Think with Lucie

This episode is a very insightful and relevant conversation with Adam Sieff covering the importance of the First Amendment, the influence of special interests on our governance system and what we can do to mitigate it, and the role of third parties in our political system.

Adam is a media and constitutional litigator with Davis Wright Tremaine where he focuses on emerging issues involving online speech regulation. He also represents internet, media, and technology clients in First Amendment, Section 230, copyright, trademark, antitrust, and related constitutional litigation and appeals, including challenges to state and federal laws.

He is also the Chair of the Hollywood chapter of Govern for California, a nonprofit advocating for the public’s interest in the California State Legislature.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:17 Reasons for staying in California

02:32 How to fix California housing crisis

07:53 Govern for California work

13:24 Reaching compromise and coalition building

19:59 The role of ballot initiatives in our democracy

24:03 Why republicans don’t have any voice in California

26:20 Forbearance and mutual tolerance

29:10 Parliamentary democracy and unwritten political norms

33:53 Culture of civic virtue and mandatory national service

37:35 Obtaining funding for Govern for California and political philanthropy

40:20 Campaign finance rulings and reforms

56:04 First Amendment and online speech

01:04:21 Online safety laws

01:05:55 Role of AI in our governance system

Guest links:

Adam's profile: https://www.dwt.com/people/s/sieff-adam

Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamssieff?lang=en

Govern for California: https://www.governforcalifornia.org

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Episode 73 is a conversation with Andrew Linares, Volunteer Manager at the Midnight Mission, a non-profit organization which helps homeless individuals in Southern California. With only five executive managers throughout its 100-year history, it is known to be the most efficient direct service operation in the country.

Chapters:

0:00 Meals for the homeless

01:57 What differentiates Midnight Mission

04:24 How does the shelter operate

06:02 Housing-first approach and SRO (single room occupancy)

07:26 Nonprofit resource allocation - how do they spend money?

09:35 Midnight mission services

12:40 Program for drug addicts-12-steps and personal autonomy

18:22 What to do about street camping

20:17 How to deal with homelessness on a policy level

26:50 Harm reduction policies

28:45 Nonsensical government funding programs

33:39 Jobs for homeless people

36:04 What is the government doing wrong and how they can improve

38:46 Prop47 and AB109

40:46 History of Midnight Mission and homelessness

44:03 Hiring previously homeless people

45:45 Collaboration with rehabs and evaluation of results

50:00 Advice to the government

Guest links:

Andrew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreslinares2015

Midnight Mission website: https://www.midnightmission.org

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

I drove down to San Diego to speak with my Twitter friend Ashley Luna. She is a separated mom of two who wishes political leaders would listen more to women’s voices and parental concerns. Her top legislative issues are education reform/school choice, defending women’s female spaces, family court reform, domestic abuse awareness, late term elective abortion, affordable access to childcare and homeownership, and the 32 hour work week.

We had a super insightful conversation about the above topics that I'm sure all of you will find interesting.

0:00 Why live in San Diego

0:50 How to choose a school for your kids

03:28 Kids are not being taught how to read and write

09:30 Common Core Math Standards

14:21 Parents as full-time teachers

18:18 Critical race theory

21:56 School choice

30:37 Grade inflation and school accountability

31:50 Schools ban playing for safety reasons

37:51 Homeschooling and where to live with kids

40:43 Domestic abuse, divorce, co-parenting

47:43 Child support

51:29 Family courts, child support hearing, custody

01:01:39 Marital separation agreement, mortgage, foreclosure

01:11:21 The power of speaking up

Guest links:

Ashley's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealAshleyLuna

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

This episode is a conversation with a California farmer and small business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, about his grievances and ways to improve California.

Chapters:

0:00 The value of fresh produce

02:47 California laws against businesses (mental health leave)

05:35 How overtime law harms workers and small businesses

08:33 How trucking policy aimed to curb climate change does more harm than good

20:04 Tyrannical government

22:53 How to fix California (farmer’s perspective)

28:30 COVID policies

31:48 Silicon Valley supporting grifters, difference between democrats and republicans

34:10 Immigration and border control

41:06 Solution to homelessness

57:47 Moving to Austin, Texas

01:00:02 Argument against increasing minimum wage

01:05:32 Water issues in California

01:10:14 Population increase and urbanisation

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

This podcast episode is a conversation with Bianca Blomquist, California Policy Director & Northern California Outreach Director at Small Business Majority, a national small business organisation that empowers America's diverse entrepreneurs to build a thriving and equitable economy.

We discussed the grievances of small businesses in California and what we can do to fix it.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:27 What is causing the outflow of small businesses from California?

05:09 Types of small business

07:00 Reasons for business closure during the pandemic

10:39 Business organisations working with small business owners

12:54 Are business owners scared to speak up?

15:21 Predatory lending practices

21:20 Worker benefits - paid family leave, mental health leave, CFRA

29:05 How to deal with increased bureaucracy? What are small business development centers?

33:57 Are climate policies more harmful than helpful?

36:36 How does increased minimum wage hurt small businesses?

40:57 The problem of rising health insurance costs for small businesses

44:05 Corporate tax rate cuts

47:03 The FAST Act

51:48 Regulation and anti-trust laws

Guest links:

Bianca's profile: https://smallbusinessmajority.org/team/bianca-blomquist

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

This is the full Interview with Lucian Tudor, a California-based restaurant owner who's had enough of the unresponsiveness of the elected officials to his concerns. His restaurant in Hollywood is in the red because of increased minimum wage ($19.08) coupled with paid time off for his part-time employees. Additionally, his restaurants have been broken into and vandalised many times. Instead of helping him, the City Council started bullying him. He's now looking to sell and move to a different state. Hear his grievances below.

Please go to La Boheme in WEHO or 1212 in Santa Monica to support his business.

Chapters:

0:00 Legalised corruption

05:11 How is crime and homelessness affecting restaurants

07:17 Increased minimum wage drives business out of California

09:08 Defunding the police

10:45 Senate Bill 553 prohibiting employees from fighting against criminals

17:06 How the middle class became poor

18:22 Are city council town halls useful?

21:10 Moving to business-friendly states

22:57 City council bullying

24:25 Does the American Dream still exist?

26:06 Value of free speech

27:51 Importance of voting and buying votes

Guest links:

Lucian's profile: https://globaldiningca.com/santa-monica-global-dining-inc-of-california-meet-team

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Episode 67 is part of “Problems in California” series featuring David Nahai. David is an Iranian-American environmental attorney, political activist, and former head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

David is also former Chairman of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (“Regional Water Board”), and former Senior Advisor to the Clinton Climate Initiative. In January 2021, David was reappointed to the Regional Board by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:01 What brought David into public service

05:16 Why should California be the leader in tackling climate change

07:57 How should California tackle climate change effectively

10:34 Message to people working in the oil and gas industry

12:28 Universal Basic Income

17:27 Government retraining programs

18:25 Subsidies to companies in the renewable energy industry

21:10 LA Department of Water and Power and Energy Prices

28:07 Recycling waste water

33:01 Capturing rainfall water and cleaning up aquifers

38:56 City ordinances to prevent people from excessively watering their lawn

44:19 Climate policies harming farmers and truckers

48:33 Nuclear energy

51:38 Public-private partnerships and investments in clean tech

53:03 Wildfires and water usage

54:21 Political activism

Guest links:

David's website: https://www.davidnahai.com

LA Incubator: https://laincubator.org/team/david-nahai/

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Episode 65 is part of new series called “Common Sense in California” featuring Jared Klickstein, a former homeless man and drug addict who lived on LA’s notorious Skid Row.

Jared is an amazing writer and his book "Crooked Smile" will be out in 2024.

You can follow him on Twitter and Substack (links below).

In this episode, we discussed Jared’s background, the root causes of homelessness, drug addiction and crime, and what we can do on the local and state level to solve these problems.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

02:28 Jared’s story

06:43 Al Gore movie and the “hopelessness” propaganda

10:15 Getting addicted to heroin

16:39 How heroin deletes your identity

19:24 Why private rehabs don’t work and what living there is like

27:31 Why nonprofit rehabs are the real deal

30:37 How California incentivises homelessness

33:32 We need politicians with common sense

34:17 What is it like living on Skid Row in LA

37:06 Meth versus heroin

42:44 Shoplifting and getting arrested

46:39 How Proposition 47 changed sentencing guidelines

48:47 Current state of police

50:37 Why are DAs so lenient and is George Soros involved?

55:57 Should we decriminalise or legalise drugs?

57:00 Is China feeding us fentanyl?

01:02:19 What drugs do to your body

01:07:32 Arrest and 6 month jail sentence experience

01:17:21 Getting into non-profit rehab

01:20:31 Sober living

01:27:02 Corruption in nonprofits

01:29:55 Job training in rehab

01:32:13 Does mental health illness precede drug addiction and homelessness?

01:33:57 Message to an 18 year old

01:38:46 God, religion and hope

01:43:27 Jared for City Council

01:44:24 Gift cards for sober homeless people

01:45:31 California homelessness budget and harm reduction nonprofits

01:50:19 Helping sober homeless people

01:54:02 Supervised consumption sites

1:57:02 Bill AB109 changing sentencing guidelines and drug court

02:01:51 Can Elon Musk save California?

Jared's links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaredKlickstein

Substack: https://t.co/4zAEaP3oVd

Book: Crooked Smile (Out in 2024)

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Common Sense Party: https://act.cacommonsense.org

Update your voter registration: https://act.cacommonsense.org/register

Episode 64 is a conversation with Salar Shahini, the founder of SweatPals, a platform for fitness and wellness events, communities and friends.

Salar grew up in Iran, started a successful deep tech company in the US at age 23, lived in Istanbul for a while, and currently lives in Austin while leading an amazing team of SweatPals.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:40 Background (From Iran to the US)

5:21 What is SweatPals

11:19 Monetisation

15:40 Brand partnerships

21:17 Pickleball

23:54 Creator program

28:00 Is Austin good for startups

30:36 Competition

33:11 Marketing

38:32 Biggest failures and cold start problem

44:22 Idea validation

45:44 Hiring and social media strategy

54:08 Pitching and fundraising and KPIs

01:01:29 Team roles, leadership and hiring

01:08:58 Advice for startup founders

01:13:22 Where to find Salar and Sweatpals

Guest Links:

Website: https://sweatpalscommunities.com

Salar's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salarshahini/

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/sweatpalsapp/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SweatPals

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Episode 62 is a conversation with Adir Oren, the founder of Gigaroo, a financial stability provider for Gen Z. Adir has over 20 years of experience as business & technology leader, having founded 2 companies before Gigaroo, and his passion is to harness technology for the development of business solutions in B2B and B2C.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:33 From Israel to Austin

02:05 What is Gigaroo

09:03 Competition

10:25 Creating partnerships

14:30 Building matching algorithm

19:36 Sales process

21:08 Outreach to Gen Z

25:10 Failures and lessons learned

29:57 How to find a cofounder and validate an idea

42:14 How to choose the right technology

43:51 Hiring

52:38 Fundraising - how to pitch and pick the right investor

01:00:34 Monetization and how to get to Series A

01:02:09 Advice for startup founders

01:05:32 How to find Adir and Gigaroo

Guest Links:

Gigaroo's website: https://gigarooapp.com

Adir's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adir-oren/

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Episode 61 is a conversation between Yaron Brook and Andres Guilarte who both experienced socialism firsthand and will share their opinion on the ideology and the implementation thereof, how their perspective has shifted and what Americans can learn from history and presence of other countries.

Yaron is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, writer and activist. He is an objectivist and the current chairman of the board at the Ayn Rand Institute. His parents were Jewish socialists who moved to Israel from South Africa. When he was sixteen, a friend lent him a copy of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, leading him to abandon socialism and to embrace objectivism.

Andres is a political activist for the freedom of Venezuela. He spent his childhood supporting the socialist ideology before he realized this system caused widespread starvation, blanketed the nation in blackouts, and silenced and jailed those who dared to speak out and criticize the government.

Andrés had to leave his life in Venezuela and is now living in the United States.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:17 Childhood idea of socialism and comparison to reality

13:09 Chavez’s rise to power and people’s sentiment

14:45 Can socialism and free speech coexist?

16:28 Is socialism immoral?

21:59 Why does socialism appeal to young Americans? Can it be altruistic?

30:56 Can we invent a better governance system?

33:15 How can socialism in Venezuela collapse?

37:59 Mental health pandemic-are people on average happier now than in the Soviet Union?

42:56 Is Hollywood culture destroying our mental health?

45:52 How do we solve climate change if we’re all selfish? Is Christianity responsible for alarmism?

52:42 Effective altruism-good or bad? Is Elon Musk acting out of selfishness?

56:15 Are charities effective resource allocators?

58:53 Effect of Foreign aid to Israel

59:45 US debt

01:04:40 How can we reinstate a moral productive society?

01:07:22 Book recommendation

01:08:08 AI-should we be afraid?

01:13:29 Tolerance of dissent

01:15:58 Yoram Hazony and the nationalism debate, meaning of freedom

Guest Links:

Yaron's Profile: https://ari.aynrand.org/experts/yaron-brook/

Yaron Brook Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCabMx-URCjr2toe9wOE3Y-Q

Andres's Profile: https://tfas.org/staff/andres-guilarte/

Andres's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresguilarte/

Yaron's Twitter: https://twitter.com/yaronbrook

Andres's Twitter: https://twitter.com/andres7guilarte

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Episode 60 is a discussion on Alternative Voting Methods, including Ranked Choice Voting, with Harriet Wasserstrum and James Quintero.

Harriet is the Chair of Ranked Choice Voting for Texas and James is the Director of the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, one of America's premier conservative think tanks and author of “The Case Against Ranked-Choice Voting”.

Links:

The Case Against RCV by James Quintero: https://www.texaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-03-GftP-Case-Against-RankChoice-Voting-Quintero.pdf

James Quintero Profile: https://www.texaspolicy.com/about/staff/james-quintero/

James Quintero Twitter: https://twitter.com/JamesQuinteroTX

Harriet's Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarrietforRcv

RCV for Texas: https://www.rcvfortexas.org

More info on RCV: https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:39 Current voting system overview

07:03 How does RCV work

10:22 Downsides of RCV-complexity

16:27 What type of elections should RCV be used in?

21:44 Election result delays

24:19 Alaska RCV example

25:56 Updates on RCV in Texas

32:31 Benefits of RCV

42:21 Ballot exhaustion and one person one vote argument

46:05 Other ways to improve the voting system

52:27 How concerned should we be about election fraud?

Episode 58 features Max Dordevic, a former biotech researcher with numerous publications, who has previously worked in pharma and venture capital. He is currently the co-founder of NeuroX1, a startup founded in 2021, working to create the next generation of therapeutics for neurological disease by leveraging the latest advancements in generative chemistry, physics, and machine learning.

Links:

NeuroX1 Website: https://www.neurox1.com

Max's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxdordevic/

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:40 What is NeuroX1

02:15 Cause and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s

06:55 Parkinson’s implant and NeuroX1 application

11:34 What is pain

16:25 Why is cancer easier to treat than Alzheimer’s

20:01 Drug development process from pharma perspective

24:56 Negotiating with pharma companies

34:02 Ozempic and weight loss drugs

40:01 Mouse clinical trials + FDA clearance

51:03 What happens after clinical trials

55:33 Drug discovery software

59:53 Biotech funding and hiring

01:08:08 Role of advisors in a startup

01:21:31 General advice for founders

01:30:10 Where to find Max and NeuroX1

The following episode features Ruben Arias, the founder of Beereaders, a digital platform which empowers Spanish-speaking K-12 students to achieve their maximum potential by improving their Spanish communication skills.

Ruben is from Chile and has been an edtech entrepreneur for over 12 years. After earning his degree in engineering, he chose to focus on education as a way of helping to drive change for low income students. To date, Ruben has created edtech products that have served over half a million K-12 Spanish-speaking students in Latin America and the United States.

Links:

Ruben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rariasa

Beereaders website: https://www.beereaders.com

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:57 Ruben’s upbringing and education in Chile

08:34 Ruben’s emigration to the US

10:00 First startup and fundraising failure

13:53 Meeting cofounder

16:19 Beereaders and illiteracy problem

23:07 Innovation in US education system

29:35 Engaging parents in education

30:49 Why do kids not like reading?

33:27 Combining education with social media

35:33 Why is reading important

37:06 Chat GPT and impact on our cognitive abilities

42:11 Content on Beereaders

45:55 Business model, licensing

53:28 Best education system

57:44 Hiring

01:04:18 Fundraising and pitching advice

01:15:30 Competitors

01:16:51 General advice to startup founders

01:18:28 Book recommendations

01:20:16 Where to find Ruben

The following is a conversation between Angela McArdle and Mark Pomar on US Foreign Policy including Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan, Israel and Palestine, international lying, foreign aid and corruption.

Angela is an American politician from Texas and California. She is the Chair of the Libertarian National Committee which manages the Libertarian Party. Angela has worked in litigation for over 12 years, focusing on property rights, constitutional law and business litigation.

Mark is a Senior National Security Fellow at the Clemens Centre of University of Texas at Austin. Mark was previously the Assistant Director of the Russian Service at Radio Free Europe, Director of the USSR Division at the Voice of America, and Executive Director of the Board for International Broadcasting. Most recently, Mark published a book about international broadcasting called “Cold War Radio”.

Links:

Angela's website: https://angelamcardle.com

Libertarian Party: https://www.lp.org

Mark's profile: https://www.clementscenter.org/people/item/1461-mark-pomar

Mark's book: https://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Radio-Russian-Broadcasts/dp/1640125140

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:59 Our positions on war

03:13 Russia and Ukraine situation

12:24 Russian counterrevolution + Russian military strategy

15:44 Nuclear war + diplomacy

17:54 NATO and EU membership

26:27 Military draft policy and coercion

33:22 Should we keep financing Ukraine?

37:42 China-Taiwan history and current situation

44:08 Chinese strategy and military

50:51 Freedom in China

53:15 Chinese plan to overtake Taiwan and Turkey presidential elections

56:37 Free markets and prosperity

01:06:29 Complete decoupling from China

01:13:54 Corruption and foreign aid

01:20:13 What should we pay more attention to

01:23:58 International and strategic lying

Episode 55 is a special conversation between Tom Sunic and Daryl Davis about race, religion, the founding of America and many other topics.

Tom is a Croatian-American writer and former professor. His views are often cited as part of the European New Right. Tom is also a Director of the American Freedom Party which promotes white nationalism and has a strong anti-immigration stance. His latest book is called "Homo Americanus: Child of the Postmodern Age" which describes the origins and dynamics of America's founding myths. Tom is a naturalised United States citizen.

Daryl is an American R&B and blues musician and activist. As an African American, he has engaged with members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and managed to convince a couple hundred Klansmen to leave and denounce the KKK. As a race relations expert, Daryl has authored a book called “Klan-Destine Relationships” and a documentary “Accidental Courtesy”.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:22 Tom’s story that shaped his worldview

04:18 Interracial marriages

08:49 White nationalism and evolution of KKK

14:30 Hollywood Nazis

18:48 Expatriation of black people to Africa and self-segregation

26:57 Disagreement on Christianity

34:21 Does love come before race?

39:54 Is race a social construct? Is there only one race?

44:52 Population trends and the consequences, education

47:49 Changing minds and politics

57:05 Human nature and KKK

Links:

Tom's website: https://www.tomsunic.com

Daryl's website: https://www.daryldavis.com

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Episode 54 is part of Founder Series with Chris Somogyi, the founder of Evercase, a startup providing solutions for cold chain preservation in food and medicine. Their device, once commercially available, will have a major impact on food waste reduction and on increasing shelf life of fresh produce, meets and seafood, flowers and medical goods.

