Top Podcasts of the Week

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

Today we have Nobel-Prize winner Richard Thaler on all things nudges, Kevin Kelly on the future of remote work, Redfin’s CEO on the red-hot real estate market, and Gary Vaynerchuk on his entrepreneurial journey.

Investing

  • All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg: E43: Innovative venture strategies, Zymergen’s implosion, Square acquires Afterpay, future of fintech & more. The All-In guys discuss the blurring lines between entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and private/public market investors and what that means going forward. Then they discuss the fine line between a visionary and a fraud (Elon Musk, Elizabeth Holmes, Adam Neumann, etc.) and the due diligence, or lack thereof, in private deals today. They finish with David Sacks’ thesis that financial institutions blocking users, as social media companies are now, will be a major story over the next year. [August 6, 2021–91 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | YouTube

  • This Week in Startups: Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman on the current state and future of the US housing market. Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman talks about the red-hot real estate market, what’s driving prices to soar in cities like Nashville and Boise, and the choice employers now face with employees demanding to work remotely in cheaper cities as opposed to NYC, SF, and LA. He also touches on the company itself and the process of working with real estate agents, trying to bring transparency to the market, and the impact of iBuyers on the real estate market. [August 6, 2021–71 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | YouTube Link

“America has had a slow migration out of these major urban centers for a long time. The pandemic was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

  • How I Built This with Guy Raz: Serial Entrepreneur: Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk walks through his life and many entrepreneurial efforts, starting as the son of immigrant parents who let him sell wine at their liquor store as a kid. He then brought the business into the Internet 1.0, then expanded to YouTube and utilized his social media presence to begin angel investing and consulting with companies. He’s now launching an art NFT that they discuss as well. He’s brash and loud, but you can’t not respect his hustle after listening to him and his story. [August 2, 2021–73 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • Odd Lots: Sam Bankman-Fried and Matt Levine on How the Crypto Market Really Works. Sam Bankman-Fried is one of the most knowledgeable people around crypto and his crypto exchange FTX just raised $900 million. He and journalist Matt Levine talk about the ins and outs of what running a crypto exchange is like, capital requirements and risk management, and the role of leverage in the system. Then they touch on the DeFi ecosystem and the controversy around Tether. [August 5, 2021–73 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Meb Faber Show

  • #336 — Hugh Thomas, Ugly Drinks — This Is The Result Of Two 23-Year Olds In A Pub In London Having A Couple Of Beers. Hugh Thomas is the founder of Ugly Drinks (use code UGLYMEB for 20% off), a beverage company that makes drinks with no sugar, no sweetener, and no calories, that is trying to expose the ugly truth about big beverage. Hugh shares his journey of starting the company to provide people with a healthy drink at an affordable price. Hugh shares the story of the brand and marketing with the ‘ugly’ name, why there’s such a need for a healthy drink in the market, and what it was like to embrace direct-to-consumer during COVID. [August 2, 2021–46 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • ***Must Listen*** #337 — Professor Richard Thaler, University of Chicago — When Somebody Would Fire Us, It Was Almost Always At Exactly The Wrong Time. Richard Thaler is a Professor at the University of Chicago, Nobel-Prize winner, and author of multiple best-selling books, including his release this week, Nudge: The Final Edition. Professor Thaler talks about all the ways choice architecture and nudges affect financial services — including how we save for retirement, pay our taxes, and choose an insurance plan. He covers some fintech companies using his ideas to help consumers have better outcomes, and then covers some companies that he believes are nudging consumers in the wrong direction. Professor Thaler also shares the concept of sludge and how it applies to things like cancelling subscriptions or registering for the new child income credit payments. [August 4, 2021–54 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Rest

  • Build Remotely: The Future of Digital Nomadism with Kevin Kelly from WIRED. Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly lays out how he views the future of remote work in a world that now has enough tools to enable employees to thrive remotely. He walks through the history of ‘nomadness’ of human beings and why he believes we will start focusing less on ownership and more on flexibility. He also covers the tradeoffs people will face between more freedom but fewer personal rights, and ties the idea of remote work to his famous piece 1,000 True Fans. Note — no need to listen to the Q&A starting at 28:00. [July 29, 2021–51 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

“Designing for remoteness will pay off even if you aren’t remote.”

  • Michael Covel’s Trend Following: Ep. 994: David Bradford Interview. Bradford is a professor at Stanford, where he teaches a course on Interpersonal Dynamics (known to his students as “Touchy-Feely”). He shares the lessons from his course around how to build and sustain strong relationships in a world that’s void of strong ties. Some of the topics include how to cultivate authenticity, vulnerability, and honesty, while being willing to ask for and offer help, share a commitment to growth, and ask others open ended questions. [August 1, 2021–48 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

“We may not agree, we may be in competition with each other, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see you as a human being.”

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Dr. Charity Dean (Former Asst. Director of the California Department of Public Health

Good investing,Meb Fabertheideafarm.com