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30 episodes
#429 Bob Dylan's Autobiography
Aug 16, 2026 · 1 hr
What I learned from rereading Bob Dylan's autobiography. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Applovin: https://www.applovin.com Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#428 How Claude Shannon Worked
Aug 9, 2026 · 51 min
Claude Shannon changed your life and you probably don't even know it. Claude is the father of information theory. He transformed information into bits and created the intellectual foundation for computers, the Internet, digital media, high-speed communication, and Artificial Intelligence. The way Claude Shannon worked is what interested me the most. He combined extraordinary abstract reasoning with an engineer’s instinct to build. He reduced complex problems to their essential structure. He conn…
#427 How Raymond Plank Built a $50 Billion Oil Company
Aug 1, 2026 · 38 min
Raymond Plank founded Apache Corporation with just $250,000 in 1954. 50 years later his company was worth $50 billion. This episode examines the life and entrepreneurial philosophy of Raymond Plank through his memoir A Small Difference Rather than presenting a conventional history of Apache, this episode focuses on the lessons, maxims, and beliefs Plank accumulated over seven decades in business. Written when he was nearly 90, the memoir reads like a lifelong diary of how to think about opportun…
#426 How Obsession Built Christopher Nolan
Jul 26, 2026 · 51 min
Obsession is the engine of Nolan’s career. This episode examines Christopher Nolan’s life, working methods, and philosophy through The Nolan Variations by Tom Shone. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Applovin: https://www.applovin.com Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders Add your email here and I will send you my top 10 quotes from every episode: https://davidsenra.substack.com
#425 The Merchant Bankers
Jul 19, 2026 · 46 min
This episode discusses Joseph Wechsberg’s 1966 book, The Merchant Bankers. Rather than recounting the histories of families like the Rothschilds, Barings, Hambros, Warburgs, and Lehman Brothers, I wanted to extract the principles they shared. Merchant banking is fascinating. It's a very distinctive form of entrepreneurship. There is an old-school way of doing business that appeals to me. The merchant bankers’ profiled in this book have a combination of: personal honor speed of action c…
#424 Peter Thiel on How to Build a Creative Monopoly
Ep 424 · Jul 10, 2026 · 54 min
What I learned from reading Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters (for the 3rd or 4th time) Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Applovin: https://www.applovin.com/ Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#423 Soichiro Honda
Jun 28, 2026 · 48 min
What I learned from reading Honda: The Man and His Machines by Sol Sanders. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Applovin: https://www.applovin.com/ Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#422 Joseph Pulitzer
Jun 20, 2026 · 53 min
What I learned from reading Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power by James McGrath Morris. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Applovin: https://www.applovin.com/ Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#421 Jony Ive
Jun 10, 2026 · 53 min
What I learned from reading Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Axon by Applovin: https://axon.ai/founders Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#420 Steve Jobs In Exile
Jun 4, 2026 · 54 min
What I learned from reading Steve Jobs in Exile: The Untold Story of NeXT and the Remaking of an American Visionary by Geoffrey Cain. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Axon by Applovin: https://axon.ai/founders Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#419 Kelly Johnson: Skunk Works
May 16, 2026 · 50 min
Kelly Johnson’s “14 Points” read like a SpaceX operations manual — 60 years before SpaceX was founded. Kelly Johnson created Skunk Works, which he defined as: “A concentration of a few good people solving problems far in advance—and at a fraction of the cost—of other groups by applying the simplest, most straightforward methods possible to develop and produce new projects. All it is really is the application of common sense to some pretty tough problems.” Kelly Johnson was a great engineer and s…
#418 Phil Knight: Founder of Nike
May 7, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
What I learned from rereading Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike for the 3rd or 4th time. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Axon by Applovin: https://axon.ai/founders Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#417 Arnold Schwarzenegger
Apr 19, 2026 · 44 min
What I learned from reading Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Axon by Applovin: https://axon.ai/founders Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#416 The Relentless Missionary Creating AGI: Demis Hassabis
Apr 1, 2026 · 55 min
This episode is about a once-in-a-generation mind working on what may be the most important problem in history. Based on the new book The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence by Sebastian Mallaby. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Axon by AppLovin: https://axon.ai/founders Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
#415 How Elon Thinks
Mar 24, 2026 · 51 min
My friend Eric Jorgenson spent years—and thousands of hours—studying Elon Musk. Eric read everything Elon has written, read everything written about Elon, and watched every interview Elon's given. He distilled all of Elon's insights into his new book. This episode is all about How Elon Thinks based on The Book of Elon: Elon Musk's Most Useful Ideas in His Own Words. Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operati…
#414 How SpaceX Works
Mar 8, 2026 · 41 min
SpaceX is one of the most dominant companies on the planet and their performance gap just keeps getting bigger. In 2025, SpaceX launched more mass to orbit than every other provider on Earth combined. MUCH MORE: every payload from China, Russia, Europe, and all American launchers wasn’t even a fifth of what SpaceX put into orbit. They’re the only company producing rockets at an industrial scale. The practices that made SpaceX dominant aren’t unique to rockets. They’re a blueprint for building an…
#413 How To Run Down A Dream
Mar 3, 2026 · 31 min
