Moment of Zen Podcast
1) Why Urban Centers Outlast Empires
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg and Samo Burja explore cities as civilization's most enduring institutions, examining their political dynamics, technological evolution, and role as interfaces b...Show More
2) AI and The War for Your Attention | Antonio Garcia Martinez and Chris Hayes from the a16z Podcast
Today on Moment of Zen we're excited to cross post a conversation from the newly revamped a16z podcast featuring Antonio Garcia Martinez and MSNBC's Chris Hayes exploring how AI-generated content is r...Show More
3) Why China and America are Creating the Same Ruling Class | Samo Burja
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg and Samo Burja explore how China's elite universities are creating a ruling class similar to America's, with student activism and credentialism reshaping both na...Show More
4) Hardware Wars | Samo Burja
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg and Samo Burja explore AI hardware dominance, US-China semiconductor competition, automation's economic impacts, and strategic industrial policy for maintaining ...Show More
5) Singapore: The City-State Strategy That Worked
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg and Samo Burja examine Singapore's transformation from poor post-colonial state to wealthy financial hub through Lee Kuan Yew's strategic governance, geopolitica...Show More
6) The Real Reason Civilizations Collapse with Samo Burja
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg talks with Samo Burja on "long history" - the thesis that human civilization is far older than believed, with complex societies predating agriculture by millenni...Show More
7) Is Nuclear Proliferation Inevitable? | Samo Burja
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg talk with Samo Burja on nuclear weapons proliferation, energy geopolitics, and his "nuclear accelerationist" argument that widespread nuclear capability is inevi...Show More
8) The Future of Media with Noah Smith and Chris Best, CEO of Substack
Today on Moment of Zen, we're airing a conversation with economist Noah Smith and Substack CEO Chris Best discussing the evolving media landscape. They dive into whether Twitter's dominance is waning,...Show More
9) Are Dynasties Better Than Meritocracies?
Samo Burja and Erik Torenberg examine how dynastic succession can outperform meritocratic systems. The discussion analyzes successful family-controlled enterprises like the New York Times, Samsung, an...Show More
10) The Middle Class Myth and Chinaâs Future with Noah Smith
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg and Noah Smith debunk the myth that globalization destroyed America's middle class, showing wages actually grew during hyperglobalization. It examines the limite...Show More