Is greatness a choice? If so, why doesn't everyone choose greatness? And more broadly, what are the prerequisites for a great society?  This week, I'm joined by Ethan Penner, author of the new book "Greatness Is a Choice" and one of the most influential figures in modern real estate. In his early 30s, Ethan pioneered the creation of commercial mortgage-backed securities and helped build a new market at a critical moment in history. We discuss his journey from the streets of Yonkers to the...

At Columbia University's freshman orientation, Coleman Hughes and his classmates were separated into groups by skin color to discuss the effects of racism, with minorities portrayed as victims and white students as beneficiaries. Why have exercises like this become commonplace in elite institutions? How did this neo-racism take hold? And what are the counter-arguments and better approaches to race and diversity?  These questions are at the heart of Coleman's new book: "The End of Race...

Dr. Clarence Jones is a giant of the civil rights movement. As the personal attorney and speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he risked everything to help save the soul of America, including smuggling scraps of papers in and out of Birmingham prison that would become Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail.  In fact, Dr. Jones never thought he'd live to see the age of 50.  Today, he's 93 years old, and one of the last living civil rights icons. In this episode, we trace the journey of...

Are government programs and interventions superior to market corrections? According to Dr. Cliff Winston, the evidence to support such a claim doesn’t exist. Many economists obsess over market failures but seldom point the microscope in the direction of government, despite its many failures. And worse, the bureaucracy doesn't hold itself accountable.  This week, we examine some of the flaws of modern economic theories with Dr. Winston, a microeconomist and Senior Fellow at the Brookings...

STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) education is the backbone of the innovation economy. Yet at many schools, it's become stodgy and irrelevant to solving real-world problems. Not surprisingly, many of the best minds forgo college or drop out. What would it look like to design a STEM program that is inspiring, cutting-edge, and grounded in timeless truths? And how do you educate the next generation of great entrepreneurs who are also citizens of virtue?  This week, we discuss a...

In 1979, Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi was attending fighter pilot school in Lubbock, Texas when the Islamic Revolution overthrew his father's reign. A radical theocracy seized power and began extinguishing freedoms, persecuting minorities, and taking a pro-Western Iran back to the Middle Ages. Since then, the Crown Prince has lived in exile as a leading voice for a secular and democratic Iran. What is his view of the Revolution? Why does he believe regime change is possible today? And...

India’s tech ecosystem has hit an indisputable inflection point in recent years. For decades, American corporations outsourced basic services to India, while India outsourced its top talent to Silicon Valley. But today, India’s tech economy boasts homegrown software giants and a flourishing startup scene. This week, we get a front-row look into India’s startup evolution with one of its top talents: Sri Ganesan, Founder and CEO of Rocketlane. His first company, Konotor, was acquired into...

Every year, more than 20,000 Americans receive a bone marrow transplant — a Nobel prize-winning procedure that saves many lives but also carries great risk. For leukemia patients, it's a choice of last resort, as nearly 20% die from the transplant. Ivan Dimov, co-founder & CEO of Orca Bio, and his team have created a novel cell therapy alternative that has already saved over 400 lives in clinical trials with virtually zero rejection!This week, we dive into Ivan's journey, the science...

What are the forces behind the scenes that drive financial markets? How do bubbles form — and are we in one now? What do the world's best investors understand and how do they consistently come out ahead?  This week we dive into global finance with one of the sharpest minds in macro investing: Whitney Baker, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Totem Macro. Whitney previously worked at two of the world's leading investment firms, first in global macro & long/short strategies at Soros...

U.S. e-commerce sales eclipsed $1 trillion last year and are expected to double or triple over the next decade. As online demand increases, how can small businesses compete with retail giants like Amazon and Walmart? What capabilities do they need? And can a new model help level the playing field?  This week, we explore the future of logistics and e-commerce with Tyler Scriven, co-founder and CEO of Saltbox. Tyler was a star talent at Palantir for many years (his first job title was...

Leonard Leo is one of the most effective agents of legal and cultural change in America today. What's his playbook?  How can we apply it to other broken areas of society?  And why should the technology world be especially interested in his work? In the mid-20th century, the U.S. judicial system took a sharp left turn, resulting in hyper-politicized courts, runaway bureaucracies, and many other distortions of our Constitutional system. Through his leadership of the Federalist Society, Leonard...

What are the single most effective policies for helping the world's poor? And what are we doing right now that's ineffective and should be stopped? The answers may surprise you.  In his latest book "Best Things First," Bjorn Lomborg reveals the 12 best solutions to address the most pressing global challenges. He gathered the world's top economists to analyze the policies that would do the most good for the least amount of money. It turns out the United Nations and others are getting it wrong...

By the summer of 2012, ride-sharing had arrived: Uber launched its everyman product, UberX, and Lyft debuted hot on its heels. Today, Lyft's market cap hovers around $5 billion while Uber's is north of $140 billion. How did Uber explode to global dominance? What was different about its culture? And how did it take on taxi cartels around the world and win?  This week, we go behind the scenes with Emil Michael, one of Silicon Valley's great operators and dealmakers. As the former Chief Business...

Can investigative journalism prevail over sensational clickbait? Is it time to give up on San Francisco? Is the First Amendment sufficient to prevent the government from colluding with, or forcing, Big Tech to censor speech? This week, join us for a one-of-a-kind conversation with Mike Solana, Chief Marketing Officer at Founders Fund and Founder of Pirate Wires, one of the fastest-growing and most influential new media companies. Mike is a must-follow on X for his wit and unique insights, but...

What is e/acc (effective accelerationism) and why is it going viral among tech's elite? Who are the leaders behind this movement and what are their ambitions?  This week, we explore e/acc with one of its pioneers, Guillaume Verdon (aka @BasedBeffJezos), a theoretical physicist at the cutting edge of quantum computing and AI.  Guillaume worked under Sergey Brin as the quantum deep learning lead at Google X before launching a thermal computing startup called Extropic.  He started e/acc as a...

Who should be in charge of the culture of a company? How do you maintain a spirit of innovation as an organization scales? How can executives be transparent about their shortcomings while also improving as leaders? Scott Cook, the founder and former CEO of Intuit, has navigated these challenges himself while mentoring hundreds of other leaders on how to do the same. Scott is a legend of Silicon Valley. In 1983, he founded Intuit and pioneered consumer finance software, first with Quicken and...

In the wake of October 7, the decadence and rot of our legacy universities have been on full display. We've seen feckless leadership from college presidents, moral cowardice from faculty, and, as a result, shocking displays of anti-Semitism unchallenged on campus. It's time to build anew.  That's why we founded the University of Austin — America's first new top university in almost a century. And we are now accepting students for our inaugural class in the fall of 2024!  In this episode,...

The U.S. spends $280 billion annually on healthcare billing!  It's an irrationally complex and outdated system in which most claims are adjudicated manually, resulting in massive inefficiencies and bogus claim rejections. Why is it so broken? How do we fix it? And what would healthcare look like if it functioned properly?  That's what I discuss with Nick Perry and Doug Proctor, co-founder & CEO and COO of Candid Health, respectively. Two talented Palantir alumni, Nick and Doug...

Secret police groups, illegal bio labs, and large-scale influence operations — China is engaged in these activities inside the United States today. How should we respond? Is economic divorce the answer? And are we destined for conflict, or is there a path toward peace and mutual prosperity? We discuss these pressing issues with Rep. Mike Gallagher, Congressman for Wisconsin's 8th District and Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A distinguished...

Ten million students attend community college annually, but only 30% ever graduate!  It's a massive economic loss to students and society.  What if a new model could drastically increase completion rates while maintaining a high-quality education, and leave students with zero debt? That's what Tade Oyerinde is aiming to build with Campus, a new way to conduct community college.  His approach is two-pronged: improve quality and increase completion rates. First, Campus is pioneering a gig...

In the last generation, the U.S. technology sector created many of the most valuable companies in the world. Has Silicon Valley figured out a better way to build and scale a business? How did this cohort of outsiders — “geeks” — create cultures that continually redefine the limits of science and technology? And how can others, especially our government, learn from the very best organizations? These are the questions at the heart of best-selling author Andrew McAfee's new book "The Geek Way:...

We've all seen the images — garbage patches twice the size of Texas accumulating in the Pacific Ocean. Yet nothing was being done, despite billions of dollars a year spent on environmental lawyers and bureaucrats. That is until a young engineer from Holland set out to do what bureaucrats couldn't — clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and stem the flow of plastic into the oceans. Boyan Slat is the Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, the most effective organization ever built to rid the...

Will high interest rates and inflation be the norm for the foreseeable future? Are we living through a 1970s redux? How should investors navigate these uncertain times? We discuss the volatile financial markets with Jacob Miller, co-founder of Opto Investments [an 8VC Build company] and head of its Advisory Practice. Jacob studied economics and classics at the University of Chicago and cut his teeth at Bridgewater Capital, the world's largest hedge fund. In this episode, he draws on...

Nearly half of all Americans don't have investment accounts.  Financial literacy is the exception, not the norm, in most households.  Is it no wonder that so many young Americans distrust capitalism and misunderstand wealth creation?‍Brad Gerstner is stepping up with a solution: a legislative program called Invest America that would create an investment account seeded with $1,000 from the Treasury Department for each of the 3.7 million children born every year in the U.S.  His aim is to...