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- [00:04]
Michal Evram
You are listening to an art media podcast. So, Yonatan, what's your number this week?
- [00:12]
Yonatan Adiri
The number is six, as in six out of 80. That is six Israelis out of 80 winners of the Turing Prize, which is the sort of Nobel prize for computer science, that is almost 10% of the entire winners of this prestigious award. Today we have an episode that that would feature a very interesting Israeli academician. And I thought this would be a worthy number reflecting the might of Israeli mathematicians, computer scientists. So six out of 80.
- [00:39]
Michal Evram
Well, I'm competing with you on size alone. My number is four. Don't be fooled by it. It's actually $4 trillion. That's the market cap Nvidia's new milestone that it just passed in the last few days. And we spoke at length about their big bet on Israel, their expansion plans there. And so I would say this is a pretty good friend for Israel to have in its backyard. Who wins?
- [01:00]
Yonatan Adiri
I would say you win. I mean, mine is looking backwards, yours looking forward. So I'm conceding this time.
- [01:06]
Michal Evram
I will happily take that win. Thank you. Welcome to what's yous Number? From Ark Media, I'm Michal Evram.
- [01:19]
Yonatan Adiri
I'm Yonatan Adiri.
- [01:20]
Michal Evram
Yonatan. It is close to 2pm here in. Wait for it. Drum roll. I'm in Fargo, North Dakota.
- [01:29]
Yonatan Adiri
That's it. Michal just buried the body in her trunk.
- [01:32]
Michal Evram
Say you betcha. You betcha, right?
- [01:34]
Yonatan Adiri
Exactly. It's a quarter to 10:00pm here in Israel. A lot of political turmoil in the last couple of hours, but other than that, as we spoke last week, seems like the fog of war is clearing out and the discussion on the day after is actually becoming a real conversation.
- [01:49]
Michal Evram
Yeah. And we'll get to just a little bit of the takeaways from Bibi's recent visit to the White House. By the way, I do think that we're breaking a record here. I'm going to venture and say we are the first ever podcast that's being recorded simultaneously from Fargo and from Tel Aviv.
- [02:05]
Yonatan Adiri
If any of our listeners know otherwise, they should let us know in the comments or in the email, please.
- [02:10]
Michal Evram
Yes, please write in. All right, we have a really exciting episode today. We're interviewing Liran Schloosh, who is associate professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Molecular Cell Biology in Rehovot, my hometown. I have fond memories of collecting tadpoles at the Weizmann Institute, and I'm really excited to talk to him. He has had quite a month. His lab was in the Building that received a direct hit from an Iranian missile in mid June. And just days after, he and his research partner Amos Tennai, whom we'll hear about as well, published a study that could have huge implications for early detection of leukemia. We're going to talk to him about what happened, the state of Israeli research and rebuilding plans for the damaged labs at the institute.
- [02:57]
Yonatan Adiri
Yeah, I think this is going to be a broader context of Israeli academia. Right. Three of the top universities in Israel predate the country. Some were born like the Technion in the early 20th century, others in the 30s. The Hebrew U and the Weizmann Institute. We are talking about numbers. Israel is the highest investor in R and D is share of GDP. 6.5% is invested predominantly by the private sector. But the funnel of scientific capacity actually comes from through the Weizmann, Hebrew U, Tel Aviv University, Beersheba and so on. Israel is home to what's called the Wolf Prize, which is the biggest predictor of the Nobel Prize. So this is an annual prize given at the Knesset to global scientists and something like 70% of the winners of the Wolf Prize end up winning the Nobel Prize, specifically in chemistry. It's a broader story of how the Israeli economy really relies on a very strong academia. You know, I've been as an entrepreneur, a big recipient of this talent in academia and have witnessed how strong we are in some of those areas that really take audacity to push forward the boundaries in AI and others. And you know, Professor Schloss is a humble person, but discovering leukemia through a simple blood test, which was the research piece that his lab published right after that Iranian missile fell, literally, I think it was 48 hours later in the peer reviewed one of the top journals in the world in is indeed groundbreaking basic science that's going to impact, you know, many cancer patients worldwide.
- [04:29]
Michal Evram
Well, we'll get to Professor Schlush's story and hear more about his research in just a little while. But first, as usual, we're going to take a quick look at some of the week's pressing news, AKA our big shorts, including some key numbers that should be on your radar, like the Windex. So stay with us onto our big shorts. Jonathan, let's kick things off with the Windex. How are things looking?
- [04:53]
Yonatan Adiri
So the not so secretive Windex anymore after last week. We took a kind of look under the hood.
- [04:58]
Michal Evram
Spilled the beans.
- [04:59]
Yonatan Adiri
Spilled the beans. I got some funny notes on Twitter and other places and shared the fuller list and then we should do that at a later point. But Windex is Predominantly red this week we had a flat week. Nasdaq and S and P, half a percent more or less in the green for Nasdaq. Windex was 5.85 in the red on the week starting on July 7th. Predominantly this is about a correction. In essence, you know, those who've made the profits and rewards in the last couple of months with consecutive in the green. Windex, you know, chose to offload some of those profits. We've seen Mobileye, Nayax and Lemonade after consecutive weeks lose double digits in the red share value. And we saw WIX Monday and Etoro again. Companies that we've highlighted over the last few weeks for very nice gains, saw high single digit price reductions. Makes sense, I would say, when you kind of read through the reports, nothing major or nothing specific. So it seems like, you know, Wall street is reaping the rewards of a very strong sort of Windex. Consecutive several weeks, I would say Palo Alto Networks accounting for almost a third of the entirety of the market cap, as we discussed last week, heavily reliant on the big five or big six cyber stocks shed 7.15%. So that's very impactful on where the index is, I would say at the tail end, Elbit has been a safe haven. Right. So you would expect Israeli Defense Tech to kind of keep its head above the water. And it has, it's remained flat, kind of in line with Nasdaq. So that's the week for the Windex. And again, I don't think there's anything to read in the data beyond a correction.
- [06:40]
Michal Evram
Yeah, and we did see some volatility in the markets overall. You know, here in the United States you mentioned the S and P and the Nasdaq being, you know, net kind of neutral. But there were earlier last week, definitely things were looking down, renewed tariff fears. What's going to happen? Then it fizzled out and we saw things go back up partly because of the excitement over AI. We will talk a little more about AI later on, but first I want to get to United. You know, we're probably all of us a little bit sick of this like on again, off again, weird toxic relationship that Israel now has with a lot of the airlines. But United is back, baby, at least for now. The airline, which has historically offered more flights to Israel than any other US Based airline, says it's going to resume daily nonstop flights on July 21st. This is 10 days ahead of schedule. And this is also taking place, by the way, despite Israel still being at a level three travel advisory level according to The US Embassy. That's a reconsider travel category. And bringing this up not only because I think we all care about this and because it's got a ripple effect, an obvious one, but also because one thing that we haven't talked about much when we've brought up some of the back and forth with the airlines, is that there have been allegations that with United in particular, that some of the decisions and the reluctance to resume flights when things have flared up sort of after the fact that it's United actually succumbing to the politics of its largest union, which represents flight attendants and other workers. Again, these are allegations. There's nothing, you know, conclusive here. But by the way, United did, in a statement that it made about the resumption of flights, did say that this was done in close consultation with the unions representing our flight attendants and pilots. So they went out of their way to say that. And I think that that's actually a meaningful note. Bigger picture, you know, the role of unions, which, the teachers union, that's a whole nother thing. But, but we are seeing some what I would categorize as anti Israel sentiment from some of the larger unions in the United States. My question here is, you know, if it is the case that unions have played a role in past decisions, pressure from unions have. Should we be concerned about this?
- [08:54]
Yonatan Adiri
We need to keep a very close kind of eye on this and understand is this sort of few and far apart or does this require, you know, more of a concerted effort and response? I am encouraged by the fact that prominent Jews and non Jews seeing these kind of, you know, blimps. I don't know how you call that game where you have a hammer and you have to, like, hit it. You know, those things that come up, Whack a mole.
- [09:16]
Michal Evram
Whack a mole.
- [09:17]
Yonatan Adiri
So that's my approach to that right now. Like not to wait it out and not kind of say, oh, you know, it's just this organization or that, but kind of stand up to it. I'm encouraged by the fact that I see leadership in the U.S. both Jewish and not, you know, taking a stand and confronting that.
- [09:31]
Michal Evram
I think it's really important to be connecting those dots because these are not disparate things. They're part of a broader trend. Where it goes, who knows? But we should absolutely be watching it.
- [09:40]
Yonatan Adiri
And, you know, for us focusing on Israeli economy, as we spoke last week, when we analyzed the central bank's notes on the interest, Israel's integration into the global economy is what drives the Israeli economy Right. So if this picks up and becomes an issue, then it is a macroeconomic issue for Israel. It's not anecdotal.
- [09:58]
Michal Evram
Well, speaking of Israel's integration into the broader global economy, another piece of news, and this came out of Bibi's visit to D.C. israel and the U.S. have signed a memorandum of understanding for AI and energy energy collaboration. And this agreement, which was formulated under the leadership of Energy Secretary Ellie Cohen, is designed to advance cooperation and applying AI to strengthening energy grids both in Israel and in the United States, and to encourage research, innovation and the development of joint policies under the agreement. Just another note here, regional projects, including imec, which I know we've talked about at length, and the Abraham Accords, also a hot topic for us, are going to be advanced, whatever that means. I do think it's an important note here that this is non biased. It's an mou, right?
- [10:44]
Yonatan Adiri
Yep.
- [10:44]
Michal Evram
So what does it actually mean? Yonatan, what are you looking at here?
- [10:47]
Yonatan Adiri
Let me take you behind the scenes on this one because I think it's important. We chose this as a big short, not because it is binding. When you travel with the head of state, we would travel to the White House or to the Blue House in Korea or you always have those kind of you call a month in advance to all the government agencies. What do you have in line that we can declare at the trip? Is it a free trade agreement, is it whatever, a visa issue and so on. So what you actually see here on display is not that important, you know, but what does signify? And that's the reason we picked it up as a big short, AI, energy. These are the things that are talked about behind the scenes. That's what they chose to dedicate time from Prime Minister Netanyahu, the ambassadors, the secretaries to discuss. And the reason this is critical is one, we discussed Israel as a net exporter of energy, which is critical. Now the geopolitics around Syria, there is kind of a whiff, a normalization somewhere in September around, you know, the UN General assembly gathering. Part of that is can Israel deliver natural gas through the pipeline that now goes to Jordan, all the way to Homs and to Syria? Right. So like these energy dynamics are critical and the AI dynamics are critical. So the signal here, I would say three things about that beyond sort of the behind the scenes is not that important. Practically speaking, it's a symbolic thing. Which one? Let's remember last month, in May, two months ago, actually, the Biden poison pill at the tail end of the administration, the tiered Approach export control on AI infrastructure, which was horrendous for Israel's sort of long term capacity to build AI has been lifted. That's why this agreement has been signed as an mou. That's why it gets the public appearance, because there is no Tier one, Tier two anymore. This is critical. We have to understand. Our listeners have to understand. Well, we spoke of last week the Nvidia decision to double its size in Israel to bet even bigger and more audaciously on Israeli talent in AI. That would have never happened if Israel was in tier 2, not to be trusted. Literally. That was the headline of Tier 2 when it comes to silicone production. That's an important thing to say. The second piece is Israel is on the verge, we heard it also from Yoav Shoham a couple of weeks ago, of deciding its national AI strategy. And part of that has to do with energy and with AI in terms of chips for kind of a supercomputer. And you multiply that and you think your visit to Saudi, what we said about the ecosystem, those connect between those two things, energy and AI. So to summarize, practically speaking, this doesn't really mean a lot. It's a trick that state visits kind of go through. What it does signify is both countries identify a linkage between AI and energy as critical. Two, let's celebrate and let's put it out there that America trusts Israel when it comes to AI infrastructure, as opposed to the January Biden administration decision. And number three, practically speaking, my anticipation is if the government stands and there are no surprises in the next couple of months, we're going to see a dynamic towards the broadening of the Abraham Accords. Energy and AI are going to play a big role there.
- [14:03]
Michal Evram
Moving on to our long play, our weekly deep dive. Today we're talking to Liran Schloss, Associate professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Molecular Cell Biology in Rehovot. Liran, welcome to what's yous Number.
- [14:16]
Liran Schloosh
Thank you. Thanks a lot for having me.
- [14:18]
Michal Evram
I want to dive right into the events of June 15th and have you just kind of walk us through the events of the day, of the night as you experienced them.
- [14:30]
Liran Schloosh
Yeah. So my very good friend Shalev, who is also the head of the department, called and told me that a rocket heated our own building, that we are friends from being children and we grew up in the same street and our labs is just one by the other, a little bit of nepotism. And he calls me and tells me that our labs are on fire and what should we do? Should I come? And then he knew that we both have precious samples frozen in the lab, so he asked me whether he can take ours. He took them and I told him that I'm coming, and I joined him. So that was around 3, 34.
- [15:07]
Michal Evram
So right after the missile hit.
- [15:09]
Yonatan Adiri
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [15:10]
Liran Schloosh
30 minutes. Was not allowed to come. I live in Celia. I don't live in the court. So it took like 35 minutes. And I came and I see the fire and. And then we started working until almost like six, seven hours. We moved all the freezers from all of our department. Other departments tried to take other equipment that we could take until someone really kicked us out. Like, they told us, you cannot be here. And they were laughing at us. I was with my sandals and shorts, and it was all fire. And the water that were on the. On the street were pretty hot from the fire. And the safety guys arrived at some point and they just throw us away. But until then, it was very Israeli. We just did whatever we could.
- [15:53]
Michal Evram
What were you most concerned about losing and to what extent were your concerns actually realized here?
- [15:59]
Liran Schloosh
I'm not attached to buildings, neither to equipment. I was concerned about the samples that we're collecting. We're conducting a large international and Israeli clinical trial, and the samples from that trial were frozen in one of our freezers, and we didn't analyze them yet. So that would have been a loss of a year of work and a lot of resources. So I was really concerned about these samples, and then I was concerned about the students and what will happen to them. And the other things were. I was less bothered. I know that other people were, you know, everyone is attached to us, different things. So I was really concerned about my samples or our samples and others. Also, we rescued almost the entire department samples.
- [16:43]
Michal Evram
That's actually one of the things I wanted to ask about is the. The other labs. What. What did you see there and what was the destruction in yours compared to some of the others?
- [16:51]
Liran Schloosh
Yeah, so something like 11 labs were completely destroyed. 9, 11 style, like ashes. My lab was on the other side of the same building that got destroyed. And a lot of things were destroyed there, but not everything. So we were able later, as in the coming days later, we were able to gradually get more and more stuff. So we were, I would say, mildly affected, while others were completely affected. And I can feel the empathy towards their loss. It's. It's significantly bigger.
- [17:20]
Yonatan Adiri
So, Liran, tell us a bit about your lab and the broader Weizmann Institute. Sort of, you know, what gets you busy? Because I think people all don't realize how the people at the institute are busy with basic research that's very pertinent to global health. This is not about an Israeli institute. The focus of the institute and the teams is indeed global. So if you can share a bit about, you know, the specifics of your research. But also, I think it is very indicative of what you know. The entire teams at Weizmann are busy with the Weizmann.
- [17:49]
Liran Schloosh
Well, many people probably would say that about their own institute, but I'm not objective. But it is a unique place. It combines the good of Israeli and Israelis and the beauty of science done in a ambitious and I would say, bold way, with no limits. That's the first thing that you feel when you come to the Weizmann. I was educated at a Technion, a very spartan institute. Then you come to the Weizmann and it looks like a child coming to a candy store, and everything is possible. That's the feeling from the first day until today. It's a very unique atmosphere where you truly have the feeling that you can achieve everything, just use your brain and effort. And that's what people do at the Weizmann. They ask questions, try to answer them in the best way they can with almost every possible resource. Resources are not a limit. And just you be bold, take initiative, do things out of the box.
- [18:45]
Yonatan Adiri
But specifically, you know, you're doing leukemia, right? So your basic research is pertinent to people, you know, suffering from cancer. This is not about hitting the Weizmann Institute. It is also something, you know, when you hit the Weizmann Institute, our listeners may think, oh, you know, it's a university. It's an Israeli university. The research you guys do has already, over the last decades, you know, help people live healthier lives, computers will come faster, and so on and so forth. Can you share a bit maybe about your specific research and why those samples were so dear and precious?
- [19:17]
Liran Schloosh
I'm a scientist, but also I'm a physician. And I was brought as a physician, and in my very deep DNA, I'm a physician. And I must say that first and foremost, the Weizmann is important. And dear. But it is important to say that no one got hit from those two bad missiles. And that's actually the most important thing. So if you ask me, should the rockets fall on Batiamo or Weizmann? They should fall on Weizmann. Then that's important to say, saying all that for the Iranians, I think that it was better that it fall on The Weizman, because the moral damage to educated people in Israel. And I saw it in their reactions to a piece that was published a few days later. Some people, I wouldn't say everyone. Some people, for them, the Weizman is a symbol for light, for goodness, for the future. And the Iranians tried to destroy our future. They tried to damage it. Scientists are resilient because they usually face failure, like, 99% of the time. So I believe that the resilience will come through. Also this time, specifically for my research, I must be even more resilient than the average because I treat patients that usually die. Leukemia is a devastating disease. I'm still a leukemia doctor. I see patients twice a week. And what we try to do is basically, we are studying the very early stages of leukemia to try and prevent it and develop novel technologies that will make leukemia patients life easier.
- [20:45]
Michal Evram
You mentioned very kind of modestly and in passing, that something was published after the labs were hit. So I want to hear more about that, because the research that you've been working on for years with your partner and I'm sure with many others who are involved, is pretty groundbreaking. So talk a little bit about the problem that you were trying to solve here and the significance of the study that you've been working on and published recently, just a few days after the lab was hit.
- [21:13]
Liran Schloosh
Yeah, the problem was how we can replace the bone marrow analysis, which is not a very nice test to go through with a simple blood test, through the characterization of the heterogeneity or the variability in stem cells in the peripheral blood, using novel tools and novel methods, which needed to combine mathematical capabilities with biological reasoning. We wanted to try and see what's going on in the bone marrow by looking on the blood, by looking on stem cells, which are the cell that create all blood cells that are circulating in the blood. In order to do that, we had to first characterize what happens in the normal population to be able to define abnormal.
- [21:54]
Yonatan Adiri
What you're basically saying is leukemia being such an aggressive cancer, the earlier you discover, the better. And early discovery today is dependent on bone marrow, which is expensive, painful, complex, a bit risky in big numbers. So the ability to draw a signal to noise right from a simple blood test is very impactful on survivability and mortality. And so, you know, this is a breakthrough in terms of discoveries. And that's exactly the point of sort of our episode today is that, you know, as you said, the rockets hit Weizmann Institute, they hit Israeli facilities, But the injury, if you will, is to an extent on global science. It's not just, you know, science knows no borders. And the stuff that you guys do and already have done in the last decades has been so impactful on so many people's lives. And so this early discovery piece is critical.
- [22:47]
Michal Evram
I have a question on that note. You know, Yonatan, you touched on the global collaboration and how this is impactful on a global level. Since October 7, we have heard a lot of threats and boycotts or potential boycotts of Israeli academic institutions. And so I'm just wondering, in your view and from your real experience, what is the state of global collaboration with the Institute and other research centers, of course, in Israel?
- [23:13]
Liran Schloosh
I'm not the one to complain. Maybe there are some naysayers or people out there. I usually ignore them or put my pink glasses. I see a lot of good people that still want to work with us. I see a lot of good people who are, who understand what we do. I must say, I deal with, I think, above average intellectual people that don't take things for granted. So maybe that's the reason. But I mainly see the goodness and people understanding. I must say, I also myself see the bad things in what, what we do. I'm still under reserve duty and not everything that I saw in Gaza was to my taste. But taken together, good will usually will win. And I think we are on the good side of things and most people.
- [24:02]
Yonatan Adiri
Understand that, it's fair to say. Also, I think for some of our listeners who don't know Mahon Weizmann as the Technion and the Hebrew U have been established before the state of Israel.
- [24:13]
Liran Schloosh
Indeed.
- [24:13]
Yonatan Adiri
Mahon Ziv. Right before Weizmann, right?
- [24:16]
Michal Evram
Yes.
- [24:16]
Liran Schloosh
Yeah, 1934, I think.
- [24:18]
Yonatan Adiri
1934, the famous war of languages in the Technion. Hebrew was a dormant language. It was a very fierce battle. Does Hebrew even have the right words, given that the language was dormant and only has the vocabulary of the Bible? Right. All the scientific discoveries since the Bible through the early 20th century did not have words in Hebrew. So the tradition behind Israeli academia, this dynamic that you're describing is really very much apparent at Weitzman, at Hebrew. And these are they predated the state. And is it fair to say that still Weizmen is sort of the highest kind of representation in Global Grants relative to its size? I mean, is it still sort of the way it was a decade ago and before? A big winner of the European Council and nsf, NIH and others? Is it still sort of a prominent winner of Global Grants?
- [25:10]
Liran Schloosh
Yeah, that's correct. So the Weizmann is a very good place to do science and there are very, a lot of good scientists and that's being judged objectively by others. And so that was not affected. I must say, my friends and myself, we all submitted those ERC grants. I think I was treated fairly just by facts, science. I see why we can get criticized as a nation and as a government and what we do. But I must say that the Weizmann I hope was not significantly, I think was not significantly affected by this. I am on the far side of optimism. Among other.
- [25:50]
Michal Evram
Taking a step back for a minute and going back to Iran. This attack on the Institute was, you know, part of Iran's response to Israel's attack on their nuclear research and knowledge. Right. And Israel's strategy was not just to hit the hardware, but to try and erase some of the knowledge by hitting the scientists. And luckily you are here with us today, which is great. But my question is, like in a modern day lab today, where I'm guessing a lot of the, the research and the data is backed up in the cloud, et cetera, you talked about the samples, like, what else is at stake here when there's a physical attack on the physical labs.
- [26:30]
Liran Schloosh
Yeah. So I would say everything who is alive or has the potential to be alive. So that's cells that are frozen, mice, flies, rabbits, or all these model animals that are alive. And if they were dead, that would have been a huge price. I know that some scientists have lost zebrafish that research is done on, and flies that are gone forever and will take many years to recreate. That's everything that is alive. Everything that is dead is easily replaceable. I actually see the live things and the moral thing, there was a moral effect on scientists and citizens. I saw scientists crying and it will take them a long time to get out of this crisis. Some people, that's their lifetime achievement and they were devastated. That's a moral effect. These are the things that are hard to replace.
- [27:22]
Michal Evram
What are you doing now in the meantime and what are others who lost their labs doing in order to continue research?
- [27:29]
Liran Schloosh
What I'm doing now is very Israeli and very Weizmann. Like a day after someone already offered me to come to their lab, the vice president of the institute. And then weeks after I got half of his lab and so did all the other scientists who lost their labs, the management together with the head of the departments just redistributed all the space and we just. People gave away half of their space. I hope this is unique. I think it is Unique. I'm not sure that would have happened so easily and so smoothly in other places in a welcoming way and fun, I would say.
- [28:06]
Michal Evram
And we should note that the estimates so far at least, are that the cost of the damages is around 2 billion shekels. So a lot to be done in the coming years. And I know there are several campaigns to help raise the funds for that. But, Leon, just in wrapping. Very touching how you're talking about the morale effect on the scientists. And there was a video that made the rounds after the missile attack, and I believed it was your research partner, Amos.
- [28:33]
Liran Schloosh
Yes.
- [28:34]
Michal Evram
Sitting down to play.
- [28:36]
Liran Schloosh
I filmed him.
- [28:36]
Michal Evram
You're the one who filmed him.
- [28:38]
Liran Schloosh
Okay, well, yeah, because we were working together, getting out those freezers from the basement, and then we were waiting for the truck to come so we could load the next set of freezers. And then there was a break, so we went one floor up and he played. He's a brilliant musician also. And, yeah, it was fun for our.
- [29:00]
Michal Evram
Listeners who have not seen it or heard it. We're going to play the audio, so let's go ahead and do that. It's just, again, so touching. He's there wearing a helmet, smiling.
- [29:19]
Liran Schloosh
Yeah, he's busted his bicycle helmet.
- [29:22]
Michal Evram
And the title of the video is you can't stop the music. So I just want to ask you, what did that moment mean to you? Mean to both of you.
- [29:30]
Liran Schloosh
Moss and me have a lot of discussions about the discrepancy between my optimism and what he calls realism. And I would say masochism. And I think at that moment also that through that morning when we did what we did, and he said, he told me, I would have taken you as a sergeant in my platoon. And it was. It was. Yeah, it was fun. We did what we needed to do. We didn't stay home. We came, we did what we could do. And that's a stats of spirit. I think even the most pessimist and the exceptional optimist did exactly the same things. Because under. Under these conditions, there are. So we were happy.
- [30:11]
Yonatan Adiri
I think, you know, there's a message here also for the listeners and the people who are sort of part of our journey. I saw it with my kids because they saw the movie. It was in the news here in Israel. It is a very sort of startup nation classic. If you had to imagine the epitome of what it looks like, why is Israel. Does it have the chutzpah, the audacity to drive global breakthroughs in research that are of global significance? This is a great story. I saw my kids, when my kids saw the video and heard the story of those two scientists who, the first thing they did was to go and save the samples. And why? Because it means something for the world. It means something for their research. And this is inspiring for scientists. I think it is inspiring for society, for community. I saw it with my own kids. So thank you for the optimism, but also thank you for taking that moment and creating a moment that is now, I guess, bigger than both of you in a way. Right. It's a moment in history, a picture that will be there. No, no, I think that when people will look back at the war, and specifically in the 12 Day War, as President Trump called it, this will be one of those moments that illustrate the, you know, like the, the blitz in the UK that has those pictures of, you know, keep calm and, and keep walking. Right. And so I can tell you, at least for my family, for my kids, this was very much an inspiration and a true representation of the spirit that we are all proud of.
- [31:46]
Michal Evram
Liran, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and your research and it was just a pleasure speaking with you.
- [31:53]
Liran Schloosh
The same.
- [31:54]
Michal Evram
Thank you, thank you.
- [31:55]
Yonatan Adiri
Thank you very much.
- [32:01]
Michal Evram
Well, we began our show with the numbers of the week and we are going to wrap with the, with the words of the week. And today's words are from a recent opinion piece in Bloomberg that was titled Israel is now peerless in the Middle east and markets. And this was by Matthew Winkler, by the way, the Financial Times, the FT ran a very similar piece, kind of same theme. And I'm going to read just the opening lines of the Bloomberg piece.
- [32:24]
Yonatan Adiri
They both took numbers from what's your number over the last three episodes.
- [32:28]
Michal Evram
I think we can, we basically, I mean we basically wrote it for them. But you know, let's give credit where credit is due. These were both just incredible pieces. You know, there are a lot of data points there that obviously we knew we had, we put out there, but it really put everything together. So I'm going to read just the opening lines from the Bloomberg one. Anyone wondering how much Israel gained from its 12 day war with Iran can find an answer in financial markets. The nation's currency, debt and equity lead the world in terms of appreciation since the conflict began on June 13th. And this is, it says according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And what's your number? Let's face it, you get a lot of conflicting themes in the media, of course, but I thought this was a really important one. Again that we saw in some very major financial publications.
- [33:16]
Yonatan Adiri
Yeah, look, at the end of the day, that's why when we formed our podcast, we called it what's yous Number? Right? Numbers win. And these numbers, when they're robust and week on week give you a signal for investors worldwide, for Israelis who make decisions about, you know, their next big lifetime decision for a family, for a household with the right government, I would say decision making. Again, exactly what the chairman of the bank said last week. This could be the opening of really an incredible growth era for Israel. And being recognized as such by sheer numbers by Bloomberg nft, I think is a great development and is a great way to kind of summarize and following on what Lirand Schlus said, you know, I think that's a great way to end our episode.
- [34:00]
Michal Evram
A note on optimism on both counts. Agreed.
- [34:02]
Yonatan Adiri
Exactly.
- [34:04]
Michal Evram
All right, that is it for today's show. Thank you for tuning in to ARC Media's what's yous Number, and we hope you found it interesting. If you did, be sure to, like, subscribe, rate, review. You know the drill. But most importantly, please share it with others who you think will find it interesting. If you want to make suggestions or share your feedback, please reach out to us at what's your number? @arc media.org.
- [34:33]
Yonatan Adiri
What'S your number is produced by Elon Benatar and it's edited by Michalev Ram. Sound and video editing is by Martin Hurgo. Our theme music is by Midnight Generation. I'm Yonatan Adiri.
- [34:43]
Michal Evram
And I'm Michal Avram. See you back here next week.
- [34:45]
Yonatan Adiri
See you next week.
- [34:51]
Michal Evram
This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security.