Episodes
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The unputdownable first Western biography of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, financial disruptor and personification of the 21st centuryâs addiction to instant wealth, from the former editor of the Financial Times.
As Wall Street swooned and boomed through the last decade, our livelihoods haveânow more than everâcome to rely upon the good sense and risk appetites of a few standout investors. And amidst the BlackRocks, Vanguards, and Berkshire Hathaways stands arguably the most iconoclastic of them all: SoftBankâs Masayoshi Son.
In Gambling Man, the first Western biography of Son, the self-professed unicorn hunter, we go behind the scenes of the worldâs most monied halls of power in New York, Tokyo, Silicon Valley, Saudi Arabia, and beyond to see how Sonâs firm SoftBank has defied conventional wisdom and imposing odds to push global tech and commerce into the future.
From the dizzying highs of Uber, DoorDash, and Slack to the epic lows of WeWork and tech-infused dogwalking app Wag Son and SoftBank have been at the center of cutting-edge capitalismâs absolute peaks and valleys. In the process, Son, son of a pachinko kingpin who grew up in a slum in Japan, has been a hero, a villain, and even a meme-ified hero to the internet tech- and finance-bro set all at once.
Based on in-depth research and eye-opening interviews, Gambling Man is an unforgettable character study and alarming true story of twenty-first-century commerce that will stick with you long after you turn the final page.
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My conversation with investigative journalist Charles Piller about his recent book, Doctored.
The description below is from Amazon:
Nearly seven million Americans live with Alzheimerâs disease, a tragedy that is already projected to grow into a $1 trillion crisis by 2050. While families suffer and promises of pharmaceutical breakthroughs keep coming up short, investigative journalist Charles Pillerâs Doctored shows that weâve quite likely been walking the wrong path to finding a cure all alongâled astray by a cabal of self-interested researchers, government accomplices, and corporate greed.
Piller begins with a whistleblowerâVanderbilt professor Matthew Schragâwhose work exposed a massive scandal. Schrag found that a University of Minnesota lab led by a precocious young scientist and a Nobel Prizeârumored director delivered apparently falsified data at the heart of the leading hypothesis about the disease. Pillerâs revelations of Schragâs findings stunned the field and the public.
From there, based on years of investigative reporting, this âseminal account of deceit that will long be rememberedâ (Katherine Eban, author of Bottle of Lies and Vanity Fair special correspondent) exposes a vast network of deceit and its players, all the way up to the FDA. Piller uncovers evidence that hundreds of important Alzheimerâs research papers are based on false data. In the process, he reveals how even against a flood of money and influence, a determined cadre of scientific renegades have fought back to challenge the fieldâs institutional powers in service to science and the tens of thousands of patients who have been drawn into trials to test dubious drugs. It is a shocking tale with huge ramifications not only for Alzheimerâs disease, but for scientific research, funding, and oversight at large.
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Missing episodes?
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This conversation was recorded on February 14, 2025.
One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best Science Books of 2024, How to Kill an Asteroid is a gripping account of the "city-killer" asteroids that could threaten Earth and the race to build a planetary defense system.
There are approximately 25,000 âcity killerâ asteroids in near-Earth orbitâand most are yet to be found. Small enough to evade detection, they are capable of large-scale destruction, and represent our greatest cosmic threat. But in September 2022, against all odds, NASAâs Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a carefully selected city killer, altering the asteroidâs orbit and proving that we stand a chance against them.
In How to Kill an Asteroid, award-winning science journalist Robin George Andrewsâwho was at DART mission control when it happenedâreveals the development of the technology that made it possible, from spotting elusive asteroids and comets to figuring out their geologic defenses and orchestrating a deflection campaign. In a propulsive narrative that reads like a sci-fi thriller, Andrews tells the story of the planetary defense movement, and introduces the international team of scientists and engineers now working to protect Earth.
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For decades the most valuable technology company in Europe operated in the shadows. The chips manufactured by its machines, power our smartphones and AI assistants, make our coffee and drive our cars and even guide cruise missiles. In fact, roughly 90% of all chips worldwide are made with ASMLâs machines. In recent years, the Dutch manufacturing company has found itself in the spotlight, at the centre of a geopolitical storm between the United States, China and Europe.
In Focus â The ASML way, journalist Marc Hijink brings us a unique insider portrait of this global giant. Hijink not only details the companyâs meteoric rise from a quiet town in the Netherlands to a powerful, global monopoly position, he also makes accessible the unbelievably complex technology that has been the key to ASMLâs success. Its lithography machines, which spit out millions of chips around the clock, work to an accuracy of within a few atoms.
China is trying to copy the ASML technology while investing billions in its own chip-manufacturing programs to rival that of Taiwan. The US, in turn, seems to have the Dutch government on their side as they try and resuscitate their own chip manufacturing industry amid trade and cyber-warfare with China. Behind all the mind-blowing tech, Hijink discovers, ASML is a company fighting its own demons, scrambling to keep up with its success and an increasing number of security threats.
This is the intimate story of the people and culture behind a business now caught in a diplomatic struggle for global might.
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A conversation with Mike Maples Jr. about the book he co-authored, Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future.
Based on extensive research and real-world examples, this book upends accepted wisdom about how to achieve success when launching a startup or creating a new product.
The breakthrough concepts of Pattern Breakers come from the observations of Mike Maples Jr., a seasoned venture capitalist, who noticed something strange. Start-ups like Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft had achieved extraordinary success despite their disregard for âbest practices.â In contrast, other startups deemed highly promising often failed, even when they seemed to do everything right.
Seeking answers, Maples and coauthor Peter Ziebelman set out to discover the hidden forces that drive extraordinary start-up success. Pattern-breaking success, they reveal, demands a different mindset and actions to harness developments others miss or that may, at first, seem crazy.
Pattern Breakers is filled with firsthand storytelling about initial interactions with some of the most transformative start-ups of recent times. Maples and Ziebelman challenge us to rethink how to transcend the ordinary and achieve the extraordinary.
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A New York Times bestseller in 2017, An American Sickness reveals the inner workings of the US healthcare system. Elisabeth Rosenthal explores why US healthcare costs are so high, and suggests ways to improve the system. This episode was recorded in Mid-October, 2024.
From Penguin Random House:
Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industriesâthe hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturersâthat together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw.
The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
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Lawrence A. Cunningham is the Director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.
He currently serves as a Director for several publicly-traded companies: Markel Group (NYSE: MKL), Kelly Partners Group Holdings Limited (ASX: KPG), and Constellation Software (TSX: CSU), where he serves as Vice Chairman.
Before becoming a professor, Cunningham practiced corporate law with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where his practice areas included corporate governance, M&A, finance, and international. In 2018, Professor Cunningham received the B. Kenneth West Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).
A modern classic, The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America is the book Buffett autographs most and likes best. Its popularity and longevity over three decades attest to the widespread appetite for this definitive statement of Mr. Buffettâs thoughts thatâs uniquely comprehensive, non-repetitive, and digestible. New and experienced readers alike will gain an invaluable informal education by perusing this classic arrangement of Mr. Buffett's best writings.
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Special family episode this week featuring my father, David Rubenstein, on his new book, The Highest Calling.
From Simon and Schuster:
For years, bestselling author David M. Rubenstein has distilled the contours of American democracy through conversations with noted leaders and historians. In The Highest Calling, he offers an enlightening overview of arguably the single most important position in the world: the American presidency.
Blending history and anecdote, Rubenstein chronicles the journeys of the presidents who have defined America as it exists now, what they envision for its future, and their legacy on the world stage. Drawing from his own experience in the Carter administration, he engages in dialogues with our nationâs presidents and the historians who study them. Get exclusive access to fresh perspectives, including:
-Original interviews with most of the living US presidents
-Interviews with noted presidential historians like Annette Gordon-Reed, Ron Chernow, Candice Millard, and more
Through insightful analysis, Rubenstein captures our countryâs most prominent leaders, the political genius and frays of the presidential role, and the wisdom that emerges from it.
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Disclaimer: The content in this episode should not be considered financial or investment advice. Although this could change in the future, at the time of recording and releasing, the host did not own shares in any of the companies discussed.
In When the Heavens Went on Sale, Ashlee Vance illuminates our future and unveils the next big technology story of our time: welcome to the Wild West of aerospace engineering and its unprecedented impact on our lives.
With the launch of SpaceXâs Falcon 1 rocket in 2008, Silicon Valley began to realize that the universe itself was open for business. Now, Vance tells the remarkable, unfolding story of this frenzied intergalactic land grab by following four pioneering companiesâAstra, Firefly, Planet Labs, and Rocket Labâas they build new space systems and attempt to launch rockets and satellites into orbit by the thousands.
With the public fixated on the space tourism being driven by the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, these new, scrappy companies arrived with a different set of goals: to make rocket and satellite launches fast and cheap, thereby opening Earthâs lower orbit for business. Vance has had a front-row seat and singular access to this peculiar and unprecedented moment in history, and he chronicles it all in full color: the top-secret launch locations, communes, gun-toting bodyguards, drugs, espionage investigations, and multimillionaires guzzling booze to dull the pain as their fortunes disappear.
Through immersive and intimate reporting, When the Heavens Went on Sale reveals the spectacular chaos of the new business of space, and what happens when the idealistic, ambitious minds of Silicon Valley turn their unbridled vision toward the limitless expanse of the stars. This is the tale of technologyâs most pressing and controversial revolution, as told through fascinating characters chasing unimaginable stakes in the race to space.
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The consequences of climate changeârising waters, extreme weather, record temperaturesâare transforming our lives, as global warming accelerates more rapidly than scientists predicted even a few years ago. At the same time, the clean energy revolution is forging ahead faster than nearly anyone anticipated. As Tom Steyer sees it, these two trends together create a moment like the one America faced during World War II: on the one hand, an existential threat that demands our collective action; on the other, an opportunity to lead the world, protect the planet, and set the stage for a new generation of shared economic prosperity.
In 2012, Steyer walked away from the highly successful investment fund he founded to devote himself full time to climate issues, and heâs been on the front lines ever since. In this accessible book, aimed at everyone from college students to Wall Street investors, Steyer presents his blueprint for winning the climate fightâsharing his own story of becoming a âclimate person,â debunking the arguments made by fossil fuel companies, and showcasing the inspiring, innovative work of other climate leaders in the clean-energy transition. Capitalism, Steyer argues, can be the key to scaling climate progress, and all of us can play a part in stabilizing our planet. As green technology is fast becoming cleaner and cheaper, reshaping our planetâs futureâand our ownâhas never been more crucial or within our reach.
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Biology is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. Several aspects of the standard picture of how life worksâthe idea of the genome as a blueprint, of genes as instructions for building an organism, of proteins as precisely tailored molecular machines, of cells as entities with fixed identities, and moreâhave been exposed as incomplete, misleading, or wrong.
In How Life Works, Philip Ball explores the new biology, revealing life to be a far richer, more ingenious affair than we had guessed. Ball explains that there is no unique place to look for an answer to this question: life is a system of many levelsâgenes, proteins, cells, tissues, and body modules such as the immune system and the nervous systemâeach with its own rules and principles. How Life Works explains how these levels operate, interface, and work together (most of the time).
With this knowledge come new possibilities. Today we can redesign and reconfigure living systems, tissues, and organisms. We can reprogram cells, for instance, to carry out new tasks and grow into structures not seen in the natural world. As we discover the conditions that dictate the forms into which cells organize themselves, our ability to guide and select the outcomes becomes ever more extraordinary. Some researchers believe that ultimately we will be able to regenerate limbs and organs, and perhaps even create new life forms that evolution has never imagined.
Incorporating the latest research and insights, How Life Works is a sweeping journey into this new frontier of the life sciences, a realm that will reshape our understanding of life as we know it.
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A conversation with William Quinn about Boom and Bust, which he co-authored alongside John D. Turner. Published in 2020, Boom and Bust explores financial bubbles across a number of different markets, geographies, and time periods.
Why do stock and housing markets sometimes experience amazing booms followed by massive busts and why is this happening more and more frequently. In order to answer these questions, William Quinn and John D. Turner take us on a riveting ride through the history of financial bubbles, visiting, among other places, Paris and London in 1720, Latin America in the 1820s, Melbourne in the 1880s, New York in the 1920s, Tokyo in the 1980s, Silicon Valley in the 1990s and Shanghai in the 2000s. As they do so, they help us understand why bubbles happen. why some have catastrophic economic, social and political consequences whilst others have actually benefited society. They reveal that bubbles start when investors and speculators react to new technology or political initiatives, showing that our ability to predict future bubbles will ultimately come down to being able to predict these sparks.
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A conversation with Rob Wertheimer about the book he co-authored in 2020, Lessons from the Titans: What Companies in the New Economy Can Learn from the Great Industrial Giants to Drive Sustainable Success. The conversation focuses particularly on the chapters that Rob authored in which he analyzes Caterpillar, Stanley Black & Decker, and United Rentals.
In Lessons from the Titans, three top Wall Street analysts reveal enduring lessons in sustainable success from the great industrial titansâthe high-tech companies of their dayâto the disruptors that now dominate the economy. Before Silicon Valley disrupted the world with new technologies and business models, Americaâs industrial giants paved the way. Companies like General Electric, United Technologies, and Caterpillar were the Google and Amazon of their day, setting gold standards in innovation, growth, and profitability. Todayâs leaders can learn a great deal from their successes, as well as their missteps. In this essential guide, three veteran Wall Street analysts reveal timeless lessons from the titans of industryâand offer battle-tested survival tactics for an ever-changing world. Youâll learn:
how GE became the largest company on earthâonly for a culture of arrogance to set in motion the largest collapse in historyhow Boeing reassessed risks, raised profitsâand tragically lost its balancehow Danaher avoided the pitfalls of tremendous successâby continually reinventing itselfhow Honeywell experienced a near-fatal cultural breakdownâand executed a flawless turnaroundhow Caterpillar relied too much on forecasting, lost billionsâand rallied by recommitting to the basicsFilled with illuminating case studies and brilliant in-depth analysis, this invaluable book provides a multitude of insights that will help you weather market upheavals, adapt to disruptions, and optimize your resources to your best advantage. Youâll learn hard-won lessons in innovation, growth, resilience, and operational excellence, as well as the time-proven fundamentals of continuous improvement for lasting success. In the end, youâll have your own personal toolbox of useful takeaways from more than a centuryâs worth of data, experience, wisdom, and can-do spirit, courtesy of some of the greatest business enterprises of all time. This is how manufacturers survived the first disruptors of technologyâand how todayâs giants can survive and thrive during continuous cycles of disruption.
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A conversation with Katherine Blunt about her 2022 book, California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric ââ and what it means for Americaâs power grid. Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apartâunraveling a long history of deadly failures in which Pacific Gas and Electric endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure.
Beginning with PG&Eâs public reckoning after the Paradise fire, Blunt chronicles the evolution of PG&Eâs shareholder base, from innovators who built some of Californiaâs first long-distance power lines to aggressive investors keen on reaping dividends. Following key players through pivotal decisions and legal battles, California Burning reveals the forces that shaped the plight of PG&E: deregulation and market-gaming led by Enron Corp., an unyielding push for renewable energy, and a swift increase in wildfire risk throughout the West, while regulators and lawmakers pushed their own agendas.
California Burning is a deeply reported, character-driven narrative, the story of a disaster expanding into a much bigger exploration of accountability. Itâs an American tragedy that serves as a cautionary tale for utilities across the nationâespecially as climate change makes aging infrastructure more vulnerable, with potentially fatal consequences.
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A conversation with author Walter Isaacson about his 2021 book, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returned with a âcompellingâ (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.
When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didnât become scientists, she decided she would.
Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the bookâs author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his codiscovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions.
