Podcast
People by WTF
Hosted by Nikhil Kamath · EN
People by WTF is a series where Nikhil Kamath has a conversation with personalities who stand out in their industries around the world.
21episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The $120 Billion Man: Poverty, Power & Why Jobs Fix Everything | Ajay Banga x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Apr 2101:23:57Tap to summarizeAjay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion in a decade, was the frontrunner to run Citibank's quarter of a million people, quit to become CEO of a company with 4,000 — and today runs the World Bank Group, a $120 billion-a-year institution that was originally built to rebuild Europe and Japan after the Second World War and now exists to kill poverty by creating jobs. He says 600 million people in Africa have zero electricity and he doesn't mean inadequate electricity he means black none, that 1.2 billion young people in the developing world will turn 18 in the next 15 years with only 400 million jobs projected for them, that if you don't give them hope the demographic dividend stops being a light at the end of the tunnel and becomes a freight train, that the five sectors governments should obsess over are infrastructure and smallholder farming and primary healthcare and tourism and value-added manufacturing, that India gets fewer tourists a year than a country a fraction of its size and cultural weight, that the World Bank financed Japan's bullet trains and France's nuclear plants and helped create HDFC, that every dollar invested in tourism creates more jobs than a dollar in any other sector, that fossil fuels aren't going away but energy security is becoming a national security question, that small AI delivered on a phone to an illiterate farmer matters more to the developing world than large language models, that life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform and forget about it, and that the only way to put a nail in the coffin of poverty is to give somebody a job because earnings are not just subsistence — they are hope and optimism and the belief that tomorrow will be better than today00:00 Introduction02:26 AJ's career journey across industries09:00 Consumption patterns and consumer insecurity15:00 World Bank's five-part structure explained22:00 Killing poverty through job creation29:00 Primary healthcare and farmer empowerment35:00 Wealth concentration versus societal prosperity spread42:00 Demographic dividend becoming freight train49:00 Five sectors driving future jobs56:00 Decency quotient over IQ EQ1:03:00 Energy security and nuclear opportunities1:10:00 Forward thinking beats historical grievances1:17:00 Luck flexibility and taking risks1:23:00 Closing message on optimismNikhil Kamath Entrepreneur & InvestorHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-world-bank-group/X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroupInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Ajay Banga x Nikhil Kamath | Ep. Trailer | People by WTF
Apr 1800:01:38Tap to summarizeAjay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion, left when he was the frontrunner to run Citibank's 250,000 people, and now controls $120 billion a year as the President of the World Bank Group — the institution that was built after the Second World War to stop poverty from turning into war. He says life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform, that India gets under 20 million tourists a year which is insane for a country with beaches, mountains, culture, history, food and what he calls cool people, and that the world is about to have 1.2 billion young people turn 18 with only 400 million jobs waiting for them — and if you don't give them hope, the demographic dividend becomes a freight train. Full episode drops soon.Nikhil Kamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/World Bank Group:X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroupInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Rishi Sunak & Akshata Murty: Dharma, Failure & The Middle Path | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Mar 2503:02:25Tap to summarizeRishi Sunak says patience is a bigger competitive advantage than speed, that every decision that reaches a leader is 50-50 by definition because if it weren't someone else would have made it, that the long term is just a succession of short terms you either survived or got kicked out of, and that the thing he wishes he'd done more of in his career is read fiction — because non-fiction tells you what to do and how to do it but fiction teaches you why and gives you a deeper understanding of people.Akshata Murty says her identity was never her father's name or her husband's title, that the middle path between stoicism and epicureanism is where the answer almost always lives, and that the validation she chases is impact — not position, not wealth, not the approval of people who've already decided who she is.First couple's episode we've ever done, and it went places none of us expected.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction06:04 Foundery: India's consumer brand accelerator12:20 Storytelling as a leadership superpower18:05 Parents' pharmacy inspired political career24:04 Educating children in the AI era30:05 Leaning into human skills over AI36:17 How Rishi and Akshata decide differently42:10 Goldman Sachs to Prime Minister journey48:03 Patience as an underrated competitive advantage54:15 Entering politics: resilience, patience, service1:00:06 Staying unapologetically Indian in British politics1:06:51 Life inside 10 Downing Street1:12:20 AI sovereignty and global trade tensions1:18:32 De-globalisation and supply chain resilience1:24:38 Free trade, tariffs, and level playing fields1:31:17 Akshata's identity beyond famous family1:37:53 Validation through impact, not inheritance1:44:04 Finding balance between desire and austerity1:50:04 Being kind to yourself after failure1:56:42 Identity, heritage, and the living bridge2:03:03 Nostalgic Bangalore food and childhood memories2:09:05 Why young Indians should enter politics2:16:03 Education, financial literacy, and compounding2:22:04 Learning to learn in the AI age2:29:52 How Rishi and Akshata use AI daily2:37:09 Can AI truly be creative?2:44:06 Losing the Prime Ministership: lessons in dharma2:51:30 Poets versus politicians: who should we hear?2:58:17 Motivating young people to shape policyNikhil KamathCo-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcioRishi SunakYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rishisunakX: https://x.com/RishiSunak?s=20Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmpFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakAkshata MurtyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@akshataonlineX: https://x.com/anmurtyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmpFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakWatch on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath#PeopleByWTF#WTFOnline
Transcribe →Rishi Sunak & Akshata Murty : Marriage, Power & Losing All In Public | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Mar 2300:01:37Tap to summarizeRishi Sunak says he could not function without his marriage, that losing the most public job in the world taught him that the Gita was right about focusing on dharma and not outcomes, and that the blank canvas at 45 is more exciting than the track that got him there. Akshata Murty says she’s not stuck on being her father’s daughter or her husband’s wife, she is clear on who she is than any title ever made her and the answer to most things lives in balance, somewhere between stoicism and epicureanism. First couple's episode. Full conversation drops soon.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/#rishisunak Former PM of the UKYoutube - https://www.youtube.com/@rishisunakX - https://x.com/RishiSunak?s=20Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishi-sunak#akshatamurty Businesswoman and PhilanthropistYoutube - https://www.youtube.com/@akshataonlineX - https://x.com/anmurtyInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rishisunakLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshata-murty-5a04232Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →I can't believe I said this
Mar 2300:00:24Tap to summarizeOne of them says the Gita's line on duty over outcomes is what got him through the most public failure of his life. The other says her identity has never been her father's name or her husband's title. They've been together 20 years and still argue about ice cream flavours. First couple's episode we've ever done.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →Pain, Power & The Game Nobody Wins | Chamath Palihapitiya x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Mar 201:10:30Tap to summarizeI sat down with Chamath Palihapitiya. He sold a company to Nvidia for $20 billion, woke up the next morning, saw $13 billion hit the account, and felt nothing. This is a guy who grew up in a home with alcoholism and abuse, immigrated to Canada with nothing, lost billions on SPACs, rebuilt, and now says the whole game is exactly that — a game. We got into the uncomfortable stuff: why pain is the single best predictor of entrepreneurial success, why investing is never a team sport and anyone who says otherwise is losing money, and why Bitcoin has a structural flaw that will permanently cap its ceiling. Chamath makes the case that Trump is the most effective political athlete America has ever seen, that some form of socialism is probably inevitable if we don't fix student debt and housing, and that his next obsession is building the machine that makes the machine — a software factory for the AI era.00:00 Introduction06:09 Chamath’s Painful Childhood & Hunger11:16 What Actually Matters Beyond Success17:06 Business as a Game, Not Life22:04 The Machine That Makes Machines29:11 Trump, Trade & America’s Political Reset37:30 Investing Lessons: Conviction Over Consensus43:12 Bitcoin’s Structural Flaws & Limitations49:56 The Conceptual Stack for AI Investing55:12 AI Hype, Valuations & Catastrophising58:26 Socialism’s Inevitable Rise & Boundary Fixes1:03:48 Building Sovereign Social Media from India#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter : https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/#chamathpalihapitiyaLinkedIN : https://www.linkedin.com/in/chamath/X - https://x.com/chamathWatch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline #chamath #chamathpalihapitiya #nvidia #software #ai #business #trump #podcast
Transcribe →Chamath Palihapitiya x Nikhil Kamath | Ep. 19 Trailer | People by WTF
Feb 2800:01:44Tap to summarizeChamath Palihapitiya has made and lost billions. He backed Tesla, Bitcoin, and the Golden State Warriors when everyone told him he was insane. Now he's building what he calls a software factory — the machine that makes the machine. We talked about why pain is a prerequisite for scale, why socialism might be closer than any capitalist wants to admit, and why none of the metrics society uses to measure success actually mean anything. This was not a polished conversation.Chamath Palihapitiya has made and lost billions. He backed Tesla, Bitcoin, and the Golden State Warriors when everyone told him he was insane. Now he's building what he calls a software factory — the machine that makes the machine. We talked about why pain is a prerequisite for scale, why socialism might be closer than any capitalist wants to admit, and why none of the metrics society uses to measure success actually mean anything. This was not a polished conversation.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter : https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/#chamathpalihapitiyaLinkedIN : https://www.linkedin.com/in/chamath/X - https://x.com/chamathWatch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline #chamath #chamathpalihapitiya #nvidia #software #ai #business #trump #podcast
Transcribe →The AI Tsunami is Here & Society Isn't Ready | Dario Amodei x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Feb 2401:08:34Tap to summarizeI sat down with Dario Amodei in Bangalore. He built Claude, but he started as a biologist looking for a tool to cure disease. Today, he's at the helm of an AI revolution that he compares to a tsunami society is actively ignoring. We got into the heavy stuff: why Anthropic secretly withheld a working model before ChatGPT existed, whether AI is on the verge of consciousness, and if outsourcing our thinking is going to make humans measurably stupider. Dario makes the case that coding is a dying skill, critical thinking is our last real edge, and the absurd concentration of power in AI right now is a massive problem—even though he’s one of the people holding it.#nikhilkamath Co founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of “WTF is” and “People By WTF” PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/#DarioamodeiLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dario-amodei/X: https://x.com/DarioAmodeiInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dario.amodei/Watch “WTF is” Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4nsm4eznWatch “People By WTF” Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/yme92c59Watch “WTF Online” on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline #claude #claudeindia #podcast #anthropic #anthropicclaude #anthropicai #ai #aivideo #claude Timestamps:00:00 Introduction06:13 Scaling laws explained simply13:27 Trust, humility, and corporate motives22:44 Using Claude personally, AI knowing you31:03 Rich people criticizing their own system37:05 India's role and IT partnerships44:15 Will AI surpass humans at everything50:17 Career advice for young Indians56:38 Open source vs closed AI models1:02:40 Biotech as the next big bet
Transcribe →Dario Amodei: The Tsunami Nobody's Preparing For | Nikhil Kamath | Ep. 18 Trailer | People by WTF
Feb 2400:01:05Tap to summarizeDario Amodei runs a company valued at tens of billions of dollars, building the very AI systems he warns could reshape everything. So I asked him directly: isn't this a bit like rich people saying capitalism is bad? His answer surprised me. We went deep on the economics, the geopolitics, the safety debate, and why the people building AI might actually be the most paranoid about it. A long, honest, no-script conversation about the technology that's about to change all of our lives.#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and GruhasHost of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilka...Instagram: @nikhilkamathcio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.c...Facebook: @nikhilkamathcio #DarioamodeiLinkedIN- @dario-amodeiX - https://x.com/DarioAmodeiInstagram - @dario.amodei Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4n...Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/ym...Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotifyhttps://tinyurl.com/4t...#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline #claude #claudeindia #podcast #anthropic #anthropicclaude #anthropicai #ai #aivideo #claude
Transcribe →Yuval Noah Harari: Stories, Power & Why Truth Doesn't Matter | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF
Feb 1301:23:50Tap to summarizeI sat down with Yuval Noah Harari at the World Economic Forum in Davos and we ended up covering everything from why Christianity's core story is essentially "you are loved by an omnipotent God" to why Greenland might just be the world's most expensive real estate play. He walked me through how algorithms were handed the job of managing public conversation and optimised for hate because hate drives engagement, how AI is about to become the new rabbi because it can read every religious text ever written, and why the friendship between Europe and America — built over generations — is being thrown away for a bit of ice. He also told me that the biggest political achievement in human history was governments spending more on healthcare than military for the first time — and that it's being deliberately destroyed.Footage courtesy: WEF | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | Source: • Davos 2026 Highlights | World Economic For... [00:00:18 - 00:00:29]#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' PodcastTwitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Instagram: / nikhilkamathcioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkam... Facebook: / nikhilkamathcio #YuvalNoahHarari @YuvalNoahHarariX - https://x.com/harari_yuval Instagram - / yuval_noah_harari Youtube - / @yuvalnoahharari 00:00 Introduction01:31 History, change, and writing books03:57 Religion as humanity's most powerful fiction09:33 Geopolitics, power, and losing trust16:27 Greenland, tariffs, and negotiation tactics19:53 Democracy's self-correcting mechanism under threat28:19 AI taking over religion's authority33:44 Purpose, suffering, and controlling your mind39:59 Algorithms destroyed the public conversation48:02 No purpose, just understanding suffering55:06 Who actually runs the world today1:02:38 Nobody runs the world alone1:07:50 Can capitalism survive without human effort1:14:44 Venezuela, Iran, and rebuilding democracy1:21:11 Don't believe everything is just powerWatch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
Transcribe →