On social audio app Clubhouse, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are hosting a new live show called "One on One with A and Z", where they go deep on questions submitted via Twitter. The show is based in part by a newspaper column that Andy Grove did in the 80s, where readers sent in questions for him to answer in his column. In this mega-episode of the a16z Podcast, we've combined their first two episodes into almost three hours of discussion and debate about some of the most important topics in ...
Feb 17, 2021•3 hr 1 min•Ep 624•Transcript available on Metacast When you hear stories about Amazon's "invention machine" -- which led to a company with not just one or two products but several successful diverse lines of business -- we often hear about things like: Memos, six pages exactly and no powerpoints at all!; or, the idea of just "work backwards from the press release"; and other such "best practices"... But what's often lost in hearing about these is the context and the details behind them -- the what, the how (as well as their origin stories) -- no...
Feb 08, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep 623•Transcript available on Metacast In this special 3x-long episode of our (otherwise shortform) news analysis show 16 Minutes -- past such 2-3X explainer episodes have covered section 230 , Tiktok , GPT-3 , the opioid crisis , more -- we cover the SolarWinds hack , one of the largest (if not the largest!) publicly known hacks of all time... and the ripple effects are only now starting to be revealed. Just this week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency shared ( as reported in the Wall Street Journal) that app...
Feb 01, 2021•48 min•Ep 622•Transcript available on Metacast In recent years, theres been a shift in how we think about psychedelics from drugs of abuse and recreation, to powerful drugs for treating neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression, addiction, and PTSD. But theres still a lot we don't know about how they work, and how we can maximize their therapeutic benefits while minimizing their adverse side effects. So this episode of Journal Club discusses a method for striking that balance, from a paper published in Nature last month, A non-hallucino...
Jan 23, 2021•26 min•Ep 621•Transcript available on Metacast The rise of developers -- as buyers, as influencers, as a creative class -- is a direct result of "software eating the world", and of key shifts in IT from on-prem to cloud & SaaS to the API economy , where application programming interfaces are essentially building blocks for innovation. Developers therefore not only play an outsized role in high-performing tech companies -- but managing and motivating them is actually critical in ALL companies, since every company is a tech company (whether th...
Jan 13, 2021•33 min•Ep 620•Transcript available on Metacast All about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- in what Wired senior writer (and host of the Get Wired podcast) described as "one of the clearest-but-still-nuanced explainers I've heard - worth listening to". So what does and doesn't it say? How does this law play out against broader questions and debates around platforms, content moderation, and free speech?This conversation between Mike Masnick (founder and editor in chief of Techdirt) and a16z editor in chief Sonal Chokshi was orig...
Jan 09, 2021•40 min•Ep 619•Transcript available on Metacast If softwares eating the world -- and more specifically, bringing costs down and increasing productivity through entire industries -- why have some industries, like healthcare, been so resistant? And what could the future look like once technology really gets in? With a16z co-founder -- and author of the now nearly decade-old thesis of software eating the world -- Marc Andreessen, in conversation with a16z bio general partner Vijay Pande. This episode originally ran on our show Bio Eats World, bu...
Jan 06, 2021•30 min•Ep 618•Transcript available on Metacast "In a year that left us speechless, 2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other ... so it's unprecedented that for the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary did NOT name a word of the year. But do we really need the dictionaries to tell us what our words of the year are? Especially if the approaches "Big Word" takes may be based on more lagging vs. leading indicators; after all, language is created and constructed as we go . And yet. People want the dictionary to give them permissio...
Dec 24, 2020•51 min•Ep 617•Transcript available on Metacast In this special episode of Bio Eats World -- which aired right after the FDA authorized Moderna's mRNA vaccine for emergency use -- Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel tells the story of not just the vaccines development, but the machine that made the vaccine: the platform, the technology, and the moves behind the vaccines development. How does this new technology that uses mRNA work; why is this such a fundamental shift in the world of drug development; and where will this technology go next? https://a...
Dec 21, 2020•40 min•Ep 616•Transcript available on Metacast This episode features two relevant but previously recorded episodes, discussing the relevance of the Paycheck Protection Program (or PPP) from the Small Business Administration and the role of government stimulus/ pandemic relief for the economy as well as where tech comes in. It combines 2 separate episodes, beginning with one recorded much earlier this year (on our show 16 Minutes), which outlines a useful analogy of "eminent domain" for government-mandated shutdowns of certain businesses and ...
Dec 14, 2020•59 min•Ep 615•Transcript available on Metacast The intersection of social and financeas well as shifting attitudes around what we share about money onlinehave given way to an ambitious new wave of financial products. While revealing ones financial information was once considered taboo, now people are more apt than ever to openly discuss money online, particularly Gen Z and millennials . Thats evident on both ends of the spectrum, whether people are bemoaning their crushing levels of student debt on Twitter and Instagram or bragging about the...
Dec 07, 2020•24 min•Ep 614•Transcript available on Metacast There's a few ontologies for describing the phases leaders -- and their startups -- go through, whether it's product-sales-etc. or pioneer to settler. In any case, as companies evolve, so must the leaders -- but can the same person transition across all these phases? When and when not; what are the qualities, criteria, and tradeoffs to be made? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, originally recorded as an internal hallway-style chat (pre pandemic!) a16z general partner Martin Casado, who co-fou...
Dec 04, 2020•43 min•Ep 613•Transcript available on Metacast What happens if we treat food as a medicine in the healthcare system: How, where, and who (pays)? What role can technology play in increasing access, distribution, and more? General partner Julie Yoo talks with the founder and former medical director of Geisinger Fresh Food Farmacy, Dr. Andrea Feinberg, and with the co-founder of food delivery start up Plated in this "holiday" cross-promo of our show Bio Eats World.
Nov 26, 2020•20 min•Ep 612•Transcript available on Metacast This episode features Q&As with two artists who are exploring crypto-powered auction sites and marketplaces this is part of our ongoing series on the creator economy. The big picture is that emerging "tokenization" models, especially non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are creating new ways for collectors and investors to buy, sell, and trade digital art. More broadly, these innovations open the door to the tokenization of any products or collectibles that can be captured and owned digitally. Marketpl...
Nov 22, 2020•20 min•Ep 611•Transcript available on Metacast A vaccine for COVID seems to be (almost) here or is it? Whats hype/ whats real beyond the headlines (and beyond the press release), when it comes to the announcement last week from Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 -- and relatedly, the most recent news around Moderna's vaccine candidate? Of course, this was just the first interim efficacy analysis so how close or far are we? Whats the significance of the readout and c...
Nov 20, 2020•22 min•Ep 610•Transcript available on Metacast True cloud-native games those exclusive to and solely playable within the cloudare poised to revolutionize gameplay and unlock new avenues of hyper-personalized storytelling and socializing. It's a vision that, though steadily advancing, is still in its early stages.Just one year ago this week, Google launched its cloud gaming service, Stadia, which shares the space with competitors including Microsoft's xCloud, Playstation Now, andNvidiasGeForce. In this episode, Jade Raymond, VP of Stadia Game...
Nov 16, 2020•39 min•Ep 609•Transcript available on Metacast Lakes v. warehouses, analytics v. AI/ML, SQL v. everything else... As the technical capabilities of data lakes and data warehouses converge, are the separate tools and teams that run AI/ML and analytics converging as well? In this podcast, originally recorded as part of Fivetran's Modern Data Stack conference, five leaders in data infrastructure debate that question: a16z general partner and pioneer of software defined networking Martin Casado, former CEO of Snowflake Bob Muglia; Michelle Ufford...
Nov 13, 2020•26 min•Ep 608•Transcript available on Metacast How to moderate good, productive discussions and navigate tricky conversations is top of mind -- whether doing a panel, conducting a live event, presenting a talk (or hosting a podcast), managing (and even just participating in!) a meeting. Especially in a world where remote and virtual work is increasingly become the norm for many knowledge workers, one in which we're increasingly communicating through little "Hollywood Squares, Brady Bunch"-like boxes. So how to translate physical and nonverba...
Nov 05, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep 607•Transcript available on Metacast "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they're indistinguishable from it." That quote from computer scientist Mark Weiser is from a 1991 paper where he outlined the vision of ubiquitous computing; in it, he also referenced "seamlessness"... We just can't get away from textile metaphors: we catch airline "shuttles", we "weave" through traffic, we follow comment "threads -- the metaphors are as ubiquitous and abundant ...
Oct 24, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep 606•Transcript available on Metacast Data, data, data its long been a buzzword in the industry, whether big data, streaming data, data analytics, data science, even AI & machine learning but data alone is not enough: it takes an entire system of tools and technology to extract value from data. A multibillion dollar industry has emerged around data tools and technologies. And with so much excitement and innovation in the space: how exactly do all these tools fit together? This podcast a hallway style conversation between Ali Ghodsi,...
