The Joe Walker Podcast

By Joe WalkerSociety & Culture

Favorites
95
Followers
Typical duration
99 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

The Joe Walker Podcast episodes

June 13, 2018 #53: Where Venture Capital Meets Social Purpose - May Samali
Critical technological and societal changes of the last century have been spearheaded by entrepreneurs and the investors who back them. How do innovators think about using business models to solve today’s most pressing problems? Are financial profit and social impact mutually exclusive goals?
May Samali (@maysamali) is an investor at the Urban Innovation Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that invests in startups shaping the future of cities.
Prior to her career in venture capital, May worked as a corporate lawyer and as a judicial clerk to the President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal in Sydney. She studied Law, and Economic and Social Sciences, at the University of Sydney, graduating with the University Medal, and she holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Joe caught up with May in San Francisco to discuss what motivates her; why she made the switch from law to venture capital; her criteria for deciding whether to invest in a company; and how a career in venture capital can be an unexpected way to achieve social impact.
Show notes:
Selected links
- Follow May Samali: Twitter | Website
- The Urban Innovation Fund website
- The Baha’i Faith
- 180 Degrees Consulting
- Alchemy Growth Partners, where May’s mentor Mehrdad Baghai is Founder / Chairman
- Leadership on the Line, by Ronald Heifetz
- Leadership Without Easy Answers, by Ronald Heifetz
- Tumml, urban ventures accelerator
- Zero to One, by Peter Thiel
- The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries
- The a16z podcast
- codeSpark
- Milk Stork
- Voatz
Topics discussed
- The Baha’i Faith and how it informs May’s values. [06:28]
- 180 Degrees Consulting, and the moment May realised you could use business models to solve social problems. [10:06]
- How did May begin to pivot from corporate law to venture capital? [12:40]
- Venture philanthropy. [14:43]
- May’s week of change. [15:38]
- What beliefs, advice and mentors helped May through her career pivot? [19:23]
- May’s mentor, Mehrdad Baghai, and why she admires him. [21:52]
- What did May learn from Ronald Heifetz, the Harvard leadership guru? [23:20]
- May’s summer internship at urban ventures accelerator Tumml. [29:57]
- What does May’s average day look like and how does she manage to be so effective? [37:50]
- What is ‘venture capital’? [42:18]
- How do venture capital firms make money? [46:52]
- How does the legal profession differ from venture capital as an intellectual exercise? [48:23]
- Were there any books or other sources that helped shift May’s thinking to the venture capital mindset? [51:23]
- What are some of the key factors May looks for in good companies and founders? [52:59]
- Some quick red flags you might see in co-founders. [56:43]
- Why momentum matters. [57:23]
- Social impact and profit aren’t opposites. [59:33]
- How do entrepreneurs overcome the chicken-and-egg problem where they can’t get funding without proving their hypothesis, but can’t prove their hypothesis without funding? [01:00:46]
- What are some of the Urban Innovation Fund’s current portfolio companies? [01:04:12]
- Why is venture capital a great career for someone who wants to have a social impact? [01:08:07]
- A piece of advice May commonly gives to founders. [01:11:18]
- Does May believe in any contrarian truths? [01:13:30]
1 hr 17 min
June 07, 2018 A Short Story Of Everything - David Christian
The universe is 13.8 billion years old and humans have existed for only 200,000 years. If that time...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 hr 30 min
June 02, 2018 The Art/Science Of A High Impact Career - Rob Wiblin
Most people want to help others with their career, but what's the best way to do that? Become...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 hr 34 min
May 29, 2018 The Brave Cookie Monster - Brendan Eich
Brendan Eich is widely regarded as a 'Father of the Web'. He is the creator of JavaScript and...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 hr 27 min
May 24, 2018 The Legendary, Fraud-Sniffing Short Seller - Marc Cohodes
For thirty-seven years, Marc Cohodes has bet big money against bad companies. Due to his success, he is...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
3 hr 3 min
May 17, 2018 My Friend Richard, And Theories Of The Universe - Leonard Susskind
Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch professor of Theoretical physics at Stanford University. He is widely regarded as...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 hr 7 min
May 16, 2018#48: My Friend Richard, and Theories of the Universe - Leonard Susskind
Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch professor of Theoretical physics at Stanford University. He is widely regarded as the father of String Theory.
In this episode, Joe joins Leonard at Stanford to remember Leonard’s friend and mentor Richard Feynman, one of the great physicists of the twentieth century. They also discuss Leonard’s famous ‘Black Hole War’ with Stephen Hawking, String Theory, the multiverse, and what it’s like to be a 78-year-old physicist.
Show notes
Selected links
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, autobiographical anecdotes from the great man himself
The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics, by Leonard Susskind
The World as a Hologram, Leonard Susskind (1994)
The Theoretical Minimum, by Leonard Susskind
The Theoretical Minimum website and courses
Leonard Susskind’s Stanford lectures, in podcast form, on classical mechanics and quantum mechanics
Topics discussed
Leonard explains to his father that he won’t become a plumber. [5:00]
What was Richard Feynman like? [10:44]
Feynman’s theory about fathers in physics. [15:18]
Leonard’s TED experience. [17:20]
Leonard’s famous ‘Black Hole War’ with Stephen Hawking and the time in 1981 when he first met Hawking. [19:17]
The Universe is a hologram! [33:53]
What is String Theory, and is it a ‘Theory of Everything’? [38:45]
How many universes are there? [49:00]
The anthropic principle. [52:30]
Our ability to visualise more than three dimensions is constrained by our evolutionary psychology. [57:48]
What’s it like to be 78 year-old physicist? [1:01:24]
What problem in physics would Leonard love to see solved? [1:03:20]
1 hr 7 min
May 14, 2018 The Shape Of Probability - Harry Crane
Harry Crane is a scholar who specialises in statistics and probability. He is currently a professor of statistics...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 hr 43 min
May 13, 2018#47: The Shape of Probability - Harry Crane
Harry Crane is a scholar who specialises in statistics and probability. He is currently a professor of statistics at Rutgers University.
In this episode, Joe catches up with Harry in New Jersey to discuss the history of probability, how experts routinely misuse statistics, “The First Rule of Probability”, the replication crisis in science, and how Harry thinks about probability in shapes rather than numbers.
Show notes
Selected links
Connect with Harry Crane: Website | Twitter
Harry’s book, Probabilistic Foundations of Statistical Network Analysis
Harry’s project, Researchers.one: Website | Twitter
Nassim Taleb, Foundations of Probability Seminar
Daniel Kahneman, Foundations of Probability Seminar
Harry Crane, Foundations of Probability Seminar
The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver
The modern-day snake oil salesman, Harry’s medium article on Nate Silver
A technical companion to the above medium article
Benjamin et al’s paper on redefining statistical significance
Harry’s paper on the replication crisis, a reply to Benjamin et al
Skin in the Game, by Nassim Taleb
Daniel Kahneman’s open letter on priming
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
The ‘Linda problem’ (original paper)
The ‘base rate fallacy’ (original paper)
Topics discussed
Harry’s definitions of probability and statistics. [14:20]
Misuses of statistics, including why Nate Silver is always right (and therefore wrong). [23:12]
Harry introduces “The First Rule of Probability” - an application of “skin in the game”. [28:14]
The replication crisis in science. [33:15]
Harry’s radical proposal to address the replication crisis. [59:27]
Joe and Harry discuss Kahneman and Tversky’s famous “Linda problem” and whether people being “bad intuitive statisticians” is necessarily a bad thing. [01:08:48]
Gerd Gigerenzer’s riposte to Kahneman and Tversky. [01:19:39]
Kahneman and Tversky’s “blue cab problem” and the base rate fallacy - and how they are predicated on the supposed rightness of Bayesian probability. [01:21:23]
How Harry thinks about probability in shapes rather than numbers. [01:31:33]
Harry’s new book Probabilistic Foundations of Statistical Network Analysis and the main idea it advances. [01:35:37]
Harry’s project Researchers.one and how he’s hoping to improve academia. [01:39:00]
1 hr 43 min
May 03, 2018 How Peter Thiel Destroyed Gawker - Ryan Holiday
In 2016, a Florida court delivered an astounding $140 million verdict against Gawker media for publishing a sex...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
42 min