Cheeky Pint

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, joins John and Ben Thompson to break down the airline business and United’s contrarian bets shaping commercial aviation. Scott details United’s massive COVID fleet expansion while competitors shrank, why customer surveys are useless for predicting the future, and rolling out SpaceX’s Starlink across the entire fleet. They also cover in-housing seatback software, why low-cost carriers fail, air traffic control bottlenecks, and Scott’s weekend vibe coding projects.Timestamps(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:26) Buying planes while the world shrank(00:06:35) Owning the airline tech stack(00:22:02) Aviation’s biggest bottleneck(00:26:21) Stripe Economics(00:26:59) Hidden economics of airline networks(00:30:19) Starlink(00:38:28) What Wall Street gets wrong about aviation(00:43:43) It’s the routes (00:55:44) Why Spirit failed but Ryanair works(01:15:38) Kirby’s unusual time management hacksScott’s reading list: Unreasonable Hospitality – Will GuidaraThe Impossible Factory – Josh DeanFreedom’s Forge – Arthur HermanThe Sleepless Ape – David R. SamsonSea of Tranquility – Emily St. John MandelThe End of Eternity – Isaac AsimovTolkien and the Great War – John Garth

Will O'Brien, founder and CEO of Ulysses, joins John and Chris Sacca for a pint to discuss how underwater autonomous robots are scaling up to solve critical ocean challenges.They cover the technical history of Guinness (including the math breakthrough that created Student's t-test), why seagrass is an overlooked super-sequester of carbon, and the engineering required to operate robots thousands of meters beneath the surface. Will also breaks down Ulysses' vertical integration strategy, the reality of eco-pragmatism versus "green tape," and what it takes to sell hard tech to defense and offshore energy sectors.Timestamps(00:00:30) R&D at Guinness(00:05:43) Planting seagrass with robots(00:16:53) Lowering the cost of doing things in the ocean(00:19:00) Landing in a Chinese prison(00:20:38) Works in Progress(00:27:53) Building robots to withstand saltwater(00:31:08) Live use cases for underwater robots(00:46:03) The undersea cable vulnerabilityResources:Guinness Quality Standards: https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standardsNo Great Stagnation in Guinness by Will O’Brien: https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness

The internet economy accelerated in 2025. The fastest-growing companies got even faster, agentic commerce and stablecoin payments started to kick into gear, and total payment volume on Stripe grew by a third as our customers continued to prosper.Our annual letter covers the trends that we think are worth paying close attention to as the pace of change accelerates.Timestamps(01:48) The sorting machine(05:45) Global by default(09:01) Stable progress(12:14) Working capital’s working. Capital!(15:09) Escaping from low revenue mode(18:33) The five levels of agentic commerce(23:52) A Republic of Permissions

Ben Thompson, the internet’s premier tech analyst, joins John for a wide-ranging conversation on the mechanics of the internet economy. They discuss the origins of Stratechery and the "1,000 true fans" model, why Taiwan is the most convenient place to live (and the best Uber Eats market), and why the public markets are wrong to think SaaS is "canceled." Ben also explains why the US failure to control the TikTok algorithm is a disaster, why he’s a "crypto defender" in an age of infinite AI content, and gives John some very direct feedback on Stripe’s ACH implementation.Timestamps(00:00:20) Visiting Taiwan(00:04:59) Aggregation and AI(00:23:53) TikTok/Bytedance(00:29:58) Aggregation and AI redux(00:35:31) Agentic commerce(00:45:08) Is SaaS canceled?(00:52:21) Stratechery(01:03:36) How Ben uses AI(01:06:06) The TSMC break(01:13:53) Rapid fire(01:20:53) Feedback on Stripe

Julia DeWahl is the cofounder of Antares, a company developing nuclear micro-reactors for the US military and critical infrastructure. She sits down with John to discuss the vision for the "Starlink of electricity", and why AI hyperscalers are driving a nuclear renaissance. They cover the bipartisan shift in nuclear regulation (and why the NRC’s old mandate made "zero" the safest number of reactors), and why true energy resilience requires more than just solar and batteries. Julia also shares lessons from the early days of Opendoor and Starlink, including why customer obsession sometimes means sitting outside a bagel shop.Timestamps(00:00) Lessons from SpaceX and Opendoor(02:46) Introducing Antares(06:30) The path to market(12:20) Nuclear vibe shift(15:11) Regulation(19:21) Possible energy futures(24:02) Stripe Radar(24:55) Nuclear supply chains(26:43) Antares origin story(30:24) Funding Antares(36:09) If Julia was energy tsar(42:33) Restarting shuttered plants

Dave Ricks, the CEO of Eli Lilly, the world's most valuable pharmaceutical company, sits down with John and Patrick to discuss the complex business of drug development. Dave explains the true origin story of GLP-1s (from Gila monster saliva), why their potential goes far beyond weight loss to addiction and inflammation, and how "self-pay" has become the #1 way new patients get Zepbound. They cover the "shadow generic" industry undermining patents, the challenges associated with clinical trial enrollment, and what drove insulin list prices to $275 (while the net price was $40). This is a rare, candid look into the strategies, science, and future of pharma from one of the industry's most influential leaders.Timestamps(00:00) Introducing Dave Ricks(05:07) Making R&D decisions(10:10) Clinical trials(24:59) Drug pricing(32:43) Stimulating more R&D(54:15) Pros and cons of US healthcare(58:20) New pharma business models(01:05:53) Stripe and enterprises(01:07:00) China(01:16:31) Generics(01:22:37) GLP-1s(1:37:43) r/Peptides(01:41:25) LillyDirect(01:46:35) Why do investors love LLY?

DescriptionCasey Handmer is the founder of Terraform Industries, who is developing a machine that makes synthetic natural gas from sunlight and air. He joins the podcast to explain his solar maximalist worldview, why he believes solar costs will drop another 10x, and the core physics that doomed Hyperloop from the start. They also discuss the lessons of the underappreciated industrialist Henry Kaiser, Casey's new venture in solar-powered desalination, his grand plan to refill the Salton Sea, and why he believes "hard-edged" leaders are essential for hardware success.Show notes[Read] Ashlee Vance: Elon Musk [Read] Francis Spufford: Red plenty[Listen] Beneath the Surface, Episode 2 : Salton Sea [Read] Marc Reisner: Cadillac Desert[Read] Albert P. Heiner: Henry J. Kaiser[Read] Mark S. Foster: Henry Kaiser[Read] Ernest K. Gann: Fate is the Hunter[Read] Captain W. E. Johns: Biggles: The Camels are ComingKey moments(00:00) Intro(02:28) Henry Kaiser(08:49) Introducing Terraform(13:08) Where electricity won’t work(16:50) The solar maximalist perspective(22:57) Terraformer Mark One(27:49) The role of intervention(37:30) American dynamism(47:36) The Origins of Efficiency, by Brian Potter(48:33) Children and education(37:30) American dynamism(55:15) Desalination(01:08:16) Lessons from leadership

RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian, sits down for a cheeky pint with John Collison to discuss what it takes to build a car company from scratch, developing the first electric pickup truck, the shift to a software-defined zonal architecture, Rivian's AI-driven approach to autonomy, and the strategy behind their recent $5.8 billion deal with Volkswagen.Timestamps(00:00) Gen 1(12:32) Gen 2(18:37) Developing the first electric pickup truck(27:36) John pitches some car features(36:46) Stripe’s payment methods(37:54) Autonomous driving(44:51) Component progress(53:17) The new economics of cars(01:01:11) Manufacturing in the US