45/52: Pods of the year
#CapitalAtRisk
The 2010s was the decade of the Entrepreneur. The 2020s will be the decade of the Investor.
“Buffett’s decision to limit his activities to a few kinds and to maximise his attention to them, and to keep doing so for 50 years, was a lollapalooza”.
Charlie Munger on Warren Buffett
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Thank you David
Like I said in an X post in September, here, I was a bit late in discovering David Senra and his Founders podcast, here, but wow, and I’ve certainly made up for it.
Podcast of the year
Founders. As you’ll see below I do like the traditional long-form interview podcasts, but of all the podcasters out there there are only a handful of people that interview people well.
David is different. He’s an incredibly skilled ‘distiller’, the best I’ve heard. His analysis is first class, he plucks out the best bits from biographies of incredible founders (often repeating a point to drum it into our brains) and most episodes are short enough for a return trip to London or to listen to on a run, so perfect for me.
Best episode
#362 Li Lu.
Listen here or below:
Favourite quote
“He [Li Lu] gives lecture at Columbia business school… a big part of the lecture is Li absolutely admonishing these Columbia MBA students and Li is lighting them up about how unprepared they are. There couldn't be more of a stark contrast between the unpreparedness of these Columbia MBA students with the way the Li conducts research and runs his company, and why it is learning, it is reading, it is his work ethic that saved Li’s life”
David Senra (at about 21:57)
Power Laws
The Diary of a CEO. He gets a lot of flack sometimes but I think that Steven Bartlett is a terrific interviewer — it’s not complicated though, he asks a good question then shuts up and lets the person think, then answer. More of this please.
Best episode
The Manipulation Expert: “You’re Being Manipulated!”.
Listen here or below:
Favourite quote
“Eyes are hard to lie, they tell you something”
Robert Greene (at about 54:05)
Nothing is off-limits
Honestly with Bari Weiss. There are a lot of great things to say about Bari and The Free Press, which she set up in January 2021. It’s initial name was ‘Common Sense’ and it is just that — the articles and podcast interviews come across as honest, respectful and diligent. More of this too please. And they have merch.
Best episode
Peter Thiel on Trump, Elon, and the Triumph of the Counter-Elites.
Listen here or below:
Favourite quote
“It was the 2020 election that was the fluke”
Peter Thiel (at about 20:51)
Bigger, better, faster, more
High Performance. It’s obvious with a title like ‘High Performance’ but I really like how this one keeps coming back asking: What is high performance, how did you get there and how to you continue to push yourself?
Best episode
Adrian Newey Exclusive: Why I Quit Red Bull & My Future at Aston Martin (E289).
Listen here or below:
Favourite quote
“And are you are you okay to talk about the the crash in ‘94 with Ayrton 30 years ago?”
Jake Humphrey (at about 55:55)
Advice to their younger self
Young Again. For me, Kirsty was easily the best host of Desert Island Discs — she’s another one who asks great, open-ended, questions then sits quietly waiting for the answer. So I’m really pleased she’s back on the radio with Young Again asking people to revisit their early lives and share the advice they’d give themselves looking back.
Best episode
14. Gabor Maté.
Listen here or below:
Favourite quote
“I’ve created something, I’ve given something, that a lot of people value and it’s going to live much longer than I will, because my work and my words seem to speak to people and that’ll survive me… I’ve contributed something of value that’ll survive long after, as they say in Hungarian, I’m smelling the flowers from below”
Gabor Maté (at about 38:15)
In other news
🎧 Later this morning I’m being interviewed by my friend Dhosjan for The Dhosjan Show. We’ve known each other since our MBA days at Imperial College in 2008 so it’ll be interesting to hear what she wants to ask now.
💰 Thanks for all the good wishes to me, but more importantly to Tom and Jorge, on the the acquisition of StayOne’s Exclusive Homes by Mandarin Oriental. A terrific result for all.
🎅🏻 It’s the last day or so of proper work for many, but the eagle-eyed amongst you will see that this is post 43/52 so I have a bit more catching up to do in the next week or so. These posts haven’t exactly been weekly, more weekly-ish, but I have a few things left to share about 2024 and have enjoyed this x/52 format so I’ll continue it into 2025.
More from me?
If you like my writing you can get more by buying my book, ‘Find your 9others’. It’s on Amazon here.
And if you’ve already read ‘Find your 9others’ please leave an Amazon review here.
Q&A
🆓 Free subscribers get a short preview and all free public posts. NB: All posts in 2024 will have paid-subscriber-only parts.
💰 Paid subscribers get access to all posts, the angel investor Q&A podcast I did during the 2020 lockdowns, the full archive and can request a video call to ask me anything and talk about the things I don’t share anywhere else.
💰💰💰 Founding Members get all paid benefits plus you get to WhatsApp me unlimited questions for discussion, you get a one hour discussion session once a quarter plus a great lunch in London, on me.
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
#CapitalAtRisk