This week our guest is Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, technologist, and author. We go into Kevin’s predictions for AI, interspeciation, and how humans need to be having more children.

Palmer Luckey is the founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries and Oculus VR.

Erik Torenberg sits down with Tim Urban, writer of the popular blog Wait But Why, and author of the 2023 book What’s Our Problem? where he offers a framework for thinking about our chaotic political landscape. In this discussion, Erik and Tim discuss liberalism, why heresy is important, and the notion of equality.

Erik Torenberg sits down with Katherine Boyle, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz where she invests in companies that promote American dynamism. Erik and Katherine discuss the private sector versus the public sector, the American dream in conflict with the rise of therapeutic culture, and how to reinstill a love of public service.

Erik sits down with Sam Harris, an author, neuroscientist, podcaster, and philosopher. Sam is known for having crucial conversations about morality, religion, rationality, and the pursuit of truth. This discussion covers Sam’s concerns about populism, polarization, and inequality. We also discuss why Sam is hated by the left and the right.

We're excited to introduce Upstream listeners to Moment of Zen, a weekly podcast hosted by Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, Antonio Garcia Martinez, and additional guests. This episode features special guest Mike Solana, Editor in Chief of Pirate Wires (https://www.piratewires.com/) in conversation with Erik and Dan.

Erik sits down with independent analyst Benedict Evans for a wide-ranging discussion of predictions and frameworks spanning the vast realm of technology - where we’ve been, where we’re going, and what really matters. AI scout and podcast host Nathan Labenz (The Cognitive Revolution) joins for the last 20 minutes to deepen the discussion on AI.

Erik sits down with political scientist Samo Burja ( @SamoBurja ) who founded Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm that analyzes institutions (ranging from governments to companies). Samo is one of the most interesting and wide-ranging thinkers today. In this episode, they discuss the current state and future state of America, China, Russia, Ukraine, energy, the US dollar, AI, and more.

Andrew Yang is a former founder of Venture for America and former candidate for president of the United States. Yang is now focused on introducing a third party to our two-party political system. He sits down with Erik to talk about why politics is broken and how to fix it, the current political landscape gearing into the 2024 elections, an inside look as to what's actually involved in running for president, and reflections on what he would've done differently.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a 2024 Republican presidential candidate who founded biotech company Roivant Sciences, now public.

Joe Lonsdale is the founder of Palantir, 8VC, a number of other unicorns he’s incubated, and Cicero Policy Institute. In this episode we focus mostly on his policy, breaking down what are the real problems in healthcare, education, crime/police, homelessness and what are the solutions he recommends to fix them.

David Sacks is known as a CEO/investor in multiple unicorns, and most recently a media mogul with All-In. In this episode, we trace David’s intellectual and political history from his days fighting student activism at Stanford to now.

Ezra Klein, journalist, political analyst, and podcaster sits with Erik Torenberg to go deeper into the intellectual movement of supply-side progressivism and what Silicon Valley misses about politics. This conversation was recorded in early February 2023, but is even more relevant today.

Balaji Srinivasan, author of The Network State and co-founder of Counsyl, talks to Erik Torenberg about his past and future predictions, the future of the left and right, and why tech will never be able to escape politics.

Marc Andreessen of a16z sits with Erik Torenberg to go deeper into his intellectual and political journey. TIMESTAMPS: (0:00) Intro (3:25) How much has Marc changed vs the world changed? (6:55) How much do ideas matter? Who drives society — the elite or the masses? (09:56) People respond to interests more than ideas (12:08) Mental models for the left and the right (14:45) Sponsors (Secureframe | Mercury | MarketerHire) (16:53) The road to hell is paved with good intentions (18:40) Master morality and slave morality (23:20) Unpacking Elon’s quote “Wokeness is the mind-virus” (26:00) Is classical liberalism sustainable and how it leads to wokeness (35:00) James Burnham’s worldview (42:50) How the left captured the institutions (45:20) Elon as the return to entrepreneurial capitalism (48:03) The experiments Elon is running (54:50) The billionaire mindset toward politics (57:30) We live in an oligarchy, not a democracy (1:06:00) Larry Page is the contrarian billionaire (1:07:30) Effective Altruism’s blind spots (1:10:36) Effective altruists think they can play god (1:11:16) SBF’s roll-the-dice philosophy (1:13:23) Aristocratic vs Meritocratic elite (1:21:48) Elites are insulated from the consequences of their policies (1:23:53) Why global governance is a nerd trap (1:27:16) Global governance is anti-diversity (1:30:42) Tech people are politically homeless (1:31:37) Elites can’t be removed, they can only be replaced (1:35:02) Advice for counter-elites (1:47:21) Reasons to be optimistic. Please support our sponsors: Secureframe | Mercury | MarketerHire - Secureframe: https://secureframe.com/ Secureframe is the leading all-in-one platform for security and privacy compliance. Get SOC-2 audit ready in weeks, not months. I believe in Secureframe so much that I invested in it and I recommend it to all my portfolio companies. Sign up for a free demo and mention Upstream during your demo to get 20% off your first year. - Mercury: https://mercury.com/ Now more than ever, startup founders need a safe place to put their cash. Mercury protects your money and also provides the streamlined user experience that great founders expect through partner banks and their sweep networks. Mercury offers up to $5 million in FDIC insurance, which is 20 times the per bank limit. They also make it easy to invest any cash above the FDIC-insured amount in a money market fund, a hundred thousand startups trust Mercury with their finances. I've been a happy Mercury customer and have found their team incredibly helpful and responsive. They even got an important wire out of purgatory on Christmas Eve. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and involve bank and trust members FDIC. - MarketerHire: https://marketerhire.com/ MarketerHire is one of my favorite resources for growing startups. Looking to hire marketers. With thousands of pre-vetted marketers across a dozen roles. Marketerhire matches you to your perfect marketer in 48 hours. Whether you need help with growth, marketing, SEO, lifecycle, content, or any other aspect of growth marketing strategy, marketer hire has you covered. So, if you're a founder looking for top-notch marketing talent to grow your startup, head over to marketerhire.com to find your perfect match. Sign up with the referral code “Upstream” and you'll get $1,000 in credit on your first hire.

Upstream is where Erik Torenberg interviews the world's most foundational thinkers to map the constellation of ideas that matter across tech, culture, and politics. You'll hear topics here first, and in the mainstream months later.