Village Global Podcast

Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) of Bloomberg joins Erik on this episode to discuss:- Whether the current version of college as a “high tuition summer camp” can be sustained.- How universities will attract students.- Where he disagrees with Tyler Cowen on college.- How college has evolved over time.- How college will be unbundled.- Whether there will be corporate universities.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford), author of The Roots of Progress, joins Erik to discuss:- The key aspects of human progress.- The history of progress over time.- Whether we’ve traded off progress for safety.- Why the idea of progress is relatively new.- What the nature of science fiction writing tells us about our vision for progress.- Why progress happens differently in different domains.- How to think about safety with respect to new technologies.- The impacts of slowing population growth.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Niko Skievaski (@niko_ski), founder and president of Redox, and Nikita Singareddy (@singareddynm), investor at RRE Ventures, join Erik to discuss:- How regulation has changed the landscape in healthcare.- How to figure out what the the next wave in healthcare will be.- Why in the past government regulation has pulled technology into the present that wasn’t ready.- The biggest trends in healthcare now.- Where they would be investing if they were running a fund focused on the space.- What it takes to be successful in healthcare.- The state of the EHR space.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Anuj Abrol (@nujabrol), founder of Witty Wealth and formerly Chief of Staff at Atrium, joins Erik to discuss:- Why public stock activity has surged, especially among young people.- A primer on SPACs and their advantages and disadvantages.- Direct listings vs. IPOs vs. SPACs.- Why Slack is such a polarizing company.- Why there is dissatisfaction with roboadvisors.- The role of memes in public investing.- Whether there will be more new betting markets.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Mark Lutter (@MarkLutter), founder and executive director of the Charter City Institute, joins Erik. They discuss:- The key factors that make countries successful or prosperous.- The different schools of thought on charter cities.- What the key factors to get right with a charter city are.- What Silicon Valley understands and misunderstands about charter cities.- Why there are few true entrepreneurs in the US anymore.- His thoughts on Balaji Srinivasan’s ideas about charter cities.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Joey Krug, founder of Augur and partner at Pantera Capital, discusses the evolution of prediction markets, the current state of crypto, and the potential of Web3. Topics include Augur's updates, scalability challenges of Ethereum, regulatory hurdles for prediction markets, the perception of betting, exploring equity and popularizing capitalism, potential of decentralized social networks, and the problem with centralized oracles.

Erik's chat with founder/angel-turned-VC, @stevejang of @kindredventures, about supporting founders at seed and how building startups has changed in this cycle:- using a beginner’s mind- importance of creativity & taste in startups- no-code and democratizing access- marketplaces and community-ownership- a post-smartphone computing paradigm- post-COVID themesThanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Tanner Greer (@Scholars_Stage), author of the Scholars Stage blog, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The differences in perspectives between east and west.- Why China didn’t liberalize as it got more prosperous.- How the US’s foreign policy should have been different in the past with respect to China.- Why people are becoming more hawkish on China.- His thoughts on Twitter.- His thoughts on “it’s time to build.” - How he would renew liberalism.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Justin Murphy (@jmrphy), full-stack professor, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The current problems with academia.- Challenges that universities are facing today.- Why teaching should be disaggregated or unbundled.- The full-stack professor setup.- What changes if five years from now professors start going D2C.- His thoughts on Rene Girard and other philosophers.- How to improve capitalism’s ability to provide for everyone in society.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Megan O’Connor (@MeganMOConnor), entrepreneur-in-residence at Kaplan, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The recent waves of innovation in education.- How college and K-12 evolve post-COVID.- What will have changed about education in the next 5-10 years.- Whether she would bet on solutions inside or outside of the existing education system.- The future of ISAs.- What the new wave will be in education.- Whether big companies like Facebook or Google will create their own universities.- Whether the mechanics of video games can be applied successfully to learning.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.