Silicon Zombies

The market just wiped 12% off Google 😮
Here is why that might be a major opportunity 💡
• Custom TPUs second only to Nvidia’s stack
• GCP scaling rapidly beyond $30B
• Latest models reclaiming top benchmark spots
• Owning 14% of Anthropic + an equity stake in SpaceX
• YouTube as an untouchable training data moat
In 2 minutes, we break down why the panic doesn't match the infrastructure realities; and why this remains a high-conviction 2–3 year hold (not financial advice).
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Seven years ago, Jose Joaquin Bitar was in the darkest place of his life. His company was collapsing, he had to lay off 120 people who felt like family, and he couldn’t see a way out. Then a friend handed him a piece of chocolate over coffee, and 20 minutes later he felt calm and something close to joy for the first time in months. That moment sent him into years of research on the plants and molecules our ancestors used to balance their moods, and it became the idea behind TUOM.

In this episode, Jose tells the full story and explains why he believes emotions drive decisions, and why changing how we feel can change the choices we make. His partner joins to talk through the natural ingredients behind the science and a real story of someone who used it before a dream job interview. If you’ve ever made a bad call while stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, this one’s for you.

Big thanks to our sponsors: TUOM, Necodex, and Truebinding.

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Trailer
00:49 – How a Bite of Chocolate and a Sip of Coffee Changed My Life
00:56 – Seven Years Ago: A Company Collapsing
01:11 – Laying Off 120 People Who Felt Like Family
01:47 – The Coffee Shop & the Chocolate Bar
02:19 – The 20-Minute Miracle
02:35 – “The Answer Is in Nature”: The Research Begins
02:59 – How Our Ancestors Used Plants, Roots & Flowers for Mood
03:16 – The Question That Created TUOM
03:30 – Emotional Pocket Alchemy
03:48 – The First Product: SEMJA
04:01 – Why Emotions Drive Decisions
04:41 – Calm Strategic Choices vs. Stressed Defensive Choices
05:02 – The Dream Job Interview Scenario
05:25 – Showing Up Fully in the Moments That Matter
05:31 – Handing It Over to the Partner
05:40 – Why Fitting Your Emotions in Your Pocket Resonates
06:25 – The Real Story: Manuela Soto’s Dream Job
06:56 – The Science: Natural, Not Dangerous Chemicals
07:18 – Lavender, Theobromine & Chocolate
07:34 – Rhodiola, Ginseng, Saffron, Peppermint & Rosemary
07:51 – Closing: Transform Your Emotions, Transform Your Judgement

📍 About Silicon Zombies:

Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation, hosted by Nick Larson. 🧟 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and start-up investing, no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.

🚀 Connect with Us:

Instagram: @siliconzombies

X (Twitter): @siliconzombies

TikTok: @siliconzombies

Spotify: @siliconzombies

Newsletter: https://shorturl.at/31mUx

Subscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

Longevity is one of the hottest categories in tech right now, but Max Marchione, founder of Superpower, argues the word itself is vague and unhelpful. In this talk he breaks the whole space down into two kinds of companies, consumer and biotech, and lays out the short-term playbook, the medium-term risks, and the long-term path for each. Along the way he explains why growth can matter more than product, how companies like Hims find a paid-ads arbitrage, and why the best ones eventually vertically integrate, build a brand, or become a platform.If you’re building, investing in, or just trying to make sense of the longevity boom, this gives you a clear framework for telling the real businesses from the noise. He also walks through Superpower and Moderna as case studies of how each path plays out.Thanks to our sponsors: @tuomglobal@necodex@truebindinginc⏱️ Timestamps00:00 – What Actually Is a Longevity Company?00:08 – Why “Longevity” Is a Vague Category00:20 – Four Very Different Kinds of Diagnostics Companies00:45 – The Simplification: Consumer vs. Biotech01:02 – Two Pathways to Success for Each01:34 – Consumer Longevity: The Short-Term Playbook02:15 – Product vs. Growth: Which Matters More?02:21 – Contribution Margin Greater Than CAC03:04 – Finding a CAC Arbitrage With Paid Ads03:36 – Medium-Term Risks: Margin Compression & Critics04:01 – Long-Term Option 1: Vertical Integration (Apple & Hims)04:46 – Long-Term Option 2: Building a Brand05:00 – Long-Term Option 3: Becoming a Platform05:23 – The Secret Formula for Consumer Longevity05:31 – Case Study: Superpower and the Scale Problem06:35 – Biotech Longevity: The Short-Term Playbook06:51 – Biotech Risks: Pharma Dependence & Obsolescence07:24 – Long-Term Paths: Platform or Vertical Integration07:32 – Case Study: How Moderna Became Pharma📍 About Silicon Zombies:Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation, hosted by Nick Larson. 🧟 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and start-up investing, no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.🚀 Connect with Us:Instagram: @siliconzombiesX (Twitter): @siliconzombiesTikTok: @siliconzombiesSpotify: @siliconzombiesNewsletter: https://shorturl.at/31mUxSubscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

David Pogue spent years covering Apple from the outside, and in this one he pulls back the curtain on Steve Jobs, the Titan submersible, and what it’s like to be a journalist who gets screamed at by one of the most demanding CEOs in tech. He talks about the screenshot feature Apple refused to hand him, the 400-screenshot favor that followed, and why he thinks Tim Cook has quietly turned the Apple Watch into a medical device. He also shares what it was like to ride the Titan down to the wreck site, why he’s not convinced being a jerk is necessary to succeed, and a few stories about Steve’s private kindness that never made it into the mythology.

This one is for anyone who’s ever wondered what Apple was really like behind the keynote, and for founders trying to figure out whether they need to be the toughest person in the room to win.

Thanks to our sponsors: TUOM, Necodex, and Truebinding and WinstonTaylor.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Trailer

01:36 – Welcome to Silicon Zombies & Introducing David Pogue

02:00 – Apple’s 50th Anniversary & the Book Launch

03:05 – Signed Bookplates for Viewers

03:15 – David’s Background: From Broadway Dreams to Tech Reviewer

05:05 – CBS Sunday Morning & Twenty Years on Air

06:08 – Apple Book Access: Why Apple Said Yes

07:05 – The iPhone Screenshot Feature & the 400-Screenshot Favor

09:02 – The Secret Behind Apple’s “David Pogue Feature”

09:15 – Are Steve Jobs-Style CEOs Necessary to Succeed?

10:47 – The Titan Submersible: Three Strikes and a Dive Aborted

13:01 – Inside the Countdown Rituals & the Stop Check

14:24 – Tim Cook: Nerdy Number Cruncher or Product Guy?

16:02 – Services, Growth, and Apple’s Business Scale

16:31 – Apple Watch as a Medical Device: Atrial Fibrillation

17:12 – Audience Show of Hands: Lives Saved by Apple Watch

18:04 – Sleep Apnea, Hypertension, and Snoring Features

18:08 – Why David Got the iPhone Wrong in 2006

19:17 – Singular Carrier, Secret Prototypes & the iPhone Launch

20:03 – The Movie Critic’s Question: Steve Jobs on Screen

21:21 – The Famous Imposter Keynote & “One More Thing”

22:05 – Wi-Fi, Mouse, and Forgotten Apple Firsts

23:22 – Inside Apple: Trust, Access & Culture

24:29 – Face ID Testing: Masks, Twins & Makeup Mondays

26:21 – Steve’s Phone Call Over iMovie

27:50 – Apple’s Hidden Workforce & Alumni in the Crowd

28:18 – Live Performance: Song Parodies About Apple

35:38 – Q&A Begins: Steve Jobs’s Temper & Journalism

37:03 – What the Smartphone Looks Like in 10 Years

39:40 – Should We Be Concerned About AI?

42:23 – Empathy in Steve Jobs & the Products of Tomorrow

44:31 – Secret Acts of Kindness: Bill Atkinson, Pixar, Scott Forstall

46:42 – The Last Conversation With Steve Jobs

47:24 – Books, Reading & the Magic Trick

49:11 – Where to Buy the Book

49:37 – Closing Song & Goodbye

📍 About Silicon Zombies:

Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation, hosted by Nick Larson. 🧟 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and start-up investing, no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.

🚀 Connect with Us:

Instagram: @siliconzombies

X (Twitter): @siliconzombies

TikTok: @siliconzombies

Spotify: @siliconzombies

Newsletter: https://shorturl.at/31mUx

Subscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

Mike Maples passed on Airbnb because of a cereal box meeting, and he’s still thinking about it. His fund, Floodgate, has backed Twitter, Lyft, and a long list of companies that looked like bad bets at the time. In this one he breaks down why he deliberately aims for 100x outcomes, why most of his best returns came from pivots nobody predicted, and why a startup wins by turning the incumbent’s greatest strength into its weakness. He also gets into what he looks for in a founder, how AI is changing the way he evaluates deals, and why the best startup ideas make some people angry.

This one is for founders trying to stand out in a crowded market, and for anyone who has ever second-guessed a decision they could have made differently.

Thanks to our sponsors: TUOM, Necodex, and Truebinding.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Trailer

01:05 – Welcome to Silicon Zombies & Introducing Mike Maples

01:30 – Mike’s Background: Calligrapher to Floodgate

02:17 – Twitter, Podcasting & the Early Bet

03:16 – Voicemail 2.0 & Why Twitter Had No Business Model

04:19 – Getting In at South by Southwest

05:02 – Lyft’s Illegal Launch & Why Asking Permission Would Have Killed It

07:05 – The Airbnb Cereal Box Meeting

09:05 – Why Passing on Airbnb Cost 6000x

10:03 – Floodgate’s Rule: Being Wrong Is the Price of Admission

11:08 – The Power Law: 85% Miss Rate

12:03 – Floodgate’s Math: 20x and 100x Targets

13:04 – Startups Win by Changing the Subject

14:11 – Four Seasons vs. Airbnb: Turning Strength Into Weakness

15:11 – Inflections: Why Timing Is Everything

17:00 – Why Now? The iPhone 4S and Lyft

18:05 – Pattern Breakers: Limits in Your Own Head

20:07 – Be Different, Not Better: The Cybertruck Lesson

21:16 – Force a Choice, Don’t Invite a Comparison

22:21 – Remembering Mike’s Father & the Fishing Lesson

24:29 – Q&A Begins: AI and Startup Acceleration

25:23 – Why AI Startups Don’t Fit Floodgate’s Thesis

26:21 – AI as a Force Multiplier for Small Funds

27:17 – Time Capsules: What Did Airbnb’s Signal Look Like?

29:01 – Disagreement Is a Feature, Not a Bug

30:31 – Nurturing Early True Believers

33:04 – Founders Need Co-Conspirators, Not Customers

35:05 – Does Business Model Matter?

36:14 – The Founder as Artist

37:30 – Coachable vs. Disagreeable Founders & Mike’s Law

39:00 – Turning Strength Into Weakness: Microsoft Example

41:01 – Nurturing Contrarian Thinkers

43:15 – Handling Being Wrong 85% of the Time

44:31 – Current Inflections: Vertical Software & Mass Cognition

46:35 – Live Pitch: The Outdoor Gear Rental Platform

49:01 – Specificity Is a Superpower

50:59 – The Thunder Lizard Concept

52:59 – How the Community Can Help

53:36 – Closing

📍 About Silicon Zombies:

Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation, hosted by Nick Larson. 🧟 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and start-up investing, no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.

🚀 Connect with Us:

Instagram: @siliconzombies

X (Twitter): @siliconzombies

TikTok: @siliconzombies

Spotify: @siliconzombies

Subscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

The Real Reason Your Brain Makes You Dream Every Night | Dr. David Eagleman

Dr. David Eagleman is a Stanford neuroscientist, author, and host of the Intercosmos podcast. He explains why your brain is a team of rivals and not one single you. He covers why time seems to slow down in a crash, and why dreams exist at all. His theory is that dreaming protects your visual cortex from being taken over by the other senses.

He also talks about brain-computer interfaces, new senses for deaf people, and rehabilitation over punishment in the courts. He gets into sleepwalking murders, lucid dreaming, Alzheimer's, psychics, and the biggest open mystery in neuroscience: consciousness. The episode ends with audience Q&A from the live room.

A big thank you to our sponsors for making this one possible:

@truebindinginc

@necodex

@tuomglobal

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 Trailer

01:08 Welcome to episode 197

01:45 Who is David Eagleman

02:26 The brain as a team of rivals

03:56 The Ulysses contract

05:00 Brain-computer interfaces

06:29 Can bad decision makers change

07:22 Why time slows down in a crash

10:15 Sleep and memory

11:15 Brain fog

12:17 How he hacks his own brain

13:30 Creating new senses for humans

15:01 The brain and the law

17:08 Hallucinogens without the drug

18:38 Why prison reform is stuck

19:40 The brain and literature

21:07 Why we dream

24:26 Lucid dreaming

25:07 Murder while sleepwalking

26:31 Why everyone hates Zoom

27:16 Audience Q&A begins

31:04 Neurofeedback and magnetic stimulation

39:00 The biggest mystery: consciousness

40:05 Alzheimer's and living longer

41:46 Old ideas about the brain

44:49 Psychics and the brain

45:27 Consciousness Explained

46:53 Monks and party tricks

49:23 Social media and polarization

51:02 Does the heart think

52:33 Locked-in syndrome

56:33 Near-death experiences

58:01 Where to find David

📍 About Silicon Zombies:Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation, hosted by Nick Larson. 🧟 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and start-up investing, no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.🚀 Connect with Us:Instagram: @siliconzombiesX (Twitter): @siliconzombiesTikTok: @siliconzombiesSpotify: @siliconzombiesSubscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

Dr. Hillary Lin is calling out the longevity world. Smart, driven people are the worst at health because they defend bad decisions harder than anyone else. They measure everything. They chase peptides and NAD. They copy whatever Bryan Johnson or Andrew Huberman does without thinking.

Here's what actually matters: the basics. Sleep enough. Move enough. Know your numbers. That's 80% of the work. Everything else is noise.

Then she walks you through the four traps that kill your protocol. Measurement obsession. Majoring in minors. Copying someone else's homework. And protocol inertia — doing the same thing in your 50s that worked in your 30s.

She gives you the CORE framework to evaluate any longevity intervention before you waste time or money on it.

A big thank you to our sponsors for making this one possible:

@tuomglobal

@necodex

@truebindinginc

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 Trailer

01:15 Welcome to Dr. Hillary Lin

03:36 The four traps

05:59 Trap #3 deep dive (copying homework)

06:00 Trap #4 (protocol inertia)

08:09 What actually works (first principles)

08:32 The longevity hierarchy

09:42 Tier 1: preventative care (the 80%)

10:31 Tier 2 & 3: where most people fail

10:52 The CORE framework (how to evaluate anything)

14:03 NAD: is it worth it?

15:50 Final message: stop rearranging deck chairs

📍 About Silicon Zombies:

Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation, hosted by Nick Larson. 🧟 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and start-up investing, no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.

🚀 Connect with Us:

Instagram: @siliconzombies

X (Twitter): @siliconzombies

TikTok: @siliconzombies

Spotify: @siliconzombies

Subscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

Dr. Vint Cerf is the closest thing tech has to a founding father. Along with Bob Kahn, he co-designed the actual protocols the Internet runs on, back in the 1970s, long before any of us were born into it. These days he's Google's Chief Internet Evangelist, but in this one he's just talking, openly, with host Nick Larson, alongside Chris Kelly and Human Khalili, in DC. He gets into the mistakes he'd fix if he could go back (IPv6 address space, mainly), the time he did a striptease down to a T-shirt that said "IP on everything" to settle an argument at a standards meeting, and why he thinks privacy might just be a side effect of small towns not existing anymore. Then it gets personal: he grew up with hearing loss, his wife Sigrid has been deaf since childhood, and he tells the story of the moment her cochlear implant let them talk on the phone for the first time in 30 years of marriage. From there the conversation moves into AI, where Cerf is genuinely optimistic but also blunt about the risks, especially around AI agents acting on their own with nobody able to trace who's accountable when things go wrong.

Part history lesson, part love story, part "here's what actually worries the guy who built the thing." Worth your full attention on this one.

A big thank you to our sponsors for making this one possible:

@bancofcalifornia

@truebindinginc

@necodex

@tuomglobal

🕒 Timestamps

00:00 – Trailer

01:26 – Welcome to Silicon Zombies with Nick Larson

01:37 – Introducing Dr. Vint Cerf, "Father of the Internet"

02:11 – Is Privacy Just an Anomaly? Revisiting the 2013 Quote

06:11 – The Security Trade-offs Cerf Wishes He'd Made Differently

10:17 – ARPANET vs. Internet: Setting the Record Straight

13:49 – The IPv6 Address Space Regret

16:17 – The "IP on Everything" T-Shirt Story

18:40 – Growing Up With Hearing Loss

19:59 – How Vint Met Sigrid

23:58 – Sigrid's Cochlear Implant and the First Phone Call in 30 Years

27:43 – Why Email Became an Obsession

29:02 – What Sigrid Would Say the World Misunderstands About Vint

30:10 – When Cerf Knew the Internet Would Be Monumental

37:04 – Joining Google: The "Archduke" Job Title Story

39:08 – Is AI Going to Kill Us All? Cerf's Honest Take

41:42 – Why AI Agents Need Audit Trails and Accountability

46:47 – Should the Government Nationalize Frontier AI Labs?

50:48 – AI, Trust, and Teaching People to Think Critically

57:58 – Cyber-Physical Systems and the Future of Agent Autonomy

60:39 – Nation-States, Borders, and the Internet's Limits

65:28 – Building the Interplanetary Internet

66:25 – Vint Cerf's Career Advice After 65 Years

📍 About Silicon Zombies:

Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation, hosted by Nick Larson. 🧟 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and startup investing — no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.

🚀 Connect with Us:

Instagram: @siliconzombies

X (Twitter): @siliconzombies

TikTok: @siliconzombies

Spotify: @siliconzombies

Subscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

VC Insiders Expose Silicon Valley: No IPOs, Fake Valuations & The Money Game

Brian Mac Mahon has invested in over 260 companies and calls the top level of venture capital "a cancer destroying entrepreneurship." Kim Kolt spent years at Goldman Sachs taking companies public before starting her own funds. In this live episode, they get into why the IPO market is basically dead, how private valuations get passed around and marked up between the same group of investors, and why Kim said no to SpaceX every single year. Brian explains why he's finally leaving LA for the Bay, what a $12 billion pre-seed round says about where the money is going, and why he thinks founders are taught to beg instead of build. Then the audience jumps in with questions on interest rates, secondaries, and whether any of this ends well.

A big thank you to our sponsors for making this one possible:
@bancofcalifornia
@truebindinginc
@necodex
@tuomglobal

⏰ Timestamps
00:00 – Trailer
01:28 – Welcome to Silicon Zombies
02:21 – Who Are Kim Kolt & Brian Mac Mahon
05:04 – Why Investors Still Come to the Bay
05:33 – Why Brian Is Done With LA
06:54 – This Is Rome: The Case for Silicon Valley
08:44 – What Keeps Kim Coming Back to SF
11:17 – Where LA Politics Went Wrong
13:04 – Founders Are Taught to Beg, Not Build
14:34 – How Kim Spots a Real Founder vs a Good Pitch
17:55 – The Glacier Grid Deal: Why She Changed Her Mind
19:27 – Brian's Rule: Only Work With Good People
21:57 – The $12 Billion Pre-Seed Round Problem
23:00 – The Greatest Fraud Nobody Talks About
24:19 – What Wall Street Gets Wrong About Startups
28:14 – Kim's Biggest Miss: Passing on SpaceX
30:26 – DeepSeek, Anthropic & Inflated Valuations
32:05 – How Brian Invested in 266 Companies
34:44 – The $100 Billion Secondary Market
35:26 – Empathism: Brian's Answer to Capitalism
37:50 – Audience Q&A: Interest Rates & the Dollar
41:52 – Is This the Next 2008?
44:57 – Mission-Locked Companies & the Patagonia Model
47:48 – Born Into Modern Slavery: The System Explained
50:02 – What Jobs Matter in the Next 15 Years
52:10 – Why Emotional Intelligence Wins in the AI Era
53:34 – The Loneliness Epidemic & Human Connection
55:28 – Mamdani, New York vs SF & Women's Health
59:34 – How to Connect With Kim & Brian

About Silicon Zombies:

Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation. 🏆 Straight from the heart of Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade. We cut through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and startup investing — no fluff, just real insight. Whether you're a founder building your network, an engineer chasing technical depth, or simply staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap. Insider access to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.

