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Episodes

Dec. 19, 2024

E57: Pod Shops; Contrarian Vibe Checks; Scaling Laws Analysis

This week, Erik Torenberg and Byrne Hobart discuss the pod shop hedge fund model, market cycles, AI pricing models, and the future of AI-generated content, with Byrne offering insights on hedge fund evolution, the current market environment, and AI's impact …

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Dec. 12, 2024

E56: AI Agents are Coming; China’s Internet; Google Wants to Win

This week, Erik Torenberg and Byrne Hobart discuss AI's economic implications, the rise of passive investing, gambling markets, and Warren Buffett's early investment tactics, examining how technological advancements shape economic metrics, market dynamics, and industry shifts.

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Nov. 21, 2024

E55: Futarchy, Elon, and Gut Decisions in Business

This week, Erik and Byrne discuss the impact of technological change on markets, debate the feasibility of Argentine-style economic policies in the U.S., discuss government efficiency, payroll costs, and political dynamics, including the potential economic effects of a Trump administration …

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Nov. 14, 2024

E54: How Bubbles Create The Future

On this week’s episode of The Riff, explore the impact of technological change on markets and businesses, discussing economic bubbles, the future of AI, the post-election political landscape, and Byrne's upcoming book Boom, which examines the role of bubbles in …

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Nov. 7, 2024

E53: Election Analysis, Heresy, and Real Estate

This week, Erik Torenberg and Byrne Hobart explore the evolving landscape of heretical ideas, election dynamics, AI and crypto’s market impacts, prediction markets, the shifting Overton window, contrarian perspectives, and trends in housing and smaller social networks.

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Oct. 31, 2024

E52: How Tech Journalism Works w/ Patrick McKenzie

In this special episode of The Riff, Erik Torenberg and Patrick McKenzie explore the evolving landscape of tech journalism, media narratives about the tech industry, and how the industry is increasingly telling its own story.

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Oct. 24, 2024

E51: Venture Scale, Y Combinator, and Financial Bubbles

In this episode of The Riff, Byrne Hobart discusses his upcoming book about financial bubbles, venture scale businesses, creator financing, and prediction markets.

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Oct. 17, 2024

E50: Freemium Apps, Restaurants, and Search

In this special episode of The Riff, Byrne Hobart is joined by Patrick McKenzie, host of the podcast Complex Systems to discuss a range of topics including app business models, restaurant industry economics, AI's impact on productivity, the evolution of …

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Oct. 10, 2024

E49: AI Art, Young Founders, and Disrupting Higher Education

This week, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg discuss the shifting dynamics of careers and education, the notion of "auto-paternalism" in organizational choices, Spotify's growth strategy in a mature market, the future of podcasts and audio content, and the intricate relationship …

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Oct. 3, 2024

E48: Facebook vs MySpace, Why Peter Thiel is Wrong About Competition,…

This week, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg dive into a range of fascinating topics such as the evolution and future of OpenAI's business model, economic rationale behind corporate buybacks, changing software economics, China's recent equity market surge and more.

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Sept. 27, 2024

E47: Cult Stocks, Tech Media, and Technological Revolutions

This week, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg discuss cult stocks like Tesla and Palantir, debate whether AI or globalization will impact jobs more, explore the energy transition's unexpected reversal, analyze Forbes' content strategy and more.

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Sept. 19, 2024

E46: Degrowth, Private Equity, and the EU Tech Industry

This week, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg tackle the current state of the EU's tech sector, evolution of private equity firms, consumer credit defaults, online reputation management and more.

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Sept. 12, 2024

E45: Efficient Market Hypothesis, Missing Billionaires, and Digital C…

This week, Byrne and Erik discuss the efficiency of market hypothesis, explores the complexities of breaking up big tech companies, unpacks the intriguing dynamics of currencies from nations to video game gems and more.

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Sept. 6, 2024

E44: Founder Mode, Uber’s Self-Driving Strategy, and Big Tech Skeptic…

This week, Byrne and Erik discuss the idea of taxing unrealized capital gains, networked nature of the finance industry, the strategic direction of Uber in autonomous vehicles, the merits of 'founder mode' and more.

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Aug. 29, 2024

E43: The Silicon Valley Canon, Smart Contracts, and the Yen Carry Tra…

On this week’s episode of The Riff, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg discuss the Silicon Valley Canon, impact of tech on traditional markets, the evolution of smart contracts, risks of currency carry trades and more.

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Aug. 22, 2024

E42: Navigating Tech Antitrust and the Future of AI

On this week’s episode of The Riff, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg discuss tricky antitrust decisions, Balaji’s Network State, the dynamics of content moderation, and more.

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Aug. 15, 2024

E41: Meta’s Open Source Strategy, Amazon’s Culture Drift, and What’s …

On this week's episode of The Riff, Erik and Byrne discuss Meta's open source AI strategy, Amazon's expansion into remote areas, and the future of AI models.

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Aug. 8, 2024

E40: The Age of the AI Organization

On this week's episode of The Riff, Erik and Byrne discuss the future of AI-powered organizations with Omar Shams

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Aug. 1, 2024

E39: Mental Models and Financial Infrastructure with Patrick McKenzie

On this week's episode of The Riff, Erik and Patrick discuss financial fraud, the evolution of trust in financial systems, talent spotting strategies, and the power of cold emailing.

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July 25, 2024

E38: Resurgence of Prediction Markets, AI Adoption and Complex Financ…

On this week's episode of The Riff, Erik and Byrne discuss the rise of prediction markets, AI's impact on software economics, and the evolving landscape of financial systems and public markets.

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July 18, 2024

E37: 2024 Election Updates, Partisanship on Wikipedia, and Amazon’s M…

On this week's episode of The Riff, Erik and Byrne discuss the recent Trump assassination attempt, Wikipedia's reliability issues, Amazon's complex media strategy, and the benefits of America's liquid financial markets.

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July 11, 2024

E36: Meritocracy, Modeling Globalization, and The Burden of Knowledge

This week, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg dive deep into David Graeber's controversial concept of 'Bullshit Jobs,' exploring its validity and impact.

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July 6, 2024

E35: How to Be President, the Future of AI Celebrities, and Training …

On this week's episode of The Riff, Erik and Byrne discuss the evolution of monetary systems, the economics of AI investments, and how AI is impacting the job market for junior software developers.

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June 27, 2024

E34: Chamath, Threads API, and the Difficulties of Scaling AI Labs

This week, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg discuss a lesser-known Chamath Palihapitiya story, the index rebalancing trade as a postmodern part of finance, AI labs, crypto, and more.

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