Top Podcasts of the Week

Below is our “Top Podcast” episode with our curator, Colby Donovan!

Today we have a must listen with Marc Andreessen on education, an interview with the first CEO of a public company to buy bitcoin with the company’s balance sheet, the case for why small-cap stocks provide a generational buying opportunity, and a great episode on fintech investing.

Business

• ***Must Listen*** a16z: The Question of Education. This is a must listen with Marc Andreessen on the future of education and the changes that are being accelerated due to COVID. He covers a lot, starting with what the true purpose of college is and what data says on future earnings based on what school and major you choose. He then explains the structural issues within the education system (which he thinks can be distilled down to the idea that K-12 is run by a monopoly/cartel), similarly to access to housing and healthcare, all three of which have experienced significant inflation causing stress to the U.S. middle-class. He then dives into the headwinds/changes colleges are facing due to COVID (distance learning, lower revenues, and fewer students on campus) and finishes with advice for students on how to think about attending college or taking a gap year. [September 11, 2020–58 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

• ***Must Listen*** The Pomp Podcast: #385: Michael Saylor On Buying Bitcoin With His Balance Sheet. Saylor may be the most fascinating person I’ve heard on a podcast this year. He co-founded MicroStrategy, a company which provides business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services, and recently made headlines for using the company’s balance sheet to purchase more than $400 million of Bitcoin. He starts by explaining the early days of his career when he purchased tons of domain names (~$2million total), later selling voice.com for $30 million, and still owns domains like hope.com, mike.com, and michael.com. He explains how he came across bitcoin and his path to deciding he wanted to convince the board to purchase $400 million via the company. It’s hard to think he won’t be famous or infamous in years to come as a result. [September 16, 2020–1 hour, 27 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

• What Works on Wall Street Podcast: The Case for Small Cap Stocks. Three O’Shaughnessy Asset Management employees discuss their recent paper highlighting what Jim O’Shaughnessy describes as “a generational buying opportunity” in small cap stocks, particularly small cap value. Based on their research, they believe investors are overestimating the long-term impact of the negative news we’re constantly seeing now and have overbalanced towards large cap stocks. They explain how historically in times very similar to this, small cap stocks have outperformed in the future and they emphasize the importance of adding a quality factor to small cap value to avoid value traps that may not have liquidity to survive this period. [September 16, 2020–38 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

• The Grant Williams Podcast: The End Game Ep. 7 — Edward Chancellor. Ed Chancellor is a journalist and author of Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation, which chronicles three centuries of bubbles and manias. They discuss his research and how the psychological shift in attitudes to markets is just as important as actual shifts in the market (Fed injecting more liquidity, lowering rates, passive investing, etc.). He also explains the parallels to prior bubbles with today and what his thoughts are on the current market environment. He does a great job of putting today’s environment into a historical perspective with fascinating stories and I highly recommend you listen. [September 15, 2020–1 hour, 22 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

• Odd Lots: How Traders Used Google Searches To See The Economic Recovery in Real Time. If you enjoyed reading Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, then you’ll love this episode (or if you love this episode, buy the book). The guest is Ben Breitholtz of Arbor Data Science who has used google search data to provide information on the recovery since the start of COVID that other alternative data providers don’t have. He explains how it works, why google search data is more accurate and timely than survey data, and what his takeaways and best indicators were as he tracked the recovery since March. [September 17, 2020–39 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

• The Meb Faber Show: #249 — Ben Savage, Clocktower Technology Ventures — Financial Services Has Had A Smaller Share of Venture Capital DollarsPointed At It…Since The Inception Of The Venture Capital Industry. Savage is a Partner at Clocktower Technology Ventures and is responsible for all of Clocktower Group’s private market activities. He previously worked at Bridgewater Associates and they begin the episode discussing risk parity funds and what his thoughts are on if they will outperform going forward. Then they discuss Savage’s focus on fintech investing, why he thinks there are structural tailwinds in the space now, and how the space has had significantly less dollars allocated to it compared to other industries. He finishes the episode with long discussions on two really interesting investments: Landed, which helps people purchase homes, and M1, which allows non-high-net-worth individuals get liquidity from assets they own such as their home or stocks. [September 16, 2020–1 hour, 29 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Rest

• Jon Gordon’s Positive University Podcast: Compete to Create with Dr. Michael Gervais. Dr. Gervais is a high performance psychologist who works closely with Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. They came together to create an audio book called Compete to Create: An Approach to Living and Leading Authentically, which distills a lot of the ideas they try to implement with the Seahawks. He explains that the title came from the fact that Pete Carroll lives by the word ‘compete’ and Dr. Gervais lives by the word ‘create’ and what they both mean by that. He talks about a lot of the ideas they cover in the audio book, including focusing on being fully present, shifting your mindset from being anxious and afraid to aspiring to greatness, and why “talk, teach, train, test” is a great saying to help you think about how you want to train your players or employees. [August 27, 2020–59 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

RECOMMENDATIONS

Books

Andy Rachleff (CEO, Wealthfront):

1. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen

Jonathan Barkl (Co-Founder & CEO, AirGarage):

1. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

Eric Torenberg (Co-Founder & Partner, Village Global):

1. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall Rosenberg and Deepak Chopra

Michael Saylor (Co-Founder, MicroStrategy):

1. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

Good investing,

Meb Fabertheideafarm.com