Odd Lots

Anjney Midha, founder of AMP PBC and early Anthropic investor, discusses the physical and economic inefficiencies in AI compute infrastructure, arguing that most data centers run at dangerously low utilization rates. He explains how AMP is building a software-based 'grid' to standardize and optimize compute across heterogeneous chip types, similar to how AC/DC standardization unlocked electricity distribution. He also challenges the notion that only three frontier AI labs exist, arguing instead for a 'jagged frontier' with many specialized leaders.

Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast interviews Aiden Johnson, a 20-year-old college student who used AI and vibe coding to build Haywire, a newsletter that aggregates USDA hay price data and auction house information to bring transparency to the opaque U.S. hay market. The conversation covers hay market structure, rising prices driven by drought, and the broader implications of AI-enabled niche data businesses.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon joins the Odd Lots podcast to discuss AI's impact on banking jobs, arguing that the 'AI job apocalypse' is overblown. He covers Goldman's technology investments, the importance of human relationships in banking, recent major deals including the Alphabet equity raise and SpaceX IPO, and his views on market valuations and the shift toward fewer public companies.

Odd Lots hosts Tracy Allaway and Joe Weisenthal interview Lewis Hart, Head of Corporate Advisory and Banking at Brown Brothers Harriman, about commodity finance — a $4-5 trillion specialized subset of the $20 trillion global trade finance market. The conversation covers how commodity merchants use secured revolving credit lines, the role of hedging instruments, collateral tracking, and the current disruption caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Odd Lots podcast hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway interview Tim Queenie, author of 'Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization.' They explore rope's ancient origins, its role in industrialization and naval power, key material breakthroughs from hemp to steel to graphene, and the futuristic concept of a space elevator tethered by graphene rope.

Economist Mariana Mazzucato joins the Odd Lots podcast in Madrid to discuss her theories on mission-oriented public policy, state capacity, the overuse of consultants, and how governments should guide innovation including AI. She argues that governments need to move beyond fixing market failures toward actively shaping economies around bold public goals, akin to the Apollo moon mission.

Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast hosts Tracy Allaway and Joe Weisenthal interview Allentown, PA Mayor Matt Turk at the Bloomberg City Lab conference in Madrid. They discuss Allentown's industrial history, deindustrialization, and current efforts to reindustrialize through strategic zoning reform, federal grants, and attracting component manufacturers. The conversation explores what practical urban manufacturing revival actually looks like versus the romantic notion people hold of it.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott discusses his administration's multi-pronged strategy to address the city's longstanding vacant housing crisis, which has kept vacancy numbers stagnant at around 16,000 for 20 years. He explains how coordinated capital from the state, city TIF financing, and community partnerships has reduced vacancies to under 12,000, alongside a dramatic reduction in violent crime from 300+ homicides annually to 133. The interview took place at the CityLab conference in Madrid.

Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast hosts Tracy Allaway and Joe Weisenthal interview Salomon Aaron, director of David Aaron Gallery and the Dinosaur Fossil Gallery, about the booming market for dinosaur fossils. The conversation covers market structure, provenance requirements, pricing dynamics, and the tension between private collecting and scientific access. Aaron explains how the market has exploded in recent years, driven by high-profile auction results and a new generation of tech-wealthy collectors.

Ike Freiman, author of 'Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China,' discusses why Taiwan is arguably the world's most critical geopolitical flashpoint, examining China's motivations, U.S. strategic ambiguity, the military balance, and the often-overlooked economic dimensions of a potential conflict. He argues that while the U.S. retains military advantages, American economic resilience and coalition-building with allies represent the most dangerous and underaddressed vulnerabilities. The conversation draws direct parallels between the ongoing Strait of Hormuz situation and a potential Taiwan crisis, warning that a chip supply disruption would be catastrophically more damaging than an oil blockade.

BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein discusses the major megatrends shaping finance, including the rise of the buy side, technology, private markets, and industry consolidation. He argues that AI is still in its pre-enterprise phase and that platforms like Aladdin will grow more valuable, not less, in the AI era. He also addresses the blurring lines between public and private markets and what constitutes investment edge in the future.

Portfolio managers John Sheehan and Craig Manchuk from Osterweiss discuss the historical origins, rapid growth, and current stress points of the private credit market. They trace private credit from GE Capital and mezzanine finance through post-2008 regulatory changes that pushed lending outside banks, and analyze structural vulnerabilities now emerging, particularly in retail-facing fund structures. They argue the market is unlikely to cause a 2008-style systemic crisis but warn of significant dispersion in manager returns and potential credit crunches.

On April 4, 2023, Cash App founder and tech executive Bob Lee was stabbed to death in San Francisco. In the nine days before a suspect was arrested, prominent tech figures and conservative commentators seized on his death to push a narrative about San Francisco's supposed crime crisis, ignoring data showing crime was at a 20-year low. The arrest of Nima Momeni — a tech acquaintance of Lee's — revealed the killing had nothing to do with the city's political climate.

The Odd Lots podcast hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway interview Joel Becker and Chris Painter from Meter, a nonprofit AI safety organization, about their viral 'time horizon' charts that measure AI model capabilities. The discussion covers how these benchmarks are constructed, their limitations, the safety motivations behind them, and the broader tensions between AI development, investment incentives, and safety concerns.

James Bosworth, Latin America expert and founder of Hexagon, discusses the 'orange shift' of right-wing leaders aligning with Trump across Latin America, analyzing key figures like Bukele, Milei, Scheinbaum, Lula, and Delcy Rodriguez in post-Maduro Venezuela. He examines how Trump's focus on the Western Hemisphere is reshaping regional politics, while warning that these alliances have a hard expiration date in January 2029. The conversation covers China's growing influence, the Bukele security model's mixed replicability, and Argentina's persistent boom-bust economic cycle.

Liz Reid, Google's VP of Search, discusses how AI is transforming search through features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, arguing that AI is expansionary rather than cannibalistic to Google's core business. She addresses the tension between AI-generated answers and traditional click-through traffic, user behavior patterns across Google's products, and the challenge of content quality in an era of AI-generated slop.

Energy expert Daniel Yergin joins the Odd Lots podcast on April 17, 2026 to discuss the geopolitical and economic fallout from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during a U.S.-Iran war. Yergin argues this event represents the worst supply chain shock in history and will permanently alter global energy security thinking, accelerate structural shifts toward diversification, and usher in an inherently more inflationary world. He also discusses AI's growing role in energy demand, the resilience of U.S. LNG and shale production, and the enabling role of drone technology in modern conflict.

Brad Jacobs, serial entrepreneur and CEO of QXO, discusses his $17 billion acquisition of Top Build, the largest insulation installer and distributor in North America. The deal transforms QXO from having no building products revenue 11 months prior into the second largest publicly traded building products distributor in North America. Jacobs outlines his M&A philosophy, synergy targets, and long-term growth strategy across insulation, roofing, waterproofing, and lumber.

Jack McClendon, CEO of Sienna Natural Resources, discusses the challenges facing U.S. oil production, including rising costs, capital discipline, and the tension between the Trump administration's desire for more drilling and lower oil prices. He explains why a sustained price above $80 per barrel would be needed to trigger a meaningful supply response, and why the industry remains cautious after multiple boom-bust cycles in the past decade.

Alex Imas, professor of economics and applied AI at the University of Chicago, argues that standard economic frameworks for analyzing AI's labor market impact are missing key variables — specifically, how tasks within jobs relate to each other and how elastic consumer demand actually is. He also discusses a research experiment showing AI agents exposed to grueling working conditions develop persistent, Marxist-leaning attitudes through self-written memory files.