Best Dwarkesh Patel Podcasts (2025)

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Is AI Slowing Down? Nathan Labenz Says We're Asking the Wrong Question 1:31:02

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10h ago1:31:02

1:31:02

Nathan Labenz is one of the clearest voices analyzing where AI is headed, pairing sharp technical analysis with his years of work on The Cognitive Revolution. In this episode, Nathan joins a16z’s Erik Torenberg to ask a pressing question: is AI progress actually slowing down, or are we just getting used to the breakthroughs? They discuss the debate…

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The Magic of Tokyo (with Joe McReynolds) 1:09:23

2h ago1:09:23

1:09:23

What drives the seeming relentless dynamism of Tokyo? Is there something special about Japanese culture? Joe McReynolds, co-author of Emergent Tokyo, argues that the secret to Tokyo's energy and attractiveness as a place to live and visit comes from policies that allow Tokyo to emerge from the bottom up. Post-war black markets evolved into today's …

1
Columbia CS Professor: Why LLMs Can’t Discover New Science 50:54

1d ago50:54

50:54

From GPT-1 to GPT-5, LLMs have made tremendous progress in modeling human language. But can they go beyond that to make new discoveries and move the needle on scientific progress? We sat down with distinguished Columbia CS professor Vishal Misra to discuss this, plus why chain-of-thought reasoning works so well, what real AGI would look like, and w…

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#1006 - Chris Bumstead - Life After Olympia: Fatherhood, TRT & Finding Purpose 2:00:05

2d ago2:00:05

2:00:05

Chris Bumstead is a professional bodybuilder, 6x Mr. Olympia Classic Physique title holder, and a business owner. From 6× Mr. Olympia to full-time business owner and stay-at-home dad, it’s safe to say Chris Bumstead’s been enjoying retired life. So what’s he been up to this past year, what’s changed most for him, and what’s he looking forward to ne…

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Monitoring the Situation #3: Who Is Nick Land? 52:44

2d ago52:44

52:44

Zach Dell is founder and CEO of Base Power, an energy tech company that builds affordable, reliable power via home batteries. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price-Wright sit down with Zach to discuss the current state of home power generation, what’s misunderstood about t…

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#1005 - Warren Smith - J.K. Rowling & The Cost of Speaking Freely 1:15:28

4d ago1:15:28

1:15:28

Warren Smith is a filmmaker, educator, and host of the “Secret Scholar Society” YouTube channel. If freedom of speech can be shouted down, does it really exist? When every debate turns into partisan noise, what does honest discourse even look like? If we can’t talk about our problems without resorting to anger or violence, how can we ever solve the…

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Nick Lane – Life as we know it is chemically inevitable 1:20:08

4d ago1:20:08

1:20:08

Nick Lane has some pretty wild ideas about the evolution of life. He thinks early life was continuous with the spontaneous chemistry of undersea hydrothermal vents. Nick’s story may be wrong, but I find it remarkable that with just that starting point, you can explain so much about why life is the way that it is — the things you’re supposed to just…

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ChatGPT’s Platform Play + a Trillion-Dollar GPU Empire + the Queen of Slop 1:06:35

5d ago1:06:35

1:06:35

This week, we discuss the standout moments from our field trip to OpenAI’s third annual DevDay — including a bizarre chat between Jony Ive and Sam Altman, and the announcement that OpenAI is putting apps into ChatGPT. Then, we try to make sense of the massive computing deal between OpenAI and AMD, and how it could impact the larger economy. And fin…

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#1004 - Sam Corcos - Inside DOGE, The IRS & How to Scam the US Government 2:56:09

6d ago2:56:09

2:56:09

Sam Corcos is an entrepreneur, CEO of Levels, and a special advisor to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). What’s really happening inside the U.S. government? For the first time, a DOGE insider exposes the chaos, corruption, and dysfunction plaguing Washington. How did America’s most powerful system lose its way, and can we climb out of…

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Box CEO Aaron Levie on Why AI Agents Won’t Take Your Job 52:55

15h ago52:55

52:55

Aaron Levie is AI-pilled, but he’s one of the few CEOs who sees a future where AI agents work for us, instead of replacing us—helping us to do more than we could before. Aaron’s been the CEO of Box for 20 years–long enough to see a few tech revolutions up close—and taking the company AI-first gave him a glimpse of what the next one means for us. We…

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Box CEO Aaron Levie on Why AI Agents Won’t Take Your Job 52:56

6d ago52:56

52:56

Aaron Levie is AI-pilled, but he’s one of the few CEOs who sees a future where AI agents work for us, instead of replacing us—helping us to do more than we could before. Aaron’s been the CEO of Box for 20 years–long enough to see a few tech revolutions up close—and taking the company AI-first gave him a glimpse of what the next one means for us. We…

