North Star Podcast

My guest today is Keith Rabois, the Managing Director at Khosla Ventures. At Khosla, Keith focuses on the consumer internet, education, enterprise, financial services, and digital health.    Keith has had a front-seat to Silicon Valley history. He’s had five bosses in his career: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Reid Hoffman, Jack Dorsey, and Vinod Khosla. 

We begin this episode with a discussion of Gillian’s time as a journalist in Turkey and the time she spent in war zones in Syria and Afghanistan. We talk about Gillian’s experience swimming across Guantanamo, why Tinder is the world’s best travel app, and how to make travel meaningful. Finally, we end the podcast with a discussion of community living and alternative parenting strategies. 

Michael and I talk about the virtues of nuclear energy and tackle the big misconceptions surrounding it. We explore how media narratives have shaped nuclear energy perception, the virtues and drawbacks of wind and solar energy technologies, why 17% of teachers in California can’t afford a home, the problems with anonymous lawsuits, and the fascinating impact of Proposition 13 on housing in Silicon Valley. 

Introduction: My guest today is Samo Burja, the founder of Bismarck Analysis, a firm that analyzes institutions, governments, and companies for high net worth individuals. There’s never been an immortal human society and Samo is on a quest to find out why. Known for his Great Founder Theory, Samo’s research focuses on the causes of societal decay and flourishing. 

Patri Friedman: Government in the Information Age

My guest today is James Clear, a writer focused on how we can create better habits, make better decisions, and live better lives. He recently published a new book called Atomic Habits and after reading it, I just had to interview him. In this episode, we explore the nooks and crannies of habit formation. We discuss habits through a series of conversations about James’ favorite activities: baseball, travel, weightlifting, marketing, and writing. A former ESPN academic All-American college baseball player

My guest today is Steve Schlafman, a venture capitalist, leadership coach and partner at Primary VC. This episode is a wide-ranging, emotional journey through the nooks and crannies of investing, introspection, and sobriety. Steve is a man of many passions. In the business world, he’s invested in breakthrough companies like Zipline, Brightwheel, Bark & Co., Managed by Q, Bowery Farming, Citizen, Care/Of, Boom Aerospace, TheSkimm and View The Space. Our exploration of investing was driven by five the

My guest today is Daniel Gross, a partner at Y Combinator, the world’s best startup studio. Daniel focuses on artificial intelligence at Y Combinator and recently founded AI Grant, a distributed AI Research Lab. Daniel was born in Jerusalem, Israel and was accepted into the Y Combinator Program in 2010. At the time, Daniel was the youngest founder ever accepted. In 2013, Cue was acquired by Apple. At 22, Daniel was leading several search and AI efforts across the company spanning iOS, OS X and Apple Wa

My guest today is Arianna Simpson, the Managing Director at a cryptocurrency hedge fund called Autonomous Partners. Arianna’s background is fascinating. She grew up in Italy and spent time in Zimbabwe, where she got a first-hand perspective on hyper-inflation and what it does to people. That’s where we began this conversation. Then, we moved on to learning. Arianna is a voracious reader. At one point in her life, she was reading 300 books per year. We also talk about her love for Burning Man and ho

My guest today is Derek Thompson, a Senior Editor at The Atlantic who writes about media, culture and economics in America today.  I first discovered Derek’s writing while researching the state of Hollywood for an essay I was working on last year. Derek cultural observation has stuck with me ever since. Derek wrote that Hollywood audiences are ignoring movies that aren’t a sequel, adaptation, or reboot. This statistic stuck with me: In 1996, none of the top 10 movies were sequels. Twenty years later

My guest today is Austen Allred, the founder of Lambda School — a revolutionary new school. Here’s how it works: Lambda School trains people to be software engineers at no up-front cost. Instead of paying tuition, students agree to pay a percentage of their income after they're employed, and only if they're making more than $50k per year. If you don't find a job, or don't reach that level of income, you'll never pay a cent. So, how does tuition work?  There are no up-front costs for Lambda School;

My guest today is Devon Zuegel, a writer of code and writer of words who spends her time unlocking human potential through incentive design and tools for thought and cities. In this conversation, we jump from coordination problems to urban planning to travel to architecture. We compare cities like Singapore and San Francisco and talk about the power of urban density and architecture to make us happier and healthier. Then, we talk about writing, specifically the three tiers of common knowledge, how to find g

My guest today is Michael Nielsen a scientist, writer and computer programmer who works as a research fellow at Y Combinator Research. Michael has written on various topics from quantum teleportation, geometric complexity and the future of science. Michael is the most original thinker I have discovered in a long time when it comes to artificial intelligence, augmenting human intelligence, reinventing explanation and using new media to enable new ways of thinking. Michael has pushed my mind towards new and

Our guest this week is Kevin Kwok and this episode is a special treat. Kevin was an investor at Greylock Partners, where he mainly focused on marketplaces, cryptocurrencies, and autonomous vehicles. Kevin is particularly interested in understanding the underlying structures that shape industries and the core loops that drive companies. And among other things is currently working on a class on loops, network effects, and growth models. In this wide-ranging conversation, Kevin and I jump between various top

My guest today is Sara Dietschy, a YouTuber and content creator based in New York City.  With more than 300,000 subscribers, Sara’s created a docu-series, a daily vlog and recently launched a new podcast called The Creative Exchange. Sara is one of the most inspiring people I know. Before she moved to New York, Sara grew up in Dallas, went to college to study computer science, dropped out, and moved to Nashville. Through her work, Sara explores the intersection of technology and creativity. Sara rock