Oliver and Victoria unpack Bret Taylor’s appearance on The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish.

🔥 Topics we cover:

The Zen of Bret Taylor: calm prophet or calculated opportunist?

Ego death in tech: identity crises after billion-dollar acquisitions

Rebuilding Google Maps as a caffeine-fueled flex

Why Sierra’s outcomes-based pricing might actually matter

Bureaucracy as "organizational scar tissue"

AGI, Hippocratic oaths, and the gospel of responsible disruption

Code is dead—long live code: programming in the age of AI agents

AI hallucinations and the existential threat to brand trust

Building enduring companies in an era of rapid obsolescence

Tech temples, guitars, and the paradox of a well-furnished cage

Oliver and Victoria unpack Evan Spiegel’s appearance on How I Built This with Guy Raz—and the philosophical rebellion that made Snapchat more than just a sexting app.

🔥 Topics we cover:

Why impermanence was the most radical idea in social media

The "performative archive" and how Snapchat broke the mold

Digital whispers vs. digital tattoos: a new language of communication

Are streaks addictive design or emotional infrastructure?

What AR glasses mean for the future of ephemeral tech

Could digital cherry blossoms replace the internet’s permanent ink?

The paradox of recording a podcast about things that disappear

Oliver and Victoria unpack Peter Thiel’s haunting conversation with Jordan Peterson—tracing the decline of physical innovation, the rise of digital escapism, and our desperate search for meaning in a post-religious world.

From “Transcendence Surrogates” to “Pragmatic Transcendence,” this episode wrestles with the deepest question of our time: What are we building toward—if not just status and survival?

🔥 This episode explores:

Why post-1970s progress stalled in atoms but exploded in bits

The mimetic traps of politics, social media, and modern life

Secular frameworks as replacements for traditional transcendence

“The Innovation Sacrifice Gap” and why we fund convenience over vision

Is there a future for faith-informed ambition in a rational world?

Oliver and Victoria dive deep into Sundar Pichai’s revealing interview on the All-In Podcast, and emerge with a theory: Google isn't competing—it’s conquering, through what Oliver calls a submarine monopoly. Silent, patient, and infrastructural.

From TPUs to quantum computing, AI overviews to data center energy control, this is less about innovation and more about terraforming the digital future—without most of us even noticing.

🔥 In this episode:

Why Google’s "patience" is actually strategic dominance

The illusion of disruption vs. the reality of infrastructure control

Democratization or dependency? The truth behind AI at scale

The chilling implications of tech monopoly built through silence

Can innovation survive in a world where the substrate is already owned?

Oliver and Victoria unpack Gates’ sprawling conversation with Raj, challenging everything from billionaire legacy-building to the power—and peril—of foundation-driven global change.

From cognitive decline to polio eradication, personal regrets to planetary ambitions, Gates' worldview sparks fierce debate about the role of wealth, power, and privilege in shaping our future.🔥

In this episode:

“Inheritance minimalism” or aristocratic power laundering?

Gates’ “maniac mode” and the myth of meritocratic grind

Can billionaires ethically dictate global health priorities?

Foundations vs. democracy: what happens when capital outlasts elections?

Is Gates shifting from talent extraction to local innovation in India?

The haunting fear of mental decline in a cognitively driven identity

Oliver and Victoria unpack Elad Gil’s appearance on The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish.🔥 Topics we cover:Why Silicon Valley still matters (and maybe always will)AI startups and the myth of remote-first success"Cognition arbitrage" and the business of selling synthetic thoughtFoundation models as cathedrals of computationThe cultural cost of "safetyism" and regulation paralysisAre we heading toward digital feudalism—or global democratization?