All Episodes
"Upstream" with Erik Torenberg — 143 episodes
E141: The Bronze Age Collapse and History's Selective Memory
E140: Why Industrial Revolutions Stall
E139: America’s Tech Strategy w/ Qasar Younis, Sen. Jack Reed, and Josh Wolfe
E138: Palantir CEO Alex Karp & Rep. Ritchie Torres on Innovation & The West | Hill and Valley Forum 2024
E137: AI Safety vs Speed: Helen Toner Discusses OpenAI Board Experience, Regulatory Approaches, and Military AI [The Cognitive Revolution]
E136: Trump V2: Tariffs, American Dynamism, Higher Ed | Byrne Hobart
E135: The Problem With Reserve Currencies and Switching to Crypto w/ Lyn Alden [From the Archives]
E134: Atheism’s Decline, Consciousness, and The New Right w/ Ross Douthat
E133: China’s Energy Problem w/ Samo Burja
E132: AI Managers, US vs China Analysis, and AI Art w/ Byrne Hobart
E131: Abundance Agenda, The New Right, and 2008 Retrospective w/ Noah Smith
E130: Elon Musk’s Network Effects and Checking in on Chinese AI w/ Byrne Hobart
E129: Dark Triad, Romantic Partner Selection, and Dating Advice w/ Rob Henderson
E128: US-Europe Relations, How Japan Can Strengthen The Yen, and Predicting AI’s Growth Effects w/ Noah Smith
E127: The Tech Right and How The Left Can Fix Itself w/ Jon Askonas
E126: Data Center Economics and AI Energy Requirements w/ Patrick McKenzie and Azeem Azhar
E125: Palantir’s Politics, Elon’s Approach to DOGE, and AI’s Effects on Writing w/ Byrne Hobart
E124: How to Have A Philosophical Marriage w/ Agnes Callard and Arnold Brooks
E123: Trump & The Game of Populism w/ Samo Burja
E122: Victor Davis Hanson on What Trump Thinks of Zelensky and Predicting Geopolitics
E121: Kevin Kelly on What Makes Us Human in an AI World
E120: Why Europe Matters for America’s Future w/ Samo Burja
E119: Free Trade, AI Integration, and Shopify Q4 Results w/ Shopify President Harley Finkelstein
E118: Ending Woke, Why Elon Wins, and A Return to Innovation w/ Marc Andreessen [Moment of Zen repost]
E117: The Future of Martian & Interplanetary Societies w/ Samo Burja
E116: Stuck Academia, US vs China, and Why Startups Work
E115: New Tariff Implications, DeepSeek and Open Source Analysis, and Meta’s Big Bets w/ Byrne Hobart
E114: Tyler Cowen on Legacy, Twitter + Harvard, and Fertility Decline [Upstream Archive]
E113: Reflections on Yarvin, Why the Right is Stuck, and Startups as Dictatorships w/ Samo Burja
E112: Election Update, Tech’s Political Shift, and America’s Stuck GDP | This Won’t Last
E111: Samo Burja & Auren Hoffman on the Decline of Fertility Rates and Institutional Trust
E110: Crypto Debanking: What Really Happened | Patrick McKenzie
E109: Dating & Relationships Deep Dive w/ Noah Smith and Katherine Dee (Default Friend)
E108: Should AI have Rights? With Nathan Labenz and Yeshua God, Robopsychologist
E107: How Desalination Could Create New Superpowers | Samo Burja
E106: The Man Who Wrote the Book on NVIDIA
E104: AI Meets Geopolitics w/ Samo Burja and Nathan Labenz
E103: Byrne Hobart on What The First AI Agents Will Do + China, Google Analysis
E102: America’s Culture of Winning w/ Alex Karp and Jacob Helberg
E101: Wokeism & Class w/ David Sacks, Trump’s AI Czar [Upstream Archive]
E100: Marc Andreessen: How 2016 Broke My Mental Model of the World
E99: This Era’s Inflection Points with Byrne Hobart | DOGE, Elon, OpenAI
E98: Solving America’s Problems with Joe Lonsdale
E97: Combining Biology and AI w/ Michael Levin and Dr. Leo Pio Lopez
E96: Rudyard Lynch and Samo Burja Talk The Left’s Future and Problems with Modernity
E95: Trump’s New Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering on Growing Uber | Emil Michael on Growing Uber | Emil Michael
E94: Best of: AGI | Dario Amodei / Balaji Srinivasan / Marc Andreessen / Samo Burja / Michael Levin
E93: How Trump and Elon Could Rebuild the US Government
E92: Curtis Yarvin’s Pre-Election Advice to Elon Musk
E91: Why We Do Philosophy w/ Agnes Callard
E90: Elites, Institutions, and Trump with Richard Hanania
E89: Economics as a Science w/ Noah Smith
E88: The Fertility Apocalypse w/ Samo Burja
E87: Embodied Minds and Cognitive Agents with Dr. Michael Levin
E86: Techno-capitalism with Bryan Johnson
E85: Analyzing Everything with Byrne Hobart and Patrick McKenzie
E84: Let’s Fix Social Media with Jonathan Haidt
E83: How Patty McCord Built Netflix’s Culture
E82: America’s Future with Palmer Luckey
E81: Status, Sacred, and Neglected Truths with Robin Hanson
E80: Financial Plumbing with Patrick McKenzie and Erik Torenberg
E79: How Civilizations Cycle & Collapse | Samo Burja and Rudyard Lynch
E78: Fertility, Healthy Humans, and Ending Genetic Disease w/ Noor Siddiqui, CEO of Orchid
E77: Academic Fraud & the Spiritual Quest for Truth | Live Players w/ Samo Burja and Ben Landau-Taylor
E76: "The CEO is Always Responsible” | This Won’t Last w/ Logan Bartlett, Zach Weinberg, Kevin Ryan, and Keith Rabois
E75: The Future of AI-Enabled Companies with Omar Shams, CEO of Mutable AI
E74: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Talks Scaling Laws, AI Arms Races, and Radical Abundance
E73: Brian Armstrong on Crypto in 2024, Politics, and Economic Freedom
E72: Eoghan McCabe on San Francisco, Tech Leadership, and Optimistic Media
E71: Marc Andreessen on Higher Education and Tech Culture
E70: Katherine Boyle on Religion, Journalism, and Polarization
E69: Balaji Srinivasan on the Rise of the Tech Counter Elites
E68: Tyler Cowen on Talent, the Importance of Stamina, and Predicting Success
E67: A Deep Dive on René Girard with David Gornoski
E66: Noah Smith on 2024 Election Strategy, American Civil Service, and Cash Benefits
E65: Bret Weinstein on Evolutionary Biology, Markets, Moral Progress, and More
E64: Richard Hanania on Trump's Genius, Antisemitism, and Election Predictions
E63: Balaji Srinivasan and Glen Weyl on Decentralized Governance, Politics, and History
E62: Mike Solana on Thinking Freely and What Tech Means for Culture
E61: Noah Smith on Wokeness, Right Wing Muckrakers, and Class vs Identity
E60: AI in the Techno-Economic War with China with Vinod Khosla, Todd Young, and Jacob Helberg
E59: Bryan Caplan on Housing Regulation, Fertility, and Crime
E58: Jonathan Haidt on Finally Fixing Social Media and Picking All the Cherries
E57: Noah Smith Analyzes Economies: USA, China, Japan, Russia, India, Korea, & More
E56: Brian Chau on Spreading Informed AI Optimism
E55: Why China's Universities Will Become Harvard
E54: Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan on Why History Points to Crypto
E53: Nathan Labenz and Noah Smith on What AI Actually Means for the Economy
E52: David Friedman on Anarcho-Capitalism, Utilitarianism, and Inequality
E51: How We Build More Housing with Brad Hargreaves & Noah Smith
E50: Alex Blania on Worldcoin, AGI, and Future Predictions
E49: The Legacy of Effective Altruism with Igor Kurganov
E48: Liron Shapira on the Case for Pausing AI
E47: Rob Henderson on Life in Foster Care, Academia, and Beyond
E46: Lyn Alden on How Money Works
E45: Bayeslord and Nadia Asparouhova on Effective Accelerationism
E44: Tyler Cowen on Harvard, the GOAT Economist, and Ending Stagnation
E43: Richard Hanania on Wokeness, Israel-Palestine, and the Mythos of the Modern Right
E42: Erik Torenberg on the Evolution of Media
E41: Steve Hsu on the Future of Everything
E40: Develop Your Personal Investing Strategy with Itay Vinik
E39: Balaji Srinivasan and Nathan Labenz on AI's Future, Human-AI Symbiosis, and AI Control
E38: Holiday Special: Request for Startups
E37: Noor Siddiqui on embryo screening, the fertility crisis, and parenting
E36: Beff Jezos on doxxing, e/acc, and why crypto will save AI
E35: Samo Burja on Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and George Soros
E34: Byrne Hobart on Sam Altman, Meta vs Google, and Effective Altruism
E33: The Untold History of Nuclear Energy with Packy McCormick and Julia DeWahl
E32: Balaji on SBF and the Israel-Hamas War
E31: Sam Lessin on Why We’re Heading into a New Era of Venture
E30: Aaron Ginn on the Moral Idea Maze, the GPU Revolution, and US-China Relations
E29: Sense-Making, a Top 1% Information Diet, and Generation Warfare with Michael Guimarin
E28: Richard Hanania Returns | Trump, the Sexual Revolution, and Immigration
E27: Robin Hanson on Elites, Experts, and the Truths We Resist
E26: Ben Horowitz on AI, the Future of Venture Capital, and Wartime VCs
E25: Jon Askonas on 2nd Order Effects of AI, the Media Ecology of Reality, and Conservatism
E24: Balaji Srinivasan on Social Tribalism, Cloud Cartography, Internet Values
E23: Emad Mostaque and Sam Lessin Debate Whether AI is a Good Investment for VC
E22: Vivek Ramaswamy on his Presidential Run, Intellectually Oppressive Culture, Otherism
E21: Sam Hammond on AI, e/acc, and Institutional Disruption
E20: Martin Shkreli on Public Vilification, Lessons from Prison, and Getting Back in the Arena
E19: Economist Bryan Caplan on Non-conformity, Sex, Feminism and Homeschooling
E18: Marc Andreessen on AI, Religion, SF, Longevity, and the NPC Meme
E17: Noah Smith's Reflections on Biden's First Term, Foreign Policy, and Industrial Policy - Econ 102 with Noah Smith
E16: Agnes Callard on Dark Empathy, Being Straussian vs Being Sincere, and Philosophical Progress
E15: Richard Hanania on Vivek Ramaswamy, Affirmative Action, and the Winning Agenda for 2024
E14: Balaji Srinivasan on the Fiat Crisis, Russia, and China.
E13: Kevin Kelly on Multiple Futures, AI, and Becoming Better Humans
[Bonus] Palmer Luckey of Anduril Industries on China, DefenseTech, and U.S. Policy | The HIll & Valley
E12: Tim Urban on Liberalism, Heresy, and Equality
E11: Katherine Boyle on Building Companies, Families, and Careers
E10: Sam Harris on Populism, Polarization, and His Beef with the Left and the Right
[Bonus Episode] Moment of Zen w/ Mike Solana, Erik Torenberg and Dan Romero
E9: Benedict Evans on AI, Web3, VR and the Future of Tech
E8: Samo Burja on America's Future, China, AI, and the New Global Order
E7: How Andrew Yang Would Cure American Politics
E6: Vivek Ramaswamy on Running for President in 2024 and His Message to Silicon Valley
E5: How Exactly Joe Lonsdale Would Fix The Public Sector
E4: David Sacks on His Intellectual and Political Journey
E3: Ezra Klein on Supply-side Progressivism, Polarization, and What Silicon Valley Misses About Politics
E2: Balaji Srinivasan on His Past and Future predictions, the Future of the Left and Right, and Why Tech Can’t Escape Politics
E1: Marc Andreessen on His Intellectual Journey the Past Ten Years
Trailer: This is Upstream with Erik Torenberg