"Moment of Zen" cover art

All Episodes

"Moment of Zen" — 140 episodes

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Title
1

Why Urban Centers Outlast Empires | Samo Burja

2

AI and The War for Your Attention | Antonio Garcia Martinez and Chris Hayes from the a16z Podcast

3

Why China and America are Creating the Same Ruling Class | Samo Burja

4

Hardware Wars | Samo Burja

5

Singapore: The City-State Strategy That Worked | Samo Burja

6

The Real Reason Civilizations Collapse | Samo Burja

7

Is Nuclear Proliferation Inevitable? | Samo Burja

8

The Future of Media with Noah Smith and Chris Best, CEO of Substack

9

Are Dynasties Better Than Meritocracies?

10

The Middle Class Myth and China’s Future with Noah Smith

11

What If Rome Had Industrialized? | Samo Burja

12

Can Japan Survive Its Demographic Crisis? | Samo Burja

13

India-Pakistan Conflict Explained | Samo Burja

14

The Bureaucracy War: Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar and Senator Mike Lee (UT) - Hill & Valley Forum 2025

15

Energy, Education, Deregulation with David Friedberg, Shaun Maguire, and Todd Young at the Hill & Valley Forum

16

US-China AI Race, with Anthropic, ScaleAI, & AI Fund Founders

17

The Myth of Automatic Progress | Samo Burja

18

Ross Douthat on Tech's Religious Awakening, AI, and Transhumanism

19

Will India Become a Global Superpower? | Samo Burja

20

Who Controls China When Xi Jinping Is Gone? | Samo Burja

21

Cartels vs. State: The Power Struggle in Mexico w/ Samo Burja

22

Inflation, Elon's Competence, and Changes Democrats Need to Make w/ Noah Smith

23

Free Speech in Europe & the Future of Western Civilization | Samo Burja

24

Victor Davis Hanson Predicts the Future: Trump, China, Russia, & Europe in 2030

25

Mapping the New Right w/ Jon Askonas

26

Samo Burja on the Technology That Can Create New Superpowers

27

Curtis Yarvin is now in the Overton Window w/ Samo Burja

28

Trump's Inauguration, Tech's Shifting Politics, and US GDP Growth Wall

29

Scott Sumner and Noah Smith Debate the China Question

30

Understanding Trump: From Immigration to Elon w/ Maxwell Meyer and Indian Bronson

31

Bronson vs Everyone: H-1B Wars, Elon, and Trump

32

NEW: Marc Andreessen on Trump, the vibe shift, and what’s after wokeness

33

E110: Samo Burja on Elon Musk, X and Political Influence [Crosspost, Live Players]

34

Samo Burja on the Future of the Middle East

35

Debating Immigration Policy w/ Indian Bronson

36

The Future of the Left and Advice for Progressive Billionaires

37

Can Populism Beat the Administrative State? | Samo Burja

38

Samo Burja and Rudyard Lynch | The Left's Identity Crisis and the Future of Democracy

39

Will Shadow President Elon Save Us? | Noah Smith

40

Election 101, Trump vs Kamala Check-In

41

Elite Human Capital, Trump vs Kamala, and Richard Hanania's Intellectual Evolution

42

Can Classical Liberalism Survive Wokeness? w/ Tim Urban

43

AI, Gambling, and Healthcare: A High-Stakes Game of 'Do Your Own Research

44

The Possibility of Human Extinction w/ Samo Burja

45

Long Ripples in History with Samo Burja and Rudyard Lynch

46

Cycles of Civilization with Samo Burja and Rudyard Lynch

47

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Talks AI, National Security, and Radical Abundance

48

Is AI our next nuclear threat? With Joshua Steinman and Nathan Labenz

49

Samo Burja's Advice for the next US president

50

The Future of Crypto with Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase

51

Trump, AI, and US-China Relations with Samuel Hammond and Nathan Labenz

52

Biden/Trump's legacy with Noah Smith

53

Brand New Balaji: Trump/Biden, Jan 6

54

China's Energy Strategy, Taiwan, and US-China Relations with Samo Burja

55

2024 Election Strategy, Education Depolarization, and UBI with Noah Smith

56

Trump/Biden Predictions with Richard Hanania

57

What's Happening in France with Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

58

Balaji Srinivasan on the Fiat Crisis, China, Russia, and Conspiracy Practices

59

David Sacks on his Intellectual and Political journey

60

Joe Lonsdale on How to Solve America’s Problems

61

Crypto and Gaming with Carlos Pereira

62

Jonathan Haidt on The Social Media Theory of Everything

63

The Future of Media, Institutions, and Risk

64

Should We Accelerate or Decelerate Tech Progress?

65

The Future of Crypto, Social Platforms, and Descending the Tech Ladder with Mike Rainbow

66

Bryan Johnson on AI, Religion, and God

67

Crypto, Memes, and Politics with Li Jin

68

Curtis Yarvin on How to Build the Next NYT and Advice for Elon

69

Dune/Napoleon, Apple/Microsoft, TikTok, Polyamory, and Aella’s Legacy

70

Antonio on Social Media, Journalism, and New Religions with Parker Thompson

71

Will the US Have a Civil War with @WhatifAltHist's Rudyard Lynch

72

Dan's Intellectual Journey

73

A Deep Dive on Farcaster: Past, Present, and Future

74

Chris Dixon on the Future of the Internet, Crypto, and Web3

75

How to Build a Startup Now, Finding PMF, and Navigating the Idea Maze

76

The U.S. vs Europe, Bryan Johnson and Human Longevity

77

What does E/acc stand for?

78

2023 Recap, 2024 Predictions, Farcaster/Turpentine updates

79

Curtis Yarvin on Rufo, Harvard, FDR, and The Cathedral

80

Bill Ackman, Harvard, and What Happens Next?

81

Sam Harris on Populism, Inequality, and Polarization

82

Revisited: Moment of Zen's Origins with Marc Andreessen

83

Katherine Boyle and Mike Solana on Liberal Arts Debate and Saving San Francisco

84

Trump/Biden, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, and US/China

85

Balaji Srinivasan and Nathan Labenz on How AI Will Shape the Future & AI Gods

86

How Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and George Soros Reshape Society

87

Who Is Beff Jezos? Beff on Being Doxxed, the e/acc movement, and Crypto & AI Crossover

88

Dominic Cummings on Elon, Techies in Politics, and New Elitism

89

OpenAI Debrief, Why Liberals Become Conservatives, and Diversity in Tech

90

The Sam Altman Episode: OpenAI, Sam's Legacy

91

Balaji’s Gray Tribe, Fixing SF, and whether to start or buy a city?

92

Biden vs Trump in Israel, Why Younger People Support Palestine, and Why There is No International Community

93

MoZ gets Nuke Pilled with Packy and Julia

94

Antonio's Dispatch From Israel

95

Why this is BLM for Jews, unpacking the conflict, and predictions for Israel, Gaza, and Iran

96

The Hoax of the Century, Hybrid Warfare, Iran, and Israel with Jacob Siegel

97

Elon and the Border Crisis, the Case for Immigration, and the American Dream

98

Ideas from Balaji and Curtis That Changed Our Minds

99

Wonks vs Proles, Post Liberalism, and Politics as Religious War with Walter Russell Mead

100

Balaji on How the Tech Tribe Can Save Our Cities - Part 2

101

Balaji Srinivasan on the Tribal Lens, America’s Blunder, and His Plan to Save San Francisco

102

Bull/Bear Case for Vivek and Erik’s interview with Vivek Ramaswamy

103

Crypto Hour and IQ, the Next Great Culture War Issue

104

Mike Solana on Peter Thiel, the Ideal Presidential Candidate, and Culture War Losers

105

Religion, Canceled Thinkers, LARPing Liberalism, and The End of History

106

Alex Kaplan on the LK-99 Superconductor: the Drama, Democratization of Science, and Future Implications

107

Noah Smith on YIMBYism, California Land Use, and the Best-Run City

108

News News Yum Yum with Marc Andreessen

109

Twitter, Threads, and Remote Work with Eugene Wei

110

Threads vs Twitter, Zuck vs Elon, and Silicon Valley’s Civil War with Mike Solana

111

Affirmative Action, the Administrative State, and The Right's Victory in the Courts

112

Brokenism, The Borg, and Bravery with Alana Newhouse

113

Katherine Boyle and Mike Solana on Liberal Arts Debate, Tech Culture, and Saving San Francisco

114

[Bonus] Marc Andreessen and Anton Troynikov on Why AI Will Save the World

115

Silicon Valley's Civil War with Nadia Asparouhova

116

Apple and Facebook, Crypto and VR, Open vs Closed Ecosystems

117

Mike Solana on Twitter under Elon, Sam Altman's PR strategy, political polarization, and The Culture War's evolution

118

Liel Leibovitz on Israel and US politics, the Palestinian conflict, and Israel’s future

119

Twitter’s new CEO, Elon’s strategy vs Sam Altman’s strategy, Liberal depression, crime and prisons

120

Ben Smith of Semafor on tech-media hostility, and the past, present, and future of media

121

On Founders, Seriousness, and American Dynamism

122

Michelle Tandler on how to fix San Francisco

123

How to pick markets, why NFTs matter, what "disinformation" is actually about

124

Mike Solana on SF politics, tech & media fights, Tik Tok policy, and AI wars

125

AI open letter debate, "pausers", and what we're all scared of with AI with Anton Troynikov, Flo Crivello, and Nathan Labenz

126

Nic Carter on Balaji's Bet, Operation Chokepoint 2.0, and the Fed's financial crisis

127

Balaji Srinivasan on his $1M bet, Financial Crisis 2.0, Digital Devaluation of USD, and What Comes Next

128

How SVB Unraveled and Whether Crypto Can Fix Finance with Byrne Hobart

129

Effective Accelerationism and the AI Safety Debate with Bayeslord, Beff Jezoz, and Nathan Labenz

130

America as a culture exporter, Egalitarianism eats the world, and why Social Justice isn't receding

131

Disenfranchised men, AI Doomerism, and the Problems with Effective Altruism, with Amjad Masad

132

Modern cold wars with China and Russia, the new right, and tech's cultural shift w/ Noah Smith

133

Why is ChatGPT so woke, the arc of tech is centralization, and explaining the cathedral w/ Brian Chau

134

Low vs High Culture, legacy vs new institutions, WWE, & Lex Fridman w/ Aarthi and Sriram

135

The AI moment, AI vs crypto: a heated debate with Amjad Masad, Flo Crivello, and Nathan Labenz

136

The Realignment on Silicon Valley & DC, Trump vs DeSantis, and the future of media & politics

137

USA vs Europe, Zeihan & Fukuyama, Reforming institutions vs starting new ones, and why we started "Moment of Zen"

138

Amjad Masad on AGI as religion for nerds, history as a series of conspiracies, and religion as a foundation for raising your kids

139

Marc Andreessen on Elon, Nietzsche, and America's Thousand Year Empire

140

Moment of Zen E1 w/ Marc Andreessen on SBF/FTX, Twitter, and Open AI/Chat GPT