Oct 23, 2020•22 min•Ep 605•Transcript available on Metacast Gen Zthose born between 1995 and 2010now makes up 35 percent of the population and represent $143 billion dollars in spending power. This episode is all about how brands can better understand, collaborate with, and resonate with this hugely influential segment of consumers. Our guest, Tiffany Zhong , is the 24-year-old CEO of Zebra IQ , a company that helps brands interpret the wants of Gen Z consumers and helps Gen Z creators turn their content into businesses. In its recent Gen Z Trends Report...
Oct 19, 2020•33 min•Ep 604•Transcript available on Metacast We've already talked a lot about podcasting , both evolution of the industry as well as the form, but where are we going with the future of audio , more broadly? Can we borrow from the present and future of video (e.g., TikTok ) to see what's next in audio (more layers, more interactivity)? Can we borrow from the past of audio (i.e., radio) to see what's next for audio experiences (more blending of music, talk, podcasting)? Where do all these mediums converge and where do they diverge -- when it...
Oct 14, 2020•57 min•Ep 603•Transcript available on Metacast Oct 11, 2020•28 min•Ep 602•Transcript available on Metacast It seems like investors are especially obsessed with the psychology of decision making -- high stakes, after all -- but all kinds of decisions, whether in life or business -- like dating, product management, what to eat or watch on Netflix -- are an "investment portfolio" of decisions... even if you sometimes feel like you're making one big decision at a time (like, say, marriage or what product to develop next or who to hire). Obviously, not all decisions are equal; in fact, sometimes we don't ...
Oct 08, 2020•44 min•Ep 601•Transcript available on Metacast Millennials and Gen Z have been hard-hit by the one-two punch of the 2008 and 2020 financial crises. That experience has radically shaped their approach to finances and their mindset around credit and debt. This episode explores how fintech founders are now designing products tailored to the financial challenges of younger consumers, from managing and avoiding student loans to building credit to saving and budgeting apps. Historically, students have largely been overlooked by traditional banks. ...
Oct 01, 2020•30 min•Ep 600•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the second episode of Bio Eats World , a brand new podcast all about how biology is technology. Bio is breaking out of the lab and clinic and into our daily lives -- on the verge of revolutionizing our world in ways we are only just beginning to imagine. Many diseases are caused by proteins that have gone haywire in some fashion. There could be too much of the protein, it could be mutated, or it could be present in the wrong place or time. So how do you get rid of these problematic pr...
Sep 27, 2020•25 min•Ep 599•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the first episode of Bio Eats World , a brand new podcast all about how biology is technology. Bio is breaking out of the lab and clinic and into our daily lives -- on the verge of revolutionizing our world in ways we are only just beginning to imagine. In this episode, we talk all about the science of aging. Once a fringe field, aging research is now entering a new phase with the first clinical trials of aging-related drugs. As the entire field shifts into this moment of translation,...
Sep 23, 2020•28 min•Ep 598•Transcript available on Metacast With the U.S. tech partnership for TikTok being finalized, what happens if source code is excluded (and more specifically, the For You Page algorithm), given Chinas revised export controls ? But more broadly -- well beyond the specifics and politics of this deal -- what does the success of TikTok tell us about creativity network effects, where every additional creator makes the rest of the community more creative? How did "seeing like an algorithm" and the new age of algorithm-friendly product d...
Sep 20, 2020•38 min•Ep 597•Transcript available on Metacast Todays episode, part two in our two-part series on the Creator Economy, focuses on the new potential revenue streams and fan-engagement models opened up by emerging decentralized technology. It's a new type of fan club, driven by crypto networks and aiming to give creators more power in the commercial sphere. Zoran Basich of a16z talked to two guests deeply immersed in these topics. Kayvon Tehranian is the founder and CEO of Foundation Labs, a platform for buying and selling limited edition good...
Sep 18, 2020•34 min•Ep 596•Transcript available on Metacast This episode, part one in a two-part series on the Creator Economy, explores the process and economics behind creating an independent newsletter. In this candid conversation, host Lauren Murrow talks with four Substack writersan artist, a technologist, a journalist, and a clinical researcher-turned-psychedelics scholarabout how to find and foster an audience, the calculus behind going paid versus unpaid, the pressure to produce, and financial benchmarks for making a living from newsletter writin...
Sep 17, 2020•35 min•Ep 595•Transcript available on Metacast 
