Possible
Possible is an award-winning weekly podcast that explores optimistic visions of the future, focusing on how technology, especially AI, can improve various fields like education, healthcare, and art. Hosts Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger interview forward-thinking leaders and builders, often incorporating AI tools like GPT-4 and Pi into the conversations. The show aims to sketch out the brightest version of what's possible and the steps needed to get there.
Episodes
Why Americans are so worried about AI
Only 36% of AI-aware Americans expect AI to mostly help their country, according to a Gallup and Microsoft survey. Reid traces that unease to three forces: fear that the future will be worse than the present (which AI amplifies when prosperity has not reached much of the country), an instinct to protect what Americans have, and doubts about who will share in AI’s gains. With Aria Finger, he makes
Building safety tools no one can take away with ROOST’s Camille François
Protecting people online shouldn’t depend on whether a company keeps its safety tools effective, affordable, and available. ROOST founding president Camille François joins Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger to explain how a nonprofit is turning trust and safety into shared infrastructure. She digs into why social media was a blip in how we build tech, what Discord did after Twitter bought Smyte and shut
Who gets to pull the plug on AI?
Reid Hoffman sees promise in an AI buildout and wants its financial risks in the open. He and Aria Finger unpack a Financial Times report on up to $300 billion in AI infrastructure guarantees largely absent from the balance sheets of technology companies. They explore California Governor Gavin Newsom’s push for independent lab auditors and an AI kill switch, and discuss what effective federal over
When AI's builders sound the alarm
Can America lead in AI while making life better for everyday Americans? Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger weigh in on Dario Amodei’s call to pace the frontier, and Reid makes the case for America’s dual mandate: leading in AI while delivering prosperity for the many. Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger puts his personal estimate of AI-driven extinction risk above 10%. They unpack that warning alongside
Seven creators, $1,000 a week in AI tokens, one summer
Reid Hoffman and Parth Patil argue that if your AI experiments always work, you’re not pushing hard enough. Wrapping up the Tokens to the Future series, they revisit seven grantees’ experiments with $1,000 a week each in tokens. Their conversations span Dungeons & Dragons worldbuilding, an iOS game built in a weekend, and personal agents whose usefulness compounds over years. They explore how AI c
Can we defend against AI hacks? | Dozie Anazia
When AI can fake your CFO’s face and voice, what still counts as proof of identity? Infosec Analyst Dozie Anazia joins Reid Hoffman and Parth Patil to explain how AI is transforming cyberattacks, penetration testing, and autonomous defense. Drawing on projects including the Breakfast news app and Aegis URL scanner, he shows how Claude and Codex can build software, uncover an XSS flaw, and run a pe
Training robots for a world they’ve never seen
Useful robots won’t be programmed one task at a time; they’ll need to adapt to unfamiliar objects, environments, and robot bodies. Physical Intelligence cofounder Chelsea Finn (named last month to the TIME100 AI list for 2026) joins Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger to explain how general-purpose robot models learn to act in the messy physical world. She explores why lower-quality training data can str
Inside an AI-powered personal dashboard | Matthew Tiemann
AI strategist Matthew Tiemann is building toward a world where AI agents work around the clock—and humans step in for the decisions that matter. Across his work at energy services company Foundry-Logic and his personal projects, he uses Claude Code, Codex, and Fable to automate knowledge work and accelerate software development. Those projects range from an AI-assisted iOS game to a personal dashb
The whole studio is one guy | Jonathan Brazeau
Jonathan Brazeau joins Reid Hoffman and Parth Patil to explain how AI animation and filmmaking are making the one-person studio possible—letting small teams create films that once required 100 people.
From Dungeons & Dragons world-building and an RPG art book illustrated with Stable Diffusion, to a fantasy-western short film made with Midjourney, Luma AI, and Suno, Jonathan breaks down his workfl
Making taxes fun with Pikachu and AI | Cadi Zhang
Cadi Zhang joins Reid Hoffman and Parth Patil to explore how generative AI is changing game development, world models, and robotics. Drawing on her work across Unity games, VR teleoperation, AI accounting, and robotics product operations, Cadi explains what virtual worlds can teach embodied intelligence—and why physical robots still lack the tactile, real-world data that can’t be scraped from the
How Sougwen Chung teaches robots to pause
Sougwen Chung has spent more than a decade drawing alongside robots—not to automate their art, but to discover what changes when a machine becomes a creative partner. They join Reid to trace the evolution of D.O.U.G., a series of robotic collaborators that learns from Sougwen’s gestures, including a neural network trained on two decades of their drawings. Sougwen explains why unexpected machine ma
The artist using AI to sell brands | Joe Salvatore
Visual artist and brand content creator Joe Salvatore joins Reid Hoffman and Parth Patil to explain how AI is turning creative professionals into orchestrators of systems rather than makers of one piece at a time.
Joe spent four years chasing every new image and video model out of pure creative curiosity before Parth pushed him to take a step back and become a director of these tools. He traces t
The creator using AI to go viral | Will Weinbach
Social media strategist Will Weinbach joins Reid Hoffman and Parth Patil to explain how AI agents are reshaping content, distribution, and what a single creator can build.
Will had never written a line of code before Parth handed him the tools to start. He traces his path from using ChatGPT to write essays, to vibe coding his own software, to running autonomous remote agents like OpenClaw and Her
The film director winning awards with AI | Ben Hansford
Commercial director, AI filmmaker, and USC professor Ben Hansford joins Reid Hoffman and Parth Patil to explain how AI is reshaping Hollywood, film production, VFX, and comics.
Ben has been experimenting with generative AI since before DALL-E and Midjourney went mainstream, using the earliest tools to sharpen commercial treatments, win jobs, and teach one of the country's first AI film courses. H
Introducing Tokens to the Future: free tokens for builders
Tokens to the Future is a new limited series from Possible about how AI is expanding what people can build—with more tokens, custom agents, and a community behind them. In this first episode, Reid sits down with Parth Patil, co-creator of Reid AI and co-architect of the Token Grantee program, to lay out the thesis behind it.
Through the program, a small inaugural group of creators and builders—wo
America's aerospace rebirth
Blake Scholl joins Reid and Aria to explain why the future of aviation won't be built by reviving the past, but by reinventing it. They explore how Boom Supersonic rebuilt an entire aerospace supply chain, why small AI-powered engineering teams are outperforming legacy organizations, and how software is transforming the way physical products are designed, tested, and manufactured. Blake explains w
Who's got the ball on carbon removal?
Carbon removal has gone from a niche climate concept to one of the world's most important challenges. Reid and Aria sit down with Nan Ransohoff, Head of Public Goods at Stripe and a leader behind Frontier, the advanced market commitment helping build the market place for carbon removal. Nan explains why cutting emissions alone won't be enough to meet climate goals, what it will take to scale carbo
AI’s next big test: the public market
Reid and Aria explore what the coming wave of AI IPOs could mean for the future of technology, investing, and the broader economy. They discuss why public ownership may become an important way for society to participate in AI’s upside, where Reid sees the strongest long-term opportunities across the AI landscape, and why the next generation of software engineers will be defined by managing AI agen
Satya Nadella on making human and token capital compound
Reid sits down with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella fresh off Microsoft Build 2026. The conversation goes wide: how AI is reshaping work, business, and society—and why the transformation sweeping through software development today is only a preview of what's coming for all knowledge work. Satya makes the case that human capital and "token capital" are now deeply intertwined, that companies—not just co
What it takes to trust AI | Kanjun Qiu
Before Kanjun Qiu raised $200 million from NVIDIA and others to build reliable AI agents, she was writing high-frequency trading algorithms to pay her way through MIT. Today she leads Imbue, an AI lab unusually focused on power, agency, and what it would take to make AI systems trustworthy by design. In this episode, Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger sit down with Kanjun to explore what it means to tru
AI’s hidden 20-year monopoly
Reid and Aria dig into where AI is creating real, durable value—and where they see it heading to next. Reid shares an inside look at his AI-driven drug discovery work at Manas AI, making the case that medicine could be one of the biggest opportunities in the entire AI landscape. They also explore why AI will likely shift toward a mix of specialized agents and “front doors” rather than a single dom
How fast can you upskill in AI? We did a sprint to find out.
We all feel the urgency: learn to use AI, or risk falling behind at work. And we all know there’s upside: AI can reduce tedious tasks, streamline operations, and boost output. But knowing is half the battle (maybe even less) and implementing AI needs to happen across an entire organization. So what does it take to start?
Well, here at WaitWhat (the company behind this podcast!) we paused all oper
Anthropic’s push into finance
Reid and Aria explore how an AI-native world is reshaping trust, money, and work. Reid breaks down why crypto could power identity and transactions in an agent-driven internet, and what recent layoffs at Coinbase and Cloudflare signal about the shift toward AI-native organizations. They also examine Anthropic’s push into finance, and what it means for accuracy, regulation, and fraud. Plus, Reid re
The artist AI can’t kill
Beeple didn’t turn an 18-year daily JPEG habit into a $69 million Christie’s sale by waiting for permission. He posted, missed, learned, repeated, and inadvertently walked straight into the moment NFTs forced the art world to take digital work seriously. In this episode, Reid Hoffman talks with Mike Winkelmann (aka Beeple) about the real story behind the sale, why deadlines beat inspiration, how s
Divine intervention in AI
Reid and Aria unpack a pivotal turning point for AI as rapid advances in generative image tools, such as ChatGPT Images 2.0, lead to deeper questions on AI usage, culture, and habits. For example, they explore how these technologies could transform creative work and visual communication, before zooming out to a global debate where voices like Pope Leo’s weigh in on AI as a fundamentally human chal
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings: stories, schools, superpowers
This week, Reid and Aria sit down with Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings. Reed has seen technology rewrite the rules of entertainment before, but AI takes him back to his beginnings: he studied it at Stanford in the late '80s, decades before it became the only conversation in tech. Few people have watched this moment build from as many vantage points: he's served on the boards of Microsoft, Meta, B
The grid(lock) slowing AI down
With AI moving from apps into the devices we use every day, Reid and Aria explore where the real value will be created. From Google Gemini powering hundreds of millions of devices to ChatGPT entering cars, Reid argues that distribution alone won’t decide winners but that depth of use, iteration, and personalization will. They also examine the $650B race to build AI infrastructure, the hidden bottl
AI’s expanding attack surface
Reid and Aria unpack the geopolitical battle over chips, from U.S. export controls to China’s push for self-sufficiency, and how the race for compute is reshaping global power. They then turn to how AI is rapidly expanding the attack surface, driving more frequent breaches and exposing new vulnerabilities deep in the software stack as speed and scale outpace traditional defenses. Finally, they exp
Should we give AI a bank account?
In this episode of Possible, Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger talk with Sean Neville, co-founder of Circle and architect of USDC, about building the financial infrastructure for an AI-driven economy. Now leading Catena Labs, Neville is working on what he calls the first AI-native bank—designed for autonomous agents that can transact, comply, and interact without humans in the loop. The conversation ex
After SaaS
Is SaaS actually dead or just evolving? Reid and Aria break down why the traditional seat-based software model is under pressure as AI reshapes how products are built, priced, and delivered. They discuss how these fundamental changes have started shifting SaaS software toward customization, token-based economics, and deeply integrated AI systems. The conversation digs into what this change means f
Humans secretly prefer AI writing
Reid and Aria unpack three emerging fault lines in the AI era: where real power sits in the AI stack, how AI is reshaping human creativity, and whether governments could ultimately treat AI as critical national infrastructure. Reid responds to Jensen Huang's "five-layer cake" framing of AI, arguing that while compute, infrastructure, and models carry geopolitical weight, the greatest economic valu
The AI Kept Choosing War
Reid and Aria unpack new research on AI decision-making in simulated nuclear crises—and what it reveals about the limits of machine reasoning. They explore why frontier models consistently escalated to nuclear conflict in war game scenarios, and what that says about the enduring importance of human judgment. Then Reid examines the rise of software agents that can be hired like employees, and the b
How Notion rebuilt for the age of AI
In this episode of Possible, Reid and Aria talk with Ivan Zhao, co-founder of Notion, about what happens when intelligence becomes abundant rather than scarce. Zhao shares his philosophy of treating computing as a material — like steel or steam — and why organizations must be built for human scale in an AI-driven world. From Renaissance cities to Xerox PARC, the conversation traces a shift from pr
Network effects, AI medicine, and the fight for free speech
In this episode, Reid and Aria are live from New York as they unpack why predictions about the “death” of San Francisco and New York keep missing the mark and how network effects continue to anchor these cities as the world’s leading tech and finance hubs. Reid also shares advice for young founders choosing where to build and explains how to align your startup with the right economic network by br
Does AI really save time?
