
Building institutions that bend towards truth, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine
Patrick McKenzie is joined by Clara Collier, editor and publisher of Asterisk Magazine, to discuss how we create institutions that bend towards truth. Clara explains why she launched a quarterly print...
2 Okt 20251h 12min

How blogging went legit, with Substack CEO Chris Best
Patrick McKenzie is joined by Chris Best, CEO of Substack, to discuss how the platform created new economic infrastructure for independent media. They explore Substack's evolution from a simple newsle...
25 Sep 202546min

Prestige media, new media, and the US government, with Kelsey Piper
Patrick McKenzie is joined again by Kelsey Piper, who has co-founded "The Argument" to revive principled liberal discourse after witnessing how coordinated social media campaigns replaced substantive ...
19 Sep 20251h 31min

AI alignment, with Emmett Shear
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Emmett Shear, co-founder of Twitch, former interim CEO of OpenAI, who now runs Softmax AI alignment. Emmett argues that current AI safety approaches focused on ...
11 Sep 20251h 27min

Building software that survives contact with reality, with Will Wilson
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Will Wilson, CEO of Antithesis, to discuss the evolution of software testing from traditional approaches to cutting-edge deterministic simulation. Will explains...
4 Sep 20251h 15min

Defense, drones, and military procurement, with Bean of Naval Gazing
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Bean, a pseudonymous defense industry expert, to explore the intellectual crossovers between military and civilian domains. The conversation reveals how the def...
28 Aug 20251h 2min

AI and the great developer speed-up, with Joel Becker of METR
This week on Complex Systems, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Joel Becker from METR. They discuss groundbreaking research on AI coding assistants.Joel et al’s randomized controlled trial of 16...
21 Aug 20251h 4min

How banks actually work (and don't work)
In this solo episode, Patrick McKenzie reads his classic essay "Seeing Like a Bank," exploring why financial institutions often appear to have no memory of previous customer interactions despite being...
14 Aug 202534min



















