Shyam's father was raised in a mud hut in India. He and his family relocated to Nigeria but fled to the United States after armed robbers nearly murdered them. Shyam joined Palantir as the 13th employee, where he helped shape its unique culture, develop key business strategies, and scale Palantir into a $300+ billion global software giant. In 2025, he was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve's new Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps, and earlier this year, he released "Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III."

We begin our conversation with Shyam’s extraordinary journey to the U.S. and what this country means to him. Next, we reminisce about the early days at Palantir and what made the culture unique, from his famous Shyam-isms to living in the office for a month straight to earn free BBQ Fridays. Learn how Shyam coined the term "Forward Deployed Engineers" and proved that the best software is built shoulder-to-shoulder with the customer. Then we dive into his new book and the dangerous atrophy of America’s defense industrial base. Shyam reveals that the U.S. expended 10 years of production in 10 weeks of conflict, and explains how we can once again become the arsenal of democracy. We also discuss the culture at the Pentagon and why some heretics must be protected at all costs. Finally, we explore the clash between leading AI researchers and the Department of War, and how to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and D.C. and secure the next great American century.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:45 Mud hut in India to life in America

05:25 Employee #13 at Palantir

09:45 How Shyam created Forward Deployed Engineers

13:05 What are Shyam-isms?

14:55 Business discipline & learning to say no

19:20 The crisis of the American industrial base

24:00 Some heretics must be protected

29:00 The factory is the weapon

34:00 Magical AI weapons

43:00 Optimism for America's future

A history major at the University of Pennsylvania, Ben began his career in finance at Goldman Sachs before earning a JD and MBA at Harvard. He worked in private equity at Apollo Global Management before founding the investment firm Fortinbras. Last fall, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as CEO of the DFC. His drive to serve was shaped by his grandfather, a WWII tail gunner in the Aleutians, and by watching his father build Apollo into a global powerhouse.

We begin our conversation with Ben’s entrepreneurial journey before diving into the history of U.S. foreign aid. Learn how the U.S. regressed from the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe and fostered investment in America, to promoting a culture of waste and dependency in foreign aid — and how the Trump administration is reversing course (check out our essay from January 2025 on these issues). Next, Ben lays out the flaws in China's extractive Belt and Road model and explains how the DFC is developing trusted partners, promoting free-market principles, and investing strategically. From maritime insurance in the Strait of Hormuz to rare earth mining, Ben reveals some of the DFC's recent wins and where he sees new long-term partnerships in South America and Asia. Instead of showering NGOs with taxpayer dollars and creating charity cases abroad, the Trump administration is restoring discipline and accountability — and Ben is a key leader in executing this vision and generating returns for the American people.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:25 Ben’s path to DFC

08:30 $205 billion to invest abroad

10:00 Rethinking foreign aid

13:00 From Marshall Plan to waste and fraud

18:50 The Trump administration’s new approach

21:50 Countering China’s Belt & Road Initiative

28:00 Post-WWII order is changing / new opportunities

33:10 Maritime insurance and Strait of Hormuz

37:00 Optimism for America’s future

We dive into these topics in this week’s episode with Richard Sandler, Partner at the law firm of Maron & Sandler and Executive Vice President and Trustee of the Milken Family Foundation. Richard and Lowell Milken, Michael’s younger brother, met in first grade while growing up in Los Angeles. After practicing law with his father, Richard joined Michael and Lowell’s firm -- Drexel Burnham Lambert -- to help the high-yield bond team. He saw firsthand the entire saga: the explosive rise and fall of Drexel, the unprecedented investigation, and ultimately, President Trump’s pardon of Michael in 2020.

We begin with Michael’s breakthrough in high-yield bonds. Learn how he almost single-handedly transformed the “junk bond” market from $70 billion to $700 billion in a decade, and helped finance the growth of great American entrepreneurs and companies — Ted Turner, Steve Wynn, MCI Communications, among others. Next, Richard walks us through the investigation: the unprecedented use of RICO against Drexel, the targeting of Lowell as a “hostage,” and the novel charges Michael ultimately pled to (none of which had been prosecuted before or since). Finally, we explore the deeper lessons about prosecutorial power, media narratives, and Michael’s extraordinary resilience. He has pushed forward medicine, science, and education in myriad ways, while inspiring many of our great leaders today.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:35 Richard’s career & Michael Milken’s legacy

06:25 Why write this book?

08:00 How Michael Milken transformed finance

14:00 Why did they go after Drexel & Michael?

19:30 Using RICO to bring down Drexel

22:30 Prosecutorial abuse & the power of government

26:30 Why did Michael agree to a plea deal?

33:25 Trump grants Michael a full pardon

35:00 Lessons on government power, media influence & Michael’s resilience

We discuss these and other timely topics with John. At an early age, he fell in love with science fiction and built vacuum-tube amplifiers in his parents' basement, before studying physics and materials science at Stanford. There he became a research scientist until pivoting to investing, first at StartX and later Spark Capital. Born out of firsthand experience, he co-founded Standard Metrics alongside the 8VC Build team to create a better solution for portfolio management software.

We begin our conversation with John’s path from academia to investor and founder. Next, we explore how Standard Metrics centralizes data, improves portfolio intelligence, and powers smarter investment decisions. Then we dive into the new possibilities with AI, from technical diligence copilots and investment stress-testing to new workflows and internal AI analysts. In an era of new agentic tools and shifting competitive advantages, we discuss new moats for existing software companies built around network effects, data, and more. The world of finance is changing quickly; John offers a unique perspective on the AI wave and how top investors are leveraging new workflows to get ahead.

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00:00 Episode intro

02:10 Academia to investor and founder

08:00 The pain point that led to building Standard Metrics

12:10 How AI is transforming venture capital

14:20 AI as a technical copilot

17:10 AI Analyst vs human in the loop

19:20 Parsing pitch decks and new AI tools

23:10 How AI search is changing marketing

28:30 New capabilities and workflows

33:47 How quickly is everything changing?

Raised in a small town in North Carolina, Will developed an early love for building, starting with electronic kits and later unique apps. After studying at Penn and Wharton, a trip home revealed the looming crisis: millions of local businesses that lack succession plans. This sparked the creation of American Operator, which pairs retiring owners with high-agency operators, along with the capital and know-how to build a thriving business.

We begin with Will’s entrepreneurial journey and the coming “Silver Tsunami.” Will explains why only 48% of small business owners have succession plans and what this means for the next generation of owner-operators. He highlights stories like Greenway Painting in Jackson, Wyoming, and how American Operator is helping create millionaires on Main Street while keeping local business local. Next, we explore the historical and cultural importance of small business in America, dating back to John Hancock’s import-export firm and Ben Franklin’s printing shop. Looking ahead, we examine AI’s impact on small businesses. Learn why Will believes SMBs are a great AI hedge, while also having unique upside as new AI tools make small cohorts of people dramatically more productive. Finally, Will explains the operate-to-own model and how American Operator aligns incentives so that original owners become valuable advisors, new operators can earn their way into majority ownership, and American Operator remains a committed partner over the long run.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:25 Will’s entrepreneurial journey

04:15 The small business succession crisis

06:40 American Operator’s approach vs. private equity

11:55 Does AI mean boom or bust for small business?

15:55 Forget law school? Buy a small business instead?

21:20 AI use cases for small business

23:00 Why many business owners shut down instead of sell

26:00 How the operate-to-own model works

33:50 Optimism for Main Street America

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00:00 Episode Intro

01:50 What sets Joby aircraft apart

04:50 Key partnerships with Toyota & NVIDIA

06:50 Closing in on FAA Certification

08:00 Air Taxis coming to 12 states this year!

13:35 Autonomous flight is the future

20:00 Hydrogen aircraft for the Pentagon

24:10 Why AI is a game changer

28:15 Expansion in Ohio and Global Competition with China

34:40 Addressing critics / future vision

35:50 Making air travel ubiquitous

We discuss these and other timely topics with Scott and Russell. Scott was a three-time gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics and world champion at age 17. After high school, we hired him at Addepar, where he became a top software engineer. Russell began his career as a machine learning engineer on Tesla’s Autopilot team before selling his video data company, Helia, to Scale AI. In 2023, Scott and Russell co-founded Cognition, and a year later, they shocked the technology world with the release of Devin, the first AI software agent.

We begin our conversation by discussing the incredible collection of young talent at Cognition, and why the next generation has new advantages in the AI era. Next, we catch up on Cognition’s explosive growth: Devin usage in the first few months of 2026 already surpassed all of 2025. Scott reveals that Cognition engineers no longer write code and explains how they’re able to test and ship new products faster than ever before. Then, we dive into the new era of software abundance and what it means if everyone has access to high-quality engineering, from modernizing large legacy enterprises to supercharging small businesses. We also discuss Cognition’s recent foray into government services and its work to modernize complex outdated systems. Finally, we explore the talent flywheel that has drawn so many former founders to Cognition, and why Scott and Russell believe we’re moving from Minecraft “survival mode” to “creative mode” — where the only limit to building is imagination itself.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:35 Why technical talent & execution matters in AI

06:10 Do young people have an edge in the AI era?

08:26 Cognition’s rapid growth

11:55 The new era of software abundance

14:30 Cognition engineers don’t type code anymore

19:20 “Never sleep while Devin is idling”

21:25 The case for AI disinflation

23:50 How Devin generates 12X productivity gains

28:25 Cognition for government / taking on complex, broken systems

36:40 The AI race / competition with Anthropic

39:00 Forward deployed engineers?

43:40 How fast are LLMs improving?

47:10 AI-led small business explosion

We recorded this conversation the day after Jake appeared with President Trump at a Kentucky rally. He explains why he’s speaking out on politics, even if it costs him financially, and why authenticity is key to cultural influence. Next, we explore the origins of Anti Fund, and how Jake and Geoff had the conviction to back Anduril before defense tech was in vogue. They also invested in OpenAI and were instrumental in rolling out Sora; learn about the strategy behind the launch and the challenges around AI slop and identity authentication. Additionally, Jake is the co-founder of Betr, and we discuss its recent partnership with Polymarket, what’s next for prediction markets, and how to build guardrails for customers. Finally, we explore Jake’s success in pioneering the creator economy and building consumer brands. In the 1960s and 70s, most kids aspired to become astronauts. Today, they want to be content creators, in part because of Jake’s influence. We conclude with Jake’s advice for young people in the AI era, and how we can persuade the next generation to love their country and embrace a builder mindset.

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00:00 Episode intro

02:20 On stage with President Trump

06:00 Attention is the most valuable currency

08:00 The origins of Anti Fund and backing OpenAI, Anduril, Ramp, and others

09:10 Betr + Polymarket and the future of prediction markets

14:58 Launching Sora with OpenAI

16:14 Are you worried about AI slop?

19:10 How AI is changing culture; revival of in-person events

21:20 Who should become a creator?

24:30 Fighters as cultural icons

31:30 How to win the culture

We discuss these timely topics and more with Administrator Loeffler. Growing up on a farm in rural Illinois, Kelly raised cattle and was exposed to the challenges of small business early on. She became the first in her family to graduate college and built a distinguished career in financial services at Intercontinental Exchange. In 2018, she became the founding CEO and first employee of the fintech startup, Bakkt, which brought institutional infrastructure to crypto. Kelly was appointed to serve in the U.S. Senate in 2020 and later confirmed as Administrator of the Small Business Administration in February 2025.

We begin our conversation with Kelly's entrepreneurial journey, before diving into her mission at the SBA. Her leadership comes at a pivotal juncture: a $10 trillion generational wealth transfer amid a technological revolution. As Baby Boomers retire and new AI tools emerge, Kelly believes young talent should think twice about traditional pathways and consider small business ownership instead. She lays out the administration's agenda, including expanding SBA loans for reindustrialization and bolstering the manufacturing jobs of the future. Next, we dive into her other core responsibility: exposing fraud. Learn how the SBA uncovered over $400 million of COVID-era fraud in Minnesota, $9 billion in California, and they're just getting started. She's also investigating 8(a) minority contracting — a program for disadvantaged communities hijacked by the Biden administration for race-based contracting and grift. The SBA is bringing in top talent and technology, including Palantir, to expose the fraud, revamp the programs, and protect taxpayers.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:40 Farming to finance

04:46 Building Bakkt & institutional infrastructure for crypto

09:00 AI & the future of small business

13:58 How to supercharge manufacturing in America

16:15 Exposing billions in fraud

18:50 The scandal of minority contracting

20:25 Using Palantir to investigate fraud

27:15 The NGO grift scheme

29:50 Optimism for the future

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00:00 Episode intro

01:30 Top Gun as a service

07:40 Founding a billion-dollar payments company

09:30 Pioneering private spaceflight

12:00 What happened to NASA?

14:40 Getting back to the Moon by 2028

20:47 Jared announces new plans for Artemis

25:15 Future of the space economy

27:50 Nuclear power in space

29:00 Sci-fi futures becoming reality

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00:00 Episode intro

01:28 JD's entrepreneurial journey

05:18 Wins and challenges at Opendoor / meme stock moment

09:55 WithCoverage and upending insurance brokerage with AI

13:11 Mimetic frameworks for entrepreneurs

15:45 How AI is changing the way companies are built

20:21 The impact of AI on existing SaaS

26:50 How to stop AI spam and imposters

31:27 How should young people prepare for the AI era?

34:20 The new invention era / why AI levels the playing field

The most basic instinct of an American entrepreneur is that when something is broken, rather than complaining, you need to build something new. And there is a lot that is broken, like our media. In early 2024, I started talking with a younger colleague, Max Meyer, about some ideas to fight back…

Out of those discussions, Arena Magazine was born: a bold voice for American technologists, capitalists, and patriots in the form of a high-end print magazine. Yesterday, Arena announced its seventh issue. It now has thousands of subscribers and is sold in Barnes & Noble throughout the US. Max told me that the latest print run of magazines used over 10,000 pounds of paper.

I’m very proud to be a supporter of Arena, and I encourage you to be, as well. You can subscribe for your home or your office.

At a time when the legacy media is full of negativity and ugliness, Arena is daring to be both optimistic and beautiful at the same time. Technology and entrepreneurship are so important to the success of the USA in the 21st century, and our mainstream media is totally poisoned against them.

If you’re anything like me, you remember the great magazines we had a generation ago in the technology space. Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, and even Wired used to be awesome. They used to celebrate Americans who were trying to do hard things. To say that they have gone in another direction would be a serious understatement.

Restoring that legacy — bold optimism, celebrating the builders — is the mission of Arena. It’s why I and so many other leaders in the innovation world are proud supporters. We need great media institutions again.

If you want to check out Arena, start with some of the recent articles. Here are two that I enjoyed recently, including from my friend Judge Glock on the wild history of Wall Street in the 1980s, or another about the last 250 years of American technological history. Arena has a new free Substack newsletter (link below). And if you want to get the print magazines, subscribe here.

Arena Magazine on Substack

The Great Eighties Wall Street Bonanza

“It was a vast space, perhaps sixty by eighty feet, but with the same eight-foot ceiling bearing down on your head. It was an oppressive space with a ferocious glare, writhing silhouettes, and the roar…The writhing silhouettes were the arms and torsos of young men, few of them older than forty. They had their suit jackets off. They were moving about in …

Read more

3 months ago

The progress has been inspiring over the last two years, and as more people wake up to the need for optimistic, beautiful media, Arena is going to continue to grow and inspire patriotic Americans.

Joe

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Alex Kolicich is a Partner at 8VC, where he specializes in IT and Bio-IT investments. Prior, he was a Partner at Formation 8 and worked alongside Peter Thiel at Mithril Capital Management. Alex was also an engineer and early-product advisor at Clarium, Palantir, and Google. Jack Moshkovich began his career at 8VC and helps lead our investment practice alongside Alex out of San Francisco, where he focuses on enterprise software.

We begin with Silicon Valley’s most recent technological wave: smart enterprise. In 2013, we published our smart enterprise thesis, predicting the B2B software explosion that drove tremendous value creation over the past decade. Now, we’re entering the next landmark shift: the AI wave. Learn why AI is fundamentally disruptive (you can find our thesis here), and the enormous leap from data retrieval to automated decision making and from linear to non-linear problem solving. Next, we dive into the six layers of the AI investment stack, and why we are focused on level five: the application layer. We dissect the tremendous opportunities for AI-native upstarts, as well as the challenges — and upside — for smart enterprise pioneers that can reorient around AI. Finally, we discuss some of the key questions in the years ahead: When and where will we see massive productivity gains in the economy? Will LLMs become commodities, or is each frontier model sufficiently differentiated? And are we entering a bubble, or is the AI wave just getting started?

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00:00 Episode intro

01:40 Smart enterprise thesis

04:00 Did enterprise software dramatically boost productivity?

08:30 Understanding the AI wave

11:45 Are LLMs becoming commodities?

17:10 OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Meta vs Grok

20:30 Frontier models vs enterprise incumbents

25:20 What did Palantir get right?

32:30 AI case studies/new possibilities

43:00 The most surprising aspect of the AI wave

46:10 Are we entering a bubble? Or just getting started?

52:40 Biggest concern with AI

58:00 Biggest reason for optimism

Kevin began his career in the U.S. Air Force, defending the U.S. military from some of the earliest cyber attacks. He went on to found and lead Mandiant, scaling it into an industry leader which Google acquired in 2022 for over $5 billion. In 2013, he famously exposed China’s massive state-sponsored cyber espionage inside America. Kevin has also served on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) and the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee. He recently launched Armadin to address new AI possibilities in the cyber domain.

To begin, Kevin takes us behind the scenes of the early cyber skirmishes in the 1990s, and what it was like confronting some of the first cyber incursions from Russia and China, as well as the rise of criminal cyber enterprises. In the early 2000s, Kevin noticed glaring gaps in conventional antivirus approaches and launched Mandiant. Learn how he quickly became the first person that CEOs and governments would call if they’d been hacked. After scaling Mandiant and exiting to Google, Kevin is now back in the arena building cutting-edge solutions to new AI cyber threats. He explains the dramatic increase in the productivity and sophistication of AI agents, and why it’s upending how we build cyber defenses. Find out what he’s most worried about in 2026, and what steps governments and CEOs need to take to secure their networks and infrastructure.

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0:00 Episode intro

01:30 Kevin's journey into cyber; early attacks from Russia & China

05:00 The evolution of cyber espionage and crime

08:00 Founding Mandiant; why Fortune 500 CEOs call Kevin

13:30 What's it like getting hacked by Russia?

21:30 AI hackers are here; Kevin's warning

27:00 Protecting critical infrastructure; harnessing AI for cyber defense

31:30 Engineers vs AI agents

36:40 Optimism for the future

This week, we’re honored to feature a conversation with Paul Atkins, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also served as a commissioner at the SEC from 2002 to 2008, and worked on the staff of two SEC chairmen from 1990 to 1994. Prior to returning to the SEC in 2025, Chairman Atkins was the founder and chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, a financial services firm he founded in 2009.

We begin with Chairman Atkins’ visit to Texas, the significance of Texas’ new business courts, and the importance of innovation in our financial markets. Whereas his predecessor, Gary Gensler, took an adversarial, regulation-by-enforcement approach, he’s embracing new technologies and regulatory clarity. In this vein, the Chairman lays out his strategy for making IPOs great again. Learn why the number of public companies has dropped by nearly half since 2007, and how Chairman Atkins is reforming the rules around litigation and corporate governance to deter activists from harassing America’s builders. We also discuss President Trump’s vision for making America the crypto capital of the world, and what it looks like to provide clear guidelines that promote innovation and protect investors. Finally, we explore the steps he’s taking to enable retail investors to access private markets and other alternative assets.

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0:00 Episode intro

1:35 Texas' new business courts / evolution of U.S. markets

7:20 The SEC's new approach to crypto

16:00 Making IPOs and public companies great again

25:00 Weaponization of shareholder proposals and ESG

32:10 National security concerns / China's bad actions

36:30 New rules for retail investors & private companies

44:35 Optimism for America's future

As co-founder of Airbnb, Joe turned a living-room experiment into a multi-billion dollar global brand. Then, he launched Samara, helping homeowners reimagine their yards with state-of-the-art Accessory Dwelling Units. He also sits on the boards of Airbnb, Airbnb.org, and Tesla. Last February, he joined Elon Musk and the DOGE team in D.C. to overhaul retirement for federal workers, before setting his sights on modernizing the nation’s 27,000 .gov websites.

We begin with Joe’s journey to D.C., and how a former Democrat came to support President Trump and take on problems that have plagued government for decades. His first challenge: federal retirement and “the mine” — a storage facility inside a Pennsylvania mountain that houses all federal employees’ retirement paperwork. Learn how Joe worked alongside career civil servants to transform a broken, six-month slog into a digital-only process that takes mere days. Now, he’s set his sights even higher: overhauling the government’s digital portals and delivering an Airbnb-like experience, starting with the Trump Gold Card, TrumpRX.gov, and, more recently, RealFood.gov and TrumpAccounts.gov. We go inside the Oval Office and Joe reveals his conversations with Pres. Trump on the importance of aesthetics, functionality, and design. Drawing inspiration from President Nixon’s beautification initiative, he worked with Pres. Trump to launch the government’s first digital makeover. It’s inspiring to see Joe’s leadership, and if you, or someone you know, wants to join his elite team of designers and engineers, there are a few spots remaining.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:15 Lifelong Democrat to Trump White House

07:50 Text from Elon / Joining DOGE

10:20 “The Mine” & fixing federal retirement

13:50 “What if we did it in a week?”

