E22: Vivek Ramaswamy on his Presidential Run, Intellectually Oppressive Culture, Otherism

Erik Torenberg sits down with Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican presidential candidate rapidly rising in the polls. Vivek recorded this interview with us in late march. Given the attention from his performance at the first GOP debate this week, we decided to re-run it. We go deeper on many of the soundbites that have been popping up this summer, including his ideas about the culture war, affirmative action, and climate science. We also cover his ambitious transformation from Silicon Valley founder to political candidate, and discuss his radical policy proposals. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/zen

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X/TWITTER:

Erik's Twitter: @eriktorenberg

Vivek's Twitter: @VivekGRamaswamy

Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod

Erik's Substack: eriktorenberg.substack.com

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Episode Preview

(03:03) When Vivek set his sights on running for president

(09:02) Vivek’s presidential platform: Affirmative action, Climate, Fed, Drug crisis

(15:35) Sponsors: Vanta, NetSuite

(16:36) Where Vivek overlaps/differs with Silicon Valley: free speech, DEI, SVB

(24:19) How Vivek conceptualizes a meritocracy

(30:25) How to remove politics from corporations

(41:00) Silicon Valley should empathize more with the rest of the country?

(42:24) Cultural otherness

(55:06) Defining “woke”

(56:22) What’s it like to run a presidential campaign