🚀 Connect with Us:

Follow Silicon Zombies on social media:
Instagram: @siliconzombies
X (Twitter): @siliconzombies
TikTok: @siliconzombies

Subscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.

Why Midlife Isn't A Crisis, It's A Chrysalis | Ft. Chip Conley

Chip Conley is on day 30 of 36 radiation treatments for stage 3 prostate cancer, going through menopause via androgen deprivation therapy, and he's the happiest person in the room. He's spent 35 years studying what makes life better, and it's not what you think. He breaks down how shifting your mindset on aging can add 7.5 years to your life, how he went from running a 52-hotel empire to becoming Airbnb's "Modern Elder," why midlife isn't a crisis but a chrysalis, and why the number one variable for longevity isn't your gym routine, it's how connected you are to other people.

A big thank's to our sponsors for making this one possible:

@bancofcalifornia

@truebindinginc

@necodex

@tuomglobal

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Intro
01:21 – Health Journey: Radiation Treatments
03:08 – Stage 3 Prostate Cancer & ADT
04:01 – Wisdom World Blog
05:02 – Growing Up: Marine Captain Dad
06:05 – Coming Out as Gay
07:04 – The Literary Agent Who Changed Everything
08:01 – Boutique Hotelier to Airbnb's Modern Elder
09:03 – Brian Chesky's Text
10:07 – Mentor & Intern at the Same Time
12:03 – Digital Intelligence From Silicon Valley VC
14:07 – The Burden of a Joy Brand in Dark Times
15:16 – Dark Night of the Soul: Five Suic*des
16:00 – His NDE at Age 47
17:05 – The Midlife Chrysalis
18:00 – The U Curve of Happiness
20:02 – Hotel Vitale: Identity Refreshment
22:02 – Psychographic Design
24:54 – The "Belong Anywhere" Exercise
27:01 – Personalization & Belonging
29:09 – What Magazine Are You?
29:49 – Advice to His 25-Year-Old Self
32:54 – Age Diverse Teams Decide Better
33:15 – Age as a Diversity Metric
34:02 – Becca Levy: +7.5 Years With Positive Aging
35:39 – Longevity's #1 Variable: Social Wellness
40:08 – His Midlife Career Intermission
42:08 – Hot Springs & Founding Burning Man's Board
42:20 – Fest 300: 36 Festivals in 16 Countries
42:27 – Modern Elder Academy (MEA)
44:02 – MEA's New Santa Fe Campus
44:15 – Chip GPT: His Personal AI
45:10 – The Wisdom Worker
47:40 – His 35-Year Wisdom Practice
50:06 – Stanford Midlife Transition Programs
51:29 – Reverse Engineering Belonging in Retirement
53:11 – Vetting People on the Happiness Question
54:25 – Longevity Travel
55:37 – Modern Medicine's Limits
56:26 – Chip GPT & Digital Twins of Wisdom
57:02 – His Secret: Social Alchemist

📕 About Silicon Zombies:

Silicon Zombies is a Top 5% global podcast for AI, Venture Capital & Tech Innovation. 🏆 Straight from Silicon Valley, we bring you weekly deep-dives with elite AI engineers, VCs, and longevity innovators shaping the next decade, cutting through the hype vs. reality of emerging tech, SaaS, biohacking, and startup investing. Whether you're a founder, an engineer, or just staying ahead of the curve, we bridge the gap to the world's brightest tech minds. Weekly live streams with a global community across 100+ countries.

🚀 Connect with Us:

Instagram: @siliconzombies

X (Twitter): @siliconzombies

TikTok: @siliconzombies

Subscribe so you don't miss the conversations defining what comes next.