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Podcasts

Operator conversations and long-form interviews on rebuilding the industrial base.

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Podcasts

American Dynamism

Samo Burja on Growth, Energy, and AI

content+a16zpodcast@a16z.com (Theo Jaffee, Samo Burja)

Theo Jaffee speaks with Samo Burja, founder of Bismarck Analysis, about AI, industrial capacity, economic growth, and the institutions that shape civilization. The conversation explores how AI’s demand for compute, energy, and infrastructure could trigger a new wave of industria…

Listen yesterday·Jun 12, 2026
Podcasts

War on the Rocks

The Gulf Arab States Need a Shield Built for Limited Trust

Mohammed Alotaibi

Missiles, drones, and maritime disruptions do not stop at national borders. Gulf defense architecture still too often waits for national permission to act. The Gulf Cooperation Council has spent decades building defense institutions, diplomatic forums, and a language of indivisi…

Listen 2 days ago·Jun 12, 2026
Podcasts

War on the Rocks

Strike, Counterstrike, Repeat

WOTR Staff

Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***Iran Hostilities have increased notably in the last few days, effectively…

Listen 2 days ago·Jun 11, 2026
Podcasts

American Dynamism

Designing the Physical World with AI

content+a16zpodcast@a16z.com (Erin Price-Wright, Alex Modon, Davide Asnaghi)

Erin Price-Wright speaks with Alex Modon, cofounder and CEO at Unlimited Industries, and Davide Asnaghi, CEO at Diode Computers, about how AI is moving from software into the physical world. They discuss automating construction and electronics design, using code and simulation t…

Listen 2 days ago·Jun 11, 2026
Podcasts

War on the Rocks

Wargaming for Improved Acquisition: What Does It Take?

C. Travis Reese

A few months ago, I attended a panel discussion for a wargame simulating rapid industrial mobilization for armed conflict. Conducted by a leading university, with teams composed of former senior defense officials, the game probed how government and industry collaboration would p…

Listen 3 days ago·Jun 11, 2026
Podcasts

War on the Rocks

The Maritime Action Plan Needs a Yardstick: Enter the Mahan Ratio

Ander Heiles

Washington is littered with the corpses of grand plans to restore the Merchant Marine. The Trump administration’s Maritime Action Plan is the latest attempt, and to its credit, the most comprehensive since World War II.The plan is the government’s blueprint to resurr…

Listen 3 days ago·Jun 11, 2026
Podcasts

War on the Rocks

Dusting a Dirt Road: How The United States Can Break the Cycle of Failing Military Infrastructure

Jason McMahon

Winter Storm Uri ripped through Texas in January 2021. The frigid temperatures froze pipes, which then burst and caused flooding in aging barracks at Fort Hood, many of which were overdue for renovations and had vulnerable mechanical and utility systems. The burst pipes, damaged…

Listen 4 days ago·Jun 10, 2026
Podcasts

American Dynamism

Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok on AI, Jobs, and Economic Growth

content+a16zpodcast@a16z.com (Wyatt Thomson, Tyler Cowen, Alex Tabarrok)

Wyatt Thomson of OpenAI speaks with economists Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok about AI, labor markets, and the future of economic growth. The conversation explores one of the most common fears surrounding AI: that increasingly capable systems will eliminate jobs. Cowen and Tabarr…

Listen 4 days ago·Jun 9, 2026
Podcasts

American Dynamism

AI Eats the World? A Reality Check with Benedict Evans

content+a16zpodcast@a16z.com (Erik Torenberg, Benedict Evans)

Erik Torenberg speaks with tech analyst Benedict Evans about the current state of AI, what has changed over the past year, and which questions remain unanswered. The conversation covers coding agents, foundation models, AI infrastructure spending, software economics, and the ten…

Listen 5 days ago·Jun 8, 2026
Podcasts

War on the Rocks

The Lawmakers Fighting to Modernize the Pentagon

Rep. Pat Ryan

Congress rarely moves fast, but Reps. Rob Wittman and Pat Ryan are trying to change that. The two lawmakers founded the bipartisan House Defense Modernization Caucus in 2024 and have driven reforms through two consecutive defense authorization acts, targeting acquisitions and ot…

Listen 6 days ago·Jun 8, 2026
Podcasts

American Dynamism

Building Search for AI Agents with Exa CEO Will Bryk

content+a16zpodcast@a16z.com (Sarah Wang, Will Bryk)

Sarah Wang speaks with Exa cofounder and CEO Will Bryk about building search infrastructure for the AI era. The conversation covers Exa’s origins, why traditional search engines were not designed for AI agents, and how search changes when the user is no longer a human but an aut…

Listen last week·Jun 6, 2026
Podcasts

American Dynamism

AI Agents and the Fight for Customer Data

content+a16zpodcast@a16z.com (Martin Casado, George Fraser)

