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My friends Tinkered Thinking (✍️📚 author of White Mirror & The Lucilius Parables ) and Jameson Olsen (🎧 host of Becoming the Main Character ) came back for the ultimate Project Hail Mary conversation: everything we loved, questioned, and overanalyzed about both the book and film . 📙🎬 🚨 If you haven’t read the book or seen the film, bookmark this and come back. Seriously. This one’s worth avoiding spoilers and going in blind. 🚨 We go deep on the book first, because it’s the foundation a...
I recruited my friends Tinkered Thinking (✍️📚 author of White Mirror & The Lucilius Parables ) and Jameson Olsen (🎧 host of Becoming the Main Character ) to do a *deep* dive on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms , HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's 1998 novella The Hedge Knight . 🚨 If you haven’t seen the show, bookmark this and come back. Seriously. This one’s worth avoiding spoilers and going in blind. 🚨 I was totally charmed by this series. The writing, the acting, the music, the ci...
David Kim discusses the evolution of his Scuttleblurb newsletter, detailing the strategic changes implemented to address subscriber churn and adapt to market demands, including increased frequency and leveraging topical content. He also offers a candid look at 2025 market dynamics, highlighting investor blindness to cyclicality and the AI-driven 'pain trade' in software. The conversation covers the complexities of competitive moats and the double-edged sword of using AI tools in research.
MBI and Liberty discuss the evolution of the Trillion Dollar Club, from Apple's 2018 milestone to today's AI-driven landscape. They explore each company's unique position, from Nvidia's "compute theory of everything" and circular financing to Apple's "Switzerland" strategy and Google's deep AI bets. The conversation also covers the challenges for analysts, the impact of academic papers on value creation, and a frank assessment of top tech CEOs, concluding with a tough pick for a long-term investment.
You love reading. You’re always looking for great things to read? 📖 📚 Me too! * high five * 🙏 Today, I’m talking with my friends Tinkered Thinking and Dylan O’Sullivan about ‘ White Mirror ’, a book written by the former, edited by the latter, and published by OSV’s Infinite Books ( full disclosure: I was involved in the publication of this book, but we wanted to publish it because it’s great, we don’t think it’s great because we published it. The order matters! ). It’s a wide-ranging convers...
One of my very favorite annual traditions is conducting this interview with my friend David Kim , aka Scuttleblurb (🕵📝). His investment research journal/company deep dives/business explorations were a key inspiration for this 🚢 steamboat. While the format is different, I hope there are similarities in the spirit. And I know that he has influenced and inspired many others — especially the good ones! In our conversation this year — the fifth one! — we explore the State of Scuttleblurb 📊 , his ...
Mark Nelson is back for Part 2! (If you missed it, here’s part 1 ) Another wide-ranging conversation: We discuss the implications of the new U.S. administration on energy policy , particularly focusing on Chris Wright, the incoming Secretary of Energy . We explore Wright’s background in the oil and gas industry , his connections to the nuclear sector through his board position at Oklo , and what his appointment might mean for both conventional and advanced nuclear power in America . We also get ...
🚨 Note: The first part of the podcast is spoiler-free. The spoilers only start after a warning 🚨 What happens when six film enthusiasts dissect Christopher Nolan's most ambitious and polarizing puzzle box? 🧩 We dive deep into TENET — exploring and deconstructing the film's twisted timeline, inverted action sequences, and reality-bending concepts. 🕰️ 🧠🌀 What worked? What didn’t? Do we love it, hate it, or love/hate it? Our distinguished panel of inverted time-travelers assembled to discuss ...
Mark Nelson is back! ( our first conversation is here ) We discussed how AI's massive power needs are reshaping energy policy in unexpected ways. For years, Big Tech claimed to run on '100% renewable energy' while quietly relying on nuclear and fossil fuels. But now, as companies race to build massive AI computing centers requiring gigawatts of reliable 24/7 power, that pretense is crumbling. Starting with Microsoft's Three Mile Island deal for the revival of a shutdown nuclear plant, we explore...
I’m excited to share with you one of my favorite podcasts that I’ve recorded ! 🎧🥇 I hope you enjoy it and will ➡️ subscribe to ‘Cost of Glory ’ ⬅️ (listen on: Spotify or Apple Podcast ) and follow Alex’s explorations of the greatest stories from Roman and Greek antiquity. It’s like a time machine for the mind , and might inspire you to read some of the great books we recommend near the end of the podcast! In this episode, Alex and I discuss why the Romans and Greeks of Antiquity were 𝕤𝕠 𝕒𝕨...
On his eighth appearance on the podcast, MBI (🇧🇩🇺🇸) joins me to discuss one of humanity’s most impressive achievements: The semiconductor industry. Of course, we can’t talk about everything, and this isn’t meant to be a structured primer (for that, see below). It’s just a mostly unstructured conversation among friends, discussing whatever we find interesting in the space. We focus mostly on TSMC and Texas Instruments because that’s the two companies that MBI has researched more deeply, but w...
Here’s something a little different. A fun — but dark! — one. I’m a big fan of Denis Villeneuve, and I was due for a re-watch of ‘ Sicario ’ (2015, written by Taylor Sheridan). It was the perfect opportunity to nerd out about the film, so I recruited my OSV colleagues Ed William (🇬🇧) and Dylan O’Sullivan (🇮🇪) for that task. ( You should follow them on Twitter, and while you’re at it, sign up for the OSV Substack so you don’t miss the cool stuff we’ve got coming. ) The things you love are alw...
Today, I’m joined by my friend Trung Phan ! He’s multi-talented, funny and smart, a great writer, podcaster, and just overall good dude 👍 In this conversation, we cover a lot of things from the Trung Expanded Universe, from the network effect at companies like Twitter/X and Facebook to Chernobyl and partying in Vietnam , we talk about creating online and how he got so good at solving the Twitter puzzle , what we learned from Rick Rubin and our mutual love of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Christopher...
On his sixth appearance on the pod, MBI joins me to discuss the most polarizing of the Big Tech companies: Meta Platforms (the artist formerly known as Facebook). Of course, it’s impossible to talk about it without talking about Mark Zuckerberg, so we try to better understand how he thinks about the company that he founded when he was 19, and how he compares to other founders. There was a lot to cover, and I think we touched on most of the big things: Facebook, Messenger, Whatsapp, Instagram, Re...
I’m excited to share with you another fun conversation with my good friend MBI (💎🐕). This marks his sixth appearance on the podcast, putting him in the lead ahead of David Senra with four (not that anyone’s counting!). Our starting point is his Deep Dive on Microsoft, which I strongly recommend: * 📄 Microsoft: The Quintessential Technology Company (sub. required) It’s an excellent primer and even if you’ve been following Microsoft for a while, I bet you’ll learn a few things! In the podcast, ...
Over the years, I have gotten to know Jim through one-on-one conversations and by listening to Infinite Loops and other podcasts where he was a guest. My goal with this podcast is to help you get to know Jim better , from his origin story to his early career in finance and quantitative investing, the writing of his influential book, all the way to the seeds of the idea that became O’Shaughnessy Ventures (OSV) where I now work (more on that below) and how we see the past and future of the Media s...
I had the great pleasure of talking with someone I admire a lot: Kevin Kelly ! He not only influenced my life directly through his works & ideas but he’s also cited as an inspiration and influence by many of the people that I admire, so I’m sure there’s an indirect influence too! Among other things, we discuss his new book ( order your copy today !), creativity, the impact of AI, how to create family traditions and rites of passage, Universal Personal Interns (UPIs), what is scarce in the un...
🚨 SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS 🚨 If you haven’t seen the show, bookmark this and come back after you’ve seen it. It’s a show worth seeing without spoilers! I’m very pleased that my friends Matt Reustle (🎧🎙️) and Tinkered Thinking (✍️📚) joined me to discuss what may very well turn out to be my favorite TV shows of the year. Above is one of my fave shots. I’m mad that I forgot to mention it in the podcast! Context: Joel wakes up in a panic because he fell asleep during his night watch. He turns...
I’m very happy to share with you this conversation with my two very good friends, Jimmy Soni (📚✍️) and David Senra (🎙📚). We discuss Jimmy’s excellent book The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley , while taking 57 different tangents and detours into things that we find interesting or that are indirectly connected to the main story . I hope you enjoy this special Book Club edition! 📃 Full transcript ( human-corrected and everything! ) * Transcript: Dav...
What could be more exciting than carefully reading through Big Tech proxy statements to look at management incentives, comparing them across companies to see what’s similar and different, what we like and don’t like, and how they rank from best to worst ..? If this is not your bag, you’re in luck! MBI did this work for you and shared his findings in a post . But that’s just a starting point: In today’s episode, we go deep into Big Tech compensation, and MBI shares additional thoughts and analysi...
David Kim is the author of Scuttleblurb (now also on Substack ! More on that new development in the podcast). This is the third time I have interviewed David — he’s that interesting! For more context, you can find the previous two interviews linked below. In this one, David shares his journey as an investor, talks about how Scuttleblurb started and how it’s doing these days, and who inspired him to get started (if Scuttleblurb is the grand-daddy of a lot of current ‘deep dive’ newsletters, who’s...
Let’s go deep into season 1 of Severance (2022, Apple TV+), a thriller with science fiction elements created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle. It was nominated for 14 Emmys! 🤫 🚨NOTE ON SPOILERS 🚨🤐 This podcast has a SPOILER-FREE INTRO . The spoilers only start after the “spoiler horn” about 11 minutes into it (you can’t miss it 📢) . So even if you haven’t seen the show, you can listen to the first part — I hope it piques your curiosity and convinces you to check...
First, something to keep in mind: This is a conversation about these companies not an interview of MBI. We both talk about equally and ask each other questions. I want to mention it upfront just so you don’t expect a different format going in. I had a great time discussing these two very interesting companies with my friend MBI (💎🐕). When I saw on his 2022 deep dive calendar that he was going to write about Cloudflare and Datadog, I knew we had to find time to talk about them at some point, si...
I’m very happy to share with you this conversation I had with my two very good friends, Jimmy Soni (✍️) and David Senra (🎙📚). We got together for a very special occasion. To talk about this man: Claude Shannon was both a genius and a very authentic human being , and I think more people should learn from him — understanding his masterwork, Information Theory , helps to understand the digital world, but I also strongly believe that reading about how he lived his life can help steer us to a deepe...
🤬 First a warning: This podcast includes a few swear words. It’s impossible — or at least not as fun — to talk about Deadwood without them. It is what it is. 🤬 The main topic is Deadwood (HBO, 2004-2006) and what can be learned from the show, but of course, this being David & I, we also talk about: * founders, * entrepreneurs, * obsessive creators, * the power of focus, * the power of strategy, * how civilization emerges, * intelligence as a currency, * violence as humanity’s fatal flaw, *...
This is part 2 of my conversation with Mark Nelson about the energy crisis and nuclear power . If you haven’t heard it already, you should start with part 1 : 🎧 Going Deep on the Energy Crisis and Nuclear Power with Mark Nelson (Part 1 of 2) 🔌⚡️💡 Part 2 covers a lot of ground, including how decisions are really made (emotions vs rationality), lessons from history and the pyramids of ancient Egypt on civilizational capabilities, the grid as an experiment, can we maintain it, expand it, what ch...
Mark Nelson and I had so much to talk about, we had two hour+ calls on our energy crisis and nuclear power. This is the first one. Mark is a former generation fellow at the Breakthrough Institute and was a senior analyst at Environmental Progress. He holds degrees in mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering. He is the founder and CEO of the Radiant Energy Group. Part 1 covers Mark’s origin story, the interesting and unique psychology of nuclear power, the historical link between nuclear wea...
🎧 Listen on Spotify If you prefer to listen on Spotify , here’s the feed: * Liberty’s Highlights podcast feed on Spotify 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts Here’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts : * Liberty’s Highlights podcast on Apple 📺 Watch on YouTube 📃 Full transcript * Full transcript of this podcast with MBI about payments I really enjoyed this conversation about the payments space and I hope you will too! $PYPL $SQ $AAPL $GOOG $AMZN If you want to dig deeper, here are a bunch of useful li...
We cover so much ground in this conversation with friend-of-the-show David Senra (🎙📚) of the excellent-like-I-mean-it-go-subscribe Founders Podcast , I won’t even attempt to summarize it. What I learned most from David is the power of focus and knowing what it takes to do great work. We talk about it in the context of what we do, but I’m sure it translates to whatever you’re trying to achieve. I’ll just say that I bet no other single podcast in the history of the world will have covered Ed Tho...
This is an interesting one that goes in many directions! (starting with the Earth sandwich.. 🌏 🥪) Cedric (💚 🥃 🇸🇬) is an operator who specializes — obsesses? — in learning how to extract knowledge from experts and businesspeople, the people in the trenches actually doing stuff . In this conversation, we discuss how traditional Chinese businessmen without formal education structure deals, cognitive flexibility theory (it sounds fancy, but it’s quite practical), cognitive transformation theor...
