Category: Podcast

As a member of the Boards of Directors of several companies, I regularly attend board meetings to help oversee and guide businesses. One company in our portfolio is run by some very sharp and talented young guys who have created one of the first metaverse advertising companies. It’s growing rapidly, and they’re even

On January 24, 1971, a Swiss-German university professor managed to raise money from the European Commission to fund his new idea— he wanted to start a business conference that would become a major global brand. He secured the funding and held the first conference the following month in the tiny Swiss town of

By the third century AD, it was hard to imagine Rome being in worse condition. Historians literally refer to this period in Roman history as the Crisis of the Third Century. And it was brutal. Roman citizens couldn’t believe what they were experiencing… it was incomprehensible to them that their fatherland had become

By the turn of the 18th century, Great Britain was well on its way to becoming the dominant naval power of Europe. Brits had come to understand that a strong navy and merchant fleet were necessary to grow powerful and prosperous as a nation. And a mythology was already building around the Royal

On December 10, 1896, in the picturesque seaside town of San Remo, Italy, the famed Swedish chemist breathed his last breath after suffering a devastating stroke, and died. Nobel was an incredibly wealthy man at the time of his death, and most of his wealth had been placed in a trust. (In doing

On the 21st of February, 1978, workers for the state-owned electrical company in Mexico City, Mexico were digging in a neighborhood near city center to bury some cables. After digging about two meters below the street’s surface, they hit a large rock that their equipment could not penetrate. As they dug further, around

You’ve probably been following the news that FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, is in hot water. And frankly that characterization is an insult to hot water. FTX has already filed for bankruptcy. Potentially $10 billion or more of customer money is at risk. The new CEO states that

More than 3,000 years ago, between the 12th and 13th centuries BC, the legendary king of Ithaca, Odysseus, set sail from the ancient city of Troy to begin the journey home. The stories of the Trojan War, and of Odysseus’s voyage home, have been passed down to us in the form of epic

Today’s podcast starts off in the year 1175 BC, where the legendary Pharaoh Ramses III was readying himself for battle against one of the most mysterious enemies in all of human history. Ramses was literally fighting for the survival of his kingdom, and for all Egyptian civilization. And fortunately for Egypt, he won.

First, I am really grateful for all the well-wishes and congratulations we received on the birth of my son. He’s doing great, and I’m over the moon. I decided to record a podcast about the experience– why my wife and I decided to have our first child here last year, as well as

We start our podcast today more than 2,500 years ago at a time when the dominant superpower in the western world was the Achaemenid Empire of Persia. Their civilization had reached an unfathomable level of wealth and sophistication; historical records show that, at peak, the Persian treasury had more than $300 BILLION in

In the mid 1400s, the head of the Byzantine Empire was a career politician with decades of experience who most people thought would be a capable leader. Instead, through a series of hilariously terrible decisions, he managed to take his already weak empire off the cliff, and into the dustbin of history, in

Lately we’ve been led astray over and over again by supposed ‘experts’ with decades of experience who can’t seem to stop making colossal mistakes. But I’m not just talking about individuals. I’m talking about institutions too. And one institution in particular that’s been an abject failure lately has been the central bank. That

John Adams famous wrote to his wife Abigail in the year 1780: “I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. . . in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, and music. . .” So that their children can

In the year 1566, at the end of the reign of the legendary Suleiman the Magnificent, his Ottoman Empire was the world’s dominant superpower. Ottoman territory extend across three continents over nearly 2.3 million square kilometers. Its military was powerful… and feared. The economy was strong and the treasury plentiful. But in time

The year 1776 is legendary for precisely one thing: the Declaration of Independence. But 1776 was actually a REALLY big year. Because in addition to the formation of the United States (which undoubtedly had an extraordinary impact on the course of the world), 1776 also saw two other historic trends take shape. The

Years ago when I was in the military, I had the privilege of serving with some of the finest people I will ever know in my entire life. It’s not a cliché. Many of my brothers in arms were incredibly honest, hard working, dedicated, loyal, intelligent, creative, courageous, and more. And yet, if

It’s been another historic and mind-blowing week to say the least. Over the last several months we’ve heard some of the most ridiculous lines of BS from politicians. Things like, “The economy is not in recession.” Last year’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan was an “extraordinary success”. Multi-trillion spending bills “cost nothing”. “The border

There’s an old saying that people often misattribute to Albert Einstein– that ‘the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.’ The saying has become a bit of a cliché, but there is actually some truth to it. About 80 years ago, a psychologist

For this week’s podcast I had the pleasure to speak with Viktorija once again, fresh off a long flight from Istanbul and several weeks in Europe. We had a really in-depth discussion that covers a lot of ground. We talked about Mexico City… and why it’s such a pleasant surprise: cheap, chic, clean,

Prince Harry ventured out of his nine-bedroom, $14.7 million oceanfront compound in California earlier this week to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The fact that Prince Harry is even addressing the UN General Assembly is absurd itself. But even more absurd were his weeping, whiny, wimpy remarks: “The right

It’s rare to find someone, anyone, who has yet to witness, hear about, or directly experience the devastating consequences of the supposed leadership that ‘experts’ have unleashed on us over the past few years. They have engineered and mishandle crisis after crisis after crisis… The world over, from California to Sri Lanka, people

As longtime readers know, I’ve been a tremendous fan of Lee’s since I was a small child. He was wise beyond his years and packed a great deal into his short life. I put one of his quotes up on our former office’s walls in Santiago. It reads: “To hell with circumstances; I

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian friends. And Monday, of course, is Independence Day in the United States. It’ll be an odd one for sure. Many cities are reportedly cutting back on their fireworks displays due to… yes… supply chain shortages. And many people may scale down their traditional backyard grilling due to

Today’s missive looks a bit different from our normal Friday roundup. As you probably know, a few big rulings came down from the United States Supreme Court over the past 24 hours– one on gun control, the other on abortion. Predictably, the rulings were accompanied by a great deal of noise and outrage.