Moment of Zen
Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) is joined by influential guests to discuss tech, culture, and beyond. Frequent guests include: Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan, Samo Burja, Indian Bronson, and more.
Moment of Zen is a podcast from Turpentine, along with Econ 102, Upstream, Live Players, The Cognitive Revoution, Complex Systems, The Riff, Modern Relationships, This Won't Last, and more.
Why Urban Centers Outlast Empires | Samo Burja
AI and The War for Your Attention | Antonio Garcia Martinez and Chris Hayes from the a16z Podcast
Why China and America are Creating the Same Ruling Class | Samo Burja
Hardware Wars | Samo Burja
How Singapore Became Rich: The City-State Strategy That Worked | Samo Burja
The Real Reason Civilizations Collapse | Samo Burja
The Future of Media with Noah Smith and Chris Best, CEO of Substack
Are Dynasties Better Than Meritocracies?
The Middle Class Myth and China’s Future with Noah Smith
What If Rome Had Industrialized? | Samo Burja
Can Japan Survive Its Demographic Crisis? | Samo Burja
India-Pakistan Conflict Explained | Samo Burja
The Bureaucracy War: Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar and Senator Mike Lee (UT) - Hill & Valley Forum 2025
Energy, Education, Deregulation: David Friedberg, Shaun Maguire & Todd Young - Hill & Valley Forum
US-China AI Race, with Anthropic, ScaleAI, & AI Fund Founders
The Myth of Automatic Progress | Samo Burja
Ross Douthat on AI, transhumanism, and why religion is cool again
Will India become a global superpower? | Samo Burja
Who controls China when Xi Jinping is gone? | Samo Burja
Cartels vs. state: the power struggle in Mexico | Samo Burja
Inflation, Elon's competence, & changes Democrats need to make | Noah Smith
Victor Davis Hanson predicts: how Ukraine & Russia will resolve, China, Taiwan, Trump legacy in 2030
Mapping the New Right | Jon Askonas
Delian Asparouhov & Nadia Asparouhova on building a relationship, family, and legacy
The technology that can create new superpowers | Samo Burja
Curtis Yarvin is now in the Overton Window w/ Samo Burja
Keith Rabois called Florida, GDP growth wall, and crime in cities
Scott Sumner and Noah Smith debate the China question