Podcasts about Silicon Valley

The Week in Tech is now a roundtable! Every Friday, Oz and three of the best writers covering Silicon Valley will discuss the latest news, decode emerging trends and debate what actually matters for the future of technology and for us. This week, guests Reed Albergotti (Semafor), Kyle Chayka (The New Yorker) and returning panelist Taylor Lorenz (User Mag) each share a story. Reed fills us in on what he saw at the Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, and why we shouldn’t ignore OpenClaw. Taylor gives a primer on Section 230, the 30-year-old foundational internet law, and why there’s a campaign to repeal it. And finally, Kyle tells us what ‘taste’ means to Silicon Valley’s tech bros and why it may annoy you. Additional Reading: We’re all living inside Jensen Huang’s ‘triangle’ | Semafor How Powerful People Became Obsessed w/ Section 230 | User Mag Why Tech Bros Are Now Obsessed with Taste | The New Yorker See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

California is a state that God clearly favored. It has towering mountains, endless ocean coastlines, fertile valleys that feed half the country, tech trillions pouring out of Silicon Valley, Hollywood glamor that still captivates the world, and some of the richest farmland anywhere on earth. This place could literally print money if it wanted to. Instead, it has become the world's most expensive homeless encampment that increasingly resembles a third world country with better Instagram filters. In California, local officials poured $37 billion into the largest open-air drug market in America, built the most expensive train set that never left the toy store, turned the fifth-largest economy in the world into a foreign oil–dependent, price-gouged, blackout-prone laughingstock, and lit the state on fire, quite literally. Yet, if you only listened to Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Sacramento Democrats over the past decade, you'd believe it's all Donald Trump's fault, argues Drew Allen on this special video commentary.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Raising money off frothy numbers to sugarcoat the rotten apple is what built this town.” That's according to Duncan Park, the protagonist of "The Audacity," a new dark comedy from AMC about tech CEOs and their relationships with their families, therapists and enablers. Live from SXSW, Kara spoke with executive producer and showrunner Jonathan Glatzer ("Succession," "Bad Sisters," "Better Call Saul"), star Billy Magnussen, and executive producer Gina Mingacci ("Killing Eve," "Orphan Black"). The series follows Duncan, an ambitious, arrogant data-mining CEO determined to join Silicon Valley's billionaire elite, and holds up a mirror to the greed and ego shaping modern tech culture. They discuss how tech's obsession with disruption and data has come at the cost of privacy and real human connection. While "The Audacity" is a sharp satire, it also finds surprising humanity in even the most unlikable tech bros — and even made Kara feel empathy for them, despite her best intentions. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the Senate debates the SAVE America Act amid unfounded claims of voter fraud, Jon is joined by Georgetown Research Professor Renée DiResta and Platformer editor Casey Newton to examine what actually threatens our elections. Together, they investigate how algorithms are engineered to push users toward platform owners' preferred ideologies, explore the incentives driving Silicon Valley's rightward shift, and discuss how Republicans have weaponized disinformation to undermine electoral trust and rewrite voting rules in their favor. This episode is brought to you by: GROUND NEWS - Go to https://groundnews.com/stewart to see how any news story is being framed by news outlets around the world and across the political spectrum. Use this link to get 40% off unlimited access with the Vantage Subscription. MAGIC SPOON - Get $5 off your next order at https://magicspoon.com/tws Follow The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart on social media for more:  > YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@weeklyshowpodcast > Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weeklyshowpodcast > TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@weeklyshowpodcast  > X: https://x.com/weeklyshowpod   > BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/theweeklyshowpodcast.com Host/Executive Producer – Jon Stewart Executive Producer – James Dixon Executive Producer – Chris McShane Executive Producer – Caity Gray Lead Producer – Lauren Walker Producer – Brittany Mehmedovic  Producer – Gillian Spear Video Editor & Engineer – Rob Vitolo Audio Editor & Engineer – Nicole Boyce Music by Hansdle Hsu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Munjal Shah, Co-founder and CEO of Hippocratic AI, shares his journey from Silicon Valley entrepreneur to healthcare innovator and explains why safety, voice technology, and an abundance mindset are redefining patient engagement. He discusses designing AI that operates within clinical guardrails, prioritizes patients first, and scales empathetic outreach without compromising trust. This episode is sponsored by Hippocratic AI.

The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet (U Minnesota Press, 2026) by Dr. Lisa Nakamura challenges the widespread myth that the internet was born from the labor of a handful of white male entrepreneurs, recovering the uncredited and unpaid contributions of women of color. Focusing on three key inflection points in computing—the microchip era of the 1960s and '70s, the rise of social media in the 2000s, and A.I.-fueled virtual reality in the 2020s—Dr. Nakamura illuminates these women's instrumental roles in building new technologies and making them coherent to users. From the Navajo women who manufactured the first semiconductor circuits in New Mexico to Tila Tequila, the queer Vietnamese American refugee who became the first true internet influencer in the MySpace age, to Black virtual reality creators, Dr. Nakamura highlights how women's gendered and racialized identities have uniquely positioned them to mediate the development and proliferation of new technologies. She exposes how these women have been structurally excluded from racial capitalism's benefits while their labor is considered as exploitable and inexhaustible as that of machines. Confronting this injustice, she focuses our attention on their work, which undergirds and makes possible the platforms ingrained in our daily lives. Arguing for both recognition and material compensation for these women's labor, The Inattention Economy is a powerful counterhistory of Silicon Valley and a persuasive call to imagine a different kind of internet. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In recent years, Silicon Valley has imagined for us a new way of life – one where almost anyone can be a twenty or thirty-something-year-old with a supernatural glow, toned physique, understated intelligence, and a superabundance of vitality. This is not reality for most people, even for the twenty or thirty-something-year-olds, but medicine and technology originally intended to help people achieve baseline health are increasingly being leveraged to close the gap. This raises the question: what is medicine for? Is medicine about restoring people to some definition of “normal” health? And if so, what about all the people contentedly living in bodies considered medically abnormal?Our guest is Devan Stahl, author, clinical ethicist, and professor of bioethics and religion at Baylor University. Professor Stahl received her PhD in Health Care Ethics from St. Louis University, before completing her Master of Divinity at Vanderbilt University. Her scholarship focuses on disability theology and bioethics, and her most recent books include Disability's Challenge to Theology (2022) and Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body (2023). In addition to her scholarly work, Stahl volunteers as a clinical ethicist with the Supportive and Palliative Care Team at her local hospital. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss whether it is the role of a clinical ethicist to determine what is “right” in a given situation – and if so, how that is accomplished. We explore how Silicon Valley's promotion of the “optimized” human raises questions about the purpose of medicine, and the various ways medicine defines the idea of “normal” health. Stahl shares her experience in the healthcare system as someone with multiple sclerosis, cautioning that some providers are more comfortable focusing on the digitized version of someone's disability than on the person themselves. Together, we imagine a doctor's role not just in restoring patients to normality, but guiding them to flourish.  In this episode, you'll hear about: 3:19 - The questions that have driven Stahl's academic career as a professor of bioethics and religion. 5:00 - The types of requests Stahl receives as a bioethicist at her local hospital.12:51 - How Silicon Valley is skewing public perception of “health” — and the questions this raises about the purpose of medicine.20:12 - Stahl's experience navigating uncomfortable and confusing medical encounters as a person with disability herself.25:24 - Stahl's take on the “purpose” of modern medicine.29:48 - Ways in which our society tends to value certain kinds of bodies over others. 39:36 - Imagining the role of physicians in helping patients flourish. 44:55 - How health care professionals can find deeper meaning in their work and lives.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.Copyright The Doctor's Art Podcast 2026

William Hockey is the co-founder of Plaid and the founder and CEO of Column, a software company that owns a bank and powers Ramp, Wise, Bilt, Mercury, and others. He funded Column by borrowing against his Plaid shares and has never raised outside capital.  William talks about what owning 100% of his company allows him to do that other venture-backed founder cannot and the personal risk he took to do so. He shares how Silicon Valley's consensus culture produces consensus founders, and why becoming a founder has become too safe. He believes the best builders are specialists and explains with unusual clarity what it takes to become the best in the world at one specific thing. William also spends a lot of time in emerging markets which has given him a unique perspective of the power of the US dollar. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠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. ----- 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.  ----- ⁠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. ----- ⁠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. ----- ⁠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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgeline.ai⁠. ----- 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 (00:02:43) Intro: William Hockey (00:03:49) Column: A Software Company That Owns a Bank (00:06:46) Finding Ideas in Emerging Markets (00:11:58) Why Constrained Societies Are More Innovative (00:16:02) What's Wrong With Silicon Valley (00:19:28) Building a Business Without Raising Money (00:22:48) What Venture-Backed Companies Can't Do (00:28:39) Getting Margin Called (00:31:41) Starting Companies Has Become Too Safe (00:34:23) Why Employees Take More Risks Than Founders (00:37:09) A Maniacal Commitment to Research (00:39:09) Finding Boring Problems to Solve (00:41:45) Why Building a Second Company is Easier (00:42:36) Missionary vs. Mercenary (00:45:49) Funding a Company with Cash Flows (00:50:04) Perspective on the Venture Ecosystem (00:52:48) The Dominance of the US Dollar (00:58:37) The Future of Financial Services (01:02:06) Why Big, Inefficient Brands Win From AI (01:06:29) The Opportunity for Non-Consensus Founders (01:08:03) The Kindest Thing