Links:

Evercase website: https://evercase.com

Chris's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-somogyi-7944ab9/

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:35 SXSW Pitch Competition

01:54 Global food waste problem

08:05 Genetic modification of produce

12:42 Evercase Box Solution

22:37 Evercase use cases+customisation

27:15 Cost savings

29:28 Other companies solving food waste

34:27 Chris’s other startups and lessons learned

40:10 Do vegetarians/vegans have lower negative impact on climate?

43:57 Going from large corps into startups

47:35 Pricing strategy

49:11 Is focus important?

51:19 Partnerships

53:29 Team building

01:00:40 Timeline and advice

Episode 53 is a part of Founder Series with George Wojciechowski, the founder of Manifest, a sustainable e-commerce fulfilment company. Previously, George was the founder of Shipbob and worked in the trading division at Goldman Sachs.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:34 SXSW Pitching Contest

03:22 How to break into logistics

06:52 George’s first startup Shipbob

11:44 How Manifest got started

17:21 What does ‘sustainable’ mean

19:04 Why would merchants care about sustainability?

22:35 How companies mislead customers

28:33 B-corps

30:33 ESG reporting

33:14 Consumer sustainability awareness

40:03 Sustainable warehouses

44:07 How to measure climate impact

48:08 Is the climate change crisis used to control the people?

54:34 How to live a sustainable life

55:54 Fundraising

01:02:25 Pricing

01:05:13 Advice to aspiring startup founders

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Guest links:

George's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-wojciechowski-870b814/

Manifest website: https://manifest.eco

George's Twitter: https://twitter.com/WojskiG

Episode 52 is part of the Different Perspective series and today’s topic is “Should we worry about declining birth rates?”

Darrell Bricker and Sarah Harper will discuss the recent population trends, what it means for our planet and what we can do to prevent population collapse.

Darrell is the current Global CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, a polling, research, marketing, and analysis company. Prior to joining Ipsos, Darrell was the Director of Public Opinion Research in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Carleton University. He is the coauthor of 7 books including 'Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline'.

Sarah is the Clore Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford, a Fellow at University College, and a Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. She currently directs the Oxford Programme on Fertility, Education and Environment. Her current research on demographic change addresses two broad questions: the impact of falling fertility and increasing life expectancy, and the interaction of population change with the environment.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:11 Let’s get the facts straight

08:08 Disagreement on trends in Africa

16:13 Are declining birth rates a natural progression of human civilisation?

20:17 China’s 3 child policy

23:10 Causes of lower birth rates

33:03 Child-free environmentalists

35:32 Changing structure of our population

38:20 Book recommendations

39:09 Governmental solutions

46:40 Variable retirement age

53:49 Businesses should focus on older people

56:30 Social security spending/economic challenges

01:00:41 Population shift affecting elections

01:10:16 Which industries will be affected by this population shift?

01:17:50 Have we become too comfortable?

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Guest Links:

Darrell's Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Bricker

Darrell's Profile: https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/darrell-bricker-10019

Darrell's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Planet-Global-Population-Decline/dp/1984823213

Darrell's Twitter: https://twitter.com/darrellbricker?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Sarah's Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Harper

Sarah's Profile: https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/people/view/1/

Sarah's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Population-Change-Will-Transform-World/dp/0198784090

Sarah's Twitter: https://twitter.com/profsarahharper?lang=en

Episode 51 is a conversation with Bill Ottman, the cofounder and CEO of Minds, the open- source distributed community-owned social network with 6M+ users focused on censorship resistance, global dialogue, privacy, and creator monetization with both traditional payments and cryptocurrency.

He is also the coauthor of the Censorship Effect, which is an analysis of the consequences of social media censorship and a proposal for an alternative moderation model.

He has been interviewed three times on the Joe Rogan Experience in addition to NPR, Tucker Carlson Tonight, WIRED, TechCrunch, WSJ, NYTimes, Reuters and many others.

Links:

Minds: https://www.minds.com

Bill's Joe Rogan Episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/62Dk5MWyjBU0bClFMqG732

Minds Fundraising: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/minds

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:52 Is free speech in peril?

03:20 How to make people more tolerant online

11:13 Lawsuit against California Bill requiring moderation of hate speech/misinformation

18:03 Should we amend Section 230

21:31 Minds dealing with the government

27:32 Do people care about privacy?

31:14 What did the Twitter code reveal?

39:18 How does Minds platform work?

43:55 Is Elon Musk a free speech absolutist?

46:20 Minds user experience + features

50:54 How to make money on Minds

55:50 Incentivising more constructive discourse

01:08:05 Omegle video chat app, Quora, OK Cupid, Rumble

01:18:48 Building social networks is hard

01:22:27 Sign up at minds.com

The following is a conversation on abortion featuring Mayra Flores and Ben Bayer.

Mayra is an American politician who represented Texas's 34th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2022 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, she is the first female Mexican-born member of the House. Before her congressional campaign, she worked as a respiratory therapist and is a border patrol wife and a mother of 4.

Mayra supports abortion bans.

Ben is a fellow and the director of content at the Ayn Rand Institute . He teaches in the Objectivist academic centre and writes for the New Ideal journal. His writing focuses primarily on the application of philosophy to contemporary cultural and political controversies. Most recently, he authored a book on abortion called “Why the right to abortion is sacrosanct”.

Ben supports the right to choose.

Links:

Ayn Rand Institute: https://aynrand.org

Ben's book: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Right-Abortion-Sacrosanct-Bayer/dp/B0B1C12SWZ

Mayra: https://www.congress.gov/member/mayra-flores/F000473

Mayra's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MayraFlores2022

Ben's Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBayer

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

01:06 Abortion pill ruling

08:54 Early stage abortion

13:42 Roe v Wade

19:45 Individual Rights argument

25:16 Ben’s change of mind on abortion

28:24 Mayra’s story

37:03 Having children

44:26 Studies on mental health after abortion

49:31 Only women can have children

51:49 Male contraception

54:18 Individual responsibility

57:17 Exception for rape/incest and health

01:07:05 Mayra’s recommendation to Ben

01:09:45 What society tells us to do

01:15:32 Incentivising women to have kids

01:18:41 Mental health and postpartum depression

01:26:39 Choice is important

01:29:40 Government/employer support for parents

01:34:08 How to have civil discussions

The following is a conversation with Cooper Galvin, the founder of Endless Health, a startup that offers full loop health support for cardiac and metabolic health. Cooper has a PhD in Biophysics from Stanford Medical School and Master's in Biomedical Engineering from Stanford Engineering School and was previously the founder of Future Advancers of Science and Technology, an organization connecting STEAM professionals with high school students to tackle big problems and create amazing projects. He also briefly worked at McKinsey as a consultant on science projects.

We discussed Cooper's background and previous work experience, how he met his life partner and cofounder, his first failed NFT project, how to diagnose diseases from menstrual blood and stool, how to measure cardiovascular health, the incentives of the US healthcare system and what one can do to improve their heart health.

Links:

Endless Health website: https://www.endless.health

Cooper's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cooper-galvin-3a723b59/

Think with Lucie links:

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:54 Cooper’s background from Alaska to California to Texas

06:25 FAST science mentorship program

12:35 Working for McKinsey

18:06 Meeting life partner and cofounder Jiabao Li

24:07 Founding Endless Health

27:41 First failure + NFTs

33:55 Diagnosing disease from menstrual blood and stool

40:06 How Endless Health works

46:38 How to measure cardiovascular health

48:29 Apo B biomarker vs LDL cholesterol

52:25 The incentives of US healthcare industry

53:42 How to lower your Apo B levels and become healthier

58:44 Is coffee good for your heart health?

01:00:16 Is red meat a carcinogen?

01:04:55 What type of exercise is best for you?

01:10:43 IP of Endless Health + AI

01:13:51 Anxiety or heart attack? What symptoms to look out for?

01:19:41 Heartflow and 3D heart scan

01:22:47 Pivoting+build product people want

01:30:41 Pricing and b2b vs b2c

01:34:03 Competition

The following episode is part of Different Perspectives series with Marissa Reeder and Stephanie Wells and will focus on the benefits and drawbacks of carnivore and vegan diets. We’ll talk about the different types of fats, proteins and sugars, and their effects on our body, misinformation surrounding health, and how we can increase the quality of our life through healthy eating.

Marissa is a Licensed Nutritionist both nationally (CNS) and in the State of Minnesota (LN) and in addition to seeing clients, she studies and writes about alternative medicine, nutrition science, and carnivore and animal-based ways-of-eating.

Stephanie is a vegan registered dietitian in Texas with a strong passion for helping vegans eat healthfully. She’s been vegan since 2014 and while she was initially drawn to a vegan diet for its health benefits, she has also come to appreciate the benefits it has for animal welfare and the environment.

Links:

Stephanie's website: https://www.thymetogovegannutritionservices.com

Marissa's website: https://thecarnivorenutritionist.com/about-1

https://www.youtube.com/@thinkwithlucie

https://twitter.com/thinkwithlucie

https://www.instagram.com/thinkwithlucie

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:57 Defining the carnivore and vegan diet

5:37 Non-toxic plant based foods

6:58 Are seeds and seed oils harmful?

15:06 Evolution of our diet

16:53 The perfect vegan diet

19:00 What type of milk is best for you?

24:20 Marissa’s journey from vegetarian to vegan to carnivore eater

30:08 Stephanie’s journey

34:21 Mediterranean diet

37:07 Is meat a carcinogen? Is fiber bad for you?

44:00 Source of protein for vegans

49:44 Does soy negatively affect your hormone levels?

51:41 Blue Zones and misleading research

01:01:49 Misinformation and the influence of funding on research

01:11:04 Chronic and autoimmune disease

01:20:39 Diagnosis and healing

01:27:07 Insulin resistance

01:29:17 Different perspectives on sugar

01:37:54 Vitamins/supplements

01:49:25 Climate change and animal welfare argument

02:02:48 End

Episode 47 is a special one with my friends Emanuel Lissek and Aaron Foote. We covered lots of topics that Emanuel and Aaron disagree on from politics including the Jan 6th events and COVID vaccinations and mandates to mental health, free speech, transgenderism, AI, population collapse, veganism and many more.

Emanuel and Aaron met while pursuing their PhD in physics at UT Austin.

Emanuel is currently a Sales Director at Frich and Aaron is the Director of Technology Development at BioPact.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-foote-ph-d-76b0803a/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emanuel-n-lissek/

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:11 TikTok story

01:17 SVB story

08:35 Introduction Emanuel

13:43 Introduction Aaron

15:55 Disagreement about pursuit of truth

18:34 Veganism

27:03 COVID vaccinations controversy

46:57 US constitution, civil rights, democracy, Roman empire and tyrannical government

57:54 AI-regulation, risks, potential, attention span, Chat GPT

01:01:20 News, mainstream media, Twitter, echo chamber, constructive discussions, public intellectuals

01:07:22 Jan 6-new evidence, misinformation, Black Lives Matter, police

01:17:15 Political spectrum, the role of the police, gun crime

1:25:19 Cancel culture, BLM, donations, black population, affirmative action

1:35:03 Legacy college admissions

1:37:44 Purpose of companies, DEI, meritocracy, peer reviews, gender equality in research

1:53:08 China, gerontocracy, diversity

1:56:33 Peer reviews, research publishing process, AI and Peter Boghossian

2:11:56 Family, children, population collapse, fertility, CRISPR gene editing

2:19:30 Why do people not want children and how do we solve it

2:29:32 Hypergamy

The following is a Different Perspectives discussion with Daniel Samet and John Gleb.

Daniel is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of Texas Austin. Daniel previously worked for Senator Tom Cotton, the Atlantic Council, and the National Endowment for Democracy and is currently a Rumsfeld Foundation Graduate Fellow.

John is also a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s currently a predoctoral fellow at the Clements Center for National Security and an associate editor of Not Even Past.

Both John and Dan’s research focuses on the general American foreign relations. John and Dan disagree on the interpretation of the current relationship between the US and China and also differ in their suggested approaches to reducing the threat of war in the Pacific.

Links:

Daniel Samet:

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/gradstudents/djs4897

https://www.clementscenter.org/people/student-fellows/graduate-fellows/item/1986-daniel-samet

John Gleb:

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/gradstudents/jag22488

http://notevenpast.org/author/jag22488/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/02/22/anti-asian-bigotry-is-behind-texas-land-bill/

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:55 Historical context of US-China relations

8:45 One China Policy and perceptions of our adversaries

13:37 US foreign policy towards China/Taiwan in 1950-60s

16:46 How Kissinger leveraged friction between China and USSR to build US-China ties

20:55 Why does the US want to spread democracy everywhere? 

29:24 Disagreement on the Cold War analogy

30:01 COVID and the Lab leak theory

32:22 Cuban missile crisis

34:26 Is militarism incompatible with American democracy?

49:31 What’s a better outcome than a Cold War? What’s the alternative?

54:06 Texas bill banning Chinese ownership of land

59:47 Stats and cause of anti-Asian hate crime

1:13:30 Racial prejudice and affirmative action

1:15:52 Economic argument and trade war with China. What should we do?

1:19:23 The US chips act

1:21:31 What policy instruments should we use to decouple from China?

1:24:29 Why does Dan advocate for complete decoupling from China?

1:30:10 Chinese world domination

1:34:16 Chinese threat- nukes and espionage

1:42:51 Importance of values and norms and US foreign policy changing 

1:47:52 How does the Ukraine war affect US-China relationship?

1:56:37 Likelihood of hot war with China

In this Different Perspectives episode, I get to speak with Noah Smith and Mark Krikorian about immigration. 

Noah is an American blogger, journalist, and commentator on economics and current events. He obtained his doctorate in Economics from the University of Michigan and currently writes for his own Substack called Noahpinion.

Mark has been the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think-tank in Washington, D. C., since 1995. Mark is also a regular contributor to the conservative publication National Review, and is a regular participant at National Review: The Corner.

Links:

Noahpinion Substack: https://noahpinion.substack.com

Noahpinion Twitter: https://twitter.com/Noahpinion

Center for Immigration Studies: https://cis.org/Krikorian

Mark's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkSKrikorian

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

01:51 Historical perspective on immigration

06:15 Too much of a good thing is too much

08:27 Work automation 

09:10 ‘Who’s going to support grandma’ + population collapse argument

14:02 Mark defends himself against gish gallop

16:29 Does large scale immigration suppress native born fertility rate?

21:36 Immigration waves

26:11 Comparing immigration to sex

28:15 Noah singing HAIR

29:04 Mark reconnects and suggests 60% immigration drop

30:44 What matters? Immigration stock or flow?

38:30 Immigration from China-good or bad?

51:30 High skilled immigration and tech talent

58:32 Why immigration doesn’t reduce wages

1:05:40 Labor force participation rate and population collapse

1:14:51 Are immigrants sending too much money abroad?

1:17:44 Noah’s anti-immigration argument-housing 

1:21:10 Illegal immigration + southern border + Bush policies

1:32:48 Asylum seekers

1:36:02 Final message to Americans

This episode features Albena Azmanova and James Galbraith in a conversation about capitalism and our path forward.

Albena was born in Bulgaria and became a dissident under the communist regime. Currently, she is a Professor of Social and Political Science at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies.

Her latest book, Capitalism on Edge-How fighting precarity can achieve radical change without crisis or utopia, is the main topic of our discussion.

James Galbraith is an American economist, a self-described dissident under the capitalist regime and a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and at the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Senior Scholar with the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and part of the executive committee of the World Economics Association.

Although Albena and James share the perspective that our current state of capitalism is unsustainable, they differ in their proposed approaches to change the system.

Links:

Albena's website: https://www.azmanova.com

Albena's book: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/capitalism-on-edge/9780231195379

James's profile: https://lbj.utexas.edu/galbraith-james-k

James's Review of Albena's book: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/polir-news/2020/08/28/capitalism-on-edge-by-dr-albena-azmanova-book-review-by-james-k-galbraith/

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

1:15 Dominant feature of modern capitalism

7:52 Evolution of capitalism including welfare state

17:41 Why has the welfare state disappeared

27:28 How could we have avoided the Great Financial Crisis of 2008

30:20 Unemployment rate and job security

38:22 Should the banks have been nationalised following the Great Financial Crisis?

49:54 How to measure inequality and is inequality a concern

53:13 Should we shift our attention from inequality to precarity

01:03:15 Does social and economic precarity lead to rise in populism and how do we solve it

01:07:54 Climate vs social justice movement

01:15:07 Investing in STEM education

01:18:13 Innovation and risk taking

01:21:23 Why has politicisation of issues moved away from economy to social justice

01:26:41 Left-right divide 

01:33:23 Solution to precarity capitalism

01:35:52 Global economic standards

01:41:21 (De)globalisation problem

01:46:00 Integration of academics into political sphere

The following is a conversation with Armel Talla, the founder of Clips AI, a platform that automates the repurposing and distribution of long-form content into social media clips. Their mission is to improve the quality of information shared online by advancing how we create and distribute content using machine learning.

Armel is also a third year student of Computer Science and Math at UT Austin and an intern at Google.

Links:

Clips AI website: https://www.clipsai.com

Armel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armeltalla/

Armel's Twitter: https://twitter.com/armelwtalla

Armel's Podcast Adapt or Die: https://www.youtube.com/@aodco.167/featured

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:40 Clips AI

2:57 How does the AI work

5:32 How you can use Clips AI

10:35 Biggest challenge

12:56 Is university education worth it?

16:50 How to split roles between cofounders

20:14 How to stay motivated

23:56 Capital Factory Accelerator Experience

25:35 Best insights from a mentor/North Star

28:29 Pricing and B2B vs B2C model

32:49 Armel’s podcast (review of nonfiction books)

33:23 Competition and strategy

39:49 Generative AI technology and chatGPT

51:26 Should we regulate AI?

56:01 Has AI passed the Turing test?

57:38 Influencer culture

01:01:15 Should TikTok be banned?

01:02:39 Joe Lonsdale’s talk at UT

01:06:10 Is our shortening attention span a problem?

01:10:41 Are we in a simulation

01:14:09 What it’s like working at Google

01:20:22 Would Armel go work for Twitter?

01:24:12 1min pitch of Clips AI

The following episode features Fernanda Sampson-Gomez, the founder of Celzo. Celzo is a brand that produces sparkling water infused with vitamins. Celzo ​​solves three main problems: hydration, mental-stress, and the craving for a drink that tastes real good and healthy.

Links:

Fernanda's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandagomezvazquez/

Celzo website: https://www.celzodrink.com

Chapters:

0:15 Introduction

0:57 How did Celzo get started 

7:58 How did Fernanda choose flavours for Celzo and ingredients including CBD

10:31 Types of vitamins in Celzo

11:54 Target market 

13:18 Why is Celzo better than Celsius 

15:36 Celzo suppliers

16:30 How do you start a brand (from 0 to 1)

19:40 Working with a consultant

24:39 How to pick third parties

26:59 First failure + lesson learned

30:06 Why choose Texas as first market

32:36 How to launch a consumer brand

35:19 Distribution Channels

37:47 Shelf Space Optimization

42:52 Climate impact

46:13 How to increase dopamine levels

48:04 Target customer 

52:39 Pricing+profit margins 

57:23 Influencer marketing and brands

1:04:24 Fundraising

1:08:22 Advice on working with your spouse

1:12:44 Mentorship

1:15:33 Celzo 1 min pitch

The following episode features Franck Lahaye, the founder of Airthium, a breakthrough heat engine that aims to replace fossil fuels. Their heat engines allow the industry and the electrical grid to stop polluting at scale in a cost effective way.

Factories producing physical goods require heat and electricity in large amounts. Today, most of the heat and electricity is made from polluting fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil. It is cheaper for these factories to pollute because there is no low cost clean energy alternative for most use cases.

Airthium engine converts heat to electricity and electricity to heat with record efficiency, low cost, very low maintenance and zero carbon emissions.

Links:

Franck's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francklahaye/

Airthium website: https://airthium.com

Chapters: 

0:00 Introduction to Airthium 

0:26 Industrial versus residential heat pumps  

1:15 Heat source and industrial emissions 

3:17 Heat to electricity conversion 

6:44 Hidden emissions associated with solar  

10:32 Existing decarbonising technology 

12:32 Low-cost seasonal storage energy battery  

19:59 Launch of Airthium engine and battery production  

20:59 First market to enter 

22:28 Working with consultants-lessons learned  

26:38 IP and licensing 

28:51 How Airthium nearly failed 

30:13 Y Combinator startup accelerator 

36:23 Dealing with failure 

38:02 Roles in a startup 

39:16 Fundraising/crowdfunding  

43:06 Investor payoff+communication+due diligence  

46:20 Major roadblocks 

47:45 Hiring advice 

49:23 Pricing  

50:50 How to resolve cofounder conflicts  

51:52 Remote working 

55:20 Argument for increased use of fossil fuels+counter argument 

59:12 Advice to aspiring founders  

1:01:09 How can you find/contact Airthium

This episode features Fiona Johnson, a transwoman and a regional organizer and member of Beaumont Society which is a community for transgender people in the UK and Robert Jensen, Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He has focused much of his work on the critique of pornography and of masculinity, developed in his book, The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men.

Fiona and Bob will be discussing the difference between gender and sex, transgender policies and rights, feminism and the recent controversies surrounding the trans movement.

Links:

Beaumont Society: https://www.beaumontsociety.org.uk

Robert Jensen Personal Website: https://robertwjensen.org

Robert Jensen UT Profile: https://journalism.utexas.edu/faculty/robert-jensen

Chapters: 

0:00 Introduction

00:40 Definition of transgender, gender vs sex 

4:09 Are there stages to being transgender? 

7:44 Transsexual 

11:12 Is being transgender a matter of genetics, environment or both? 

14:58 Impact of trans movement on trans community 

17:06 What does it mean to be non-binary? Is this a media creation? 

20:02 Drag shows 

35:31 Hormonal therapy and gender reassignment in children 

39:49 Why is the number of transgender people on the rise 

44:57 Trans women in female sports 

1:02:42 Trans women in female prisons 

1:08:03 Changing gender on official documents 

1:14:38 Laws relating to the trans community 

1:25:57 How are transgender people protected from workplace discrimination 

1:26:58 Social oppression 

1:34:58 How is being transgender viewed in religion? 

1:37:34 Feminism 

1:40:43 How would you shape people's mind

The boys are back in town. This episode features my friends Rahul Attraya, Kyle Vansice and Nate Peters, cofounders of Cedar - a venture backed platform for residential construction that addresses the complexities around infill development and dramatically reduces the time it takes to go from land acquisition to permitting. Their web-based explorer simplifies property search, site analysis, zoning, code compliance, and financial modeling and, based on this, suggests design options for your site.  Go to cedar.build to test it out.

Chapters:

0:10 Introduction to Cedar

1:38 What is a zoning code

3:58 Student housing

7:42 How do we fix parking unavailability

10:17 Should we replace cars with public transport 

15:39 Living in dense areas vs single family homes  

18:12 Why did Cedar choose Austin 

19:35 California versus Texas real estate market and home builders

23:47 Cedar data analysis product

26:28 Competition

29:57 House demolition restrictions

31:10 Joe Gebbia’s new startup Samara+ADUs

35:23 Missing middle housing

41:29 Environmental impact of real estate +sustainable construction

48:35 Changing living preferences as we age

50:31 Boxabl - Elon Musk's tiny house

55:21 Affordable housing

57:01 Is now a good time to buy property?

59:57 Pricing Cedar

01:05:39 Main competitor

1:07:44 Expansion plans

1:11:08 Why is everyone building search engines?

1:14:44 Old grumpy people preventing progress

1:17:29 Antler and startup incubators

1:22:48 Dealing with cofounder conflict 

1:25:58 Advice for aspiring founders

1:28:19 How to sign up for Cedar

This 'Different Perspectives' episode features Jeremi Suri and Rick Kennedy who will be discussing democracy from a historical perspective, its current state and ways to improve it. 

Rick is an Interim State Chair of the Forward Party of Texas and a two time democratic candidate for US House. He’s a self described hater of gerrymandering.

Jeremi is a Mack Brown Distinguished Professor for Global Leadership, History, and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. Recently, he's authored a book on the American Civil War called “Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy”. Jeremi is also the host of “This is Democracy” podcast.

Forward Party: https://www.forwardparty.com

Rick Kennedy: https://ballotpedia.org/Rick_Kennedy

Jeremi Suri: https://lbj.utexas.edu/suri-jeremi

Jeremi's book: https://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Other-Means-Unfinished/dp/1541758544

Jeremi's podcast: https://podcasts.la.utexas.edu/this-is-democracy/

Follow this podcast on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Handle is @thinkwithlucie

0:10: Introduction

1:18 Historical perspective on democracy

6:50 Direct democracy

8:01 Populism+Caesar and fall of the Roman Republic

13:48 Role of religion in democracy

15:31 Gerrymandering/redistricting explained

22:51 How to get rid of gerrymandering

24:51 Why we should expand Congress

34:01 Importance of new generation

36:19 Why are Puerto Rico and DC not a US state

39:25 What is the filibuster and why it should be eliminated

46:14 Introduction to the Forward Party

50:03 Abortion ban in Texas and media bias 

55:05 Open primaries

55:41 What is the viability of a third party? How can the Forward Party succeed?

1:01:34 Forward Party stats

1:02:50 Forward Party strategy+2023 plan

1:07:17 Ranked choice voting

1:13:51 Why is voter turnout low and how to increase it

1:18:15 Mandatory voting-yes or no?

1:22:52 Democracy dollars

1:25:07 Voting as a license

1:28:34 Democracy exam with cash payout

1:32:07 Are we on the brink of a civil war?

1:36:52 How can we make education more accessible

1:39:27 Women’s rights and why were women excluded from voting

1:43:28 Freedom of speech+CRT+Twitter

1:53:16 My new social platform

1:53:53 2024 election outlook

I sat down with Collin Longmire, the founder of One Decision, an AI-based platform that automates life’s everyday decisions for parents.

Before founding One Decision, Collin was the Head of Credit and Data Science at Billd, a fast growing fintech lender that is changing the way contractors grow their business in commercial construction. 

Links:

Collin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/collinlongmire/

One Decision: https://1-decision.com

Antler (Startup Incubator): https://www.antler.co

Book recommendations:

“Hooked” by Nir Eyal (talks about creating a habit-forming company)

“Traction” by Gabriel Weinberg (discusses channel testing and hypotheses for your GTM)

“The Founder’s Dilemma,” and “The Mom Test” (talks about how everyone lies to you, so you have to craft your customer interviews/research in a way to pull our their accurate responses)

The following discussion about nuclear energy features Arjun Makhijani and Sama Bilbao y León.

Arjun is a nuclear engineer and president of the anti-nuclear organization, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He has written several reports analyzing the safety, economics, and efficiency of various energy sources.

Sama is the Director General of World Nuclear Association, the international organization that promotes nuclear power and supports the companies that comprise the global nuclear industry.

Although Arjun and Sama have different viewpoints on nuclear energy, we were able to engage in a friendly constructive discussion which I am very excited to share with you all.

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjun_Makhijani - Arjun Makhijani Wikipadia Page

https://ieer.org - Official Website of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

https://world-nuclear.org/our-association/who-we-are/director-general-sama-bilbao-y-leon.aspx - Profile of Sama Bilbao y León

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Nuclear_Association - World Nuclear Association

This episode is a discussion about the feasibility of socialism with Andres Guilarte and Emerson Murphy. Andres is a political activist for the freedom of Venezuela. In 2019, he left Venezuela to work with the Keto Institute in Washington DC and currently serves as a research associate for WPA Intelligence. Emerson is a second year politics and economics student at the LSE as well as a student activist and socialist.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresguilarte/ - Andres Guilarte

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emersonmurphy/ - Emerson Murphy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb-Sdph0EcM

In the following discussion, I spoke with Ayan Bandyopadhyay, the founder of RTCanary, a YC-funded company that was a monitoring and analytics plugin for all video chat platforms.

Ayan and his cofounders got into YC with a Snapchat-like app, but pivoted mid-way through the YC program and built an analytics solution for video platforms. A few months later, they realised there was not enough demand for that product either and shut RTCanary down.

This was an extremely insightful discussion full of lessons learned. I have no doubt that Ayan's next startup will be a success. 

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayan-bandyopadhyay-9a45b1103/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/rtcanary/

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/rtcanary

Episode 32 features Siobhan Anderson, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of The Tyre Collective, a startup spearheading tyre wear capture and monitoring. Tyre wear is the second-largest microplastic pollutant in our oceans and a stealthy source of air PM pollution. Siobhan and her team mitigate emissions by capturing tyre wear at the source to ensure clean air, safeguarding our environment and health.

Tyre wear accounts for up to 50% of air particulate emission (PM) from road transport. Tyres wear out from friction every time we brake, accelerate or turn a corner. The particles become airborne affecting our lungs. More are swept into our waterways and oceans eventually entering our food chain.

Tune in to hear Siobhan speak about the danger of microplastics and what we can do to mitigate them.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/siobhan-anderson/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/thetyrecollective/

https://www.thetyrecollective.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/microplastics-found-in-human-blood-for-first-time

Episode 31 features Reka Tron, Co-founder and COO of Multus, a company that is developing the key ingredient, the growth media, to make cultivated meat affordable and profitable. She graduated from Imperial College last year with a Master's degree in Systems and Synthetic Biology and raised $1.6 million in early 2021.

Cultivated meat is genuine animal meat that is produced by cultivating animal cells directly. It is an important invention that will help us tackle climate change. Growing meat this way releases up to 87% fewer greenhouse gases than conventional meat and uses just a fraction of the land and water.

The livestock agriculture industry single-handedly uses 70% of our agricultural land, 50% of our antibiotics, and 27% of our freshwater. Furthermore, 15% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by this industry alone, more than the entire transport sector combined.

Tune in to hear Reka speak about the alternative meat industry and where Multus fits in.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rekatron/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/multus-media/

https://www.multus.media/

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/

This episode is part of a new series focused on founders who built startups that did not survive or went through a major pivot. Chris Tara-Browne was the founder of Unfurl, a YC-funded company that was building a ghost kitchen that provided many types of food all in one order. It shut down this month.

Tune in to hear why his startup did not work out and what advice he has for aspiring founders.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christarabrowne/

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/unfurl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ_rZc0YUNw - Harj Taggar - Why Do Startups Fail

This episode is part of a new series focused on founders who built startups that did not survive or went through a major pivot. Chris Tara-Browne was the founder of Unfurl, a YC-funded company that was building a ghost kitchen that provided many types of food all in one order. It shut down this month.

Tune in to hear why his startup did not work out and what advice he has for aspiring founders.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christarabrowne/

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/unfurl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ_rZc0YUNw - Harj Taggar - Why Do Startups Fail

This episode is part of a new series focused on founders who built startups that did not survive or went through a major pivot. Rishi Raman was the founder of Intelligent, a YC funded company that helped businesses cut operational costs by forecasting demand. He was then the Head of Growth at Clerk, and most recently, he’s working on a new startup in the B2B SaaS space.

Tune in to hear why his startup did not work out and what advice he has for aspiring founders.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishisaas/

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/intelligent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ_rZc0YUNw - Harj Taggar - Why Do Startups Fail

Episode 28 features Ahana Banerjee, cofounder of Clear, the integrated social commerce app for skincare. She is only 22 years old but has achieved more than most people double her age. She graduated from Imperial in BSc Physics last year, started 2 companies, went through the Y Combinator accelerator and has recently raised $800k preseed round.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahana-banerjee/

https://getclearapp.com/

https://www.ycombinator.com/

In this episode, we tackle one of the biggest and most widely discussed issues of today - the Mental Health Crisis. We’re joined by a former employee of a well known multinational tech company, who for this podcast wishes to remain anonymous, and we will refer to as ‘Anna’.

She discusses her personal experiences in the industry and how her struggles with mental health have affected her work - as well as what she considers a neglectful response to her personal circumstances. She’s joined by Stevan Balac, a Politics and History student at the LSE, who debates with her the efficacy of modern corporate responses to mental health amongst employees. In particular, the two debated whether employers today are too lenient on their staff because of such problems, and whether some employees take advantage…

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Anna Brightman, Co-Founder at UpCircle Beauty, a cosmetics company that uses natural ingredients like coffee grounds or brewed tea as beauty products. I am not personally into makeup, but I do like to take care of my skin and am always on the lookout for new products. Anna explains very well how Upcircle differs from other skin care lines, how they personalize their products to different skin types, how their unique supply chain works, and what challenges she faced in her journey. 

We also talked sustainability in relation to the beauty industry, circular economy and climate change.

Lastly, we discussed marketing secrets and how brands are creating new types of products that are not necessary for your skincare routine. And yes, Kylie Lipstick and KKW was also part of the discussion, tune in to hear the hot take on these brands.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-brightman-7a3764a7/

https://upcirclebeauty.com/

https://www.instagram.com/upcirclebeauty/?hl=en