A Random Walk with Ben Kohlmann

Award winning Cotopaxi CEO Davis Smith is a life-long entrepreneur.  From going on Mission to South America to selling pool tables, he's driven impact throughout his life.  His current, and most successful venture, is a B-Corp that creates unique outdoor gear, while giving back to the community.  We dive into:

+What's it's like with a cousin as a co-founder...and the challenges it can bring

+How empowering Philippine seamstresses led to Cotopaxi's best selling product

+What giving back really means in crisis, from COVID to racial justice

+What the future of Capitalism might look like  

Josh Marcuse is a serial entrepreneur - within government.  As the young founder of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, he sought to give emerging leaders a voice and network they previously lacked.  Within a decade, he was the inaugural director of the Defense Innovation Board, helping the likes of Eric Schmidt, Jennifer Palka, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and other luminaries navigate the byzantine language of the world's largest bureaucracy.  

On this episode, we discuss:

+What Josh learned as a part-time founder of a non-profit aimed at young professionals

+What it takes to be an intra-preneur in government

+Unheralded DoD success stories of moving the needle

+One area to keep an eye out for in the coming years as defense innovation hits its stride

Charlie Olson and Eric Lax founded Pando with the idea of smoothing individual earnings within winner-take-all industries.   Just as venture capitalists and sports agents spread their bets across numerous assets, individuals can now do the same with self-selected peers.  In this episode, Charlie and I discuss:

+What income pooling is and how it differs from income sharing

+Why they chose Major League Baseball prospects as their first market test

+What a pooling agreement looks like

+What industries and communities could next adopt income pooling

Universities faced a monumental task this summer as they debated whether to re-open.  As school kicks off, a number of institutions have made hard choices to move back to remote.  Stanford Business School Dean Jonathan Levin gives us the inside scoop.

Levin took over the helm at Stanford's Business school in 2016.  Prior to that he was a distinguished professor and head of the economics department at Stanford.  In this episode we cover:

+How graduate school leaders make re-opening and closure decisions

+The real time innovations professors are making to educate their students

+Post-COVID business school implications

+Economic implications of the increasing divergence between America's largest companies and the rest

Tom Cruise made the school famous, but the real action at TOPGUN is with the pilots who actually graduated in real life.  Retired F/A-18 pilot and TOPGUN instructor Guy Snodgrass gives us an inside look at what makes TOPGUN tick - from both the student and instructor perspective.  In our conversation, Guy and I discuss:

+What it takes to get into and thrive at TOPGUN

+How aviation debriefs apply to the civilian world

+Artificial intelligence's future (?) role in fighter aviation

+How an engineer and fighter pilot becomes a writer for the Secretary of Defense

Jordan is conservative.  Chris is liberal.  At Yale Law School in 2016, they struck up an unexpected friendship. 

Since then, they've made 5 joint road trips across the United States, spending time with truckers, prisoners, day laborers, and everyday Americans trying to get a better sense of our vast country.  Their journeys are now chronicled in their new book "Union: A Democrat, A Republican, and a Search for Common Ground."

In this episode we explore:

-How to build friendships across political divides

-What it's like to ride with a professional trucker for weeks on end

-Widespread nuance in individual beliefs, despite outward appearances

-How to scale intentional relationships in a winner-take-all social media age

David and Mikaela Pearson are the husband and wife powerhouse behind the architecture and design firm PALO in San Diego. Both graduated with honors from Harvard Graduate School of Design, with David focusing on physical buildings and Mikaela on landscape architecture. In this episode we discuss:

-Architecture as a discipline within the humanities AND STEM

-How the space around your home is just as important as within it

-How to work with an architect and what to expect

-The impact of COVID on personal home design choices

Attorney Philip Williamson discusses race in America, and along the way we explore:

+How faith informs racial conversations

+The forgotten history of the 1880s and the rising prospects of black Americans during Reconstruction

+How to cultivate consistency in political and ethical views

+How to bridge racial divides in America

In the wake of George Floyd's killing, protests erupted across the country as many communities assessed how to address concerns over police brutality and overreach. One of the loudest calls by advocates for change was to "defund the police."

Abortion.  Immigration.  Presidential Tax Returns.  Health Care.  Public funding for religious schools.