The Accent Podcast

Jim Grant is the founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of financial markets popular among some of the most famous investors. Over past 35+ years of the publication, Grant developed a cult following on Wall Street.

In this interview we discussed Modern Monetary Theory and its limitations, Keynesian and Austrian Schools of Economics, recent government actions in response to COVID, Jim's life, career, and founding Grant's Interest Rate Observer.

Dominique Crenn is the owner of Atelier Crenn restaurant in San Francisco, and is the only female 3 Michelin Star Chef in the US. In her recent memoir - Rebel Chef: In Search for What Matters - she shares her fascinating life story from French orphanage to the pinnacle of culinary art.

In this interview we discussed Dominique's journey: influence of her parents, challenges she had faced (she didn't have a formal culinary education), building Atelier Crenn, her battle with cancer, and many other things.

01:10 How is Atelier Crenn adapting to COVID?

04:45 Changes COVID will bring to the restaurant industry

08:20 Restaurants move towards healthy choices

10:10 Thoughts on her Memoir

15:00 Adoption & childhood

17:30 Favorite childhood memory

18:40 Mother's teaching

23:45 Young Dominique

24:15 Leaving France

26:00 Jeremiah Tower

30:45 The origin of confidence and how it was applied at Stars

34:17 Nature vs Nurture

37:40 Blending past experiences and starting Atelier Crenn

42:00 Netflix – Chef's Table

44:20 Choosing investor, and balancing art and business

46:30 The role of Michelin Stars

50:02 After achieving everything one could dream of, what drives her now

52:00 French President's dinner and Allen Ducas

55:12 Women in the Restaurant Industry

56:55 Defeating Cancer

59:30 looking for the biological mother

01:00:50 Blitz

Eicca Toppinen is the founding member of the multi-platinum metal band Apocalyptica, which has a cult following around the world. Its first album, Plays Metallica by Four Cellos was released in 1996 and turned the heavy metal music upside down due to the band unique sound - the new music style is now called Symphonic Metal. In this interview we covered the history of the band, changes in the music industry, Eicca's life and creative process, and collaboration with Metallica & other bands.

Time stamps:

00:15 Streaming live concert

03:23 How are albums and features songs are written

08:24 Creating a band

14:53 International tours

17:00 How do musicians make money

18:50 Genesis of Apocalyptica

24:00 Plans for future

27:30 Metallica's 30-year anniversary

29:00 Describing each member of Apocalyptica

33:48 Describing each member of Metallica

35:44 Getting to know Eicca

39:30 Choosing to become a musician

45:00 Writing music for Movies and Plays

47:27 Process of writing a music

50:49 Main motivation

54:54 People Behind the curtain

Given the amount of information about COVID (often contradicting), I thought it would be a good idea to have a discussion with an expert to make sense of it. I interviewed Dr. Robert Wachter, Chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF, whose team has been working on COVID response from the very beginning. We covered everything from How COVID affects human body to Vaccines to Hydroxychloroquine to conspiracy theories, and everything in between. Dr. Wachter also answered a bunch of my trivial questions: - Does he wipe groceries and mail? - Is he comfortable going to a Gym? - Does he think it is safe to send kids back to school?; and many other questions.

You can find more episodes on www.Youtube.com/TheAccentPodcast

Rough outline:

01:33 Who is Dr. Robert Wachter

03:22 How COVID affects people with different pre-existing conditions

07:45 Effective treatment, but not Hydroxychloroquine

15:00 Vaccines are coming in February 2021?

21:22 Why is COVID picking up again?

26:27 Do masks actually work?

30:50 Shortage of PPE and Testing – supply in China

36:10 First signs of the Storm

42:35 Is COVID human made virus?

44:56 Day-to-Day activities: Wiping groceries? Fly? Eat out? Gym?

57:28 Digital transformation of medicine

Tom Steyer is a Political Activist, Environmentalist, and Philanthropist. He is well known to the general public for his recent run for Democratic Presidential Nomination (2020 election), and for his career as a founder of Farallon Capital - a multi-billion hedge fund. Tom was recently appointed by the Governor Gavin Newsom to Co-Chair California Task Force on Business and Job Recovery that is focused on re-opening CA for business post-COVID lockdowns.

We spoke about BLM protests, COVID, Tom's run for Democratic Presidential Nomination, his childhood, lessons he learned from his parents, and philanthropy.

01:45 George Floyd and Black Lives Matter

03:20 Structural Racism in USA

07:12 Co-Chair of Task Force for reopening California after COVID

09:20 There is no going back

12:11 Reconciliation of the struggling economy and booming markets

14:20 Grade CARES ACT and Federal Reserve's response to COVID

16:43 Administration's response to COVID too bad?

20:25 How fun was the Presidential campaign?

23:30 Those arguments on the stage – are they real?

25:43 Childhood in New York

26:30 Tom's Mother and what he learned from her

30:00 Philanthropy is a Rich person writing a check – it is not sustainable

Vitaliy Katsenelson is a famous value investor and a CEO & Chief Investment Officer of Investment Management Associates. Vitaliy has written several books on investing, including Active Value Investing and The Little Book of Sideways Markets.

We spoke about value investing, Vitaliy's investment process, his view on diversification, his biggest mistakes, his bucket list, and many other things.

Time stamp

00:40 Who am I

02:14 What's Value Investing?

05:50 Is Warren Buffett a value investor or a GARP investor?

07:20 Diversified stock portfolio vs concentrated stock portfolio

09:50 When do you sell stocks

11:32 Case study: Twilio

15:15 Vitaliy's stock picking process

17:14 Learning from biggest losers: Electronic Arts

22:14 The investment management Industry gets dumber and smarter at the same time

25:20 Time management between investing, writing, and having a family

28:07 Investment advice to non-investors: unusual budget

33:47 USSR influence on a future investor

37:38 From analyst to CEO

38:30 Blitz

41:51 Advice to youth

Visit:www.TheAccentPodcast.com

Music: Bensound.com

Lou Ferrante is a former mobster of the Gambino Crime Family, who did his time in prison, and then turned his life around becoming a bestselling author and a sought after TV personality.

Lou's book, "The Mob Rules: What Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman", became a best seller and was named The Best Business Book by Forbes. It was subsequently translated into 16 languages. His TV project, "Inside The Gangsters' Code", explores different gangs around the world and has been successfully running on Discovery Channel since 2013.

We spoke about his path to the Gambinos, his arrest, his time in prison, the transformation he has gone through, his books, John Gotti, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and many other things.

01:45 Who is Lou?

03:30 Writing a bestseller

10:15 Fake diversity

12:00 Meeting George Weidenfeld

14:30 History of Mafia – contradictions

16:54 What is mafia?

19:20 Growing up in Queens

24:00 Crime in DNA

25:20 Prison stories

29:51 Mafia's role in the streets

32:50 Day-to-day in Mafia

38:20 Snitching - Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

43:50 Arrest

47:00 Times have changed – Snitching 2.0

55:57 Prison is the greatest thing happen to me

1:01:45 "Mein Kampf" and other first books

1:04:00 Life advice to youth

Visit www.TheAccentPodcast.com

soundtrack: Bensound

Fengsuo Zhou is a President of Humanitarian China, a non-profit organization that is focused on development of a civil society in China to promote rule-of-law, human rights, and freedom of expressions.

Fengsuo was one of the student leaders during the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, and after the massacre ended up on the list of 21 Most Wanted issued by the Chinese government.

In this interview we discussed what happened at the Tiananmen Square 30 years ago, Fengsuo's role in the protest, his arrest, and the life afterwards.

01:35 Humanitarian China - support to political prisoners

04:30 Million people on Tiananmen Square

05:23 China erases memory of the Massacre

06:25 Going back to the Square

09:35 From mourning to political protest

15:10 Becoming a student leader

21:34 Democracy within reach

24:35 Massacre starts

26:00 List of Most Wanted

27:36 Arrest and Prison

30:15 Exile

35:30 Current Hong Kong protests

37:42 How would China be different if student movement succeeded

40:40 Hope for China

41:47 Beyond totalitarian regime

Visit www.TheAccentPodcast.com

Soundtrack: www.bensound.com

Dan Primack is a Business Editor of Axios, where he runs the daily Pro Rata newsletter and hosts the daily Pro Rata podcast, among other things.

Previously, Dan was with Fortune.com as Senior Editor, where he covered deals and dealmakers, from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road. At Fortune, Dan launched a very popular newsletter, Term Sheet, which covered venture capital, Wall Street, M&A and other deal-related topics.

Prior to Fortune, Dan was an Editor-at-large with Thomson Reuters, where he launched both peHUB.com and the peHUB Wire email service.

Here you have it - ALL "must subscribe" daily newsletters about deal and dealmaking were created by the same person - Dan Primack.

In this interview we covered various subjects, from Uber's IPO and Slack's direct listing to Dan's favorite music band.

Visit www.TheAccentPodcast.com

Guy Kawasaki is the Chief Evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. He is a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). Guy is widely known around the world for his books and speeches on entrepreneurship, and his early work at Apple alongside Steve Jobs.

We covered many subjects, from his childhood in Hawaii to his path to Apple, and from his student record to 15 books he has written, including recently published Wise Guy. We also covered entrepreneurship, venture capital, business operations and many other subjects.

Visit www.TheAccentPodcast.com