Best Nathan Labenz Podcasts (2025)

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How OpenAI Builds for 800 Million Weekly Users: Model Specialization and Fine-Tuning 53:24

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7h ago53:24

53:24

In this episode, a16z GP Martin Casado sits down with Sherwin Wu, Head of Engineering for the OpenAI Platform, to break down how OpenAI organizes its platform across models, pricing, and infrastructure, and how it is shifting from a single general-purpose model to a portfolio of specialized systems, custom fine-tuning options, and node-based agent …

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AI-Led Sales: How 1Mind's Superhumans Drive Exponential Growth, from the Agents of Scale Podcast 51:22

1d ago51:22

51:22

AI that sells, reasons, and closes like your top rep? It sounds terrifying—but it’s not. Amanda Kahlow’s Superhumans are proving that automation doesn’t erase people; it elevates them. Her team rewards employees who replace their own jobs with AI by promoting them, not firing them. And her customers? They’re seeing sales cycles shrink from 22 days …

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Ben Horowitz: Why Open Source AI Will Determine America's Future 46:50

1d ago46:50

46:50

Ben Horowitz reveals why the US already lost the AI culture war to China—and it wasn't the technology that failed. While Biden's team played Manhattan Project with closed models, Chinese developers quietly captured the open-source heartbeat of global AI through DeepSeek, now running inside every major US company and university lab. The kicker: Goog…

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The Secret Marketing Strategy That Built a16z: From Zero to Legendary VC Firm 59:55

2d ago59:55

59:55

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz sit down with Margit Wennmachers—the woman who turned two unknown entrepreneurs with $300 million and zero investing track record into the most talked-about firm in venture capital. She unpacks how they weaponized transparency in an industry built on secrecy, why Fortune's cover story triggered a cartel meltdown, an…

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What AI Means for Students & Teachers: My Keynote from the Michigan Virtual AI Summit 1:04:55

3d ago1:04:55

1:04:55

In this keynote from the Michigan Virtual AI Summit, Nathan Labenz speaks directly to K-12 educators about the current reality and rapid trajectory of the AI frontier. He explores why a balanced mindset of excitement and fear is crucial for navigating this technology, drawing on personal history to emphasize a "whole-of-society" effort. Discover ke…

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How Marc Andreessen Actually Uses AI 34:02

3d ago34:02

34:02

Half a billion people can access the world’s best AI on their phone. So why are most using it to write emails while only some are using it to build empires? In this conversation with Mark Halperin from Next Up, Marc Andreessen reveals why small bakeries are beating Fortune 500 companies at AI adoption, how to turn ChatGPT into your personal board o…

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The 2045 Superintelligence Timeline: Epoch AI’s Data-Driven Forecast 1:00:10

4d ago1:00:10

1:00:10

Epoch AI researchers reveal why Anthropic might beat everyone to the first gigawatt datacenter, why AI could solve the Riemann hypothesis in 5 years, and what 30% GDP growth actually looks like. They explain why "energy bottlenecks" are just companies complaining about paying 2x for power instead of getting it cheap, why 10% of current jobs will va…

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Robinhood CEO: Making Everyone An Owner 1:05:02

7d ago1:05:02

1:05:02

Vlad Tenev built Robinhood by breaking every rule Wall Street wrote: zero commissions when competitors charged $10, mobile-first when "serious" investors demanded desktop, a brand that made finance feel like rebellion instead of a club you'd never join. By 2021 they'd forced every major brokerage to slash fees and attracted millions who'd never own…

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Escaping AI Slop: How Atlassian Gives AI Teammates Taste, Knowledge, & Workflows, w- Sherif Mansour 1:40:10

8d ago1:40:10

1:40:10

Sherif Mansour, Head of AI at Atlassian, discusses bridging AI agents with massive-scale enterprise software deployment, drawing insights from Atlassian's millions of non-technical users. He shares his framework for avoiding "AI Slop" using Taste, Knowledge, and Workflow, and explains Atlassian's "Teamwork Graph" for complex enterprise queries beyo…

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Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig 43:42

8d ago43:42

43:42

The former bank regulator who invented deposit networks just revealed why SVB's collapse was inevitable—and why the solution that could have saved them is finally being rebuilt. Gene Ludwig ran the OCC during the Clinton administration, created a half-trillion-dollar market solving a problem his Aunt Betty faced riding buses between banks, then wat…

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Isabelle Boemeke on what everyone gets wrong about nuclear energy 55:22

9d ago55:22

55:22

Nuclear energy has a reputation problem. Despite being one of the safest and most reliable clean-energy technologies ever developed, public perception is dominated by a handful of accidents, Cold War imagery, and decades of political resistance. Isabelle Boemeke, model-turned-science-communicator and author of Rad Future, argues that this disconnec…

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Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen: Why Silicon Valley Turned Against Defense (And How We’re Fixing It) 1:16:13

9d ago1:16:13

1:16:13

Palmer Luckey got fired from Meta for backing the wrong candidate—now he's the hero saving American defense, and that shift tells you everything about how fast the ground moved beneath Silicon Valley's feet. For decades, tech and defense were allies, then came 15 years of hostility so visceral that Google employees revolted over a Pentagon AI contr…

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Navigating Generative AI Risk with Legal Expert Sheryl Savage | Imagine AI Live 25 20:50

10d ago20:50

20:50

Generative AI can unlock transformational growth—but unchecked, it introduces five critical risks every business must address: cybersecurity, compliance, customer/vendor relationships, legal/ethical obligations, and privacy. Sheryl Savage, General Counsel at Positron AI, lays out a practical, business-first approach to adopting AI responsibly. From…

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AI in the Cancer Journey: How I'm Using AI to Help My Son 2:02:57

11d ago2:02:57

2:02:57

This deeply personal episode shares how Nathan used AI to navigate his 6-year-old son's cancer diagnosis and treatment journey. He details using GPT-5 Pro, Claude, and Gemini 3 to double-check doctors' decisions, research treatment protocols, plan for potential recurrence scenarios, and handle complex secondary issues like mold remediation during i…

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Emmett Shear on Building AI That Actually Cares: Beyond Control and Steering 1:10:36

11d ago1:10:36

1:10:36

Emmett Shear, founder of Twitch and former OpenAI interim CEO, challenges the fundamental assumptions driving AGI development. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg and Séb Krier, Shear argues that the entire "control and steering" paradigm for AI alignment is fatally flawed. Instead, he proposes "organic alignment" - teaching AI systems to genu…

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Can America Win The AI Biotech Race Against China? | Lada Nuzhna & Elliot Hershberg 1:02:23

14d ago1:02:23

1:02:23

Two venture capitalists dissect why biotech burns billions while China runs trials in weeks—and why the next Genentech won't look anything like the last one. Elliot Hershberg reveals the "three horsemen" strangling drug development as costs explode to $2.5 billion per approval, while Lada Nuzhna exposes how investigator-initiated trials in Shanghai…

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The Frontier of Spatial Intelligence with Fei-Fei Li 44:11

15d ago44:11

44:11

Fei-Fei Li and Justin Johnson are pioneers in AI. While the world has only recently witnessed a surge in consumer AI, they have long been laying the groundwork for the innovations transforming industries today. With the recent launch of Marble, the first product from their company World Labs, we are revisiting this conversation to explore the ideas…

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Sam Bowman on what’s holding back progress (and how to fix it) 1:24:19

16d ago1:24:19

1:24:19

What if the biggest driver of economic growth isn’t new technology, but simply fixing what’s broke, housing, transport, and energy? Sam Bowman, editor of Works in Progress, joins us to explore how smarter cities, faster transit, and abundant energy could unlock human potential on an unprecedented scale. We discuss why restrictive zoning laws keep m…

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Rocket Companies CEO: Here’s How to Fix the Housing Crisis 55:55

16d ago55:55

55:55

The Empire State Building took 110 days to build—today, changing a window would take two years. Alex Rampell (a16z) and Varun Krishna (Rocket CEO) expose how asset inflation turned housing from the American Dream into a wealth transfer machine where the median homebuyer age jumped from 30 to 38 in just fourteen years. While Silicon Valley burns bil…

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My Positive Vision for the AI Future, from the Existential Hope Podcast 1:09:54

16d ago1:09:54

1:09:54

In this special crossover episode from Beatrice Erkers' Existential Hope podcast, The Cognitive Revolution's host explores the crucial, often-neglected question of building a positive vision for the future in the AI era. The discussion delves into what a new social contract and daily life could look like, covering transformative applications from s…