Martin Casado speaks with George Fraser, cofounder and CEO of Fivetran, about the future of data infrastructure in the age of AI. The conversation covers Fivetran’s merger with dbt, the changing role of data platforms, and why Fraser believes many companies are overestimating th…

Listen last week·Jun 5, 2026
Podcasts

Dwarkesh Podcast

Reiner Pope – Chip design from the bottom up

Dwarkesh Patel

New blackboard lecture with Reiner Pope: how do chips actually work - starting with basic logic gates, and working up to why GPUs, TPUs, FPGAs, and the human brain each look the way they do. Reiner is CEO of MatX , a new chip startup (full disclosure - I’m an angel investor). He…

Listen 3 weeks ago·May 22, 2026
Podcasts

Acquired

Vanguard

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Vanguard is the most effective vehicle ever created for participating in the fruits of American capitalism. Today it’s the single largest equity owner of the majority of corporations in the S&P 500, on behalf of 50 million clients (including, likely, many of you). And yet Vangua…

Listen 4 weeks ago·May 18, 2026
Podcasts

Acquired

Ferrari

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Ferrari is the pinnacle of luxury scarcity — across its entire 79-year history, the company has sold just 330,000 cars at an average price today of $500,000. For context, Hermès sells that many Birkins and Kellys roughly every 2 years, and Rolex moves that many watches every 3 m…

Listen 2 months ago·Apr 13, 2026
Podcasts

Dwarkesh Podcast

Dylan Patel — Deep dive on the 3 big bottlenecks to scaling AI compute

Dwarkesh Patel

Dylan Patel , founder of SemiAnalysis , provides a deep dive into the 3 big bottlenecks to scaling AI compute: logic, memory, and power. And walks through the economics of labs, hyperscalers, foundries, and fab equipment manufacturers. Learned a ton about every single level of t…

Listen 3 months ago·Mar 13, 2026
Podcasts

Acquired

Formula 1

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Formula 1 is three competitions in one: a 200mph battle of the world's best race car drivers, the world cup of engineering where thousand-person teams spend hundreds of millions designing cars from scratch, and — as one of our listeners perfectly put it — the “Real Housewives of…

Listen 3 months ago·Mar 2, 2026
Podcasts

Acquired

The NFL

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

The NFL is nearly synonymous with America today. Practically nothing is more quintessentially and universally American than tuning in every Sunday (and Monday, and Thursday… and sometimes Saturdays and holidays too) to watch the world’s most beautiful ballet of violence. It gene…

Listen 5 months ago·Jan 27, 2026
Podcasts

Acquired

Rolex

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Rolex is a series of paradoxes. They sell obsolete and objectively inferior mechanical devices for 10-1000x the price of their superior digital successors… and demand is stronger than ever in history! Their products are comparable to a Hermès Birkin bag in price, luxury status a…

Listen 5 months ago·Jan 3, 2026
Podcasts

Acquired

Costco

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Costco is not only Charlie Munger’s favorite company of all time (plus he’s on the board, natch), it’s an absolutely fascinating study in how seemingly opposite characteristics can combine to create incredible company value. For instance: Costco has the cheapest prices of any ma…

Listen 5 months ago·Jan 2, 2026
Podcasts

Dwarkesh Podcast

Fully autonomous robots are much closer than you think – Sergey Levine

Dwarkesh Patel

Sergey Levine , one of the world’s top robotics researchers and co-founder of Physical Intelligence , thinks we’re on the cusp of a “self-improvement flywheel” for general-purpose robots. His median estimate for when robots will be able to run households entirely autonomously? 2…

Listen 9 months ago·Sep 12, 2025
Podcasts

Dwarkesh Podcast

@Asianometry & Dylan Patel — How the semiconductor industry actually works

Dwarkesh Patel

A bonanza on the semiconductor industry and hardware scaling to AGI by the end of the decade. Dylan Patel runs Semianalysis , the leading publication and research firm on AI hardware. Jon Y runs Asianometry , the world’s best YouTube channel on semiconductors and business histor…

Listen 2 years ago·Oct 2, 2024
Podcasts

Lex Fridman Podcast — Industrial

#412 – Marc Raibert: Boston Dynamics and the Future of Robotics

Lex Fridman

Marc Raibert is founder and former long-time CEO of Boston Dynamics, and recently Executive Director of the newly-created Boston Dynamics AI Institute. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – HiddenLayer : https://hiddenlayer.com/lex – Babbel : ht…

Listen 2 years ago·Feb 16, 2024
Podcasts

Lex Fridman Podcast — Industrial

#394 – Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature

Lex Fridman

Neri Oxman is a designer, engineer, scientist, and artist working on computational design, synthetic biology and digital fabrication, previously at MIT, and now at OXMAN. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Babbel : https://babbel.com/lexpod and use…

