🇺🇸 United States Episodes

In this episode, I explain cortisol and science-based protocols for properly setting your cortisol rhythm, which can significantly increase your daytime energy, focus, mood, and stress resilience, while also improving your sleep quality. Most people mistakenly think cortisol is bad, and many assume their levels are too high, when in fact many health and performance challenges simply stem from a disrupted cortisol rhythm. Getting your cortisol rhythm right can be transformative for your health and performance. I outline behavioral, nutritional, and supplement-based strategies to raise or lower your cortisol levels at the appropriate times of day and night. I also provide specific protocols for overcoming burnout. If you’re dealing with stress, low energy, hormone or sleep challenges—or simply want to optimize these for the sake of your physical and mental health and performance—this episode offers science-backed protocols to help. Read the the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Carbon: https://joincarbon.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman David: https://davidprotein.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00) Cortisol (1:29) Stress, Tool: Daily Cortisol Rhythm (3:16) Cortisol & Directing Energy, Glucose, Adrenals (6:39) Sponsors: Carbon & BetterHelp (10:14) Daily Cortisol Phases & Rhythm, Waking Up & Cortisol (17:55) Cortisol Release & Regulation, Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis (24:57) Rapid & Delayed Stress Response, HPA Axis (28:42) Bright Light & Cortisol Release, Tool: Increase Morning Cortisol & Sunlight (36:58) Sponsors: AG1 & David (39:48) Viewing Bright Light & Mood, Depression, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) (41:44) Increase Morning Cortisol, Tools: Hydration, Delaying Caffeine Intake (49:30) Exercise, Entrainment Cues & Cortisol Rhythm, Tool: Boost Energy & Exercise Schedule (57:52) Does Deliberate Cold Exposure Increase Cortisol?, Energy & Mood (1:01:19) Sponsor: LMNT (1:02:51) Increase Morning Cortisol & Nutrition, Grapefruit, Black Licorice (1:11:34) Afternoon & Evening Cortisol Rhythms, Sunlight, Screens (1:14:30) Lower Evening Cortisol, Tools: Dim Lights, Light Color (1:20:54) Lower Evening Cortisol, Tools: Caffeine Timing; Stress Response & Exhales; Starchy Carbohydrates (1:30:42) Low-Carb Diets & Cortisol, Metabolic Syndrome (1:35:30) Evening Exercise & Cortisol, Tool: Spike Your Morning Cortisol (1:44:32) Supplements to Reduce Cortisol, Ashwagandha, Apigenin, Magnesium (1:50:57) Burnout, Cushing's & Addison's, 2 Burnout Patterns (1:55:23) Early-Phase Burnout, Tools: NSDR/Yoga Nidra, Boost Morning Cortisol, Caffeine (2:01:35) Late-Phase Burnout, Tools: Reduce Evening Cortisol (2:08:02) Age, Male vs Females, Lifespan, Cancer; Menopause; Brain Health (2:13:41) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zip your hair on, it’s Marc Maron. The dark side of luxury problems, exciting medical stories, and the gift of yet another microphone. Get duct taped into position, it’s an all-new SmartLess.

Ray Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, billionaire investor, philanthropist and an author. How do countries actually go broke? In a world of abundance, it’s easy to think the good times will last. But with global debt soaring, we may be nearing an unprecedented economic reckoning. History shows these cycles repeat; the question is, can we escape collapse and find a path to prosperity before it’s too late? Expect to learn why Ray got interested in how and why countries go broke, how money and debt actually work, the 5 major forces that shaped history, how the debt cycle works to make the rich richer, how politics impact they global world order, what AI will do to disrupt the world as we know it, what most people get wrong about how countries actually fall apart, and much more… Sponsors: See me on tour in America: ⁠https://chriswilliamson.live⁠ See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get the best bloodwork analysis in America at https://functionhealth.com/modernwisdom Get a 20% discount on Nomatic’s amazing luggage at https://nomatic.com/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular Flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Timestamps: (0:00) Moving from Macro Investing to Predicting Currency Fluctuations (8:00) The Five Big Forces (15:35) How Does the Debt Cycle Work? (22:39) What Does It Mean for a Country to Not Pay Its Debts? (29:24) To What Extent Do Economic Cycles Affect Politics? (38:32) Why are Our Policies So Push and Pull? (43:29) We're On the Brink of an Economic Downturn (48:08) How Can We Understand the External Geo-Political Order? (53:26) How China’s Ascension Relates to the First Two World Orders (57:16) What Role Does Active Nature Have in the Modern World? (01:02:03) The Predicted Impact of AI (01:08:25) Is Anyone Safe From AI? (01:13:15) Are Financial Cycles Worse Than Kinetic Wars? (01:21:03) Is Ray Onto Something? (01:23:56) Find Out More About Ray Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iowa has three million people and a million come to their State Fair, each with their own goals and dreams for the fair. We hang out with some of them, to see if they get what they hoped for. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: A big bull, a giant slide, and cowboys on horseback shooting balloons are just a few sights you can take in at the Iowa State Fair. Some people come for the spectacle, and some are the spectacle. (8 minutes)Act One: Bailey Leavitt comes from a family of carnies. For her, one of the most thrilling things she looks for at the fair is someone who is really good at luring people into spending money at their stand. She takes Ira on an insider’s search for “an agent.” (16 minutes)Act 2: Motley Crue pledged never to play the fairgrounds. Then they did. We wondered what that had been like for them. They agreed to an interview, but then they flinched. (1 minute)Act Two: What life lessons can kids learn at the 4-H rabbit competition? A lot. (11 minutes)Act Three: The Iowa State Fair awarded coveted slots to just nine new food vendors this year. All of them are run by people who already own restaurants or who’ve done other big fairs. All except for an unlikely newcomer: Biscuit Bar. (19 minutes)Act Four: As the ferris wheel goes dark and the fair is closing down, one game is racing to meet their quota. Ira watches until the end. (3 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

Ai Weiwei joins to discuss his new memoir “1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows,” depicting a century-long epic tale of China told through a story of his family.Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Además: ¿por qué hablar en público da tanto miedo? Este episodio se emitió originalmente el 3 de enero de 2021.

When technologist Luis von Ahn was building the popular language-learning platform Duolingo, he faced a big problem: Could an app designed to teach you something ever compete with addictive platforms like Instagram and TikTok? He explains how Duolingo harnesses the psychological techniques of social media and mobile games to get you excited to learn — all while spreading access to education across the world.This episode originally aired on October 26, 2023.Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Bloodworth is a journalist reporting on working-class life and society, podcaster, and an author. The manosphere isn’t what you think. Even though it is often labeled as toxic and extreme, the truth is a bit more complicated. So what’s really going on with men, dating, and masculinity as of today? Expect to learn what the current state of the “manosphere” is, what constitutes being a part of it and what most people get wrong about it, what the rise and fall of the pickup community tell us about what men actually want versus what they’ve been told they should want, why the manosphere got harder and more political as started to grow, why gyms now serve as sanctuaries for disempowered men, what a truly male-inclusive progressive politics would look like, and much more… Sponsors: See me on tour in America: ⁠https://chriswilliamson.live⁠ See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get 10% discount on all Gymshark’s products at https://gym.sh/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM10) Get the brand new Whoop 5.0 at https://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom Timestamps: (0:00) Is the Manosphere the New Toxic Masculinity? (5:45) Did Adolescence Revive the Conversation? (7:39) From the Pickup Artist to the Red Pill Guy (15:05) How Male Judgement is Shaping the Manosphere (18:00) The Influence of Influencers (28:33) Who are the Lost Boys? (35:42) Should We Be Worried About Our Consumption of Manosphere Content? (42:51) The Recalibration of Traditional Male Roles (53:20) Why is There No Left-Wing Manosphere? (56:41) Is Progressivism is Harming Masculinity? (01:01:19) Women are Not Status Objects (01:07:10) Withholding Emotional Connections Due to Image is Destroying Relationships (01:16:26) Find Out More About James Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trust in experts is down. In all kinds of institutions and professions - in government, in media, in medical science... and lately, economists are feeling the burn acutely. In fact, President Trump just fired the economist who ran the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accusing her – with no evidence – of faking a jobs report that showed fewer gains than expected.In decades past, economists whispered in the ears of presidents. Now, many politicians and voters are disenchanted with the field.On today's show, we speak with economists about how distrust is messing with their minds and interfering with their work. Can they build up trust again?Today's episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and edited by Marianne McCune with help from Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.Support Planet Money, get bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening and now Summer School episodes one week early by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

(0:00) Bestie intros! (1:44) Recapping "Winning the AI Race" in DC: Trump's speech, best moments, key takeaways (16:39) AI Executive Orders, unbiased AI, spiciest moments (34:32) Copyright, fair use, and patents in the Age of AI (56:37) Sam Altman highlights AI chatbot privacy issues (1:02:48) Hot GDP print, Fed refuses to cut, major US-EU trade deal Join us at the All-In Summit: https://allin.com/summit Summit scholarship application: http://bit.ly/4kyZqFJ Get The Besties All-In Tequila: https://tequila.allin.com Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://x.com/chamath/status/1950673622059667764 https://www.newsweek.com/microsoft-layoffs-h1b-visa-applications-2094370 https://www.wsj.com/business/media/amazon-to-pay-new-york-times-at-least-20-million-a-year-in-ai-deal-66db8503 https://x.com/simonw/status/1950592653047062578 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A191RL1Q225SBEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYn8VKW6vXA https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/30/gdp-q2-2025-.html https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/federal-reserve-interest-rate-07-30-25 https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/07/the-eu-us-trade-deal-explained-eu-competitiveness https://apps.bea.gov/iTable/?reqid=19&step=3&isuri=1&1921=survey&1903=84 https://www.google.com/finance/quote/SPY:NYSEARCA

Over the last few months, President Donald Trump has struck numerous trade deals with countries and continues to negotiate with others. The European Union, Japan and South Korea all agreed to a tariff rate of 15%. WSJ’s Greg Ip says Trump has succeeded on his own terms and created a new trade world order, albeit a fragile one. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening:- A Pharmaceutical Executive on Trump’s Tariff Strategy- Why Trump Pushed His Tariff DeadlineSign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

French President Emmanuel Macron is suing Candace Owens for claiming his wife was born a man. Candace joins us to present her evidence and explain why she’s looking forward to a legal battle. (00:00) Brigitte Macron and the Lawsuit Against Candace (12:06) The Origins of Candace’s Investigation Into the Macron Family (35:17) Why Are People Defending Sigmund Freud? (1:01:01) Candace’s Interview With Nick Fuentes (1:24:41) The Deranged Babylon Bee Guy (1:30:19) Candace’s Interview With Harvey Weinstein Candace Owens is the host of "Candace," one of the most downloaded podcasts in America. She is a New York Times best-selling writer and the author of the forthcoming "Make Him a Sandwich," (https://candaceowensbooks.com/) available for pre-order now. She has recently created the series "Becoming Brigitte," "Harvey Speaks," and "The Epstein Files." She lives in Nashville with her husband and four children. She is a practicing Catholic. Paid partnerships with: Masa Chips: Get 25% off with code TUCKER at https://masachips.com/tucker MeriwetherFarms: Visit https://MeriwetherFarms.com/Tucker and use code TUCKER for 15% off your first order. Beam: Get 30% off the American Strength Bundle using the code TUCKER at https://ShopBeam.com/Tucker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Maxwell is an artist whose work explores many themes, including humanity, consciousness, and the unknown. www.mikemaxwellart.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cartoonist Liana Finck's drawings hold our hands through life's predicaments, big and small: dating, breakups, what to make for dinner, how to leave a party without being rude, how to think about our relationship with God. In a funny, moving talk, she shares some of her drawings and shows how she uses creativity to navigate false starts and cluelessness in the search for belonging.This episode originally aired January 2, 2024.Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Frankly, if they’re going to behave like hackers, then we’re going to behave like trolls right back to them,” said Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare.

