Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist

Anthropic is one of the fastest-growing companies in history and sits at the forefront of the AI race. This week, we’re joined by two key leaders on Anthropic’s technical team — Sholto Douglas and Nicholas Marwell — for an inside look at the AI frontier. Are we on the cusp of AGI — and what does that mean? What are they most excited about and most concerned about? And where does Anthropic stand on open source, as well as criticisms of its regulatory approach?

Sholto Douglas grew up in Sydney, Australia, where he studied robotics and taught himself Machine Le...

John Jovanovic is the President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. After years of mismanagement, Ex-Im is now profitable and has become a key driver of American reindustrialization. How did he turn the bank around? What's behind a new $12 billion critical mineral reserve to secure supply chains? And how is he seeing AI impact factory floors across America?The grandson of a Chicago steelworker, Jovanovic spent his career in energy, commodities, and supply chains — most recently as Chief Strategy Officer at Asplundh, the largest provider of critical infrastructure services across North America. He went on to...

Brian Chau is an investigative journalist using AI to uncover widespread corruption and billions in fraud. He recently revealed how the Effective Altruism movement bought and planted AI doomer articles, and he exposed the firm behind the frontier lab hack that's fueling AI hysteria. Now he's breaking his newest story: a $21 billion racial wealth transfer in healthcare payments across 35 states. How is he using AI to uncover stories that no other journalist could find? Why does he believe that AI is ultimately on the side of liberty and transparency? And can AI-powered accountability rebuild trust in media?

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Until recently, robots were constrained to narrow, specific tasks. Think assembly lines, medical devices, or household vacuum cleaners. But now all that is changing. One robot trained by Generalist's foundation model can do everything from folding clothes and washing dishes to sorting objects and repairing other robots. How are Pete Florence and the Generalist team bringing AI to the physical world? Why is intelligence, not hardware, the key unlock for robotics? And how could general-purpose robots unlock 10 times more scientific progress in the years ahead?Pete grew up in the Bay Area, earned his PhD at MIT, and became...

Aaron Levie has spent two decades building Box into a cloud storage leader — and he's never been more excited for the future. What's next in the AI wave? Where is he already seeing evidence for new job creation? What do the doomers and accelerationists both get wrong? And why is Silicon Valley's biggest AI challenge self-inflicted?

We discuss these topics and more in this week's episode with Aaron. Originally a college project to access his files from anywhere, Aaron dropped out of USC in 2005 to build Box. He raised his first funding from Mark Cuban and pivoted to...

Aaron Cannon is applying AI to solve one of the oldest and most important challenges in business: understanding exactly what customers want and need. Traditional consumer surveys often provide low-quality data, while one-on-one interviews are cost-prohibitive and not scalable. But AI unlocks profound new possibilities. How is Aaron using AI to conduct deep, insightful interactions at scale? What happens when organizations have always-on customer understanding? And what are the new opportunities for incorporating real-time feedback into product improvements?

Aaron Cannon is the co-founder and CEO of Outset, one of the fastest-growing, agent-led customer research platforms. Try it...

Nima Ghamsari was a top talent at Palantir before founding Blend Labs to digitize the mortgage process. Blend became one of Silicon Valley’s hottest SaaS companies until the mortgage industry came to a screeching halt in recent years. Now, the AI wave has Blend poised for a comeback. What will the future of home buying look like? Why is Nima all-in on AI agents? And how can AI supercharge established tech companies with the will and talent to rethink things from scratch?

In this episode, we’re joined by the Founder and Head of Blend, Nima Gham...

In 2010, the U.S. and China were at parity in electricity generation. Today, China boasts triple our capacity. We’re at the vanguard of the AI revolution but falling dangerously behind in energy production. Scott Nolan has identified a key bottleneck in nuclear energy and is at the forefront of the effort to scale nuclear power and help America achieve energy abundance.

While studying at Cornell University, Scott landed an internship at Boeing. He quickly jumped to SpaceX as an early employee and worked on the Falcon propulsion systems and Dragon capsule. He later became Partner at Fo...

Is America’s national wealth built on slavery? Are disparities between races today attributable to past injustices? Will we ever overcome race politics? These difficult questions are at the heart of Coleman Hughes’ new course at the University of Austin titled “The Legacy of Slavery.”

Coleman is one of the clearest voices confronting race-essentialism in America today. He’s the author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, host of the Conversations with Coleman podcast, and a visiting professor at the University of Austin.

In this episode, Coleman takes us behind the scenes...

As a former Principal at Founders Fund, Founding Partner at SciFi VC, and 8VC advisor, Eric Scott has invested in and helped build numerous technology leaders. He’s launching his new fund, Overlook Capital, where he sees missed opportunities in the market. How has venture investing evolved in recent years? Where does he see the dislocations? And how will AI change the game going forward?

After graduating from Claremont McKenna College, Eric emailed his way into Max Levchin’s network, becoming an early employee at HVF Labs where he learned to invest and build companies. He later spun...

Jacob Helberg is leading the State Department's efforts to secure critical supply chains and win the global AI race. How is the U.S. shifting from dependency on China to building new partnerships around energy, minerals, and infrastructure? Which economies will grow fastest in the AI era? Who will be left behind? And how will this impact geopolitics? We discuss these timely topics with Jacob, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. A tech policy veteran who worked at Google and Palantir before serving on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Jacob...

Shyam Sankar is one of my favorite American innovators. As CTO of Palantir, he's been a key leader for over 20 years and built much of what the company stands for. He's also a patriot, and recently commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. His new best-selling book "Mobilize" lays out the crisis of the American industrial base, how to revive what made us a global superpower, and what it will take to prevent the next great power conflict.

Shyam's father was raised in a mud hut in India. He and his family relocated...

Ben Black is the CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). Backed by a $205 billion budget, his mandate is to invest in U.S. strategic interests, build new markets, and deliver real returns for taxpayers. What projects is the DFC prioritizing? How is he countering China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative? And how is the Trump administration shifting from a paternalistic view of foreign aid toward investing with accountability and an expectation of returns?

A history major at the University of Pennsylvania, Ben began his career in finance at Goldman Sachs before earning a...

Michael Milken revolutionized American finance and democratized access to capital for thousands of companies that Wall Street had previously written off. Yet he was unjustly attacked in the 1980s in one of the most controversial prosecutions in U.S. history. As one of Michael’s key defense lawyers, Richard Sandler sets the record straight in his new book: Witness to a Prosecution: The Myth of Michael Milken. How did Michael transform capital markets through high-yield bonds? Why was he unfairly targeted? Why did he ultimately agree to a plea deal? And what are the lessons about government power that ev...

John Melas-Kyriazi is the co-founder and CEO of Standard Metrics, which powers portfolio management for more than 150 venture capital firms and 10,000 companies. He runs a high-growth SaaS company at the leading edge of the AI wave. How is AI transforming how investors source and diligence deals? How are agents parsing pitch decks, prepping board meetings, and building powerful new workflows? And as competitive advantages shift, what are the new moats for SaaS companies in the AI age?

We discuss these and other timely topics with John. At an early age, he fell in love with science fiction...

In the coming years, over two million small businesses will change hands or close their doors as Baby Boomers retire. Will Fry, Founder and CEO of American Operator, is on a mission to save Main Street and seize this opportunity for the next generation of local owners and operators. How does the operate-to-own model work? Should talented young people think twice about traditional careers and pursue ownership opportunities instead? And why is Will especially bullish on small business in the AI age?

Raised in a small town in North Carolina, Will developed an early love for building...

Last year, JoeBen Bevirt joined the show to discuss the vision behind Joby Aviation and bringing air taxis to life. Now, he's back to talk execution and getting to market this year! What states will be first to offer Joby rides — and when? How is Joby ramping up manufacturing to meet the moment? And how is AI making Joby’s top scientists over 10X more productive and accelerating decades of advancement into the next few years?" As Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, JoeBen has spent more than a decade building Joby into the leader in electric vertical takeoff and...

Scott Wu and Russell Kaplan, co-founders of Cognition, are leading one of the fastest-growing, talent-dense AI companies. Their mission: make expert software engineering ubiquitous. What does a world of software abundance look like? How is Cognition delivering massive productivity gains inside some of the largest companies and organizations? And can AI finally modernize the broken, $100 billion government IT systems?

We discuss these and other timely topics with Scott and Russell. Scott was a three-time gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics and world champion at age 17. After high school, we hired him at Addepar, where he...

Jake Paul is a social media influencer-turned-entrepreneur and boxer. He’s not only one of the most popular figures on the planet among Gen Z, but also an outspoken patriot, capitalist, and builder. Together, he and Geoff Woo founded Anti Fund and have backed OpenAI, Anduril, Ramp, among others. Why did Jake decide to speak out on politics? How do we win over the next generation? And how is AI changing the culture, from new social media platforms to prediction markets and the revival of in-person events?

We recorded this conversation the day after Jake appeared with Pr...

Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler is playing a pivotal role in our nation on two fronts: supporting the next generation of small business owners, while exposing and combating billions of dollars in fraud. How is AI impacting small businesses? Could this be a golden age for Main Street America? What's the staggering scale of fraud she's uncovering? And how is she working with Palantir and other top talent to ensure it never happens again?

We discuss these timely topics and more with Administrator Loeffler. Growing up on a farm in rural Illinois, Kelly raised cattle and was...

As a teenager, Jared Isaacman built a billion-dollar payments company. He then pursued aviation, acquiring the world's largest private air force and creating “Top Gun as a service,” before commanding the first all-civilian spaceflight. Now, he's taking on his greatest challenge: returning NASA to greatness. Can we beat China back to the Moon? Will we reach Mars within a decade? And how close are we to making nuclear propulsion, space colonies, and other sci-fi futures a reality? We discuss all this and more with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. We begin with his upbringing and the origins of Shift4 Payments, whic...

JD Ross is one of my favorite entrepreneurs. I hired him out of college at Addepar where he quickly became Head of Product. He went on to co-found Opendoor with Keith Rabois and is now building WithCoverage — one of the fastest growing AI-first service companies. JD believes we're entering an "invention era" again. What are the new possibilities with AI? What does it mean for legacy software companies? And why is he especially excited for young talent entering the workforce today?We discuss all this and more, starting with JD's entrepreneurial journey, from founding a moving company in college (th...

Advances in AI are occurring at a pace we haven’t seen before in Silicon Valley. How do we know what’s real versus hype? What does it mean for large software incumbents? And how are the top investors and builders thinking about the new possibilities? This week, we talk with two of my partners at 8VC, Alex Kolicich and Jack Moshkovich, who are on the ground working with the leading AI talent to get their perspective on what’s really happening.

Alex Kolicich is a Partner at 8VC, where he specializes in IT and Bio-IT investments. Prior...

When Kevin Mandia’s phone rings, it’s often a Fortune 500 CEO or government leader with a billion-dollar problem. How did he become the go-to expert in cybersecurity? What new threats from AI led him back into the arena? And what is he building to protect the good guys?

Kevin began his career in the U.S. Air Force, defending the U.S. military from some of the earliest cyber attacks. He went on to found and lead Mandiant, scaling it into an industry leader which Google acquired in 2022 for over $5 billion. In 2013, he famously exposed China’s mass...

America’s capital markets are the envy of the world, but in recent years, misguided policies have driven innovation offshore and stifled the number of companies going public. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is reversing course. What’s his plan to make IPOs great again? What will it take for America to become the crypto capital of the world? And does he think we should expand access to private markets for retail investors?

This week, we’re honored to feature a conversation with Paul Atkins, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also served as a commissioner at the...

First, he digitized the entire federal retirement process, cutting it from six months to a few days. Now, he’s overhauling the U.S. government’s online presence, one website at a time. And Joe Gebbia has been in Washington, D.C. less than a year! Learn why he stepped up to serve, and the impact our best minds can have on D.C., in a conversation with our nation’s first Chief Design Officer.

As co-founder of Airbnb, Joe turned a living-room experiment into a multi-billion dollar global brand. Then, he launched Samara, helping homeowners reimagine their...

Emil Michael directs the U.S. military’s research and development of advanced technologies. Previously, he led global business growth for Uber — one of the fastest moving organizations in Silicon Valley history. Can he bring that startup speed to the Department of War? What are the six critical areas of innovation he’s prioritizing? And how is he investing in these key technologies to bolster the defense industrial base?

We’re honored to go inside the Pentagon for a special episode with Emil Michael, Chief Technology Officer and Under Secretary of War for Research & Engineering. He oversees the Defe...

Chris Sununu is an MIT-educated engineer who won four terms as governor of New Hampshire. Now, he's leading the charge for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. What are his key lessons in political leadership? Why is he telling Harvard students to be wary of AI? And are real fiscal constraints on Washington, D.C. close to becoming reality? The former governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu is now the President and CEO of Airlines for America and National Chair and Board Member of Balanced Budget Now, which has secured 27 of 34 states required to call a...

This week, OPM Director Scott Kupor launched the U.S. Tech Force to recruit an elite cohort of engineering talent into the federal government. What will it take to make public service cool again? What can he do to ensure the government hires, fires, and promotes based on performance? And what is he doing on merit and aptitude tests that could be one of the most important reforms of Trump’s entire presidency?

We’re joined by Scott for a timely conversation about Tech Force, his role as Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and key civi...

For decades, Philip Howard has been sounding the alarm: our government is broken, and tinkering around the edges won’t work. We need a new operating system. How did it break? What do both parties get wrong? And what will it take to revive the American spirit?

Philip is the Founder of the Common Good, best-selling author, and one of the leaders in government and legal reform. His book “The Death of Common Sense” became a powerful force for bipartisan reforms in the 1990s between President Bill Clinton and Congressional Republicans. I’ve followed his work for many yea...

Michael Kratsios is the man of the hour, charged by President Trump to usher in the golden age of AI and American innovation. How is the White House approaching this revolution in technology? What does AI mean for the American worker? How do we stay ahead of China — and also persuade other nations to adopt U.S. tech over Chinese?

