How can you be a better ancestor?

Today, we're joined by Roman Krznaric, the public philosopher and author of The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World.

Roman is a former Oxford political scientist-turned-gardener-turned-writer, whose ideas have been cited by Pakistan's Supreme Court and used to frame the EU's Green Deal. Tommy Stadlen talks to Roman about why he thinks we're doing terribly as ancestors, why he argues we've colonised the future, but why he believes the capacity for long-term thinking is already wired into our heads.

He speaks about:

• The 7 trillion people who could be born over the next 50,000 years (and why that number should change how you think)
• The daily fight between your marshmallow brain and your acorn brain
• Victorian "sewer thinking" (London's sewers were built twice as big as needed, and they still work)
• How the mechanical clock sliced up time and made us short-termist
• Leaving academia to plant trees for £6.31 an hour
• Japan's orange kimonos, where residents imagine they live in 2060
• Why long-term thinking isn't good on its own
• Companies giving future generations a legal seat on the board

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

What did it take to build an $11 billion company, Airwallex?

Jack moved from rural northeast China to Melbourne at 15 and now runs Airwallex, the global payments and business banking platform.

Cameron McLain and Tommy Stadlen talk to Jack about what it took to get there: the jobs he worked to put himself through college, why he thought he'd be happy with a $100 million business, and why he turned down Stripe's $1.2 billion offer. He also explains why he believes the future of banking is agentic, and why the big banks are too far behind to build it.

He speaks about:

• What he learned about work ethic: washing dishes, bar shifts and overnights at a petrol station
• The difference between anxiety and survival
• Running ten side businesses, and still feeling irrelevant
• The angel who wired $1 million into his personal account before signing anything
• Pulled term sheets, and a $100 million cheque from Yuri Milner
• Being targeted as a Silicon Valley outsider (and why he thinks the facts are on his side)
• Agentic banking and the end of vertical finance software
• And lots more...

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're back with Max Jaderberg, president of Isomorphic Labs, to talk about his life lessons.

After years at DeepMind working on deep learning, generative models and reinforcement learning, Max helped launch Isomorphic in 2021 to turn the promise of AlphaFold into new medicine. Cameron McLain and Tommy Stadlen talk to Max about why he rejected a consultancy contract to do a PhD at Oxford, and why he later left core AI research after writing a pro/con list on a whiteboard in his loft. He also explains how Isomorphic keeps a startup's hunger (even with Alphabet's backing), and what nearly 15 years of working with Demis Hassabis has taught him.

He speaks about:

• Deciding what "superpower" his research could create
• Whether DeepMind could ever have done it alone, without selling, and how Alphabet backs its investments
• Keeping a startup culture, with a giant's backing
• Why Isomorphic wanted a global investor base in its latest round
• Trusting Demis Hassabis's vision (including an early Nobel Prize prediction he didn't believe)
• Rejecting a job contract to do a PhD
• Working 24/7 in his head, but making time for Counter-Strike - and needing plenty of sleep...

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.