Hidden Forces

In Episode 233 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with award-winning author and recurring Hidden Forces guest Jimmy Soni about his newst book on the PayPal Mafia and the founders who shaped Silicon Valley and transformed the Fintech and online payments industry. The history of the so-called "PayPal Mafia" does not simply constitute the individual histories of star-studded founders like Pete...

In Episode 232 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Mohamed El-Erian, President of Queens' College Cambridge and chief economic adviser at Allianz, the corporate parent of PIMCO where Mohamed was CEO and co-chief investment officer from 2007 to 2014. El-Erian is one of the most gifted communicators in finance who is intimately connected with the global policymaking community. He has a un...

In Episode 231 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with renowned philosopher and author of "Reality+" David Chalmers about the metaverse, the nature of reality, and the problems of philosophy in a virtual world. David's central thesis is that the metaverse and virtual reality are genuine realities and that we may be living in such virtual worlds already. Along the way, Demetri and David cond...

In Episode 230 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Spencer Jakab, an award-winning financial journalist who edits the Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column and who is out with a new book chronicling one of the craziest news stories of the last few years. The story centers on a motley crew of retail traders on Reddit's r/WallStreetBets forum who almost broke the Internet by...

In Episode 229 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Peter Pomerantsev, a Soviet-born British journalist, former TV producer, and author about the break-down in belief systems and shared mythologies that we are experiencing in the West and why this has left so many people feeling increasingly cynical about the world and indifferent towards the future. Peter was early in his diagnosis, hav...

In Episode 228 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kazakhstan-based journalist Joanna Lillis, author of "Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan," about the recent protests and unrest that unfolded in Kazakhstan over the past two weeks and how this ties into the larger geopolitical chess match currently underway in Eastern Europe. This is the multi-polar world in action. It'...

In Episode 227 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Saagar Enjeti and Marshall Kosloff, the co-hosts of "The Realignment," an absolutely phenomenal podcast that consistently produces some of the best conversations at the intersection of politics and society that you will find anywhere. They are both successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders in their own rights—Saagar Enjeti interviewe...

In Episode 226 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Dmitri Alperovitch, the former CTO and co-founder of CrowdStrike, the world's largest cybersecurity company, which has been involved in investigations of several high-profile cyberattacks including the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, the 2015–2016 cyber-attacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and the 2016 email leak involving the D...

In Episode 225 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ryan Holiday, a popular author whose books have made philosophy and the writings of the ancients interesting and accessible to millions of people. He's done this with bestselling books like "The Obstacle is the Way" and "Ego is the Enemy" and he continues to do this with his latest book "Courage is Calling."  Demetri and Ryan discuss wh...

In Episode 224 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas appears as a guest on the Mining Stock Daily, a podcast by Trevor Hall which focuses on the junior mining and mineral exploration sector. Their conversation centers on the macro, big-picture themes of society, polity, economy, and culture that preoccupy most of Demetri's attention, as well as on his own approach to investing. You can find more info...

In Episode 223 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Doomberg, an anonymous publisher and the proprietor of a bespoke consulting firm that provides advisory services to family offices and c-suite executives. The firm's principals apply their decades of experience across heavy industry, private equity, and finance to deliver innovative thinking and clarity to complex problems. In the first...

In Episode 222 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Gregg Easterbrook. Gregg was a staff writer, national correspondent, and contributing editor at The Atlantic and has authored thirteen books about a variety of subjects including climate change, globalization, philosophy, and American football. Demetri and Gregg explore the subject of Easterbrook's latest book, "The Blue Age." They disc...

In Episode 221 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jim Grant, the founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer: a legend in the business of investor education and financial media. What separates Jim from millions of his fellow financial journalists, commentators, and authors is the historical perspective that he brings, informed not just by the immense volume of books and periodicals that...

In Episode 220 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Julius Krein, the editor of American Affairs, a quarterly journal of policy and political-economy that delves into the deeper sociopolitical, cultural, and economic issues facing America and other Western countries. The episode is broken into two parts, the first hour of which focuses on issues of political-economy, policy, and market d...

In Episode 219 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Matt Ridley and Alina Chan. Alina is a Canadian molecular biologist specializing in gene therapy and cell engineering at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Matt is a British science journalist who has written countless bestselling books on subjects ranging from evolution, to innovation, to genomic science. They are the co-author...

In Episode 218 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher. Eric is co-founder of Schmidt Futures and the former CEO & Chairman of Google and Daniel is the inaugural dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. They are the co-authors, along with Henry Kissinger, of a phenomenal new book titled, "The Age of AI And Our Human Future," which explores how Ar...

In Episode 217 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with New York Times Op-Ed columnist Ross Douthat about his five-year struggle with a disease that in his own words, officially, doesn't exist. It's a story about personal suffering but also about what happens when we become terribly ill only to realize that even the doctors who are willing to treat us can only do so much. Demetri and Ross sp...

In Episode 216 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Robin Wigglesworth, the Financial Times global finance correspondent and author of "Trillions," a book which chronicles the origins, history, and future of the index fund, arguably the most disruptive financial innovation of the last 50 years. Robin and Demetri spend the first half of their conversation exploring the history of passive...

In Episode 215 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with 2020 Presidential candidate and Founder of the Forward Party , Andrew Yang. Yang is perhaps best known for popularizing the idea of universal basic income, what he called "the freedom dividend" during his run for president in 2020. He recently launched "the Forward Party," a political party focused on breaking what Andrew sees as a two-...

In Episode 214 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Scott Gottlieb. Dr. Gottlieb is a physician who served as the head of the FDA from 2017 to 2019. He currently serves on the boards of Pfizer and Illumina and is a regular contributor to CNBC where he has become one of the most recognizable faces in America. His recently published book, "Uncontrolled Spread," examines how the coronavirus...

In Episode 213 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with David Wessel, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. David is also the author of a new book titled, "Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age." In the book, Wessel tells the story of the creation of a lucrative tax brea...

In Episode 212 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with telecom industry veteran and author of "Wireless Wars," Jon Pelson, about how American companies invented cellular technology, transferred that technology to China, and then sat by and watched as their Chinese competitors drove them out of business. He shares stories from the executives and scientists who built the industry, as well as...

In Episode 211 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas shares his recent appearance on " The Empire's New Clothes ," a documentary series where host Bradford Pope McArthur examines the cyclical forces that make and break empires and tries to answer the big questions of how we got here as a society and what might be in store for us in the years to come. Topics include global macro, cryptocurrencies, geo...

In Episode 210 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of Sinovation Ventures, a leading Chinese technology venture firm. Dr. Lee was formerly the president of Google China and the New York Times bestselling author of AI Superpowers. His latest book, "AI2041: Ten Visions for Our Future," provides the foundation for today's conversation about the future of a world driven by a...

In Episode 209 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Simon Mikhailovich, founder and Managing Partner of "The Bullion Reserve," a professionally managed private vehicle providing full-service solutions that ensure legal compliance, jurisdictional diversification, liquidity, physical access, and deliverability of gold bullion. Operating within a single structure, TBR maximizes flexibility...