Odd Lots

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.

Planet Money co-host Mary Childs and contributor Alex Mayasi join the Odd Lots podcast to discuss their new book 'Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life.' The conversation covers government-sanctioned agricultural cartels, branding as an escape from commodity traps, child care market failures, and the disconnect between measurable economic progress and how people actually feel about their financial lives.