhole origin story: satellite imagery, $25K/sq mile, Sergey Brin, and a $500M/year acquisition[00:37:30] Google Glass, Luxottica, and why Google blinked when it could have been 10 years ahead of Meta[00:40:00] XR vs. rockets: why building for the human brain is harder than getting to MarsBrought to you by Zappar, the company behind Mattercraft — the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io.Subscribe to the AI XR Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/weNANIIo7EASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Latest on Wealth Taxes Episode 383 – The concept of a wealth tax—applying a tax to the value of someone's assets—has become popular in some state legislatures in the last few years. Are they likely to catch on anytime soon? More SML Planning Minute Podcast Episodes Transcript of Podcast Episode 383 Hello, this is Bill Rainaldi, with another edition of Security Mutual's SML Planning Minute. In today's episode: the latest on wealth taxes. Public budget concerns seem to be everywhere, and state governments are no exception. The problem has gotten worse in the past few years because, in some cases, states would like to continue programs that were started with federal COVID spending that has since run out.[1] So, what's left for a state to do? Some are taking a look at so-called “wealth taxes” as a way to raise revenue. The appeal of wealth taxes is that, in theory, a state government can raise significant sums of money while affecting only a small slice of its population. A wealth tax takes a completely different approach from a sales, income or estate tax. It's a tax imposed on someone's net worth, that is, the total market value of their assets minus liabilities.[2] Here's an example. Let's say there's a two percent wealth tax on individuals with a net worth above $100 million in a particular state. If you're lucky enough to have a net worth of $1 billion, you would pay on the difference of $900 million, resulting in a tax bill of $18 million. Some proposed wealth taxes are written to occur annually while others are written as a one-time levy. One of the arguments in favor of wealth taxes is that they could raise a significant amount of revenue for the individual states. Another is that they would make the tax system more progressive and thus lessen the effects of income inequality. Some studies have indicated that income inequality has risen in the United States in recent years.[3] But there are also some notable arguments against the use of wealth taxes, particularly at the state level. For one thing, individual mobility would likely work against them. In other words, a high-income individual facing a wealth tax can simply move to another state to avoid it. There is evidence to suggest that a high tax burden can prompt some people to relocate. For example, after decades of growth, California, the state with the highest maximum income tax rate at 13.3 percent, has led the nation in net out-migration for six consecutive years, according to a 2026 report.[4] Critics suggest that more recent developments in California could make matters worse. The state is now considering a referendum that, if approved, would impose a one-time five percent wealth tax on state residents with a net worth of $1 billion or more. Advocates are currently gathering signatures in an effort to get the proposed tax on the ballot in 2026.[5] There is anecdotal evidence that some California billionaires have left the state out of fear that the proposal will become law, among them Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg.[6] Other states, such as Illinois, Maryland and Washington have all introduced wealth tax legislation, although the final outcome remains uncertain in each state.[7] There are still unanswered questions about how a wealth tax would work. Conceptually, a wealth tax is based on the value of your assets, rather than the income you receive from them. This is different from, for example, capital gains taxes, which only become payable when you sell the asset. What happens if you pay a wealth tax one year—without selling the assets—and then the value of those assets goes down the next year? Would you get a refund? The answer seems to be no. At the federal level, the question of whether a wealth tax is permitted under the U.S. Constitution is a matter of intense legal debate. The federal income tax began in 1913 after the 17th Amendment was passed to specifically authorize it.[8] Many experts believe that a federal wealth tax would not currently pass a constitutional challenge, and it would likely take another amendment before it is allowed.[9] At the state level, each one of them has its own constitution, and they're all different. There are potential legislative, constitutional and practical obstacles that could end up being too big to handle. Only time will tell whether the states will be able to collect the bonanza they're hoping for. [1] Finseca. “Finseca Policy 02/24/26: State Wealth Tax Blitz & US Deficit Updates.” Finseca.org. https://www.finseca.org/finseca-policy-02-24-26-state-wealth-tax-blitz-us-deficit-updates/ (accessed April 13, 2026). [2] Peter G. Peterson Foundation. “What Is a Wealth Tax, and Should the United States Have One?” Pgpf.org. https://www.pgpf.org/article/what-is-a-wealth-tax-and-should-the-united-states-have-one/ (accessed April 13, 2026). [3] Cunningham, Mary. “Wealth inequality in America just hit its widest gap in more than 3 decades.” CBSNews.com. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-wealth-gap-widest-in-three-decades-federal-reserve/ (accessed April 13, 2026). [4] Christopher, Nilesh. “California's exodus isn't just billionaires — it's regular people renting U-Hauls, too.” The Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-01-08/californias-exodus-isnt-just-billionaires-its-regular-people-renting-u-hauls-too (accessed April 13, 2026). [5] BDO USA, P.C. “California's Billionaire Tax Proposal Would Allow Sweeping, One-Time Taxation Based on Net Worth.” BDO.com. https://www.bdo.com/insights/tax/californias-billionaire-tax-proposal-would-allow-sweeping-one-time-taxation-based-on-net-worth (accessed April 13, 2026). [6] Perman, Stacy. “Inside the exodus of California tech billionaires to Florida.” The Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-03-11/inside-exodus-of-california-tech-billionaires-to-florida (accessed April 13, 2026). [7] Finseca. “Finseca Policy 02/24/26: State Wealth Tax Blitz & US Deficit Updates.” Finseca.org. https://www.finseca.org/finseca-policy-02-24-26-state-wealth-tax-blitz-us-deficit-updates/ (accessed April 13, 2026). [8] Bishop-Henchman, Joe. “Is a Wealth Tax Constitutional?” Ntu.org. https://www.ntu.org/foundation/detail/is-a-wealth-tax-constitutional (accessed April 13, 2026). [9] Id. More SML Planning Minute Podcast Episodes This podcast is brought to you by Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, The Company That Cares®. The content provided is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Information is provided in good faith. However, the Company makes no representation or warranty of any kind regarding the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the information. The information presented is designed to provide general information regarding the subject matter covered. It is not to serve as legal, tax or other financial advice related to individual situations, because each individual's legal, tax and financial situation is different. Specific advice needs to be tailored to your situation. Therefore, please consult with your own attorney, tax professional and/or other advisors regarding your specific situation. To help reach your goals, you need a skilled professional by your side. Contact your local Security Mutual life insurance advisor today. As part of the planning process, he or she will coordinate with your other advisors as needed to help you achieve your financial goals and objectives. For more information, visit us at SMLNY.com/SMLPodcast. If you've enjoyed this podcast, tell your friends about it. And be sure to give us a five-star review. And check us out on LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Tax laws are complex and subject to change. The information presented is based on current interpretation of the laws. Neither Security Mutual nor its agents are permitted to provide tax or legal advice. The applicability of any strategy discussed is dependent upon the particular facts and circumstances. Results may vary, and products and services discussed may not be appropriate for all situations. Each person's needs, objectives and financial circumstances are different, and must be reviewed and analyzed independently. We encourage individuals to seek personalized advice from a qualified Security Mutual life insurance advisor regarding their personal needs, objectives, and financial circumstances. Insurance products are issued by Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Binghamton, New York. Product availability and features may vary by state. SubscribeApple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidPandoraby EmailTuneInDeezerRSSMore Subscribe Options
The MET Gala 2026 was eclipsed by its own sponsors, making the event feel out of touch and out of fashion.Beyoncé made her first MET Gala appearance in ten years. Rihanna showed up (very late). And there were many incredible fashion moments: from Emma Chamberlain to Nicole Kidman to Lena Dunham. But the whole affair was overshadowed by the sponsorship of Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Plus, other tech billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, made their MET Gala debuts. All calling into question...what is this event (and art) really for?To get into it, NPR Music's Anamaria Sayre is joined by culture critic Marjon Carlos and culture writer Shelton Boyd-Griffith. Together they rate the best and worst of fashion's biggest night and explain why the MET Gala feels like it's in decline.Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluseFor handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR's Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
Max and 99 are back for another round of Omnibus. They hit headlines on Google selling AI to the Pentagon, Sergey Brin’s rightward shift, military impact on marine life in the Strait of Hormuz + more. Then they tackle listener emails on socialism, the Trump shooting, and oil price manipulation before the midterms. They rank their Top 5 brands to boycott and close with book recommendations and member shoutouts. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:18 Headlines: 00:06:16 Emails: 00:41:04 Top 5: 01:08:33 Beyond the Bullshit: 01:31:43 Memberships: 01:32:57 Outro: 01:34:02 Resources TechCrunch: Google expands Pentagon’s access to its AI after Anthropic’s refusal New York Times: Sergey Brin Moves to the Right, With a ‘MAGA Girlfriend’ by His Side Mother Jones: Why Trump’s Crypto Empire is in Chaos Wired: Marine Animals in the Strait of Hormuz Don’t Get a Ceasefire Readers Digest: 10 Things That Were Affordable 10 Years Ago—And Now Feel Like a Luxury Me Mother Earth: The Ethical and Sustainability Concerns of Temu and Shein Diet Prada on Instagram: Hegseth Wife Loves Shein Wikipeda: Chick-fil-A and LGBTQ people Business Insider: 16 of the biggest controversies in Hobby Lobby’s 50-year history — from denying contraceptives for employees to illegally smuggling ancient tablets BDS: Guide to BDS Boycott & Pressure Corporate Priority Targeting UNFTR Resources Episode: Amazon (Part One). Video: The Shock Heard ‘Round the World. Max for MTN. Book Love Becca Rea-Tucker: The Abortion Companion: An Affirming Handbook for Your Choice and Your Journey -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Story of the Week (DR):Happy (?) May Day MMMay Day 2026: Top CEO pay increased 20 times faster than workers' pay in 2025Rivian Sold 42,247 Cars And Paid Its CEO [RJ Scaringe] $403 Million, Or 15 Jim FarleysComcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh Lands $72 Million Pay Package For 2025Google co-founder [Sergey Brin] rips California billionaire tax: 'I fled socialism'ONE-TIME wealth tax: The proposal would impose a 5% tax on net worth above the $1 billion threshold for people who were California residents as of Jan. 1, 2026, with some assets like real estate and certain retirement accounts excluded~$13B, with certain exclusions this figure could drop to $9B (the approximate value of his real estate empire)This is the equivalent of $2,500 if you earn $50,000Ken Griffin slams Mamdani for singling him out as a 'profound lack of judgment,' ripping socialist bentBill Ackman to New York City Mayor Mamdani: Don't scare away the billionaires CEOs got millions after boards ‘neutralized' the impact of tariffs. Some won't say what it was worthRTX CEO Christopher Calio: $27.7 million in compensation last yearAt its January 2025 board meeting, the compensation committee of RTX pre-authorized the removal of tariff impacts on business metrics related to Calio's pay months before President Trump announced a set of sweeping Liberation Day tariffs on April 2, 2025 that upended global supply chains. The RTX comp committee said that the tariff-cost impact “should be neutralized” for determining annual bonus payouts because the tariffs were “externally imposed, unpredictable and unrelated to operational execution.”Calio's annual bonus hit $5.1 million, an 85% increase over the $2.76 million the company paid him the year beforeHow much of that growth was attributable to the tariff exclusion, RTX did not discloseWe spoke to over 30 CEOs and business leaders. Here's what worries them mostA world of constant shocksSupply chains are under strain and getting costlierInflation is testing the consumerAI is an opportunity, but also a threatCyber and trust are keeping CEOs upEnergy security is back at the centerThe leadership playbook is changingThe 'Dirty Secret' Behind AI Layoffs: Forrester Warns Tech Is Often Non-ExistentForrester finds most firms citing AI for job cuts lack the systems to back it up, deepening mistrust over how and why people are being let goExecutives are increasingly blaming artificial intelligence for sweeping layoffs even when the technology is barely in place, Forrester has warned, with analyst J.P. Gownder saying that in 'nine out of 10' such cases the AI capability behind those cuts simply does not existMeta says it doesn't know its ideal size as it prepares to lay off 10% of its staffBed Bath & Beyond CEO: AI will lead to ‘significant reduction in headcount'Sam Altman says he is 'deeply sorry' for failing to alert police ahead of mass shootingSam Altman Issues Grim ApologySam Altman is “the face of evil” for not reporting school shooter, says lawyerSam Altman apologized to the people of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, because OpenAI had flagged and banned the suspect's ChatGPT account but did not alert police before the mass shootingApril 28, 2026: Our commitment to community safety“We assume the best of our users, but when we detect that someone is attempting to use our tools to potentially plan or carry out violence, we take action, including revoking access to OpenAI's services.”“We use automated detection systems to identify potentially concerning activity at scale.”“When an account or conversation is flagged, it is assessed in context by trained personnel. These human reviewers are trained on our policies and protocols, and operate within established privacy and security safeguards”“When conversations indicate an imminent and credible risk of harm to others, we notify law enforcement.”Zero mention of the Tumbler Ridge massacre, the apology, the lawsuits, etc.Elon Musk's trial against Sam Altman to reveal the ongoing power struggle for OpenAIMusk is suing Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft over the claim that OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit, “benefit humanity” mission and instead became a profit machine, while OpenAI says Musk is really trying to slow a competitor he helped createThe courtroom tone has been described as unusually messy and theatrical, with the judge reportedly telling both sides to stop acting out on social mediaThe judge told Musk to cool it on the “robot apocalypse” and “Terminator” talk.Musk lawyer says OpenAI 'stole a charity,' as trial against AI firm, Sam Altman beginsWorld's Richest Man, Least Generous? Elon Musk Tops Forbes 'Least Philanthropic' ListForbes' analysis concludes that Elon Musk has given around $500 million 'directly to those in need' — a sum that sounds enormous in isolation yet, by the magazine's maths, represents just 0.06 per cent of his reported wealth. In other words, for every $1,000 attached to his name on paper, roughly 60 cents has so far gone, in clear line of sight, to people or causes that can be classed as receiving direct help.Jerome Powell says he will continue to serve as a Fed governor, calls Trump criticism 'unprecedented'Powell says he's staying on as a Fed governor after his chair term ends, which blocks Trump from simply creating an empty seatPowell says the pressure campaign is unprecedented and threatens the Fed's independence.Bessent Says Powell Staying On Is ‘Violation' of All Fed Norms“It's highly unusual for someone who says he's an institutionalist and cares about norms at the Fed. This is a violation of all Federal Reserve norms.”“I think it is an insult to Kevin Warsh, Miki [Michelle] Bowman and Chris Waller to think that these other Republican nominees do not care about the institution of the Fed and that he alone can maintain the integrity of the Fed.”Trump Takes a ‘Wrecking Ball' to Independent Scientific Advisory BoardThe DEI death blow: “We Could See the Largest Drop in Black Representation Since the End of Reconstruction”Much like dual class shares: The erosion of the Voting Rights Act directly dilutes the collective political power of Black communitiesThomas Dartmouth Rice ("The two most popular characters in the world at the present time are [Queen] Victoria and Jim Crow.") received some formal education in his youth, but ceased in his teenage years when he acquired an apprenticeship with a woodcarver named DodgePentagon inks deals with seven AI companies for classified military workOpenAI, Google, Nvidia and others agreed to ‘any lawful use' of their tech. Anthropic, feuding with Pentagon over potential AI misuse, was not includedGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: France unveils plan to ditch all fossil fuels by 2050a “first of its kind” plan to phase out coal by 2030, oil by 2045 and gas by 2050 during a global conference aimed at breaking reliance on fossil fuelsMM: War on Social Media: Greece to ban anonymity on social media DRI seriously might move to GreeceMeta's threat to quit New Mexico ‘is showing the world how little it cares about child safety,' AG saysAssholiest of the Week (MM):Disney's spineless chair James Gorman DRABC can beat Trump FCC's license threat if owner Disney is willing to fightThe man who was the savior picking the new CEO, when asked what he thinks of the attack on Kimmel and Disney's ABC (again), said, “It's the job of the CEO with their team to figure out the right answer and they'll be guided by the board”, and then declined to say what advice he or the board would give regarding the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show.“We have a terrific new CEO, Josh D'Amaro, he's world class so I'm sure he'll rise to the occasion and do what the right thing is.”Here's a glow up of Gorman choosing the new CEO:James P. Gorman, former head of Morgan Stanley, became Disney's chairman a year ago with succession at the top of his to-do list. The 67-year-old Australia native comes with strong opinions and sterling credentials: He helped stabilize, then revitalize the Wall Street bank during his 14 years in the C-suite, retiring in December 2024 after orchestrating a seamless baton pass.“I don't know that there's anyone who could have navigated these kinds of leadership transitions better than James,” Wharton School Dean Erika H. James said in an interview. “He's not afraid to do the hard things.”James was on the board of Morgan Stanley with GormanSo the board abdicates all responsibility? They bow out? Without Ken Doll Bob Iger around they have no part to play anymore?“Even after paying off the president last year, ABC is once again under attack by this administration,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote yesterday. “This should be a lesson to all who capitulate to the president: You cannot buy his favor, you can only rent it.”Even the fucking CATO INSTITUTE weighed in: FCC's Punitive Review of ABC-Disney's Broadcast Licenses Shows Need to Protect Free Expression“Punishing a media organization, no matter what one thinks of their reporting or programming, is an affront to the right of Americans to speak and listen to whatever speech they wish”AI OverloadPopular pasta sauce brand is launching new device to record conversationsPrego owned by Campbells selling a puck that sits on your dinner table, records the conversation, and offers “conversation prompts”When a soup company thinks the answer to AI in soup is a fucking device sitting on your table, listening to you, when we're already surrounded by our tech overlords doing the same thing, we know we've jumped the sharkChip Wilson and the male CEO industrial complexLululemon Founder Takes Aim at New CEO Pick, Escalates Proxy FightChip uses “governance” as his main angle of attack without acknowledging that 50% of the board he hates, including the chair, HE HAND PICKED HIMSELFWall Street sank the shares more than 13% on the announcement of Heidi O'NeillCritiqued her tenure at Nike pushing “direct to consumer” - without acknowledging that Nike is a dual class controlled company with the company founder's nepo baby on the board AND an executive chair (Mark Parker) AND the current CEO (Elliott Hill)Do you think O'Neill made the decision in a vacuum by herself? She's an NEO under not one but THREE leaders - and in 2025 she got a massive stock award (11.4m) to keep her around. She also has a babysitter - she was head of Consumer, Product, & Brand, but there was Craig Williams, Chief Commercial OfficerIs this anything but fucking white dude manbaby sexists anymore?60% female board who just added another woman of color to go above that, +8% gender power gap, 70% female influence - the analytics suggest they are not deferential to the CEO, the only merit director on the board are womenWhile dude analyst Bill Campbell at Paragon Intel said, “she does not look like the obvious architect of the deeper reset this moment demands,” William Blair analyst Sharon Zackfia said, “She brings a significant breadth of knowledge in women's performance apparel and her experience accelerating speed-to-market is particularly welcome at lululemon where lead times have ballooned to about 24 months.”Reading the timeline of interactions, Wilson just sounds like a fucking baby, complaining the board isn't talking to his people enough, they don't respond quickly enough, even as every time he doesn't get his way he publicly says the board sucks but commits to the chair he wants to have “constructive” dialogue. Then the board offers him board seats if he just shuts the fuck up, and he says he won't agree to shut up but they should give him the board seats anyway.Headliniest of the WeekDR: Lululemon's New CEO Is Already in the Hot Seat—and She Hasn't Even StartedMM: 51% of U.S. employees have cried at the office within the last month, according to a new reportWho Won the Week?DR: Only Elon Musk can fire Elon Musk from SpaceX, filing showsMM: Earth - SpaceX ties Musk compensation to Mars colonization goal, which I assume can only mean if Musk himself colonizes Mars he gets paidPredictionsDR: Billionaires start to introduce their own taxes on “normal” people, like: Sidewalk Wear-and-Tear Tax: charged per step, tracked via mandatory Smart Shoes™ and a Public Bench Depreciation Fee: sitting longer than 90 seconds counts as an “asset strain,” tracked via mandatory Smart Boxer Briefs™MM: Because Jamie Dimon says bureaucracy sinks companies and the solution may be getting rid of the ‘jerks' who don't want to solve it, JPMorgan begins firing the 51% of jerks who cried in the office this month.
Larry Page's net worth swelled on Thursday, surpassing $300 billion for the first time as Alphabet's stock rose after reporting a surge in cloud revenue through the Google parent's latest quarter. Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List estimates Page's net worth at $313.1 billion as of Friday morning, as the Google cofounder ranks as the second-wealthiest person in the world. Fellow Google cofounder Sergey Brin also had his fortune surge, hitting $288.8 billion as of Friday morning, as he now ranks as the world's third-richest person ahead of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, whose net worth sank $3.5 billion to $267 billion as of Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
California's new “billionaire tax” ballot measure slaps a one‑time 5% levy on residents worth $1B+, prompting Sergey Brin and other moguls to head for the exits as economists warn it will kill jobs, lose future tax revenue, and turn billionaires into political villains
Billionaire Google co-founder and ex-California resident Sergey Brin has said he's adamantly opposed to a proposed one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of California residents (and has spent $57 million to fight it) because he fears it will lead the state down a similar socialist path as that of the former Soviet Union, which his family fled when he was 6 years old. Brin, who has moved from a backer of liberal causes to a supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, told the New York Times in a rare statement: “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don't want California to end up in the same place.” The proposed tax would apply to California residents with assets worth at least $1.1 billion and has pushed a number of bold-faced billionaires, including Brin, to leave the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tech billionaire Sergey Brin fled socialism in the Soviet Union as a child—only to spend years funding its modern version in California. For over a decade, he funneled millions into Democrat candidates and progressive policies that reshaped the state, while ordinary Californians dealt with the consequences. Only now, as those same policies come back to hit his own fortune in the form of a proposed billionaire tax, has Brin changed his tune. With the tax man knocking on his door (and his new MAGA-aligned influencer girlfriend in the picture) he's suddenly pouring money into the RNC and backing candidates like Steve Hilton, dropping tens of millions to stop the very system he helped build. The lesson is the same as it's always been: “Socialism fails every single time it's tried, everywhere It's been tried. And the Golden State, California, is proving it again right now, in real time,” Drew Allen, Daily Signal Califonira Contributor, on today's video commentary.
Organizers of California's Billionaires Tax say they have collected more than 1.5 million signatures, far above the threshold needed to qualify for the November ballot. Meanwhile, a rival ballot initiative would significantly limit or undermine the tax if both pass. The initiative is primarily funded by Google co‑founder Sergey Brin, through a group called Building a Better California. Brin has contributed at least $57 million toward the effort so far. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Broeske & Musson' on all platforms: --- The ‘Broeske & Musson Podcast’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- ‘Broeske & Musson' Weekdays 9-11 AM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Facebook | Podcast| X | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | InstagramSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Models are converging. Chinese open source models are catching up. Applications are becoming the moat.In this episode of This Week in European Tech, Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen of SuperSeed examine the shifts shaping AI, markets and Europe's role.From DeepSeek's progress to the EU AI Act, the focus is on where the real competitive edge is forming, alongside cyber incidents, the race between frontier labs, and why coding is central to how AI systems improve and are used, before closing on pressure in private credit and what it could mean for SaaS.Key highlightsChinese open-source AI is rapidly closing the gap with US leadersThe EU is considering revisions to its AI Act, including scope and timeline changesCyber incidents reveal systemic data management failuresFrontier labs are moving up the stack into applications, with coding central to progressPrivate credit exposure to SaaS could lead to repricingTimestamps(00:00) Intro and overview of key topics(05:45) DeepSeek V4 and model competition(11:30) EU AI Act discussions(16:45) Cyber breaches and data governance issues(21:30) Digital ID systems and Estonia's model(26:30) Sergey Brin, DeepMind and AI coding race(32:00) SpaceX, Cursor and AI distribution strategy(39:30) Private credit, space sovereignty, predictions and week aheadSubscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: https://www.eu.vc/subscribe
On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, let us talk about California. California is considering something that has never existed in American history: a tax not on what you earn, but on what you own. The proposed Billionaire Tax Act would impose a 5% levy on the total net worth of any California resident worth over $1 billion. But calling it a billionaire tax is misleading, because the consequences reach far beyond the ultra-wealthy. This proposal carries buried constitutional changes, economic risks, and a framework that could eventually touch small business owners, family farmers, solo consultants, and startup founders across the state and potentially the nation. So today, let us dive deeper into the topic. You're listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let's go. What This Tax Actually Is Sacramento is framing this as a simple, one-time fix targeting the ultra-rich. The reality is far more complicated. This is an asset seizure tax, a government mechanism to reach into what people have already built and extract a percentage of it annually. Most billionaires do not hold 5% of their net worth in cash. That means the state would effectively be forcing asset liquidations just to satisfy the tax bill. That is not a technicality. That is a fundamental shift in how government relates to private wealth. Who Really Gets Hit The Hoover Institution ran over 71 economic simulations and found that California ends up poorer under this proposal. Six publicly confirmed billionaires, including Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Peter Thiel, have already announced departures. An attorney representing just four clients collectively worth over $600 billion confirmed their quiet relocations as well. When billionaires leave, they take their income taxes with them permanently. The state’s own Legislative Analyst’s Office projects ongoing decreases in income tax revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars per year as a direct result of this proposal. The Constitutional Trap Nobody Is Talking About This is where the proposal becomes genuinely alarming for everyone, not just billionaires. The tax requires a constitutional amendment that removes existing protections against taxing intangible personal property, including stocks, private equity stakes, and intellectual capital. That constitutional change does not expire. Once it exists, future legislators and ballot initiatives can lower the threshold, expand the scope, and reach further down the economic ladder without needing to clear the same legal barrier again. The Hoover Institution has described it plainly as constitutional infrastructure for future wealth taxes. California has done this before with Prop 19, which was sold as protection for seniors but quietly eliminated inheritance protections for family farms and small business properties. The playbook is the same: appealing villain, clean bumper sticker, buried consequences. To hear more from Christopher and his thoughts on the new tax, download and listen to this episode. Want to read more Different from Christopher Lochhead? Join his newsletter today! We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast / Spotify!
Why are so many of the world's most powerful entrepreneurs and billionaires moving to Miami?This shift is bigger than most people realize.From Larry Ellison to Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, some of the smartest people in the world are choosing South Florida. And when that many high-level thinkers make the same decision, I think it's worth paying attention.To me, this isn't just about lifestyle or taxes, it's about where the future of building, investing, and creating is headed.And right now, I believe Miami is one of the most important cities to watch.In this episode, I share:- Why I believe Miami is becoming a serious hub for business and innovation- The real economic incentives driving people out of places like California- How quality of life is playing a bigger role than ever- Why I think momentum is only just beginningLike this episode? Leave a review here:https://ratethispodcast.com/commondenominator
Follow Forbes Talks Who are the top 10 richest people in the world? 1. Elon Musk 2. Larry Page 3. Jeff Bezos (up from No. 4) 4. Sergey Brin (down from No. 3) 5. Mark Zuckerberg 6. Larry Ellison 7. Jensen Huang (up from No. 8) 8. Michael Dell (up from No. 13) 9. Rob Walton (up from No. 11) 10. Bernard Arnault (down from No. 7) March wasn't the best month to be a billionaire, as both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq sank by nearly 5% amid the Iran war. Nine of the world's ten richest people enter April poorer than they were at the beginning of March. As a group, their fortunes fell by more than $100 billion combined to a total of $2.5 trillion, as of April 1 at 12 a.m. Eastern time. Even more notable is the shake up at the top, as only four members of last month's top 10 held onto their same ranks including the world's richest person Elon Musk and no. 2 Sergey Brin. Despite their ranks holding steady, Musk and Page were two of five top 10 members who lost at least $20 billion in the past month. Musk's fortune fell by $22 billion to $817 billion. He's still more than three times as rich as his runner-up, Page, whose fortune sank by $20 billion to $237 billion. The biggest loser was Frenchman Bernard Arnault of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, who dropped from No. 7 to No. 10, as his fortune sank by $28 billion, to $142.5 billion. Another big loser was Spanish fast fashion mogul Amancio Ortega, who tumbled from No. 10 to No. 14, as his fortune plunged by $20 billion, to $128 billion. Warren Buffett also fell out of the top 10, sliding from No. 9 to No. 11, as his net worth fell by $7 billion to $142 billion. Walmart heir Rob Walton lost $3 billion but nevertheless jumped into the top 10 for the first time in at least three years. The other new face in this month's top 10 (and the only gainer) was PC mogul Michael Dell, who climbed from No. 13 to No. 8, as his fortune inched upward by $2 billion to $143.1 billion. Jeff Bezos also moved up, to No. 3 for the first time since October, as his fortune dipped by a relatively modest $1 billion to $223 billion. He swapped places with Google cofounder Sergey Brin, who dropped to No. 4 for the first time since January, as his net worth fell by $18 billion to $219 billion. Forbes has been tracking the world's billionaires since 1987. In March 2026, we found 3,428 of them for our annual list. Below are the 10 richest people on earth as of April 1, 2026 at 12 a.m. Eastern time, according to Forbes. Stock prices fluctuate routinely, so these net worths typically change on a daily basis. Forbes tracks the daily changes on our Real Time list of billionaires. Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/the-top-ten-richest-people-in-the-world/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On est en 1996 et à cette époque deux étudiants américains de Stanford, Larry Page et Sergey Brin planchent sur un moteur de recherche Internet pour accéder rapidement aux pages les plus pertinentes sur n'importe quel sujet. Dans "Ah Ouais ?", Florian Gazan répond en une minute chrono à toutes les questions essentielles, existentielles, parfois complètement absurdes, qui vous traversent la tête. Un podcast RTL Originals.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
As the Trump administration makes a bid to hire more young people in the federal government via the Tech Force, the leader of the Office of Personnel Management told lawmakers he doesn't believe stability is the biggest draw for the next generation. Director Scott Kupor told lawmakers on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government at a Wednesday oversight hearing that he doesn't “think young people actually think about 40-year careers. I think they think about small increments.” Kupor said that's why the Tech Force — the administration's program to fill federal tech vacancies with early career workers — was designed to be two years. He later stated that he doesn't “think stability for young people is the most compelling message.” The comments arose in an exchange between Kupor and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the ranking member of the subcommittee, about the message that OPM is sending to attract younger people to the federal government. The technology industry is heavily represented in President Donald Trump's first list of appointees to restock a White House science and tech advisory panel. Among the 13 appointees to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) were Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Google's Sergey Brin, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang. That panel will be co-chaired by David Sacks, Trump's AI and crypto czar, and Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.The PCAST has been around for decades as a way for the White House to receive feedback from scientists, engineers, technologists, and representatives from the private sector. While Trump announced the re-establishment of the council via executive order in January 2025, there hadn't yet been details on its membership. In addition to the Wednesday list, the White House said it expects to announce more appointees “in the near future along with information about the Council's first meeting.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Dee and Anand sit down with actor Adam Rodriguez and footwear entrepreneur Steve Pitino for a massive announcement: Steve's American-made comfort shoe brand Ales Grey just landed in Walmart, the largest retailer in the world. The guys break down how five years living above a factory in China, zero overseas supply chain, and algae-based materials led to a $60 shoe that nurses, doctors, and frontline workers are calling life-changing and why this launch couldn't come at a better moment with tariffs reshaping American manufacturing. Then the crew pivots to the weekend's biggest sports story: the Fanatics Flag Football event in LA. Was it actually good? What does Logan Paul and Tom Brady's role say about the future of live sports entertainment? Plus: Jeff Bezos is raising $100 billion to re-enter the game through AI and robotics manufacturing and why that might be the single biggest bullish signal for America's future. Anthropic's new free certification, Waymo going freeway-legal, Tesla Full Self-Driving, and why Sergey Brin showing up at an AI open meetup says everything. And to close: life expectancy is actually up, fentanyl deaths are down 26%, and GLP-1s are going generic so why does everyone feel like the world is ending? A packed 996. Episode 1000 is coming.
BONUS: Why 98% of Innovation Fails Before It Reaches a Single Customer Lorraine Marchand has spent three decades helping organizations innovate in environments where failure carries real consequences. In this episode, she shares the frameworks, stories, and hard-won lessons from her time at IBM Watson Health and beyond — starting with the summer her father handed her a stopwatch and a problem to solve at a diner. The Sugar Cube That Started It All "At the age of 12, I learned that problem solving was fun. It was really safe to experiment, and it turned out to be lucrative, because we earned some revenue and royalties from our sugar cube." Lorraine's innovation journey began with her father — a serial inventor who challenged his kids to identify and solve real problems. One summer, he took Lorraine and her brother to the Hot Shops Cafeteria in the Baltimore-Washington area with stopwatches, graph paper, and 3-color pens. Their assignment: figure out what was slowing down table turnover. After three days of observation and interviews with waitresses, busboys, and the manager, they discovered that sugar packets were the culprit — granules spilling over the table and floor during cleanup. Their solution, the Sugar Cube, was prototyped, sold to the manager, and eventually adopted across the chain — which later became the Marriott Corporation. The lesson stuck: innovation starts with observing problems close to the core, not chasing abstract ideas in a vacuum. Inside IBM Watson Health: Customer Co-Creation Over Engineering Brilliance "We have fallen in love with our solution. And we have not done our true problem-solving dissection and customer research to make sure that we're solving a problem that a customer wants to pay us to solve." At IBM Watson Health, Lorraine worked with 250 world-class engineers building solutions for the biggest names in life sciences — Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Sanofi, Medtronic. The process started with "garage sessions" where the team would tackle problems directly with a reference customer. But a recurring tension emerged: engineering would want to take what they learned from one customer, disappear into a room, build the perfect solution, and then hand it to marketing to sell. Lorraine had to repeatedly pull them back. A reference customer is an N of 1 — solving their problem doesn't guarantee a marketplace need. The discipline was to keep the customer in lockstep at every stage and continuously open the aperture, bringing in more customers and more feedback to validate that the solution would work at scale. The Innovation Mindset: Four Components That Matter "Thinking outside of the box means that you step outside of your box and you step into someone else's box." Lorraine identifies four components of the innovation mindset: problem solving, insatiable curiosity, embracing change, and welcoming diversity. The diversity piece is where most teams fall short. Homogenous groups become echo chambers — smart engineers designing from a technology perspective rather than a customer use perspective. The most innovative organizations Lorraine has worked with embrace cross-functional, multidisciplinary teams where engineering, marketing, and customer experience all have a seat at the table. No idea is a bad idea at the brainstorming stage — the down-selection comes later through structured evaluation. The Golden Ratio: Why 10% Drives 70% of Future Growth "Five years later, 70% of your growth will come from that 10% that you invested in innovation. So there's an inverse correlation to where you're investing and where that growth is going to come in the future." Lorraine points to the Golden Ratio framework popularized by Sergey Brin at Google: invest 70% in core business, 20% in adjacencies and new markets, and 10% in net new, transformative ideas that might not work out. The data across companies over the last 15 years consistently shows that the 10% bet on innovation generates the majority of future growth. Companies that invest 100% in core and a little in adjacency stay stuck in single-digit growth. Making innovation a strategic imperative — with dedicated budget and dedicated talent — is what separates companies that break out from those that stagnate. Experimentation Done Right: Problem Statement First, Prototype Fast "You have to have a really solid problem statement. It has to be clear, measurable, significant, and actionable." Good experimentation follows the scientific method. It starts with problem deconstruction — using first principles, the series of whys, or reframing to break down the problem until the statement is sharp enough to act on. From there, brainstorm solutions, down-select to the most promising one based on customer input, and build a minimal viable product. Lorraine emphasizes minimal — test the smallest feature possible, get it in front of customers quickly, capture the feedback, and loop it back into the next iteration. The continuous loop of learning is where real progress happens. The Watson Health Pivot: When the Customer Changes Everything "Even for me, it wasn't until we got this in the customer's hands and we were able to see how it was going to function in real life that we had the aha moment." At IBM Watson Health, Lorraine's team was developing an algorithm for a large medical device company working on pain intervention. The software used a patient's mobile phone to detect mobility issues — how quickly they got up from a chair, how easily they opened a jar — and determine when to deliver pain relief through the device. The engineering was elegant, the reference customer loved it. But when they put the solution in the hands of actual physicians and patients in their homes, they discovered they were off track in how the tool would function in real life. The pivot was dramatic: instead of the medical device company, they partnered with a pharmaceutical company that used the algorithm to guide patients on when to take pain-related medication. The entire end customer changed — because they did the work of testing with real users. Reframing Failure as Learning "If failure's in your operating system, you're not going to try these experiments, and you're not going to be willing to get it wrong." Lorraine's book No Fear, No Failure examines the strategic failure that holds companies back from innovating. One of the five C's in her framework is chance — the willingness to take calculated risks. The key is reframing experiments from "did we get it right or wrong?" to "what can we learn?" When teams set learning objectives for each experiment — what can I learn about this tool, about the customer, about how this works in practice — they remove the fear that prevents action and replace it with a process that compounds knowledge over time. About Lorraine Marchand Lorraine Marchand helps senior leaders innovate in high-cost-of-failure environments. An award-winning author, keynote speaker, and innovation advisor, she brings 30+ years of experience, including work at IBM Watson Health. Her book, No Fear, No Failure, offers practical frameworks for learning and growth without undue risk. You can link with Lorraine Marchand on LinkedIn and find more of her work at LorraineMarchand.com.
Growing up in Silicon Valley, Varun Sivaram didn't look to Elon Musk or Sergey Brin to learn about success stories. He looked to his dad, a material scientist who immigrated from India. But Varun's own dreams of pursuing a career in technology took a circuitous path. His physics lab at Oxford discovered a promising new solar material, but when he emerged from graduate school in 2012, it was no time to launch a renewables startup. After a successful early career pursuing his other love, foreign relations, he pivoted to tech. In 2024, Varun founded Emerald AI, which helps data centers adjust their workloads to use energy more efficiently. This week on With Great Power, Varun explains why he thinks AI can help save the grid. Varun and Brad talk about the demonstration pilots Emerald AI has completed and Varun's vision for a massive AI factory the company is helping to build, in Virginia. Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.
"Why are you in the Epstein files?"It is a question Rushkoff received from his own daughter, and in this raw monologue, he gives the full answer.His name appears in the CC field of emails from his former literary agent alongside Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and yes, Jeffrey Epstein. But the story of why those names were grouped together reveals something much darker than a mailing list.Rushkoff recounts a disturbing mid-90s dinner party where he was physically grabbed by a host and scolded for "wasting his plus-one" on a brilliant female intellectual instead of "eye candy" to decorate the room for the male elites. He traces the lineage of this misogyny directly to the "scientism" of figures like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, whose theories of humans as "meat machines" and "survival vehicles for genes" provided the perfect philosophical cover for sociopaths like Epstein to commodify and abuse women.This is not just a story about a predator; it is an indictment of the "permission structure" built by the scientific and tech elite. A worldview that dismisses human soul, consent, and morality as mere delusions.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human:Team Human is a listener-supported project. To get ad-free access to this episode, join our quarterly Zooms, and support this work, please visit https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today's episode exposes a new wave of Democrat control: from tracking your vehicle miles to targeting tech executives. We break down: The rise of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) programs, geofencing, and digital driving licenses Massachusetts & California demonstration projects modeled after Oxford, UK The threat to small, minority, and women-owned businesses Silicon Valley exodus to Florida and the reasons beyond the wealth tax Susan Rice's threats to tech titans and her “accountability agenda” Surveillance and persecution of Republican leaders and organizations The dangerous precedent of post-American judicial overreach Power, politics, and control collide — here's what's happening, and why it matters. ⚡ PRIMARY TALKING POINTS VMT programs & “Freedom to Move Act” – digital tracking & mile-based taxes Demonstration projects in Massachusetts, California, and Oxford, UK Income/geography-based pricing & high-cost zones for drivers Threats to small businesses, minority and women-owned enterprises Silicon Valley migration to Florida: Zuckerberg, Bezos, Page, Brin, and more Democrat surveillance on Republican leaders & activists The post-American judicial system & politically motivated prosecutions
From court battles to corporate exodus, today's episode dives into the chaos surrounding Donald Trump and the Democrats' increasingly aggressive tactics. We cover: The halted classified documents case and Jack Smith's controversial report Evidence tampering claims and legal maneuvers that shaped Trump's trials JPMorgan Chase and the debanking of Trump's empire Susan Rice's ominous warnings to corporations, universities, and media Silicon Valley's migration to Florida in response to political and legal pressure The hidden cost of US taxpayer funding to the Taliban Systemic failures in Democrat-run cities, homelessness, and welfare mismanagement A full breakdown of political, corporate, and global chaos you need to hear. ⚡ PRIMARY TALKING POINTS Jack Smith and the blocked classified documents report Alleged DOJ & FBI evidence tampering Trump's legal and financial battles post-presidency Susan Rice's warning: “We will get you” Corporate relocations: Google, Netflix, Stripe, Amazon, Apple Silicon Valley fleeing post-American judicial systems US taxpayer funding of Taliban amid global security concerns Democrat city mismanagement, homelessness, and welfare fraud
Dave Rubin of "The Rubin Report" talks about "Shark Tank's" Kevin O'Leary going viral for his brutal attack on Gavin Newsom's record of running California into the ground; CNN's Dana Bash grilling Gavin Newsom on California's affordability crisis and why his state has the highest cost of living in the country; "The Issue Is" host Elex Michaelson giving evidence to Bernie Sanders why California's billionaire wealth tax has already backfired causing billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin to leave California permanently; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embarrassing herself on a global stage at the Munich Security Conference with her stuttering response to a question about how far America should go to defend Taiwan; Joe Rogan and Michael Malice ripping into Zohran Mamdani for his insane NYC budget proposal, which dwarfs the entire state of Florida; the "Real Time with Bill Maher" crowd being stunned by Bill Maher's warning for any young person getting their lessons about Western civilization from pop stars like Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan; and much more. WATCH the MEMBER-EXCLUSIVE segment of the show here: https://rubinreport.locals.com/ Check out the NEW RUBIN REPORT MERCH here: https://daverubin.store/ ---------- Today's Sponsors: BUBS Naturals - BUBS helps restore collagen levels closer to what your body had in its youth—so your joints feel stronger, your hair and nails grow healthier, and your skin looks smoother. Live Better Longer with BUBS Naturals. For A limited time get 20% Off your entire order with code RUBIN at Bubsnaturals.com Venice.Ai - Use Ai that doesn't spy on you or censor the AI. Ai is valuable and you shouldn't need to give up your privacy to use it. Go to https://venice.ai/dave and use code DAVE to get 20% off a pro plan and enjoy private, uncensored AI.
