Twitter: @MoZ_Podcast | YT: @MomentofZenPodcast

Episodes

Nov. 6, 2023

E49: Biden vs Trump in Israel, Why Younger People Support Palestine, …

Dan Romero, Antonio Garcia Martinez and Erik Torenberg discuss the US reaction to the Israel-Hamas War.

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Nov. 13, 2023

E50: Balaji’s Gray Tribe, Fixing SF, and whether to start or buy a ci…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg discuss whether San Francisco can be exited or reformed, how to impact local politics, and what it would take to get talented, innovative people to live in the same city.

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Nov. 19, 2023

E51: The Sam Altman Episode: OpenAI, Sam's Legacy

Dan Romero, Antonio Garcia Martinez and Erik Torenberg discuss their takes on Sam Altman's ouster from OpenAI, his legacy, and what could happen next.

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Nov. 24, 2023

E52: OpenAI Debrief, Why Liberals Become Conservatives, and Diversity…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg discuss their takes on why liberals become conservatives, diversity in tech, and debrief the OpenAI debacle that happened this past week.

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Dec. 2, 2023

E53: Dominic Cummings on Elon, Techies in Politics, and New Elitism

Erik Torenberg and Antonio Garcia Martinez sit down with political scientist Dominic Cummings and discuss the San Francisco homelessness complex, the 2024 election, educational polarization, & more.

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Dec. 4, 2023

E54: Who Is Beff Jezos? Beff on Being Doxxed, the e/acc movement, and…

Beff Jezos, the anonymous co-founder of the e/acc movement (effective accelerationism) had his identity revealed on Friday night by Forbes reporters. He gives the inside story to Antonio Garcia Martinez, Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, his e/acc cofounder bayeslord, and The …

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Dec. 11, 2023

E55: How Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and George Soros Reshape…

Samo Burja and Erik Torenberg dive deep into the concept of a 'live player', and compare and contrast three prominent live players: Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk.

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Dec. 20, 2023

E56: Balaji and Nathan

Balaji Srinivasan, investor, former CTO at Coinbase and GP at a16z, and writer of The Network State, joins Nathan to discuss polytheistic AI and AI gods, human-AI symbiosis, and how AI will be controlled.

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Dec. 24, 2023

E57: Are Americans Desensitized to Fascism?

Noah Smith joins Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg for this episode to discuss the impact of Twitter on journalism, the desensitization and overuse of the term “fascism,” how history has led to the manufacturing capabilities of China and the U.S., …

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Dec. 28, 2023

Katherine Boyle and Mike Solana on Liberal Arts Debate and Saving San…

Katherine Boyle, GP at a16z and Mike Solana, Editor in Chief of Pirate Wires joined Erik, Dan, and Antonio to discuss whether a liberal arts degree is worth it and how to save San Francisco.

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Dec. 30, 2023

Revisited: Moment of Zen's Origins with Marc Andreessen

Marc discusses SBF, Twitter and censorship, and more. In the second half of this extra long episode with Marc, we get into the ideas of Nietzsche, Henrich, Burnham and more of Marc's intellectual influences.

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Jan. 3, 2024

Sam Harris on Populism, Inequality, and Polarization

This discussion covers Sam’s concerns about populism, polarization, and inequality. We also discuss why Sam is hated by the left and the right.

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Jan. 9, 2024

E60: Bill Ackman, Harvard, and What Happens Next?

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg talk about what's happening between Bill Ackman and Harvard: they touch on the 10-7 movement and the focus on DEI in universities, the future of education and the challenges of disrupting elite schools, the value …

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Jan. 14, 2024

E61: Curtis Yarvin on Rufo, Harvard, FDR, and The Cathedral

Curtis joins Dan and Erik to discuss his upcoming debate with Richard Hanania, FDR's leadership style, radical changes to institutions like Harvard, and more.

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Jan. 21, 2024

E62: 2023 Recap, 2024 Predictions, Farcaster/Turpentine updates

Dan and Erik discuss the potential impact of a Trump win in 2024, the appeal of populism, AI and efficiency in startups, and an update from Farcaster and Turpentine.

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Jan. 28, 2024

E63: What does E/acc stand for?

This week Erik sits down with Nadia Asparouhova and Bayeslord to discuss the meaning and philosophy of effective accelerationism (e/acc), as well as the polarization and nuance in the tech industry.

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Feb. 2, 2024

E64: The U.S. vs Europe, Bryan Johnson and Human Longevity

This week Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez sit down to discuss the popular Europe vs United States debate, the concept of human longevity, the current state of democracy in the age of social media, and more.

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Feb. 10, 2024

E65: How to Build a Startup Now, Finding PMF, and Navigating the Idea…

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg chat about building a company in 2024, selecting ideas to work on, and finding product-market fit (Dan quotes Marc Andreessen's definition of the term).

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Feb. 16, 2024

E66: Chris Dixon on the Future of the Internet, Crypto, and Web3

This week Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez sit down with Chris Dixon, a16z General Partner and author of the new book Read Write Own. They discuss the evolution of crypto, the potential impact of blockchain on existing …

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Feb. 26, 2024

E67: A Deep Dive on Farcaster: Past, Present, and Future

Erik Torenberg and Dan Romero talk about Dan’s company Farcaster, a protocol-based social network. Following the launch of Frames earlier this year, Farcaster experienced significant growth placing the team at a critical junction ripe with lessons for any startup.

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March 4, 2024

E68: Dan's Intellectual Journey

This discussion is from Erik's first interview with Dan from the Venture Stories podcast. Dan shares his views on scaling Coinbase, the evolution of crypto, as well as the books and influences that shaped his intellectual journey.

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March 9, 2024

E69: Will the US have a Civil War with @WhatifAltHist's Rudyard Lynch

In this conversation, Erik Torenberg and Dan Romero sit with Rudyard Lynch of @WhatifAltHist to discuss his analysis of potential future global events, such as an American civil war and a revolution in China, considering economic conditions, demographics, and societal …

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March 18, 2024

E70: Antonio on Social Media, Journalism, and New Religions with Par…

In this conversation, Erik Torenberg sits down with Antonio Garcia Martinez, founder of Spindl and author of ‘Chaos Monkeys’, and Parker Thompson, partner at AngelList, to explore the influence of social media on society.

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March 23, 2024

E71: Dune/Napoleon, Apple/Microsoft, TikTok, Polyamory, and Aella’s L…

In this episode, Dan, Erik and Antonio discuss Don Lemon’s interview with Elon Musk, the Dune 2 and Napoleon releases, polyamory, the Apple antitrust case, and fatherly advice. Happy birthday Antonio!

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