In this episode, Reid and Aria examine a growing tension at the heart of the AI moment: whether these tools are actually saving time or simply accelerating the pace, volume, and expectations of work. The conversation touches on workflows across investing, engineering, legal, and management and why faster output rarely means less work. From there, Aria and Reid engage with competing essays about th
Making sense of the layoff wave
In this episode, Reid and Aria unpack the growing panic around layoffs, the actual impact of AI on work, and why autonomous agents are reshaping productivity faster than most people realize. Reid points out that today’s layoffs are being erroneously blamed on AI, rather than on economic turbulence and post-COVID refactoring. The conversation then turns to the viral ClawdBot/Moltbot/OpenClaw moment
CryptoPunks creators: from art experiment to cultural movement
Before NFTs were a category and crypto was an industry, two artists released 10,000 characters into the world with no roadmap, no pitch, and no expectations. What started as an art experiment in code ended up flourishing into a movement about ownership and identity. In this episode of Possible, Reid sits down with Matt Hall and John Watkinson, co-founders of Larva Labs and creators of CryptoPunks,
Reid Riffs with Parth Patil on AI-Native Startups (Part 3 of 3)
This episode is our third and final installment of a special, three-part Reid Riffs miniseries focused on what it actually means to become AI-native. In this episode, Parth shares how founders can rethink work by breaking problems into modular pieces, orchestrating AI agents in parallel, and collapsing timelines that once required entire teams days of iteration. Using real-world examples like codi
Reid Riffs with Parth Patil on Enterprise AI Integration (Part 2 of 3)
This episode is our second installment of a special, three-part Reid Riffs miniseries focused on what it actually means to become AI-native. Instead of a news or headline-driven conversation, Reid sits down one-on-one with AI engineer and strategist, Parth Patil, for a deeper exploration of how AI is changing the way people and organizations work. In this second episode, they discuss why most ente
Reid Riffs with Parth Patil on Individual AI Mastery (Part 1 of 3)
This is the first of a special, three-part Reid Riffs miniseries. Instead of a news-and-headline driven conversation, Reid sits down one-on-one with Parth Patil, an AI engineer and strategist, for a deeper exploration of what it actually means to become AI-native. In this first episode of the series, Parth and Reid discuss how individuals can better leverage LLMs, agents, and creative tools daily.
Amjad Masad on vibe coding, AI agents, and the end of boilerplate
On this episode of Possible, Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger sit down with Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, to explore how AI is fundamentally changing who gets to build software and what that means for work, creativity, and human agency. Masad traces his journey from growing up in Jordan teaching himself to code and connects it to his love of video games which helped inspire him to build a pl
BONUS: Conversations with Coleman: Big Tech, Politics, and Trust in Institutions
This is a bonus episode from the Conversations of Coleman podcast, featuring Reid Hoffman as the guest. Here are the show notes from that episode:
My guest today is entrepreneur and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. He’s now facing something most tech business people never imagine: being personally targeted by a sitting president’s Department of Justice. Reid and I talk through the rise of politi
Stephen Colbert on connection, discovery, and human nature
This is a holiday special re-airing of our excellent episode with Stephen Colbert.
What could we gain—and what might we lose—when technology begins to approximate the contours of human connection and presence? In this episode, Reid and Aria chat with comedian, actor, and political commentator Stephen Colbert. Best known for hosting The Colbert Report and The Late Show, Stephen combines a razor s
The power of AI, from curing cancer to ballot boxes
In this special episode of Reid Riffs, Reid and Aria are joined by Pulitzer Prize–winning author, oncologist, and Manas AI cofounder Siddhartha Mukherjee for a few questions about cancer, AI, and the second edition of The Emperor of All Maladies. Reflecting back on the 15 years since its initial publication, Reid, Aria and Sid discuss how cancer prevention, early detection, and immunotherapy have
The AI energy war is here
In this episode of Reid Riffs, Reid and Aria explain why "compute" is the new oil powering the cognitive industrial revolution. They argue that the United States must urgently expand domestic data centers and energy infrastructure to remain globally competitive. The conversation explores how rapid data center construction is transforming blue-collar labor markets, driving significant wage growth f
R.I.P. Computer Keyboard (1964 – 2025)
In this special live episode of Possible, Reid and Aria sit down with Wispr Flow founder and CEO Tanay Kothari to explore a post-keyboard future where voice becomes the primary way humans interact with computers. From building one of the world’s first voice assistants as a child to creating a product now used the world over (with, as of publish, 70% user retention after one year and daily users at
AI’s Influence On The Church, Cybersecurity, and Disney
This week, Reid and Aria dive into three central AI stories that have been dominating the headlines: Pope Leo XIV issues a powerful call for moral discernment in an AI-driven world, Anthropic reveals that state-sponsored hackers used agentic AI to automate a sophisticated cyberattack, and Disney considers a radical shift as it weighs opening its IP vault to fan creators. Reid reflects on what it m
Our AI blindspot: incentives over intentions
Software is eating the world, but will it start eating us? On this episode of Possible, Aria Finger and Reid Hoffman sit down for an encore conversation with Aza Raskin that dives deep into how AI and engagement-driven tech are reshaping our lives, our democracies, and our sense of truth. From unpacking the present challenge around social media feeds to AI systems competing for our time, intimacy,
How we regulate AI could decide the next century
In this episode of Possible, Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger explore how AI is colliding with real-world regulation, responsibility, and even civility. As states like Utah, California, and Illinois roll out new AI laws governing everything from chatbot disclosure to bans on AI-driven therapy, Reid breaks down the logic that’s driving these policies. The conversation dives into OpenAI’s self-imposed l
Reid riffs on NVIDIA's chips, China’s AI ambitions, and the push to pause AI
This week Reid and Aria break down the global AI race from Nvidia’s $5 trillion valuation and the U.S.–China chip rivalry to what happens when AI starts reshaping industries like medicine. Reid explains why the future of innovation depends on how we deploy AI, not just how we build it, and why doctors, scientists, and creators will need to redefine their expertise in a world of intelligent tools.
Steve Kerr and Kris Brown on Leadership, Purpose, and Innovation in Sport and Society
What does it take to turn tragedy into advocacy, and advocacy into lasting change? This week, Reid and Aria are talking to Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and Kris Brown, president of Brady, the nation’s oldest gun violence prevention organization. Together, they explore how sports, storytelling, and civic engagement can move the needle on one of America’s most polarizing issues: guns.
In the fi
Aza Raskin on interspecies communication, empathy, and AI’s next frontier
Can AI help us better understand animals and, if it could, what might we discover? This week’s episode was recorded live at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit where Reid and Aria sat down with Aza Raskin, co-founder and CEO of the Earth Species Project. Aza and his team are using AI to decode the languages and cultures of non-human species. From dolphins that invent new tricks together to crows that
Reid riffs on fostering trust with founders, in boardrooms, and in AI
In this week's episode, Reid and Aria unpack why trust is a practical skill, not just a feeling. Reid riffs on the importance of hands-on investor-founder relationships, boardroom decisions that can make or break a company, and investor behaviors that build durable trust. They also discuss what product teams and policymakers must do to earn user confidence in an age of AI. Along the way, Reid shar
David Fajgenbaum on drug repurposing, AI, and saving his own life
How can AI really help advance medicine? Should patients and care teams be seeking second opinions from LLMs? This week, Reid and Aria sit down with physician-scientist Dr. David Fajgenbaum, who repurposes existing drugs to save lives—including his own. David shares his journey from receiving last rites as a young medical student to co-founding Every Cure, a nonprofit using AI to come up with ways
Reid riffs on Trump’s $100K visa fee, 3-day work weeks, and AI trust issues
This week, Reid and Aria dive into the debate over new $100,000 fees on H-1B visas, and discuss how immigration powers U.S. innovation and how to ensure startups aren’t shut out. They also cover developers’ mixed feelings about using AI in coding, the leap from 60% to 85% accuracy in medical AI predictions, and what it will take to bring regulators and clinicians on board. Plus, Reid shares why he
Lisa Su on semiconductors, compute, and big bets
What’s the role of semiconductors—and the companies that make them—in powering human progress? What does it look like to innovate thoughtfully in a landscape where the demand for power may be higher than the supply? With AI evolving faster and faster, how can we keep up?
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su joins the show to talk about hardware, global manufacturing, and risk-taking. She s
Reid Riffs on AI translations, Apple Intelligence, and OpenAI’s Critterz
This week, Reid and Aria discuss Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 and live translation capabilities, AI-generated movies (specifically Critterz from OpenAI), and what really could be lost — or gained — as AI technology becomes more widespread. Plus, Reid reflects on his speech at the Bologna Business School two years ago, and how far AI has come since then in amplifying creativity and humanity.
