Slate Money - Too Situationally Aware to Fail episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 1, 2026 · 54 MIN

Slate Money - Too Situationally Aware to Fail

from Slate News

This week: Situational Awareness—an A.I.-forward hedge fund led by a former wunderkind and OpenAI employee—was tanking fast until a rival fund stepped in. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck explain the series of events that led to Citadel swooping in to buy the bulk of assets held by 25-year-old Leopold Aschenbrenner’s investment firm. Then, it’s time to talk about the “crack spread”—aka the reason we aren’t seeing relief at the gas stations despite steadying oil prices. And finally, the hosts discuss the backlash to the SEC’s proposal to do away with its quarterly report requirement. In the Slate Plus episode: Is Cheaper Gas Worth Your Time?After publication Citadel reached out with the following corrections and points of clarification:Citadel, the hedge fund, executed the Situational Awareness trade, not Citadel Securities.Citadel Securities is a market maker, not a bank. Citadel Securities’ Frank Flight, Head of Macro Strategy, released his July analysis on the potential Fed rate hike.Citadel and Citadel Securities are separate companies; Ken Griffin does not serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Citadel Securities. While founded by Ken, Citadel Securities’ Chief Executive Officer is Peng Zhao.Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/moneyplus to get access wherever you listen.Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 1, 2026

Embed this episode

NOW PLAYING

Slate Money - Too Situationally Aware to Fail

0:00 54:05

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Slate News?

This episode is 54 minutes long.

When was this Slate News episode published?

This episode was published on August 1, 2026.

Can I download this Slate News episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!