All 131 episodes of The Puck—policy figures, investors, founders, and public intellectuals on markets, technology, geopolitics, institutions, and culture. Filter by topic or search by guest.
Sara Seager joins The Puck to talk about her search for life beyond Earth, including a privately funded mission to Venus, her post-traumatic growth after losing her husband, being…
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb - former chair of Harvard's Astronomy Department, head of the Galileo Project, author of Extraterrestrial and Interstellar - joins Jim Baer for a…
My guest today is Michael Moritz. He started as a journalist at Time Magazine, then spent 35 years at Sequoia Capital backing Google, Yahoo, PayPal, and YouTube. Before any of…
Lori Garver spent years inside NASA making an argument most of the agency didn't want to hear: that commercial partnership wasn't a compromise, it was the strategy. On this…
He edited Harper's. He almost lost his faith to cancer and the new atheists. Now he's written a book called Why I Am Not an Atheist —and he's not backing down from the hard…
Harvard economist and former Obama CEA Chair Jason Furman joins Jim to unpack the risks hiding beneath a strong economy—from a potential Strait of Hormuz oil shock, to whether AI…
Is healthcare the real driver of the national debt crisis? Avik Roy joins The Puck to discuss one of the most important questions in American public policy. Roy, president of the…
Everyone says AI is going to transform healthcare. Annie Lamont explains why this time may actually be different—but also why Epic, Medicaid, misaligned incentives, and China’s…
Yuval Levin joins The Puck to explain why Americans have stopped trusting their institutions—and what it would take to rebuild that trust. Levin argues that institutions are…
In Episode 122 of The Puck: Venture Capital & Beyond , Jim Baer sits down with Katherine Baicker, one of America’s leading health economists, for a clear-eyed conversation about…
In this week's episode, Jim sits down with Dr. Ashish Jha—physician, health policy expert, and former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator—for a candid look at what the…
China looks unstoppable from the outside—record exports, dominant EVs, and a relentless push into AI, robotics, and advanced manufacturing. But beneath the surface, a very…
What happens when Iran gets the bomb—and the missiles to deliver it? In this episode of The Puck Venture Capital & Beyond , Jim Baer sits down with Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the…
Jim sits down with Rabbi David Wolpe in a wide-ranging conversation on wisdom, religion, and the moral challenges of modern life. In a world saturated with information but lacking…
America’s fiscal problem isn’t political—it’s mathematical. Jessica Riedl joins Jim Baer to explain why U.S. deficits are accelerating, why both parties misunderstand the drivers,…
America’s healthcare debate has been stuck for decades—framed as a political fight between left and right. But what if that’s the wrong lens entirely? In this episode of The Puck…
Why do societies collapse—and what does that tell us about the future of the global economy? In this episode of The Puck , Jim Baer speaks with anthropologist and historian Joseph…
Is the largest financial bubble in history hiding in plain sight? In this episode of The Puck , Jim Baer sits down with veteran market analyst Doug Noland , a longtime chronicler…
What happens when record stock prices meet record government debt—and nobody really knows what’s under the hood?This week on The Puck, Jim Baer sits down with Mark Zandi, Chief…
What do most people regret at the end of their careers? According to legendary venture capitalist Bill Gurley, it’s not the failures—it’s the risks they never took.In this…
What does it take to build trust on the internet—at global scale?In Episode 111 of The Puck: Venture Capital & Beyond, Jim Baer sits down with Jimmy Wales, co-founder of…
In this episode of The Puck, Jim Baer sits down with Jack Goldstone—the Hazel Chair Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and one of the world’s foremost scholars…
Global macro strategist Vincent Deluard joins Jim Baer for a direct, data-driven conversation about the new economic regime taking shape in the U.S. and around the world. Deluard…
On this week's episode, Jim talks with Matthew Continetti about the real story of the American Right—how conservatism evolved, why populism exploded, and what’s coming next. Sharp…
Jim Baer talks with Francis Fukuyama—author of The End of History and the Last Man—about the fragility of liberal democracy in an age of rising authoritarianism and deepening…