Podcast Episodes

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 10 hours 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 1 week ago

How blogging went legit, with Substack CEO Chris Best

Episode 61

Patrick McKenzie is joined by Chris Best, CEO of Substack, to discuss how the platform created new economic infrastructure for independent media. They explore Substack's evolution from a simple newsl…

Published on 2 weeks ago

Prestige media, new media, and the US government, with Kelsey Piper

Episode 60

Patrick McKenzie is joined again by Kelsey Piper, who has co-founded "The Argument" to revive principled liberal discourse after witnessing how coordinated social media campaigns replaced substantive…

Published on 2 weeks, 6 days ago

AI alignment, with Emmett Shear

Episode 59

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Emmett Shear, co-founder of Twitch, former interim CEO of OpenAI, who now runs Softmax AI alignment. Emmett argues that current AI safety approaches focused on…

Published on 4 weeks ago

Building software that survives contact with reality, with Will Wilson

Episode 58

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Will Wilson, CEO of Antithesis, to discuss the evolution of software testing from traditional approaches to cutting-edge deterministic simulation. Will explain…

Published on 1 month ago

Defense, drones, and military procurement, with Bean of Naval Gazing

Episode 57

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Bean, a pseudonymous defense industry expert, to explore the intellectual crossovers between military and civilian domains. The conversation reveals how the de…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

AI and the great developer speed-up, with Joel Becker of METR

Episode 56

This week on Complex Systems, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Joel Becker from METR. They discuss groundbreaking research on AI coding assistants.

Joel et al’s randomized controlled trial of 1…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

How banks actually work (and don't work)

Episode 55

In this solo episode, Patrick McKenzie reads his classic essay "Seeing Like a Bank," exploring why financial institutions often appear to have no memory of previous customer interactions despite bein…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Building software in Japan, with Jim Weisser

Episode 54

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Jim Weisser, a serial entrepreneur and founder of SignTime, for an in-depth exploration of Japan's software market and startup ecosystem. They discuss the uniq…

Published on 2 months ago