Running Down A Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill Gurley has been one of the most valuable talks I've heard. For years I have been using ideas from that talk to build this podcast. Bill has written a new book based on that talk: Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Thrive in a Career You Actually Love. This episode explores the most valuable ideas from the book and talk. Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimiz…
#412 How Roger Federer Works
Feb 19, 2026 · 49 min
What I learned from reading The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer by Chris Clarey. Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp.com to learn how they can help your business save time and money. Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta. Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, an…
#411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi
Feb 4, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Andre Agassi's autobiography is a brutally honest story about a tennis legend who hated the game that made him famous. Agassi traces his journey from a harsh, obsessive childhood training regimen to superstardom, burnout, rebellion, and eventual redemption—revealing the psychological cost of greatness, the search for identity beyond winning, and how he ultimately found purpose on his own terms. This book was as good as everyone says it is. You should read it. Episode sponsors: Ramp give…
#410 Excellent Advice for Living
Jan 25, 2026 · 38 min
On his 68th birthday, Kevin Kelly began to write down for his young adult children some things he had learned about life that he wished he had known earlier. Kelly’s timeless advice covers an astonishing range, from right living to setting ambitious goals, optimizing generosity, and cultivating compassion. Excellent Advice for Living is the ideal companion for anyone seeking to navigate life with grace and creativity: Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch y…
The Singular Life of Rick Rubin
Jan 16, 2026 · 1 hr 21 min
There's no one like Rick Rubin. He's a legendary music producer known for his minimalist approach and relentless pursuit of greatness. This episode is what I learned from reading Rick Rubin: In The Studio by Jake Brown. Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business contr…
#409 The Creative Genius of Rick Rubin
Ep 409 · Jan 8, 2026 · 43 min
"I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.” —Rick Rubin. This episode is what I learned from reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp.com and learn how they can help your b…
#408 How to Make a Few MORE Billion Dollars: Brad Jacobs
Dec 29, 2025 · 43 min
In 2024 Brad Jacobs wrote the book How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. In the book Brad explains how he built 8 separate billion dollar companies and other lessons from his 40+ year career as an elite entrepreneur. In the two years since Brad has made a few MORE billion dollars and so the sequel to his first book is: How to Make a Few MORE Billion Dollars. In this episode I share some of Brad's ideas on raising tons of money (Brad has raised over $50 billion), mastering his integration playbook,…
The Life of Jesus
Dec 25, 2025 · 35 min
The Life of Jesus as told in the book Jesus: A Biography of a Believer by Paul Johnson. This episode was originally published on Christmas Eve 2023.
#407 Bruce Springsteen Repairs the Hole in Himself
Ep 407 · Dec 14, 2025 · 1 hr 13 min
A viciously unhappy childhood causes Bruce Springsteen to retreat into work in an extreme way as he searches for success (and control). He channels his pain into focus and drive and gets everything he thought he wanted. He didn’t yet know he was lying to himself. He will find that out soon. He falls into a deep depression. One that almost leads to s*icide. With the help of his true friend Jon Landau he seeks professional help. This help helps immediately. The lie he was telling himself was that…
#406 Christian von Koenigsegg
Dec 3, 2025 · 46 min
Christian von Koenigsegg is unapologetically in the pursuit of greatness. Koenigsegg builds some of the fastest and most expensive cars on Earth, has a cult-like following, and relentlessly seeks out challenges he can innovate on. After building his company for more than 30 years, his love and passion for his craft is still as strong as ever. This episode explores some of the most important ideas I found from studying his life and career. It's perfect for anyone that wants to live their dream. E…
Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac Founder
Nov 25, 2025 · 60 min
I'm reposting one of my favorite founder stories. If you listened to this first time I recommend listening again. If you missed this before, you're about to hear one of the wildest founder stories of all time. A few surprising things I learned from reading about Dietrich Mateschitz, founder of Red Bull: 1. He started the company when he was 41 years old. 2. He was making $500 to $800 million a year and his 49% stake is worth $20 to $30 billion. 3. He still prioritized fitness deep into his 70s a…
#405 How Rockefeller Worked
Nov 17, 2025 · 58 min
This episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of John D. Rockefeller—and nothing else. I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this obscure biography of Rockefeller that costs $1,000 I then spent several days editing down 25 pages of notes from the book. I deleted everything that was not How Rockefeller Works Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platf…
My conversation with Todd Graves
Nov 9, 2025 · 2 hr 1 min
Todd Graves is one of my favorite living founders. He owns over 90% of Raising Canes — a business that is worth at least $20 billion. Todd's maxim is "Do one thing and do it better than anyone else." It is impossible not to be inspired by his terminator levels of determination. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. Episode show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/to... Made possible by Ramp: https://ramp.com HubSpot: https://hubspot.com Function: https://functionhea…
#404 How Larry Ellison Thinks
Nov 4, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
This episode covers the unique way Larry Ellison thinks. I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this book on Ellison written by Matthew Symonds. I then spent several days editing down 40 pages of notes into a one-hour nonstop stream of Larry Ellison's ideas. Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and…
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