🇺🇸 United States Episodes

Ari Shaffir & Joe do a podcast while hiking to celebrate the release of Ari's new two-part Netflix special "Double Negative" on July 18th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Climate change is real, case closed. But there's still a lot we don't understand about it, and the more we know the better chance we have to slow it down. One still-unknown factor: How might clouds play a part? There's a small hope that they could buy us some time to fix things ... or they could make global warming worse. Climate scientist Kate Marvel takes us through the science of clouds and what it might take for the earth to break its own fever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the age of virality, what does it actually mean to be popular? When does popularity -- or good product design, for that matter -- cross over from desire and engagement... to addiction? Journalist and editor Derek Thompson, author of Hit Makers: Th...

What are our screens and devices doing to us? Psychologist Adam Alter has spent the last five years studying how much time screens steal from us and how they're getting away with it. He shares why all those hours you spend staring at your smartphone, tablet or computer might be making you miserable -- and what you can do about it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phil Knight, former chair and CEO of Nike, tells the story of starting the sports apparel and equipment giant after taking an entrepreneurship class at Stanford and teaming up with his former track coach, Bill Bowerman. Together (and with the help of a waffle iron) they changed how running shoes are designed and made. Knight discusses the company's enduring culture of innovation, as well as the succession process that led to former runner and Nike insider Mark Parker becoming CEO.

Rivers are one of nature's most powerful forces -- they bulldoze mountains and carve up the earth, and their courses are constantly moving. Understanding how they form and how they'll change is important for those that call their banks and deltas home. In this visual-packed talk, geoscientist Liz Hajek shows us how rocks deposited by ancient rivers can be used as a time machine to study the earth's history, so we can figure out how to more sustainably live on it today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben & David cover the creation of the gaming world’s equivalent of the 70’s rock supergroup: the 2008 merger of Blizzard and Activision. We tell the story from the Blizzard perspective, tracing the history of one of the most innovative companies in the business from humble beginnings at the hands of UCLA undergrads, to surviving multiple acquisition rollups (including at one point being owned by the French national water company), to joining ultimately with Activision to form the largest gaming company in the world, all while inventing multiple game genres that define the industry as we know it today. Sponsors:Rippling: https://bit.ly/acquiredripplingStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25Odd Lots: https://bit.ly/acquiredoddlotsServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCTopics covered include: Blizzard’s founding in 1991 as "Silicon & Synapse” by recent UCLA grads Allen Adham, Frank Pearce, and Mike MorhaimeThe team’s first projects making ports for other games, including Battle Chess on the Commodore 64Early success on the Super Nintendo with Rock & Roll Racing and The Lost VikingsOrigin of the Real-Time Strategy game genre (“RTS”) and Blizzard’s fist mega-hit, Warcraft Blizzard’s crazy corporate ownership changes over the yearsDevelopment of further legendary game franchises like Diablo and Starcraft, along with sequels to Warcraft and the rise of the rise of player moddingEmergence of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre (“MOBA”) from the Warcraft III modding community, and its growth into one of the biggest sectors in the games and esports industries todayBlizzard’s role in developing the concept of online gaming, from early hacks to play against friends to World of Warcraft and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (“MMORPG’s”)The 2008 merger with storied gaming company Activision Growth and success since the merger, including the launch of new game franchises Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch  The Carve Out: Ben:  Dick Costolo on Vanity Fair’s  Inside the Hive  podcastDavid: Nellie and Joe's 100% Natural Key Lime Juice (tip:  buy in bulk from Walmart/Jet)

