Today on the pod: @lessin would rather send his kids to the military than to Andreessen Horowitz's new $35M school, @Jessicalessin agrees on air, and @davemorin ends up defending the thing he opened the segment by calling a marketing play. Full house this week: Dave, @brit, Jessica and Sam, plus @Mazzeo of NoHo Labs, who spends most of the hour asking why none of them can be optimistic about anything. Watch here on X or wherever you get your pods. Topics: 00:00 Cold Open 01:14 Matt Mazzeo joins: peptides, CAA, and 15 years of Harvard connections 05:19 a16z puts $35M into a school: marketing play or higher ed reform? 06:20 Brit on every billionaire starting a university 08:21 Jess on Alpha School and who should be in charge of education 10:20 Sam: I'd rather send my kids to the military 12:19 Grit, great books, and learning to wrangle horses 16:40 Claude discovers a new enzyme system with 10,000 agents 18:01 Anthropic's IPO slips, and the liability problem 20:29 The story flip: from only we can be trusted to we can't afford the risk 21:14 Matt's maximalist take: long frontier, long open source 23:14 Massive demand, unclear profit, and the railroad pattern 24:40 Blackstone on who pays for the data center debt: we don't know 25:45 The Saint Petersburg paradox and pricing an infinite payout 27:56 Brockman redefines AGI, three years too late 31:11 Infinite demand doesn't mean infinite sustainability 32:20 Amazon blocks Muse: the first of many arms treaties? 35:37 Agents are quietly vaporizing the internet's breakage model 36:49 It's still 1982 for agents 37:42 Sam wants to spend thousands a month on CPU, not GPU 40:12 Does your agent represent you or the lab that made it? 42:16 When your agent does something bad, who is liable? 43:50 Peptides 101: what they actually are 46:30 GLP-1 revenue is rivaling AI revenue 48:20 How Matt went from 250 pounds to sub-12% body fat 50:29 The FDA is moving peptides back into compounding pharmacies 53:32 What a peptide protocol costs and how to start safely 57:17 Taylor Swift, girl dads, and a code for listeners

@duckbillai literally 🔥

Today on the pod: @davemorin reads Dario's slowdown essay and concludes Anthropic must be losing, @lessin thinks the labs are bad businesses racing to regulatory capture, and Instinct is raising at $10B two weeks after $2.5B. Full house this week: Dave, @brit, @Jessicalessin and Sam, who is back from New York and still talking about the Central Park loop. Watch here on X or wherever you get your pods. Topics: 00:00 Cold Open 01:02 Not Dead Yet From the AGI 03:31 Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic after three months and goes on a media tour 04:47 Dario's slowdown essay: is Anthropic just losing? 06:13 Astra, OpenRouter, and DeepSeek closing the gap 07:29 Brit on bioweapons, independent assessors, and racing China 09:07 You don't need superintelligence to break the banks 10:23 What DeepMind's new boss and Satya think about safety 12:32 OpenAI's $1.5T raise and the IPO that keeps slipping 15:02 What DC really thinks about Anthropic 18:42 Sam's take: the labs end up as defense companies 21:38 Does your agent work for you or the lab that made it? 24:47 Brit: normal people want one agent, not ten 28:40 Instinct at $10B, and whether the numbers are fake 30:40 Everyone's trading, nobody's investing 33:27 Sam built a Torah and Talmud app on Claude 37:22 Entertaining ourselves to death 41:01 Jess on building the things nobody else will 43:07 Jay Carney, Ron Conway, and tech's Democrat problem 49:53 Emmys, Taylor Swift, Silo, and Rogue Heroes 54:20 The Information's most influential people in tech

Just logged onto X to do my daily scan. Literally every post is a new agentic harness announcement, now with iMessage and phone support. This is the story of 2026 in one screenshot.

Today on the pod: @davemorin got his hands on the iPhone Duo, Meta's Muse agent barely knows you, and OpenAI's Astra is the first AI model in a while that felt scary. Dave, @brit, and @Jessicalessin are on the mics for this one (@lessin is busy being a ball boy at the US Open). Watch here on X or wherever you get your pods. Topics: 6:07 iPhone Duo hands-on: $2,000, and why Apple is going foldable now 13:12 The Apple Watch that listens all day, and what it means for Granola 16:59 Meta's Muse agent knew almost nothing when asked "what do you know about me?" 22:26 Why Google still hasn't shipped its agent 23:31 Trust vs. distribution in the agent wars 25:02 Harness wars: agents are still in 1982 27:13 Jeffrey Katzenberg's Hollywood AI venture 29:35 An AI doom media tour weeks before Anthropic's IPO: real warning or regulatory capture? 33:43 Why OpenAI's Astra felt scary to Dave 36:49 Why the labs can't slow down, and OpenAI's AGI merge clause 45:02 Venmo's "Lucas" billboards went viral on almost no budget 47:41 US Open picks and the 4am match problem

I really love that @davemorin becoming a Backstreet Boys convert was the first timestamp of this episode 😂

Four MIT kids started building @Cursor_AI in 2022. @SpaceX bought it for $60B. Forbes pegged each co-founder around 4.5%... which is $2.7B per founder! Taylor Swift started in 2006. She fought to own her masters, had the biggest tour in history, and is one of the most decorated music artists of all time. Forbes has her net worth at ~$2B. 20 years vs 4 years. That's the exchange rate right now for tech 🫠

OpenClaw 2.0 has arrived openclaw.ai/blog/openclaw-2-…

Meta is paying $17B over child safety, parents are officially outgunned by the algorithm, and Tim Cook's real legacy might be a chip. New episode is live with @lessin, @brit, @Jessicalessin and @davemorin. Watch here or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Topics: -6:45 Meta's $17B child safety settlement -9:48 Should social media be illegal for kids? -16:10 Is YouTube worse than Instagram? -25:24 Are parents completely outgunned? -30:04 Is the settlement just policy theater? -32:31 Could AI finally make parental controls useful? -42:23 Tim Cook's Apple farewell -46:17 Was the Tim Cook era just… boring? -50:21 Apple Silicon was Cook's masterstroke -56:19 Long or short Apple?

Meta is paying $17B over child safety, parents are officially outgunned by the algorithm, and Tim Cook's real legacy might be a chip. Full quad tomorrow, 8am ET / 5am PT with @lessin poolside and @Jessicalessin in her agentic era. Catch it wherever you get your podcasts.🎙️ Topics: -Meta's $17B child safety settlement -Should social media be illegal for kids? @brit posits. -Should every platform play by the same rules? -Is YouTube worse than Instagram? @davemorin says yes. -Are parents completely outgunned? -Is the settlement mostly policy theater? -Could AI finally make parental controls useful? -Tim Cook's Apple farewell -Was the Tim Cook era just… boring? -Apple Silicon might have been Cook's masterstroke -Long or short Apple?

Seems like a relevant time to bring back this classic book series for the agentic era. I've never worked harder in my babysitting career!

Psyched for this. No more lost dogs!

Stripe bought a router for billions, OpenAI is losing enterprise to Anthropic, and the data center backlash isn't really about data centers. Full quad today. Catch it wherever you get your podcasts. Topics: -5:00 Stripe buys OpenRouter, critical infrastructure or expensive middleman? -11:00 The agentic commerce bet and why Google may already have it won -22:00 Anthropic vs. OpenAI is a company question, not a model question -30:00 OpenAI's "greatest fundraising story in history" -33:30 Is AI a great investment or just a great trade? -37:30 Grok makes it a three-player race -41:00 AI makes software increasingly disposable -47:30 "The backlash is that AI sucks" -48:30 Did we build trillions in infrastructure before finding the use cases? -53:30 Josh Kushner, Thrive and the Lakers

This is 2-3x more expensive than I'd like, but very fun. Cool pivot from an NFT brand.

Instead of (yet another) founder/investor/operator dinner or happy hour, I want more events that women/moms would actually want to go to: - book out a nail salon or day spa - run club followed by coffee - walking meditation in the redwoods - group psychic or mentalist reading - poker or mahjong party! - workout class – kills two birds (socializing + getting fit) with one stone - gun or archery range (yes women want to do this too!) - tickets to a live event (concert/comedy) so us introverts don’t have to talk the whole time By the way morning/daytime meetups > evening events where I have to choose between you and my family. Plan accordingly.

Recapping the week in tech, media and capital: Google loses SO MUCH talent, Airtable sells to Bending Spoons, OpenAI's creator summit backlash, and much more. Full pod now on X (and wherever you get your podcasts). Timestamps: 2:08 @lessin's Boston Whaler Beach Studio 3:13 @davemorin Herds Cattle in Montana 5:31 Google's AI Big Shakeup 8:57 Great Researchers Don't Always Make Great CEOs 10:48 Recursive Self-Improvement & the AI Talent Wars 19:41 Airtable Sells to Bending Spoons 25:33 Not Every SaaS Company Is Dead 27:50 The Constellation Software Playbook 30:05 The Next Big Write Downs Are AI Labs 31:59 Apple vs. OpenAI, Courtesy of iCloud 35:20 OpenAI's Creator Summit Backlash 40:53 Why People Still Hate AI 43:39 AI Slop and the Content Problem 45:11 SpaceX's Lockup and Number Big 48:00 @nikitabier Leaves X (and will be missed) 50:22 @Jessicalessin's Posting Dilemma 53:40 Next Week on More or Less

Jeff Dean is out at Google after 27 years, Airtable sold to Bending Spoons, and Sam thinks the AI labs are looking a lot like yesterday's SaaS companies. Full quad tomorrow, 8am ET / 5am PT. Sam recording from the beach with a broken bilge pump, Dave calling in after a Montana cattle drive. Catch it wherever you get your podcasts. Topics: -Google's AI shakeup and who becomes the next CEO -When a great research leader is the wrong leader -Airtable sells to Bending Spoons, and the Constellation Software playbook -The "split landing" and the SaaS-pocalypse -Whether the AI labs are next in line for write-downs -Apple v. OpenAI and the iCloud problem -OpenAI's creator summit backfires -Why the masses still hate AI -Sam's bot builds his kid a game to kill the ads -SpaceX after the IPO, Nikita Bier leaves X

Never been a better time to work at a venture fund called Offline 😉 (People building in the venture scale IRL space, I'd love to hear from you!)

Hiring in 2026: 1. find people who build in public. 40 half-finished repos > a clean resume. curiosity and creativity leave a paper (pixel?) trail these days. 2. test for distribution + business model instincts. the two most valuable skills in tech and nobody screens for them 3. make them build with AI in front of you. @cursor_ai does 2 full days onsite shipping with the team. how someone runs their agents can teach you loads about them, and fast. 4. vibes assessment. hack night, offsite, dinner. you just want an answer to if you want this person around at 11pm on a bad week Am I missing anything?

Zuckerberg says AI is for everyone, his rivals are begging Washington to slow it down, and Lilian Weng went from a mental-health essay to OpenAI. Recorded partially from @davemorin's parked Tesla during a rainstorm while @lessin dials in from the beach. Full quad tomorrow at 8am ET / 5am PT. Catch it wherever you get your podcasts, even if it's in a car during the rain. 🌧️ Topics: -Meta's ad campaign rejects the doomers -Zuckerberg's optimism blitz actually lands -1,000+ frontier researchers ask Washington to slow AI down -Anthropic runs on spite for OpenAI -China cracks DUV, ASML takes the hit -The compute debate Gavin Baker started -X is the tech town square now -Lilian Weng quits Thinking Machines for OpenAI -Sam's bot read 4GB of his dad's journals -Silicon Valley's Oppenheimer complex