The AI Metagame

The AI Metagame: Episode 05 with Nate Silver and Raf Michalowski May 19, 2026 01:16:44 In this episode of The AI Metagame, host Brandon Adams sits down with famed forecaster Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) and digital media builder Raf Michalowski to talk about AI slop and where the content industry is headed.At its peak, Raf's pipeline was uploading around 60,000 videos a day to YouTube — roughly 3% of all daily uploads on the platform. He walks through the economics, how platforms en

The AI Metagame: Episode 04 with Lev Milman Apr 7, 2026 43:51 Episode 4 | The 600,000-Claim Brain: How Lev Milman Uses AI to Map RealityHow do you stay ahead of the curve when the "curve" is moving at the speed of light? In this episode, we sit down with Lev Milman, a former U20 US Chess Champion and macro trader, to explore his radical, AI-driven approach to information processing and belief updating.Lev has constructed a massive digital knowledge base cons

The AI Metagame: Episode 03 with Haralabos Voulgaris Mar 19, 2026 01:02:20 Episode 3 | The edge belongs to whoever's willing to break things first.Most people are waiting for the safe path. Haralabos Voulgaris handed an AI agent his brokerage API, watched it place $20,000 in unauthorized trades, and responded by building a better confirmation tree — not by shutting it down.We explore what happens when a professional gambler's risk appetite meets the AI frontier — deployi

The AI Metagame: Episode 02 with Bryan Pellegrino Mar 12, 2026 59:30 Episode 2 | Controller | Over-Optimization: Why efficiency kills resilience.A perfectly optimized system is just a fragile one waiting to break. Our guest explains why they stopped optimizing for margins and started optimizing for survival, and what that means when AI moves faster than your org can adapt.We've spent decades chasing efficiency. Removing friction, maximizing output, trimming every e

The AI Metagame: Episode 01 with Kory Kilpatrick Mar 3, 2026 01:07:38 Episode 1: Builder | Controller | Premature Abstraction"I built for scale before I understood the problem"In a world where tools allow us to scale instantly, the temptation to build big is overwhelming. But what happens when you scale the wrong thing?The AI Metagame is a twelve-episode series that looks at four archetypes in AI — Builder, Explainer, Interpreter, Narrator — to map where AI creates

Interview with Alex Hutchinson Mar 20, 2025 01:25:22 Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience) is my favorite fitness journalist. This podcast was an absolute pleasure. We had the opportunity to explore his outstanding new book, The Explorer's Gene. We also discuss, in detail, his 2018 NY Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. I rate this book among my top ten favorite works of non-fiction.

Interview with Jared Dillian Apr 19, 2023 52:26 Jared Dillian (@dailydirtnap) publishes daily market commentary (The Daily Dirtnap, www.jareddillian.com). He hosts a twice weekly podcast called Be Smart. He has a popular Substack (https://substack.com/profile/450570-jared-dillian), and he's the author of Street Freak and All the Evil of This World. His latest book, Those Bastards: 69 Essays on Life, Creativity, and Meaning, was published in

Interview with Scott Fawcett and David Epstein Nov 15, 2022 01:38:46 Scott Fawcett (@scottfawcett) is the creator of the DECADE golf system and he has coached Will Zalatoris, Stewart Cink, Keith Mitchell, and many others. In the first hour, we do a deep dive into golf analytics. He describes his career in professional golf, his early discovery of the PGA Tour's Shotlink Data and Mark Broadie's Strokes Gained Metric, his development of the DECADE system, and his e

Interview with Daniel Negreanu Nov 1, 2022 01:20:39 Daniel Negreanu (@realkidpoker) is fresh off a $3.3 million win in the Super High Roller Bowl. Perhaps the most famous poker player on the planet, he is ranked #3 on the all-time money list. We start with a discussion of the new era in poker ("the Solver era") and some recent adjustments he's made in his game. We move on to some deep history - his move from Canada to Vegas; his early years wit

Interview with David Benefield Oct 13, 2022 01:08:14 David Benefield (@DWBenefield) is a poker legend with an incredible story. He started poker at age 16 after watching the movie Rounders. He dominated the biggest games online from ages 21-26. By his own estimate, he worked 100 hours a week during those years. In 2010, he went back to school at St John's University and then Columbia University (transfer after sophomore year). After his first

Inverview with Brad Delong Oct 7, 2022 01:27:32 Brad Delong is an economic historian at UC-Berkeley. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration, he frequently writes about policy issues on Twitter as @delong, where he has over 80,000 followers, and on his popular blog Grasping Reality (https://braddelong.substack.com). He is the author of a new book, Slouching Towards Utopia, that has been widely lauded

Interview with Shaun Deeb Sep 26, 2022 01:03:33 Shaun Deeb is, far and away, the most successful player at the World Series of Poker over the past decade (when evaluated based on WSOP leaderboard points). We discuss, among other things: his daily routine, WSOP fantasy poker, his view on tournament edges, his rise in poker (playing at Turning Stone in NY as an 18yr old) to his near fall (playing in Mexico post Black Friday), mixing family and

Interview with Eric Olson (on AI/Machine Learning) Sep 19, 2022 01:00:13 Eric Olson (@IPlayedD1) is the co-founder of Consensus, a leading start-up in natural language processing. I was interested in learning about the specific topic of AI/machine learning in the social sciences, and Eric was a brilliant guide in this area. Eric is a former football player at Northwestern who graduated with a master's in predictive analytics. With co-founder Christian Salem, he bui

Interview with Patrik Antonius Sep 9, 2022 01:34:10 Patrik Antonius is one of the biggest winners in the history of poker. Even seasoned poker fans will be shocked by some of stories in this pod. We cover all aspects of his approach; we deep-dive into health, the mental game of poker, fun off the felt (especially crazy prop bets), and key aspects of Pat's personal poker history.

Interview with Edward Chancellor Sep 2, 2022 01:11:43 Edward Chancellor is a British financial historian, financial journalist, and former investment strategist. He wrote the bestselling book Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation in 1999 and Crunch-Time for Credit in 2005. He has just published The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest, which I rate as the best book I've read this year. Fortune has called Chancellor "one

Interview with Matt Kalish Aug 29, 2022 01:16:19 Matt Kalish (@mattkalish) is the Co-Founder and President of Draftkings. A computer science major from Columbia, Matt is a passionate gamer who also has one of the largest personal collections of NFTs in the world. In this podcast, we take a deep-dive into the new Reignmakers project at Draftkings, where players assemble fantasy teams using player NFTs that they have purchased and compete for te

Interview with Peter Jennings Aug 26, 2022 01:11:44 Peter Jennings (@CSURAM88) is one of the most successful daily fantasy sports players of all times. Notably, he won the first ever six-figure DFS prize, as well as the first ever $1 million Draftkings live final. He is a popular podcaster, and an extremely successful sports entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Fantasy Labs (sold to Action Network), as well as Lucky Trader HQ (an analytics c

Interview with Hugh Hendry Aug 22, 2022 01:15:27 Hugh Hendry was the founder and Chief Investment Officer of the macro hedge fund Eclectica Asset Management. After strong returns before and during the Great Financial Crisis, he became a popular figure in the financial media. He retired in 2017 to run a luxury hotel in St Barts, but has lately been increasingly active in financial media, tweeting as @hendry_hugh (60k followers) and podcasting

Interview with Ben Hunt Jun 23, 2022 01:30:43 Ben Hunt (@epsilontheory) earned a PhD in Government from Harvard in 1991. He was a research academic for a decade before founding two technology companies. He then worked in investment management for a decade, before starting a content community at www.epsilontheory.com in 2013. Epsilon Theory quickly found a large audience of over 100,000 email subscribers. For the past several years, Epsilo

Interview with Kyle Boddy (Driveline Baseball) May 19, 2022 59:37 Kyle Boddy (@drivelinebases) is the founder of Driveline Baseball, the best data-driven baseball development program in the world. I recently taught a course in sports analytics at the University of Miami, and Kyle was gracious enough to provide materials to Nikolai Yakovenko for a guest lecture on "What Makes Good Pitching?" The material is fascinating and surprising for anyone with the slightes

Interview with Bill Perkins May 13, 2022 01:53:14 Bill Perkins (@bp22) is a successful hedge fund manager and entrepreneur. Very few podcasts that I've done have changed my thinking so distinctly. Bill, who started on Wall Street at $16k a year and then found extreme success as an energy trader in Texas, noticed that many of his contemporaries were bad at enjoying life (and, worse, they were unhealthy). Seeking to avoid the same mistakes, he

Interview with Doomberg Mar 26, 2022 56:30 Doomberg (@DoombergT) has become a star of Substack and financial Twitter. Doomberg's in-depth, smoothly written pieces have quickly found a regular audience of nearly 100k per post. We spend the first third of this podcast chatting about his most popular post ("Dollars Ex Machina", on crypto). The second third of the podcast explores his general philosophy on investing, and the last third cove

Interview with Jared Dillian Feb 21, 2022 52:24 Jared Dillian (@dailydirtnap) publishes daily market commentary (The Daily Dirtnap, www.jareddillian.com). He hosts a twice weekly podcast called Be Smart, and he's the author of Street Freak and All the Evil of This World.