Listen 3 years ago·Sep 1, 2023
Podcasts

Lex Fridman Podcast — Industrial

#380 – Neil Gershenfeld: Self-Replicating Robots and the Future of Fabrication

Lex Fridman

Neil Gershenfeld is the director of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – LMNT : https://drinkLMNT.com/lex to get free sample pack – NetSuite : http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour – BetterHel…

Listen 3 years ago·May 28, 2023
Podcasts

Lex Fridman Podcast — Industrial

#374 – Robert Playter: Boston Dynamics CEO on Humanoid and Legged Robotics

Lex Fridman

Robert Playter is CEO of Boston Dynamics, a legendary robotics company that over 30 years has created some of the most elegant, dextrous, and simply amazing robots ever built, including the humanoid robot Atlas and the robot dog Spot. Please support this podcast by checking out…

Listen 3 years ago·Apr 28, 2023
Podcasts

Lex Fridman Podcast — Industrial

#309 – John Carmack: Doom, Quake, VR, AGI, Programming, Video Games, and Rockets

Lex Fridman

John Carmack is a legendary programmer, co-founder of id Software, and lead programmer of many revolutionary video games including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and the Commander Keen series. He is also the founder of Armadillo Aerospace, and for many years the CTO of Oculus VR.…

Listen 4 years ago·Aug 4, 2022
Podcasts

Dwarkesh Podcast

David Deutsch - AI, America, Fun, & Bayes

Dwarkesh Patel

David Deutsch is the founder of the field of quantum computing and the author The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality . Read me contra David on AI . Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript with he…

Listen 4 years ago·Jan 31, 2022
Podcasts

Lex Fridman Podcast — Industrial

#252 – Elon Musk: SpaceX, Mars, Tesla Autopilot, Self-Driving, Robotics, and AI

Lex Fridman

Elon Musk is CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and Boring Company. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Athletic Greens : https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil – ButcherBox : https://butcherbox.com/lex to get…

Listen 4 years ago·Dec 28, 2021
Podcasts

Dwarkesh Podcast

David Friedman - Dating Markets, Legal Systems, Bitcoin, and Automation

Dwarkesh Patel

David Friedman is a famous anarcho-capitalist economist and legal scholar. Watch on YouTube . Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or any other podcast platform. Episode website + transcript here . David Friedman's website: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ Follow me on Twitter for…

Listen 5 years ago·Aug 9, 2021
Directory

Podcasts

Operator conversations and long-form interviews on rebuilding the industrial base. 12 sources / 11 live / 1 manual.

Podcasts

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Live feed

Deep histories of the companies that built the industrial and technological backbone of the modern economy — TSMC, Nvidia, Lockheed, Boeing.

company historysemiconductorsindustry
Podcasts

American Dynamism

Katherine Boyle and David Ulevitch

Live feed

The a16z thesis on companies supporting the national interest — defense, aerospace, manufacturing, housing, logistics, and hard tech.

a16zamerican dynamismdefense techhard tech
Podcasts

American Optimist

Joe Lonsdale

Live feed

Founders, policymakers, and operators building the next American century — industrial tech, defense, energy, and national strategy.

american dynamismdefenseindustrial policyventure
Podcasts

Dwarkesh Podcast

Dwarkesh Patel

Live feed

Long-form conversations with historians, economists, and builders — select episodes on semiconductors, state capacity, and industrial history.

interviewseconomicshistory
Podcasts

Hoover Institution Podcasts

Hoover Institution

Live feed

Policy conversations on national security, industrial strategy, China competition, and American economic statecraft.

policynational securitychina
Podcasts

Lex Fridman Podcast — Industrial

Lex Fridman

Live feed

Select long-form conversations on manufacturing, rocketry, fusion, and the engineers rebuilding American hard-tech capability.

engineeringinterviewshard tech
Podcasts

Machines Like Us

Taylor Owen

Live feed

How machines and industrial systems reshape society — automation, infrastructure, and the new political economy of production.

automationpolicysociety
Podcasts

Odd Lots

Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway

Live feed

The markets-plumbing show that consistently covers commodities, supply chains, shipyards, fabs, and the weird corners of the industrial economy.

marketssupply chaincommoditiesindustrial
Podcasts

Plain English with Derek Thompson

Derek Thompson

Live feed

An abundance-agenda lens on housing, energy, manufacturing, and the political economy of American building.

abundanceeconomicspolicy
Podcasts

The Hadrian Podcast

Chris Power

Manual

Inside the modern defense and aerospace precision-manufacturing floor — conversations from inside a next-generation American factory.

manufacturingdefensehadrianprecision machining
Podcasts

The Industrialist

The Industrialist

Live feed

Operators, founders, and policymakers working on the American industrial base — supply chains, fabs, energy, and defense production.

industrial basemanufacturingpolicy
Podcasts

War on the Rocks

Ryan Evans

Live feed

The national security publication of record — defense procurement, industrial mobilization, and the shape of modern warfare.

defensenational securityprocurement