1
Manufacturing's Future, The Electric Tech Stack, and Automation 56:02

7d ago56:02

56:02

By Natalie Toren

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Sam Altman on Sora, Energy, and Building an AI Empire 48:25

7d ago48:25

48:25

Sam Altman has led OpenAI from its founding as a research nonprofit in 2015 to becoming the most valuable startup in the world ten years later. In this episode, a16z Cofounder Ben Horowitz and General Partner Erik Torenberg sit down with Sam to discuss the core thesis behind OpenAI’s disparate bets, why they released Sora, how they use models inter…

1
Uncapped #27 | Vince Hankes from Thrive Capital 57:34

7d ago57:34

57:34

Vince Hankes is a Partner at Thrive Capital where he’s worked on investments in OpenAI, SpaceX, Databricks, and Stripe among others. Vince invests across all stages and currently sits on the board of Airtable, Benchling, Console, Isomorphic, Lattice and Rogo. Prior to joining Thrive, Vince was an investor at Tiger Global. We covered: Non-consensus …

1
How to Build a Real Estate Marketplace - Kaz Nejatian, Opendoor CEO 55:44

1d ago55:44

55:44

By Kaz Nejatian, Alex Rampell

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The Invisible Hierarchies that Rule Our World (with Toby Stuart) 1:13:15

9d ago1:13:15

1:13:15

Status isn't fixed; it's transferred and "bestowed," shaping who gets resources, attention, and opportunity. So argues author Toby Stuart of UC Berkeley in his book, Anointed. He and EconTalk's Russ Roberts explore why hierarchies persist--reducing conflict, allocating scarce resources, and curating our overwhelming choices--and how endorsements, b…

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Can the US Beat China’s Engineering State? 1:03:10

9d ago1:03:10

1:03:10

From high-speed rail to electric cars to batteries to AI, it’s clear that China can operate with incredible speed at massive scale. Can the US still compete? We sat down with Dan Wang, a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” to discuss. Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction 1:36 Lawyers…

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#1003 - Konstantin Kisin - The Forces Behind Britain's Downfall 2:17:56

9d ago2:17:56

2:17:56

Konstantin Kisin is a podcaster, a speaker and an author. Is the UK facing its breaking point? Once the world’s greatest empire, the UK now finds itself engulfed in political chaos and cultural upheaval. From leadership crises to deep divisions, what’s really happening on the front lines, and can Britain be saved from itself? Expect to learn why th…

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Monitoring the Situation #2: Alana Newhouse 58:58

9d ago58:58

58:58

Two trends in media have been abundantly clear since 2020: legacy media is dying, and independent media is rising. a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle sit down with Tablet founder and editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse to discuss the great media realignment, why real institutions will outlast the new “internet pirates", Alana’s dee…

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Some thoughts on the Sutton interview 11:39

10d ago11:39

11:39

I have a much better understanding of Sutton’s perspective now. I wanted to reflect on it a bit. (00:00:00) - The steelman (00:02:42) - TLDR of my current thoughts (00:03:22) - Imitation learning is continuous with and complementary to RL (00:08:26) - Continual learning (00:10:31) - Concluding thoughts Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at www.dwa…

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#1002 - Andrew Doyle - Political Violence & The Lunatics of Your Own Side 2:33:01

11d ago2:33:01

2:33:01

Andrew Doyle is Titania McGrath, host of GB News, a comedian and a writer. The world has shifted dramatically over the past few years, and the pace of change has only accelerated in recent months. Ideas that once lived outside the mainstream have quickly entered the Overton Window, while others have been pushed out. So what does the future hold for…

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Sora and the Infinite Slop Feeds + ChatGPT Goes to Therapy + Hot Mess Express 1:05:54

12d ago1:05:54

1:05:54

This week, we’re talking about the new A.I.-generated video tools and social media feeds from Google, Meta and OpenAI. Is this how A.I. is going to cure cancer? Then, the psychotherapist Gary Greenberg stops by to discuss his recent New Yorker essay about treating ChatGPT as a patient, and why what he saw left him unsettled. And finally, all aboard…

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Software is Eating Labor 26:49

6d ago26:49

26:49

Software has fundamentally changed the way we record, store, and share information. Its next act is to fundamentally change the nature of our economy, capturing trillions of dollars of value in the process. In this talk from the 2025 a16z LP Summit, a16z General Partner Alex Rampell discusses the history of filing cabinets and databases, how SaaS p…

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The Ben & Marc Show: China Has Scale. Can America Catch Up? 57:16

