Why Private Credit Got Entangled With Insurance
Insurers have quietly become a major driver of the private credit boom, with numerous private equity shops striking deals with insurance companies or buying them outright. But the entanglement with private credit is also changing the insurance industry itself, raising a number of questions about risk and regulation. Today we speak to Andrew Granato and Pranjal Drall, authors of a new paper, “Private Credit's State Backstop: How Private Equity Socializes Risk Through Insurers," examining the relationship between private credit and insurance. Granato (an assistant professor at the UT Austin Law School) and Drall (JD-PhD student in Financial Economics at Yale) talk to us about how PE got so interested in insurance in the first place, how both sides benefit from the relationship, and why taxpayers might ultimately be on the hook.
Read more:
Blue Owl Surges as Leaders Stress It’s More Than a Direct Lender
Ares $29 Billion Private Credit Fund Sees Uptick in Non-Accruals
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America Is Entering a Dangerous Moment — with Timothy Snyder
Historian Timothy Snyder joins Scott Galloway to put the current political moment in historical context — and to explain why it should not be dismissed as abstract or theoretical.
They discuss recent killings during federal immigration operations, how propaganda attempts to overwrite reality, and why video evidence and “small truths” matter in resisting authoritarian power. Tim also examines the role of corporations, the limits of political parties, and what history shows about protest, coalition-building, and civic action.
Algebra of Happiness: how to give your parents comfort.
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Greg Grandin on how the Monroe Doctrine Became the Donroe Doctrine
In some sense, the arrest of Maduro is nothing unusual. For over 200 years, the US viewed the entirety of the Western hemisphere as its legitimate domain for intervention. And of course, there's a long history of the US getting involved with Latin America specifically. But what is the Monroe Doctrine? And how does Trump's foreign policy fit into it. On this episode, we speak with Greg Grandin, a professor of history at Yale and author of America, América. Greg has extensively researched American activity in Latin America across his career. He explains the historical patterns of when America asserts its dominance in the region, and how that fits into other American policy priorities both abroad and at home.
Read more:
Post-Maduro 124% Rally Stuns Venezuela’s Battered Stock Exchange
Trump’s Team Orders Big Oil Into Venezuela: ‘Do It for Our Country’
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The Hidden Supply Chain Making Every Menu Feel Familiar
If you go out to eat at a restaurant, whether it's a fast food chain or a Michelin-starred bistro, there's a good chance the ingredients on your plate came from the same source. Sysco is the dominant foodservice distributor in the US, using its massive logistics network to quietly supply the food that goes into meals in thousands of restaurants across the US. Sysco's scale and product standardization have helped define what American dining tastes like -- sometimes literally. But critics say its power has gone too far, leaving chefs and diners with fewer choices and blander outcomes. In this episode, we talk with Austin Frerick, author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry, about how Sysco became the middleman shaping America's menus.
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Cartoons, Capitalism & Censorship: Alison Bechdel & Ann Telnaes on Politics in Art
How do artists hold the powerful to account? Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes have been grappling with that question for decades, in their own very different ways.
Bechdel is the creator of the seminal comic strip, “Dykes to Watch out For,” which she self-syndicated for 25 years. She’s also the author and illustrator of four graphic novels, including “Fun Home,” which was adapted into a five-time Tony-winning Broadway musical. She is a professor at Yale, and her latest book is Spent.
Telnaes is a two-time Pulitzer winner and the winner of the Herb Block Prize for editorial cartooning in 2023. Earlier this year, she made international headlines after resigning from The Washington Post when her cartoon mocking tech billionaires for bending the knee to President Trump, including Post owner Jezz Bezos, was spiked. She now publishes her work on Substack
Kara, Alison and Ann discuss everything from politics and money in art, to South Park, book bans, drawing Kristi Noem's flowing extensions, art making, and AI drawings.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher.
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Odd Arne Westad on how China First Joined the Global Capitalist Economy
How did China become the economic behemoth that it is today? One pivotal moment was, obviously, it's ascension into the WTO. Prior to that, the era of reform under Deng Xiaoping was obviously crucial. But obviously no single event or turning point can really tell the story. In a groundbreaking new book -- The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform -- historians Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian tell the full story of how China went from being an impoverished, highly planned communist economy to the dynamic capitalist economy it is today. We spoke with Westad, a professor at Yale, about this book, and what people get wrong about China's big opening up.
Read more:
China’s Surging LNG Imports From US Threatened by Next Trade War
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Call for Greater China Transparency
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The Mega Corporations That Control What Americans Eat
Walk into a grocery store today and there are seemingly endless shelves of product to choose from. But behind all those different options are a handful of agricultural giants that have grown to dominate the food industry. Companies like Walmart and Cargill are well-known at this point, but there are also dominant players in everything from berries to dairy to pig farming. In this episode, we speak with Austin Frerick, an antitrust and agricultural expert. His new book, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry, details the behemoths behind American agriculture and how they got so big. He talks about the choices that went into our current agricultural system, the impact of all that concentration, and what can be done to change it.
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IBM and HBCUs: Fueling a New Generation of Cybersecurity Experts
Education has the power to show students a path they’d never considered before. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Malcolm Gladwell and Dr. Laurie Santos take on tech education at HBCUs with Dr. Derrick Warren, Associate Dean at the Southern University College of Business. They talk about the partnership between IBM SkillsBuild and Southern University to co-create a cybersecurity leadership center for HBCU students and discuss how exposure to first-experiences inspires creativity.
This is a paid advertisement from IBM.
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#334 – Abbas Amanat: Iran Protests, Mahsa Amini, History, CIA & Nuclear Weapons
Abbas Amanat is a historian at Yale specializing in the modern history of Iran. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:18) – Mahsa Amini protests in Iran
(24:35) – Propaganda
(42:13) – Iranian culture
(59:02) – Violent suppression of protests
(1:20:31) – Islamic Revolution
(1:38:14) – CIA in Iran
(1:54:30) – Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini
(2:25:26) – Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
(2:33:21) – Nuclear weapons
(2:41:38) – Israel
(2:56:18) – Putin
(3:03:50) – Future of Iran
Elon’s Twitter Buy, Urban Hellscapes, and Guest Dr. Laurie Santos
Kara is joined by co-host George Hahn today to discuss Elon Musk becoming Twitter's largest shareholder, Louis C.K.'s Grammy win, and urban crime trends. This episode's Friend of Pivot, Dr. Laurie Santos of The Happiness Lab to talk about the secret to living a happy life.Y
ou can find George on Twitter at @georgehahn.
You can find Dr. Laurie Santos hosting The Happiness Lab and on Twitter at @lauriesantos.
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