What is “artificial intelligence”? Is it a fancy technology? A management consulting buzzword? A PR effort to inflate corporate share prices? A political project designed to shape the world more to the liking of the billionaire class? A way to replace needy human workers with machines? Perhaps it’s all of that—and more. In her groundbreaking book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, award-winning journalist Karen Hao argues that AI—and the profit-driven infrastructure that surrounds it—is a colonial project. What OpenAI boss Altman and his fellow ideologues in Silicon Valley are pursuing, Hao says, is not just corporate power but imperial power. They are building empires. And as history shows, empires are built on resource extraction, particularly the old-fashioned kind: of labor, energy, minerals, land, water. Seemingly overnight, tech elites’ feel-good climate promises have evaporated, having been seamlessly swapped for slippery promises that so-called “artificial general intelligence” will save the planet for us. Never mind that AGI is a fantastical concept that has no agreed-upon definition, or that, more fundamentally, it appears nowhere close to existing. In Big Tech’s frenzied pursuit of the “hyperscale” AI dominance that evangelists claim will unlock AGI, as well as its expanding alliances with fossil fuel-backed petrostates and authoritarian political movements, the industry has become an increasingly central contributor to the climate crisis. In an October conversation with Drilled, Hao discussed how Silicon Valley giants appear to be following the oil and gas industry’s playbook of disinformation and deceit; how Altman and OpenAI’s secrecy and disingenuous rhetoric transformed the field of AI research into corporate PR; and why the destructive trajectory of AI scale and commercialization is not inevitable—no matter what its power-hungry proponents would have you believe.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How is AI reshaping our relationship with work, and what does that mean for the tools we rely on every day? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Cory McElroy, Vice President of Commercial Product Management at HP. Our conversation begins with a reflection on one of the most famous garages in technology history. The original HP garage in Palo Alto is often described as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, and standing there recently reminded me how far the industry has come since those early days. But as Cory explains, we may be entering another turning point. The nature of work has shifted rapidly in just a few years. Hybrid work is now the norm for millions of people, and expectations around workplace technology have changed with it. Employees no longer see technology as a basic productivity tool. They expect it to adapt to them, reduce friction, and help them focus on meaningful work. Cory shares insights from HP's Work Relationship Index, which highlights a striking reality. Only around 20 percent of employees say they have a healthy relationship with work. That number sounds concerning at first, but it also points to an opportunity. When organizations provide the right tools and experiences, employees become more productive, more creative, and more likely to stay. A big theme throughout our conversation is the growing role of AI directly on devices. Running AI locally on PCs changes how people interact with technology. Tasks that once took hours, such as analyzing documents or extracting insights from data, can now happen almost instantly. In some internal deployments at HP, employees reported saving up to four hours each week. We also talk about the hardware innovations that are emerging in response to this shift. Cory explains how new devices like the HP EliteBook X and the EliteBoard reflect a rethink of the PC itself. The EliteBoard, for example, integrates a full PC inside a keyboard, allowing users to connect to any display and instantly access desktop-level performance. It is a design that reflects the flexibility people now expect from modern workspaces. Looking ahead, Cory believes the next few years will bring even bigger change. Devices will increasingly understand context, connect seamlessly with other tools, and respond to natural language requests. Instead of jumping between multiple applications to complete a task, users may simply ask their device to assemble information and produce the outcome they need. So as AI becomes embedded into the devices we use every day and work continues to evolve, what would a truly frictionless workday look like for you, and how will your relationship with technology change as a result?

DR1In our 'Asshole is selfish' headline of the week. Billionaire Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick admits strategically moving to Texas before California wealth tax***************Kalanick was caught on camera in a heated argument with an Uber driver, who complained about falling fares and the company's treatment of drivers: "Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own sh*t"In our 'Top snarky podcast hosts plead with airline companies to stop the share buyback bullshit and pay airport workers. ‘Once again, air travel CEOs are bullshit artists'' headline of the week. Top airline CEOs plead with Congress to restore DHS funding and pay airport workers. ‘Once again, air travel is the political football'***************Between June 1, 2025, and March 16, 2026:Southwest repurchased $2.6B in 2005; $400M in 2026United $1.5B5 NEOs: $91 million in 2025Scott Kirby $34M; $97M in shares Delta focused on $4.8B debt reductionFrontline Transportation Security Officers (TSOs, Airport Screeners): 50,000$328M per monthIn our 'Pervy owner does pervy stuff and everybody is fake shocked.' headline of the week. It Was Going to Be Magic City Night at the Atlanta Hawks. Then the Outrage Poured In.***************Tony Ressler founded the private equity firm Apollo Global Management with Leon Black.An independent review revealed that Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158M for financial and tax-planning services between 2012 and 2017. These payments occurred after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting an underage girl.Ressler is the brother-in-law of Leon Black (Black is married to Ressler's sister, Debra) In our 'College dropout techbro ignores actual experts, part 17 million ' headline of the week. OpenAI's own mental health experts unanimously opposed “naughty” ChatGPT launch*************** The probably might be too many women and not enough Stanford? The council consists of the following eight independent experts:David Bickham, Ph.D. – Research Director at the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical SchoolMathilde Cerioli, Ph.D. – Chief Scientific Officer at everyone.AI and researcher in cognitive neuroscience and psychologyMunmun De Choudhury, Ph.D. – Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, specializing in how technology shapes mental healthTracy Dennis-Tiwary, Ph.D. – Professor of Psychology at Hunter College and co-founder/CSO of Arcade TherapeuticsSara Johansen, M.D. – Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University and founder of Stanford's Digital Mental Health ClinicDavid Mohr, Ph.D. – Professor at Northwestern University and Director of the Center for Behavioral Intervention TechnologiesAndrew K. Przybylski, Ph.D. – Professor of Human Behavior and Technology at the University of OxfordRobert K. Ross, M.D. – Former President and CEO of The California Endowment and a national leader in public health.In addition to the council's pushback, Ryan Beiermeister, OpenAI's head of product policy, was reportedly fired in January 2026 after being an outspoken internal critic of the erotica rollout. OpenAI has denied her dismissal was related to her opposition, citing separate workplace allegations that Beiermeister has called "absolutely false."In our 'Petulant manchild with no regulatory or societal guardrails screws up again and bails himself out with shareholder money from a different company' headline of the week. Elon Musk admits xAI ‘wasn't built right' as only 2 co-founders remain and its biggest AI bet stalls out***************The people leaving xAI right now aren't "legacy" employees—they are the hand-picked superstars Musk himself recruited in 2023 to build his AI dream.Out of the 12 original co-founders, 10 are gone. This isn't just "trimming the fat"; it's the original architects of the company walking out the door.In early 2026, Tesla (a public company) invested $2B into xAI.Tesla shareholders are furious, arguing that Musk used their money to fund a "broken" startup, then tucked it away inside his private SpaceX empire where there is less public oversight.Total Headcount Before Buyout: Approximately 7,500 to 8,000 employees.In his first week, Musk fired roughly 50% of the staff (about 3,700 people) overnight.Shortly after, he issued his famous "extremely hardcore" memo. When hundreds of employees refused to sign it and resigned instead, the headcount plummeted further.By April 2023, Musk confirmed in a BBC interview that the workforce had been slashed by 80%, leaving only about 1,500 employees. MM1In our 'The world's most stable billionaire announces a billionaire to all other billionaires ratio of 693:1' headline of the week. Elon Musk Is Now Worth More Than Bottom 693 Billionaires CombinedIn our 'In news celebrated worldwide, older women announce a "please save us from tech bros" to asshole ratio of 64:1 Elon Musk' headline of the week. Older women set to inherit most of $54 trillion in ‘great wealth transfer' to widowed spousesIn our 'Asshole wants you to know he is still here' headline of the week. ‘I never left': Travis Kalanick launches new robotics company Atoms with manifesto"At Atoms we make gainfully employed robots — specialized robots with productive jobs that bring abundance to their owners and society at large,"In our 'Company founder announces major "stealth mode" company perk is stealthy sexual harassment' headline of the week. Travis Kalanick sees benefits of being in stealth mode for 8 years. ‘You build a culture of people that want to build and do not need to be famous'In our 'Christmas, St. Patrick, Mel Gibson, and Casper the Friendly Ghost have reportedly filed complaints with the EEOC' headline of the week. Nike and Coca-Cola cases point to the next DEI fight: who gets to claim discriminationDR2In our 'Sheryl Sandberg says "If I could have worked at Facebook things would have turned out differently."' headline of the week. Sheryl Sandberg says Silicon Valley's hypermasculine rhetoric is ‘terrible'—contributing to ‘one of the worst' corporate climates she's ever seen*************** In our 'Explosive Messages Show Live Nation Thinks Customers Are ‘Stupid'; board member Richard Grenell Demands Credit for Same Observation' headline of the week. Live Nation Directors Mocked Customers in Explosive Just-Released Messages, Saying They're “Stupid” for Allowing Themselves to Be Gouged***************"Yes, I cut the DEI bullshit." — In a leaked 2025 email Grenell justified dismantling diversity programs by labeling them "woke" initiatives that "haven't made money."appointed to the Live Nation board on May 19, 2025, but was not up for the vote at the AGM on June 12, 2025In our 'Gun manufacturers say, "Oh no, it's not the gun that kills people, it's the pesky bullets."' headline of the week. She spent 16 hours on Instagram in a day. It's up to a jury to decide if Meta is to blame*************** In our 'She responded to "O" with "K," she said "J' to "D," and she responded to "F" with a simple "U"' headline of the week. Mary Barra still responds to ‘every single letter' she gets by hand despite running $65 billion automaker General Motors***************She did not say "V" to "E"In our 'OpenAI Chairman Admits It's Painful Watching AI Replace His Coding, Less So Watching It Accelerate the Collapse of Global Democracy' headline of the week. OpenAI Chairman says it's 'hard, emotionally' to let AI write his code: 'I have a hard time not caring'*************** MM2In our 'Proposals include a reduction in the CEO pay ratio from 1800:1 to 1799:1, for my boss to stop calling me Carl when my name is Todd, having a job, and not to have to take out my nose ring I got in 1998' headline of the week. Starbucks union sent the company a proposed contract. Here's what baristas wantProtections for union baristas against discrimination, unjust firings and temporary or permanent store closures.Starting wage floor of $17 per hour, down from its prior proposal of $20 an hour but still above the company's current starting wage of $15.25 to $16 an hour in 43 states.Annual raises of 4%.A process for baristas, management and union representatives to resolve workforce grievances.A dress code endorsed by the union.Requirement for at least three workers on the floor at all times and enforceable staffing and safety protections.A mandate to offer open hours to existing employees before hiring new baristas.Resolution of hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges.In our 'But Sam Altman is SORRY' headline of the week. Professors Say AI Is Destroying Their Students' Ability to ThinkIn our 'Don't be fooled, I'm actually a MAN' headline of the week. CoStar Group Appoints Nana Banerjee to Its Board of DirectorsI pulled every Trade Wire story with a director appointment - 69 in the last week, all press released, some private some public - and here's the count: 60 men added to boards, 9 women added, 1 woman leftIn our 'Building on Warren Buffet's innovative "Giving Pledge", billionaire creates the rival "Taking Pledge"' headline of the week. Peter Thiel is actively convincing billionaires to abandon The Giving Pledge — and it's workingIn our 'When asked for comment, ISS asked if Nelson Peltz was involved.' headline of the week. The Coca-Cola Company Announces Maria Elena Lagomasino Will Conclude Her Service on the Board of Directors

In the second half of our two-part series on one of In Bed with the Right's bêtes noires, Adrian and Moira chart the resistible rise of Bari Weiss's from her time on the canceled-person circuit to the pinnacle of American news media. Topics covered: the rise of the Free Press and the decline of the free press; how a certain kind of Silicon Valley creep fell in love with what Bari was selling; how she rode the "vibe shift" among tech elites to maximum profit; and why the Trump-era may well prove her undoing.Some of our sources for this episode:On Bari's reign of terror at CBS: Clare Malone, "Inside Bari Weiss's Hostile Takeover of CBS"Radley Balko's takedown of the Free Press piece about George Floyd: "The Retconning of George Floyd"If you read German, and want to know more about the tech elite's "vibe shift" around 2020, you can check out Adrian's new book! (Or you can wait until September 10 to get the English version!)