Elon Musk has been loudly criticizing the DOJ and FBI over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, calling out what he sees as a disgraceful failure to hold powerful figures accountable. He presents himself as an outsider raging against the elite, demanding justice and transparency from the very institutions he claims are protecting predators. But there's a glaring contradiction that undercuts this entire performance: Musk himself once sat down at the same table as Jeffrey Epstein. At a private billionaire's dinner, years after Epstein's 2008 conviction was public knowledge, Musk broke bread with a man already known to be a convicted sex offender—making his current outrage feel more like calculated damage control than genuine moral concern.The hypocrisy is almost unbearable. You don't get to dine with a monster, stay silent for over a decade, and then pretend to be the loudest voice in the room demanding accountability. Musk's selective outrage reeks of self-preservation, not justice. He wasn't just in the same room—he was a participant in the same closed-door culture of wealth, access, and impunity that allowed Epstein to thrive. And now, as public pressure mounts, he wants to rewrite the past, cast himself as a truth-teller, and hope no one remembers where he was when it mattered. But history has receipts—and the dinner napkin still has his name on it.Elon Musk isn't the only one feigning moral outrage about Jeffrey Epstein while conveniently forgetting the dinner table they once shared. In 2011, at a private billionaires' dinner during a TED conference, Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, and other tech titans sat shoulder to shoulder with Epstein—a man already convicted of soliciting sex from a minor. These weren't ignorant bystanders. Epstein's name was radioactive by then, his crimes well documented. Yet these men, who now pretend to be disgusted by the cover-up, saw no issue sharing wine and strategy with him over filet mignon and handshakes. It was a who's who of unchecked power pretending Epstein was just another quirky financier with connections.Fast-forward to now, and the same billionaires want to position themselves as the public's moral compass—demanding justice, accountability, and answers from the government while playing dumb about their own proximity to the rot. Musk rails against the DOJ, Bezos hides behind silence, and the rest of them act like their invitations got lost in the mail. But this wasn't some accident. They sat there. They talked. They mingled. And they helped normalize a predator. These men didn't just witness the corruption—they were part of the network that allowed it to keep operating in plain sight. Now they want to shout from the rooftops as if they weren't once whispering in the same room. That's not courage. That's cleanup.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:In 2011, Jeffrey Epstein Was A Known Sex Offender. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, And Sergey Brin Shared A Meal With Him Anyway
Elon Musk has been loudly criticizing the DOJ and FBI over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, calling out what he sees as a disgraceful failure to hold powerful figures accountable. He presents himself as an outsider raging against the elite, demanding justice and transparency from the very institutions he claims are protecting predators. But there's a glaring contradiction that undercuts this entire performance: Musk himself once sat down at the same table as Jeffrey Epstein. At a private billionaire's dinner, years after Epstein's 2008 conviction was public knowledge, Musk broke bread with a man already known to be a convicted sex offender—making his current outrage feel more like calculated damage control than genuine moral concern.The hypocrisy is almost unbearable. You don't get to dine with a monster, stay silent for over a decade, and then pretend to be the loudest voice in the room demanding accountability. Musk's selective outrage reeks of self-preservation, not justice. He wasn't just in the same room—he was a participant in the same closed-door culture of wealth, access, and impunity that allowed Epstein to thrive. And now, as public pressure mounts, he wants to rewrite the past, cast himself as a truth-teller, and hope no one remembers where he was when it mattered. But history has receipts—and the dinner napkin still has his name on it.Elon Musk isn't the only one feigning moral outrage about Jeffrey Epstein while conveniently forgetting the dinner table they once shared. In 2011, at a private billionaires' dinner during a TED conference, Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, and other tech titans sat shoulder to shoulder with Epstein—a man already convicted of soliciting sex from a minor. These weren't ignorant bystanders. Epstein's name was radioactive by then, his crimes well documented. Yet these men, who now pretend to be disgusted by the cover-up, saw no issue sharing wine and strategy with him over filet mignon and handshakes. It was a who's who of unchecked power pretending Epstein was just another quirky financier with connections.Fast-forward to now, and the same billionaires want to position themselves as the public's moral compass—demanding justice, accountability, and answers from the government while playing dumb about their own proximity to the rot. Musk rails against the DOJ, Bezos hides behind silence, and the rest of them act like their invitations got lost in the mail. But this wasn't some accident. They sat there. They talked. They mingled. And they helped normalize a predator. These men didn't just witness the corruption—they were part of the network that allowed it to keep operating in plain sight. Now they want to shout from the rooftops as if they weren't once whispering in the same room. That's not courage. That's cleanup.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:In 2011, Jeffrey Epstein Was A Known Sex Offender. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, And Sergey Brin Shared A Meal With Him Anyway
A new tranche of Jeffrey Epstein's emails makes one thing painfully clear: Epstein was a central figure in the lives of a lot of big names in tech, and had influence on a surprising number of companies and executives. David and Nilay talk through what we've learned from the new emails so far. Then they turn to Anthropic's spicy new Super Bowl ads about... ads, which caused a big reaction from OpenAI (which is betting big on ads). They also discuss this week's antitrust hearing about Netflix's purchase of Warner Bros., the latest in Brendan Carr is a Dummy, Google Home's big buttons upgrade, and much more. Further reading: Here's how Epstein broke the internet Former Windows 8 boss recruited Epstein to help negotiate his messy Microsoft exit Jeffrey Epstein arranged a meeting with Tim Cook for the former head of Windows The Epstein files Google co-founder Sergey Brin visited Epstein's private island and traded emails with Ghislaine Maxwell. It turns out Elon Musk didn't exactly ‘refuse' the invite to Jeffrey Epstein's island. Will Elon Musk's emails with Jeffrey Epstein derail his very important year? Bill Gates says accusations contained in Epstein files are ‘absolutely absurd' Jeffrey Epstein was permanently banned from Xbox Live ‘We've basically funded an elite global pedophile ring since 2015.' Anthropic says ‘Claude will remain ad-free,' unlike an unnamed rival Anthropic's blog post: Claude is a space to think Sam Altman responds to Anthropic's ‘funny' Super Bowl ads OpenAI's CMO on X Nvidia CEO denies he's ‘unhappy' with OpenAI Netflix lands in the middle of a culture war during Senate hearing Everyone is stealing TV Disney says Josh D'Amaro will replace Bob Iger as CEO FCC aims to ensure “only living and lawful Americans” get Lifeline benefits Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI to build data centers in space — or so he says Peloton's gamble on expensive new hardware has yet to pay off Google Home finally adds support for buttons Raspberry Pi is raising prices again as memory shortages continue Valve's Steam Machine has been delayed, and the RAM crisis will impact pricing Aluminium: Why Google's Android for PC launch may be messy and controversial Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
My guest today is Gokul Rajaram, Founding Partner at Marathon Management. Gokul is one of the most prolific product builders and investors of the last twenty years. He has built the core ad and product businesses at Google, Facebook, Square, and DoorDash, working at each company during its most formative scaling periods. Alongside his operating career, Gokul has invested in more than 700 companies, giving him an unusually broad view into how products are built and scaled. This conversation is about how product building is changing with AI. We discuss the one thing Gokul believes is truly future-proof in AI, why companies like Zendesk and Slack are more exposed than Salesforce or NetSuite, and the only sources of defensibility. We also talk about everything Gokul has learned from helping build the most important ads businesses, including the only three ways an ad business can make money, how those constraints shape product decisions, and what consumer behavior change threatens every major platform. Gokul shares lessons from working closely with Larry and Sergey, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Tony Xu. Please enjoy my conversation with Gokul Rajaram. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ramp. Ramp's mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Trusted by thousands of businesses, Vanta continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit vanta.com/invest. ----- This episode is brought to you by Rogo. Rogo is an AI-powered platform that automates accounts payable workflows, enabling finance teams to process invoices faster and with greater accuracy. Learn more at Rogo.ai/invest. ----- This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. WorkOS is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit WorkOS.com to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit ridgelineapps.com. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Timestamps (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:00:53) Meet Gokul Rajaram (00:02:05) How Product Development is Changing with AI (00:07:32) Philosophy of Product Management (00:10:19) What is Future-Proof in AI Era (00:11:25) Building AI Applications Today (00:15:03) Systems of Record vs Agent Companies (00:16:58) Which Legacy Software Companies Are Most Exposed (00:22:15) Stickiness in the AI Era (00:24:10) Learning from Larry Page and Sergey Brin (00:28:15) Learning from Mark Zuckerberg (00:31:31) Learning from Jack Dorsey (00:35:40) The Art of Great Product Design (00:36:49) Weekly CEO Communication (00:40:27) Three Ways to Succeed in Advertising (00:44:27) What Should Scare Major Ad Platforms (00:48:24) North Star Metrics (00:50:09) Self-Serve Products (00:54:50) Careers in the AI Era (00:59:03) Stay Long Enough to Have Impact (01:00:10) Founder Authenticity and Superpowers (01:02:21) Navigating the Idea Maze (01:03:42) Role of Boards (01:06:31) Excellence in Customer Acquisition (01:09:11) The Kindest Thing
Molly Graham has worked for some of tech's most effective leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, and Bret Taylor. Today she leads Glue Club, a community for leaders navigating rapid scale, growth, and change. She's best known for her “Give away your Legos” framework and her collection of practical mental models for leading through hypergrowth.We discuss:1. “Give away your Legos”: a framework for scaling yourself as a leader2. “J-curves vs. stairs”: the two paths of career growth, and why you should pick the scarier path3. “The waterline model” for diagnosing team problems (and why you should “snorkel before you scuba”)4. Six rules for creating effective goals (and aligning everyone around them)5. Rules of thumb for leading through rapid scale and change6. Her biggest leadership lessons from Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Sheryl Sandberg, and Bret Taylor—Brought to you by:DX—The developer intelligence platform designed by leading researchersBrex—The banking solution for startupsGoFundMe Giving Funds—Make helping a habit—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-high-growth-handbook-molly-graham—My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/182877855/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation—Where to find Molly Graham:• X: https://x.com/molly_g• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mograham• Substack: https://mollyg.substack.com• Website: https://glueclub.com—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Molly Graham(04:28) Molly's background at Google, Facebook, Quip, and CZI(11:29) The “Give away your Legos” framework(16:44) Managing your inner monster(19:49) When not to give away your Legos(21:28) Embracing a long career(23:25) The J-curve vs. stairs approach to career growth(32:00) The gift of knowing yourself(34:28) Learning to be a professional idiot(38:30) The waterline model: snorkel before you scuba(47:16) Six rules for creating strong alignment around goals(57:15) Rules of thumb for leading through rapid scale(01:07:49) Investing in high performers vs. low performers(01:10:54) Lessons from Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and Bret Taylor(1:21:15) Pivoting from ambition to purpose(1:26:32) Finding stability in instability(01:29:44) Final thoughts—Referenced:• Making an impact through authenticity and curiosity | Ami Vora (CPO at Faire, ex-WhatsApp, FB, IG): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/authenticity-and-curiosity-ami-vora• Sheryl Sandberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryl-sandberg-5126652• Elliot Schrage on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotschrage• Quip: https://quip.com• He saved OpenAI, invented the “Like” button, and built Google Maps: Bret Taylor on the future of careers, coding, agents, and more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/he-saved-openai-bret-taylor• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: https://chanzuckerberg.com• 10 contrarian leadership truths every leader needs to hear | Matt MacInnis (Rippling): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/10-contrarian-leadership-truths• ‘Give Away Your Legos' and Other Commandments for Scaling Startups: https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups• The Muppets: https://muppets.disney.com• Sara Caldwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramcaldwell• J-Curves vs. Stairs: Two Approaches to Career Growth: https://mollyg.substack.com/p/j-curve• Forget the corporate ladder—winners take risks: https://www.ted.com/talks/molly_graham_forget_the_corporate_ladder_winners_take_risks• Chamath Palihapitiya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chamath• Lori Goler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-goler-6b96921• Joseph Campbell's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/192665-the-cave-you-fear-to-enter-holds-the-treasure-you• Zevi Arnovitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zev-arnovitz• Peopling 101: The Waterline Model: https://christinehaskell.com/blog/peopling-101-the-waterline-model• Introduction to NVC: https://www.cnvc.org/learn/what-is-nvc• I hate OKRs... and other thoughts about goal setting: https://mollyg.substack.com/p/i-hate-okrs-and-other-thoughts-about• Lessons from scaling Stripe | Claire Hughes Johnson (former COO of Stripe): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-scaling-stripe-tactics• James Clear's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9614600-problem-1-winners-and-losers-have-the-same-goals• Founder mode: https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html• Stripe: https://stripe.com• Patrick Collison on X: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison• John Collison on X: https://x.com/collision• Seth Godin's best tactics for building remarkable products, strategies, brands and more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/seth-godins-tactics-for-building-remarkable-products• Eric Antonow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonow—Recommended books:• The Artist's Way: https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-25th-Anniversary/dp/0143129252• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com