Top Podcasts of the Week

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

Today we have a must-listen with Mohamed El-Erian on the possibility of a Fed policy error, Tyler Cowen on finding a better way to fund innovation, and Howard Lindzon with an update on both public and private markets.

Investing

  • ***Must Listen*** Hidden Forces: Monetary Tightening & the End of the Risk-on Trade | Mohamed El-Erian. In one of the better episodes of 2022, El-Erian talks about the current market environment, the risks he sees, and his frustration with the Fed. He talks about his belief the Fed is making a policy mistake and what he believes needs to happen for them to slow inflation. Then he looks at the impact of geopolitical risks, deglobalization, and role the flood of liquidity has played on global asset prices. [February 14, 2022–52 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Website Link

  • Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist: Fast Grants, Faster Science, and Reviving a Culture of Innovation with Tyler Cowen. Economist Tyler Cowen shares how he’s trying to identify and fund ideas and talented individuals quicker and more efficiently than it’s typically done today. They walk through his Fast Grants program, which funded COVID-related science in less than 48 hours. He shares what he’s most excited about going forward (biotech) and how he’s trying to innovate around education and credentials (specifically through the University of Austin). [February 16, 2022–36 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | YouTube

  • Odd Lots: Howard Lindzon on What’s Really Going on in the Tech Plunge. Social Leverage’s Howard Lindzon walks through the evolution of the private markets from the time SoftBank got involved with WeWork through today and why firms like Tiger & a16z are trying to index the private markets for institutions. He touches on the stretched valuations in the private markets in 2021 and why that led him to make two investments in the year instead of his usual 12. He explains why he believes investing at the seed-stage today doesn’t make sense given the valuations and illiquid nature of the asset class. He finishes the episode with an update on his SPAC, his thoughts on Robinhood’s recent decline (which he was an early investor in) and how it compares to crypto exchanges like Coinbase and FTX. [February 17, 2022–60 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Website Link

“Writing checks just because you can is not the business.”

The Meb Faber Show

  • Episode #390: Radio Show — Meb’s Thoughts on Angel Investing After Making 250+ Investments. The Radio Show is back with Meb taking questions on his startup investing. He goes deeper into what led him to start making private investments, lessons learned from the process, how it relates to trend following, and his advice to those who want to get started themselves. [February 14, 2022–42 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Website Link

  • Episode #391: Vinesh Jha, ExtractAlpha — Alternative Data & Crowdsourcing Financial Intelligence. Vinesh Jha is the founder and CEO of ExtractAlpha, an independent research firm dedicated to providing unique, actionable alpha signals to institutional investors. Vinesh has been involved with quantitative finance and analyzing alternative data since his early days at StarMine, which built a Morningstar-esque company for equity research. He shares all the different ways his team at ExtractAlpha analyzes alternative data, whether it’s looking at sentiment and ticker searches or using natural language processing to analyze transcripts from earnings calls. Then he shares whether or not he thinks alternative data can help investors focused on ESG. At the end of the episode, he touches on ExtractAlpha’s merger with Estimize and the ability to crowd source financial intelligence. [February 16, 2022–65 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Website Link

Book Recommendations

Geoff Lewis (Founder, Bedrock): 

James Anderson (Partner at Baillie Gifford):

Good investing,Meb Fabertheideafarm.com