We hosted this conversation at the 2025 Cicero Institute Courage Awards, where we recognize bold policymakers on both sides of the aisle for standing up to special interests and fighting for liberty. Amid the regulatory battle over AI, we...

Do great men alter the course of history, or is everything more bottom-up than we realize? Or both? We credit Thomas Edison for the light bulb, but what about the 20 competitors that were right on his heels? What can the evolution of language, biology, and complex systems teach us about entrepreneurship, investing, and the conditions for human progress?

Matt Ridley’s writings have influenced how builders, investors, and policymakers understand the world, myself included. A former member of the House of Lords, The Viscount Ridley is a prolific columnist and author whose works range from The Rational Op...

In 2023, Memphis earned the distinction of the nation’s most violent and dangerous city. Senator Bill Hagerty had seen enough. Together with President Trump, he helped orchestrate the most important public safety initiative you probably haven’t heard of — until now. Thousands of criminals arrested, dozens of children rescued, and they even figured out how to work around a Soros-backed District Attorney. This is just one of many fronts Sen. Hagerty is leading on since joining the U.S. Senate.

A businessman by background, Sen. Hagerty began his career at Boston Consulting Group, growing the business in key ma...

Joe Liemandt is a legend in the technology world. Starting in the 1990s, he built a multi-billion dollar software empire, before quietly stepping out of the public spotlight for 20 years. Now, he’s back to reveal his next breakthrough: new schools that can 10X learning in two hours a day with AI and the right incentives. What were the discoveries that led him here? Why is he confident he can save American education? And how is he planning to get this to a billion kids worldwide?

Join us for a special episode with one of the great en...

Universities called for “free speech” after Charlie Kirk’s murder — UATX President Carlos Carvalho says they’re missing the point entirely. Is more speech really the answer? Should universities stay neutral and out of politics? Or do they have a higher duty, especially now?We discuss these questions and more with the new President of the University of Austin: Carlos Carvalho. Born and raised in Brazil, he watched his father — a Navy officer — help fight back against a communist takeover attempt in the 1960s. Carlos came to America and earned his Ph.D. in statistics from Duke University. He taught at the...

America’s cities are dangerous and broken, and for too long, governors stood by as city officials failed their citizens. But Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has stepped up to prove that we don’t have to tolerate incompetence or lawlessness. What bold actions did he take? Why were the results shocking? And how can his leadership be a model for other governors?

We’re joined this week by businessman-turned-governor Kevin Stitt. In 2000, he launched Gateway Mortgage with just $1,000 and a computer; when he departed, it was one of the largest privately held mortgage companies in the country. He ran...

Zachary Levi is best known for starring in the popular TV series Chuck and hit movies like Shazam!, while millions of children, my daughters included, know him as Flynn Rider in Disney’s Tangled. But recently, he did something even more noteworthy in his industry: he endorsed Robert Kennedy Jr. and later President Trump, while openly sharing his Christian faith. Why did he put his career at risk? What’s the story behind his $100 million studio project in Texas? And will AI open new doors for actors and writers, or will it supplant human ingenuity and, ultimately, millions of jobs...

Max Meyer is the Editor and Publisher of Arena — an American technology magazine that is pro-America and pro-technology! How did legacy media become cynically motivated and ideologically captured? Will "AI slop" only make things worse? And, most importantly, what is the antidote?

We discuss these issues and more with the entrepreneur and writer behind one of America's most exciting new media outlets. Before launching Arena, Max studied geophysics at Stanford University and served as editor of the Stanford Review, where he drew national attention for his investigative reporting, including exposing former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's ti...

Harish Abbott is a serial entrepreneur at the forefront of the logistics revolution. He sold his last company to Shopify in 2022 for over $2 billion, and now he's back in the arena again. What are the new possibilities with AI? How will it impact workers? And what's the business opportunity he sees that no one else does?

Harish is the co-founder and CEO of Augment, a new platform building AI teammates for logistics operations. Its first product, Augie, already boasts $25 billion in freight under management. Previously, Harish co-founded Deliverr, an e-commerce fulfilment platform (acquired by Shopify) that provided...

Sen. Eric Schmitt is a fighter for our country — and knows how to win. In November 2022, as Missouri Attorney General, he sued the Biden administration for colluding with Big Tech to impose mass censorship on the American people. His actions exposed the most chilling government intrusion of our time, and launched a groundswell of opposition, culminating in Elon Musk buying Twitter. What was his strategy? How can it combat further government overreach? And how can we outsmart the far-left when it comes to redistricting, stacking the Supreme Court, and other battlegrounds?

We discuss this and more with Se...