21:45 What happened to DOGE?

23:30 Becoming America’s Chief Design Officer

26:45 Inside the Oval Office with Pres. Trump

31:00 Fixing 27,000 .gov websites

34:00 Making America beautiful & functional again

We’re honored to go inside the Pentagon for a special episode with Emil Michael, Chief Technology Officer and Under Secretary of War for Research & Engineering. He oversees the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of Strategic Capital, and other critical organizations. Prior, he helped scale multiple businesses, including D-Wave Systems, Tellme Networks, and Uber Technologies. Earlier in his career, he also served as a White House Fellow and later on the Defense Business Board.

We begin with Emil’s decision to join the Trump administration, and why he believes this is a generational opportunity to transform the culture and pace of innovation inside the Pentagon. Learn how he rolled out GenAI.mil (Google’s Gemini) to the entire force — roughly three million people — in a matter of months. Next, we dive into his decision to pare down the all-important Critical Technologies List, which drives the Pentagon’s R&D spending, from 14 areas to six. Then, we discuss the Department’s shift to a “commercial first” approach and what that means for the defense industrial base. Finally, we cover his priorities for the Office of Strategic Capital, plus how he’s thinking about talent and encouraging our best and brightest to step up and serve the country.

[NOTE: This episode was recorded prior to the United States capture and extradition of Nicolas Maduro]

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00:00 Episode intro

01:40 Time to disrupt the Pentagon

04:20 What did you learn from your first threat briefing?

06:30 Can you bring Uber speed to Dept of War?

08:45 Redefining the Critical Technologies List

13:30 Hypersonics and Golden Dome

18:00 Commercial first approach and changing the culture

23:00 How to recruit the best talent into government

28:45 Optimism for the future

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00:00 Episode intro

01:34 MIT engineer turned governor

06:35 Fighting special interests

12:50 Lessons from DOGE

16:37 Forcing a Balanced Budget Amendment

26:00 AI and welders vs lawyers

29:00 Making a Balanced Budget Amendment a reality

We’re joined by Scott for a timely conversation about Tech Force, his role as Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and key civil service reforms. Previously, Scott built one of the leading venture capital firms as Managing Partner of Andreessen Horowitz. He also penned “Secrets of Sand Hill Road,” a definitive guide for raising capital and navigating the startup world.

We begin our conversation with the importance of Tech Force — a two-year program designed to surge top programmers and designers into Washington, D.C. and create an enduring talent pipeline between the public and private sectors. Next, we explore Scott’s career in Silicon Valley, how he helped build a16z from the ground up, and the lessons he’s bringing to the White House. Then, we dive into his ambitious OPM agenda, starting with addressing rampant performance inflation, improving incentives for top performers, and removing artificial barriers, like years of service or college degrees, so we can get the best talent into the right jobs. Finally, we revisit the Pendleton Act of 1883 and how to bring merit back into civil service. Learn how Scott overturned a consent decree that will allow him to bring aptitude tests back into federal hiring — this could be one of the most consequential achievements of the Trump entire presidency!

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Philip is the Founder of the Common Good, best-selling author, and one of the leaders in government and legal reform. His book “The Death of Common Sense” became a powerful force for bipartisan reforms in the 1990s between President Bill Clinton and Congressional Republicans. I’ve followed his work for many years, and his newest book, “Saving Can-Do,” offers important frameworks for injecting accountability and human judgement back into governance.

We begin with the genesis of the red tape state, and why Philip believes the collective guilt of the 1960s led to well-intentioned but ill-designed policies that broke the government. He explains how law began to supplant human judgment, politicians stopped making hard decisions, and governance was outsourced to an instruction manual run by the professional class. Case in point: there are now 150 million words of binding federal rules, most added post-1970. The U.S Constitution, by contrast, is 7,500 words. Next, we dive into his new book, beginning with what makes the American “can-do” attitude unique. Then, he offers solutions for reinstating human authority into our institutions. And finally, a new framework for enabling America to build again. Philip makes the compelling case that what our republic needs most of all is a return to accountability over compliance, amateurs over professionals, and liberty over safetyism.

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