Jason Calacanis
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Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It tests startup ambition against costs, execution, governance, and the practical economics of emerging technology.
This Week in Startups puts startup claims under conversational pressure. Jason Calacanis leads founder interviews, roundtables, and news-led discussions that keep returning to financing, governance, hiring, and defensibility.
Jason asks three coffee founders who's in charge; you get the meeting without the calendar invite.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A technical This Week in Startups segment about a 72 billion parameter model, its cost, and how far it still sits from the frontier.
This Week in Startups keeps its focus on the mechanics of a technical breakthrough, following a 72 billion parameter model trained across the Tau subnet and pressing on cost, labor, and how the work was split up.
AI jobs anxiety, purpose-built robots, and the chips-and-energy race running underneath both.
This Week in AI opens with Oliver asking what workers are upskilling into as AI keeps changing jobs, and it grounds the question in CPA, accountant, and lawyer work that machines can increasingly take on.
A startup scandal becomes a lesson in diligence, governance, and how social proof can mislead.
This review keeps the startup story on diligence, governance, and the limits of social proof. It avoids scandal-first framing and instead follows the mechanics underneath: investors, board structure, and the way a room full of trusted names can still leave important questions…
Drone delivery framed as logistics, not spectacle.
Keller Clifton of Zipline treats drone delivery as a logistics problem, not a spectacle. The company began in Africa delivering blood and medicine on fixed-wing airplanes, then shifted from a 2011 start to building the system in 2013.
BCIs, a giant-wing plane, and consumer health all get business scrutiny.
The hour moves from Paradromics and brain-computer interfaces to Jet Zero's one-big-giant-wing plane, then on to NutriSense, and the through line is clear: whether each idea can become something the market can actually use.
A simple coffee concept becomes a test of speed, focus, and founder fit.
Rory Sutherland's coffee-shop gag is recast as a plain business case: one drink, one choice, one fast process. Jason and Lon let Charlie Hurst, Tom Noble, and Will Sudlow walk through how a podcast idea becomes an operating brand, and the strongest material lands on customer…
A sharp look at how Anthropic's choices turn model strength into business leverage.
The discussion keeps its footing by tying Anthropic's military stance, Claude Code's traction, and the enterprise-first bet back to plain incentives. It is strongest when it asks what happens when model quality turns into pricing power, retention, and a cleaner revenue mix.
OpenClaw leads into startup incubation and a later turn toward nonlethal military tech.
The episode treats OpenClaw as a question about where a new ecosystem might be headed. Jason pushes Dave Morin on what comes after the setup, and the conversation settles on Launch.co backing people who already have an idea, a decent team, and a prototype.
Stephen Dubner tests bourbon economics, Alzheimer's research, and money advice against hard data.
Daily business news with Kai Ryssdal, tracking Fed policy, oil shocks, and private credit.
Galloway rotates Office Hours Q&A, Raging Moderates politics, and China Decode geopolitics weekly.
Joel and Matt answer listener money questions weekly in the show's Ask HTM segments.
Brené Brown's long-form conversations linking grief, caregiving, politics, and nonviolence to her vulnerability research.
This Week in Startups examines OpenAI's reported $110 billion private funding round, a $730 billion valuation, and Amazon's planned $50 billion investment.
Jason Calacanis and co-host discuss a personal story of being defrauded for $500k, then transition into startup news and sponsor messages.
Jason Calacanis interviews the co-creators of Nanogram, a TikTok-like platform for casual mobile games, discussing its concept and demo.
Jason Calacanis discusses alleged misconduct in the Tau BitTensor community and interviews Mark Jeffrey about recent developments.
Jason Calacanis and Alex discuss startup news, AI developments, and a rug pull in the BitTensor network.
Jason Calacanis and co-host Alex discuss Anthropic's new powerful AI model Mythos that cannot be released due to security concerns.
Jason Calacanis discusses Star Wars and then covers startup news with sponsor segments.
Friday starts loose, with plenty of sponsor time and warm-up chatter.
This episode explores three BitTensor subnets: MetaNova uses decentralized AI to accelerate drug discovery, BitCast enables creators to monetize content via crypto incentives, and Score builds efficient vision models for commercial applications.
Jason Calacanis hosts Jake from Gecko Robotics and Chris Lattner from Modular to discuss purpose-built AI robots, hardware compatibility challenges, and the geopolitical race for AI supremacy.
The episode explores the Delve compliance startup scandal, where allegations of fraud involving boilerplate reports and auditor misconduct are discussed with SEAL's founder.
Jason Calacanis interviews Keller Clifton of Zipline, discussing the drone company's journey from delivering blood in Rwanda to scaling in the U.S., highlighting regulatory hurdles, life-saving impacts, and technological innovations.
Jason Calacanis interviews Vlad Tenev, co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, about the company's journey from a free trading idea to a $68B business.
This episode features interviews with founders from Paradromics, Jet Zero, and NutriSense, covering brain-computer interfaces for medical and enhancement purposes, innovative blended-wing aircraft design for fuel efficiency, and AI-driven glucose monitoring for personalized health optimization.
Jason Calacanis interviews the co-founders of Hippias, a decentralized cloud storage subnet on BitTensor, discussing its incentive mechanisms and growth.
This episode of This Week in Startups features a panel with experts from Autolane, Edgecase, and Move discussing the global expansion of self-driving vehicles.
This episode explores the rapid advancements in AI agents, featuring discussions on self-improving AI models, global adoption trends, and practical demos of agentic banking and phone automation.
This episode explores AI advancements, including Andrej Karpathy's auto-research tool for self-improving AI, demos of AI agents in banking and phone automation, and discussions on AI's democratization and job loss concerns, with insights from guests like Suresh Ramamurthy and Eugene Stuckless.
Jason Calacanis and guests explore the intersection of AI and crypto, focusing on BitTensor and its TAO token as a decentralized AI network.
Jason Calacanis hosts Logan Allen and Eric Vorhees to discuss Anthropic's controversial stance against military use of its AI, the rise of open-source projects like OpenClaw, and investments in stablecoins and privacy-focused AI.
Jason Calacanis interviews Dave Morin about the OpenClaw Foundation, discussing its role in protecting the open-source AI project, investment opportunities, and ethical debates around AI and military contracts.
Jason Calacanis interviews Didi Das from Menlo Ventures and early OpenClaw contributor Tyler Yust about the rise of AI agents, focusing on the open-source OpenClaw project.
Jason Calacanis and guests Oliver Henry and Jeff Weisbein explore OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent technology, discussing its potential to automate tasks, enhance marketing, and transform corporate management.
Jason Calacanis and Lon Harris host three experts—Jordy Koltman, Tremaine Grant, and Jesse Lime Groover—to discuss optimizing OpenClaw AI agents, covering hardware setups, autonomous workflows, and real-world integration.
This episode explores when OpenClaw will go mainstream, featuring guests who discuss technical barriers, security risks, and practical use cases.
Jason Calacanis and guests discuss OpenAI's acquisition of the open-source project OpenClaw, analyzing its implications for the AI ecosystem.
Jason Calacanis and Lon Harris interview founders Ryan Carson, David Im, and Alexander Lateplo about their OpenClaw projects, including AntFarm for AI workflow automation, Clara as a virtual companion, and Rent a Human for AI-hiring-humans marketplace.
Jason Calacanis interviews founders Presh, Sean, and Vishnu about leveraging Open Claw AI agents to automate business tasks, reduce startup costs, and innovate with AI glasses.
Jason Calacanis interviews Presh Dinesh Kumar, founder of The Wellness Company, about his journey from employee to funded entrepreneur, detailing niche health apps and the new Tempo platform.
Jason Calacanis hosts Alex Finn and Matt Van Horn on This Week in Startups to discuss OpenClaw, a robotics startup that is building a physical autonomous agent called Clawdbot, which can navigate a home or office environment to perform tasks like ordering items from Amazon.
Jason Calacanis and guests discuss building OpenClaw Ultron, an AI agent designed to automate tasks for 20 employees at their firm, covering technical implementation, security risks, and the future of local AI hardware.
Jason Calacanis interviews Scott Rogowsky about his journey from HQ Trivia host to co-founding Savvy, a live word game app, and discusses startup lessons.
The episode covers SpaceX's acquisition of xAI and the vision for space-based AI compute, then shifts to a deep dive on OpenClaw AI agents, showcasing skills like Reddit research, voice generation, and prediction market analysis while discussing security risks and funding opportunities.
Jason Calacanis hosts Amanda Bradford and William Barnes to discuss essential focus areas for early-stage founders, emphasizing product-market fit before fundraising, customer obsession, avoiding feature creep, building trust, and leveraging constraints.
Jason Calacanis and his team explore OpenClaw AI agents automating podcast production tasks like guest booking and research, revealing massive efficiency gains.
Jason Calacanis hosts experts Ford Smith, Socrates Rosenfeld, and Andrew Duffy to discuss the cannabis industry's evolution, regulatory challenges, and startup opportunities.
CloudBot is an open-source AI agent system that integrates with messaging apps like Telegram to control APIs, automate tasks, and perform work autonomously, primarily using Claude Opus 4.5 as its reasoning engine.
Jason Calacanis hosts investors Fred Almeida and Max Weiss in Tokyo, discussing AI's role in revolutionizing healthcare and Japan's startup ecosystem.
This episode features Keller Clifton, co-founder and CEO of Zipline, discussing the company's drone delivery technology, from its origins in Africa saving lives to its rapid expansion in the U.S.
Jason Calacanis interviews Shin Takamiya of Globis Capital in Tokyo, discussing Japan's evolving startup culture where entrepreneurship is becoming cool, replacing traditional salaryman careers.
Jason Calacanis interviews angel investor Thomas McInerney in Tokyo, discussing early-stage investing, red flags like buzzwords and high valuations, and key founder traits such as humility and technical expertise.
Jason Calacanis interviews Kathy Matsui in Tokyo about Japan's startup revolution, covering Uniqlo's global rise, the funding gap for women founders, and how economic shifts are creating opportunities for young entrepreneurs.
This episode features interviews with Blake Schull, CEO of Boom, on reviving supersonic flight with 30% efficiency gains, and Alex Shea, who explains a startup using AI and whistleblower laws to hunt fraud for government bounties.
Jason Calacanis interviews Sho Takei, CEO of Hire, about startup recruiting differences between the US and Japan.
Jason Calacanis and co-host Alex discuss key tech trends from CES 2026, including robotics and self-driving advancements, while analyzing major IPOs like Discord and Strava.
Jason Calacanis hosts an AI roundtable with Steven Johnson and Grant Lee, exploring how AI tools enhance creativity and productivity.
Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm kick off 2026 with analysis of NVIDIA's $20 billion acquisition of Grok's AI inference tech, discuss how AI is collapsing legal costs for startups, and explore trends like peptide biohacking and the decline of mid-tier restaurants.
This year-end episode of This Week in Startups features the 2025 Twisty Awards, where Jason Calacanis and co-hosts recap the biggest trends, best guests, and most controversial moments of the year.
Jason Calacanis discusses personal luxury purchases, founder mistakes in customer validation, and strategies for handling VC interest, followed by an interview with Zach Kidd about Ask Humans, an AI-powered feedback platform for businesses.
Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm discuss Waymo robotaxis causing traffic chaos during a San Francisco power outage, analyze the future of self-driving cars and AI advancements, and feature a startup pitch for Lumix, an ad platform on delivery bikes.
Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle and Hampton, joins Jason Calacanis to discuss copywriting fundamentals, debunking myths about long-form content and sharing techniques like the AIDA model and writing simply.
Jason Calacanis hosts an AI roundtable with Wade Foster (Zapier), Ali Ansari (Micro One), and Mikey Shulman (Suno) discussing AI startup hiring challenges, training data scarcity, and societal impacts.
Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm discuss the lack of a moon base 55 years after Apollo, then transition to startup news and sponsor messages.
Jason Calacanis discusses the irrational exuberance in private markets and introduces an executive training program for young professionals.
Jason Calacanis interviews founders and discusses startups, tech trends, and business topics, with segments on supersonic travel and a pitch deck competition.
Jason Calacanis and co-hosts discuss startup security, sponsor messages, and upcoming topics in tech.