Top Podcasts of the Week

February 22, 2021

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

Today we have Jason Zweig on the future of financial advice, how a zero-commission trading app in Europe has navigated 2021 the right way, and how Katie Haun went from being a federal prosecutor to a crypto venture capitalist with a16z.

Investing

  • ***Must Listen*** Financial Advisor Success: Ep 216: The Financial Advisor As Curator And Redefining The Value Of Financial Expertise with Jason Zweig. Zweig is the “Intelligent Investor” columnist for The Wall Street Journal and joins to discuss his thoughts on financial advice and advisors. He talks about trust and what it means to be a fiduciary, the importance of humility and helping clients invest for the long run while allowing room for error, and what he sees as the future of financial advice and how advisors can fit within that. [February 16, 2021–1 hour, 33 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

I would love the words “I don’t know” to become sort of a litmus test of what it means to be a professional.

  • The Tim Ferriss Show: #499: Katie Haun on the Dark Web, Gangs, Investigating Bitcoin, and The New Magic of “Nifties” (NFTs). Haun is a general partner at a16z and previously spent a decade as a federal prosecutor with the US Department of Justice, where she created the government’s first cryptocurrency task force. This is a fascinating interview on her journey from prosecutor to venture capitalist. It starts with her investigations into the Mt. Gox hack and the corrupt agents on the Silk Road task force, her process of learning about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, why she’s bullish on bitcoin, how she joined the Coinbase board of directors, and the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) and popularity of NBA Top Shot. [February 18, 2021–2 hours, 10 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • Rebank: Banking the Future: Dissecting the Free Stock Trading Industry with Freetrade. This is a great listen on how a free-trading app, not named Robinhood, has handled 2021. The episode is with Viktor Nebehaj, the co-founder of Freetrade, a free stock trading platform in the UK. After listening I’d describe the company as Robinhood without the shenanigans — they don’t allow margin lending or sell order flows. He talks about the company’s rise over the past 15 months (revenues grew 48x from the beginning to the end of 2020), why it’s chosen to encourage positive financial behaviors of customers and avoid what I previously mentioned, and how they navigated 2021 (having to double customer service staff and handle partner-imposed trading halts and FX throttles). [Feburary 15, 2021–50 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • The Prof G Show with Scott Galloway: The Algebra of Wealth. The first 16 minutes features Galloway talking about which factors contribute to your ability to generate wealth in life — not make and spend a lot of money, but as he defines it, have enough passive income to cover your expenses. Then he interviews Noreena Hertz, the author of The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart. They touch on how loneliness was rising even before COVID and its impact on our mental health and more (and ends at 52:40). If you enjoyed Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger, this is up your alley. [February 18, 2021–1 hour, 9 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • Odd Lots: The Story of How TSMC Came to Dominate the World. This episode is essentially a case study on how Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) became the biggest and most advanced chip manufacturer in the world. They explain how the company realized the benefits of making semiconductors for other companies, the decision to forgo profits early on and grow their market share, and how they have and still are navigating geopolitics and maintaining a technological edge on their competitors. [January 25, 2021–52 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Meb Faber Show

  • The Meb Faber Show: #288 — Best Idea Show — Doug Pugliese, Alpha Architect — Why Not Elect A 1042 Sale And Control When You Pay Those Taxes? This is a very esoteric episode but really valuable for any advisor working with clients who are thinking about exiting their business in the near future. Pugliese is the Head of 1042 QRP Solutions at Alpha Architect, where he manages the firm’s qualified replacement property investment strategies practice. He talks about utilizing employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and the 1042 QRP solution. This allows the seller to get the tax benefits of a 1042 election and then defer capital gains tax, and even invest the proceeds into a portfolio of blue chip stocks. He wraps with explaining how different companies have utilized this, including one of Meb’s favorite breweries. [February 17, 2021– minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

RECOMMENDATIONS
Books

Matan Bar (Co-founder, Melio):

Boris Wertz (Founder, Version One Ventures):

Good investing,

Meb Fabertheideafarm.com