I'm joined by Episode 2's Peter Freyer, a former entrepreneur and finance executive who was also a one-time professional magician.  Tune in to learn about how I know his childhood BFF, how he earned so much money doing magic, and hear the story of how being unemployed led to appearing on 11 different game shows, including both Wheel of Fortune and The Price Is Right.

Scott Johnson is back to help me analyze a fresh crop of VC deals.  The deals we feature this month are:

With bonus discussion of:

Dr. Ken returns to help me break down Episode 2 of Season 2 of Mental Samurai.  We discuss the runs of Ben Hockman, his fiancee Dr. Laura Kerber (note that Ben has a Ph.D too), Ryan Shyng, Bianca Harris, Peter Freyer, and Reigning Samurai Gleb Golfin.  Tune in for our analysis, and to learn whether $30,000 is more than $0.

Michelle Joy Nixon (MJ to her friends) is the first Season 2 competitor to make it into the recording booth.  We discuss MJ's remarkable life (which includes growing up as a tomboy, being the first in her family to graduate from college--Magna cum Laude from the University of Florida, realizing her childhood dream by working as a reporter for ESPN, switching to teaching special needs kids, and getting involved with multiple televised competitions) and dive into the details of how Mental Samurai Season 2 came together (first MJ was going to shoot in Spain, then finally in Portugal, which involved flying from Jacksonville to LA to New York to Lisbon).

We also explore MJ's pop culture Achilles heel, which tripped her up because she's never seen Star Wars, or many other movies, as I discovered when she referred to Harrison Ford as, "Isn't that the guy that played a cowboy in some movie?", and didn't know him as Han Solo or Indiana Jones.

You can learn more about MJ at her various websites, and you can even view some of her local TV commercials on her YouTube channel!

To supplement my Episode 1 recap, I'm joined by Dr. Ken Franklin, critically-acclaimed game designer and fellow Mental Samural Season 1 competitor.  We talk about Dr. Ken's game design career, and he breaks down the specific changes made between Season 1 and Season 2, and what they imply (e.g. Sequence questions are now easier, because they are all 3-item questions, rather than including 4-item questions; how Ava is moving differently).

I'm hoping that Dr. Ken will come back later on in the season, so show him some love!

Season 1 Mental Samurai Chris Yeh recaps the Season 2 premiere.

I discuss the changes to the show's format, and discuss the events of S2E1, including the right way to approach Gridlock puzzles.

Competitors:

I'm joined by Mona Mourshed, the founder of Generation, which helps thousands of people find meaningful careers in countries around the world.  Mona and I talk about her remarkable life, her work at Generation, how the pandemic has made this work even more urgent, and how blitzscaling differs for organizations in the social sector.

Scott Johnson returns to analyze another set of blitzscalable venture deals.  This time, we cover the month of March 2021, including three collectibles-focused deals:

Scott Johnson returns to analyze another set of blitzscalable venture deals.  This time, we cover the month of February 2021:

Scott Johnson returns to analyze another set of blitzscalable venture deals.  This time, we cover the month of January 2021: