The New Barbarians Podcast

Most people are using AI to find out what time it is. A smaller group is building clocks. The difference compounds — and it's the only distinction that matters for anyone trying to use these tools to do real work. Mark Connors and Bill Mann hit record mid-conversation and never really stopped. No guest, no agenda — just two capital markets veterans who've been living inside AI workflows fo...

An American founder is taking the surplus-food market away from a 1,700-person Danish incumbent — one independent restaurant at a time. Eddy Connors is Co-Founder & CEO of Goodie Bag, the marketplace app that connects people to local shops' unsold food at 60-70% off, fighting food waste and food affordability at once. CU Boulder Leeds grad, Techstars alum, $1.3M pre-seed, 350+ partner shop...

🔥 The Hidden Pattern Linking Argentina's Currency Collapse, Music Industry, and BitcoinWelcome to the New Barbarians podcast! We're diving deep into how current market events are shaping traditional investment portfolios. We see digital asset management and digital disruption as the future, especially with the rise of AI in finance. These tech trends are fundamentally changing the financi...

Agentic Finance: Building AI Analysts for the Debasement Trade Era — with Vlad Stanev of QuantlyAs global currencies face increasing debasement pressures, the next evolution in finance is here — Agentic AI Analysts. 💡In this episode, we sit down with Vlad Stanev, Founder of Quantly, to explore how AI-driven financial agents are redefining strategy, analysis, and alpha generation in the new econom...

Between Markets and Masterpieces Debby Goan on Breaking Barriers and Blending Worlds🌟 Introduction▪️Brief host introduction.▪️Introducing Debby Goan – her journey from Stillwater, Oklahoma, to leading innovation across finance, technology, and the arts.▪️Highlights:▪️Only minority woman with a member seat at the American Stock Exchange▪️Transformational leadership in fintech▪️Deep artistic engage...

Quant Pioneers & The Battle: Bartt Kellermann on Shaping the Future of Systematic InvestingIn this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with Bartt Kellermann, founder of Global Capital Acquisition and creator of Battle of the Quants, to explore how systematic investing, AI, and quantitative innovation are redefining modern finance. Discover:✅ How quant strategies evolved from niche to mains...

Aaron Brown: Quantitative Risk, Crypto, and the "Wrong Number" Revolution | New Barbarians PodcastJoin us on the New Barbarians Podcast for a compelling session with Aaron Brown, legendary risk manager and quant strategist. We dive into Aaron’s landmark career bridging professional gambling, hedge fund risk management, and quantitative investing — spanning lessons from Wall Street, the evolution o...

Join Bill Mann and Mark Connors in Episode 35 of The New Barbarians podcast with special guest Ehsan Ehsani. Ehsan, Executive Director at Crescendo Partners, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, and author of "Finding Value in Numbers," shares unique insights on the intersection of generative AI and traditional value investing. In this episode, we explore:- The crucial skills y...

Today’s episode spotlights Charlie Marin (CEO, Quanted) on building the “Amazon-meets-Palantir” data bridge for investors—turning idea → feature → backtest into a rapid, agent-driven loop. Bill and Mark frame the macro: rates over equities, MOVE vs. VIX, factor rotations (value/cyclicals), credit spreads, and why point-in-time data & revisions matter. Charlie breaks down vendor onboarding with...

In this episode, Bill Mann and Mark Connors sit down with Michael Nadeau , founder of The DeFi Report , to explore the future of digital assets, DeFi, and on-chain research. From macro backdrops to tokenization and the reflexivity of crypto markets, Michael shares how his journey from MIT and LinkedIn posts evolved into one of the most influential Substacks in digital assets. The conversation span...

In this episode of The New Barbarians Podcast , Mark Connors and Bill Mann sit down with Loren Asmus , Head of Capital Formation at UTXO Management, to break down how institutional investors and corporate treasuries are accelerating Bitcoin adoption. From Bitcoin’s 13-year record as the best-performing asset, to the rise of Bitcoin Treasury companies like MicroStrategy and MetaPlanet, Loren explai...

"This is a $600 billion market that no one pays attention to."In Episode 31 of The New Barbarians Podcast, Bill Mann and Mark Connors are joined by Jonathan Small, founder and CEO of The Tradesmen Collective, and Ed McManus, Director of Investor Relations. Together, they explore how this mission-driven startup is revolutionizing the $500+ billion construction and home renovation industry...

What happens when a meme stock short squeeze meets a 3-million-paper research archive? In Episode 30 of The New Barbarians Podcast, Bill Mann and Mark Connors sit down with Michael Magoulias, Commercial Director at SSRN (Social Science Research Network), to explore how early-stage academic research is shaping markets, technology, regulation—and your portfolio. From short interest factors and retai...

AI & Bitcoin continue to dominate the investment landscape. In Episode 29, Bill Mann and Mark Connors go it alone for a mid‑year gut‑check on markets and macro. The hosts unpack the past few weeks’ volatility – from why Ethereum was the only major asset to break into the 95th percentile for returns to how “risk‑on” sentiment has left value stocks lagging. They dig into the dashboards built by...

In this episode, we sit down with Jennifer Murphy, veteran investor and CIO of Runa Digital Assets, to explore why today’s AI and crypto revolutions aren’t sudden — they’re the culmination of decades of technological evolution. With over 30 years in the investment world, from working alongside Bill Miller at Legg Mason to leading at Franklin Templeton and now pioneering in digital assets, Jennifer...

In Episode 27 of The New Barbarians Podcast, hosts Bill Mann and Mark Connors welcome Chris Maher, founder of Samaritan Partners, a venture capital fund focused on impact investing in disability innovation. Chris shares how his journey as a parent, tech CEO, and former D1 coach led to launching a fund that bridges purpose and profit — backing startups that empower the disability community with sca...

What happens when human intuition meets data-driven precision? In this deep-dive short from The New Barbarians Podcast, Mark Connors breaks down the seismic shift toward systematic global macro investing. From yield curve twists to easing trade tensions, from ARIMA and GARCH models to machine learning and relative value trades, this episode explores how investors are using rules-based systems to n...

In Episode 26 of the New Barbarians Podcast, Bill Mann and Mark Connors sit down with Christina Qi, co-founder and CEO of Databento, for an unfiltered conversation about her journey from high-frequency trading to building one of the fastest-growing market data vendors in the industry. They cover:- Why she shut down her hedge fund at the peak of her success- The real-world pain of working with lega...

In Episode 22 of The New Barbarians Podcast, Bill and Mark are joined by David Forino, CTO and Co-Founder of Quanted, to explore how systematic investors can finally scale dataset onboarding and feature discovery without months of engineering time. They cover:• The rise of explainable machine learning over deep neural nets• The 3000→30 line code compression in quant infrastructure• Why Circle’s IP...

In Episode 24 of The New Barbarians Podcast, Bill Mann and Mark Connors sit down with Ihsan Saracgil, Chief Product Officer at OpenBB, for a deep dive into the future of quant research and AI-native finance. We explore how OpenBB is dismantling legacy market data systems and giving investors cutting-edge tools—customizable dashboards, AI copilots, multi-agent frameworks, and a glimpse into real-ti...

Join us for a very special LIVE episode of the New Barbarians Podcast with one of the true pioneers of modern investing — Herb Blank. Herb has been innovating in finance for over three decades — from launching the first managed ETFs to driving early Smart Beta and ESG models. We cover:✅ The history and future of quantitative investing✅ The origin of factor-based models and strategy indexes✅ Gov...

In this episode, Bill Mann and Mark Connors welcome Ben Golub, Head of Derivatives Trading at Secure Digital Markets (SDM), to explore the cutting edge of crypto derivatives, OTC trading, and institutional adoption of digital assets. We dive into:✅ The collapse of TradFi margins and the migration to crypto rails✅ How Bitcoin and AI are becoming base-layer financial infrastructure✅ The rise of c...

🎧 Guests:Lisa Huff (Eberly Energy Ventures)Dan Morrison (Amalgamated Sludge)In Episode 21 of The New Barbarians Podcast, we head to Houston after a powerful event featuring Dr. Adam Back to unpack the energy-tech collision shaping global infrastructure. Lisa Huff (Eberly Energy Ventures) and Dan Morrison (Amalgamated Sludge) join us to break down why energy sovereignty matters—from stranded gas a...

In this episode of The New Barbarians, hosts Bill Mann and Mark Connors dive into the world of quantitative crypto investing, revealing how traditional models and modern AI tools are being re-engineered to capitalize on persistent inefficiencies in digital asset markets. They explore cutting-edge strategies such as arbitrage, pairs trading, sentiment analysis, and volatility forecasting, examining...

Can Bitcoin be both a safe haven and a risk-on asset? Why does Warren Buffett praise Apple but doubt gold or crypto? And is Europe becoming a financial museum while the U.S. rewires for AI-led growth? In this explosive episode, Rebellion Research CEO Alex Fleiss joins Bill Mann and Mark Connors for a wide-ranging conversation on market signals, fiscal sustainability, and the role of faith in inves...