Podcasts

David Ulevitch speaks with Col. Jeffrey Glover and Rahul Sidhu about how AI, drones, and sensor networks are reshaping public safety and what it takes to bring new technology into law enforcement at scale. As departments face staffing shortages, burnout, and rising complexity, they examine how the right tools can make officers more effective, safer, and better supported. The conversation covers how drone-as-first-responder programs are changing the speed and safety of emergency response, from high-risk warrant service to Amber Alert pursuits. Glover describes how Arizona DPS is building a full technology ecosystem around its officers, including body-worn camera analytics for burnout detection, brain scan wellness checks, and international intelligence-sharing partnerships ahead of FIFA and the Olympics. Sidhu explains how Flock Safety's layered sensor network — license plate readers, gunshot detection, and drone dispatch — is turning reactive policing into proactive, data-driven respon

Sophia Dew and Binji Pande speak with Vitalik Buterin about technology, human agency, and how the internet is changing the way people think, build, and relate to the world around them. Drawing from his writings and personal reflections, Buterin discusses how his worldview has evolved over the last decade, from creating Ethereum as a teenager to thinking more deeply about the social and philosophical implications of technology today. The conversation explores the idea of “sanctuary technology,” systems that provide safety and coordination without removing individual freedom or agency. They also discuss the changing relationship between humans and AI, the risks of over-relying on automated systems, and why actively learning and thinking for yourself may become even more important as AI capabilities improve. Along the way, Buterin reflects on creativity, community, identity, and the challenge of staying intentional in a world that increasingly pushes people toward autopilot. Resources: Fo

with Nikesh Arora + Hot Mess Express

This week, between the president’s negotiations in China and a potential executive order, we discuss why the Trump administration seems to be changing its tune on A.I. safety. Then, Nikesh Arora, chief executive of Palo Alto Networks, the largest cybersecurity company in the world, gives us a firsthand account of where we stand in the race to secure the internet. And finally, we run through some of the wildest headlines of the week in a round of Hot Mess Express. Guest: Nikesh Arora, chief executive and chairman of Palo Alto Networks. Additional Reading: White House Considers Vetting A.I. Models Before They Are Released Chief Executives to Accompany Trump to China Is Anthropic’s New A.I. Really That Scary? It Depends Whom You Ask. Venmo Finally Takes Privacy Seriously Amazon Staff Use A.I. Tool for Unnecessary Tasks to Inflate Usage Scores Graduates Boo Commencement Speech About A.I. Dua Lipa Files $15 Million Suit Against Samsung for Using Her Face to Sell TVs EBay Rejects GameStop’s

Ben Horowitz shares lessons from building and scaling companies, drawing on his experience as a founder and CEO. He explains why a founder’s primary responsibility comes down to one thing: delivering the right product at the right time. The conversation covers how strategy actually develops in practice, why a company’s story is inseparable from its strategy, and how founders should think about hiring, fundraising, and decision-making in fast-changing environments. Horowitz also discusses how AI is reshaping teams, the increasing importance of creativity and relationships, and why roles may evolve toward more generalist “builders.” He also reflects on navigating uncertainty, the reality of pivots, and why defensibility still comes down to solving hard problems and building meaningful relationships with customers. Resources: Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Follow Speedrun on YouTube: https://x.com/speedrun Apply for Speedrun: https://speedrun.a16z.com/ Stay Updated: Fin

Erin Price-Wright speaks with Turner Caldwell and Drew Baglino about what it will take to close America's critical minerals gap and modernize the power infrastructure that underpins the AI economy. With the US more than 50 years behind China in critical mineral supply and grid infrastructure built on systems designed a century ago, they examine where the real bottlenecks are and how to move faster. The conversation covers how automation, reinforcement learning, and vertically integrated operations can compress the timelines for mining and refining, and why co-locating supply chains matters more than labor costs in the race to reshore manufacturing. Baglino explains how solid state transformers can replace aging mechanical grid equipment with silicon and software, while Caldwell outlines how Mariana Minerals is applying autonomous systems to remove the know-how bottleneck from critical mineral processing. They also discuss the lessons both founders carried from Tesla — techno-optimism,

David Haber speaks with Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, about leadership, risk, and navigating moments of extreme uncertainty. Drawing on his experience leading Goldman through the financial crisis, Blankfein shares how organizations can build resilience, make decisions under pressure, and maintain culture while scaling. They discuss the importance of risk management as both a discipline and a mindset, the difference between being wrong and being reckless, and how great organizations balance taking risk with protecting against it. Blankfein also reflects on Goldman’s partnership culture, how it shaped decision-making and accountability, and what it takes to build enduring institutions over time. The conversation also touches on technology, from the role it played in transforming financial markets to the implications of AI today, including its potential, risks, and the challenges of operating in systems that are increasingly complex and harder to fully understand. Resource

Sophie Buonassisi speaks with Jennifer Li, general partner at a16z, about why infrastructure is becoming one of the most important areas in AI. They discuss how the shift to AI-native systems is reshaping everything from storage and compute to developer tooling and orchestration. The conversation explores early insights from companies like ElevenLabs, why distribution has become the defining advantage in AI, and how founders can think about product, research, and go-to-market in a rapidly evolving landscape. Jennifer also shares her perspective on creative tools, the role of AI in storytelling, and what the next phase of the ecosystem may look like. This episode originally aired on the GTMnow Podcast. Resources: Follow Jennifer Li on X: https://x.com/JenniferHli Listen to more episodes of the GTMnow Podcast: https://gtmnow.com/podcast/ Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts. Please note that the content here

Erik Torenberg speaks with Marc Andreessen about the state of AI, media, and the broader cultural and economic shifts shaping the internet. They discuss how narratives around AI, from fear to hype, are influencing public perception, and why real-world usage tells a very different story. The conversation covers AI’s impact on jobs and productivity, the rise of “AI-native” builders, and why increased capability tends to expand work rather than eliminate it. Andreessen also examines how companies are adapting, from restructuring teams to rethinking roles around more generalist “builders.” They also explore the changing media landscape, from the dynamics of influence and information to the breakdown of traditional authority, and what it means for trust, culture, and generational attitudes. Along the way, they touch on topics ranging from institutional power to emerging internet subcultures, offering a wide-ranging look at how technology is reshaping both systems and society. Resources: Fol

David Ulevitch speaks with Ben Horowitz about what it means to lead the technology industry at scale, and the responsibilities that come with it. Following the firm’s largest-ever fundraise, they discuss how venture capital, technology, and national strategy are increasingly intertwined. The conversation covers America’s role in the next technological revolution, from AI to advanced manufacturing, and why maintaining technological leadership is critical not just for economic growth, but for global influence. Horowitz also shares his perspective on working with government, supporting national security innovation, and building systems that give more people the opportunity to contribute. They also discuss how venture capital is evolving, the shift toward larger firms and specialized strategies, and why optimism about technology, and its potential to improve lives, remains essential even amid growing skepticism. Resources: Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Follow David Ulev

This week we’re taking another look at prediction markets and a new series of scandals. Is Congress finally ready to rein them in? Then, the journalist Joanna Stern returns to the show to discuss her new book “I Am Not A Robot,” all about turning her life over to a chatbot for a year. And finally, Hard Fork’s Rachel Cohn reports back on her month attending classes at the Strother School of Radical Attention, the center of a movement to resist the commodification of attention by technology companies. Guests: Joanna Stern, chief everything officer at New Things Rachel Cohn, producer of “Hard Fork” Additional Reading: Soldier Used Classified Information to Bet on Maduro’s Ouster, U.S. Says Soldier Pleads Not Guilty in $400,000 Betting Case Over Maduro’s Ouster French weather service alerts police to tampering after suspicious Polymarket bets The Multi-Trillion-Dollar Battle for Your Attention Is Built on a Lie We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on

Robert Hackett speaks with the general partners at a16z crypto about the launch of their fifth crypto fund and the current state of the industry. They reflect on how crypto has evolved from an ideological movement into a more pragmatic, product-focused ecosystem, shaped by real-world use cases and increasing regulatory clarity. The conversation covers the rise of stablecoins, onchain finance, and new market infrastructure, as well as the growing overlap between crypto and AI. The group also discusses how founders are shifting toward building products that work within existing systems, rather than attempting to replace them, and why this moment may represent a new phase of mainstream adoption. They also look ahead to what success looks like for the next generation of crypto companies, from onboarding billions of users to enabling AI agents as economic actors, and the role crypto could play in shaping more open, decentralized systems in an increasingly consolidated technology landscape.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf is lead developer of VLC and president of VideoLAN. Kieran Kunhya is a longtime FFmpeg contributor, codec engineer, and the person behind the now-infamous FFmpeg account on X. https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep496-sc Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/ffmpeg-transcript CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: https://x.com/FFmpeg https://ffmpeg.org/ https://www.videolan.org/ https://x.com/videolan https://jbkempf.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbkempf/ https://github.com/jbkempf https://x.com/kierank_ https://bit.ly/3OORhmC https://github.com/kierank SPONSORS: Larridin: Measure AI adoption in your business. https://larridin.com Blitzy: AI agent for large enterprise codebases. https://blitzy.com/lex BetterHelp: Online therapy an

Morgan Brennan speaks with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman about the next phase of American space exploration and the urgency behind returning to the moon. They discuss the Artemis program, the challenges of cost, speed, and execution, and how a new competitive landscape is reshaping NASA’s priorities. The conversation covers the role of public-private partnerships, the rise of commercial space companies, and the need to rebuild core capabilities within NASA. Isaacman also outlines how the agency is shifting toward faster iteration, clearer demand signals for industry, and a more focused strategy to compete in what he describes as a new space race. Resources: Follow Jared Isaacman on X: https://twitter.com/rookisaacman Follow Morgan Brennan on X: https://twitter.com/MorganLBrennan Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenbe

Peter Levine speaks with Ash Ashutosh, CEO of Pinecone, about the launch of Nexus and the shift from vector databases to knowledge engines. As agents become the primary users of software, they discuss why traditional retrieval systems break down and how AI systems need to evolve to support machine-to-machine interactions. The conversation explores how agents currently spend most of their time retrieving and reasoning over data, why that approach is inefficient, and how moving reasoning closer to the data can dramatically improve performance, accuracy, and cost. Ash also explains how Pinecone is rethinking the stack for agentic applications, introducing new abstractions, query languages, and developer workflows. Resources: Follow Ash Ashutosh on X: https://x.com/ashashutosh Follow Peter Levine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-levine-681386172/ Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts. Please note

with Tony James

David Haber speaks with Tony James about building enduring firms across multiple eras of finance. From joining DLJ when it was a subscale firm to helping grow Blackstone into one of the largest asset managers in the world, James reflects on the decisions, structures, and cultural principles that enabled long-term success. They discuss the origins of leveraged buyouts, the evolution of private markets, and how identifying structural opportunities early can create lasting competitive advantage. James also shares lessons from backing companies like Costco, where culture, customer focus, and long-term thinking drove exceptional outcomes. The conversation covers leadership, talent development, and the challenges of scaling organizations while maintaining performance. James also reflects on succession, firm-building, and why culture, incentives, and alignment ultimately determine whether an organization compounds or stagnates. Resources: Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z

Katherine Boyle speaks with Sarah Rogers, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, about the intersection of AI, free speech, and global information systems. They discuss how major technological shifts, from the printing press to the internet to AI, have reshaped communication and power, and why this moment may be even more consequential. Recorded at the a16z American Dynamism Summit, the conversation explores the role of public diplomacy in the digital age, the risks of censorship and overregulation, and how governments are approaching AI as both a national security priority and a platform for global influence. Rogers also highlights the importance of maintaining “AI with a Western soul,” and why preserving open systems and freedom of expression will shape the future of innovation. Resources: Follow Sarah B. Rogers on X: https://x.com/UnderSecPD Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on A

This week, OpenAI announced a loosened partnership with Microsoft and an aggressive new strategy to secure computing power. We unpack what these updates signal about OpenAI’s business strategy and whether the company can scale while balancing a trial against Elon Musk and investor concerns over missed financial targets. Then, the A.I. researcher Dr. Adam Rodman, of Harvard Medical School, returns to tell us about the most significant ways A.I. is changing how doctors treat patients. And finally, can an LLM trained only on very old texts predict the future? We’re talking with one of the creators of the chatbot talkie. Guests: Dr. Adam Rodman, internal medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. David Duvenaud, associate professor at the University of Toronto, former team lead at Anthropic and co-creator of talkie. Additional Reading: Microsoft and OpenAI Loosen Their Partnership Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s Epic Fight Heads

Theo Jaffee speaks with Balaji Srinivasan and Taylor Lorenz about how AI is reshaping media, trust, and online communication. Building on prior public disagreements between the two, the conversation revisits core tensions around media, technology, and power in a rapidly changing information environment. They discuss the breakdown of traditional information systems, the rise of AI-generated content, and why new models for verifying identity and truth may be necessary. The conversation lays out competing visions for the future of media, from decentralized “webs of trust” and cryptographic verification to the role of journalism, privacy, and public accountability. Resources: Follow Balaji on X: https://x.com/balajis Follow Taylor Lorenz on X: https://x.com/TaylorLorenz Follow Theo Jaffee on X: https://x.com/theojaffee Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host

Elena Burger speaks with Joe Schmidt, partner on the enterprise team at a16z, about the future of enterprise software in the age of AI. Using Workday as a case study, they discuss why many of today’s most important enterprise systems feel broken, how platform shifts reshape entire categories, and what an AI-native replacement might look like. The conversation covers the limits of legacy SaaS, why “AI revenue” may be overstated, and how agents could fundamentally change how companies manage workflows, permissions, and internal systems. They also explore why even the most defensible software businesses may now be vulnerable to replatforming. Resources: Follow Joe on X: https://x.com/joeschmidtiv Follow Elena on X: https://x.com/elenaburger Read more from ‘Workday’s Last Workday?’: https://a16z.com/workdays-last-workday/ Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our h

with in Global Drug Development

Theo Jaffee and Gabriel Dickinson speak with Cremieux about China’s rapid rise to the top of global clinical trial output. They discuss the regulatory reforms that accelerated China’s progress, the surge in novel drug development, and what the US would need to change to stay competitive in biomedical innovation. Resources: Follow Cremieux on X: https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil Follow Theo on X: https://x.com/theojaffee Follow Gabriel on X: https://x.com/gbrl_dick Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the compa