Best Inverse Converse Podcasts (2024)

1
High Yield or Small Caps, Which Market Is Assessing Forward-Looking Risk Better? 12:50

3d ago12:50

12:50

In this month's episode, Ivan Illan, Founder & CIO at AWAIM®, explores the dichotomy of two segments of the capital markets - U.S. high yield bonds and U.S. small cap stocks. Both of these segments are predominantly charaterized by below investment grade credit ratings and typically demonstrate high price correlations. However, the past few years h…

1
Is The A.I. Bubble Bursting? 11:20

22d ago11:20

11:20

The past few days have been hard on A.I. stocks, which until now have been driven higher and higher by the widespread A.I. euphoria. In this episode, I discuss a recent Working Paper (published May 2024) from the National Bureau of Economic Research that shares a more modest projection on the impact of A.I. in total factor productivity over the nex…

1
7.6 Escape Velocity: Sarah Manguso in Conversation with Tess McNulty (EH) 50:01

24d ago50:01

50:01

What’s the truth and what’s a lie? What’s a memoir, what’s a novel, and what if both are just a series of “prose blocks”? This conversation between Sarah Manguso and Tess McNulty takes up questions of writing and veracity, trauma and memory. Sarah Manguso is the author of nine books, including three memoirs. Her first novel, Very Cold People, was n…

1
7.5 Machine, System, Code: Masande Ntshanga and Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra (EH) 50:15

1M ago50:15

50:15

Building parallels between technology and the human imagination, Masande Ntshanga’s conversation with Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra explains how cities are like machines and how South African history resembles some of the most sinister versions of techno-futurism. Masande is the author of two novels: The Reactive, winner of a Betty Trask Award in 2018, a…

1
7.4 Not Prophecy but Inversion: Omar El Akkad and Min Hyoung Song 53:37

2M ago53:37

53:37

Omar El Akkad joins critic Min Hyoung Song for a gripping conversation that interrogates fiction’s relationship to the real. Before he became a novelist, Omar was a journalist, and his experiencing reporting on (among other subjects) the war on terror, the Arab Spring, and the Black Lives Matter movement profoundly shapes his fiction. His first nov…

1
7.3 What do the PDFs say about this?: Brandon Taylor and Stephanie Insley Hershinow (CH) 47:41

2M ago47:41

47:41

Brandon Taylor practices moral worldbuilding in his fiction—that means an essential piece of these worlds is the “real possibility that someone could get punched in the face.” Brandon, author of the novels Real Life and The Late Americans, joins Stephanie Insley Hershinow for a wide-ranging, engrossing, and often hilarious conversation about the st…

1
Implications For Protracted Yield Curve Inversion 15:45

2M ago15:45

15:45

For roughly two years, the U.S. economy has been undermined by a challenging dynamic - a yield curve inversion. Not to be ignored, when short-term interest rates are much higher that long-term interest rates, investor and lender behavior modulates accordingly. If this dynamic persists too long, unintended consequences become manifest across marketp…

1
7.2 You Write Because You Want to Feel Free: Katie Kitamura and Alexander Manshel (SW) 58:53

3M ago58:53

58:53

Although Katie Kitamura feels free when she writes—free from the “soup of everyday life,” from the political realities that weigh upon her, and even at times from the limits of her own thinking—she is keenly aware of the unfreedoms her novels explore. Katie, author of the award-winning Intimacies (2021), talks with critic Alexander Manshel about th…

1
7.1 Etherized: Anne Enright in Conversation with Paige Reynolds (JP) 41:58

3M ago41:58

41:58

Anne Enright, writer, critic, Booker winner, kindly makes time for Irish literature maven Paige Reynolds and ND host John Plotz. She reads from The Wren, The Wren (Norton, 2023) and discusses the “etherized” state of our inner lives as they circulate on social media. Anne says we don't yet know if the web has become a space of exposure or of author…

1
Buffett Indicator As Applied to Specific Sectors 12:01

3M ago12:01

12:01

The Buffett Indicator (or Ratio) is a simple formula often referenced by famed investor Warren Buffett. It's simply, Total U.S. Stock Market Capitalization / U.S. GDP. The idea is basically higher ratios infer overvalued markets, while lower ratios may indicate stocks are broadly undervalued. Currently, this ratio stands at 186%. However, what if y…

1
Credit Card Delinquency & Debt Jumps Higher 11:13

4M ago11:13

11:13

Ivan Illan, Founder & Chief Investment Officer at AWAIM® shares a conversational-style review of a recent research highlight published on the firm's website discussing U.S. credit card delinquency and other correlated metrics such as household savings, debt levels, and interest rate on credit cards. This discussion focuses on the confluence of thes…

1
US Output Gap Is Way Too High 13:52

5M ago13:52

13:52

In this episode, Founder & CIO, Ivan Illan discusses the myriad issues around having a significantly positive US Output Gap - an important economic metric that reveals underlying inflationary pressures in an economy. For more information, charts and other details related to this episode, please visit: https://www.alignewealth.com/blog/research-high…

1
Guest Appearance on "The Conversation with Bruce Cook" - January 7, 2024 27:30

6M ago27:30

27:30

REPLAY: On-Air Live interview of Ivan Illan on AM830 from "The Bruce Cook Conversation" orignally broadcast on Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 6PM PST. Ivan and Bruce chat about various economic issues impacting folks today from interest rates and taxes to debt and the upcoming election. Wide scope of topics covered and additional commentary on domestic…

1
What Risks Are Lurking In 2024? 18:05

7M ago18:05

18:05

In this final episode for 2023, bestselling Dummies author, Forbes Finance Council member, Founder & CIO Ivan Illan, shares some preliminary insights as to what may play out during 2024 for both stock and bond markets globally. He highlights the period beginning March 2022, which coincides with the Federal Reserve's initiating a restrictive U.S. mo…

1
6.6 Overtaken by Awe: Sheila Heti speaks with Sunny Yudkoff 44:24

7M ago44:24

44:24

Sheila Heti sits down with Sunny Yudkoff and ND host John Plotz to discuss her incredibly varied oeuvre. She does it all: stories, novels, alphabetized diary entries as well as a series of dialogues in the New Yorker with an AI named Alice. Drawing on her background in Jewish Studies, Sunny prompts Sheila to unpack the implicit and explicit theolog…

1
6.5 Attention is Love: A Discussion with Lauren Groff and Laura McGrath (SW) 48:31

8M ago48:31

48:31

Just days before the release of her latest novel, The Vaster Wilds (Riverhead Books, 2023), three-time National Book Award Finalist and The New York Times-bestselling author Lauren Groff sat down to talk to critic Laura McGrath and host Sarah Wasserman. Although Groff admits that she wants “each subsequent book to destroy the one” that came before,…

1
REPLAY: Ivan's On-Air Interview - The Conversation with Bruce Cook on KLAA AM830 22:23

8M ago22:23

22:23

Original Air Date: Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 6:30PM PST Listen to the replay from the on-air interview of Founder & Chief Investment Officer Ivan Illan conducted by The Conversation's Host Bruce Cook. Ivan returns to the show answering a wide variety of questions about the US economy, upcoming elections, inflation, and the Federal Reserve. https…

1
6.4 “We All Relate to Each Other’s Dystopias” 46:11

8M ago46:11

46:11

Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Norton, 2022), which won the Booker Prize in 2022, is a thriller that begins in the afterlife, an uproarious murder mystery set amid the tragedies of Sri Lanka’s long civil war. Its protagonist, a war photographer, has become a ghost with just seven moons to find his killer and give his life’s…

1
Fed Funds Rate Much Higher For Much Longer 13:15

8M ago13:15

13:15

This episode includes references to data shared in Ivan's upcoming Forbes.com article tentatively entitled, "For Decades Fed Funds Remained Higher Than The Inflation Rate, May Be Once Again". Citing nearly 50 years of historical averages regarding the Effective Federal Funds Rate, 30 Year Mortgage Rate, 10-2 Year US Treasury Spread, and the 10 Year…

1
6.3 Narrative, Database, Archive: Tom Comitta and Deidre Lynch (AV) 41:20

9M ago41:20

41:20

2 tables; 300 novels, 1500 pages of nature description: This is how Tom Comitta created The Nature Book, a one-of-a-kind novel cut from 300 years of English literary tradition. It has no human characters, no original writing, and it is astoundingly good! Tom sits down with distinguished Harvard prof, Deidre Lynch and host Aarthi Vadde to talk about…

1
The Paradox of Flattening Yield Curves 11:04

9M ago11:04

11:04

A more casual companion piece to Ivan's article published in Forbes on October 19, 2023, entitled "What A Flattening Yield Curve Means For Future Fiscal Fitness" Discussion on the importance of understanding the segment of the yield curve to which an investor has exposure. Also, a review of the basics on the time value of money - a related concept …

1
6.2 What Would Undo the Maxim Gun? Magic: P. Djèlí Clark and andré carrington 39:14

9M ago39:14

39:14

Locus- and Nebula- award-winning author P. Djèlí Clark joins critic andré carrington (UC Riverside) and host Rebecca Ballard for a conversation about the archives, methods, and cosmologies that inform his speculative fiction. Clark’s fiction blends fantasy and horror elements with richly drawn historical worlds that speak to his academic life as a …

1
6.1 Desolation Tries to Colonize You: Jeff VanderMeer and Alison Sperling (CH) 41:28

10M ago41:28

41:28

Our season of the weird starts off with a conversation between the writer The New Yorker called “the weird Thoreau”, Jeff VanderMeer, and a scholar of the modernist weird, Alison Sperling (FSU). With ND host Chris Holmes, Jeff and Alison delve into how the ugly politics of Lovecraft’s “old” weird gives rise to the stylistic panoply of the New Weird…

1
Weirding Out with Kate Marshall 24:26

10M ago24:26

24:26

We kick off Season 6 with Kate Marshall, friend of the show and author of the forthcoming book Novels by Aliens: Weird Tales and the Twenty-First Century. Hosts and producers Chris Holmes and Emily Hyde ask Kate about the pulpy literary history of weird tales and learn how in the 21st-century weirdness emerges as both genre and mood. The conversati…

1
Disruptive Technology and Its Economic Impact 12:24

10M ago12:24

12:24

In this episode Ivan cites recent PMI declines, while reframing the data that often minimizes the manufacturing sector's share of and relevance to the U.S. economy. A discussion follows on how nominal GDP data is referenced routinely, instead of real GDP. The conclusion is surprising to many - even finance professionals - regarding the enduring sig…

1
US Debt Downgrade Is Not A Big Surprise. 10:29

12M ago10:29

10:29

In this episode I talk about the recent US government debt downgrade by Fitch, why it happened, why it's not a big surprise, and what it might mean for everyone going forward. © 2023 Ivan Illan, AWAIM®By Ivan Illan

1
Ivan Illan & Bruce Cook - On-Air Live (Replay) 28:48

1y ago28:48

28:48

In this episode, Ivan Illan rejoined Bruce Cook on The Bruce Cook Conversation, which was broadcast live on-air throughout Southern California and live streamed on KLAA AM 830 Angels Radio on Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 6PM PT. As a returning show guest, Ivan offered new perspectives and insights to many questions that Bruce presented regarding the sta…

1
5.6 A Forensic Level of Honesty: Aminatta Forna and Nicole Rizzuto (AV) 43:50

1y ago43:50

43:50

Aminatta Forna, author of Ancestor Stones (2006), Happiness (2018), and most recently The Window Seat (2021) joins Georgetown prof. Nicole Rizzuto and host Aarthi Vadde for a wide-ranging conversation about reversing the gaze. Born in Sierra Leone, Aminatta is of Scottish and Malian ancestry and grew up around the world. Her mixed upbringing led he…

1
Bad Breadth 12:47

1y ago12:47

12:47

If you're wondering why your investment portfolio seems to be lagging the S&P 500 Index so far this year, it's because the market has bad breadth. Bad (or, in this case meaning, very narrow) market breadth illustrates that only a very few minority of companies are responsible for the majority of the return seen in the index. In this episode, I shar…

1
5.5 They’re Not Metaphorical Demons: Mariana Enriquez and Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra 56:18

1y ago56:18

56:18

Booker Prize shortlister Mariana Enriquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, joins Penn State professor Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra and host Chris Holmes to talk about her most recent novel, Our Share of Night, her first to be translated into English. Our Share of Night follows a spiritual medium, Juan, who can com…

1
5.4 The Meat and Bones of Life 48:36

1y ago48:36

48:36

With the publication of her most recent novel, White Horse, Erika T. Wurth breaks from the realism that characterized her earlier fiction and ventures into horror. White Horse follows Kari, an urban Native living in Denver, as a family heirloom belonging to her long-missing mother launches her into a world of the uncanny: ghosts and monsters lurch …

1
Talking Economics With Bruce Cook 22:13

1y ago22:13

22:13

Yesterday (Mother's Day), I returned as a half-hour guest on Bruce Cook Conversations on AM830 Angels Radio. This podcast contains the full interview replay which was broadcast live throughout Southern California on Sunday, May 14, 2023 at 6:30PM PT. Topics covered included Bruce's rapid fire questions on the state of the U.S. economy, debt ceiling…

1
There Are Only Two Ways To Destroy Capital 12:59

1y ago12:59

12:59

Don't be alarmed by the harse tone of this episode. A contractionary phase in the monetary cycle is a difficult and challenging one for labor, real estate, and capital markets. After years of expanding the monetary base, which had led to misallocations of inexpensive capital, those funds must be now eviscerated. Ivan explains the only two ways that…

1
5.3 “It’s on the Illabus” 45:30

1y ago45:30

45:30

John Jennings—Hugo Award winner, New York Times bestselling author, curator, scholar, and Artist—is keenly aware that in adapting novels for the graphic format, his decisions turn what has only been imagined into facts drawn on the page. In this conversation with critic, translator, and teacher of a creative course on the art of making comics, Jean…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Inverse Converse Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide