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First Principles Daily
By Patrick
A daily narrative podcast that reasons about the world from first principles — the 'magic wand number' and the 'Idiot Index'. Episodes alternate between a concrete example of first-principles thinking... more
FAQs about First Principles Daily:
How many episodes does First Principles Daily have?
The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.
First Principles Daily episodes:
June 14, 2026Ep 9: A blood test whose reagents cost pennies can still bill for hundreds because the price lives almost entirely outside the materials. 
June 13, 2026Ep 8: Solar panels that once cost hundreds of dollars per watt now cost cents, because the industry kept asking what the sand, silver, and aluminum alone were worth. June 12, 2026Ep 7: Ammonia fertilizer that sells for hundreds of dollars a ton rests on raw inputs whose theoretical floor is a small fraction of that price. June 11, 2026Ep 6: Before containers, moving cargo cost many times the goods themselves because every item had to be handled by hand at each transfer. June 10, 2026Ep 5: Nuclear plants cost billions, yet their steel, concrete, and fuel are worth only a small fraction of that price. June 09, 2026Ep 4: Steel that cost as much as silver per ton fell toward the price of its ore and fuel when air was blown through molten iron. June 08, 2026Ep 3: Desalinated water sells for several dollars per cubic meter, yet the thermodynamic minimum energy needed to separate the salt is worth only a few cents — the rest is everything except the membranes. June 07, 2026Ep 1: A rocket engine once priced in the millions now approaches a fraction of that cost because its designers began with the raw metals and the physics of combustion instead of copying legacy engines. June 07, 2026Ep 2: Before Ford, a car cost a skilled worker years of wages; he cut the price by treating it as atoms in motion rather than a fitted craft object.
FAQs about First Principles Daily:
How many episodes does First Principles Daily have?
The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.