In this episode of Moment of Zen, Erik interviews Richard Hanania about the evolving political landscape in the U.S., focusing on the changing dynamics within both the Republican and Democratic parties. They discuss the influence of big tech, the rise of Trumpism, political polarization, and the intellectual underpinnings of current political ideol…

Today on Moment of Zen, Journalist Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry sits with Erik Torenberg to explain the volatile state of French politics following recent European Parliament elections where Macron’s party performed poorly and the National Rally did very well. The conversation offers insights into the broader implications of these political shifts, touche…

In this episode that originally aired on Upstream, Erik sits down with Balaji Srinivasan to discuss the Fiat Crisis, geopolitics, conspiracies, and the signs of decline for a hyperpower. It was recorded in June of 2023. Balaji is an angel investor, tech founder, philosopher, and author of The Network State. He was formerly the CTO of Coinbase. 🔥 Ap…

David Sacks is known as a CEO/investor in multiple unicorns, and most recently a media mogul with All-In. In this episode, he sits down with Erik Torenberg to trace his intellectual and political history from his days fighting student activism at Stanford to now. We cover the political and cultural changes in the last 30 years of silicon valley, ho…

Today we are airing Erik's interview with Joe Lonsdale, originally published on Upstream in 2023. Joe Lonsdale is the co-founder of Palantir, managing partner at 8VC, and the founder of The Cicero Institute, a nonpartisan policy organization discusses the root causes of educational inequality and homelessness, and argues for competence over culture…

In this episode, Carlos Pereira, partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, joins Erik, Antonio and Dan as they delve into the significant transformations within gaming, betting, and combat sports, facilitated by cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, emphasizing the groundbreaking integration of cryptocurrency through Web3 gaming. 🔥 Apply to join over 400 f…

In this episode of Moment of Zen, Erik is joined by Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of the newly released book "The Anxious Generation." They have a comprehensive discussion that touches on the polarization and dysfunction in American politics, the impact of social media on democracy,…

Today we're sharing a recent interview Erik gave to Alex LaBossiere that covers lots of themes we discuss on Moment of Zen - including Erik's views on tech vs. the media, hypocrisy of the elites, risk orientation, and the thesis behind Turpentine. Grow your newsletter with Beehiiv, head to https://Beehiiv.com and use code "MOZ" for 20% off your fir…

Today’s episode is a debate from Bankless on the opposing viewpoints of Effective Accelerationism (E/ACC) and Effective Altruism (EA). Hosted by Ryan Sean Adams and David Hoffman and featuring Haseeb Qureshi and our own Erik Torenberg, the podcast discusses whether AI progression should be cautiously regulated or aggressively pursued with minimal o…

In this episode, Mike Rainbow (co-founder of Rainbow wallet) joins Erik, Dan, and Antonio as they dive into crypto's future. The conversation was prompted by the thesis that innovative social protocols like Farcaster are co-evolving with crypto wallets as onramps or a portal to web3. If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out NetSuite: https:…

Bryan Johnson joins Antonio Garcia Martinez and Erik Torenberg on Moment of Zen to discuss the deeper spiritual beliefs behind the "Don't Die" movement in the face of AI and the inadequacy of human clock speed. They cover religions as death cults, long-termism vs engineering your own longevity, and Bryan's recent interview on Tucker Carlson. If you…

Li Jin joins Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez. Li is the co-founder of Variant Fund and a prolific writer. This episode dives deep into crypto, web3, memecoins, and the attention economy thesis. They cover the direction of techno-capitalism and its impact on politics, decentralization, and the cultural differences between Ame…

Curtis Yarvin returns to Moment of Zen to talk media, regime change, censorship, and the future role of platforms like X and Reddit in reputation capital structures. If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/zen — now through April 15th NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program. – SPONSORS…

In this episode, Dan, Erik and Antonio discuss Don Lemon’s interview with Elon Musk, the Dune 2 and Napoleon releases, polyamory, the Apple antitrust case, and fatherly advice. Happy birthday Antonio! If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/zen -- now through April 15th NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind fl…

In this conversation, Erik Torenberg sits down with Antonio Garcia Martinez, founder of Spindl and author of ‘Chaos Monkeys’, and Parker Thompson, partner at SAX Capital, TNT Ventures, and AngelList, to explore the influence of social media on society. They discuss media literacy and journalism, how politics change people's views of social media, a…

In this conversation, Erik Torenberg and Dan Romero sit with Rudyard Lynch of @WhatifAltHist to discuss his analysis of potential future global events, such as an American civil war and a revolution in China, considering economic conditions, demographics, and societal behaviors. If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out NetSuite: https://net…

This discussion is from Erik's first interview with Dan from the Venture Stories podcast. Dan shares his views on scaling Coinbase, the evolution of crypto, as well as the books and influences that shaped his intellectual journey. If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/zen. – SPONSOR: BEEHIIV Head to Beehiiv…

Erik Torenberg and Dan Romero talk about Dan’s company Farcaster, a decentralized social media protocol. Following the launch of Frames earlier this year, Farcaster experienced significant growth placing the team at a critical junction ripe with lessons for any startup. Dan discusses the challenges of building Farcaster, the promise of decentraliza…

This week Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez sit down with Chris Dixon, a16z General Partner and author of the new book Read Write Own. They discuss the evolution of crypto, the potential impact of blockchain on existing industries, re-centralization, the implications of AI on the internet economy, and media perception of tech.…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg chat about building a company in 2024, selecting ideas to work on, and finding product-market fit (Dan quotes Marc Andreessen's definition of the term). They also cover Dan's experience at Coinbase and building Farcaster. They recorded this episode for a new show called Request for Startups where guests discuss the sta…

This week Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez sit down to discuss the popular Europe vs United States debate, the concept of human longevity, the current state of democracy in the age of social media, and more. Moment of Zen is sponsored by Shopify: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/month trial period. -- Check out Erik's…

This week Erik sits down with Nadia Asparouhova and Bayeslord to discuss the meaning and philosophy of effective accelerationism (e/acc), the polarization and nuance in the tech industry, and much more. Moment of Zen is sponsored by Shopify: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/month trial period. Check out Bayeslord's article in Pirate Wires, …

Dan and Erik discuss the potential impact of a Trump win in 2024, the appeal of populism, the impact of AI on the next generation of startups, and an update from Farcaster and Turpentine. Moment of Zen is sponsored by Shopify: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/month trial period. _ RECOMMENDED PODCAST: History 102 with WhatifAltHist Every we…

Curtis joins Dan and Erik to discuss his upcoming debate with Richard Hanania, FDR's leadership style, radical changes to institutions like Harvard, and more. Moment of Zen is sponsored by Shopify: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/month trial period. - RECOMMENDED PODCAST: History 102 with WhatifAltHist Every week, creator of WhatifAltHist …

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg talk about what's happening between Bill Ackman and Harvard: they touch on the 10-7 movement and the focus on DEI in universities, the future of education and the challenges of disrupting elite schools, the value of credentials, and more. Moment of Zen is sponsored by Shopify: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/m…

For the holiday stretch, we're publishing a few of our favorite episodes from this year. Today, we’re airing Erik's solo interview with Sam Harris over on his Upstream podcast. This discussion covers Sam’s concerns about populism, polarization, and inequality. We also discuss why Sam is hated by the left and the right. Moment of Zen will return wit…

For the holiday stretch, we're publishing a few of our favorite episodes from this year of Moment of Zen. Today, we’re airing our first ever episodes with Marc Andreessen (released exactly one year ago). Marc discussed SBF, Twitter and censorship, and more. In the second half of this extra long episode with Marc, we get into the ideas of Nietzsche,…

Katherine Boyle, GP at a16z and Mike Solana, Editor in Chief of Pirate Wires joined Erik, Dan, and Antonio to discuss whether a liberal arts degree is worth it and how to save San Francisco. They cover the drawbacks of the current educational system, the opportunity cost of our educated class, and elitism. This episode originally aired June 17th, 2…

This week Noah Smith joins Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg to discuss the overuse of the term “fascism,” what has led to the capabilities of China and the U.S., and much more. Moment of Zen is sponsored by Shopify: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/month trial period. This episode is a collaboration with one of Turpentine's biggest shows, Econ…

Balaji Srinivasan joins Nathan Labenz to discuss polytheistic AI and AI gods, human-AI symbiosis, and how AI will be controlled. Moment of Zen is sponsored by Shopify: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/month trial period. This episode is a feed drop of one of Turpentine's biggest shows, The Cognitive Revolution, where Nathan Labenz and Erik …

Samo Burja and Erik Torenberg dive deep into the concept of a 'live player', and compare and contrast three prominent live players: Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk—discussing their impacts, motivations, and differing views on societal change. This episode is a feed drop of our newest show at Turpentine, Live Players, where Erik and Samo anal…

Beff Jezos, the anonymous co-founder of the e/acc movement (effective accelerationism) had his identity revealed on Friday night by Forbes reporters. He gives the inside story to Antonio Garcia Martinez, Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, his e/acc cofounder bayeslord, and The Cognitive Revolution podcast host Nathan Labenz. They discuss anonymity, the me…

Erik Torenberg and Antonio Garcia Martinez sit down with political strategist + former chief adviser to Boris Johnson's right hand Dominic Cummings who is known for architecting Brexit. They discuss whether Brexit actually saved Britain from the far right, the San Francisco homelessness complex, the 2024 election, educational polarization, & more. …

