Neuroscience
Special Episode
Featuring Demetri Kofinas
Neuroscience
Special Episode
Featuring Demetri Kofinas
Demetri Kofinas plays a documentary created about him by CBC Radio One. Demetri is the survivor of a rare brain tumor that he lived with for four years before developing symptoms of dementia and anterograde amnesia. After a fortuitous surgery, Demetri experienced an unprecedented reacquisition of memories previously lost memories.
In this week’s episode of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas plays part of a documentary about him created by CBC Radio One’s “The Current.” The documentary is based on of an article published by Demetri dealing with his experience of, and subsequent recovery from, severe dementia and anterograde amnesia caused by a Craniopharyngioma.
Demetri is the very fortunate survivor of a brain tumor for which he underwent both surgery, as well as radiation therapy in the summer and fall of 2013. He lived with his brain tumor for four years before it began to cause him serious symptoms, most notably, dementia and anterograde amnesia. After his surgery in June of 2013, Demetri experienced an unprecedented reacquisition of memories previously thought to have been lost forever. The tumor had not disrupted the formation of new memories, but rather the retrieval process. Once the surgery removed pressure from his hippocampus and other cognitive areas of the brain, Demetri was able to reacquire and reassimilate those lost memories into his life. This documentary was originally produced by Leif Zapf-Gilje.
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Join the conversation at @hiddenforcespod
Episode 28
Featuring Demetri Kofinas
Episode 28
Featuring Demetri Kofinas
Episode 23
Featuring Heather Berlin
Episode 23
Featuring Heather Berlin
Episode 37
Featuring Josh Wolfe
Episode 37
Featuring Josh Wolfe
Tesla
Episode 86
Featuring TeslaCharts
Demetri Kofinas speaks with TeslaCharts, one of the leading members of the online community known as TSLAQ, a collection of largely anonymous twitter users united together by their commitment to expose an increasingly dangerous fraud that they believe is being perpetrated against investors and the general public.
Investing
Special Episode
Featuring Kevin Smith & Otavio Costa
In this Special Episode of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kevin Smith and Otavio Costa of Crescat Capital about their case for an imminent bear market, a stagflationary economy, and the prospects for gold, stocks, and more.
China Bubble
Episode 85
Featuring Anne Stevenson-Yang
Demetri Kofinas speaks with China expert Anne Stevenson-Yang about the imminent dangers facing global financial markets in the event of a break in the renminbi-dollar peg.
Humanity
Episode 84
Featuring Johann Hari
Demetri Kofinas speaks with celebrated author Johann Hari about his book “Lost Connections” and the silent epidemic of depression and anxiety that is pervading our society and burdening the lives of so many people.
Economy
Episode 83
Featuring Raghuram Rajan
Demetri speaks with the former head of the Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, on issues ranging from central banking and interest rate policies, to alternative theories of money, geopolitics, populism, and the systemic risks facing the global economy, including a discussion about leveraged loans, junk bonds, and emerging markets.
Sociology
Episode 82
Featuring Nicholas Christakis
Demetri speaks with Nicholas Christakis about the evolutionary origins of ethics, morality, and a good society. This is an episode full of fascinating stories that weave together insights from the fields of evolutionary psychology, moral philosophy, and genetics in a quest to understand our human origins, social norms, and moral values.
Innovation
Episode 81
Featuring Safi Bahcall
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Safi Bahcall, a physicist, biotech entrepreneur, and the author of “Loonshots,” about how to nurture the types of crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries.
Tesla
Special Episode
Featuring Ed McCabe
We discuss the latest woes plaguing Tesla after the SEC’s recent allegation that Elon Musk, violated a settlement with the agency when he tweeted about the company’s 2019 production targets. Ed McCabe and Demetri are joined midway through by Montana Skeptic and continue their conversation into the overtime segment.
Technology
Episode 80
Featuring Thomas Reardon
Demetri Kofinas speaks with CTRL-labs CEO Thomas Reardon, about his company’s ground-breaking innovations in neural interface design, computational neuroscience, and machine learning that turn science fiction into reality.
Technology
Episode 79
Featuring Shoshana Zuboff
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Shoshana Zuboff, about the rise of “Surveillance Capitalism,” a pernicious new economic logic, which robs us of our experiences, dispossess us of our sanctuaries and makes our lives increasingly unlivable.
News Media
Episode 78
Featuring Matt Taibbi
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Matt Taibbi, about his ambitious project to update Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, which is a sort of operational manual for those looking to understand how journalists and the media shape social reality. Topics include the Iraq War, the 2008 Financial Crisis, and the 2016 Election.
Philosophy
Episode 77
Featuring Cal Newport
Demetri Kofinas speaks with professor of computer science Cal Newport, about Digital Minimalism and the act of “choosing life” in a surveillance economy that is governed by algorithms scientifically engineered for addiction, supervision, and control.
Media
Special Episode
Featuring Lee Pacchia
Demetri Kofinas and Lee Pacchia discuss the existential challenges facing media companies, the impact of the 2008 crisis on financial news, as well as what it was like to come of political age during the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Additional topics include the wealth gap, cryptocurrencies, and foreign policy.
Culture Wars
Episode 76
Featuring Robby Soave
A journalist at the center of the biggest news story in America joins us to discuss how a group of Catholic school students from Kentucky were thrust into the national spotlight for seeming to denigrate and mock the dignity of a native American at the steps of the Lincoln memorial on the day of an Indigenous People’s March on Washington.
Bitcoin
Episode 75
Featuring Pierre Rochard
Demetri Kofinas speaks with bitcoin maximalist Pierre Rochard, about arguments for hyperbitcoinization, including a conversation about anarcho-capitalism, governance, decentralization, monetary theories of value, lightning network, and the importance of bitcoin’s supply schedule in setting it apart from the rest of the crypto ecosystem.
Markets
Episode 74
Featuring Peter Boockvar
A discussion about recent Fed comments, the prospect and performance of financial stocks, concerns about liquidity, the government shutdown, trade, China, marijuana stocks, Tesla, and what Demetri believes is the resurgence of democratic socialism as a powerful force that markets will need to contend with in 2020.
Crypto
Special Episode
Featuring Haseeb Qureshi
Haseeb Qureshi of MetaStable Capital, joins us to discuss the recent 51% attack against Ethereum Classic, its implications for exchanges that continue to list smaller market-cap cryptos like ETC, Dash, Monero, etc., and what it means for the debate between proof-of-work and proof-of-stake.
Finance History
Episode 73
Featuring Daniel Peris
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Daniel Peris about the history of financial theory, how certain theories like MPT, CAPM, efficient markets, etc., became the dominant paradigm by which investors have come to understand risk, and what happens when happens when everyone is using them.
Politics
Episode 72
Featuring Senator Bob Kerrey
Demetri speaks with Senator Bob Kerrey, about the economic, cultural, and political transformations that have overtaken American society throughout the course of his life and career. The two also discuss his experience serving on the 9/11 commision, as part of the show’s overtime segment available to subscribers.
Investing
Special Episode
Featuring Howard Marks
In this Christmas Day special, Demetri shares twenty-five minutes of never-before-heard audio from his conversation with Howard Marks, but not before announcing the long-awaited-for launch of the Hidden Forces subscription. Subscribers can gain access to overtime segments, transcripts, and rundowns from each and every episode.
China Relations
Episode 71
Featuring James Mulvenon
James Mulvenon is an expert on Chinese military affairs, cyber issues, and commercial espionage. He has been investigating and writing about Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, for years, which makes him the ideal person to speak to about the recent arrest of the company’s CFO and its implication for US-China trade talks.
Investing
Episode 70
Featuring Andrei Shleifer
This episode centers on the subject of beliefs: how they impact markets and how economists and financial practitioners like Andrei Shleifer are attempting to model them using data about people’s expectations, assumptions, and attitudes in order to make better informed investment and policy decisions.
Philosophy
Episode 69
Featuring Rebecca Goldstein
The question, “what makes life worth living?” is one that has concerned humanity since time immemorial. This week, we search for answers by considering what some of our most ancient and celebrated philosophers and poets had to say on the question of life's mattering.
Markets
Episode 68
Featuring David R. Kotok
David Kotok discusses a wide-range of issues currently facing the global economy including trade, the US Dollar, European monetary policy, corporate bonds, as well as what markets he thinks are most at risk from interest rate tightening and as protectionist measures introduce new anomalies into the American economy.
Economics
Episode 67
Featuring Bill Janeway
A new sort of political economy, driven by the disruptive forces of globalization, financialization, and the information revolution, has made ideological approaches to economic thinking obsolete. In this episode, Bill Janeway proposes a new model for how to think about capitalism at the frontier of technological change.
History
Episode 66
Featuring Brian McCullough
Brian McCullough joins us for a conversation on, the history of the World Wide Web. The conversation spans the earliest days of the web beginning with the browser and Netscape’s historic IPO that kicked off the greatest stock market mania since 1929. Additional topics include Google, Amazon, Napster, Microsoft, and more.
China
Episode 65
Featuring Dinny McMahon
It is difficult for Westerners to appreciate the scope of China’s development, and this is because of the way in which the country allocates capital and generates credit. In this conversation, we examine how the Chinese model may be leading to the greatest economic and political crisis in modern history.
Algorithms
Episode 64
Featuring Hannah Fry
Mathematician and public educator, Hannah Fry, joins Demetri for a discussion about our often-uncomfortable partnership with machines. It is a conversation meant not only to help further our understanding of how algorithms function, but also to give us a deeper appreciation for where we fit in this increasingly changing world.
Investing
Episode 63
Featuring Howard Marks
Demetri Kofinas speaks with legendary value investor Howard Marks about the greatest challenge facing the next generation of value investors. Howard serves as the co-chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, a leading investment management firm responsible for over 120 billion dollars in client assets.
Tesla
Episode 62
Featuring Lawrence Fossi
Lawrence Fossi started writing about Tesla three years ago under the pseudonym Montana Skeptic. As one of Tesla’s most thoughtful critics, his identity was eventually discovered and used by Elon Musk to phone his boss and threaten legal action unless Montana was silenced. This is Montana’s first public appearance, on-camera.
Tesla
Episode 61
Featuring Gordon Johnson
Demetri Kofinas speaks with equity research analyst Gordon Johnson, about a possible Tesla bankruptcy amid the recently announced criminal probe into its CEO Elon Musk, by the Department of Justice. Topics include collapsing demand for the Model 3, possible accounting fraud, and an analysis of new competitors in the EV marketplace.
Cyberattacks
Episode 60
Featuring Bruce Schneier
The public remains largely oblivious to the threat posed by cyberattacks. This is, in part, because cybercrime on the Internet has thus far been measured in terms of dollars and cents. Soon, we will be measuring the cost of these cyberattacks in terms of flesh and blood.
Finance History
Episode 59
Featuring Grant Williams
The crisis in emerging markets, the collapse in cryptocurrencies, and the palace intrigues of Elon Musk, are the phenomena of a quantum world where the laws of classical economics break down, space-time preferences collapse, and quantum entanglements lead to spooky correlations that threaten the very fabric of market capitalism.
Social Science
Episode 58
Featuring Jonathan Haidt
In the fall of 2013, something odd was happening on America’s college campuses. Words were increasingly being seen as dangerous. By the spring of 2014, The New York Times began reporting on this trend, and by the fall of 2015, all hell had broken loose at America's universities.
Ethereum
Episode 57
Featuring Joseph Lubin
Scalability challenges have plagued the ethereum network since its creation. As a co-founder of ethereum, as well the founder of the ecosystem’s largest development incubator, no one has made a bigger bet on the future of blockchain technology than Joseph Lubin has. He joins us to discuss the challenges and opportunties for Cosensys.
Hashgraph
Episode 56
Featuring Tom Trowbridge
Hashgraph made its public debut less than one year ago. It has since raised over $100mln on its way towards the release of its public ledger. In this conversation, President Tom Trowbridge, shares stories about the team’s challenges, its successes, and how he thinks the future will shake out for competing protocols.
Cryptocurrency
Episode 55
Featuring Ryan Selkis
Information has become, quite literally, the currency of the digital age. In a world of informational abundance, the quality of that information increasingly determines the types of decisions we make. Ryan Selkis joins us to explain how his company, Messari, is helping us locate the signal in the noise of a new financial system.
Economics
Episode 54
Featuring Barry Eichengreen
Barry Eichengreen shares his experience studying currency pegs and exchange rate mechanisms, as we explore how the legacy of globalization, trade liberalization, and the great moderation laid the foundation for the challenges facing the modern economy. Topics include populism, politics, protectionism, monetary history, and global trade.
Business
Episode 53
Featuring Gillian Tett
Gillian Tett shares stories about her experience at the Financial Times and explains how her background in anthropology has helped her identify financial bubbles in technology and the economy. Topics include corporate debt, unicorns, ETFs, EMEs, volatility, dollar carry-trade, protectionism, interest rates, populism, and geopolitics.
Engineering
Episode 52
Featuring Simon Winchester
Our world hinges on our ability to have everything made just so. Precision engineering fuels and sustains modern society. Yet, it has also put our lives in peril and caused us to question what it is that we really want. Here, Simon Winchester discusses our quest for perfection and meaning. Can we really have both?
Theory of Mind
Episode 51
Featuring Patrick Grim
The human brain contains three pounds of gray matter, a few neurons, and a handful of synapses. How can consciousness — everything that we think and feel — be explained by a few pounds of flesh? Here, Patrick Grim explores the history of mind-body philosophy, as we look to solve the hard problem of consciousness.
Stablecoins
Episode 50
Featuring Nevin Freeman
The future of cryptocurrency may well depends on the success of stablecoins. According to Nevin Freeman, current stablecoin projects are doomed to fail. To explain why, this episode examines the fundamental properties of money, the meaning of value and price, and how existing stablecoins are trying to solve the hard problem of currency.
Ethereum
Episode 49
Featuring Vitalik Buterin & Vlad Zamfir
In 2013, Vitalik Buterin described an ambitious technology that offered a new vision of the future — one that would give us new ways of governing interactions among nations, organizations, and individuals. But challenges remain on the path towards widespread adoption. Here, Buterin and Vlad Zamfir discuss the future roadmap for Ethereum.
Decision Making
Episode 48
Featuring Annie Duke
How can we tell if we’re making a good decision? Is there a sure bet way of overcoming uncertainty and fear? Here, poker champion Annie Duke outlines why success depends on our ability to shift our thinking from a need for certainty to the goal of accurately assessing what we know. In other words, why we need to think in bets.
Technology
Episode 47
Featuring Jimmy Soni
The digitization of information transformed the foundation of our society, thrusting us into an era, and economy, dominated by information technology. This information age was created by one man: Claude Shannon. Here, we dive into Shannon’s work, the most important thesis of the 20th century, a mathematical theory of communication.
Cosmology
Episode 46
Featuring Brian Keating
Cosmologists stare into the abyss of space in an attempt to uncover the origins of the cosmos and the beginnings of time itself. However, they're often waylaid on their quest. Here, Brian Keating discusses the most remarkable discoveries in physics and the biases and incentives that are shredding the fabric of modern science.
Social Science
Episode 45
Featuring Daniel H. Pink
Life is a never-ending series of "when" decisions. When to schedule a class? When to do something creative? Yet, we make our choices based on whims and impulses, not the biological reality of our daily rhythms. Daniel Pink explains how chronobiology allows us to hack our lives using our biological clock and the science of perfect timing.
Sports
Episode 44
Featuring Sam Walker
Humans naturally gravitate towards sports. But it's about more than competition. Our love for athletic performance offers a glimpse at millions of years of evolution – at the impulses and urges of our ancestors. Here, Sam Walker discusses what sports reveal about the traits we value and the evolutionary forces that shape team selection.
China Politics
Episode 43
Featuring Elizabeth C. Economy
In just five years, Xi Jinping has seized all the most important leadership positions in the Chinese government. By centralizing institutional power, he may thrust China into a new imperial age. Here, Elizabeth Economy discusses Xi’s top political, economic, and foreign policies and the impact that this new empire may have on the world.
Education
Episode 42
Featuring Fred Swaniker
By 2050, almost a quarter of the world’s population will live in African countries. Helping these individuals succeed and participate in the world economy can help us avert global catastrophe. What is the most effective way of doing that? Education. Here, Fred Swaniker explains why our future depends on empowering Africa.
Metaphysics
Episode 41
Featuring Jim Holt
Jim Holt's on a quest to understand the universe. Why does the world exist? What is infinity? Is time real? Answering the perennial questions posed by metaphysics is no easy task. Here, Holt tests the limits of our explanatory powers, walking us to the edge of science and philosophy, pursuing answers to the cosmos' greatest mysteries.
Social Media
Episode 40
Featuring Jeremy Heimans & Henry Timms
Recently, our world has borne witness to a dramatic shift in power. Control no longer rests in the hands of the wealthy and powerful. It rests in the hands of the crowd and in those who know how to inspire the viral masses. Here, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms explore crowdsourcing, new power, and how the dynamics of control are changing.
Investing
Episode 39
Featuring Mark Spiegel
Elon Musk is heralded as the hero of the 21st century. He seems to be single-handedly revolutionizing neuroscience, travel, artificial intelligence, and space flight. But are Musk’s actions more about sensationalism and showmanship than actual substance? Here, Mark Spiegel discusses bull markets, tech bubbles, and the cult of Elon Musk.
Business
Episode 38
Featuring Charley Grant
Tesla brought green cars to the forefront of our collective consciousness and put electric vehicles on the path to widespread adoption. However, financial troubles and production issues plague the company, and there may be no escape. Here, Charley Grant discusses whether or not Tesla can avoid an inexorable spiral towards bankruptcy.
Venture Capital
Episode 37
Featuring Josh Wolfe
Demetri speaks with Josh Wolfe, co-founder of Lux Capital, about his perspective on investing in a discussion that ranges from the material to the immaterial. We learn to capitalize on the breakthroughs of science while freeing ourselves from the impulses of the herd. Topics include artificial intelligence, energy investments, and more.
Crypto
Episode 36
Featuring Leemon Baird
Hedera Hashgraph is a public ledger built using the hashgraph consensus protocol. Here, Leemon Baird discusses how Hedera does proxy staking, sharding, and its unique approach to open review, governance, and regulatory compliance.
Crypto
Episode 35
Featuring Alex Mashinsky
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius, a next generation lending wallet. In this conversation, we examine the mechanics behind the Celsius Network, as well as how the company intends to manage risk, execute short sales on behalf of institutional clients, and lower borrowing costs for users.
Crypto
Episode 34
Featuring Brian Kelly
Demetri Kofinas speaks with author, investor, and contributor to CNBC's Fast Money Brian Kelly about the problem of scalability, exchange & regulatory risk, cash-settled futures & ETF’s, and how bitcoin may fare compared to gold during a financial crisis. They also contemplate the impact of systemic trading on market downturns.
Russia
Episode 33
Featuring Bill Browder
Bill Browder, once the largest foreign investor in Russia, discusses the murder of his lawyer and the dismantling of his investment fund. When he was deported, his $4.5bn in assets liquidated, and his lawyer murdered, he devoted himself to ending Russia’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses. This is the fall of Glasnost.
Crypto
Episode 32
Featuring Ari Paul
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ari Paul, co-founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital, a hedge fund focused on the cryptocurrency space about how are crypto funds are managing risk, what some of the most interesting and creative investment opportunities are and how investors can take advantage of them.
Real Estate
Market Forces
Featuring Ben Friedland
Demetri speaks with Ben Friedland, Vice Chairman & Co-Head of Alternative Investments Practice for CBRE. Ben advises the world’s top hedge funds and PE companies and is in a unique position to provide insight into how the forces of technology and globalization are changing this age-old, multi-trillion-dollar industry in the 21st century.
Crypto
Episode 31
Featuring Chris Burniske
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Chris Burniske about how to value cryptocurrency. How do we differentiate between currencies, DApps, and tokens? How does one judge the merits of a white paper, the seriousness of the dev team, and the enthusiasm of early adopters? How important is governance, supply schedules, and money velocity in valuations?
Technology
Episode 30
Featuring Tim O’Reilly
If we want to better navigate the world, and if we want to accurately anticipate and predict the future, we must start by building better maps of the present. Tim O'Reilly explains how creating a map of today can help us determine what tomorrow holds.
Crypto
Crypto Forces
Featuring Mark DiMichael
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Mark DiMichael, a Forensic Accountant who specializes in the tax implications for cryptocurrencies. What are the filing requirements for anyone who has profited from, transacted in, or mined a cryptocurrency? Do cryptocurrencies qualify under the terms of a like-kind exchange? How can you lower your tax burden?
Foreign Affairs
Episode 29
Featuring Hooman Majd
The story of the Iranian protests is about far more than just one nation. It's a story of powerful forces that stretch across the economic and political sectors of the Middle East. Here, Hooman Majd discusses the forces reshaping these nations.
Futurism
Episode 28
Featuring Demetri Kofinas
Demetri Kofinas lays out his vision for a possible future driven by the emergent forces we have been covering in 2017. What is the goal of the machine? What do we seek to accomplish with our technologies? What are the benefits and the costs associated with the technological, political, and economic forces of the modern age?
Economics
Episode 27
Featuring Gary Shilling
How will the Trump tax plan and regulatory reform affect the economy? If treasuries remain in a bull market, what will happen to stocks, commodities, and the dollar in 2018? Perennial bond bull Gary Shilling shares his view in this week's episode of Hidden Forces.
Climate
Episode 26
Featuring Gavin Schmidt
Whether is the prototypical complex system. Edward Lorenz, one of the pioneers of chaos theory, was a meteorologist. So why is climate change so controversial? Demetri Kofinas cuts through the controversy and dives right into the data, models, and forecasts of climate science with NASA's Chief Climate Scientist Gavin Schmidt.
Cryptography
Special Episode
Featuring Bruce Schneier & Leemon Baird
Demetri Kofinas shares part of his recent conversation with cryptographer Bruce Schneier, on cybersecurity and the NSA. Demetri also speaks with Leemon Baird of Hashgraph about the future of privacy and freedom. He starts the show with a personal commentary on Carpenter v. United States, the landmark privacy case before the Supreme Court.
Economics
Episode 25
Featuring Lacy Hunt
Demetri Kofinas speaks with former Chief US Economist for HSBC, Lacy Hunt, about the macro forces driving the global economy in the 21st century. This conversation relies on a panoply of data as we examine the forces of debt deflation, structural demographics, and historically low savings rates.
Technology
Techno Forces
Featuring David Kirkpatrick
How do we protect our privacy and freedom in a networked world controlled by a handful of tech giants? How will advances in AR, VR, and brain-machine interfaces change humanity? How do we improve our cities and infrastructure with technology in mind? How do we prepare for a future where most of today's jobs will be done by machines?
Law
Episode 24
Featuring Jeffrey Rosen
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jeffrey Rosen, the nation's most widely read and influential legal commentator about constitutional law in the 21st century. How do we interpret a more than 200-year-old document in an age of empire, terror, and technological futurism? Can it safeguard our liberty, autonomy, and freedom, in the digital age?
Neuroscience
Episode 23
Featuring Heather Berlin
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Heather Berlin, a cognitive neuroscientist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine about the neural basis of consciousness. Is there nothing more to the experience of consciousness than the observable firing of billions of neurons jumbled together in an atomic stew of empty space?
Crypto
Special Episode
Featuring Mance Harmon
This is the complete audio from “The Future Is Not Blockchain. It’s Hashgraph” panel hosted by Demetri Kofinas on Thursday, October 19, 2017. In it, members of the hashgraph consensus algorithm’s founding team, including the CEO of Swirlds, Mance Harmon, speak with Demetri Kofinas about the future of the Internet.
Crypto
Episode 22
Featuring Leemon Baird
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Leemon Baird, the creator of Hedera Hashgraph, a public ledger that may have solved the problem of scale in distributed consensus. Its properties of speed, security, and fairness could expand decentralized use cases to complex markets, auctions, crypto-currency micro payments, live games (even MMOs), and more.
Markets
Market Forces
Featuring Jim Rickards
Demetri Kofinas speaks with financial analyst and best-selling author Jim Rickards about the IMF and World Bank meetings taking place in D.C., the prospects of war with North Korea, and the future of US-China relations. Jim also shares his thoughts about the changes he expects to see at the Fed as Janet Yellen's term comes to an end.
Design Ethics
Episode 21
Featuring John Borthwick
Demetri Kofinas speaks with John Borthwick about the philosophical challenges of the modern age. How do we develop a design philosophy for machines without losing sight of our humanity? Who are we designing our world for? What do we hope to achieve from this immersive future of superintelligence, disembodied consciousness, and simulation?
Intellectualism
Episode 20
Featuring Daniel W. Drezner
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Daniel Drezner about the state of intellectual thought in America. Where does one go for good information? How does one measure the value of an idea? How has the wealth gap, partisanship, and information overload created a landscape welcoming to the thought leader but hostile to the public intellectual?
Markets
Market Forces
Featuring Rachel Ziemba
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Emerging Markets Analyst Rachel Ziemba. They explore the geopolitical crisis unfolding in North Korea, as well as the falling dollar and the forward volatility of the carry-trade. They also discuss the fragile geopolitical position of Saudi Arabia, with its dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
Systems Theory
Episode 19
Featuring Geoffrey West
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Geoffrey West about some of the most profound insights coming out of the fields of complexity science, computational biology, and biophysics. They explore limits to growth, the costs associated with our cities and lifestyles, and what interest rates and time preferences tell us about our relationship to nature.
Crypto
Crypto Forces
Featuring Gil Luria
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Gil Luria about the economics of bitcoin and the role that governments and regulators will play in this emerging market. How can we use information about supply dynamics and business cycles in mining to help us determine the fair market value of a given cryptocurrency?
Moral Economy
Episode 18
Featuring Samuel Bowles
Demetri Kofinas speaks with economist Sam Bowles about behavioral psychology, moral philosophy, and economic history. What has come of rational expectations and utility maximization? What types of systems can we design that are better suited towards the citizens of Aristotle’s legislator than to the aberrations of economic man?
Economics
Episode 17
Featuring Robert Johnson
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Robert Johnson about political economy, inequality, and technocracy. How does money drive politics? How have markets and the economy changed in the years after the fall of communism and the rise of the Washington Consensus? Johnson also recounts his famous trade with George Soros against the Bank of England.
Ethereum
Crypto Forces
Featuring Andrew Keys
Demetri Kofinas covers all things blockchain related with Andrew Keys of Ethereum’s ConsenSys. The two explore the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies (including security and regulation) and their potential to shape our future. If you have been looking to learn more about Ethereum or the blockchain, then this is the episode for you.
Chinese Markets
Episode 16
Featuring Anne Stevenson-Yang
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Anne Stevenson-Yang about the Chinese economy. Total debt in China has surpassed 300% of GDP. In the first 7 years since the financial crisis, bank liabilities in the Chinese financial system grew by nearly $15tn. How long can the country go without a recession? What will the fallout be when it finally does?
Genomics
Episode 15
Featuring Eric Schadt
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Dr. Eric Schadt, founding director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology. How has our ability to sequence new genomes created a paradigm shift in medicine? What is the role of big data and A.I. in finding the correlations needed to treat malignancies and prevent diseases?
Markets
Market Forces
Featuring Marc Faber
Demetri Kofinas speaks with famed investor Marc Faber, about the global wealth gap. They examine the role that central banks, government bailouts, and ultra-low interest rates have played in exacerbating this trend towards inequality and financial instability. The two also discuss the growing instability on the Korean peninsula.
Transportation
Market Forces
Featuring Hubert Horan
Demetri Kofinas speaks with transportation industry analyst, Hubert Horan about the ridesharing company Uber. With roughly $7 billion of cash on hand, along with an untapped $2.3 billion credit facility, Demetri thinks that "Uber could be the biggest financial blow-up in the history of private placements.”
Phenomenology
Episode 14
Featuring Christian Madsbjerg
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Christian Madsbjerg, the founder of ReD Associates, a consultancy group focused on helping companies bridge the qualitative divide between themselves, their products, and their customers. Together, the two examine the world from the perspective of human experience - what philosophers call "phenomenology."
Finance History
Episode 13
Featuring James Grant
Demetri Kofinas speaks with James Grant about the history of interest rates and their relevance in a capitalist economy. How are rates determined? What are the consequences, realized and yet to be discovered, of the extraordinary and actions taken by governments in 2008 to arrest the contraction and restart economic growth?
Economics
Episode 12
Featuring Steve Keen
Demetri Kofinas speaks with economist Steve Keen about the history of economic thought from the time of the physiocrats to the present day. Where did our ideas of rational preference, utility maximization, and market equilibrium come from? How have these ideas been debunked by the events, insights, and theories of the last 100 years?
Mathematics
Episode 11
Featuring Ray Monk
Demetri Kofinas speaks with philosopher Ray Monk about the philosophical foundations of mathematics. Where did this system of knowledge come from? What are Euclid’s axioms? What are Plato’s forms? How did our notions of mathematics evolve from the time of the enlightenment to the present day?
Foreign Affairs
Episode 10
Featuring Carne Ross
Demetri Kofinas speaks with diplomat Carne Ross about the limits of modern diplomacy and how national politics constrain our capacity for addressing global problems. Is there a better way forward, and what can history teach us about the possibilities for new forms of self-governance and organization in the 21st century?
Economics
Episode 9
Featuring Sebastian Mallaby
Demetri Kofinas speaks with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s biographer, Sebastian Mallaby. How responsible was Greenspan for the prosperity of the 90s? How much is he to blame for the financial crisis of 2008? Most importantly, what can his story teach us about the limits and dangers of human intervention, foresight, and power?
Cyberterrorism
Episode 8
Featuring Josh Corman
Demetri Kofinas speaks with cybersecurity expert Josh Corman about the risks posed to our hospitals, medical devices, and industrial control systems from a cyberattack. What are the vulnerabilities in our connected devices, cars, aviation, and emergency response infrastructure? What can we do to combat cyberterrorism and cybercrime?
Neuroscience
Special Episode
Featuring Demetri Kofinas
Demetri Kofinas plays a documentary created about him by CBC Radio One. Demetri is the survivor of a rare brain tumor that he lived with for four years before developing symptoms of dementia and anterograde amnesia. After a fortuitous surgery, Demetri experienced an unprecedented reacquisition of memories previously lost memories.
Demetri Kofinas is a technology and media entrepreneur, as well as the creator and former executive producer of a popular international finance television news program broadcast in over 100 countries around the world. Demetri serves as principal and executive producer of OFFLINE, an Off-Broadway theatre company specializing in modern adaptations of classic works. He is also creator and host of Hidden Forces, a weekly podcast that explores the hidden forces responsible for driving the most powerful changes we see in the world.
After graduating from NYU in 2004, Demetri Kofinas worked for a brief period in financial services before founding Guerilla Gaming Concepts, an interactive entertainment company focused on developing a skill gaming middleware platform for the Play Station 3. In 2008, Demetri transitioned from the video games industry into product development for television, working in application development and design for Cablevision. Later in his career, Demetri turned his passion for financial blogging into the popular evening radio program Covering the Spread, which aired during drive time on 91.5FM WNYE, appearing often as a commentator on other radio and television news programs as well. Eventually, Demetri’s broad experience in media and his passion for finance and economics lead to his creation and executive production of the popular international news program Capital Account, which was watched, during its run, by hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
More recently, Demetri Kofinas was responsible for overseeing the creation, development, and launch of The Art of Dying, an educational initiative whose mission is to revolutionize the way modern societies engage with, understand and build relationship around death and dying. The institute’s Spring 2015 conferencewas attended by more than 300 participants and featured eighteen of the world’s leading researchers, innovators, and practitioners from the fields of death care and death-related studies.
Demetri Kofinas currently serves as principal and Executive Producer of OFFLINE, an off-Broadway theater company specializing in modern adaptations of classic works, with an eye towards exploring modern and experimental interpretations and themes. The company’s most recent production – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – had a successful summer run at Theatre 80 St. Marks. Previous performances of Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night have had Spring and Fall runs at the historic Soho Playhouse in Lower Manhattan. The coming launch of Hidden Forces Media has consumed all of Demetri’s free time, but he looks forward to putting on more productions in the near future.