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Sabrina Halper Show

Sabrina Halpersubstack.com
The mind, the machine, and the meaning of it all.
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Episodes

How She Became One of Wall Street’s Most Successful Investors

Keri Findley, founder of Thiel-Backed fund Tacora Capital, shares a rare glimpse into her life and career: her path to Wall Street, eventually becoming one of the youngest partners at hedge fund Third Point while building its structured credit business from scratch, founding Tacora Capital with Peter Thiel anchoring the first fund as his biggest check ever. Along with wild success comes a target on your back and Keri reflects on difficult moments of litigation, divorce, and betrayal that ultimat...

Apr 16, 202656 min

AI Has Taste Now. The Radical Disruption Coming for Hollywood | Edward Saatchi, Fable Studios

Edward Saatchi (Saatchi & Saatchi family, former Head of Oculus Story Studio, Founder of Fable Studios) joins us to make the case that Hollywood is sleepwalking into the most radical disruption in the history of storytelling."Creativity is at a deep blue and Kasparov moment" "AI isn't just a tool in the toolbox for filmmakers. It's a competitor" We talk about: ★ Whether AI can be truly creative - Edward says yes ★ Silicon Valley's quiet takeover of Hollywood ★ Tech companies becoming media c...

Feb 19, 20261 hr

Moxie Marlinspike, Founder of Signal

Moxie Marlinspike founded Signal, the nonprofit privacy messenger used by millions. He’s now building Confer, a fully private, end-to-end encrypted AI chat. This conversation covers everything.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Intro 01:09 Building Physical World Projects Centered on Experiences07:43 Tales from Hitchhiking15:04 The Birth of Signal22:23 Privacy in the Digital Age31:21 Introducing Confer: Private AI Chat37:17 Generative AI and Developer Responsibility38:21 Encryption and Cryptography: A Historical ...

Feb 06, 20261 hr 13 min

When AI Becomes Conscious, How Will We Even Know? — Ken Liu

Ken Liu: Renowned sci-fi author of The Paper Menagerie, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, and his new book All That We See or Seem; producer of Pantheon; futurist who works with world governments to prepare for what’s ahead. TIMESTAMPS: (0:00) Introduction (1:41) Mechanism vs meaning: what science explains vs what stories explain (5:47) What is consciousness, really? (6:42) Psychedelics and the mystery of the mind (7:55) Can intelligence exist without consciousness? (12:10) How mind-uploading m...

Jan 08, 20261 hr 5 min

Isabelle Boemeke - The Real Story of Nuclear: Fear, Politics, and the Grid We Need for AI

Isabelle Boemeke went from Brazilian model to the internet’s most creative nuclear advocate who led the largest pro nuclear rally in US history. In this episode, we talk about nuclear energy's wild history, political drama, and what America’s energy grid needs to look like to keep up with the future demands. Shownotes: 0:00 : Introduction 1:37 : Growing up in rural Brazil 3:44 : Getting to the United States 5:15 : Reading Richard Dawkins, getting involved in the climate movement, learning about ...

Nov 27, 20251 hr 10 min

OpenAI’s Isa Fulford on Building Deep Research, ChatGPT’s Agent, and the Future of the Internet

Isa Fulford is only a few years out of school and is already the mind behind Deep Research and ChatGPT Agent - two of the most important and ambitious projects at OpenAI. She’s a close friend from our Stanford days, someone I adore, and someone the world is going to hear a lot more about in coming years. We talk about how her upbringing and violin training shaped the discipline behind her professional work. Isa breaks down how these systems were built, how they think, and where AI is heading, fr...

Nov 14, 202532 min

Life After AGI — Richard Ngo (Philosopher & Researcher, ex-OpenAI / DeepMind)

Richard Ngo is a leading AI philosopher and researcher, formerly at OpenAI and DeepMind. We discuss what life looks like once we have AGI and how every aspect of the human experience could change. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Introduction 01:44 – Technology as an Inequality Engine 03:52 – AI as a Personal Tutor vs. Distraction Machine 06:11 – Therapy, Coaching, and Emotional Mediation 09:16 – The Future of Work and the Socio-Political Economy 13:15 – Relationships, Intimacy, and AI Companions 19:03 – Marr...

Nov 06, 202547 minSeason 2Ep. 1

The AI Revolution in Music: A Conversation with DAOuda Leonard, Manager of Grimes and Founder of CreateSafe

In this episode, Sabrina Halper sits down with DAOuda Leonard, Grimes' manager and founder of music tech studio CreateSafe, which just launched its generative AI-powered platform Triniti. Triniti enables artists to create an AI voice clone, generate text-to-audio samples, ask a chatbot music industry-related questions, monetize creations and manage music IP. Subscribe to stay up to date on all the best clips and upcoming episodes! Socials👇 *Follow DAOuda on Twitter and check out CreateSafe. *Co...

Dec 21, 20231 hr 3 min

Eric Jang on Humanoid Robots, Why AI is Good For You, and a Future of Abundance.

In this episode, Sabrina Halper sits down with Eric Jang. Eric is the VP of AI at 1X Technologies, a humanoid robot company built to benefit society, with investment led by OpenAI. He also published AI is Good for You , a book about the last 10 Years and the next 10 Years of Artificial Intelligence (link to buy attached below). Previously, Eric was a senior research scientist at Google on their robotics team. Timestamps: (0:00) - Highlights (2:53) - Intro (3:32) - The outdated political system &...

Nov 29, 20231 hr 9 min

Martin Varsavsky on fertility and birth rate decline, gene editing, modern evolution, and why humanity needs more babies.

In this episode, Sabrina Halper sits down with renowned entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky. Martin has founded five unicorn companies across industries. He discusses his cutting edge work in the fertility space and how technology will revolutionize our biology. Timestamps: (0:00) - Intro (1:30) - Catalyst for building in fertility (3:00) - Reasons for increased infertility in society (7:00) - Climate change and overpopulation narrative (10:00) - Reasons for declining birth rates & how to design a...

Oct 09, 20231 hr 1 min

Delian on Varda's space drugs, Founders Fund, and Silicon Valley's history of mentorship.

Delian Asparouhov is the co-founder of Varda Space , the startup that is manufacturing products in space to benefit life on Earth. He is also a partner at Founders Fund. The first 30 minutes of this episode cover all things space: Varda, investing and building in Space, Elon's role in pushing the industry forward, working in highly-regulated industries, inception of ideas. The second 30 minutes go deep into Delian's personal path into venture, lessons from his first company, what personal charac...

Aug 30, 20231 hr

Living Carbon's Maddie Hall on bioengineering super trees to help fight climate change, synthetic bio's potential, carbon credits, lessons from Sam Altman & using LLMs to understand animals.

Maddie Hall is the co-founder and CEO of Living Carbon, a plant bio-tech company growing genetically modified poplars and pines capable of absorbing much more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than regular trees. Previously, she worked on special projects at Y Combinator and OpenAI. Follow https://twitter.com/TomorrowTalk_ to stay up to date on all the best clips and upcoming episodes! Follow Maddie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/maddiehalla?s=20 Connect with Sabrina on Twitter: https://twitte...

Aug 07, 202346 min

Tye Sheridan and Nikola Todorovic on harnessing AI to revolutionize special effects, founding Wonder Dynamics, the future of content, and Hollywood’s tech roots.

Tye Sheridan, the lead actor in films such as Ready Player One, X-Men, and Mud, and Nikola Todorovic, award-winning filmmaker and visual effects supervisor, met on a set in 2016. They quickly became best friends, and eventually cofounders of Wonder Dynamics, a company building AI software that makes VFX special effects affordable and accessible on a browser, ultimately empowering a whole new generation of people to create new types of content that were previously reserved for big-budget studios....

Jul 11, 202342 min

Bryan Johnson on reducing his biological age, longevity, human alignment, & negotiating with pain.

Bryan Johnson sits down with HOF investor Sabrina Halper for an in-depth conversation that spans philosophy, biology, and technology. Bryan Johnson is the world's most measured human. He is investing millions to slow and reverse his aging. In 2021, he set a world record by reducing his epigenetic age by 5.1 years in 7 months. In this conversation, Bryan confronts many of the criticisms around his pursuit and presents his vision for the future of humanity. Previously, Johnson sold his company Bra...

Jun 12, 202344 min

Elad Gil on the power of peer groups, investing in 40+ unicorns, today's AI ecosystem, and staying dynamic.

In this episode, Elad sits down with Sabrina Halper for a candid conversation about all things technology. You'll hear his thoughts on: 1.How to develop a long-term career in technology: -The power of peer groups and cohorts -Which jobs to pursue -Re-inventing yourself -Living in the physical hubs 2.Advice for founders of startups and growth-stage companies: -Why large companies stagnate and how to avoid it as you scale -How to think about startup moats and defensibility -The power of picking th...

May 23, 202350 min

Sahil Lavingia on growing Gumroad to $100M, today's AI ecosystem, finding a business idea, an Isaac Asimov future, his 300k Twitter audience + more

In this episode, Sabrina Halper sits down with Sahil Lavingia for an in-depth conversation that goes far and wide. They discuss: -his journey dropping out of USC to join Pinterest as the 2nd employee -founding and scaling Gumroad to $100M -his advice for others looking to build profitable products and companies -the current AI wave: which companies excite him, what he's been building, how the competitive ecosystem might play out -AGI and what our future society may look like -Balaji's Bitcoin be...

Apr 24, 20231 hr 8 min

Ben Lamm, Colossal Founder & CEO: De-Extinction, Artificial Wombs & the Future of Genetics

In this episode, Sabrina sits down with Ben Lamm, CEO & Founder of the biotechnology and genetic engineering company Colossal. Ben is a serial entrepreneur who has started several moonshot companies, including AI company Hypergiant. Ben co-founded Colossal alongside renowned geneticist George Church. Together they are working to genetically resurrect key species, such as the wooly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and the dodo to mitigate climate change and protect against the loss of biodiversi...

Mar 19, 202335 min

Future of Virtual & Augmented Reality, How AI will Disrupt Gaming, Apple’s AR play, Meta’s $36B Rebrand, and How to Approach Building in the Space.

In this episode, host Sabrina Halper sits down with Felix Hartmann (Hartmann Capital), Jonathan Ovadia (founder, AEXLABS), and Dr Doom (founder, LIV). The seasoned guests discuss the biggest limitations to the VR industry to date, Meta’s re-brand and $36B investment, how Apple might enter the space, generative AI's role in increasing productivity and building games more efficiently, how augmented reality will integrate into our lives, and the biggest opportunities for founders to build in the sp...

Feb 09, 202332 min

Matt Krisiloff & Roon on Turning Stem Cells into Human Eggs, Longevity, OpenAI, AI's Role in Biotech, + More

In this episode, special guest host Roon sits down with Matt Krisiloff, the founder of Conception and SciFounders. The pair discuss Conception's work with in vitro gametogenesis: turning stem cells into human eggs, which could potentially allow for same sex couples or older women to have biological children. They also discuss the fertility crisis, artificial wombs and genetic selection, his early days as a founding team member of OpenAI and Director of Y Combinator Research, the lessons he learn...

Dec 21, 202236 min

roon(@TSZZL) on Elon, Growing a Famous Pseudonym, Secret AI Projects, Rahul Ligma, Vitalik + everything else on our minds

Roon is the Twitter pseudonym we all love. You've likely come across @Tszzl on Twitter, where he has grown over 56k followers under his pseudonymous name "roon" for his smart and edgy takes. He's an AI expert, engineer, an SF stan, and overall techno-optimist. On this episode you'll hear about his thoughts on Elon Musk, Twitter, generative AI, which new AI companies will find success, China's AI progress, his prankster friends (Rahul Ligma & Daniel Johnson), the common personality traits he'...

Nov 21, 202241 min

Changing US Law to Build America’s First Federally Regulated Events-Based Exchange, with Kalshi Co-founder & CEO Tarek Mansour.

Tarek Mansour is the 25 year old co-founder and CEO of Kalshi, America's first federally regulated exchange where you can trade on events, just like you would a stock or a commodity. During his time at Goldman Sachs, Tarek was set to help clients hedge their investments during Brexit, but there was no direct way to do it. In 2018, he started Kalshi with fellow MIT classmate Luana Lopes Lara. After three years of work, they got approved by the CFTC and made history. Kalshi’s list of investors inc...

Oct 31, 202242 min

The Robot Lawyer that Helped Consumers Save Over $100M, with DoNotPay Founder Joshua Browder

Today's guest is Joshua Browder, the co-founder and CEO of DoNotPay, the world's first robot lawyer. He has helped consumers win back over $100M in parking tickets, subscriptions, and more. His mission is to use technology to empower consumers to represent themselves and protect their rights. In this episode, Joshua speaks to host Sabrina Halper about his childhood during his father Bill Browder's fight against Russia's human rights violations, teaching himself how to code, moving across the wor...

Sep 08, 202233 min

Saving Millions of Lives Using Blood to Catch Cancer Early, with BillionToOne founder Oguzhan Atay

Oguzhan Atay is the founder & CEO of BillionToOne, a molecular diagnostics company that is redefining cancer care and pre-natal genetic testing. Oguzhan developed a liquid biopsy tool to test DNA through blood, rather than tissue samples. His approach is way less invasive and way more accurate. The company has raised over $210M. In this episode, Oguzhan speaks to Host Sabrina Halper and Co-host & partner at HOF Victor Wang about the ways this technology will save millions of lives and bi...

Aug 09, 202233 min

Tom Brady’s Co-Founder on Building an Enduring NFT Platform, His Outlook on Crypto Winter, & Earning the Support Icons and Leaders in Crypto & Sports (Katie Haun, Tiger Woods, SVP of Apple, etc.)

Autograph’ s Co-founder Tom Brady is widely known. The other co-founder, and CEO, is Dillon Rosenblatt, a 24 year old, second time founder. Dillon first began his entrepreneurial journey when he started Tutors, a company to connect tutors and students, at age 15. After attending USC’s Iovine and Young Academy for entrepreneurship, he explored the idea of starting a crypto hedge fund which began a deep dive exploration into the space that eventually led him to build Autograph. In this episode, ho...

Jul 08, 202235 minSeason 1Ep. 3

Henrique Dubugras, Co-founder & CEO of Fintech Unicorn Brex

In this debut episode, host Sabrina Halper sits down with Henrique Dubugras, the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Brex, a credit card and financial toolkit for startups, valued at $12.3B. As a 16 year old living in the middle of Brazil, Henrique founded Pagar.me, which did over $1.5B in sales. He then went on to attend Stanford University for 6 months, until dropping out to join Y Combinator and start Brex with his co-founder Pedro Franceschi. At 26 years old, he’s a second time founder who runs one of ...

Jun 03, 202248 minSeason 1Ep. 1
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