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg discuss their takes on why liberals become conservatives, diversity in tech, and debrief the OpenAI debacle that happened this past week. – SPONSORS: BEEHIIV | SHOPIFY | MASTERCLASS | NETSUITE Head to Beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth, to power your own. Connect with premium brands, scale your audience,…

Dan Romero, Antonio Garcia Martinez and Erik Torenberg discuss their takes on Sam Altman's ouster from OpenAI, his legacy, and his comparative significance vis-à-vis figures like Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk. This is a developing story. This podcast was recorded on Sunday Nov 19th at 12pm PST. We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg discuss whether San Francisco can be exited or reformed, how to impact local politics, and what it would take to get talented, innovative people to live in the same city. Wherever and whatever you’re selling, get Shopify for $1/month trial period using code https://shopify.com/momentofzen – SPONSORS: BEEHIIV | SHOPIFY …

Dan Romero, Antonio Garcia Martinez and Erik Torenberg discuss the US reaction to the Israel-Hamas War. If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta for $1000 off: https://www.vanta.com/zen We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chi…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg are joined by Packy McCormick of Not Boring and Julia DeWahl (founder of Antares, ex-SpaceX) to talk about the past, present, and future of nuclear energy. Packy and Julia co-host a new narrative series called Age of Miracles ( If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta for $1000 of…

Antonio Garcia Martinez, reporting live from Israel, joins Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg to share his firsthand perspective on the ground, discussing the unfolding events, and potential outcomes for Israel and Gaza. If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta for $1000 off: https://www.vanta.com/zen Discussion re…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg discuss the history of Israel, Gaza, and Iran and what happens next in this war on the ground. They also discuss the schism in the public discourse and the downstream political implications in the US. If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta for $1000 off: https://www.vanta.com/ze…

Dan Romero, Erik Torenberg and Antonio Garcia Martinez are joined by journalist Jacob Siegel to discuss disinformation, the evolving narrative between tech and political power, and geopolitics. This episode was recorded on October 1st, before Hamas' attack on Israel. If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta fo…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg talk about the ongoing border crisis, the history of immigration to the US, and the case for and against immigration. If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta for $1000 off: https://www.vanta.com/zen – SPONSORS: BEEHIIV | SHOPIFY | VANTA | NETSUITE Head to Beehiiv, the newsletter …

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg talk about their intellectual evolution, why San Francisco is back, and the ideas finding new momentum because of the thorny politics in tech the last few years. If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta for $1000 off: https://www.vanta.com/zen – SPONSORS: BEEHIIV | SHOPIFY | VANTA…

Dan Romero, Antonio Garcia Martinez, and Erik Torenberg sit down with Professor Walter Russel Mead, an American academic, author, WSJ- and Tablet-contributor, and podcast host to discuss the shape of the next era after our information age. Moment of Zen is part of Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: www.turpentine.co We're hiring across the boa…

Balaji Srinivasan returns to go deeper into his theory of the Social Lens. Balaji, Erik, and Dan discuss the tactics the Gray tribe can use to create, identify, grow, and scale their power, how the tribal lens maps to geopolitics, the Blue playbook through the last several decades of world history, and more. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1…

Balaji Srinivasan joins Erik Torenberg and Dan Romero on the Moment of Zen podcast to share his new theory of the Tribal Lens, why cognitive territories will gain increasingly more power than land-defined territories, why the US is no longer a beacon in the world, and Balaji strategy to fix San Francisco. Make sure you're subscribed to https://link…

On this episode, Erik Torenberg and Dan Romero analyze what Vivek Ramaswamy’s rise in the polls really means, where he goes from here, and we air Erik’s full interview with Vivek from this spring. Vivek discusses his transformation from founder to candidate, his views on Silicon Valley, his concept of meritocracy, depoliticizing corporations, and l…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg discuss what is exciting in Crypto right now, covering friend.tech, Farcaster’s updates, PWAs, superchain 2a, and infrastructure improvements for more use cases. If you’re building a business and need compliance for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA, head to www.vanta.com/zen for $1000 off. Moment of Zen is part of the T…

Mike Solana joins Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez to track the rise and ‘vibe shift’ away from the woke industrial complex, from social media algorithms and anon accounts, to media disruptions like Substack and Gawker. They discuss Peter Thiel's economic, political, and religious ideas and discuss his legacy. They also debat…

Antonio Garcia Martinez is back from his travels, and joins Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg to dive into his current theory of ‘The End of History’. They also discuss the cancellation of intellectual figures like Richard Hanania, contrast the political situation in Israel with political polarization in the states, and discuss liberalism vs. religion.…