Interview with Christopher Leonard Jan 28, 2022 01:27:24 Christopher Leonard has written a fascinating new book on the Federal Reserve, The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy. This was one of my top three favorite podcast interviews of all time. Chris, a prominent journalist and author of the acclaimed Kochland, has written an outstanding book, and his knowledge and passion are evident in this interview.

Interview with @VonMises14 (Punk 1111) Dec 17, 2021 01:15:35 I probably learned more from this pod than any other that I've done. @VonMises14 is a master of the crypto and NFT space. He has held, at various times, more than 60 punks at a time, including some of the most valuable ones, and he has an extensive collection of digital art of every type. His transition from an early btc holder (2011) to the NFT space makes for a fascinating story. Von Mises

Interview with Peter Jennings Dec 13, 2021 01:29:48 Podcast 37 is an interview with my friend Peter Jennings (@CSURAM88). Peter, perhaps the most successful player in the early years of daily fantasy sports, was a co-founder of the highly successful site www.fantasylabs.com and is a successful investor in the sports analytics and legal sports gambling spaces. He is the co-founder and CEO of LuckyTraderHQ (www.luckytrader.com), which seeks to be the

Interview with Cole South Dec 1, 2021 01:12:44 Cole South (@ColeSouth) has mastered pretty much everything he’s touched, and this pod was a great opportunity to learn from him. His ascendency in poker was legendary, but I didn’t understand before this podcast exactly how rapid it was: he discovered poker at the very end of 2005, and was one of the biggest winners in the game in the Spring 0f 2006. He then quit school (he later finished) and st

Interview with Philip Sternheimer Oct 21, 2021 01:06:42 Philip Sternheimer is a partner at Hellman and Friedman who also plays in the biggest poker games in the world. In this episode, we cover: his experiences in the Bobby's Room, including his stint in a massive $5k-$10k limit game; his advice for career success, especially for those transitioning from poker; his "Not-to-do List" list for for investing; his advice for time-efficient fitness and nutr

Interview with Cory Mikesell Aug 24, 2021 02:23:30 I started getting poker coaching from Cory about six months ago , and then became fascinated by his life story. In addition to studying poker intensively, he's a writer and former Chess Master, and he's keenly interested in rapid skill acquisition (a lifelong learner, he's now most interested in languages).

Interview with Dan Cates Aug 9, 2021 01:15:53 This episode features an interview with Dan Cates. Known by his online moniker "jungleman", he's one of the biggest winners in the history of poker. In this interview, we dive deep into our respective poker matches with Phil Galfond, and he teases an ambitious match "lock the doors" match against Galfond that might (or might not) happen later this year. Dan previews his new social app (involv

Interview with Phil Galfond Jun 25, 2021 53:39 Podcast 32 is an interview with Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond), a top poker player in the world for nearly two decades and founder of training site www.runitonce.com. This interview - for hardcore poker fans only - is a detailed look at his recent heads ups poker challenges. Phil, who is currently undefeated in heads up PLO challenges, details the emotional rollercoaster of his first challenge, wh

Interview with Barton Wang (April 20) Apr 20, 2021 01:10:25 In my third podcast with Barton Wang (@Barton_options), we discuss recent market events, the Archegos Capital saga, and Barton's new subscription newsletter, Liquidity Matters (a 2-3 times a week newsletter that elucidates Barton's long-held view that short-term monetary and fiscal policy changes are the primary driver of market action).

Interview with Nate Silver and Tom Dwan Apr 8, 2021 01:42:36 This is a unique 3-way podcast with Nate Silver and Tom Dwan. We hit pretty much everything under the sun, including some fan favorites (betting markets, poker, cryptocurrencies, NFTs).

Interview with Doug Polk Feb 12, 2021 01:12:02 Doug Polk is the top poker content creator (100 million+ views on Youtube) and a top poker player. The live streams of his recent 25,000 hand challenge against Daniel Negreanu was one of the most-watched pieces of poker content ever. In this interview, we discuss his ascent in poker and in poker content (first 30 min), the details of his match with Daniel Negreanu (second 30 min), and then his v

Interview with Jason Strasser (on Gamestop) Feb 1, 2021 45:47 In this pod, Jason Strasser gives his takes on the recent craziness in $GME stock. Jason (@strassa2) is the co-founder and CIO of Caption Partners. This podcast is for entertainment purposes; it should not be viewed as investment advice.

Interview with Tom Dwan Dec 8, 2020 01:21:45 Tom Dwan (@TomDwan) has been one of the most popular and successful poker players in the world since he first popped on the scene as a teenager playing high stakes under the moniker "durrrrr". His clips on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark are the most widely discussed and downloaded poker content on the internet. This is his first ever podcast.

Interview with Jennifer Shahade Oct 5, 2020 01:25:07 Jennifer Shahade (@JenShahade) is the host of what might be the greatest poker podcast of all time --- the wildly ambitious Poker Grid podcast. Jen has a fascinating background - a longtime poker player, she is also a two-time US Women's Chess Champion. We spend about half of the time discussing the Poker Grid podcast (which features 169 poker players talking about the 169 possi

Interview with Barton Wang (Sept 28) Sep 28, 2020 01:12:12 Barton Wang (@barton_options) is an extremely popular financial commentator on Twitter. This podcast is a follow-up to our conversation on March 10. That episode was the most popular episode ever on this podcast (30k+ downloads), in part because Barton, whose parents lived near Wuhan, made some detailed predictions about the economic and health consequences of COVID19. In the first part of this po

Interview with Richard Davies on Extreme Economies Aug 17, 2020 01:20:20 Richard Davies is the former economics editor of The Economist. He is also a fellow at the London School of Economics, and a former speechwriter for the Bank of England. In this podcast, we discuss his fascinating new book, Extreme Economies, in which he visits nine places across the globe that are dealing with inequality, technological change, environmental change, or aging populations to an extr

Interview with Chad Schroeder Jul 22, 2020 01:06:15 Many people consider Chad Schroeder the best season-long fantasy football player in the world. If you have the slightest interest in fantasy football, this is simply a must listen. If you don't like fantasy football, don't listen. If you do like fantasy football, especially auction drafts.... well, Chad will blow your mind. Almost every sentence is loaded with strategic depth. You will reali

Interview with Nelson Peña Jul 9, 2020 01:02:41 A former collegiate tennis player and 15x Olympic distance triathlete, Nelson Peña is now a performance coach with an unusual focus -- fitness in the 40s! He's very easily the fittest 40-something I know, and this interview is full of tips for nutrition, fitness, and mental resilience for men in and around the 40s. Nelson can be found on insta @thenelsonpena and online at www

Interview with Ben Sulsky Jun 27, 2020 02:23:55 Ben Sulsky is the consensus best poker player in the world. He rarely appears on podcasts, and doesn't do social media. In the first half of this podcast, I ask him questions about poker; in the second half, he asks me questions about economics.

Interview with Maria Konnikova Jun 16, 2020 01:13:14 In this interview with Maria Konnikova (@konnikova), we discuss her new book, The Biggest Bluff (available next week on Amazon). Maria, a bestselling author and contributing writer for The New Yorker, originally planned on spending one year on the pro poker tour, where she would study under one of the world's best (Erik Seidel). In fact she spent three years and had major success. Her book about

Interview with James Grant May 30, 2020 59:25 In this interview, I had a cherished opportunity to interview Jim Grant, a legend of financial journalism. We discuss his new book on Walter Bagehot, and the Federal Reserve interventions of March and April 2020.

Interview with Joe Campanale May 22, 2020 01:09:08 Joe Campanale is a renowned sommelier, restaurateur and wine expert. After co-founding several wine-focused concepts with the West Village-based Epicurean Group (dell'anima, L’Artusi and natural wine bar, Anfora), Joe branched out on his own in 2017 to open Fausto in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Following Fausto’s immediate success, Campanale opened LaLou, a neighborhood wine bar in Prospect Heights,

Interview with Jonathan Shecter May 2, 2020 57:11 Brandon Adams Podcast Ep 17: Interview with Jonathan Shecter. Jonathan Shecter (@sheckygreen) co-founded The Source magazine in his Harvard dorm. He then moved to New York, where as editor-in-chief, he oversaw content of The Source as it became the most influential publication in hip hop history. In the early 2000's, he moved to Vegas and became deeply involved with electronic music, ultimately be

Interview with Arnold Kling Apr 21, 2020 01:16:46 I really enjoyed this opportunity to interview the brilliant Arnold Kling. Dr Kling (@KlingBlog) is a star of the economics blogosphere. Dr Kling is not shy about giving his predictions about economic growth, unemployment, and financial markets following the extended COVID-19 lockdown. His blog can be found at https://www.arnoldkling.com

Interview with Benn Eifert Apr 11, 2020 52:42 Few people are better placed to discuss recent market turmoil than Benn Eifert (@bennpeifert). Benn is the founder and CIO of QVR Advisors, an investment advisor managing data-driven, option-based investment strategies. Topics covered include: 1) the 15 year history of popular option strategies, 2) the concept of "tail risk hedging" and its performance before March 2020, 3) the blow-up of the

Interview with Aaron Brown Apr 3, 2020 01:14:47 Aaron Brown was the Chief Risk Manager at AQR Capital Management. He is a Bloomberg columnist (on markets and cryptocurrencies) and NYU adjunct professor. He is the author of Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street, as well as The Poker Face of Wall Street. I could think of few better people to engage in a discussion about recent economic turmoil.