Selec
Stephen Colbert on connection, discovery and human nature
What could we gain—and what might we lose—when technology begins to approximate the contours of human connection and presence? In this episode, Reid and Aria chat with comedian, actor, and political commentator Stephen Colbert. Best known for hosting The Colbert Report and The Late Show, Stephen combines a razor sharp satire with a sincere curiosity about the world. Together, Reid, Aria, and Steph
Reid riffs on AI adoption, NVIDIA, and AI’s impact on entry-level jobs
This week, Reid and Aria discuss the challenges around integrating AI into organizations and workspaces, China’s recent pivot away from NVIDIA, and OpenAI’s new $50 million NGO-focused fund. Reid also offers his take on a recent Stanford study that looks at entry-level jobs at risk of AI replacement.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.f
MacKenzie Price on AI-Powered K-12 Schools
Gains in the quality of America’s K-12 education in the late 20th and early 21st century have largely plateaued—and , in several instances, reversed—in the last few decades. This week, Alpha School co-founder MacKenzie Price joins the show to discuss her fast-expanding network of AI-powered private schools, which she says represent the reform the system so badly needs. She explains why Alpha stude
Reid riffs on GPT-5, Figma's IPO, and the end of AOL dial-up
This week, Reid and Aria discuss the much-anticipated launch of GPT-5, Figma's blockbuster IPO, Perplexity’s bid to acquire Google Chrome, and the end of AOL’s dial-up internet service. Plus, Reid offers his take on why some companies find explosive growth and others fade just as fast.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/
Audrey Tang and Divya Siddarth on Outfitting Democracy for the AI Era
How can we take digitally-empowered democracy straight out of science fiction into reality?
This week, Reid and Aria are joined by two digital democracy pioneers, Audrey Tang and Divya Siddarth. Audrey Tang is a cyber ambassador-at-large and former inaugural Minister of Digital Affairs for Taiwan. Their pioneering initiatives like the Sunflower Movement, g0v, and vTaiwan have fought misinformat
Reid riffs on the energy arms race and AI addressing climate change
Could the very technology that requires massive amounts of energy to power it also be key to solving the climate crisis? This week, Reid and Aria discuss the global energy arms race and why the U.S. is lagging behind competitors like China. Reid weighs in on the environmental impact and human costs of AI infrastructure, along with mounting tensions between hyperscalers and the communities that hos
Tony Marx on the Future of Libraries, AI, and Trust
What can public libraries teach us about finding and sharing trustworthy information in the age of AI? How can—and should—AI build upon the technology that is books? This week, Reid and Aria head to the New York Public Library in Manhattan for a conversation with the storied institution’s president and CEO, Tony Marx. They explore the function of libraries in the age of AI, debate the future of wo
Reid riffs on AI adoption, sensitive data, and digital twins
On Part II of last week’s Live Riff, co-hosted with Village Global, Reid fields audience member questions about scale product-market fit, license modeling, data sensitivities, and the future of customer service, along with positive use cases for deepfake technology and the making of Reid AI, his digital twin. He also tells a story from his PayPal days, when Peter Thiel gave him five days to come u
Reid riffs on acquihires, agents, and new startup norms
What’s the deal with hyperscalers’ recent string of acquisitions betting big on AI talent? When will business schools start requiring classes on managing agents? And how is—and isn’t—AI changing the path to scale and the future of work? Aria asks Reid about all of this and more in a special two-part Riff, recorded for a live audience of AI leaders and founders in New York City in partnership with
Reid riffs on cryptocurrency, stablecoins and regulation
Crypto often feels like a microcosm of the broader government–tech relationship. On one extreme, you have true believers who see blockchain as the next frontier of economic empowerment and radical transparency. On the other, skeptics who point to ransomware attacks, illicit finance, and the flipside of anonymity—and call for an outright ban.
This week on Possible, Reid and Aria talk crypto –– b
David Autor on AI’s impact on jobs, expertise, and labor markets
What if AI helped people develop and deepen their existing expertise, and better outfitted them for the jobs of the future? This week, Reid and Aria are joined by one of the world’s leading labor economists, David Autor, Ford Professor of Economics at MIT and co-director of its Work of the Future Task Force. He is also a Visiting Fellow in the Google Technology and Society Program. David’s landmar
Reid riffs on massive AI acquisitions, robotics, and headcount trimming
Aria and Reid dive into the recent flurry of multibillion-dollar AI acquisitions—from OpenAI’s $3B Windsurf deal to Meta’s ~$15B stake in Scale AI—and what they reveal about how companies are racing to refactor for an AI-first future. Are acquihires overtaking acquisitions as the new strategic advantage? And how are companies balancing workforce shifts with long-term innovation? Plus, a look at th
Hannah Fry on AI, Algorithms, and Human Nature
What happens when we take numbers seriously—not just at face value, but in terms of their actual impact on our lives?