What really caused the breakdown between tech and media—and what comes next? Erik Torenberg sits down with Balaji Srinivasan (entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Network State) to explore the long-building conflict between Silicon Valley and legacy journalism. Balaji explains how the collapse of traditional media business models gave rise to political capture, clickbait, and adversarial coverage of the tech industry. They discuss why “going direct” is no longer optional, how tech became the villain in establishment narratives, and what it would take to build a new truth infrastructure - from decentralized content creation to cryptographic verification. This episode covers power, distribution, and the future of media, with a signature mix of historical insight, social analysis, and Balaji’s forward-looking frameworks.

Jack Weatherford es un antropólogo e historiador especializado en Genghis Khan y el Imperio Mongol. Gracias por escuchar ❤ Consulta nuestros patrocinadores: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep476-sc Consulta a continuación las marcas de tiempo y, para dar tu opinión, enviar preguntas, contactar a Lex, etc. CONTACTA A LEX: Comentarios - da tu opinión a Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - envía preguntas, videos o llama: https://lexfridman.com/ama Contratación - únete a nuestro equipo: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Otros - otras formas de ponerte en contacto: https://lexfridman.com/contact ENLACES DEL EPISODIO: Libros de Jack: https://amzn.to/3ISziZr Genghis Khan y la creación del mundo moderno: https://amzn.to/4l45LsY La historia secreta de las reinas mongolas: https://amzn.to/4l22uud Genghis Khan y la búsqueda de Dios: https://amzn.to/4fpOQA4 Emperador de los mares: Kublai Khan y la creación de China: https://amzn.to/40JEll1 PATROCINADORES: Para apoyar este podcast, consulta nuestros patrocinadores y obtén descuentos: Allio Capital: aplicación de inversión impulsada por IA que utiliza tendencias macroeconómicas globales. Ve a https://alliocapital.com/ ZocDoc: aplicación que ayuda a los pacientes a encontrar proveedores de atención médica. Ve a https://zocdoc.com/lex Fin: agente de IA para el servicio al cliente. Ve a https://fin.ai/lex Oracle: Infraestructura en la nube. Ve a https://oracle.com/lex Shopify: Vende cosas en línea. Ve a https://shopify.com/lex MasterClass: clases en línea de expertos de talla mundial. Ve a https://masterclass.com/lexpod LMNT: mezcla de bebida electrolítica sin azúcar. Ve a https://drinkLMNT.com/lex ESQUEMA: (00:00) - Introducción (00:44) - Patrocinadores, comentarios y reflexiones (10:44) - Historia del origen de Genghis Khan (52:30) - Primeras batallas y conquistas (1:05:11) - Poder (1:07:33) - Historia secreta (1:20:58) - Estepa mongola (1:24:16) - Tiro con arco montado y equitación (1:32:36) - El ejército de Genghis Khan (1:48:49) - Tácticas y estrategia militar (2:01:13) - Guerras de conquista (2:05:37) - Dan Carlin (2:15:37) - Libertad religiosa (2:31:24) - Comercio y la Ruta de la Seda (2:40:10) - Innovación en armas (2:41:40) - Kublai Khan y la conquista de China (3:23:31) - Caída del Imperio Mongol (3:50:26) - Legado genético (4:00:20) - Lecciones de Genghis Khan (4:10:36) - Naturaleza humana (4:13:47) - Visitando Mongolia (4:33:15) - Lex: Dan Carlin (4:36:06) - Lex: Gaza ENLACES DEL PODCAST: - Sitio web del podcast: https://lexfridman.com/podcast - Podcasts de Apple: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 - RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ - Lista de reproducción del podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 - Canal de clips: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips

When President Donald Trump posted that he'd been in talks with Coca-Cola, and that the sodamaker would soon be making Coke with cane sugar, it sent the soda world into a fizz. WSJ's Laura Cooper explains why Coca-Cola and other sodamakers originally made the switch from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup and why it would be hard to go back. Annie Minoff hosts. Further Listening:- ‘It Came out of Nowhere’: The Rise of Dr Pepper - Can Pepsi Make a Comeback?- The Fight to Kick Soda Out of Food Stamps Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chadd Wright is a retired Navy SEAL, endurance athlete, speaker, and entrepreneur. He is a cofounder of the Three of Seven Project, a health and self-improvement program for the body, soul, and spirit.  https://www.3of7project.com See Universal Pictures’ NOBODY 2, only in theaters August 15. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome and Guest Introduction 00:01:18 Tulu, OVR, and the RLVR Journey 00:03:40 Industry Approaches to Post-Training and Preference Data 00:06:08 Understanding RLVR and Its Impact 00:06:18 Agents, Tool Use, and Training Environments 00:10:34 Open Data, Human Feedback, and Benchmarking 00:12:44 Chatbot Arena, Sycophancy, and Evaluation Platforms 00:15:42 RLHF vs RLVR: Books, Algorithms, and Future Directions 00:17:54 Frontier Models: Reasoning, Hybrid Models, and Data 00:22:11 Search, Retrieval, and Emerging Model Capabilities 00:29:23 Tool Use, Curriculum, and Model Training Challenges 00:38:06 Skills, Planning, and Abstraction in Agent Models 00:46:50 Parallelism, Verifiers, and Scaling Approaches 00:54:33 Overoptimization and Reward Design in RL 01:02:27 Open Models, Personalization, and the Model Spec 01:06:50 Open Model Ecosystem and Infrastructure 01:13:05 Meta, Hardware, and the Future of AI Competition 01:15:42 Building an Open DeepSeek and Closing Thoughts We first had Nathan on to give us his RLHF deep dive when he was joining AI2, and now he’s back to help us catch up on the evolution to RLVR (Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards), first proposed in his Tulu 3 paper. While RLHF remains foundational, RLVR has emerged as a powerful approach for training models on tasks with clear success criteria and using verifiable, objective functions as reward signals—particularly useful in domains like math, code correctness, and instruction-following. Instead of relying solely on subjective human feedback, RLVR leverages deterministic signals to guide optimization, making it more scalable and potentially more reliable across many domains. However, he notes that RLVR is still rapidly evolving, especially regarding how it handles tool use and multi-step reasoning. We also discussed the Tulu model series, a family of instruction-tuned open models developed at AI2. Tulu is designed to be a reproducible, state-of-the-art post-training recipe for the open community. Unlike frontier labs like OpenAI or Anthropic, which rely on vast and often proprietary datasets, Tulu aims to distill and democratize best practices for instruction and preference tuning. We are impressed with how small eval suites, careful task selection, and transparent methodology can rival even the best proprietary models on specific benchmarks. One of the most fascinating threads is the challenge of incorporating tool use into RL frameworks. Lambert highlights that while you can prompt a model to use tools like search or code execution, getting the model to reliably learn when and how to use them through RL is much harder. This is compounded by the difficulty of designing reward functions that avoid overoptimization—where models learn to “game” the reward signal rather than solve the underlying task. This is particularly problematic in code generation, where models might reward hack unit tests by inserting pass statements instead of correct logic. As models become more agentic and are expected to plan, retrieve, and act across multiple tools, reward design becomes a critical bottleneck. Other topics covered: - The evolution from RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback) to RLVR (Reinforcement Learning from Verifiable Rewards) - The goals and technical architecture of the Tulu models, including the motivation to open-source post-training recipes - Challenges of tool use in RL: verifiability, reward design, and scaling across domains - Evaluation frameworks and the role of platforms like Chatbot Arena and emerging “arena”-style benchmarks - The strategic tension between hybrid reasoning models and unified reasoning models at the frontier - Planning, abstraction, and calibration in reasoning agents and why these concepts matter - The future of open-source AI models, including DeepSeek, OLMo, and the potential for an “American DeepSeek” - The importance of model personality, character tuning, and the model spec paradigm - Overoptimization in RL settings and how it manifests in different domains (control tasks, code, math) - Industry trends in inference-time scaling and model parallelism Finally, the episode closes with a vision for the future of open-source AI. Nathan has now written up his ambition to build an “American DeepSeek”—a fully open, end-to-end reasoning-capable model with transparent training data, tools, and infrastructure. He emphasizes that open-source AI is not just about weights; it’s about releasing recipes, evaluations, and methods that lower the barrier for everyone to build and understand cutting-edge systems. It would seem the