Interview with Jason Strasser Mar 17, 2020 01:22:16 Jason Strasser (@strassa2), co-founder of Caption Partners, shares his thoughts on recent market volatility.

Interview with Charles Murray Mar 16, 2020 01:20:45 In my second interview with Charles Murray, we cover a lot of ground: a fascinating and in-depth discussion of his work habits and writing techniques; a survey of the literature on cognitive aging; and an in-depth discussion of his new book, Human Diversity.

Interview with Blake Stevenson Mar 15, 2020 01:13:55 This is my interview with Blake Stevenson (@empiremaker2). Blake is one of the top daily fantasy sports players in the world (also known for his outspoken Twitter persona).

Interview with Barton Wang (on coronavirus) Mar 11, 2020 01:16:33 This is the second podcast I've done with Barton Wang (@barton_options). The episode is entirely dedicated to a discussion of the coronavirus.

Interview with Max Silver Feb 8, 2020 28:26 This is a different format than my usual podcast. It's a brief, 28-minute chat with poker savant Max Silver on two topics: 1) Nutrition/fitness (Max lost 55 pounds last year and is currently training for a prop bet where he needs to do 20 pull-ups), 2) The likely state of the poker world five years from now (this part of the conversation starts at 14'10").

Interview with Barton Wang Jan 24, 2020 01:09:44 I loved this interview with a star of the financial twitter universe, Barton Wang. He posts very frequently on Twitter under the handle @barton_options. I never thought I would praise someone who attempts short-term predictions about stock market prices, but Barton has been remarkably prescient over a long sample. Listen to this podcast for hints to his approach (which focuses on short-term cha

Interview with Charles Murray Dec 30, 2019 01:26:15 Episode seven features an interview with renowned and sometimes controversial sociologist and writer Charles Murray. Charles is a fellow at AEI and the author of The Bell Curve, Losing Ground, Coming Apart, and Human Accomplishment. We cover his current project --- a book on poker!

Interview with Billy Corben Dec 9, 2019 01:34:30 Podcast six is a ninety minute interview with documentary filmmaking legend Billy Corben. We take a deep dive into his filmmaking career, covering Cocaine Cowboys (three films), The U, Broke, Dawg Fight, Magic City Hustle, Screwball, and Limelight.

Interview with Gregory Zuckerman Dec 5, 2019 42:30 Episode five features Gregory Zuckerman, author of The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution. This book is one of my favorite pieces of financial journalism from the last decade. Gregory tells the story of Renaissance Technologies, the most successful hedge fund of the last twenty years. In an industry of smart and quirky people, Renaissance seemed to have t

Interview with Ben Hunt Nov 8, 2019 01:09:08 Podcast Four was recorded on November 6, 2018. Ben Hunt's sparkling intellect is on near weekly display on his blog posts at www.epsilontheory.com. His long blog posts there, covering the intersection of politics, economics, and financial markets, have developed an extremely devoted audience. He can be found on Twitter at @EpsilonTheory

Interview with Nate Silver Oct 26, 2019 01:31:37 Nate Silver (@natesilver538) is widely considered the world's top political forecaster. We chat about 2020 presidential election odds for more than forty-five minutes, covering Trump odds of every stripe (impeachment, ratification of impeachment, term completion, re-election), and we consider the election probabilities of the leading Democratic candidates. In the last half of the interview, we c

Interview with Jason Strasser Oct 22, 2019 01:05:43 Jason Strasser (@strassa2) was a legend in the golden era of online poker (2004-2006). He made a conscious decision to leave the game completely at a time when he was widely considered one of the world's top poker players. Spoiler: it was a good decision. Listen to this episode for the full story.

Interview with James Blake Oct 3, 2019 01:05:18 Episode 1: James Blake. Really, really enjoyed this convo. We get deep into some tennis (covering his rapid ascension into the top 5, his recovery from a broken neck, and his battles with Agassi/Fed/Nadal. His discussion of police violence in the last five minutes is as nuanced and intelligent of a view as you will ever hear on the subject.

Episodes

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