Best Matthew Sherman Podcasts (2025)

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After postmodernism | Hilary Lawson, Robin van den Akker, Abby Innes, Sophie Scott-Brown 47:13

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2d ago47:13

47:13

Hugely influential in the latter decades of the 20th century, postmodernism transformed many academic disciplines and culture at large. Associated with an attack on objective truth and the uniqueness of meaning, it called into question the whole edifice of knowledge which Western culture had previously glorified. But it left many lost, and in the w…

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He quit Google & his 1st startup failed—but his 2nd grows at $1M ARR every 10 days. | Zach Llyod, Founder of Warp.dev 49:14

4d ago49:14

49:14

Zach spent 8 years at Google leading engineering for Google Docs, then left to build a photo sharing app with zero go-to-market plan. Reality hit hard: "At Google, anything you launch gets millions of users. At a startup, the challenge isn't building—it's getting anyone to care." After writing a brutal postmortem documenting everything that went wr…

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Why the Guardian Doesn't Need a Billionaire to Thrive 39:00

5d ago39:00

39:00

In lots of ways Guardian Media Group is facing the same problems as every other news publisher: A tricky ad environment, platform problems, looming AI threats. One big difference: The Guardian also has a $1.5 billion trust backing the non-profit - which seems way, way better than being owned by a run-of-the-mill billionaire who might want to meddle…

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The language of the unconscious: Pyschoanalysis and AI | Alenka Zupančič 29:46

1d ago29:46

29:46

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Deep South Dining | Stafford Shurden's Meet and Three 47:14

1d ago47:14

47:14

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He tried to return $200K to investors 30 days in—then exited to Microsoft 5 years later. | Alex Sherman, Founder of Bluefish AI 44:39

7d ago44:39

44:39

Alex had $2,000 in his checking account when Microsoft acquired his last company. For years, he paid himself $30K while his friends made six figures at corporate jobs. He had only 2 months of runway for 18 straight months. Then retail media exploded and everything changed—he went from grinding against the current to riding a wave. After selling to …

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Exhort One Another [Hebrews 3:7-19] 44:16

2d ago44:16

44:16

By Nathan Sherman

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A drug dealer threatened to kill him—then he grew 50x in 3 Years to $50M ARR. | Brett Carlson, Found of ServiceUp 33:28

11d ago33:28

33:28

Brett had a drug dealer's car for 13 days. By day 11, the death threats started coming. This is the reality of building ServiceUp, the "DoorDash for auto repair." Brett literally stole DoorDash's entire playbook—city launches, three-sided marketplace, everything—but discovered even if he got 90% right, 10% of B2C customers can end you. He raised fr…

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Almost Everyone is Taking Money from OpenAI. Why is Ziff Davis suing them? 34:22

12d ago34:22

34:22

In the future, digital publishers could get run over by AI. In the present, they are deeply concerned about Google, and the prospect that the search giant is going to choke off their last reliable traffic stream. That may explain why lots of publishers are making deals with OpenAI now -- and doing a lot of grousing about Google. Ziff Davis CEO Vive…

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The Enlightenment is racist (and why) | Kehinde Andrews 20:38

13d ago20:38

20:38

The Enlightenment has faced a lot of criticism in recent years - its defenders and detractors often come head to head, scrambling to articulate its ultimate value or lack thereof to contemporary society. This podcast contributes to this wider debate and question facing all those interested in philosophy and politics: Are Enlightenment ideas salvage…

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Deep South Dining | Extra Table and Chef David Crews 47:46

9d ago47:46

47:46

Topic: Malcolm and Carol reminisce about cookbooks and fried catfish. Then, Martha Allen Price from Extra Table updates everyone on upcoming fundraising events. And Chef David Crews joins the show to talk about The Delta, his culinary career, inspirations, and more. Guest(s): Martha Allen Price and David Crews Host(s): Malcolm White and Carol Palme…

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He pitched 100 VC and spent 3 years building— then grew to $7B AUM. | Doug Scott, Founder of Ethic 45:14

9d ago45:14

45:14

By Mistral.vc

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Consider Jesus [Hebrews 3:1-6] 35:17

10d ago35:17

35:17

By Nathan Sherman

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PMF Observations: Speed is the only startup moat—& why most founders lose it. 11:01

14d ago11:01

11:01

Arnold Schwarzenegger mastered three completely different fields—bodybuilding, acting, and politics—with one simple philosophy: reps, reps, reps. This solo episode reveals why speed of execution is the only real moat for early-stage founders. One founder takes an idea from conception to signed customers in three weeks. Another takes six months. The…

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The Future of Late Night TV, Jimmy Kimmel, and The First Amendment 26:53

18d ago26:53

26:53

When’s the last time you stayed up to watch a late night TV monologue? Months? Years? Decades? I’m not sure, either. But I stayed up Tuesday night to watch Jimmy Kimmel’s return. James Poniewozik, who covers TV for the New York Times, just caught up with it the next day on YouTube. Which underscores one of the odder parts of the Trump v. Kimmel fig…

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Deep South Dining | Lee's Heavenly Barbecue and Soul Food 50:35

17d ago50:35

50:35

Topic: Carol's good friend Renita Myles-Lee joins the show to talk about her restaurant business, Lee's Heavenly Barbecue and Soul Food, in Edwards. They discuss the difference in southern food and soul food, how she makes healthier versions of classic soul food dishes, giving back to the community, and more. Guest(s): Renita Myles-Lee Host(s): Mal…

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He spent 5 months working with customers before building—then grew to $10s of millions ARR. | Aviv Leibovici, co-founder of Buildots 48:10

21d ago48:10

48:10

Aviv spent months walking construction sites carrying tools for managers just to understand their problems—speaking to customers is "bullsh*t"—you need to work beside them to see reality. His company Buildots had a working AI product that tracked construction progress perfectly, but 90% of users got zero value from it. Until he made one key change …

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A Merciful and Faithful High Priest [Hebrews 2:14-18] 39:37

17d ago39:37

39:37

By Kyle Stevens

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She cold messaged 50,000 engineers—then grew to $10M+ ARR. | Shensi Ding, Founder of Merge 40:16

24d ago40:16

40:16

Shensi cold messaged 50,000 engineers to build Merge. She worked 9am-9pm every day, gave her first customers two months free to prove herself, and refused to hire anyone remote—even during peak COVID. She purposefully didn't collect a single dollar of revenue until she knew she could hit $1M in a months. "Startups are all about momentum." She lost …

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I tried Zuckerberg's $800 Ray-Bans. Are they the future? With Alex Heath 45:00

25d ago45:00

45:00

A year ago I got try a pair of $10,000 computer goggles from Meta. The tech was super-impressive, but you couldn’t buy them them. You still can’t. Now Mark Zuckerberg is trying a similar idea. But this time around the the tech is scaled-down, lighter and way cheaper: the new version costs $800, and you’ll be able to buy them in a couple days. Why w…

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The struggle for the good life | Massimo Pigliucci on ancient philosophy for the modern era 29:29

26d ago29:29

29:29

We all want to live the good life. But how many of us can claim to be truly content? Join philosopher and evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci as he argues that pleasure, character, and a healthy dose of doubt, form the basis of the good life, and that purpose in life is crucial to realising our potential. Massimo Pigliucci is a renowned philos…

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Deep South Dining | Matthew Bounds AKA Your Barefoot Neighbor 48:00

24d ago48:00

48:00

Topic: Malcolm and Carol catch up after a busy week. They recap the Mississippi Book Festival and welcome another author from this year's cookbook panel, Mississippian and social media sensation, Matthew Bounds AKA Your Barefoot Neighbor, to the show. Matthew talks about his cookbook, Keep It Simple, Y'all, one-pot meals, his journey to social medi…

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He bet his house on a startup—took 7 years to $1M, then hockey stick to $100M+ ARR. | Eldon Sprickerhoff, Co-Founder of eSentire 40:58

28d ago40:58

40:58

Eldon put a $150K line of credit on his house to start eSentire in 2001. No VCs would touch him—they didn't understand services businesses. He worked 12-hour days, 7 days a week for 7 years to hit $1M in revenue. His co-founder coded while he flew to New York on $99 JetBlue flights from Buffalo to save money. Then something clicked: they brought in…

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How TBPN Made a Tech News Splash 39:10

23d ago39:10

39:10

John Coogan knows what you’re thinking: the world does not need another tech podcast. And the world does not need another podcast featuring two dudes talking. Yet Coogan and Jordi Hays have started another tech podcast, featuring the two of them talking and… it’s a hit. In the span of a year, TBPN has become the place where tech execs go to chop up…

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Bringing Many Sons to Glory [Hebrews 2:5-13] 38:22

24d ago38:22

38:22

By Nathan Sherman

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Psychedelics and the structure of reality | Julian Baggini, Eileen Hall, and James Rucker 46:51

1M ago46:51

46:51

Truth, delusion and psychedelic reality Do psychedelics reveal hidden layers of reality, or are we simply tripping? Psychedelics are back in the cultural zeitgeist, this time as a treatment for mental health issues. However, critics argue that psychedelics only work by replacing mental illness with a distorted view of reality - but, is this an accu…

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He quit his job, went all-in on AI agents—then grew to 100K users & a $30M Series A in a year. | Soham Ganatra, Founder of Composio 58:20

1M ago58:20

58:20

Soham spent 6 months building AI that would auto-generate integrations between any software. He locked down Glean as an early customer because he had friends there. And it failed completely. So he pivoted. This time, he refused to work with friendly customers who knew him. Instead, he did 10-20 calls per day with strangers who would tell him his pr…

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Patch’s AI Experiment: Thousands of Newsletters, Zero Humans 39:07

1M ago39:07

39:07

Everyone agrees that the decline/disapperance of local news is a big problem. No one agrees about the best way to solve it. So let’s check in on a new AI push from Patch, the people who have been trying to do local news, online, at scale, for more than two decades. Last spring, Patch CEO Warren St. John announced that he was running local newslette…

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The unconscious mind: Is the unconscious real? 48:58

1M ago48:58

48:58

The unconscious has become a well-known feature of our human lived experience since Freud. We often refer to unwanted impulses, suppressed thoughts, unconscious desires, and the like. But what IS the unconscious? Is it just an easy excuse for our behaviour? Or is it a necessary piece of what it means to be human? Join our diverse and rich panel as …

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Deep South Dining | Phillip Ashley Rix and Swamp Dogg 47:58

1M ago47:58

47:58

Topic: Malcolm and Carol are gearing up for the Mississippi Book Festival by welcoming Phillip Ashley Rix, master chocolatier, culinary artist, and author of For the Love of Chocolate: 80 At-Home Recipes from a Master Chocolatier’s Imagination, and Swamp Dogg, musician and author of If You Can Kill It I Can Cook It. They discuss their cookbooks, th…

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TechCrunch called this YC founder a fraud at 18—then he built a $10M ARR fintech. | Sahil Phadnis, Founder of Affiniti 59:59

1M ago59:59

59:59

Sahil was 18 when TechCrunch published a hit piece calling him a copycat. His co-founder Aaron was 16. They'd just raised $6 million from YC and top VCs for their crypto startup, then got subpoenaed by a state government and watched their business implode. So they fired everyone, moved back to their parents' homes, and spent months cold-calling den…

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Lest We Drift Away [Hebrews 2:1-4] 43:28

1M ago43:28

43:28

By Nathan Sherman

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Paul Graham Said His Startup Was Worthless—2 Months Later He Hit $1M ARR. | Jon Noronha, Co-Founder of Gamma 1:00:08

1M ago1:00:08

1:00:08

Jon spent 3 years building Gamma with barely any traction—just a few hundred users after burning millions. Then ChatGPT dropped. In desperation, he pivoted to AI-powered presentations in March 2023 with one year of runway left. What happened next was insane: Paul Graham publicly mocked their launch tweet calling it worthless—then it went viral. The…

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Oliver Darcy Thinks the Media Doesn’t Get It. So He Built Status 53:40

1M ago53:40

53:40

One thing about the internet is that it lets you build really, really fast. A little more than a year ago, Oliver Darcy was an unemployed former CNN media reporter. Today he’s the proprietor of Status, his must-read media newsletter. In our conversation, we spend a little bit of time talking through the mechanics of his two-man operation, and how h…

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He quit Google, launched Rubrik—then grew to $1B ARR & a $16B market cap. | Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder Rubrik & Wisdom AI 53:55

1M ago53:55

53:55

Soham co-founded Rubrik by taking what he learned from building Google's data center tech to enterprises desperate for cloud migration. Two quarters later, he hit $1M ARR. And a few years later, a $16B IPO. Soham breaks down why paid pilots beat free trials, how to sell enterprise hardware before it works, and why early customers become your bigges…

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A landscape of consciousness | Robert Lawrence Kuhn and Hilary Lawson 41:19

1M ago41:19

41:19

Will we ever reach a conclusive, agreed-upon theory of consciousness? Over the millennia of recorded history, countless stories, theories, and arguments have emerged to explain the origins of consciousness. And yet, here we are in 2025 - post-Plato, post-Descartes, post-scientific revolution - and still we don't understand the phenomenon of conscio…

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He Shall Be To Me A Son [Hebrews 1:5-14] 38:22

1M ago38:22

38:22

By Nathan Sherman

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Will psychedelics revolutionize mental health treatment? | Matthew Johnson, Shayla Love, and Kevin Sabet 49:34

1M ago49:34

49:34

The psychedelic revolution Will LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, and Ketamine treatments live up to the hype? For decades, psychedelics were derided as dangerous recreational drugs; now many claim they have the potential to revolutionise the treatment of mental health. With hundreds of clinical trials now taking place, the psychedelic therapeutic market is p…

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He Bootstrapped to $55M in Revenue—without ever having to hit 100% YoY growth. | Stéphan Donzé, Founder of AODocs 43:23

2M ago43:23

43:23

Stéphan bootstrapped AODocs to $55M in revenue and 250 employees without taking a dime of VC money—while competing directly with venture-backed competitors. Starting as a services company in 2012, he spotted the cloud migration wave early and built document management for enterprises moving to Google Workspace. In this episode, Stéphan breaks down …

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Why Henry Blodget is Building Another Media Company 57:56

2M ago57:56

57:56

Henry Blodget can’t help himself. The Business Insider founder is starting another media business, knowing full well how difficult the industry can be. You can watch him build it in real time: Regenerator on Substack, and Solutions on TikTok, YouTube and everywhere you hear your favorite podcasts. Henry — who hired me to work at Business Insider in…

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The illusion of separation | Jessica Frazier on the Monism of Hindu philosophy 24:39

2M ago24:39

24:39

Indian philosophy and the search for unity In our everyday lives we act as though we are all separate individuals, but is this really the case? Jessica Frazer argues that reality is ultimately unified, and that this shift in perspective can change the way we live our lives. It can help you lose your isolated ego and escape feelings of alienation fr…

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Deep South Dining | Remembering Hurricane Katrina 50:22

2M ago50:22

50:22

Topic: Malcolm and Carol remember Hurricane Katrina and its effect on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. They talk about their personal experiences with loss and community through food in the aftermath of the storm. Then, they welcome Alicein Schwabacher, owner of Mockingbird Cafe in Bay St. Louis, and Thomas Genin, chef/owner of The Blind Tiger, to talk …

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He Bootstrapped Wrike to $10M ARR—then exited for $2.2B. | Andrew Filev, Founder of Wrike & Zencoder 1:08:13

2M ago1:08:13

1:08:13

Andrew bootstrapped Wrike and grew it from 0 to a $2.2B exit by doing the exact opposite of what every startup book tells you. No pivots. No talking to customers before launch. No narrow niche. Just 17 years of relentless focus on one problem while everyone else was pivoting every 18 months. In this episode, he breaks down exactly why bootstrapping…

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He Has Spoken By His Son [Hebrews 1:1-4] 41:20

2M ago41:20

41:20

By Nathan Sherman

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Q2 2025: The new Series A Bar is $3M ARR—& only 20% of seed startups make it. | Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta 57:09

2M ago57:09

57:09

Peter Walker from Carta drops the hard data every founder needs. Based on actual cap table data from 1000s of startups, this Q2 update reveals the brutal new reality. It takes 2+ years to go from seed to A (up from 1.6), you need 3X the revenue you used to, and if you're not AI, you're getting half the attention. But there's good news too—teams are…

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ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro on streaming, the NFL and sports betting 48:14

2M ago48:14

48:14

The media industry has been waiting for ESPN to cut the cord for a decade. Now it’s finally happening: This week the sports TV giant will let you start streaming — without a cable TV subscription — for $30 a month. Why now? ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro is quite frank about it: Along with his boss — Disney CEO Bob Iger — he wanted to make as much money fr…

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The limits of nothingness | Peter van Inwagen 27:44

2M ago27:44

27:44

From philosophy to science, metaphysics to psychology, the idea of 'nothing' is central to the universe, existence and experience as a whole. But the nature of 'nothing' is even more bewildering than we might first imagine. Parmenides argued that non-being is impossible because thinking about nothing is still something. Join philosopher Peter van I…

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Deep South Dining | Italy with Andrew Puckett and Chaz Lindsay 49:50

2M ago49:50

49:50

Topic: Malcolm and Carol welcome Andrew Puckett, Carol's nephew and Mississippi State student, and Chaz Lindsay, chef/owner of Pulito and Rowan's in Belhaven, to the show to talk about working on organic farms in Italy. Guest(s): Andrew Puckett and Chaz Lindsay Host(s): Malcolm White and Carol Palmer Email: [email protected] If you enjoyed listeni…

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His Video AI app hit $10M+ ARR in Months—with 0 outbound sales. | Michael Lingelbach, Founder of Hedra 1:05:53

2M ago1:05:53

1:05:53

Hedra CEO Michael Lingelbach breaks down how his generative video app went from zero to millions of users and an eight-figure run rate in months — then deliberately slowed down to rebuild a V2 that enterprises would pay for. We dig into the prosumer-to-pro upsell, why free users are a false signal, and how a creator-seeded launch can outpull ad spe…

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What is Rest? [Matthew 11:25-30] 37:21

2M ago37:21

37:21

By Nathan Sherman