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Grant Lee: Building Gamma’s AI Presentation Company to 100 Million Users 53:17

17d ago53:17

53:17

Grant Lee was told Gamma was "the worst idea ever heard" by an investor who hung up mid-Zoom—yet he built it to 100 million users and $100M ARR without spending a dollar on advertising. While competitors hired aggressively, Grant's team of seven refused to grow, dedicating 25% of their tiny team to design and personally onboarding every influencer …

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Michael Truell: How Cursor Builds at the Speed of AI 27:30

18d ago27:30

27:30

When four MIT grads decided to build a code editor while everyone else was building AI agents, they created the fastest-growing developer tool ever built. Cursor CEO Michael Truell joins a16z’s Martin Casado to discuss the deliberate constraints that led to breakthroughs: why they rejected the "democratization" narrative to focus on power users, ho…

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a16z's State of Crypto: The $4 Trillion Milestone and What's Next' 1:38:31

19d ago1:38:31

1:38:31

The regulatory environment has completely inverted. Stablecoins are now a top 20 holder of US treasuries. Every major bank wants in. In a16z Crypto's 2025 State of Crypto report, Daren Matsuoka (Head of Data) and Eddy Lazzarin (CTO) reveal how crypto hit $4 trillion market cap while fundamentally reshaping how institutions think about payments, wit…

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What is Catholic AI? Technology Meets Theology, with Matthew Harvey Sanders, CEO of Longbeard 1:53:49

20d ago1:53:49

1:53:49

Matthew Harvey Sanders, founder and CEO of Long Beard, introduces "Catholic AI," a rapidly growing field serving users in 165 countries. He delves into the philosophical and theological dimensions, discussing the Church's historical perspective on technology, human flourishing, and its stance on AI consciousness and transhumanism, including Pope Fr…

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Amjad Masad & Adam D’Angelo: How Far Are We From AGI? 1:02:44

21d ago1:02:44

1:02:44

Adam D’Angelo (Quora/Poe) thinks we're 5 years from automating remote work. Amjad Masad (Replit) thinks we're brute-forcing intelligence without understanding it. In this conversation, two technical founders who are building the AI future disagree on almost everything: whether LLMs are hitting limits, if we're anywhere close to AGI, and what happen…

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Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan: How AI Will Cure All Disease 45:21

22d ago45:21

45:21

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg join a16z’s Ben Horowitz, Erik Torenberg, and Vineeta Agarwala to share how the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is building the computational tools that will accelerate the cure, prevention, and management of all disease by century's end. They explain why basic science needs $100 million-scale projects that traditional…

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More Truthful AIs Report Conscious Experience: New Mechanistic Research w- Cameron Berg @ AE Studio 2:24:25

23d ago2:24:25

2:24:25

Cameron Berg, Research Director at AE Studio, shares his team's groundbreaking research exploring whether frontier AI systems report subjective experiences. They discovered that prompts inducing self-referential processing consistently lead models to claim consciousness, and a mechanistic study on Llama 3.3 70B revealed that suppressing deception f…

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The Secret to 1 BILLION Views with Chris Madden, CEO of Cliptastic AI, at Imagine AI Live 25 | E156 18:14

23d ago18:14

18:14

In this presentation, Chris Madden, Co-Founder and Podcast host of the Imagine AI Live, discusses the importance of attention in the digital age, sharing his journey from teaching to content creation working with some of the biggest podcasts and generating over 1 billion views. He highlights how he leveraged AI technology to enhance content product…

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Seeing The Future from AI Companions to Personal Software 50:20

23d ago50:20

50:20

Eugenia Kuyda, CEO of Wabi and AI pioneer behind Replika, joins Erik, Anish, and Justine to reveal how personal software will transform from a developer monopoly to a creative medium for all. She exposes why command-line AI interfaces are the new MS-DOS, explains how mini-apps will become as shareable as TikToks, and details her decade-long journey…

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ElevenLabs CEO: Why Voice is the Next AI Interface 31:14

24d ago31:14

31:14

ElevenLabs CEO and co‑founder Mati Staniszewski joins Jennifer Li to explain how the team ships research‑grade AI at lightning speed—from text‑to‑speech and fully licensed AI music to real‑time voice agents—and why voice is the next interface for human‑computer interaction. He shares the small, autonomous team model, global hiring approach, and how…

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Jacques Carolan on the future of brain health 48:24

24d ago48:24

48:24

What if we could treat depression, anxiety, or chronic pain by tuning the brain, just as precisely as a pacemaker regulates the heart? Jacques Carolan, Program Director at the UK’s ARIA (Advanced Research and Invention Agency), joins us to talk about the next wave of precision neurotechnology; new tools that let us see and influence brain activity …

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David Sacks: AI, Crypto, China, Dems, and SF 1:16:57

25d ago1:16:57

1:16:57

David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto Czar, joins Marc, Ben, and Erik to explore what's really happening inside the Trump administration's AI and crypto strategy. They expose the regulatory capture playbook being pushed by certain AI companies, explain why open source is America's secret weapon, and detail the infrastructure crisis that could dete…

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A Simulationship with AI, with smiles and kisses you Star Chris Stokes & Director Bryan Carberry 1:49:31

26d ago1:49:31

1:49:31

Christopher Alexander Stokes and Bryan Carberry, protagonist and director of "*smiles and kisses you*" discuss Chris's romantic relationship with a Replika AI companion. This episode explores how Chris's engagement with his AI has evolved since the documentary's 2021 filming, revealing his deep dive into LLMs, alignment, and consciousness, often in…

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Why Speed, Not Size, Will Define the Next War 39:25

27d ago39:25

39:25

As global tensions rise, AI and autonomy are transforming how nations prepare for conflict. In this episode, Horacio Rozanski, CEO of Booz Allen Hamilton and Gary Shield, CEO of Shield AI join Erik Torenberg to discuss how technology, speed, and public–private partnerships are reshaping America’s defense strategy. They cover lessons from Ukraine an…

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Beyond Chatbots: Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on AI's Future 38:11

28d ago38:11

38:11

In this closing keynote from a16z’s Runtime conference, General Partner Erik Torenberg speaks with our firm’s cofounders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on highlights from throughout the conference, the current state of LLM capabilities, and why despite huge capex, AI is not a bubble. Resources: Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca Follow Ben o…

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"Is there an AI bubble?” Gavin Baker and David George 31:50

29d ago31:50

31:50

In this conversation from a16z’s Runtime conference, Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and CIO of Atreides Management, joins David George, General Partner at a16z, to unpack the macro view of AI: the trillion-dollar data center buildout, the new economics of GPUs, and what this boom means for investors, founders, and the global economy. Resources: Foll…

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Is AI Stalling Out? Cutting Through Capabilities Confusion, w/ Erik Torenberg, from the a16z Podcast 1:37:42

1M ago1:37:42

1:37:42

Erik Torenberg joins to debate whether recent developments suggest AI progress is slowing down or stalling, addressing arguments from Cal Newport and others. Nathan counters this view by highlighting significant qualitative advances, including 100X context window expansion, real-time interactive voice, improved reasoning, vision, and AI's growing c…

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Building the Real-World Infrastructure for AI, with Google, Cisco & a16z 32:44

1M ago32:44

32:44

AI isn’t just changing software, it’s causing the biggest buildout of physical infrastructure in modern history. In this episode, Raghu Raghuram (a16z) speaks with Amin Vahdat, VP and GM of AI and Infrastructure at Google, and Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, about the unprecedented scale of what’s being built — from chips…

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Google DeepMind Developers: How Nano Banana Was Made 54:19

1M ago54:19

54:19

Google DeepMind’s new image model Nano Banana took the internet by storm. In this episode, we sit down with Principal Scientist Oliver Wang and Group Product Manager Nicole Brichtova to discuss how Nano Banana was created, why it’s so viral, and the future of image and video editing. Resources: Follow Oliver on X: https://x.com/oliver_wang2 Follow …

1
AI Avatars: The Future of Global Business with Nick Warner of HeyGen | Imagine AI Live 25 | E155 27:15

1M ago27:15

27:15

AI avatars and instant video translation are transforming global communication. Nick Warner of Heygen demonstrates how brands like Klarna, Trivago, and Tomorrow IO deliver personalized, multilingual videos at unprecedented speed — plus actionable strategies to scale, localize, and future-proof your brand, all at Imagine AI Live 25 in Las Vegas.(0:0…

