Hidden Forces

In Episode 184 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Noreena Hertz, a renowned thought leader, academic, and broadcaster, named by The Observer as "one of the world's leading thinkers" and by Vogue as "one of the world's most inspiring women."  Over the course of her career, Hertz has grappled with issues of political-economy, markets, business, culture, and technology. In her latest book...

In Episode 183 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Karen Petrou, co-founder and Managing Partner of Federal Financial Analytics and author of "Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America." The objective of this episode is to help you better understand how monetary policy and financial regulations have changed in the years since the great financial crisis and how th...

In Episode 1 82 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Nicole Perlroth, award-winning cybersecurity journalist for The New York Times and author of a recently published book on the cyber-weapons arms race titled "This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends."   This is the latest episode in a series that we've devoted to the subject of information security and the threat posed to our infrastruc...

In Episode 181 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Balaji Srinivasan, an angel investor, entrepreneur, and prominent futurist who's views on crypto, the future of education, and the network state put him at the forefront of innovation and disruption in money, business, and politics.  The two discuss Balaji's thesis for the rise of the network state, what it means for existing institutio...

In Episode 180 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas provides listeners with a sneak peak into the next 5 weeks of content, including episodes on the networked state, financial warfare, cybersecurity, the loneliness epidemic, and how to rebuild the mission-driven state. You can access the episode overtimes, as well as the transcripts and rundowns to each week's episode through the Hidden Forces Patre...

In Episode 179 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas shares the overtime to his 4-hour-long conversation with Radigan Carter , an investor who has spent the last two decades of his life working across five continents as a member of the US military, as a private contractor, and as a special agent for the United States government. In this second-half of their conversation, Radigan shares not only his r...

In Episode 178 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Lily Francus, a 25-year-old PhD student in bioinformatics who spends her time modeling complex, dynamic systems, trading meme stocks, and writing about options, derivatives, and how stories and ideas spread on the Internet. Unless you've been living under a rock or don't have an Internet connection you will already know that some really...

In Episode 177 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Radigan Carter , an investor who has spent the last two decades of his life working across five continents as a member of the US military, as a private contractor, and as a special agent for the United States government. He has extensive experience leading large multinational teams -- including a 350-person security force -- in the Midd...

In Episode 176 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas shares his thoughts on a series of interconnected topics including Tether, Bitcoin, domestic terrorism, generational conflict, and foreign interference. The medium posted cited in this episode is " The Bit Short: Inside Crypto's Doomsday Machine. " The two Blockchain Debate Podcast episodes cited are (1) "Tether has always been acting in bad faith...

In Episode 175 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kevin Vallier, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University, whose interests lie primarily in political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of religion, and economics.    In his latest book, "Trust in a Polarized Age," Kevin draws on empirical data and liberal political philosophy to demonstrate that rising levels o...

In Episode 174 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Michael Ippolito and Jason Yanowitz, the founders of Blockworks , a financial media brand that delivers breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. In this conversation, Jason and Michael share news about the recent launch of their editorial site, including anecdotes from their experience creating a...

In Episode 173 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. The two discuss the reaction of Big Tech to the storming of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. this past week, what it reveals about the power that these data monopolies hav...

In Episode 172 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Grant Williams and Ben Hunt. Ben is the founder of the widely read Epsilon Theory , a newsletter and website that is known for its insights and analysis on markets and society with a particular focus on how narrative drives our perception of the world and our place in it. Grant is the long-time publisher of a popular financial newslette...

In Episode 171 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Katharina Pistor, a leading scholar of corporate governance, money & finance, property rights, and comparative law & legal institutions. She's also a prominent commentator on cryptocurrencies, has testified before Congress about them, and has written papers dealing with the issues of digital statehood and monetary sovereignty. Her lates...

In Episode 170 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas shares an interview he recently did on the Bankless podcast, where he gives his views on the future of freedom and governance. Topics include cryptocurrencies, global macro, monetary policy, geopolitics, and more.  Since our episode with Rohan Grey aired, we have seen new regulatory proposals including the FinCen KYC regulations on self-hosted wall...

In Episode 169 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Michael Sandel, professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School, host of the BBC series "The Public Philosopher," and author of numerous, bestselling books including his latest, "The Tyranny of Merit."   When people complain about meritocracy, the complaint is usually not about the ideal but about our failure to live up...

In Episode 168 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Rohan Grey, an expert on the legal design and regulation of digital fiat currency and one of the prime authors of the recently proposed STABLE Act put forward by congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and congressmen Jesús García and Stephen Lynch of Illinois and Massachusetts respectively.    The stated justification for the bill is t...

In Episode 167 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with political data scientist David Shor. David was recently described in New York Magazine as Obama's "In-House Nate Silver" for his work on the president's re-election campaign where he was responsible for building and maintaining the campaign's election forecasting system, which accurately predicted the outcome to within a point in every...

In Episode 166 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Thomas Ricks about his book "First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks & Romans." The two discuss the influence of Greco-Roman thought and culture on America's founding generation, while drawing lessons that can be applied to our democracy today. First Principles is a timely book,...

In Episode 165 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Paul McNamara, an Investment Director at global asset manager GAM who serves as the company's lead manager on hedge fund, emerging market bond and currency long-only strategies. The first half of this conversation focuses on the macro forces driving EM overall, including how the latest vaccines could affect the global recovery and the s...

In Episode 164 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with legendary short-seller Jim Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates, about the art and science of selling short. What is short-selling? What does it mean to sell something short? How does one learn to do it successfully? These are just some of the questions that Demetri and Jim explore in their two-hour-long conversation on markets, politi...

In Episode 163 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with CNN host and bestselling author Fareed Zakaria, about his book "Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World."  The two explore a wide range of economic, political, social, & geopolitical issues facing America and the world in 2020. They discuss the outcome of the US election and its implications for the republican and democratic parties. Fare...

In Episode 162 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Matt Taibbi, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone, co-host of the "Useful Idiots" podcast, and author of several, best-selling books on politics, finance, media, and culture. The two discuss the state of the US presidential election and speculate about what may have contributed to Trump's outperformance, how this election may eventua...

In Episode 161 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas plays an interview he recently gave to Sebastien Couture and Friederike Ernst on Epicenter. TV. This is a wide-ranging, macro conversation focused on markets, politics, geopolitics, and crypto. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode of Hidden Forces you can help support the show by doing the following: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | S...

In Episode 160 of Hidden Forces , Demetri Kofinas speaks with Tom Burgis, an investigations correspondent at the Financial Times who is also the author of Kletopia, a book that chronicles the world of dirty money, with its complex web of criminals, money launderers, and politicians who enable it.   In recent decades, we have witnessed in the West the rise of a new kleptocracy that knows no boundar...