This week, Reid and Aria are joined by UK-based mathematician and media personality Hannah Fry to explore this deceptively simple question. From cancer diagnoses to dating apps, Hannah makes the case that understanding the math behind our decisions—and the "game" we're really pl
Reid riffs on if AI can become conscious
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On this week's Riffs, Reid and Aria unpack last week’s conversation with Yuval Noah Harari, discussing AI's rapid advancements, its potential impacts on humanity, and the meanin
Yuval Noah Harari on trust, the dangers of AI, power, and revolutions
What will it take to create AI that is as trustworthy, if not more trustworthy than humans?
This week, Reid and Aria sit down with Yuval Noah Harari, historian, philosopher, and best-selling author of several books including Nexus, Sapiens and Homo Deus. When it comes to outlook on AI, Yuval, Reid, and Aria agree on the importance of building both human trust in AI and AI that is genuinely tru
Reid riffs on AI companions, human friends, and age gates
On this week’s Riff, Reid reacts to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s suggestion that AIs can help address the loneliness epidemic and function as friends. He and Aria discuss why AIs can be great companions but not great friends, along with how to protect against agent misuse and deception.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/
Alexis Ohanian on the future of online and offline communities
How do we build products and platforms that support a healthy, prosperous future? What will it take to “make the internet fun again?” Should kids be using AI? This week, serial entrepreneur and investor Alexis Ohanian—who co-founded Reddit two decades ago and is currently working to reinvent the social news aggregator Digg—joins Reid and Aria to talk about (re)building online and offline communiti
Reid riffs on PBCs, jobs and automation, and AI access for kids
Reid breaks down OpenAI’s shift to a public benefit corporation—what it really means, why it matters, and why some critics are missing the point. Aria asks whether all frontier AI companies should follow suit. Reid and Aria discuss how educators can navigate the “messy middle” of AI in the classroom. They also dig into the future of assessment, what students (and job seekers) should be learning no
Jane Goodall on Hope, AI, and the Natural World
What would it look like to keep all living creatures in the loop on the development of new technology?
Reid sat down for a wide-ranging solo discussion with Jane Goodall on that very subject – and more. They talked about how to maintain hope and focus on local impact in today’s often chaotic world, how technology – and AI in particular – might be helpful for conservation, and Jane’s global yout
Reid riffs on antitrust, AI coworkers, and Chinese manufacturing
Reid weighs in on the U.S. government’s latest antitrust action against Google and what it could mean for competition, innovation, and America’s tech edge. Aria also asks about the rise of Chinese electric vehicles and why BYD might be “the Tesla of tomorrow;” the geopolitical costs of tariffs; and whether saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT is worth it.
For more info on the podcast an
Derek Thompson on AI, abundance, and human progress
Why can the United States government help make a vaccine in a year but not build a high-speed train in a reasonable timeframe? What if our biggest problems—affordable housing shortages, energy limits, and scientific slowdowns—aren’t inevitable, but chosen?
This week, Reid and Aria sit down with Derek Thompson—staff writer at The Atlantic and host of the podcast Plain English—to explore how a scar
Reid riffs on Tobi’s memo, AI and play, and the tweet that cost trillions
After Tobi Lütke, the CEO of Shopify, put out a memo stating all his employees should be expected to use AI every day, Reid offers his thoughts on AI in the workplace. He also talks about the interplay between AI, social media, mis/disinformation, and the importance of shaping technology instead of restricting technology. Plus, Reid speculates on how AI can be just as groundbreaking in the world o
Demis Hassabis on AI, game theory, multimodality, and the nature of creativity
How can AI help us understand and master deeply complex systems—from the game Go, which has 10 to the power 170 possible positions a player could pursue, or proteins, which, on average, can fold in 10 to the power 300 possible ways? This week, Reid and Aria are joined by Demis Hassabis. Demis is a British artificial intelligence researcher, co-founder, and CEO of the AI company, DeepMind. Under hi
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