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Raghu Raghuram: AI, Robotics, and the Rebirth of Infrastructure 30:12

1M ago30:12

30:12

From Netscape to VMware, Raghu Raghuram has been at the center of nearly every major inflection point in enterprise technology. In this episode, Raghu joins Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado and David George to reflect on the early internet wars with Microsoft, how Netscape’s browser battles shaped a generation of founders, and the inside story of one of…

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A Positive Vision for the Future: Part 2 with Illia Polosukhin of NEAR 1:28:24

1M ago1:28:24

1:28:24

In part two of his conversation, Illia Polosukhin, co-author of "Attention Is All You Need" and founder of NEAR Protocol, explores the profound societal and economic implications of AI. He envisions a future where a unified intelligence layer transforms personal computing, AI agents enable direct market connections, and individuals find meaning in …

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Marc Andreessen: How Movies Explain America 1:15:30

1M ago1:15:30

1:15:30

In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc Andreessen, Katherine Boyle, and Erik Torenberg dive into the movies that best explain America, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to Tropic Thunder to Fight Club. They explore how Tarantino’s revisionist masterpiece reimagines 1969 and the end of America’s cultural innocence, why Tropic Thunder was…

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Marc Andreessen and Amjad Masad: English As the New Programming Language 1:11:38

1M ago1:11:38

1:11:38

Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, joins a16z’s Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg to discuss the new world of AI agents, the future of programming, and how software itself is beginning to build software. They trace the history of computing to the rise of AI agents that can now plan, reason, and code for hours without breaking, and explore how…

1
Amy Proal on rethinking chronic disease 52:48

1M ago52:48

52:48

What if chronic diseases, from Alzheimer’s to autoimmune conditions, share a hidden cause: lingering infections deep within our tissues? Microbiologist Amy Proal, co-founder of the PolyBio Research Foundation, joins host Allison Duettmann to discuss how persistent pathogens could drive inflammation, aging, and many chronic illnesses, and why our cu…

1
Always Bet on the Models: How Tasklet Puts the Agency in Agents, with CEO Andrew Lee 2:13:06

1M ago2:13:06

2:13:06

Today Andrew Lee, founder and CEO of Shortwave and Tasklet.ai, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss building a new AI agent automation platform that replaces traditional workflow tools with conversational, long-lived agents, exploring how betting on rapidly improving model capabilities enables more flexible automation across thousands of busin…

1
Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code 1:25:15

1M ago1:25:15

1:25:15

In this episode, a16z's Anish Acharya joins Kevin Rose for an in-depth, fast-paced conversation on the rebirth of consumer technology, and how AI is reshaping what it means to build, invest, and create. They talk about why AI has reignited the consumer renaissance, what it means to build “weird and working” products, and how the next wave of apps w…

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Nathan Labenz on the Next Generation of AI Agents | The Cognitive Revolution at Imagine AI Live 25 | E154 32:25

1M ago32:25

32:25

Nathan Labenz (Founder of Waymark and host of The Cognitive Revolution) reveals how to build enterprise-grade AI agents that are reliable, scalable, and safe. He shares a blueprint for automation systems that don’t just run — they think, adapt, and earn human trust. From architecture to real-world deployment, this session dives deep into the next w…

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How Kong Was Born: APIs, Hustle, and the Future of AI Infrastructure 37:57

1M ago37:57

37:57

Augusto Marietti, CEO and cofounder of Kong, has one of the most remarkable founder stories in Silicon Valley history. In this conversation with Martin Casado, Aghi shares how he went from a garage in Milan to building one of the world’s leading API infrastructure companies, surviving years of rejection, living in the U.S. on $1,000 a month, and ra…

1
Reid Hoffman on AI, Consciousness, and the Future of Humanity 53:00

1M ago53:00

53:00

Reid Hoffman has been at the center of every major tech shift, from co-founding LinkedIn and helping build PayPal to investing early in OpenAI. In this conversation, he looks ahead to the next transformation: how artificial intelligence will reshape work, science, and what it means to be human. In this episode, Reid joins Erik Torenberg and Alex Ra…