Ben O'Brien is the hunting marketing manager at YETI Coolers, he was also the executive editor for Petersen's Hunting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What’s the secret to Silicon Valley's thriving startup scene? And can that kind of ecosystem happen anywhere else in the world? Linda Rottenberg, CEO of Endeavor, makes the case that a startup culture can be nurtured almost anywhere, so long as you have the raw ingredients — starting with a few initial entrepreneurs with access to capital and a willingness to pay it forward. From Buenos Aires to Boston, Tel Aviv to Shenzen, hear Linda's stories of global startup scenes that could give Silicon Valley a run for its money.Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/linda-rottenberg-the-next-silicon-valley/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Maynard James Keenan is a singer, songwriter, producer, winemaker, and actor, best known as the vocalist for Grammy Award-winning rock band Tool, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle. His new book "A Perfect Union of Contrary Things" is available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a fateful moment in history. We've seen divisive elections, divided societies and the growth of extremism -- all fueled by anxiety and uncertainty. "Is there something we can do, each of us, to be able to face the future without fear?" asks Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. In this electrifying talk, the spiritual leader gives us three specific ways we can move from the politics of "me" to the politics of "all of us, together." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I am drawn to a group of investors that I call practitioner philosophers. These are people who have gotten their hands dirty in their respective fields, but despite being doers, they still often sit back and ponder the big questions in business and life. My guest this week is one such practitioner philosopher, NYC based venture capitalist Jerry Neumann. I came across Jerry's essays a year ago, and he is on a very short list of writers whose work I read without fail and almost always more than once. You can think about this conversation on business, investing, and venture capital as a big funnel. We start very broad, discussing where we may be in a large 70-year economic cycle. We then break down the so-called power law which seems to govern venture capital returns and business outcomes. Then we get even more specific, discussing Jerry's process for evaluating early stage companies, and the particulars of what might make a good venture capitalist. I say "might" because as Jerry explains often, nothing is certain, and luck may always play a huge role. I just loved this conversation. It is the type that without the podcast as an excuse would be a very odd and intense one if I were just meeting someone for the first time. You'll find no small talk or even medium talk here. This is a meaty discussion with one of the smartest and most straightforward people I've come across.   Books Referenced Carlotta’s Perez - Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages Thomas Hughes – Networks of Power: Electrification in the Western Society, 1880 – 1930 Frank Knight – Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit Jeffrey West - Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies   Links Referenced Deployment Age Oswald Spangler About Men; Corporate Man Howard Mark’s 2x2 matrix of superior investment results Michael E. Porter - How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy DJ Teece: Profiting from Technological Innovation Porter’s Five Forces   Show Notes 3:27 – (First question) – Start with Jerry’s essay the Deployment Age and a look at what it means for where we sit today (looking forward as investors)? 3:40 - Deployment Age 4:26 - Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages 9:28 – What time in history can you compare our current deployment age to and what does that say about the next 10, 20, and 30 years? 9:40 – Oswald Spangler 11:09 – About Men; Corporate Man 18:06 - Networks of Power: Electrification in the Western Society, 1880 – 1930 20:40 - What lessons should venture capitalists make from these deployment age cycles 25:27 - Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit 26:50 – Howard Mark’s 2x2 matrix of superior investment results 32:56 – Nassim Taleb: Powerlaw 42:31 – Venture Follow-on and the Kelly Criterion (Jerry's Blog) 44:34 - How have you have actually done this, Jerry? What is your process like and your focuses? 54:00 – Are there any circumstances where it is wise for friends and family to make venture investments? 59:20 - What is this idea of who profits from innovations? 56:12 - DJ Teece: Profiting from Technological Innovation 1:02:57 – Understanding complimentary assets 1:05:06 - Porter’s Five Forces 1:09:24 - Are Augmented and Virtual Reality interesting areas for venture capital and why? 1:15:28– What makes a successful venture capitalist? What makes you special? 1:26:03 – Kindest thing anyone has ever done for Jerry   Learn More For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/jerry For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

This episode of the a16z Podcast takes us on a quick tour through the themes of economics/historian/journalist Marc Levinson's books -- from An Extraordinary Time, on the end of the postwar boom and the return of the ordinary economy; to The Great A&...

Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing & Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption. He is also the author of "The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption" and "The Consuming Instinct". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inventor Manu Prakash turns everyday materials into powerful scientific devices, from paper microscopes to a clever new mosquito tracker. From the TED Fellows stage, he demos Paperfuge, a hand-powered centrifuge inspired by a spinning toy that costs 20 cents to make and can do the work of a $1,000 machine, no electricity required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erin Meyer, professor at INSEAD, discusses management hierarchy and decision-making across cultures. Turns out, these two things don’t always track together. Sometimes top-down cultures still have strong consensus-driven decision-making styles — and the other way around. Meyer helps break down and map these factors so that managers working across cultures can adapt. She’s the author of the article, "Being the Boss in Brussels, Boston, and Beijing" in the July-August 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Yvette d'Entremont, also known as SciBabe, is a public speaker, science blogger, and former analytical chemist. She has a background in forensics and toxicology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A future guest just told me, every band has a song about being in a band, so today I give you my version. I won’t do this often, and only do it this week in case listenership drops due to the holiday—I didn’t want any guest to have a smaller than normal audience. I have now been doing this for almost one year, and have learned a tremendous amount. Since the whole idea behind the show is to learn in public, I am going to share a few of the lessons I’ve learned with you today. I’ll shape it as a top ten list, which ends with a fun story about my recent dinner with Warren Buffett. You’ll notice that many of these are just good business and life lessons applied to something specific: a podcast. I hope you can pull the essence of one or more of these and change how you do things, especially if you create any sort of content as part of your job.

Guest host Tim Ferriss shares advice you’ll want to etch into stone: the Ten Commandments of Startup Success. We teamed up with Tim’s own podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, to bring you this special remix of actionable lessons from Masters of Scale Season One, including previously unaired insights from Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Endeavor’s Linda Rottenberg. Tim is the author of The 4-Hour Work Week and Tools of Titans, and a veteran TED speaker. He’s masterful at extracting tips, tricks and lifehacks for busy entrepreneurs.Listen to The Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/podcastRead a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.comSubscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Natasha Leggero & Moshe Kasher are writers, actors, and comedians. Look for them out now on the "Endless Honeymoon Tour" where they perform their individual routines, then appear together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices