The Next Big Idea5 Syys 2024

GOING INFINITE: Michael Lewis Wants to Change Your Mind About Sam Bankman-Fried

In March, when Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for stealing $8 billion from customers, many people saw it as just punishment for a two-faced poser who had spouted a lot of rot about altruism just to mask the rank odor of his relentless greed. Michael Lewis, the famed author of Moneyball and The Big Short, was not one of those people. Through his eyes, Sam didn’t look like a con man. He looked like an awkward but well-meaning kid who meant what he said about wanting to save the world and was undone not by avarice but by his “pathological ability to foist risk upon other people without asking their permission.” Michael is in a unique position to draw these conclusions. He spent the months leading up to and immediately following Sam’s downfall hovering over his shoulder, watching him operate, learning how he thought. Michael wrote a book about it, Going Infinite, published last fall, right as the crypto wunderkind-turned-pariah began his trial. Now that it’s out in paperback and the dust has settled, we invited Michael onto the show to talk about why he was drawn to Sam in the first place, what he thinks of the critics who say he was too soft on him, and how we should reconcile our primal desire for simple narratives with the complexity of real life. 🎟️ Join us for a live taping of this show on Sept. 11 with Yuval Noah Harari. More details at https://nextbigideaclub.com/events 🏛️ Check out “The Canary,” Michael’s installment in the Washington Post’s new series “Who is government?” 🎁 Get 25% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription when you use the code PODCAST at https://nextbigideaclub.com/

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The Bedazzling Mystery of Why We’re Here

We’ve had many bracing thinkers on this show, but Sara Walker might take the cake. A physicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University, her book Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's E...

13 Elo 1h 49min

How to Lead a More Gratifying Life

We’ve optimized nearly every part of modern life. So why does it feel like we’re missing the experience of actually living it? In The Small Stuff, Ian Bogost argues that our obsession with happiness...

10 Elo 1h 5min

Best Of: Adam Grant on the Science of Achieving Greater Things

We live in a world that worships talent, a world that cheers natural athletes, exalts child prodigies, and venerates virtuosos. But admiring people who are blessed with innate abilities can lead us to...

6 Elo 1h 6min

Are Robots About to Change Everything?

We've spent the last few years watching AI transform the digital world. Now it's coming for the physical one. Humanoid robots are leaving the lab and entering homes, factories, and workplaces. But ar...

3 Elo 1h 18min

You Can Just Do Things

Why do some people seem to create opportunities wherever they go while others spend years waiting for the right break? According to Cate Hall — lawyer turned poker player turned drug addict turned CEO...

30 Heinä 1h 11min

The Lost Art of Asking Questions

In the age of AI, endless information, and instant certainty, philosopher Lani Watson argues that questions — not answers — are humanity's greatest intellectual advantage. Today, she explains why cu...

27 Heinä 1h 15min

Sorry, Skeptics — AI Is Not a Bubble

First, a few numbers. This year Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta will spend more than $700 billion building AI infrastructure. There are 1,500 data centers in development across the country. AI-l...

23 Heinä 1h 18min

Why Creating Beats Consuming | Mark Pincus (Part 2)

Most people think success comes from having an original idea. Mark Pincus thinks that's one of the most expensive mistakes you can make. After building one of the most successful gaming companies in ...

20 Heinä 49min