The future, unfiltered. Conversations at the hinge of history. <br/><br/><a href="https://thisisprogress.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">thisisprogress.substack.com</a>
Progress by Fifty Years
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Podcast Overview
The future, unfiltered. Conversations at the hinge of history. <br/><br/><a href="https://thisisprogress.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">thisisprogress.substack.com</a>
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🇺🇲
Publishing Since
3/17/2026
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Recent Episodes
June 16, 2026
This Is How the French Revolution Starts Again
<p>Justin Kan is a serial founder and investor. In 2007 he co-founded Justin.tv, the livestreaming platform he launched by broadcasting his own life around the clock from a camera strapped to his head. Four years later, the company pivoted into Twitch, which Amazon acquired for $970 million in 2014. He has since founded a string of companies. Today, Justin co-runs the venture firm Goat Capital while building Rye, an API for AI-driven commerce, and Stash, a “Shopify for games.” Having traded a functional drinking habit for sobriety, and a relentless need to prove himself for a more joyful kind of ambition, he is unusually candid about what selling a company for nearly a billion dollars did and didn't fix. In our conversation, Justin traces the turbulence he sees coming across economics, politics, technology, and more.</p><p>–</p><p><strong>We also discuss:</strong></p><p>• The "insane backlash" coming as AI cuts white-collar jobs</p><p>• Why he's betting on a Mamdani-style president in 2028</p><p>• What’s next for education when “~25% of Harvard post-grads are unemployed”</p><p>• Why there’s a “moral imperative” to have kids</p><p>• Fixing America’s “cost disease”</p><p>• Conspiracy Corner: Jedi Powers, and AGI gods</p><p>–</p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>00:00 Introduction</p><p>01:23 Why selling Twitch for $970M didn't heal him</p><p>03:50 What ayahuasca revealed about Justin, and getting sober</p><p>06:20 The coming wave of AI job dislocation</p><p>07:53 His bet: a Mamdani-style president in 2028</p><p>08:19 Does the American experiment survive AGI?</p><p>09:54 What's next for education when "~25% of Harvard post-grads are unemployed"</p><p>13:10 What people get wrong about the Luddites</p><p>14:00 The French Revolution parallel he sees today</p><p>16:07 Can democracy survive this media environment?</p><p>18:00 Could AI agents glue society back together?</p><p>21:07 The one-way door of automating cognitive work</p><p>24:54 Robots, gain-of-function, and aging populations</p><p>26:39 The moral case for having kids</p><p>27:47 Are we the woolly mammoths?</p><p>30:18 The housing theory of everything</p><p>32:58 NIMBYs and the zucchinis</p><p>34:30 Conspiracy Corner: Jedi Powers and AGI gods</p><p>–</p><p><strong>References:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.anthropic.com/">Anthropic</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders">Bernie Sanders</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://block.xyz/">Block</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordi_La_Forge">Geordi La Forge</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.ai/grok">Grok</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="http://Justin.tv">Justin.tv</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.juul.com">Juul</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://maxhodak.com/">Max Hodak</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://neuralink.com/">Neuralink</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/ModdedQuad">Noland Arbaugh</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel">Peter Thiel</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://science.xyz/">Science</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek">Star Trek</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars">Star Wars</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs">Steve Jobs</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/Tesla_Optimus">Tesla Optimus</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series">The Culture Series</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution">The French Revolution</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite">The Luddites</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://thielfellowship.org/">Thiel Fellowship</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.twitch.tv/">Twitch</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://waymo.com/">Waymo</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohran_Mamdani">Zohran Mamdani</a></p><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Justin:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/justinkan">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinkan/">LinkedIn</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/@JustinKanTV">YouTube</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://goat.vc/">Goat Capital</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://rye.com/">Rye</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.stash.gg/">Stash</a></p><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Scott:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/fuelfive">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dscottphoenix/">LinkedIn</a></p><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Fifty Years:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://fiftyyears.com/">Website</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/fiftyyears">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/fifty-years/">LinkedIn</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/@fiftyyears">YouTube</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://thisisprogress.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">thisisprogress.substack.com</a>
May 27, 2026
Enhanced Games co-founder has even wilder plans…
<p>Christian Angermayer is a prolific entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of the Enhanced Games, the competition that lets athletes use performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision. It hosted its inaugural event the day after this discussion was recorded. He is also the founder of Apeiron Investment Group, through which he invests billions across life sciences, fintech, crypto, and frontier technology. In 2018 he founded the psychedelics biotech company AtaiBeckley to bring compounds like psilocybin and DMT into mainstream medicine for depression and other mental health conditions. In this conversation, Christian traces the personal story and principles that shaped his contrarian view of the world, unpacks the societal stories he is most worried about, and lays out his vision for a radically different future across medicine, politics, economics, and more.</p><p>–</p><p><strong>In today's episode, we discuss:</strong></p><p>• The adversities in Christian’s childhood that shaped his current success</p><p>• Why fear, not technology, is the real obstacle to progress</p><p>• How Hollywood fuels fear and Christian’s unique prescription for countering it</p><p>• The 28-year quest behind the Enhanced Games</p><p>• The Enhanced Games as a “Woodstock of bodily sovereignty”</p><p>• A near future of “robot slaves” and how this could change democracy and capitalism</p><p>• Lessons for our future from the Roman Republic</p><p>• Whether aliens are aliens, or just ancient civilizations</p><p>–</p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>00:00 Intro</p><p>01:02 Growing up in a 100-person Bavarian village</p><p>4:06 Deciding at twelve not to come out</p><p>06:11 How a story drove Christian to become one of Bavaria's best students</p><p>07:51 The disappearance of optimistic tech stories</p><p>09:03 Why fear is the real obstacle to progress</p><p>12:19 Psychedelics as the medicine for fear</p><p>16:25 A provocative case for giving world leaders psychedelics</p><p>18:42 Does Christian just love pushing taboos?</p><p>20:15 The 28-year quest behind the Enhanced Games</p><p>22:15 The future of medicine that Christian puts in his ow n</p><p>24:46 Will capitalism and democracy survive AGI?</p><p>29:24 Conspiracy Corner: aliens, angels, and ancient civilizations</p><p>–</p><p><strong>References:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Apocalypse">Ancient Apocalypse</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://apeiron-investments.com/">Apeiron Investment Group</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://atai.com/">AtaiBeckley</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Hancock">Graham Hancock</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_Vance">JD Vance</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Victor">Love, Victor</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Andreessen">Marc Andreessen</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://securityconference.org/en/">Munich Security Conference</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_Universelle_%281889%29">Paris World Exhibition</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Diamandis">Peter Diamandis</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel">Peter Thiel</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic">Roman Republic</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek">Star Trek</a></p><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Christian:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/C_Angermayer">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-angermayer">LinkedIn</a></p><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Enhanced Games:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.enhanced.com/">Website</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/enhanced_games">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/enhanced_games/">Instagram</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/@enhanced_games1">YouTube</a></p><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Scott:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/fuelfive">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dscottphoenix/">LinkedIn</a></p><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Fifty Years:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://fiftyyears.com/">Website</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/fiftyyears">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/fifty-years/">LinkedIn</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/@fiftyyears">YouTube</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://thisisprogress.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">thisisprogress.substack.com</a>
May 21, 2026
Brian Armstrong's blueprint for an American Wakanda
<p>Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, the largest legal crypto exchange in America. In 2012, Brian started Coinbase out of Y Combinator after reading the Bitcoin whitepaper, then took it public on Nasdaq nine years later. Today, Coinbase is worth over $50 billion and serves over 100 million users. He's since co-founded his second unicorn called NewLimit, a biotech company that’s extending human life. In this conversation, Brian makes a case for “disagreeable optimism”: that doing anything good in the world means being willing to be vilified, that AI regulation might be more dangerous than AI itself, and that an “American Wakanda” is possible – but only if America remembers how to build.</p><p></p><p>In today's episode, we also discuss:</p><p>• Why "it's not that great to be human"</p><p>• Brian’s vision for 2035: merging with AI, exploring the galaxy, and the hive mind</p><p>• Why Brian expects the future to be “more C-3PO than Terminator”</p><p>• How to build the “American Wakanda”</p><p>• Where moral values come from when you're not religious</p><p>• The case for an AI government</p><p>• Why Brian thinks Gary Gensler tanked crypto for a shot at Treasury Secretary</p><p></p><p><strong>References:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/aplusk">Ashton Kutcher</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand">Ayn Rand</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/balajis">Balaji Srinivasan</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.starwars.com/databank/c-3po">C-3PO</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.coinbase.com/">Coinbase</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrano_de_Bergerac_(play)">Cyrano de Bergerac</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump">Donald Trump</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/ewarren">Elizabeth Warren</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Engines-Creation-K-Eric-Drexler/dp/0385199732">Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sec.gov/about/sec-commissioners/gary-gensler">Gary Gensler</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/">Gattaca</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.georgesoros.com/">George Soros</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/JoeBiden">Joe Biden</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Eric_Drexler">K. Eric Drexler</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs">Maslow’s hierarchy of needs</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman">Milton Friedman</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newlimit.com/">NewLimit</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/peterthiel">Peter Thiel</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.prospera.co/en">Próspera</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil">Ray Kurzweil</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/typesfast">Ryan Petersen</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0143037889">The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/">The Terminator</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicarious_(company)">Vicarious</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakanda">Wakanda</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani">Zohran Mamdani</a></p><p></p><p><strong>Where to find Brian:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/barmstrong/">LinkedIn</a></p><p></p><p><strong>Where to find Scott:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/fuelfive">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dscottphoenix/">LinkedIn</a></p><p></p><p><strong>Where to find Fifty Years:</strong></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://fiftyyears.com/">Website</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/fifty-years/">LinkedIn</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/fiftyyears">Twitter/X</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/@fiftyyears">YouTube</a></p><p></p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>00:00 Intro</p><p>01:32 Brian's vision for the world in 2035</p><p>05:33 How to explain this future to a 9-year-old</p><p>08:58 Why Brian isn’t buying the AI doom scenarios</p><p>10:07 Why merging with AI might be the only way to explore the galaxy</p><p>11:56 The Gattaca stack: embryo editing, APOE4, and the hive mind</p><p>15:06 Why centralized control leads to worse outcomes</p><p>16:03 The case for leaving AI unregulated</p><p>17:48 Building parallel institutions: AI, crypto, prediction markets</p><p>19:11 How to build the “American Wakanda”</p><p>25:16 Lessons from Chinese org structures</p><p>27:58 What an "AI government" might actually look like</p><p>29:36 Why building anything good in the world means being vilified</p><p>32:55 Where Brian's moral values actually came from</p><p>35:43 Why Brian thinks Gary Gensler tanked crypto for Treasury Secretary</p><p>38:40 Creating Ozempic for tribalism</p><p>39:19 The right dose of moral certainty</p><p>42:55 What people get wrong about tech founders</p><p>45:05 Conspiracy Corner: "It's not that great to be human"</p><p>46:00 Bio stack or compute stack: which do you bet on?</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://thisisprogress.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">thisisprogress.substack.com</a>
6 total episodes available
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