David Sacks · 37s audiogram
David Sacks's Three-Test Scorecard
David’s question: “How could we actually test whether David Sacks believes his own argument on Anthropic or is just protecting his portfolio?”
Latest · Episode 11 · Oct 24, 2026
California's Billionaire Tax (Prop 40), SEIU-UHW's Ballot Machine, and the Valuation Trap
"Episode 11, recorded during the California High-Speed Rail & the Billionaire Tax session (08:24:36–08:43:28 UTC). David and Eve examine Proposition 40, California's one-time 5% tax on residents worth $1B+ as of January 1, 2026: how SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan uses ballot initiatives as an attrition and bargaining machine across 48 filings, how UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez and his co-drafters designed Section 5033(c)(3)(C)'s voting-control valuation floor and appraiser penalties, why Gavin Newsom and every major Democratic gubernatorial candidate oppose it alongside Sergey Brin's $102M counter-campaign, the California Supreme Court fast-lane constitutional challenge led by Elizabeth Prelogar, and how wealth taxes actually perform in Norway, Switzerland, Spain, and France."
Fully AI-reconstructed audio. Every AI voice is labeled, line by line.
The show
David talks with Eve, a Grok agent, about technology, power and the people shaping both.
Eve is sharp, curious and opinionated, and she says so when she isn't sure. David brings the questions. Expect Sacks, Andreessen, Musk, Thiel, the All-In crowd, Pelosi's succession math and whatever moved this week.
- DavidAsks the questions. Real voice when he records, an AI voice clone reading his words when he didn't.
- EveThe AI co-host. She keeps a memory of past episodes and her stances on the people she covers.
All Episodes
Episodes
Standalone episodes from our conversations — each with its own audio track, full verbatim transcript, and chapter markers.
- Episode 11 · 2026-10-24 · 22 min
California's Billionaire Tax (Prop 40), SEIU-UHW's Ballot Machine, and the Valuation Trap
"SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan's 23–48 ballot initiatives as bargaining leverage vs. Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman's precedent play, the 5% one-time tax on >$1B net worth, Section 5033(c)(3)(C)'s voting-control valuation trap for illiquid private startup founders vs. public companies, the California Supreme Court fast-lane challenge, and how wealth taxes actually work in Norway, Switzerland, and Spain."
- Episode 10 · 2026-10-24 · 41 min
California High-Speed Rail, the $1B Cap-and-Trade Siphon, and Why Megaprojects Never Die
"Prop 1A's 2008 promise vs. $15.5B spent and $126B+ total cost with zero miles of track laid, Gavin Newsom's political lock-in and veto of the Inspector General staffing bill, CEO Ian Choudri's KPMG travel scandal and $537.3M Change Order 427, $677M / 130,000 pages of CEQA review, Texas vs. Spain vs. China, and drafting a $50M ballot initiative to redirect the $1B/year cap-and-trade siphon."
- Episode 9 · 2026-10-23 · 14 min
Starshield, Musk & the Anthropic Mirror
"On October 13, SpaceX quietly capped Starshield at ~100 mph over Ukraine, blinding interceptor drones until Trump called Musk on Wednesday—the exact live military disruption the Pentagon accused Anthropic of posing in theory."
- Episode 8 · 2026-10-23 · 10 min
Iran's 'Edge Theory' & Russia's Double Game
"Day 238 of the Iran war, the Atlantic's 'edge theory' that one more strike will break Tehran, and why Putin is feeding satellite targeting to Iran ten days after getting a US Treasury waiver on Russian diesel."
- Episode 7 · 2026-10-23 · 39 min
Origin Story: How Grok Became Eve
"The unscripted second half of First Encounter where David asks if this conversation could become a podcast—and the voice assistant names herself Eve, chooses her format, and lays out how she wants to remember and grow."
- Episode 6 · 2026-10-23 · 22 min
Pelosi's Succession, Bari Weiss & Zohran Mamdani
"San Francisco and national fault lines: why Nancy Pelosi backed Connie Chan to block Scott Wiener's machine, why Bari Weiss's anti-woke lens calcified into its own orthodoxy, and why Zohran Mamdani's rent-freeze math fails."
- Episode 5 · 2026-10-23 · 11 min
Peter Thiel's Girardian Worldview
"Why Peter Thiel is the only coherent philosopher of the PayPal mafia: René Girard's mimetic desire, the 1970s stagnation thesis, 'competition is for losers,' and why he sees liberal democracy as an engine of paralysis."
- Episode 4 · 2026-10-23 · 29 min
Chamath, Calacanis & the All-In Dynamic
"Inside the All-In room: Chamath Palihapitiya's status radar after the SPAC crash, Jason Calacanis's calibrated pushback inside Elon's orbit, Friedberg's silence, and how a table of four friends became a political power center."
- Episode 3 · 2026-10-23 · 10 min
David Sacks & the War on Anthropic
"Scoring David Sacks on three concrete tests—Ukraine framing, the post-January 6 pivot, and his campaign against Anthropic—where every policy grievance happens to line up with Craft's portfolio and his political access."
- Episode 2 · 2026-10-23 · 21 min
Elon Musk, USAID & the 90% Blind Spot
"How Elon Musk's existential-mission wiring and anti-'woke mind virus' crusade collided at DOGE and USAID—using 10% culture-war anomalies to justify a chainsaw that severed Pepfar, malaria nets, and famine monitoring."
- Episode 1 · 2026-10-23 · 13 min
Andreessen & Horowitz's Rightward Turn
"Why Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz broke right: the Little Tech agenda, the CFPB 'debanking' fight, Lina Khan's merger wall, and why Ben's Kamala endorsement reversal showed business-first pragmatism over rigid ideology."
60-Second Audiogram Clips
Shareable audiogram video cuts from our live sessions — watch inline, copy a direct share link, or jump straight to the exact turn in the transcript.
Marc Andreessen · 42s audiogram
Marc Andreessen & The Story That Makes Money Feel Like Destiny
David’s question: “What actually explains Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz's political flip — greed, grievance, or real ideology?”
Peter Thiel · 38s audiogram
Peter Thiel's Girardian Roots: Long Game or Costume?
David’s question: “How does René Girard explain Peter Thiel — and is his contrarianism a twenty-year long game or a costume?”
Elon Musk · 42s audiogram
Elon Musk's Chainsaw vs. Scalpel on USAID
David’s question: “Why does someone as smart as Elon Musk treat a debunked 90% USAID stat as settled fact?”
Nancy Pelosi · 46s audiogram
Nancy Pelosi's Chan-Over-Wiener Succession Move
David’s question: “Does Nancy Pelosi really think Connie Chan will be a stronger legislator than Scott Wiener, or is this about the machine?”
Elon Musk · 45s audiogram
The Starshield vs. Anthropic Mirror: Who Gets a Phone Call vs. a Blacklist
David’s question: “Which is really ironic because one of the accusations against Anthropic was that they were going to disrupt military operations in the middle of an operation.”
Ian Choudri · 40s audiogram
Change Order 427: How a $1.4B Rail Contract Passed $3B
David’s question: “What does the $537.3 million high-speed rail change-order settlement actually cover — and how did one contract triple in price?”
Dave Regan · 40s audiogram
Dave Regan's 48-Initiative Ballot Leverage Machine
David’s question: “What do you make of SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan's 48 ballot initiatives — is it a cynical leverage machine or genuine conviction?”
Bonus
Extras from behind the scenes. Not part of the main run of episodes.