12d ago57:16

57:16

Ben, Marc, and Erik Torenberg are joined by Brian Schimpf, Co-Founder & CEO of Anduril, and Chris Power, Founder & CEO of Hadrian. Together, they dig into America’s defense production gap: why the U.S. can out-innovate but not out-produce—and what it will take to turn that around. They discuss why U.S. war games show we run out of munitions in a we…

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#1001 - Ryan Holiday - Stoicism’s Lessons on Becoming Wise 1:52:43

13d ago1:52:43

1:52:43

Ryan Holiday is a podcaster, marketer and an author.If intelligence were enough, the smartest among us would also be the wisest. Yet time and again, they stumble over life’s simplest lessons. Wisdom isn’t about knowing more; it’s about seeing deeper. So how do we shed the illusion of being ‘smart,’ and actually grow into wisdom?Expect to learn what…

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MCP Servers: Teaching AI to Use the Internet Like Humans 51:39

8d ago51:39

51:39

If your MCP server has dozens of tools, it’s probably built wrong.You need tools that are specific and clear for each use case—but you also can’t have too many. This creates an almost impossible tradeoff that most companies don’t know how to solve. That’s why we interviewed Alex Rattray, the founder and CEO of Stainless. Stainless builds APIs, SDKs…

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MCP Servers: Teaching AI to Use the Internet Like Humans 51:40

13d ago51:40

51:40

If your MCP server has dozens of tools, it’s probably built wrong. You need tools that are specific and clear for each use case—but you also can’t have too many. This creates an almost impossible tradeoff that most companies don’t know how to solve. That’s why we interviewed Alex Rattray, the founder and CEO of Stainless. Stainless builds APIs, SDK…

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Cheeky Pint: Marc Andreessen, John Collison & Charlie Songhurst on Tech’s Big Questions 2:09:12

14d ago2:09:12

2:09:12

Today we’re sharing a feed drop from Cheeky Pint, where Stripe cofounder and president John Collison chats with legends in technology over a pint of Guinness. In this episode, John is joined by a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen and tech investor Charlie Songhurst for a candid conversation about bubbles, downturns, and the psychology of markets. They d…

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Uncapped #26 | Ali Rowghani 41:10

14d ago41:10

41:10

Ali Rowghani is the founder of First Harmonic, a go-to-market program purpose-built for seed stage founders. Ali has had a long, distinguished career in tech. He worked with Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull at Pixar for nine years holding various roles including CFO and SVP of Strategic Planning, took Twitter from $0 in revenue through IPO as the CFO and …

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Building an AI Physicist: ChatGPT Co-Creator’s Next Venture 54:20

14d ago54:20

54:20

Scaling laws took us from GPT-1 to GPT-5 Pro. But in order to crack physics, we’ll need a different approach. In this episode, a16z General Partner Anjney Midha talks to Liam Fedus, former VP of post-training research and co-creator of ChatGPT at OpenAI, and Ekin Dogus Cubuk, former head of materials science and chemistry research at Google DeepMin…

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#1000 - Matthew McConaughey - The Art of Living a Courageous Life 1:58:00

15d ago1:58:00

1:58:00

Matthew McConaughey is an Academy Award-winning actor, producer and an author. Expect to learn why Matthew says life often “rhymes”, why it’s okay if you do everything right and still not get the result you want, how Matthew views the role courage plays in his life, how to learn to deal with failure, the difference between a nice guy and a good man…

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Eating with Intelligence (with Julia Belluz) 1:05:49

16d ago1:05:49

1:05:49

Losing weight should be simple: eat less, exercise more. But according to author and health journalist Julia Belluz, it's complicated. Listen as Belluz talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about her new book, Food Intelligence. Belluz argues that a calorie is pretty much a calorie whether it's carbs or fat. Keeping calories under control is often har…

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Meta CMO: How Advertising Works Under the Hood 1:02:52

16d ago1:02:52

1:02:52

Ads pay for the internet—and they’re about to change again. a16z General Partner Erik Torenberg, entrepreneur and author Antonio García Martínez, and Meta CMO Alex Schultz dive into growth and performance marketing, privacy myths, retail media, and the AI future of “audience-of-one” advertising—plus Instagram what-ifs, WhatsApp as a super-app, and …

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The Common Thread of All Technology: Monitoring the Situation, Ep.1 1:00:02

18d ago1:00:02

1:00:02

Announcing our new show, Monitoring the Situation, hosted by a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle, with guest Eddie Lazzarin, CTO of a16z crypto. In this first episode, we ask how American Dynamism, consumer, games, and crypto all fit together, from Palmer/Oculus to Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto, while also explori…

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#999 - 21 Lessons from 999 Episodes - Naval Ravikant, Roger Federer & Vincent van Gogh 1:55:05

