El Podcast

Mark P. Mills explains how the convergence of AI, robotics, material science, and cloud computing is driving a new industrial revolution and economic boom akin to the Roaring 1920s.

Guest Bio: Mark P. Mills is a physicist, venture advisor, and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He serves as Executive Director of the National Center for Energy Analytics and is the author of The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and a Roaring 2020s.

Discussed Topics:

• The physical infrastructure of the cloud and its hidden energy demands
• Why the 2020s mirror the innovation explosion of the 1920s
• 3D printing of organs, robotics, and the future of manufacturing
• The energy reality behind AI and data centers
• College advice, skilled trades, and workforce transformations
• The enduring importance of natural gas and the slow rise of nuclear
• How synthetic biology and personalized education could shape the future

Top Quote:

“AI chips are to computing what the jet engine was to aviation—a knee in the curve that changes everything.”

📺Watch the full episode on YouTube➡️https://youtu.be/4I266VrMzyg

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Watch the full episode on YouTube 📺https://youtu.be/4tyqIhQwCDA

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Dr. Emanuel Maçiori, author of Silicon, exposes how the tech industry wastes capital, hoards idle workers, and creates hype cycles built on fake problems and misaligned incentives.

Guest Bio: Dr. Emanuel Maçiori is a software engineer and researcher specializing in artificial intelligence. He is the author of Smart Intell Dumb and Silicon: How the Tech Industry Solves Fake Problems, Hoards Idle Workers, and Makes Doomed Bets with Other People’s Money. His work critiques inefficiencies in both AI development and the venture capital ecosystem.

Topics Discussed (in order):

• Viral blog post on doing no work at a prestigious tech job
• Origins of Silicon and tech idleness culture
• Twitter layoffs and the illusion of productivity
• Agile methodology and infantilization of tech workers
• Pointless jobs, “planning poker,” and bloated task estimates
• VC incentives, 2% management fees, and questionable fund performance
• Profitless companies and the illusion of growth (Uber, Spotify, etc.)
• Founder bootcamps and “recipe-driven” startup factories
• Hype cycles, survivorship bias, and inflated valuations
• ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) and the rise of fake innovation
• AI investment hype vs. business case reality
• Diminishing returns on LLMs and data exhaustion
• Government startup grants and the illusion of job creation
• “Moonshot” bias in VC funding vs. solving real-world problems
• Final message: be boring, solve real problems, and aim for sustainable businesses

Top Quote:

“Let’s go back to boring. The most successful people I’ve met lately solved a real problem they understood deeply—and built boring companies that actually work.”

📺Watch the full episode ➡️https://youtu.be/dGg1PF67knM

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Maureen Callahan joins to expose the dark legacy of the Kennedy family through the lens of the women whose lives they damaged or destroyed.

Guest bio: Maureen Callahan is an award-winning investigative journalist and author. Her work spans pop culture and politics and has appeared in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Spin, and The New York Post. She currently writes for the Daily Mail and is the author of Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed.

Discussed topics (in order):

• The 25th anniversary of JFK Jr.’s fatal plane crash
• JFK Jr.’s recklessness and death wish
• The failure of George magazine and his troubled personal life
• The mythmaking of the Kennedy dynasty beginning with Joe Kennedy Sr.
• Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy and hidden life in Wisconsin
• Challenges publishing the book and media complicity with the Kennedy myth
• The role of women like Jackie Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette
• The stories of interns and mistresses like Mimi Alford
• Marilyn Monroe’s entanglement with both JFK and RFK
• Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick incident
• Media whitewashing of Kennedy scandals and parallels to current politics
• Pushback against the book and Callahan’s motivation for writing it
• The deaths and trauma inflicted on women like Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, and Pam Kelley
• Final reflections on the women’s strength, historical amnesia, and reclaiming the narrative

📺Watch full episode on YouTube ➡️ https://youtu.be/RUBFMQGdfu8

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Peter S. Goodman, global economics correspondent for The New York Times, discusses his book How the World Ran Out of Everything, exploring how the pandemic exposed the fragility, complexity, and monopolization of the global supply chain.

Guest Bio: Peter S. Goodman is the global economic correspondent for The New York Times and author of How the World Ran Out of Everything and Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World. He has previously reported from China, London, and Washington, covering globalization, trade, and economic inequality.

Topics Discussed (in order):

• Introduction to the global supply chain and pandemic-induced shortages
• Story of Glow, a Mississippi startup navigating China-based manufacturing
• The complexity of building simple products and iPhones
• Overdependence on China and difficulties in diversification
• The resilience and brittleness of just-in-time manufacturing
• Role of government and Wall Street in shaping supply chains
• Semiconductor shortages and the Arizona TSMC plant
• Historical context: Henry Ford and vertical integration
• Corporate financialization and buybacks vs. reinvestment
• Shift toward treating supply chains as national security
• The role of microchips in defense and economic power
• Trade, offshoring, and consequences for U.S. labor
• McKinsey and the consulting industry's influence
• Trucking industry realities and labor conditions
• Labor shortages and deteriorating job quality
• Current disruptions: Houthi attacks and Suez rerouting
• Origins of globalization via containerization
• Automation, AI, and future of logistics
• Davos Man and elite influence on policy
• Lobbyists, consultants, and systemic self-interest
• Monopoly power, antitrust, and future reforms
• Will vertical integration return? Toyota vs. Ford models
• Final thoughts and how to find Peter’s work

Top Quote:
"We should get over this idea that billionaire interests are our interests... We can’t step away from democracy—we still have to have a say over the conditions that shape the marketplace."

