Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist Joe Lonsdale

Sebastian Caliri is Partner at 8VC with a focus on healthcare investing. Previously, Sebastian spent four years at Palantir where he was responsible for growing its commercial healthcare business. In this episode, Sebastian diagnoses the core problems in U.S. healthcare and explains why traditional fee-for-service care misaligns incentives, resulting in rising costs and inferior health outcomes. He makes the case for new models like value-based care and also highlights the potential of psychedelic medicine and other exciting innovation. Sebastian holds a BS and MS in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University and spent a year in Stanford's MD program before pursuing a career in tech and investing. He argues that the conventional path in medicine is broken and often produces a risk-averse, complacent culture; he challenges the next generation of doctors and health care professionals to think boldly and take on the status quo.

Tony Fadell is one of the great engineers, designers, and business leaders of our time, responsible for creating the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Thermostat. He runs the investment firm Future Shape and recently released his memoir titled “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making." In this episode, he discusses the lessons he learned at General Magic (which was building the iPhone 15 years too early) and Philips Electronics that paved the way for building some of the world's most popular devices at Apple. He explains why self-imposed constraints are essential to creating exceptional products and reveals where engineers and designers often go wrong. His passion for building is inspiring and informative for both business and everyday life.

Joe Lonsdale sits down with Zach Latta, Founder of Hack Club, a non-profit network of high school coding clubs with over 15,000 members worldwide. At age 15, Zach helped design one of the most popular apps in the world. At 16, he dropped out of high school to become a programmer before founding Hack Club. He then received a Thiel Fellowship and decided to forgo college to build Hack Club full-time. In this episode, he talks about rethinking education and challenges teenagers to look beyond conventional, safe paths and take full advantage of the Internet Age. He paints an inspiring picture of what our world would look like with more coders and builders -- and explains how Hack Club provides teens with the skills to improve society and realize their full potential. [Joe is a proud early supporter of Hack Club.]

Gene Berdichevsky is the co-founder and CEO of Sila, a next-gen battery technology company. Previously, he was the seventh employee at Tesla, where he served as Principal Engineer on the Roadster battery and led the development of the world’s first mass-produced lithium-ion car battery. In this episode, he explains how Sila's new battery chemistry innovations can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and help electrify the future. He discusses the challenges in mining rare metals, battery recycling, and what's needed to sustainably build batteries at scale. By mid-century, Berdichevsky is optimistic that EVs will become ubiquitous, and we'll be able to fully integrate renewables into the electric grid. [Joe's venture capital firm 8VC is an investor in Sila.]

Francisco Gimenez is Partner at 8VC and focuses on Bio-IT investments. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford in Biomedical Informatics and B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley. In this episode, Francisco explains how breakthroughs in AI, gene editing, and cell therapies converged to jumpstart a new age in biology. He predicts that biomanufacturing platforms, armed with mountains of data and new tools, will bring down the costs of creating and commercializing drugs so smaller companies can treat rarer diseases and deliver more personalized cures. By decentralizing the pharma industry, Francisco is optimistic that the future of medicine will evolve from reactive care to preventative medicine that will help people fully self-actualize and lead their best, healthiest lives. [Joe is a founding partner of 8VC, his venture capital firm.]

Jacob DeWitte is the Co-Founder and CEO of Oklo, a nuclear energy startup building small advanced reactors that can reuse spent fuel from conventional reactors. In this episode, DeWitte explains how the regulatory state has stymied new reactor designs for decades, and how he's working to break through and bring game-changing nuclear power technology to market. Shortly after the initial conversation was filmed, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) denied Oklo's application for its new small reactor design -- evidence of the persistent regulatory challenges. Stay tuned to the end of the episode where Jake rejoins the show to explain how Oklo plans to address the NRC's findings and continue the process toward final approval. [Joe's venture capital firm 8VC is an investor in Oklo.]