SALT Talks

Michael Saylor is a technologist, entrepreneur, business executive, philanthropist, and best-selling author. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of MicroStrategy. 

Companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple represent the big winners in the technology space. The last ten years were marked by investments in these giants. Now, it is harder to see such high returns through retail investing. With a massive expansion of the money supply, the biggest opportunity now lies with Bitcoin. Bitcoin acts as a digital gold guarding against inflation caused by government stimulus. “If you’re going to make money the 21st century way, you’ve got to do it virtually… Bitcoin has the potential to be digital gold… thermodynamically perfect.”

Bitcoin is now moving mainstream and major financial institutions are getting on board. These companies are putting Bitcoin on their balance sheet as an institutional safe-haven asset. This growth in adoption will drive an exponential increase in value. “Bitcoin is the one asset that as the price goes up, it becomes more attractive to an investor.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Michael Oren is a former member of the Knesset, a former deputy minister in the Israel prime minister's office and was Israel's ambassador to the United States (2009-2013). 

The US-Israel relationship is the most special among all of the United States' allies. This is due to three pillars: democratic values, defense, and the spiritual connection. The recent Abraham Accords represent a major breakthrough in the Middle East peace process and overturned conventional wisdom. It was thought peace between Israel and Palestine needed to occur before any normalization with the broader Arab world took place. Now, Israel has agreements with countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. "These Arab countries remain committed to a resolution of the Palestinian problem, but they weren't going to wait anymore."

Formal normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest goals in the peace process. Saudi Arabia holds significant influence in the Arab world as custodians of Mecca and Medina. Israel and Saudi Arabia share strategic interests in their desire to act as checks against Iran. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Christopher Hahn is a progressive pundit and host of the Aggressive Progressive podcast. Hahn served for five years as a senior aide to US Senator Chuck Schumer. 

As a regular guest on Fox News for ten years, providing a progressive perspective, Hahn has seen the network's dramatic shift to the right, particularly from its opinion hosts. The conservative movement more broadly reflects this shift where fringe conspiracies and white supremacist ideology have come to the fore. This is born out of the sense that a shifting demographic represents an existential threat to white-centric culture. This culminated in a terrorist attack of the Capitol by Trump supporters in order to disrupt the election certification. "This was not a protest; this was a terrorist attack by forces that wanted to overthrow the government of the United States of America. They were coming to kill Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Mike Pence."

Since Ronald Reagan, the center of politics in the US has moved right. The most liberal members of the Democratic party like AOC, Bernie Sander and Elizabeth are trying to move that conversation left and create a more progressive compromise. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Louis Evans is the president and CEO of Commonwealth Energy Group. Ed Fortunato is the chief economist at Exelon Corporation. 

For many years, renewable energy could be seen simply as a subsidized inferior product compared to fossil fuels. As the technology has improved, renewable energy is now not only independently viable, but superior in many ways. Energy storage represents the most important next step in the evolution of renewables. The proliferation of personal renewable energy like home solar panels can go a long way in avoiding that challenge because energy does not have to travel far or be stored as long. “About 60% of energy is used to transport energy from the power plant to your home.”

The growth of renewable energy will have major effects on the geopolitical stage. By establishing energy independence through renewables, the United States will be less and less dependent on the Middle East and Russia for oil. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Benn Steil is a senior fellow and director of international economics, as well as the official historian in residence, at the Council on Foreign Relations. His most recent book, The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, was named the winner of the New-York Historical Society's Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize, awarded each year to the best work in the field of American history or biography.

Before his death, FDR developed four pillars of a post-WWII foreign policy: peaceably dismantle the British Empire; build permanent peace between the United States and the Soviet Union; profitably dismember and deindustrialize Germany, and integrate the global economy with short-term IMF loans. This represented the hope for a one-world architecture where the US and Soviet Union got along. Circumstances quickly forced then-President Harry Truman to pivot and begin dividing the world between Marshall states- countries that asserted liberal democracy and free markets- and Soviet states under communist rule. This marked the dawn of the Cold War. “When we get to 1947 and the Marshall plan, the Truman Administration is already in a major corrective mode. The State Department is already talking openly about a two-world vision for the post-war order.” 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Heidi Heitkamp is the first woman ever elected to be a U.S. Senator from North Dakota (2013-19). Senator Heitkamp also served two terms as North Dakota State Tax Commissioner and two terms as North Dakota Attorney General as a member of the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party.

A political career that started at 28 years of age, and has spanned over 35 years, has seen a massive shift in North Dakota’s electoral makeup. The Democratic party’s base once consisted of the elderly, the working class and small family farmers. That group has shifted almost completely over to the Republican party, replaced by working professionals as the party’s base.

The partisan polarization seen from Republican voters is due, in part, to ideas around identity. Swaths of the country feel judged by a more multicultural, multiethnic coalition more likely to admonish politically incorrect behavior. This has created a defensive posture and accelerated an urban-rural divide in American politics that has quickly turned states like North Dakota red.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Oliver Stone is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter and director of over 20 full-length feature films, among them some of the most influential and iconic films of the last decades. Some have been at deep odds with conventional myth—films such as “Platoon” (1986), the first of three Vietnam films; “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989); “JFK” (1991); “Natural Born Killers” (1994); and “Nixon” (1995).

Oliver is known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary filmmaker. His films are filled with a variety of camera angles and film styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.

He is a three-time Oscar winner, and although he has mostly been stung by critics of his films, he remains a well-known name today in the film industry. The films he directed have been nominated for 31 Academy Awards, including eight for acting, six for screenwriting, and three for directing. There is no denying that Stone has cemented himself a position among the legends of Hollywood.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

For the seventh and final installment of SALT Talks: Pandemic Venture Investment Series, presented in partnership with OurCrowd, the advent of social media and online forums sophisticated deepfakes have become a growing problem, intent on the spread of misinformation and pose an alarming threat to public discourse. In this episode we will hear from experts in the disinformation and fake news sector, and learn how Cyabra’s patented Deep Learning technology is protecting large organizations by mitigating the threat in real-time, ensuring access to genuine information, while gaining and maintaining credibility.

Featuring Dan Brahmy, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Cyabra; and Vincent O'Brien, State Department Foreign Service Officer & Former US Army Special Operations Officer.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Stephen A. Smith is ESPN's most recognizable personality and studio analyst. He is a commentator on ESPN's First Take, where he appears with Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim. He also makes frequent appearances as an NBA analyst on SportsCenter. Smith also is an NBA analyst for ESPN on NBA Countdown and NBA broadcasts on ESPN. He also hosts The Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio. Smith is a featured columnist for ESPNNY.com, ESPN.com, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"My goal has never been limited to being a preeminent figure in the world of sports," he says. "It's to be a preeminent figure, period. I'm about making a difference. You don't become a difference-maker by putting limitations on yourself in any capacity. You shoot for the stars. Or nothing at all."

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Ida Beerhalter is the co-head of IOME, a private investment partnership of women principals from the Gulf with its head office in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, Beerhalter currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Astia, USA.

It is important for a member of an educational family office to first understand who they are. This involves recognizing both strengths and weaknesses in order to then set up an effective structure and team. More women in family businesses are getting involved and taking control of their financial destiny which offers a new form of empowerment. It is important for women to learn about themselves in the workplace and ultimately use their skills to thrive. This often involves helping women find their voice, literally. “We had training for [women’s] voices, for them to speak up. As an example, we did it by screaming through a park.. I have them read something, different sentences, and I need to hear it even 50 meters away.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.