📺Watch on YouTube ➡️https://youtu.be/5Eu6nGGqdGA

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks joins the podcast to discuss the cost crisis, politics, and purpose of American universities.

Guest Bio: Nicholas Dirks is a historian and former chancellor of UC Berkeley. He currently serves as President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences. Previously, he held senior academic positions at Columbia University and is the author of City of Intellect: The Uses and Abuses of the University.

Discussed Topics:

• What a university chancellor actually does
• Shared governance, faculty resistance to change, and budget politics
• The collapse of public funding for universities (UC funding dropped from 75% to 12%)
• Skyrocketing tuition and the unsustainable student debt crisis
• The contradictions of big-time college sports
• Tenure, adjunctification, and faculty accountability
• Why most students no longer fit the “traditional” college mold
• How AI could help nontraditional learners and support academic success
• Mismatch between degrees and job readiness in a shifting economy
• What universities must do to rebuild public trust

Top Quote:

“Tenured faculty are in an enormously privileged position... but the way you balance the budget, if they don’t get involved, is you hire more adjuncts—and then they complain about that too.”

📺Watch full episode on YouTube:👉 https://youtu.be/sonoJJaLIOg

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Shamil Ismail, author of The Age of Decay, explains how aging and shrinking populations threaten to unravel civilization’s economic, social, and political stability.

Guest Bio: Shamil Ismail is a South Africa–based investment analyst and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with over 30 years of experience in consumer markets. He is the author of The Age of Decay: How Aging and Shrinking Populations Could Usher in the Decline of Civilization.

Discussed Topics:

• Global fertility decline and demographic collapse
• Why shrinking workforces threaten essential services and infrastructure
• Why AI and raising the retirement age won’t save aging economies
• The false hope of pro-natalist policies
• Why Africa may become the world's demographic and economic center
• Investment strategies for a graying world
• The dangers of ignoring demographic tipping points
• Why peak civilization may already be behind us

📺Watch the full podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ct08de3wJlc

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Five retirees share real-world stories of how they left the U.S. to retire affordably and joyfully in Portugal, Panama, and Arizona—exploring costs, healthcare, safety, and the meaning of home.

👥 Guest Bios:

• Clyde & Terry – Former firefighter/paramedic and writer duo who retired early and spent two years as global house-sitting nomads before settling in Tavira, Portugal.
• Mary Ellen – Painter and pickleball enthusiast who retired to Panama’s Pacific coast after exploring Central America.
• Rob & Jodie – Former Denverites now living in Sun City, Arizona; Jodie runs a popular fashion and lifestyle blog JTouchofStyle, while Rob assists with content creation.

🗣️ Topics Discussed:

• Cost of living and healthcare in Panama, Portugal, and Arizona
• House-sitting as a global travel lifestyle
• Visa requirements, insurance, and elder care abroad
• Building friendships, finding purpose, and new hobbies in retirement
• Cultural integration, safety, and the emotional aspects of leaving the U.S.
• Differences in infrastructure, food, and daily life
• Long-distance family dynamics and coping with being far from kids or grandkids

💬 Top Quote:
"If you have to see your grandbaby every two weeks, don’t move out of the United States—period." – Clyde

📺Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xcltBH-DJ2A

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Joey "The Joyful Rambler" shares her transformative experience hiking the Appalachian Trail at 52, offering insight for older adults considering long-distance backpacking.

Guest bio: Joey, known online as The Joyful Rambler, is a YouTuber, hiker, and vanlifer who began backpacking in her 50s. She completed a nontraditional thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail and now documents her travels, hikes, and minimalist lifestyle on her YouTube channel.

Topics discussed:

• Planning and budgeting for the Appalachian Trail
• Gear selection and ultralight backpacking
• Hiking as a retiree or older adult
• Trail life, zero days, and town strategies
• Safety concerns and solo female hiking
• Physical preparation and recovery at older ages
• Comparisons between the Appalachian Trail, Colorado Trail, and other thru-hikes
• Trail culture, community, and common challenges

Top quote:
"I just encourage people to, you know, if you're dreaming about something, figure out how to make it happen."

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

Investigative journalist Brody Mullins reveals how corporate lobbying has quietly become more powerful than Congress and the presidency, shaping U.S. policy from the shadows.

Guest Bio:Brody Mullins is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where he covers lobbying, business, and campaign finance. He is the co-author of The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government, which chronicles the rise of corporate influence in Washington.

Discussed Topics:

• How lobbying has evolved from steak dinners to sophisticated public campaigns
• The undercounting of lobbyists and rise of “shadow lobbying”
• Insider stock trading and conflicts of interest among federal officials
• The post-Watergate shift that decentralized congressional power
• How corporations now lobby to harm competitors, not just reduce regulation
• Big Tech’s lobbying dominance and lessons learned from Microsoft’s missteps
• How lobbying distorts antitrust enforcement and policymaking
• The revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street
• Whether we're witnessing the beginning of corporate lobbying’s decline

Top Quote:
“Corporate America actually has more influence over public policy than the president of the United States or Congress combined.” — Brody Mullins

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!