Conversations with Aidan Edwards

Aidan Edwards
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship

An entrepreneur who made $100K selling suspenders, a filmmaker who designed an escape room on the world's largest cruise ship, a liver transplant survivor, and other interesting guests that will inspire you with their stories CWApod.com

Episodes

  1. Sep 2

    How he went from Managing a Storage Facility to Winning the NYC Real Estate Game

    More videos like this at CWApod.com Disclaimer: The information contained in this video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as specific financial, investment, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always do your own research or consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions. Guest: https://www.instagram.com/uaarrd/

  2. Aug 25

    Everyone Told Me AI Would Automate This Field. I Enrolled Anyway.

    More videos like this at CWApod.com Disclaimer: The information contained in this video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as specific financial, investment, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always do your own research or consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions.

  3. Aug 21

    The Pixel 11 Pro is the reason Google will survive the Ai bubble popping

    The Pixel 11 pro is greater than the Samsung Galaxy S25 which is better than the iPhoneMore content at CWApod.com (YouTube, TikTok, IG, etc.)Eight months ago I woke up, looked at the iPhone I'd carried my entire life, and decided I wanted a phone that was fun. So I bought a Samsung. Then, eight months later, I sold it and bought a Pixel 11 Pro. My boyfriend thinks I'm insane. He's probably right.This episode of Conversations with Aidan Edwards is about why the phone that wins on paper kept losing in my hand. Samsung's flagship is a tank — Snapdragon chip, gorgeous hardware, endlessly customizable. It's also an awkward mishmash of Bixby and Gemini, where one assistant does half of what you want and the other does the other half, and neither one is deep enough in the apps you actually use. Every time I tapped the microphone to dictate a text, I got "Google services can't be reached." Every single time.Then I switched. On the Pixel, Gemini already knows what's on my screen without me tapping "share full screen." Rambler let me dictate a sentence, say "delete that period, add this," and it just did it — then made me a sushi emoji when I asked. Google's design language is the first phone software in years that feels playful on purpose; I set a kitchen timer on a Google speaker for meatballs and it played Italian music when it went off. Adults like to have fun too.Also in here: why the Pixel is quietly built for ex-iPhone content creators (teleprompter, audio cleanup, sound levels), why average cameras plus smart AI beat great cameras plus nothing, and the 200x zoom argument — no, it isn't "fake photography." If you hand me your photograph and I paint it, my painting isn't pixel-for-pixel identical. It's still the same image. It's still art.And the bigger bet underneath all of it: Google knows that if everyone eventually has a great model, having a great model stops being an advantage. So the moat isn't the model or the camera. It's integration so tight that nobody talks about parameters — they talk about texting a friend the dinner reservation that just popped up on its own.The other thing I'll die on: life is too short for a mediocre phone. People will try ten pairs of pants at a department store, then buy a phone they don't like and keep it for three years because they already paid for it. You touch that thing a hundred times a day. Fix it.Not sponsored. I just really like this phone.New episodes at CWApod.comDisclaimer: The information contained in this video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as specific financial, investment, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always do your own research or consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions.

  4. Aug 16

    They're Not Selling Your Data. They're Using It On You

    Every line you've ever stood in was designed by someone — or it wasn't. Service designer Sam Borri on airports, Uber pricing, and why nobody plans for when things go wrong. They're not selling your data. They're using it on you. Service designer Sam Borri on the pricing tricks hiding in the apps you use every day. Key moments / timestamps Time Beat 00:00 Intro — mech eng at Northeastern → innovation engineer at New Balance → master's in Engineering Design Innovation, Northwestern 01:39 What "product design" actually means: research → prototype → the coffee-machine-for-old-people example (and "all I want is somebody to bring me coffee") 03:45 Where design ends and engineering begins; engineers as "the wet blanket"; Tony Stark in a cave 06:18 Why engineering: math + physics + psychology, wanted to be a toy designer, hated a Hasbro cost-engineering internship — "I'm not going into Big Toy ever again" 08:33 Choosing the program: Stanford d.school, CMU HCI, and why Northwestern's breadth (service + business) won. Don Norman on the curriculum 09:00 The realization: her senior engineer built extras for fun in his free time — "I'm not like the rest of the people here" 12:53 Service design defined — the airport as a mapped journey; signage; "what does premium mean? Am I premium?" 14:30 Airbnb as the good example: vetting, address withheld until booked, in-app messaging, timed reminders, built-in liability 16:44 Japan as the crown jewel; cane holders; color-coded subway vs. the NYC Q/R/W all being the same color 18:29 The best target for service design: government. Her autistic brother's fed-cap job application = a 30-page PDF to print, sign and mail 21:12 JPMorgan hiring service designers — "all the good experiences are going to rich people" 21:51 Co-design — humility as the base of design. The #1 way to fail is assuming you know what people want 23:36 The merry-go-round water pump case: outsiders "fixed" a village, kids got bored, system backed up 24:19 The login screen that rejected two-letter surnames 25:33 The KPMG job: accessibility dashboard, and pushing back on "just build an AI search" 31:58 Front end vs. back end — the pharmacy, and whether you should see how the sausage is made 34:20 The Genius Bar: why the staff look like nerds, the waitlist, the text message — and troubleshooting in front of youso you trust them 37:45 Why airports/hotels/pharmacies hurt: silos, and nobody designs for when things go wrong 38:15 The pre-check story — a handwritten signature on her ticket that nobody downstream could read 40:32 "People don't read." The Lincoln Park Zoo gorilla sign 42:35 The ice cream menu at the front of the line; the coffee shop with lids, straws and milk in three places and two "no liquids" trash cans 44:51 Desire paths — "just put a sidewalk there. Just put a bucket there." 46:08 Childhood: wanted to be an inventor, and specifically Maurice from Beauty and the Beast. Also, briefly, an accountant, at age seven 47:09 Book rec: Nudge — and the 401(k) auto-enrollment study (~82% wanted in, ~20% opted in) 50:05 Dark patterns — confirmshaming unsubscribe copy, Netflix cancellation mazes, pre-checked boxes 52:38 The Uber examples — the Lyft price-check, and the gyroscope-tilt "drunk detection" rumor her professor (ex-Uber AI) wouldn't confirm or deny 54:33 Walmart grocery — a former student PM priced up last-minute/desperate delivery orders 55:22 "They're not selling your data. They're using it against you." 56:00 The CTA/Dunkin' collaboration exercise — GPS data as a profit opportunity 58:41 What data could do instead: "you pass a Citi Bike, here's your route, it's faster than the train" 59:15 What's next: physical/in-person service work, ideally social services. "I really want to chase liking what I'm doing"

  5. Jul 31

    Trading on Margin & the Future of America

    I want to tell you about a guy I grew up with. Really smart. Great at math. Worked at a server company, started what was basically a one-man hedge fund, and 20x'd his money investing in the industry he knew best. Then he traded on margin. He wasn't diversified. And when his handful of positions dropped, the people who loaned him the money called it in — and forced him to sell everything. Would you call that guy a good investor? Would you trust him with your money? Now: what if I told you he wasn't my friend? What if I told you he was a researcher at OpenAI who scaled that fund to tens of billions of dollars — and just got margin called in front of the entire internet? That's the Leopold Aschenbrenner / Situational Awareness / Citadel story. And it's not really a story about one guy. It's a story about why an entire generation of Americans is gambling. In this video I break down: Why domain expertise does not translate to investment expertise — knowing how AI works is not the same as knowing how markets workWhat trading on margin and using leverage actually means, in plain EnglishHow a margin call works, and why concentration plus leverage is the combination that ends accountsWhy the Citadel drama is a symptom of a much bigger problem: young people who don't see a clear path to a house, a career, a wedding, or a kidWhy the rate of gambling in America is a proxy for how many opportunities people believe they haveThe Reddit habit I use to stay grounded — filtering by losses instead of gainsQQQ lost 86% in the dot-com crash, and if you bought the top it took 16 years to get back to evenThe three forces stacked against young investors: no financial literacy in schools, a casino in every pocket, and AI coming for the jobs their degrees were supposed to protectA direct message to the experienced generation about what your legacy is actually going to beIf you've lost money trading on margin, this video is not here to shame you. My argument is the opposite: you are responding rationally to a system that gave you a casino and took away the ladder. MORE CONVERSATIONS WITH AIDAN EDWARDS Full episodes, show notes, and everything else: CWApod.com Subscribe if you want more conversations about money, AI, and what it actually costs to be young in America right now. If this one hit, share it with the friend you've been quietly worried about. KEYWORDS leopold aschenbrenner, situational awareness fund, situational awareness margin call, citadel, openai researcher hedge fund, ai stock crash, ai bubble, margin call explained, what is trading on margin, what is leverage in investing, hedge fund blowup, concentrated portfolio risk, diversification, financial literacy, gambling in america, sports betting apps, retail investing, robinhood generation, qqq dot com crash, dot com bubble recovery time, market correction history, young people can't afford a house, ai replacing jobs, wealth building for young people, conversations with aidan edwards, cwapod #LeopoldAschenbrenner #Citadel #MarginCall #AIBubble #StockMarket #FinancialLiteracy #Investing #AI #PersonalFinance #CWApod More videos like this at CWApod.com Disclaimer: The information contained in this video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as specific financial, investment, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always do your own research or consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions.

  6. Jul 27

    She wrote 6 musicals and 12 years later, one is finally coming to Off-Broadway - Kailey Marshall, Composer & Lyricist

    To learn more about he shows check out: KaileyMarshall.com To join the CWApod club, check out more great content like this at CWApod.com Her professor told her not to take the second semester of the musical theater writing class. She took it anyway — the only person in the room without a co-writer. Twelve years later, the show she started back then is headed Off-Broadway. Kailey Marshall is an actress, singer, songwriter and producer who has written five musicals with a sixth in progress — all while holding down a full-time job in big tech. In this conversation she traces the whole arc: stealing a duet at age three, six years of intensive music theory at Denver School of the Arts, the college mentor who taught her almost everything and nearly broke her doing it, and the years of self-producing readings and concerts before an angel investor and one producer in the audience changed the trajectory. We also get into the craft. Why she thinks musical theater is the hardest storytelling format there is. What separates the gold-standard shows from the ones with great songs and nothing underneath. Her treatment-first writing process, why planes are where her best work happens, and the advice she gives anyone stuck on an unfinished draft: write the worst possible ending, then go fix it. Plus: "Songs for Slutty Girls" — a year in the life of a 21-year-old woman told by four parts of her personality, or as she puts it, a slutty version of Inside Out. Both that EP and the "Ghostwriter" concept album are streaming now, with a live concert recording coming from 54 Below on October 21. Find Kailey on Instagram @marshland and on Spotify under Kailey Marshall. New episodes at CWApod.com

  7. Jul 21

    Laid Off at 30, She Started Kettle Cooked

    Olivia Tedesco was 30 years old, seven years into her events career, when she got laid off. Instead of scrambling for the next job, she sat down and made a list — everything she loved about life, about work, about the events she'd spent her career throwing. She kept narrowing it down until she found the thread: she wanted to be around creative people, discover new artists, and share them with her friends. That list became Kettle Cooked. In this episode, Olivia joins Aidan to talk about: How a layoff turned into an intentional audit of what she actually wanted out of her careerThe moment she realized she loved supporting artists more than being one herselfWhy she named her event series after a bag of potato chips (and what "small batch" really means to her)The night a friend told her to "just make the Partiful" — and how that one move made the idea real before she was readyHow she vets every comedian, magician, and performer she books so she can personally vouch for the lineupHer advice on faking it till you make it, and asking "will this matter in five years?" when anxiety creeps inFollow Kettle Cooked and see the next event lineup: @kettlenyc on Instagram For more conversations like this, head to CWApod.com. Disclaimer: The information contained in this video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as specific financial, investment, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always do your own research or consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions.

  8. Jun 3

    What $1.8 Trillion Buys You (Hint: It's Not Rockets)

    SpaceX just filed to go public under the ticker SPKX — and the $1.8 trillion valuation has everyone losing their minds. That's ten times Boeing. Fifteen times Lockheed Martin. For a company that lost $4.9 billion last year. So what are you actually buying? Under the hood, SpaceX is four companies at once: a rocket business, an AI company (xAI), a social media platform (X, formerly Twitter), and a satellite internet provider (Starlink). The problem is that only one of those is making real money — and it's the one you can't buy separately. Starlink brought in $11.4 billion in revenue last year at a 63% EBITDA margin. That's more than double Netflix's operating margin. It's genuinely one of the most impressive businesses on the planet. Everything else is burning cash at a historic pace. CapEx hit $10.1 billion — $7.7 billion of which went toward building out the Memphis GPU cluster for xAI. Q1 of this year alone saw a $4.28 billion loss. Nearly as much in three months as the whole of last year. And here's the part that doesn't get enough attention: when you buy SpaceX, you're directly funding Elon's acquisition of X. The company that owns Twitter has 550 million monthly active users — but the Meta family of apps has 3.9 billion. The gap is enormous. They're also holding 18,000 Bitcoin on the balance sheet, and they want to launch a million satellites to build a space-based AI center — roughly 70 times the number of satellites currently orbiting Earth. Their own S-1 filing admits they're not sure if that's commercially viable. So the question isn't whether SpaceX is doing impressive things. It's whether $1.8 trillion is the right price for what you're actually getting. Learn more at CWApod.com Disclaimer: The information contained in this video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as specific financial, investment, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always do your own research or consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions.

  9. May 10

    Liver Transplant Survivor and Professional Pickleball Coach - Michele Dabal - MDpickleball.net

    https://CWApod.comhttps://MDpickleball.net

    Liver Transplant Survivor and Professional Pickleball Coach - Michele Dabal - MDpickleball.net

  10. Apr 17

    Start your own Film Production Company - Steve Dabal - TheFamily.tv

    Visit thefamily.tv or @family on Instagram The conversation delves into the birth of 'The Family' production company, the power of relationships, the challenges and growth experienced, and the impact of the writer's strike. It also explores the inspiration behind a project, finding community and purpose, and the cultural differences in work environments. The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including the cultural diversity of New York, the use of technology in filmmaking, the art of imperfection, the terrifying process of filmmaking, the importance of feedback and trust, advice for the younger self, the future and impact of filmmaking, and the role of AI in storytelling. Takeaways Building a network is crucial for success in the film industry.Deep connections and shared experiences contribute to a strong and resilient team dynamic. The importance of trust and feedback in the filmmaking processThe potential impact of AI on storytelling and filmmaking Chapters 00:00 The Birth of The Family05:54 Learning Through Intense Situations11:05 Overcoming Difficult Times16:46 The Melting Pot of New York22:00 Revealing the Story27:24 Favorite Movies and Inspirations

    Start your own Film Production Company - Steve Dabal - TheFamily.tv

  11. Apr 1

    Sales at Yik Yak, $100K Entrepreneur, Startup Accelerator - Tyler Farley

    The conversation covers Tyler Farley's entrepreneurship journey, learning from entrepreneurship clubs, the dynamics of sales and partnerships, the role of AI in business, and networking in New York. Tyler shares insights into his experiences and the evolving landscape of entrepreneurship and business development. Takeaways Entrepreneurship journeyLearning from entrepreneurship clubsSales and partnershipsAI in businessNetworking in New York Chapters 00:00 Entrepreneurship Journey11:17 Sales and Partnerships19:00 Networking in New York

    Sales at Yik Yak, $100K Entrepreneur, Startup Accelerator - Tyler Farley
  • 11 Episodes

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An entrepreneur who made $100K selling suspenders, a filmmaker who designed an escape room on the world's largest cruise ship, a liver transplant survivor, and other interesting guests that will inspire you with their stories CWApod.com

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