A Book with Legs
Smead Capital Management
Welcome to A Book with Legs podcast, hosted by Smead Capital Management. In each episode, the folks at Smead Capital Management explore value investing through an entirely unique lens, bringing in authors to discuss books that have directly or indirectly influenced the decisions the Smead team has made on their investments in stocks and equities. The podcast is for the curious-minded looking for worldly wisdom. Investing is the last great liberal art, and the team at Smead wants to learn as much as they can. Any level of investor, business person, or thinker, whether personally or professionally, will be intrigued and engaged by these discussions.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 28, 2022 • 1h 3min
Amity Shlaes – The Forgotten Man
The stock market crash of 1929 will forever be considered one of the darkest hours of the U.S. economy. Decades later, many economists are still searching for the exact reasons as to why it happened.In this episode, Cole and Bill Smead sit down with Amity Shlaes, the author of the book The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. Amity’s book takes a deep dive into possible causes of the Great Depression and the people who were responsible for the market’s collapse.
Feb 15, 2022 • 1h 8min
Dinny McMahon – China’s Great Wall of Debt
For a long time, the world has considered China as an example of economic success, but those days may be over. In this episode, Cole Smead is joined by Dinny McMahon, author of the book China’s Great Wall of Debt. Dinny takes a deep dive into China’s financial system and gives us a sense of how the country’s complex and “dysfunctional” economy works from the ground up. Dinny also explains why China’s economic growth has slowed down, how the accrual of debt has played a role, and why the “Chinese Miracle” has come to an end.
Feb 15, 2022 • 1h 15min
Lisa Napoli – Up All Night
News wasn’t always readily available at the click of a button. Ted Turner forever changed that in 1980 when he brought the Cable News Network to life. In this episode, hosts Cole and Bill Smead are joined by Lisa Napoli, author of the book Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN and the Birth of 24-Hour News. Lisa shares incredible insight into the life of Ted Turner and how the media mogul rolled the dice with the launch of CNN. She also discusses the evolution of cable news, its transition from “pure-play journalism” to “theatrics”, and what the 24-hour news cycle might look like in the future.
Feb 7, 2022 • 52min
Greg Zuckerman – The Frackers
Buried deep underground lies a wealth of oil and natural gas. Embedded in shale, the major gas companies thought extraction was a waste of time. That all changed when a handful of men thought otherwise, thus creating the process now known as fracking. In this episode, Cole Smead sits down with Greg Zuckerman, author of the book The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters. Greg introduces us to the men responsible for the birth of fracking and explains how the trajectory of the United States economy changed with the extraction of oil and natural gas.