Today on Open Book, I'm joined by legendary venture capitalist Bill Gurley, whose new book Runnin' Down a Dream challenges a lot of the career advice we give young people. Bill argues that the safest career path isn't the “safe job” at all—it's finding something you're genuinely fascinated by and chasing it relentlessly. We're going to talk about curiosity, regret, and how to build a career you actually love. Bill Gurley is a general partner at Benchmark, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Over his venture career, he has invested in and served on the board of such companies as Nextdoor, OpenTable, Stitch Fix, Uber, and Zillow. Gurley has written about technology and other subjects on his popular blog, Above the Crowd, for over 20 years. This is a sensational book. Get your copy of Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Thrive in a Career You Actually Love here: https://amzn.to/46X4rEc Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio. Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://linktr.ee/anthonyscaramucci⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're continuing our series called Finish Strong.This week, we are learning how to respond with confidence and calmness in the middle of unexpected storms.GET CONNECTED + PRAYERNew to EDEN? We'd love to pray for you, too! Let us know at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://eden.church/connect⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN ABOUT EDEN CHURCHEDEN is a startup church in Silicon Valley. Learn more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://eden.church⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFB:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/edenthechurch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠IG:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/edenthechurch/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GIVE TODAY⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://eden.church/give⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

“You would not want to be me.” — Elon MuskYesterday I argued that Dario Amodei is the most interesting man in America because he's doing something nobody else has the balls to do: acting like a human being in public. Elon Musk is the opposite. He has the balls — nobody would deny that — but what's missing is the human-being. Or perhaps Elon is all-too-human, which explains why so many of us — including myself — loathe him.Charles Steel, a London investor, doesn't loathe Elon. In fact, he's self-published a book about him: The Curious Mind of Elon Musk: Nine Ways He Thinks Differently. Rather than an Elon hagiography, Steel insists, it's an attempt to explain why Musk admirers don't fully understand him, and the Hate-Elon crowd would probably loathe him for different reasons even if they had full navigation rights to his mind.As I said, I'm in the second camp. My dislike of Musk is political — the cosying up to Trump, the DOGE fiasco, the embrace of far-right groups, the transformation of Twitter into a safe space for misanthropes. But Steel makes a case that, in our therapeutic culture, might be harder for some to dismiss: Musk's “curious mind” is the product of childhood bullying, high-functioning autism, an abusive father, and an existential crisis resolved not by philosophy but by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Apparently Elon read Nietzsche and that, of course, only compounded his existential crisis. Probably because Nietzsche was warning us about a future dominated by philistines like Elon Musk.In navigating the Musk mind, Steel discovers three traits: hyper-rationality, existential angst, and belligerence. Lots of Silicon Valley founders have the first. Some have the second. Almost none have the third. The combination produces a man who genuinely believes that the scientific method — the right of anyone to criticize anything — is a secular religion, and that “wokeness” is a competing religion that must be destroyed. Whether or not you buy this self-serving argument, Steel might be right to stress a Musk worldview — even if that worldview is often childishly indefensible.I suggested to Steel that Musk is trapped in a Hobbesian state of nature — frozen alone, unable to read other people, incapable of separating himself from himself. A kind of naturally narcissistic state. This is what I most dislike about Elon. That he's normalizing this state of nature. Nietzsche might (like his contemporary disciple Peter Thiel) have called him the Anti-Christ. He's certainly the anti-Dario. Five Takeaways•       Musk Is the Anti-Dario: Amodei acts like a human being in public. Musk has the balls but what's missing is the human-being. Or perhaps he's all-too-human, which explains why so many of us loathe him. The contrast between them is the story of Silicon Valley in 2026.•       Steel's Case Is Harder to Dismiss Than You'd Think: Musk's “curious mind” is the product of childhood bullying, high-functioning autism, an abusive father, and an existential crisis resolved not by philosophy but by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He read Nietzsche and it made things worse. Probably because Nietzsche was warning us about philistines like Musk.•       Three Traits: Hyper-Rationality, Angst, and Belligerence: Lots of Silicon Valley founders have the first. Some have the second. Almost none have the third. The combination produces a man who believes the scientific method is a secular religion and wokeness is a competing one that must be destroyed. Whether or not you buy this self-serving argument, Steel might be right to stress a Musk worldview — even if it's often childishly indefensible.•       Trapped in a Hobbesian State of Nature: Musk is frozen alone, unable to read other people, incapable of separating himself from himself. A kind of naturally narcissistic state. What's most dangerous about Elon is that he's normalising this state of nature for the rest of us.•       The Anti-Christ and the Anti-Dario: Nietzsche might, like his contemporary disciple Peter Thiel, have called Musk the Anti-Christ. He's certainly the anti-Dario. The contrast between Amodei and Musk is the story of Silicon Valley — and perhaps America — in 2026. About the GuestCharles Steel is a London-based investor and writer. He has worked with Tony Blair and Save the Children. His book The Curious Mind of Elon Musk: Nine Ways He Thinks Differently is self-published and out now. His next project is on Albert Camus.References:•       The Curious Mind of Elon Musk: Nine Ways He Thinks Differently by Charles Steel — the book under discussion.•       Episode 2835: Why Dario Amodei Might Be the 21st Century's First Real Leader — yesterday's TWTW, the direct counterpoint.•       Zero to One by Peter Thiel — referenced by Steel on Asperger-like traits and Silicon Valley success.•       The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams — the book Musk credits with resolving his existential crisis.•       The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus — Steel's next project, and the question he'd most like to discuss with Musk.About Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction: I'm not a great fan of Elon Musk (02:05) - Is Musk on the spectrum? (03:56) - The meaning of life and the philosophy of curiosity (05:58) - Childhood bullying, an abusive father, and Musk as casualty (06:53) - “You would not want to be me” (08:38) - Hobbes, the state of nature, and Musk as pre-social man (10:29) - Should we try to be less normal? (12:15) - Racism, empathy, and the missing human attributes (14:14) - Goebbels comparison: when does curiosity become offensive? (15:52) - Why is it always the right? Musk and wokeness (17:18) - The curious mind as mirror of ou...

Ian Bremmer sits down with Thomas Wright, Brookings Institution fellow and former Senior Director at the US National Security Council, to unpack the deepening war in Iran and the divergent strategies shaping it. What are the possible outcomes for the widening conflict in Iran? What began as a dramatic opening strike has evolved into a far more complex war, with Washington, Jerusalem, and Tehran all pursuing different aims. Wright argues this isn't simply about degrading military capability; it's about competing endgames that may pull the region in unpredictable directions. As Wright explains, the United States is hoping for a pragmatic partner inside Iran, while Israel pushes for full regime change. “Trump couldn't care less if Larijani runs Iran. The Israelis do… They're going to go full bore for regime change,” he says. At the same time, efforts to fragment the country risk creating “a much bigger problem… a Syria civil war on steroids.” The conversation also examines how other global players are responding. Europe has been muted, trying to accommodate the US, while China and Russia tread carefully, balancing economic and strategic interests without directly confronting Washington. Wright also discusses domestic implications, including the Pentagon's evolving relationship with Silicon Valley and how frontier technologies like AI are intersecting with national security concerns. Looking ahead, Wright outlines both best-and worst-case scenarios — from the emergence of a more legitimate leadership to the specter of fragmentation that could intensify regional instability. With no clear exit ramp in sight, this conversation explores what might come next and why the endgame of this war remains so uncertain.   Host: Ian Bremmer Guest: Thomas Wright Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Called the “Godfather of the Silicon Valley's Indian Mafia” by Fortune magazine, Kanwal Rekhi's successful journey through the top ranks of the tech world in many ways mirrors the rise of modern India. Now Rekhi comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to share his personal account of business leadership and of U.S.-India relations.In his rapid rise through the tech industry, Rekhi rubbed shoulders with luminaries such as Gates, Jobs and Ellison, and he would go on to advise presidents and prime ministers on culture-shifting policies. He is perhaps best know for his work inspiring and launching the careers of thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs, many of whom have become millionaires and even billionaires. He shares stories of his life, career, and outlook in his new book The Groundbreaker, reflecting on what it meant to be an American at the dawn of the digital age, what it means to be an American now amid massive change and uncertainty, and why he believes democracy is crucial to the role that entrepreneurs play in building a better tomorrow. Drawing on his roles as an advisory board member at Stanford's Institute of Economic Policy Research and Rand Corporation's Center for Asian Pacific Policy, Rekhi explores the precarious but interdependent relationships between the United States, India, China and Russia; and how competition and alliances might evolve in the future, especially between America and India; and why the cooperation of the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest democracy is crucial to the continued balance of global power. Join us to hear Rekhi's call to action—for dreamers, doers, and those brave enough to bet on themselves.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 74 - Yasmeen Turayhi shares her journey from Silicon Valley executive to spiritual intuitive, discussing energy mastery, balance and her book A Glitch in the Matrix.Disclaimer: Please note that all information and content on the UK Health Radio Network, all its radio broadcasts and podcasts are provided by the authors, producers, presenters and companies themselves and is only intended as additional information to your general knowledge. As a service to our listeners/readers our programs/content are for general information and entertainment only.  The UK Health Radio Network does not recommend, endorse, or object to the views, products or topics expressed or discussed by show hosts or their guests, authors and interviewees.  We suggest you always consult with your own professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advisor. So please do not delay or disregard any professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advice received due to something you have heard or read on the UK Health Radio Network.

“Whether you like Amodei or not, at least he's a leader.” — Andrew KeenDario Amodei is the most interesting man in America right now. Not because he runs a $500 billion company or because he's suing the Trump administration or because Anthropic's Claude topped the iPhone charts. But because he's doing something nobody else in Silicon Valley has the balls to do: he's acting like a human being in public. He has principles, he states them, and he accepts the consequences. That's leadership. It shouldn't be remarkable. In 2026, it is.This week's That Was The Week is about how America both loves and hates AI. An NBC poll found 60–70% of Americans are concerned about AI — making it even less popular than the Democratic Party (quite an achievement). A hundred planned data centers have been cancelled because of local protests. 10,000 authors published an anti AI manifesto at the London Book Fair this week. Each week, in contrast, a billion people used ChatGPT, but these users often seem oblivious to its weaknesses. So Keith's AI-generated video for the show was, by universal agreement (including his own), not going to win an Oscar tomorrow. Except for Most Sloppy AI generated video.Every road this week led back to Amodei who is anything but sloppy. He's become a Rorschach test for the entire industry. Tech progressives Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway are lauding him. The MAGA crowd — including David Sacks, Trump's AI czar — on the All In podcast are doing the opposite. Keith thinks Dario is a naive CEO making bad business decisions — comparing him to his own doomed battle in the late Nineties against Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. It's a fair point. Should a tech CEO really be setting AI policy? Keith's answer is no — that's for people like David Sacks appointed by executive, legislative, and judicial branches. I'm not so sure. In an America defined by its dysfunctional political system, we need leaders like Amodei to take ethical stands. If not, then who?The IPO race this year between Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI makes this particularly interesting. I wonder whether Amodei might use the IPO itself to force a public debate that nobody in government is willing to have. Not just about guardrails or weapons — but about what kind of society AI is building and who gets to decide what does and doesn't get used. Musk, by publicly embracing white racists and other groups of hate, is making his politics clear. Sam Altman, as always, is wearing every hat simultaneously. Amodei, in contrast, knows his hat. Rather than MAGA, it should say: The Most Interesting Man in America. He's got my vote. Even if he's not running for office. Five Takeaways•       AI Is Less Popular Than the Democrats: An NBC poll found 60–70% of Americans are concerned about AI. A hundred data centres have been cancelled due to local protests. 10,000 authors published an anti-AI manifesto at the London Book Fair. Close to a billion people use ChatGPT each week — but the haters are the non-users, and they outnumber the lovers by a wide margin.•       Amodei Is the 21st Century's First Real Leader: He's suing the Trump administration. He's refusing to let Claude be used for autonomous weapons. He's accepting the business consequences. Keith thinks he's naive. I think he's the only person in Silicon Valley acting like a human being in public. The debate between us is the show.•       Keith Compares Amodei to His Own Doomed Battle Against Ballmer: In the late Nineties, Keith fought Microsoft with RealNames and lost. He sees Amodei on the same trajectory — noble, principled, already finished. I compared Keith to Pete Hegseth declaring the Iranian regime defeated. The MAGA crowd on All In, including Trump's AI czar David Sacks, agree with Keith. That alone should give him pause.•       The IPO Race Will Force the Debate: Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI are all expected to go public this year. Amodei could use the IPO to force a conversation about what kind of society AI is building — a conversation nobody in government is willing to have. Musk is making his politics clear by embracing white racists. Altman is wearing every hat. Amodei knows his.•       In the Absence of Leadership, Fear Thrives: Keith's best point of the week. Nobody is setting AI policy. The politicians are clowns. The tech CEOs are children. In the vacuum, fear wins. Amodei is trying to fill it. Whether he succeeds or not, at least he's trying. That's more than anyone else can say. About the GuestKeith Teare is the publisher of That Was The Week and co-founder of SignalRank. He is a serial entrepreneur, former CEO of RealNames, and a regular sparring partner on Keen On America.References:•       That Was The Week: AI Loved and Hated — Keith Teare's editorial.•       Rex Woodbury, “Why Does Everybody Hate AI?” — Digital Native.•       Josh Dzieza, The Verge — on lawyers, PhDs, and scientists in the AI gig economy.•       Noah Smith — “Something Feels Weird About This Economy.”•       Meta's acquisition of Moltbook — the AI agent social network.About Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction: AI loved and hated (01:17) - NBC poll: AI less popular than the Democrats (03:10) - Rex Woodbury and the haters: is it really AI people hate? (04:21) - AI slop and Keith's terrible video (07:28) - The adoption curve: AI companies are isolated from mainstream opinion (07:51) - Dario Amodei as the answer to both lovers and haters (10:14) - Keith vs Ballmer redux: why Amodei has already lost (12:09) - OpenAI and Google employees rush to Anthropic's defense (14:24) - Woodbury, The Verge, and AI taking jobs (16:51) - Keith's Apple TV app: vibe coded in a weekend (19:29) - AI will destroy universities: cheating at apocalyptic levels (21:41) - Noah Smith: something feels weird about this economy (27:00) - The IPO race: Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX (30:42) - Could Amodei blow up the IPO proce...

Ian Bremmer sits down with Thomas Wright, Brookings Institution fellow and former Senior Director at the US National Security Council, to unpack the deepening war in Iran and the divergent strategies shaping it. What are the possible outcomes for the widening conflict in Iran? What began as a dramatic opening strike has evolved into a far more complex war, with Washington, Jerusalem, and Tehran all pursuing different aims. Wright argues this isn't simply about degrading military capability; it's about competing endgames that may pull the region in unpredictable directions. As Wright explains, the United States is hoping for a pragmatic partner inside Iran, while Israel pushes for full regime change. “Trump couldn't care less if Larijani runs Iran. The Israelis do… They're going to go full bore for regime change,” he says. At the same time, efforts to fragment the country risk creating “a much bigger problem… a Syria civil war on steroids.” The conversation also examines how other global players are responding. Europe has been muted, trying to accommodate the US, while China and Russia tread carefully, balancing economic and strategic interests without directly confronting Washington. Wright also discusses domestic implications, including the Pentagon's evolving relationship with Silicon Valley and how frontier technologies like AI are intersecting with national security concerns. Looking ahead, Wright outlines both best-and worst-case scenarios — from the emergence of a more legitimate leadership to the specter of fragmentation that could intensify regional instability. With no clear exit ramp in sight, this conversation explores what might come next and why the endgame of this war remains so uncertain.   Host: Ian Bremmer Guest: Thomas Wright Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The most famous tech journalist, Kara Swisher, joined us on-stage at our LIVE show in Arlington as part of the IPO Tour (our “In-Person Offering”). And Kara brings fire…In this LIVE interview, Kara (aka the Sultaness of Scoops) riffs on…How she was going to join the CIA, but instead ended up at the Washington PostWhy Silicon Valley is Kindergarten for BillionairesThe time she ripped on Zuck for his jogging routine in ChinaThe biz of being a solo journalist What every 26-year-old should be doing now to AI slop-proof their careersHow her “Burn Book” of Tech Elites is becoming a TV showHow Congress should regulate the tech industry (for the 1st time ever)And she throws bunch of shade at the current administration, Big Tech CEOs, other podcasters, and moreAnd her ticker symbol? Spoiler: $WTFPlus, she turns the interview around to grill us (classic Kara).Quick FYI: This episode was recorded live, and Kara drops a bunch of politics and profanity, something we don't do on our show — So if you've got kids in the car right now, save this one for after drop-off.Buy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAYNew York, NY (4/8): https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2Los Angeles, CA (6/3): SOLD OUTGet your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

#697: Most people regret the things they never tried. Venture capitalist Bill Gurley says that pattern shows up again and again in research on end-of-life regrets — including regret about the careers people never pursued.  In this episode, Gurley joins us to talk about how people actually discover work they enjoy - and why the cliché to “follow your passion” sends people in the wrong direction. We start with a question many listeners wrestle with: what if you reach your forties or fifties and still do not know what you want to do?  Gurley explains that career changes later in life remain possible. Financial flexibility helps. People who spend every dollar they earn limit their ability to shift paths. People who control their spending keep more options open. Gurley argues that “passion” often appears only after someone spends time exploring a field. A better starting point involves fascination - the subjects that pull your attention when nobody assigns the work.  Gurley suggests paying attention to what you study in your free time. If you find yourself reading about a topic instead of watching Netflix, that curiosity may signal a possible career direction. We also discuss how most successful careers involve several stops along the way.  Gurley studied hundreds of success stories and found that many people move through two or three roles before landing their long-term path. That pattern shows up across industries. Gurley began as a computer engineer working at Compaq. Even though he enjoyed the work, his curiosity shifted toward investing and business.  He eventually left engineering, went to business school and started knocking on doors in New York until he landed a job as a Wall Street analyst. That path later led him to Silicon Valley and a 25-year career in venture capital. Throughout the conversation, we talk about continuous learning, side projects that expand career options and how curiosity often shapes a career more than long-term planning. Resources Mentioned: Runnin' Down a Dream by Bill Gurley - https://amzn.to/4loywlQ The Power of Regret by Daniel Pink - https://amzn.to/4sNwZbQ Designing Your Life by Dave Evans & Bill Burnett - https://amzn.to/47yfeov One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch - https://amzn.to/4ruPsIX Atomic Habits by James Clear - https://amzn.to/4bj3cjR Interview with James Clear - Afford Anything Episode #638 Interview with David Epstein - Afford Anything Episode #206 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Week in Tech is back and it’s growing. Starting this Friday, Oz will be joined by a panel of the brightest minds covering Silicon Valley. Each week, they will discuss the latest news, decode emerging trends and debate what actually matters for the future of technology and for us. This week, TechStuff asked Taylor Lorenz, Stephen Witt and Nitasha Tiku to share a story. Nitasha catches us up on the drama unfolding between Anthropic and the Pentagon. Stephen covers another tragic case of AI psychosis with fatal consequences. And Taylor makes the case for why 'social media addiction' is a harmful framework — and how age-verification laws could lead to mass surveillance and censorship of adults and children alike.Additional Reading: Anthropic Sues Pentagon Over National Security Risk Label - The Washington Post Gemini Said They Could Only Be Together if He Killed Himself. Soon, He Was Dead. - WSJ Congress Is Considering Abolishing Your Right to Be Anonymous Online - The Intercept The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all | Taylor Lorenz | The Guardian This episode contains mentions of suicide. If you or someone you know needs support, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, or visit 988lifeline.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Food loss and waste account for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and cost $1 trillion annually, according to the United Nations. About a third of all food grown on the planet gets wasted, rather than eaten. In developing countries, waste usually occurs between the field and the store, due to poor infrastructure, lack of refrigeration, and broken supply chains. In rich countries, most waste happens after food reaches the store, where consumers don't buy imperfect food – or buy too much and toss what they don't get around to consuming. How much pollution, deforestation and starvation could be reduced if we got this problem under control? And how can new tech, including AI, be brought to bear on the problem? Guests: Matt Rogers, Co-Founder and CEO, Mill Industries; Co-Founder, Nest Page Schult, CEO, Topanga  Kayla Abe, Co-Owner, Shuggie's David Murphy, Co-Owner and Chef, Shuggie's For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit climateone.org/podcasts. Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 04:30 – Matt Rogers on surviving Hurricane Andrews and his climate journey 06:30 – On the climate impact of HVAC and the creation of Nest thermostat 08:30 – On creating Mill food recycler and addressing food waste 13:45 – Partnership with Whole Food to recycle food waste and feed it back to chickens 17:00 – On AI as a tool for climate solutions 19:30 – Clean tech in Silicon Valley  23:00 – Matt Rogers shares his views on advocacy, philanthropy and impact investing 30:00 – Shuggie's restaurant sources ingredients that would otherwise be wasted 37:00 – David Murphy makes the case for sustainable food and upcycled ingredients 40:00 – Page Schult on global impact of food waste 44:00 – Topanga's work providing reusable food containers for college campuses 52:30 – Thinking about it circularity as systems change 54:00 – Role of AI in reducing food waste in commercial kitchens 58:00 – Climate One More Thing ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at ⁠⁠patreon.com/ClimateOne⁠⁠.  Ad sales by ⁠⁠Multitude⁠⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johann Hari has spent years doing what most of us don't have time to do — travelling the world, interviewing the world's leading neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and Silicon Valley insiders to find out why depression, anxiety, and loneliness are rising every single year. What he found will change how you see your phone, your mind, and your daily life.Today we re-visit this impactful conversation with Johann, but it's not all doom and gloom! Johann is one of the most solution-focused thinkers we've had on the show, and he leaves you with concrete, practical steps you can take today.You'll hear Johann on: what the people who built Instagram and TikTok privately think about what they've created; the three things every parent should do right now about their child's phone use; and the leaded petrol analogy that explains exactly how we fix the attention crisis.Heights

British AI data-center company NScale has hit a $14.6 billion valuation after raising another $2 billion but its rapid rise is raising eyebrows. Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott examine the meteoric story of founder Josh Payne and the questions surrounding his business. They're joined by Alice Bentinck, CEO of Entrepreneurs First, to discuss what it really takes to build the next generation of tech founders. Plus, Danny's been in court following a landmark trial in California that's seen Mark Zuckerberg grilled by lawyers and could prove to be a turning point for the multitrillion-dollar social media industry.Producer: Marnie DukeExecutive Producer: Priyanka DeladiaGet in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you turn trillions of user interactions into meaningful decisions without drowning in data? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Todd Olson, co-founder and CEO of Pendo, to talk about the future of product-led organizations and why AI is reshaping how software companies grow, build, and compete. Pendo tracks trillions of product usage events to help organizations understand how customers actually interact with their software. That level of data sounds powerful, but it also raises a challenge many teams face today. How do you turn massive data sets into clear signals that teams can act on without falling into analysis paralysis? Todd explains how Pendo approaches this problem by organizing product data around real user journeys, feature adoption, and areas where people drop off. Instead of leaving teams buried in dashboards, the goal is to surface insights that matter. Increasingly, AI is helping by acting as a kind of embedded analyst that highlights the patterns product teams should focus on. Our conversation also revisits the idea behind Todd's book, The Product-Led Organization. When it was published around the time of the pandemic, it argued that great products should do much of the heavy lifting traditionally done by sales or support teams. Looking back now, Todd believes the core idea remains intact. AI simply accelerates the model by allowing companies to experiment faster and scale product-driven experiences with far fewer people. But that shift is also creating tension in the software industry. We talk about the so-called reckoning in SaaS economics and the growing debate around whether AI will make traditional software companies obsolete. Todd offers a more measured perspective. While AI allows anyone to prototype software quickly, the companies that survive will still be the ones solving difficult problems, navigating compliance requirements, and building products that customers trust. Another theme we explore is geography and innovation. Pendo is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, far from the usual coastal tech hubs. Todd shares how building outside Silicon Valley has shaped the company's culture, talent strategy, and mindset. There are advantages to being close to the center of the AI boom, but there is also value in building away from the echo chamber. We also spend time unpacking the rise of AI-assisted development and the trend many people call "vibe coding." Todd believes AI will dramatically reshape product teams, but he also pushes back against the idea that humans will disappear from the development process. Engineers will still need to review code, teach AI systems best practices, and ensure security and reliability. One of the most interesting moments in our conversation comes near the end when Todd shares a belief that originality will become one of the most valuable assets in the age of AI. As automated content and automated code become easier to generate, he believes people will increasingly value craft, taste, and original thinking. So in a world where AI can generate almost anything with a prompt, the real question becomes far more human. What problems are actually worth solving? If you care about the future of software, product strategy, and how AI is reshaping the economics of building companies, this is a conversation that offers plenty to think about. And after listening, I would love to hear your perspective. As AI becomes embedded in every product and workflow, do you believe originality and craft will become the true differentiators in the software industry?

Story of the Week (DR):WarSaudi Aramco CEO issues stark warning: Iran war could bring ‘catastrophic' shock to global oilPrediction markets face questions on Iran war bets, from regime change to nuclear detonationThe Maduro Capture (Jan 2026): Just hours before the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a new Polymarket account wagered $30,000 on his removalIsraeli Military Indictments (Feb 2026): At least two individuals in the Israeli defense forces were reportedly indicted for using classified intelligence to place winning bets on the specific dates of military strikes in IranNational Security Risk: A recent report by Responsible Statecraft warns that officials with the power to influence military timing could alter operations to maximize their payout The Atlantic Council recently warned that foreign adversaries can "weaponize the odds" by dumping money into a thinly traded market to create a false narrative that a country is about to collapse, potentially triggering a real-world panic or bank run.Kalshi (private)1/13/25: Kalshi names Donald Trump Jr. as strategic advisorPolymarket (college dropout Shayne Coplan)8/26/25: Kalshi Advisor Donald Trump Jr. Joins Rival Polymarket BoardTrump Jr.'s 1789 Capital is making an eight-figure investment in the controversial prediction-market company.AI JobsAnthropic just mapped out which jobs AI could potentially replace. A ‘Great Recession for white-collar workers' is absolutely possibleThe most AI-exposed group is 16 percentage points more likely to be female, earns 47% more on average, and is nearly four times as likely to hold a graduate degree compared to the least exposed group.Sam Altman admits AI is killing the labor-capital balance—and says nobody knows what to do about itOracle expected to slash thousands of jobs as massive AI spending creates financial cash crisisLayoffs are feeling awfully tempting for a lot of companies right nowCEOs are using one number in the AI age to decide how many people they still needRevenue per employeePatreon's CEO says AI will be a 'bloodbath for the world's creative people' unless tech companies pay upAtlassian slashes 10% of workforce to 'self-fund' investments in AI and enterprise salesThe unexpected 92,000 drop in payrolls is a clue we might be reading the AI jobs narrative all wrongWorker painAI Is Forcing Employees to Work Harder Than EverAI Job Loss Is Breaking the Psyche of Workers, Psychiatrist Warns‘AI brain fry' is real — and it's making workers more exhausted, not more productive, new study findsEconomist Dambisa Moyo says CEOs must play a role in sustaining the consumer class as AI eliminates jobsThis could only happen if we weren't controlled by the TechBro Dropout GangCII‘Not a goodbye…': What Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen told employees after announcing decision to step downShantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe for 18 years, will step down once a successor is appointed, while continuing as board chairman.Google Hands Sundar Pichai $692M Package Tied to AI BetsPackage uniquely ties executive pay to Waymo autonomous vehicle and Wing drone delivery venture performanceCompensation structure sets precedent for linking CEO pay to specific AI business unit success rather than overall company metricsSo now CEOs can either game their bonus by obsessively focusing on one thing or doom the rest of the company by obsessively focusing on one thing or bothAs You Sow Files Lawsuit Challenging Chubb's Refusal to Put Shareholder Proposal Addressing Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis on Company ProxyThe proposal asks shareholders to vote on whether Chubb should commission a report assessing whether pursuing subrogation claims against parties responsible for climate change could reduce losses, benefit shareholders, and help preserve affordable homeowners insurance.This lawsuit follows the SEC's decision to abandon its longstanding role as a neutral arbiter in the shareholder proposal process. In November 2025, the SEC announced that it would no longer review corporate no-action requests under Rule 14a-8, effectively forcing these matters into court—an expensive and lengthy process.Sen. Elizabeth Warren Slams SEC As 'Lap Dog For Trump's Billionaire Buddies' After It Dismisses Another Crypto Case"The SEC should not be a lap dog for Trump's billionaire buddies"Live Nation, Ticketmaster's Owner, Settles Antitrust Case With Justice DeptThat was fastLive Nation Entertainment board includes Trump administration bro Richard Grenell 2 of 12 are womenGrenell is somehow the president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts despite no background in anything resembling “the Arts.”He replaced a woman, Deborah Rutter. The chair is President Trump. Of course. And the board now is down to only one woman: 2 years ago it was 60% female.Glass Lewis recommends voting against Starbucks director over ‘board-level E&S oversight'New York State Comptroller, New York City Comptroller, SOC Investment Group, Canadian responsible investment association SHARE, Merseyside Pension Fund, and Trillium oppose the re-election of lead independent director Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, as well as Beth Ford, chair of Starbucks' Nominating and Corporate Governance (NCG) committee.Ford was chair of the EPCI committee and now leads the NCG committee, which assumed some of the responsibilities of the EPCI when it was disbanded.In its benchmark policy proxy paper, Glass Lewis has recommended investors vote against Ford.Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR:Uber rolls out women-only option in the USDR: CEOs of failed banks would have to surrender pay under bipartisan planSenate legislation would mandate “clawbacks” of executive pay, three years after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.MM: 24 states, Nintendo sue Trump over tariffs as refund fight growsCostco CEO Ron Vachris Pledges to Return Tariff Refunds to ShoppersMM: Andrew Yang says we should stop taxing workers — and start taxing AIAssholiest of the Week (MM):War on Women: part 1Alex KarpPalantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic PowerPalantir CEO Alex Karp thinks his AI technology will lessen the power of “highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat” while increasing the power of working-class men.“This technology disrupts humanities-trained—largely Democratic—voters, and makes their economic power less. And increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, working-class voters,” Karp said in a CNBC interview Thursday. “And so these disruptions are gonna disrupt every aspect of our society. And to make this work, we have to come to an agreement of what it is we're going to do with the technology; how are we gonna explain to people who are likely gonna have less good, and less interesting jobs.”To Alexandra Schiff, ex WSJ reporter and daughter of Tom Wolfe, who wrote a semi adoring Silicon Valley book in 2017 holding Peter Thiel as a god (and now sits on this board with Thiel), and to Lauren Friedman Stat, who only seems to post Palantir sizzle reels and as best I can tell is married to a “David Stat” who is the name of a “Director” (not on the board?) of Palantir who is in a Form 4 for selling stock:What the fuck are you doing. Do you read what this dude says? Are you that cucked to the tech bro elite you can't stop and say, “Hey, Alex, maybe tone down the suggestion you're trying to stop female Democrats from voting?”War on Women: part 2Glass Lewis recommends voting against Starbucks director over ‘board-level E&S oversight'Because Starbucks disbanded the Environmental, Partner and Community Impact committee of the board - launched in 2023, dissolved in November 2025Committee launched after majority supported SHP to focus on labor issuesJorgen Knudstorp and Daniel Servitje, the OTHER committee members, somehow escape entirelyKnudstorp is the Lead independent director, Niccol is the CEO and chair of the board (yes, chair)But instead of targeting Niccol or even Knudstorp, Glass Lewis targeted the female chair of the committee… ONLYIf the CEO gets to be chair - doesn't the CEO have to take responsibility for board overall? If you have an LID, are they accountable?? Why would the chair of a committee be target without the chair of the board or LID? Can a committee chair dissolve their own committee??Cracker Barrel - the scapegoat was the person of color who had “diversity” in their job description, not the longest tenured director who was also chair of the board but was a white guy - and Glass Lewis suggested voting out the brown dudeWar on Women: part 3 speed roundDOGE, DEI, and climate changeBlack women were disproportionately impacted by DOGE cuts. A year later, they're rebuilding careers for themselves and each otherI Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For ThemselvesOver the course of a six hour long or so deposition, Justin Fox, a former investment banker turned DOGE bro, refused to define what he believes counts as DEI; admitted he used ChatGPT to scan government contracts for terms such as “Black” and “homosexual” but not “white” or “caucasian;” and said that one of the grants he helped slash was “not for the benefit of humankind” before walking that claim back.Why ‘bringing your whole self to work' is a trap, especially for womenFormer Goldman Sachs CEO says DEI programs are ‘counterproductive,' arguing ‘you're branding the people in that program'Climate change: Women face worst impacts as funding support falls shortIn 2025, a UN women report warned that under a worst-case climate scenario, up to 158.3 million more women and girls may live in extreme poverty globally as a result of climate change by 2050Headliniest of the WeekDR: Shell CEO's Pay Jumps 60% Despite Profit Drop and Fatal AccidentsDR: Jack Dorsey Defends Wearing “Love” Hat While Firing 4,000 Employees in Pivot to AI: "I wanted to approach the whole situation with love."MM: Ozempic mania has even Olive Garden and The Cheesecake Factory cutting back on portion sizesMM: Cracker Barrel sales, traffic continue to slump months after failed rebrandWho Won the Week?DR: National Museum of the American Indian and the coffee at CII, was actually pretty not grossMM: The Council for Institutional Investors Spring Conference, who got to witness Proxy Countdown livePredictionsDR: CII loses our phone numberMM: The women start the uprising now:

Founders believe they need to move to Silicon Valley or another major tech hub to build a successful company. In this episode, Brandon tells the story of raising venture capital while building Seamless remotely from Columbus, Ohio — and the one-year move to Newark that helped unlock the company's next phase. You'll hear how reading The 4-Hour Work Week reshaped Brandon's thinking about distributed teams, why geography still shapes access to venture capital, and how building remotely allowed Seamless to scale from zero to tens of millions in revenue. The lesson: great companies are not defined by where they are located. They are defined by the people building them.

Are we heading toward a bizarre future where your engineering salary is paid in AI compute tokens instead of cash? Andrew and Ben tackle the latest tech industry shakeups, starting with Meta's acquisition of Moltbook and the controversial idea of making inference limits a core employee benefit. They also break down Charlie Guo's harness engineering playbook, the growing pains behind recent AWS AI-driven outages, and the toxic pressure to constantly run dozens of autonomous agents. Finally, they wrap up by sharing their own agentic weekend projects and debating the catastrophic risks of vibe-coding your laptop's file permissions.Follow the show:Subscribe to our Substack Follow us on LinkedInSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelLeave us a ReviewFollow the hosts:Follow AndrewFollow BenFollow DanFollow today's stories:Silicon Valley is buzzing about this new idea: AI compute as compensationThe Emerging "Harness Engineering" PlaybookMeta acquired Moltbook, the AI agent social network that went viral because of fake posts“A spate of outages, including incidents tied to the use of AI coding tools”, right on scheduleEvery minute you aren't running 69 agents, you are falling behindOFFERS Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free. Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era. LEARN ABOUT LINEARB AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production. AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance. AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil. MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

Food loss and waste account for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and cost $1 trillion annually, according to the⁠ United Nations⁠. About a third of all food grown on the planet gets wasted, rather than eaten. In developing countries, waste usually occurs between the field and the store, due to poor infrastructure, lack of refrigeration, and broken supply chains. In rich countries, most waste happens after food reaches the store, where consumers don't buy imperfect food – or buy too much and toss what they don't get around to consuming. How much pollution, deforestation and starvation could be reduced if we got this problem under control? And how can new tech, including AI, be brought to bear on the problem? Guests: Matt Rogers, Co-Founder and CEO, Mill Industries; Co-Founder, Nest Page Schult, CEO, Topanga  Kayla Abe, Co-Owner, Shuggie's David Murphy, Co-Owner and Chef, Shuggie's For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit climateone.org/podcasts. Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 04:30 – Matt Rogers on surviving Hurricane Andrews and his climate journey 06:30 – On the climate impact of HVAC and the creation of Nest thermostat 08:30 – On creating Mill food recycler and addressing food waste 13:45 – Partnership with Whole Food to recycle food waste and feed it back to chickens 17:00 – On AI as a tool for climate solutions 19:30 – Clean tech in Silicon Valley  23:00 – Matt Rogers shares his views on advocacy, philanthropy and impact investing 30:00 – Shuggie's restaurant sources ingredients that would otherwise be wasted 37:00 – David Murphy makes the case for sustainable food and upcycled ingredients 40:00 – Page Schult on global impact of food waste 44:00 – Topanga's work providing reusable food containers for college campuses 52:30 – Thinking about it circularity as systems change 54:00 – Role of AI in reducing food waste in commercial kitchens 58:00 – Climate One More Thing ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/ClimateOne⁠⁠⁠.  Ad sales by ⁠⁠⁠Multitude⁠⁠⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠⁠⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I can point to things. But is that a systemic explanation? I think there the answer is a little less clear. I mean, surely people need love and all of that, but then there's this risk of just devolving into platitude.” — David SussilloDavid Sussillo is a big time neural reverse engineer. The Stanford brain scientist worked at Google Brain with Geoffrey Hinton, and now is at Meta Reality Labs. What distinguishes Sussillo, however, is not his Silicon Valley good luck, but the bad luck of his origins. In his memoir, Emergent: A Memoir of Boyhood, Computation, and the Mysteries of the Mind, Sussillo begins at the Albuquerque Christian Children's Home — a modern-day orphanage — and the Milton Hershey School, the boarding school endowed by the chocolate magnate for kids with nowhere else to go. Both his parents were addicts. His mom died young. His dad spent his life as an untrained preacher ministering to homeless people on the streets of Albuquerque while managing a lifelong heroin habit.The book's thesis borrows from the science he studies: “emergence” — simple things interacting to produce complex behaviour that none of them could produce alone. His life is both proof of and a challenge to this concept. He made it out. Most of the kids he grew up with didn't. He can point to moments — a gifted-and-talented test in third grade, an aunt and uncle's intervention at nine, a first love in college — but he can't build an explanatory system from these haphazard events. The Sussillo quilt doesn't have an innate pattern. It just has patches.What makes Sussillo unusual as a memoirist is his refusal to sentimentalise. Twenty years of psychotherapy, he confesses, has taught him something most authors never learn: that understanding your own story doesn't mean you've explained it. His science can't explain his childhood either. “The big dirty secret of neuroscience,” he says, “is that we don't really understand much in the ways that people would love us to understand.” The man who reverse-engineers neural networks can't reverse-engineer himself.I asked him whether having children would have been harder than writing the book. Yes, he said. With the book, you can take a break. With kids, you relive things through a very specific way of relating. He and his wife chose not to. His mentors all told him he'd have been great at it. He's not so sure. That honesty — the willingness to say “I don't know” and mean it — runs through everything Sussillo does. He says he's happy, claiming to have found peace with his past. But he still carries the baggage. Who wouldn't? He's just learned to manage it. Emergent, not emerged. Five Takeaways•       From Orphanage to Google Brain: Both parents were heroin addicts. Sussillo grew up in a modern-day orphanage in Albuquerque and then the Milton Hershey School. He went on to work at Google Brain with Geoffrey Hinton, now works at Meta Reality Labs, teaches at Stanford. Most of the kids he grew up with didn't make it.•       Emergence as Autobiography: The book's thesis borrows from the science he studies: simple pieces combining into complicated outcomes. His life is the proof of concept and the counter-example simultaneously. The quilt doesn't have a pattern. It just has patches.•       The Dirty Secret of Neuroscience: The man who reverse-engineers neural networks can't reverse-engineer himself. “We don't really understand much in the ways that people would love us to understand.” Twenty years of therapy taught him more than the science.•       Would Kids Have Been Harder Than the Book? Yes. With the book, you can take a break. With kids, you relive trauma through a very specific way of relating. He and his wife chose not to have children. His mentors told him he'd have been great at it. He's not so sure.•       Emergent, Not Emerged: Sussillo has found peace with his past. He's happy. He still carries the baggage from his childhood. He's just learned how to manage it. The emergence is ongoing. About the GuestDavid Sussillo is a research scientist at Meta Reality Labs and a consulting professor at Stanford University. He previously worked at Google Brain. His memoir is Emergent: A Memoir of Boyhood, Computation, and the Mysteries of the Mind. He grew up in the Albuquerque Christian Children's Home and the Milton Hershey School. He lives in New Mexico.References:•       Emergent: A Memoir of Boyhood, Computation, and the Mysteries of the Mind by David Sussillo — the book under discussion.•       The Albuquerque Christian Children's Home — the group home where Sussillo spent five years of his childhood.•       The Milton Hershey School — founded in 1906 by the Hershey chocolate magnate for children with nowhere else to go. Sussillo spent four years there.•       Google Brain — the lab where Sussillo worked alongside Geoffrey Hinton on the neural network research that became the foundation of modern AI.•       John Conway's Game of Life — the cellular automaton simulation Sussillo cites as an early example of emergence: complicated outcomes from simple rules.About Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction (01:30) - The Albuquerque Christian Children's Home and Milton Hershey School (03:30) - Why write a memoir? Five years and twenty years of therapy (05:00) - Heroin-addicted parents: the origin story (08:00) - A father as untrained preacher on the streets of Albuquerque (10:00) - Which parent had more impact? (12:00) - The gifted-and-talented test that changed everything (15:00) - From Milton Hershey to Carnegie Mellon: the jump (18:00) - Life falls apart at 23: panic attacks and psychotherapy (21:00) - Neural networks, Google Brain, and the dirty secret of neuroscience (25:00) - Would having kids have been harder than writing the book? (28:00) - The Albanian friend and the beach: what America gets right (31:00) - Silicon...

Anna Radulovski | Global CEO WomenTech NetworkAnna Radulovski is an award-winning founder, investor, startup mentor, and author of Chief in Tech: How Women Are Breaking the Silicon Ceiling and Leading with Impact.She is the Founder & Global CEO of WomenTech Network, a global community spanning over 150,000 members across 179 countries. Anna is also the visionary behind the Women in Tech Global Conference, the Chief in Tech Summit, and the Startup & Innovation Summit (SIS)—flagship platforms renowned for advancing diverse leadership and fostering inclusive innovation in tech.Anna has spoken in Fortune 50 boardrooms and on global stages including TechEx North America in Silicon Valley and the Dublin Tech Summit. She has also led high-impact engagements alongside major events such as Web Summit, MWC Barcelona, and official United Nations gatherings—sparking bold conversations around inclusive leadership, ethical innovation, and the future of technology.As a trusted startup mentor and angel investor, Anna has supported over 100 early-stage founders, guiding them in strategy, growth, and leadership development. She serves on the boards of Coding Girls and Executive Women in Tech (EWIT), and is a Director at the Founder Institute, where she actively mentors the next generation of global tech leaders.Featured in Forbes, Bloomberg TV, and Fortune, Anna is recognized as a leading voice in technology, whose insights continue to empower professionals and reshape the landscape of leadership.Amplifying the voices of 15 million women in tech worldwide.

Talent agents are seeking out the internet’s erudite elite, promising marketers access to niche and engaged audiences far from the blast of social media. Thousands of authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory and Richard Osman have published an “empty” book to protest against AI firms using their work without permission. About 10,000 writers have contributed to Don’t Steal This Book, in which the only content is a list of their names. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Philip Teresi on KMJ' on all platforms: --- Philip Teresi on KMJ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. -- Philip Teresi on KMJ Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Podcast | Amazon | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conversations on AI typically deal with impacts in the US, Asia, and Europe. Yet the impact of AI on Africa, and Africa on AI, is immense. Professor and Director of the MIND Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand Benjamin Rosman joins David Rothkopf to explore the unique perspectives coming from Africa in the tech space, why grassroots movements drive innovation, and how unique resource constraints are forcing a creative departure from the “bigger is better” obsession in Silicon Valley. This material is distributed by TRG Advisory Services, LLC on behalf of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the U.S.. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, comedian and host Negin Farsad is joined by comedian and host of the podcast Go Touch Grass, Milly Tamarez. She is also joined by your book-lover BFF and host of The Stacks Podcast, Traci Thomas. Together, they talk about Oscar campaign kerfuffles - some of them involve opera and yet others involve cats! They also talk about the ongoing war with Iran - or as some call it, the "excursion" with Iran. And finally, there's a term for every time you fix something on your parents phone and it's called, "technology caregiving" - the panel gets into it!Follow everyone:@NeginFarsad & www.neginfarsad.com for upcoming shows@Milly_Tamarez & Go Touch Grass Podcast@thestackspod & The Stacks PodcastRate Fake The Nation 5-stars on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review!Follow Negin Farsad on TwitterEmail Negin fakethenationpodcast@gmail.comHost - Negin FarsadProducer - Rob HeathTheme Music - Gaby AlterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This conversation with Alex Karp, cofounder and CEO of Palantir, was recorded at the a16z American Dynamism Summit in Washington, D.C. Karp discusses the role of technology in modern warfare, Silicon Valley's obligations to national defense, and why he believes America's single greatest competitive advantage is its ability to cultivate and protect unconventional talent.     Stay Updated:Find a16z on YouTube: YouTubeFind a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Show on SpotifyListen to the a16z Show on Apple PodcastsFollow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We tend to view technological advancement as an unstoppable force that naturally improves our living standards over time. From the printing press to the internet, modern society assumes that groundbreaking ideas will always find their way into the marketplace. However, beneath the surface of our rapid digital expansion, global productivity is actually facing a troubling and persistent slowdown. Many people are beginning to wonder if our relentless push forward is practically sustainable or if we could be approaching a sudden halt. In this episode, Oxford Professor Carl Frey joins the podcast to share the unsettling message of his new book, “How Progress Ends”. He argues that technological progress is far from inevitable and can easily reverse when entrenched institutions block new ideas from transforming society. Frey explores the historical tension between decentralized innovation and centralized bureaucracies, suggesting that both the United States and China might be heading toward a period of stagnation. Instead of a guaranteed bright future fueled by artificial intelligence, we face a reality where corporate power and political self-preservation could permanently trap us in the status quo. This conversation digs into whether our modern institutions are robust enough to foster the next wave of human ingenuity or if they are fundamentally designed to suppress it. Listeners will discover exactly how historical empires have stifled their own growth and why those same warning signs are flashing today.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bribery of a lawmaker used to be a straightforward retail transaction between the special interest briber and a specific bribee. But the Silicon Valley billionaires now invading rural America with hundreds of their exploitative AI data centers are out to buy state lawmakers in bulk.Instead of slipping cash-filled envelopes to individual politicos, tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI, are putting up hundreds of millions of dollars in this spring's midterm elections to pay for the campaigns of candidates who pledge to back their intrusive, water-sucking, energy-wasting, AI schemes. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has two super-PACs doling out $65 million to state and local politicians who will oppose any regulation of sprawling data centers he wants to impose on rural Texas and Illinois.Why such a barrage of corporate money in local legislative races? Because the countryside is aflame with fury that arrogant, avaricious AI profiteers think they're entitled to walk over local communities – so these locals are demanding that their legislators regulate or even ban AI data centers.Unable (or unwilling) to win political support honestly, the corporate giants intend to overpower the democratic will of the people by effectively bribing submissive legislators with campaign cash – or by funding opponents for lawmakers who refuse to be bought.Of course, bribers and bribees alike will piously pretend that the corporate ruse of buying government policy by buying legislative seats is technically not a bribe. But hello – rigging the system so billionaire donors can crush local democracy is not a “technicality.” If it looks, smells, and has the impact of a bribe… it is one.Do something!* To follow fights around the country and learn more about AI data centers, subscriber to Data Center Watch Briefing: datacenterwatch.substack.com* MediaJustice has developed a toolkit to understand and fight data centers, and were key in forcing a major setback to a planned data center in West Texas.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode we are tackling the cultural and political shift back to meat, saturated fat, high-protein diets and the connection to hyper-masculinity. The US is seeing a resurgence of meat-eating as a symbol of masculinity, masculinism, meat connected to identity politics and the “culture wars”. Our guest, Jan Liband, will explore the social factors driving this backlash and explore how social media, economic uncertainly, and fear are motivating this trend. Jan and Hope talk about how toxic masculinity, a toxic subsidized meat economy, and a response to progressive advancements are components propelling the meat-heavy movement. They also talk about the pervasive myths around meat, protein, and muscle building, and how these affect men in particular. There are strong phycological factors at play that are embedded in our culture and are resurfacing in our current political climate. Jan Liband is a fact-based environmentalist, public speaker, and former Silicon Valley veteran who has been vegan since the 1980s. He has an academic background in psychology plus decades in marketing and has studied our shifting attitudes towards food and the growing environmental and health impacts of our global food system for decades. Jan volunteers for several vegan and environmental organizations and serves as Chief Researcher and Speaker for Plant-Based Advocates, a Bay Area based non-profit and is a board member of Compassionate Living. In addition to advocacy, Jan is an accomplished athlete, martial artist, and professional musician who holds a degree in Psychology from U.C. Santa Cruz.Resources: FILM: The Game ChangersBOOK: The Sexual Politics of MeatAtlantic Article: America is Done Pretending About Meat: Plant Based Eating Has Lost Its AppealSupport this podcast:Hope for the Animals PodcastCompassionate LivingSocial Media:FacebookInstagramYouTube   

Conversations on AI typically deal with impacts in the US, Asia, and Europe. Yet the impact of AI on Africa, and Africa on AI, is immense. Professor and Director of the MIND Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand Benjamin Rosman joins David Rothkopf to explore the unique perspectives coming from Africa in the tech space, why grassroots movements drive innovation, and how unique resource constraints are forcing a creative departure from the “bigger is better” obsession in Silicon Valley. This material is distributed by TRG Advisory Services, LLC on behalf of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the U.S.. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As reports emerge of AI-powered weapons systems deployed in strikes on Iran, we're joined by Dr. Sarah Shoker, Senior Research Scholar at UC Berkeley, and Paul Scharre, Executive Vice President of the Center for a New American Security. Together, they examine how autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence are being integrated into military operations, investigate the relationships between Silicon Valley AI companies and the Pentagon, and explore if regulation is possible amid an accelerating arms race.  This episode is brought to you by: MINT MOBILE - Plans start at $15/month at https://mintmobile.com/tws BILT - Join the loyalty program for renters at https://joinbilt.com/tws SHOPIFY - Link in Description: Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at https://shopify.com/TWS  Follow The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart on social media for more:  > YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@weeklyshowpodcast > Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weeklyshowpodcast > TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@weeklyshowpodcast  > X: https://x.com/weeklyshowpod   > BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/theweeklyshowpodcast.com Host/Executive Producer – Jon Stewart Executive Producer – James Dixon Executive Producer – Chris McShane Executive Producer – Caity Gray Lead Producer – Lauren Walker Producer – Brittany Mehmedovic  Producer – Gillian Spear Video Editor & Engineer – Rob Vitolo Audio Editor & Engineer – Nicole Boyce Music by Hansdle Hsu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With all due respect to Dos Equis, Jeffrey Epstein had more money to play with, and a free pass to commit unspeakable crimes with impunity across multiple jurisdictions on almost every continent. Epstein's undeniable connections to powerful Satanic pedophiles, many from Israel, stinks of intelligence ties to the Mossad, Aman, and the CIA.From bankers in New York, to venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, Jeffrey Epstein let people know that he was a representative of the Rothschilds, and thus a member of the Club. His operation extended across decades, in a variety of industries, from trafficking people to Ponzi schemes, to underground laboratories. All part of being a “collector of people”, as he once anointed himself.—Video ChannelsWatch the video version of Macroaggressions:Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/Macroaggressions YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MacroaggressionsPodcastBrighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/macroaggressions/—MACRO & Charlie Robinson LinksHypocrazy Audiobook: https://amzn.to/4aogwmsThe Octopus of Global Control Audiobook: https://amzn.to/3xu0rMmWebsite: www.Macroaggressions.ioMerch Store: https://macroaggressions.dashery.com/ Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/macroaggressionspodcast—Activist Post FamilySign up for the Activist Post Newsletter: https://activistpost.kit.com/emailsActivist Post: www.ActivistPost.comNatural Blaze: www.NaturalBlaze.com —Support Our SponsorsGround Luxe Grounding Mats: https://GroundLuxe.com/MACROReplace Your Mortgage: www.WipeOutYourMortgageNow.comC60 Power: https://go.ShopC60.com/PBGRT/KMKS9/ | Promo Code: MACROChemical Free Body: https://ChemicalFreeBody.com/macro/ | Promo Code: MACROWise Wolf Gold & Silver: https://Macroaggressions.Gold/ | (800) 426-1836LegalShield: www.DontGetPushedAround.comEMP Shield: www.EMPShield.com | Promo Code: MACROChristian Yordanov's Health Program: www.LiveLongerFormula.com/macroAbove Phone: https://AbovePhone.com/macro/Van Man: https://VanMan.shop/?ref=MACRO | Promo Code: MACROThe Dollar Vigilante: https://DollarVigilante.spiffy.co/a/O3wCWenlXN/4471Nesa's Hemp: www.NesasHemp.com | Promo Code: MACROAugason Farms: https://AugasonFarms.com/MACRO—

Cindy Cohn joins Remarkable People to break down encryption, Section 230, metadata, and the real meaning of the First and Fourth Amendments in the digital age. As longtime leader of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, she has taken on the Department of Justice, challenged mass surveillance, and helped secure the tools we rely on every day.We also dive into her new memoir, Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance, and what comes next in the fight for online freedom.--Guy Kawasaki is on a mission to make you remarkable. His Remarkable People podcast features interviews with remarkable people such as Jane Goodall, Marc Benioff, Woz, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Bob Cialdini. Every episode will make you more remarkable.With his decades of experience in Silicon Valley as a Venture Capitalist and advisor to the top entrepreneurs in the world, Guy's questions come from a place of curiosity and passion for technology, start-ups, entrepreneurship, and marketing. If you love society and culture, documentaries, and business podcasts, take a second to follow Remarkable People.Listeners of the Remarkable People podcast will learn from some of the most successful people in the world with practical tips and inspiring stories that will help you be more remarkable.Episodes of Remarkable People organized by topic: https://bit.ly/rptopologyListen to Remarkable People here: **https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guy-kawasakis-remarkable-people/id1483081827**Like this show? Please leave us a review -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!Thank you for your support; it helps the show!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do global companies make confident decisions when supply chains are constantly disrupted by tariffs, geopolitical tension, shifting consumer demand, and unpredictable global events? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Dr. Ashwin Rao, EVP of AI and R&D at o9 Solutions, to talk about how artificial intelligence is changing the way organizations plan, forecast, and respond to uncertainty. Ashwin brings a fascinating mix of experience to the conversation. After earning a PhD in mathematics and computer science, he spent fifteen years on Wall Street working on derivatives trading strategies at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley before moving into the world of enterprise technology. Today, he operates at the meeting point between business and academia as both a senior AI leader and an adjunct professor at Stanford University. Our conversation begins with Ashwin's unusual career path and how those early experiences in finance shaped the way he thinks about risk, decision making, and real world AI deployment. The journey from theoretical mathematics to trading floors and eventually into Silicon Valley offers an interesting lens on how analytical thinking can travel across industries and still remain highly relevant. We then move into the work happening at o9 Solutions, where AI is helping organizations make smarter decisions across supply chain planning, demand forecasting, and inventory management. In a world that Ashwin describes using the acronym VUCA, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, businesses are under pressure to react faster and make better informed decisions. He explains how enterprise AI platforms can connect fragmented data across departments and create a more complete view of the business. One example he shares brings the concept down to earth. Even predicting how many bananas a grocery store should stock on any given day requires analyzing internal sales trends alongside external signals such as weather, social media trends, and economic conditions. Machine learning systems can now process those signals in real time and continuously update forecasts so businesses can respond quickly to changes. We also explore the rise of neuro- and symbolic AI, a concept Ashwin believes represents the next stage in enterprise decision-making. Rather than relying only on large language models, this approach blends the structured reasoning of symbolic systems with the pattern recognition of neural networks. The result, he suggests, feels less like a chatbot and more like having an expert coach embedded inside the decision-making process. Along the way, we also discuss why many organizations still struggle to embed AI successfully. Technology is only one piece of the puzzle. Ashwin believes the toughest obstacle is organizational change management, bringing teams together, connecting data across silos, and helping leaders guide their organizations through transformation. If you have ever wondered how AI moves beyond chatbots and into the systems that quietly power global supply chains, this conversation offers a thoughtful and practical perspective. So, how prepared is your organization to make decisions in a world defined by volatility and uncertainty, and could AI become the trusted partner that helps guide those choices? Useful Links Ashwin's blog Ashwin's LinkedIn o9 Solutions Website o9 LinkedIn  

email chris@drchrisloomdphd.com with "Podcast freebie" to book a coveted FREE guest spot on the show. To book a PREMIUM spot on the Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.drchrisloomdphd.com/_paylink/AZpgR_7f⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book a 1-on-1 coaching call: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.drchrisloomdphd.com/booking-calendar/introductory-session⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to our email list: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://financial-freedom-podcast-with-dr-loo.kit.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Views of the guests do not represent those of the host or show.  TikTok Shop for beginners is one of the biggest opportunities in today's creator economy, and in this episode Paul Paulino breaks down how TikTok Shop affiliate income, UGC creator work, and social commerce are creating new paths for people who want to build income, reinvent their careers, and stay relevant in an AI-driven world.

Send a textIn this enlightening episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we sit down with Yosi Amram, a licensed clinical psychologist, CEO, leadership coach, and award-winning author. Yosi shares his fascinating journey from Israel to Silicon Valley, where he experienced the highs and lows of leading public companies during the dawn of the Internet age. He opens up about a life-changing spiritual awakening that transformed his approach to leadership and inspired his research into spiritual intelligence. Discover how Yosi's pioneering work has revealed the profound impact of spiritual intelligence on leadership effectiveness, team morale, and overall well-being. He discusses the essential qualities of spiritual intelligence, such as purpose, compassion, and gratitude, and how these attributes can be cultivated in both professional and personal relationships. Yosi also highlights his upcoming projects and the nonprofit organization he founded, Awakening SI, which aims to promote spiritual intelligence in communities. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that emphasizes the importance of leading with heart and the transformative power of spiritual growth. For more insights and resources from Yosi, visit his website at yosiamram.net.Support the show

In this episode of Best in Fest, host Leslie LaPage speaks with Laura Sydell, an award-winning journalist, audio producer, and storyteller best known for her work covering digital culture and technology for NPR programs including Planet Money, This American Life, and more.After two decades reporting from the front lines of Silicon Valley, Laura now brings that insider perspective to narrative storytelling and screenwriting, developing techno-thrillers and sci-fi projects inspired by the real forces shaping our digital world.In this episode, you'll learn:

Bobo's: Beryl Stafford. A Single Mom Turns a Baking Project into a $100M BusinessAt 40, Beryl Stafford's life cracked open. Her marriage ended, she hadn't worked in years, and she had two daughters to raise. She needed income—fast. So she did the only thing that felt real: she baked.What started as 4-ingredient oat bars— hastily placed in a Boulder coffee shop—became Bobo's, a national brand built in the Silicon Valley of natural foods. In this episode, Beryl walks us through the scrappy early days: buying ingredients at full retail, a risky $25K packaging machine, the Whole Foods breakthrough, the burnout, and the pressure shift that comes with outside capital—and Costco.It's a story powered by community support, relentless demos, and a founder who kept saying “yes” before she knew how.What you'll learn: Why “survival” can be a powerful founder advantageHow to sell your product before you feel ready (and why that's often the point)The unglamorous truth of early CPG: shelf life, shared kitchens, endless demosIn a trend-driven category, the value of sticking to a recipe “your grandmother could have made.” The two faces of Costco: growth rocket and operational trapTimestamps:08:35—Divorced at 40… “I was trying to survive.” 12:02—The baking project with her daughter… and the unexpected product-market signal17:21—The first sale: snack bars in cellophane; making up a price28:38—Sharing a kitchen with Justin's Nut Butters: scrappy collaboration + conflict31:49—The first-time founder playbook: sell first, learn the rest later33:54—Whole Foods says yes… before she knows what “freezer safe packaging” even means39:10—Getting into national distribution: “What just happened?” 46:34—Burnout, hiring a CEO, raising outside money—and what changes when investors arrive54:31—The Costco conundrum: huge upside, real downside —------------------This episode was produced by Noor Gill, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Alex Cheng.—--------------------- Follow How I Built This:Instagram → @howibuiltthisX → @HowIBuiltThisFacebook → How I Built ThisFollow Guy Raz:Instagram → @guy.razYoutube → guy_razX → @guyrazSubstack → guyraz.substack.comWebsite → guyraz.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.