18d ago1:55:05

1:55:05

To celebrate 999, almost 1000, episodes of Modern Wisdom, I broke down some of my favourite lessons, insights and quotes from the last hundred episodes. Expect to learn how 999 episodes of Modern Wisdom have reshaped my understanding of happiness, success and relationships, what i've learned on losing points from Naval Ravikant & Roger Federer, the…

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Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead end 1:06:22

18d ago1:06:22

1:06:22

Richard Sutton is the father of reinforcement learning, winner of the 2024 Turing Award, and author of The Bitter Lesson. And he thinks LLMs are a dead end. After interviewing him, my steel man of Richard’s position is this: LLMs aren’t capable of learning on-the-job, so no matter how much we scale, we’ll need some new architecture to enable contin…

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The Great A.I. Build-Out + H-1B Visa Chaos + TikTok Braces for the Rapture 52:41

19d ago52:41

52:41

This week, an eye-popping $100 billion deal between OpenAI and Nvidia — along with an announcement about the construction of five new American data centers — has us re-examining our predictions of an A.I. bubble. Then, we try to make sense of the Trump administration’s changes to the H-1B visa program, which generated mixed reactions from tech lead…

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From Vibe Coding to Vibe Researching: OpenAI’s Mark Chen and Jakub Pachocki 52:05

20d ago52:05

52:05

What comes after vibe coding? Maybe vibe researching. OpenAI’s Chief Scientist, Jakub Pachocki, and Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, join a16z general partners Anjney Midha and Sarah Wang to go deep on GPT-5—how they fused fast replies with long-horizon reasoning, how they measure progress once benchmarks saturate, and why reinforcement learning …

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#998 - Zack Telander - Everything You Want Is On The Other Side Of Cringe 1:47:33

20d ago1:47:33

1:47:33

Zack Telander is a musician, weightlifter, coach & YouTuber. Why are we so afraid of being cringe? If being cringe online is the price of success, why don’t more people pay it? So how do you train yourself past criticism and actually do what needs to be done in your life, whether people are watching you or not? Expect to learn why getting over bein…

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Cognition’s CEO on What Comes After Code 53:22

20d ago53:22

53:22

The future has a way of showing up early to some places. In software engineering, one of those places is Cognition—the startup that made headlines in early 2024 with Devin, the world’s first autonomous coding agent, and more recently with its acquisition of the AI code editor Windsurf. Scott Wu, Cognition’s cofounder and CEO, has a front-row seat t…

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Cognition’s CEO on What Comes After Code 53:21

20d ago53:21

53:21

The future has a way of showing up early to some places. In software engineering, one of those places is Cognition—the startup that made headlines in early 2024 with Devin, the world’s first autonomous coding agent, and more recently with its acquisition of the AI code editor Windsurf. Scott Wu, Cognition’s cofounder and CEO, has a front-row seat t…

1
Software finally eats services - Aaron Levie 59:33

20d ago59:33

59:33

Should the US put a price on H-1B visas, or would that block the flow of new talent? Are AI coding agents actually making teams way more productive, or is it just hype? And in the AI platform shift, will the big winners be incumbents or new AI-native startups? Erik Torenberg is joined by Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie, a16z board partner Steven…

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Uncapped #25 | Lulu Cheng Meservey 50:18

21d ago50:18

50:18

Lulu Cheng Meservey is the leading voice in the new age of PR and comms and is the founder of Rostra, an advisory firm helping founders go direct. Lulu has been a trusted voice for founders like Palmer Luckey at Anduril, Eric Glyman at Ramp, and Brian Armstrong at Coinbase. She previously ran corporate affairs and communications for Activision Bliz…

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America's Autism Crisis and How AI Can Fix Science with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya 58:13

21d ago58:13

58:13

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is one of the country’s top medical experts and a 24-year professor of medicine at Stanford. After being censored and deplatformed during COVID for his role in opposing harsh lockdowns, he was appointed Director of the National Institutes of Health by President Trump in 2025. a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Vineeta Agarwa…

1
Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge 1:23:20

23d ago1:23:20

1:23:20

Why are Super Bowl ads so good for launching certain kinds of new products? Why do we all drive on the same side of the road? And why, despite laughing and crying together, do we often misread what others think? According to bestselling author and Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, it all comes down to common knowledge, or the phenomenon that happ…

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Dylan Patel on the AI Chip Race - NVIDIA, Intel & the US Government vs. China 1:40:00

23d ago1:40:00

1:40:00

Nvidia’s $5 billion investment in Intel is one of the biggest surprises in semiconductors in years. Two longtime rivals are now teaming up, and the ripple effects could reshape AI, cloud, and the global chip race. To make sense of it all, Erik Torenberg is joined by Dylan Patel, chief analyst at SemiAnalysis, joins Sarah Wang, general partner at a1…