Rational Optimist Podcast

For 50 years, nuclear power has meant billion-dollar cost overruns and decade-long delays. That's about to change. Valar Atomics founder Isaiah Taylor joins us to reveal how his company is rebooting the entire industry by manufacturing small, safe reactors like SpaceX builds rockets. We dive deep into the new executive order that gives him until July 4th to turn on America's first new reactor, why his design can't melt down, and his vision for a future where cheap nuclear energy makes everything from food to fuel abundant.

The modern panic over AI isn't new; it's a predictable pattern driven by elites whenever a technology threatens the status quo. In this episode, Pessimists Archive founder Louis Anslow reveals the four archetypes behind every tech panic in history—from the novel and the bicycle to chess and coffee. We explore why this fear from the ruling class is actually a powerful sign of progress, and how understanding this pattern is the key to remaining a rational optimist in an age of hysteria.

After selling his software startup to DoorDash, most founders would cash out and relax. Steve Simoni decided to build an AI-powered machine gun instead. In this episode, Steve reveals his unbelievable journey from Navy nuclear engineer to successful software founder, and why the war in Ukraine convinced him to tackle the drone threat head-on. We dive deep into his AI turret "Bullfrog," how it turns a machine gun into a drone-killing sniper rifle, and his shocking prediction that the drone threat will increase 1000x in the next decade.

Michael LaFramboise's grandfather rose from sleeping in a Detroit bar booth to become Ford's chief chemist. Today, Michael is building the AI-powered laser that will make million-dollar missiles obsolete. In this episode, we explore how his system destroys drone swarms for pennies, why a $10M tank is now worthless against cheap drones, and how this new generation of directed energy weapons could soon protect everything from military bases to Super Bowl stadiums.

Casey Handmer quit his dream job at NASA for one reason: to build the machine that will end the oil industry by making unlimited, cheap fuel from nothing but sunlight and air. In this episode of The Rational Optimist Podcast, Casey, founder of Terraform Industries, explains how this technology works, why the solar revolution is unstoppable, and how energy abundance will reshape geopolitics forever. We also uncover why China is on a collision course to claim the moon by 2029, how barren deserts are about to become the planet's most valuable real estate, and what a future of radical abundance looks like with 10X more energy.

In this episode, Nucleus Genomics founder Kian Sadeghi reveals why the era of "designer babies" is already here—and how it will allow humanity to end genetic disease before birth. We dive deep into the real reason 23andMe failed (it's not what you think), how whole-genome sequencing can defuse the ticking time bombs in your DNA, and why embryo selection is the most powerful tool we have to double human life expectancy. Plus: Kian's most heretical belief in biotech and the top three traits he would optimize in his own child.

Most people know the name Palantir thanks to its surging stock – up 400% in the last year. Fewer people know Palantir has achieved this growth by fundamentally transforming America's defense industry. I talked to Palantir's Madeline Hart to discuss how that happened and what's next.

I recently spoke with two young founders driving the ocean's future: Will O'Brien from Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering and David Zagaynov from Poseidon Aerospace. They're building high-tech flying boats and underwater drones while stewarding the ocean.