Podcast
Infinite Loops
Hosted by Jim O'Shaughnessy · EN
Every Thursday, join Jim O'Shaughnessy and his favorite people as they arm you with the tools & fresh perspectives required to upgrade your HumanOS and thrive in our messy, probabilistic world.
Visit our Substack at newsletter.osv.llc for full transcripts, highlights, weekly doses of timeless wisdom, and a bounty of other goodies designed to make you go, "Hmm that's interesting!"
69episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Gretchen Rubin - How Curiosity Becomes a Calling (Ep. 320)
1w ago01:23:43Tap to summarizeGretchen Rubin joins guest host and Infinite Books CEO Jimmy Soni to discuss her journey from Supreme Court clerk to bestselling author, the creative obsessions that shaped her career, and the daily habits that fuel her work. They cover her transition from law to writing Power Money Fame Sex, why she often ends up writing the book before the proposal, the art of editing until the final hour (even during pass pages), her 5:30 AM writing routine, and why "know thyself" remains the foundation of all her books - from 40 Ways to Look at Winston Churchill to Life in Five Senses. Important Links: Learn more about Gretchen: https://gretchenrubin.com/ Read more of Gretchen's work: https://gretchenrubin.com/books Listen to Gretchen's podcast: https://gretchenrubin.com/happier/
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Ben Cohen - The Hidden Art of Making Things Better (Ep. 319)
2w ago01:20:14Summary readyWall Street Journal columnist Ben Cohen joins guest host Jimmy Soni, CEO of Infinite Books, to explore the hidden art of making things better. They explore the hot hand phenomenon in basketball, why Moneyball shaped a generation of journalists, the peanut butter and jelly crisis in the Warriors locker room, why ASML is the most important company you've never heard of, the strange story of Driscoll's tastiest berries, and the troubled development of The Princess Bride. Important Links: Learn more about Ben here: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/ben-cohen Read The Science of Success: https://www.wsj.com/news/types/science-of-success Read The Hot Hand: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/hothand
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Revan Lazarus - How AI is Rebuilding the Creator Economy (Ep. 318)
3w ago00:54:58Summary readyAI is no longer just a tool creators use to make content faster. It is beginning to reshape the entire creator economy. Revan Lazarus is the founder of Jamie, an AI platform for podcast networks and digital sales teams. He joins Infinite Loops, guest-hosted by Nick Tawil, to discuss how AI is changing podcasting, media sales, audience analytics, creator monetization, brand deals, and the future of content itself. Important Links: Learn more about Jamie AI: https://www.jamie-ai.com/
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Brian London, Marisa Adler & Eric Stubin - The Hidden Economy of Recycled Clothes (Ep. 317)
4w ago01:07:08Summary readyWhat actually happens after you donate a bag of clothes? Most people assume it gets sold locally to someone in need, but the reality is much bigger, stranger, and more global. In this episode of Infinite Loops, hosted by OSV's Nick Tawil, we sit down for a roundtable on the hidden global economy of secondhand textiles with Brian London, Marisa Adler, and Eric Stubin, all experts in the field. We discuss how the industry works, why fast fashion has made the problem harder, why 70% of the world uses secondhand clothing, what AI can and can't solve, and why turning an old shirt into a new shirt is still much harder than it sounds. Substack: https://newsletter.osv.llc/
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Jason Buck - Faith, Failure, and Finance (Ep. 316)
May 2802:01:50Summary readyJason Buck, founder and CIO of Mutiny Funds, joins Infinite Loops to tell the painful and darkly funny story of how the 2007–2008 crash destroyed his real estate business, wiped out his paper wealth, and taught him one of the hardest lessons in markets: being right is not the same thing as making money. Jason explains how he went from real estate developer to volatility trader and eventually built his philosophy around survival, resilience, and the "Cockroach Portfolio." He and Jim explore why true diversification always feels uncomfortable, why human behavior is the most persistent source of market mistakes, and why investing beliefs often resemble religion. Important Links: Learn more about Mutiny Fund here: https://mutinyfund.com/ Listen to more from Jason here: https://mutinyfund.com/podcasts
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Chelsea Follett - Why Progress Is the Exception, Not the Rule (Ep. 315)
May 2101:29:53Summary readyChelsea Follett joins Infinite Loops to explain why the "good old days" were far darker than most people imagine — and why progress should never be taken for granted. Chelsea is the managing editor of Human Progress and author of Centers of Progress and the forthcoming The Grim Old Days. We discuss why humans are so drawn to nostalgia, what life was really like in the preindustrial past, why doomsday predictions keep failing, and how freedom, innovation, and open inquiry helped create the modern world. Important Links: Learn More about Chelsea's upcoming book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Grim-Old-Days Read more of Chelsea's Human Progress work here: https://humanprogress.org/authors/chelsea-follett
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Mykhailo Marynenko - AI Tools That Give Creators More Control (Ep. 314)
May 1501:43:52Summary readyMykhailo Marynenko joins Infinite Loops for for a fascinating conversation about the future of AI, creative tools, privacy, and data ownership. From growing up in his father's phone repair shop in Ukraine to building experimental AI systems today, Mykhailo has spent his life taking things apart, figuring out how they work, and rebuilding them in unexpected ways. We explore how AI can help creators without replacing them, why privacy and data ownership matter, and what it means to design tools that give people more control over complex information. Important Links More about Misha: https://linktr.ee/0x77dev?utm_medium=mykhailo.link
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Danielle Crittenden - Dispatches from Grief (Ep. 313)
May 701:52:28Summary readyOn a February morning, Danielle Crittenden's world cleaved in two: the life before her daughter Miranda was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment, and the life after. Two years and three months later, Danielle joins Infinite Loops to discuss her luminous memoir, Dispatches from Grief, which unflinchingly traces the strange afterlife of grief with precision, restraint, and unexpected humor. This conversation explores what grief really feels like. With extraordinary honesty and grace, Danielle shares the physical pain, the loneliness of loss, and the slow work of carrying her daughter's memory forward. Dispatches from Grief is out now: Infinite Books | Amazon Danielle's Substack: The Femsplainers With Danielle Crittenden
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Saloni Dattani - The Hidden Bottleneck Holding Back the Future of Medicine (Ep. 312)
Apr 3001:25:54Summary readySaloni Dattani, author of the Scientific Discovery Substack and founding editor of Works in Progress magazine, joins Infinite Loops to discuss why medical innovation is often much slower than it needs to be. We explore why so much research still begins in animal models, how poor data distorts our understanding of disease, why clinical trials are one of the biggest bottlenecks in medicine, and how better systems could help promising treatments reach patients faster. Important Links: Read more from Saloni here: https://worksinprogress.co/our-authors/saloni-dattani And here: https://substack.com/@salonium And listen to Saloni's podcast "Hard Drugs" here: https://harddrugs.worksinprogress.co/
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Brian Potter - How to Fix America's Building Problem
Apr 2301:13:00Summary readyWhy has America become so bad at building housing, infrastructure, and major projects? Brian Potter, author of The Origins of Efficiency and writer of Construction Physics, explains why prefab housing keeps failing and why there are no easy fixes to America's building problem. We discuss Katerra, California's anti-growth turn, and the deeper logic behind local opposition to growth: concentrated harms and diffuse benefits. Important Links: Read Brian's newsletter Construction Physics here: https://www.construction-physics.com/ Read Brian's book The Origins of Efficiency here: https://press.stripe.com/origins-of-efficiency Learn more about Brian here: https://ifp.org/author/brian-potter
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