Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Understanding perpetual futures
Episode 71
In this episode, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) walks through how perpetual futures work, from funding rates to liquidations to the surprise of automatic deleveraging. Perps are the dominant trading mech…
Published on 1 day, 23 hours ago
The economics of discovery, with Ben Reinhardt
Episode 70
In this episode, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Ben Reinhardt, founder of Speculative Technologies, to examine how science gets funded in the United States and why the current system leaves …
Published on 1 week, 1 day ago
Understanding equity at tech companies, with Billy Gallagher of Prospect
Episode 69
Why do billions of dollars of stock trade hands based on napkin math and vibes? Billy Gallagher, CEO of Prospect and former Rippling employee, joins Patrick McKenzie (patio11) to walk through the inf…
Published on 3 weeks, 1 day ago
The $4,000 insurance policy designed to never pay out
Episode 68
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) reads his essay on title insurance, a service designed to never be performed with a "laughably low" 5% loss ratio compared to 50-80% for almost all types of insurance. The …
Published on 1 month ago
How deposit insurance actually works
Episode 67
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) reads his Bits about Money essay on deposit insurance, explaining this critical financial infrastructure, with some thoughts on its performance during 2023. He covers what …
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
Home improvement lending with fewer bankers and more computers
Episode 66
In this episode, Patrick McKenzie reads his essay about the financial infrastructure that makes buying windows painless. When a window installer can originate, underwrite, and fund a $25,000 loan in …
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
Talking to the Bank of England about systemic risk and systems engineering
Episode 65
Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) shares his remarks to the Bank of England on critical vulnerabilities in financial infrastructure. Drawing from the July 2024 CrowdStrike outage which brought down teller …
Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Narrative, mastery, and character bleed in games, with Ricki Heicklen
Episode 64
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined again by Ricki Heicklen to discuss Metagame 2025, a conference where 250 attendees were divided into Purple and Orange teams competing for territories across camp…
Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Bits and bricks: Oliver Habryka on LessWrong, LightHaven, and community infrastructure
Episode 63
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Oliver Habryka, who runs Lightcone Infrastructure—the organization behind both the LessWrong forum and the Lighthaven conference venue in Berkeley. They explor…
Published on 2 months ago
Building institutions that bend towards truth, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine
Episode 62
Patrick McKenzie is joined by Clara Collier, editor and publisher of Asterisk Magazine, to discuss how we create institutions that bend towards truth. Clara explains why she launched a quarterly prin…
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago