My guest today is Adam Mead — he is a professional investor, founder of Mead Capital Management, and the author of a wonderful book, **The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway: A Chronological Analysis of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's Conglomerate Masterpiece.** He was on Talking Billions over a year ago, and he returns to talk about Berkshire, Buffett, Munger, investing, running an investment firm, and so much more.

Adam J. Mead is a life-long student of business and capital allocation.

He is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Mead Capital Management, LLC. Adam is also the founder of watchlistinvesting.com, a value investing newsletter.

Adam spent over a decade in banking in commercial credit, including observing first-hand the aftereffects of the Great Recession and the long credit expansion afterward.

My guest today is Cristina Espinal. She was born in Venezuela, lived in the US and Asia, made the UK her home, and joined me from Madrid today.

After a successful first career, she decided to pivot, follow, and trust her curiosity.

She helps ambitious mid-career professionals gain the clarity and confidence to secure bigger, more aligned roles and turn their uniqueness into a side business. Her Play Big newsletter is a fascinating read—all links are in the notes below.

She has a great passion for the work she does and shares many inspiring stories. I learned a lot and enjoyed this discussion very much—I trust you will, too.

John Candeto is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Phronesis Fund. Co-Founder of JoinWDA (Workforce Data Alliance).

Tom Morgan connected us. We met at Markel’s meeting in Richmond earlier this year. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation, and you will see in a moment why.

John applies the study of Complexity to investing, and he is open to discussing it with others, please feel free to reach out to him.

RP Stevens is the author of The Sloth Investor book, the host of a podcast, and a YouTube channel with the same name. He is a personal finance author & YouTuber. He is committed to educating people about how to invest their money in a common-sense, ‘sloth-like’ manner.

RP firmly believes that the slow-moving, inactive sloth is THE best animal to characterize successful investing.

My guest today is Christopher Begg. Chris is a successful long term patient value investor who seeks high quality, he is also a professor and teaches the Ben Graham’s Security Analysis Course at Columbia University in New York. He also loves the ocean and water sports, especially surfing, which, from what I can tell, makes him an even better investor.

Christopher Begg is President/Chief Investment Officer/Co-Founder at East Coast Asset Management, Inc. & Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School in New York City.

My guest today is Dan Solin — he practiced law in New York City, he represented investors harmed by the misconduct of brokers, he worked as a registered investment advisor, he is a New York Times bestselling author of the Smartest series of books, including the Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read — today, we talk about his book Ask: How to Relate to Anyone — I absolutely loved the book, I greatly enjoyed this discussion, and I immediately called it a masterclass in the art of conversation with a focus on investment advisors becoming better at what we do.

My guest today is Meir Statman, he is a professor of finance, author, expert in behavioral finance. We talk about his newest book: A Wealth of Well-Being: A Holistic Approach to Behavioral Finance — I learned a lot, and I trust that you will too.

Meir Statman is the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University. His research focuses on behavioral finance. He describes people as “normal,” neither computer-like “rational,” nor bumbling “irrational,” and attempts to understand and explain how normal people make choices and how these choices affect their well-being.

My guest today is Peter Atwater; he is a Wall Street veteran and the author of a wonderful book, The Confidence Map. We are talking about everything from investing and navigating the financial crisis to what it takes to be a successful money manager. We are learning from airplane pilots, pandemic-era doctors, and more. Peter proposes an eye-opening framework, a map that has already helped me in my professional life in many ways, and I think it could guide you in your endeavors as well. Please help me welcome, Peter Atwater.

Welcome to the 100th Episode of Talking Billions. I am answering your questions about money, life, family, wealth, investing, and even my coffee-drinking habits. At the end of the episode, I reveal two big announcements: 1) an exciting project I’m working on, 2) a secret search that one of my fans embarked on — tune in, listen till the end, and maybe you can help with the latter!

My guest today is Michael McCloskey, who founded and manages Greenskeeper, a value investing firm. Michael and I met at Guy Spier’s VALUEx Conference. We snowshoed together in the Swiss Alps at some point and shared many conversations both in Switzerland and at Buffett’s Berkshire Meeting in Omaha. Today, we talk about thoughtful, disciplined stock picking, passion for a particular kind of investing, and lessons from running an investment firm.

My guest today is Steven Gorelik, in the spirit of keeping these intros short, find all about Steve in the notes. In two sentences, Steve was born in Belarus during the Cold War, moved to the States, fell in love with investing, and has a lot to share about both the US market and the Eastern European markets. In my mind, both experiences build on top of each other and complete a much deeper, broader perspective that can be very helpful in long-term investing. If you want to hear more about how investing in two very different regions can make you a better investor, tune in, and listen to our conversation.

Today’s guest is Matt Zeigler. He’s been on Talking Billions before, and he was also the guest host when we turned the tables. Matt asked me questions in Talking Billions’ very first Fireside chat with the host. He is back, and we have lots to discuss.

Matt is a Managing Director and Private Wealth Advisor at Sunpointe Investments. He helps clients create, align, and manage their financial plans and investment strategies.

My guest today is Ben Claremon; we connected a while ago and have had many deep conversations about work, life, investing, and more. Not long ago, I was a guest on his wonderful podcast - The Compounders Podcast, where I talked about my career, work, investment style, and my firm - Blue Infinitas Capital — scroll down and look up this episode in the Talking Billions feed or on Ben’s channel.

I’ve been eager to turn the tables on Ben, have him on the show, and ask him more about his unique journey, fascinating investment philosophy, and wide-ranging curiosity about the world of money, wealth, and investing.

My guest today is David Diranko. We met at Guy Spier’s VALUEx earlier this year, and spoke couple of times since. David is a very thoughtful investor who writes about his process, which rhymes with my philosophy in many ways, though we might be drawn to different hunting grounds. I greatly appreciate his perspective and insights that combine both his passion for investing, and background in data science and machine learning.

David shares his investment research on his blog, contrariancashflows.com . To gain an edge in the market, he focuses on small companies in overlooked or neglected regions and sectors. When he is not researching companies or writing for his blog, David works as a Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer for IBM, and he enjoys spending time with his wife and son.

What can Eli Manning’s former coach teach us about confidence and un unshakable performance… investing is very much an emotional, inner game, where lack of confidence, doubt, and worry can get in the way of execution and success.

My guest today is the director of West Point’s influential Performance Psychology Program. He is about to share with you, my dear listeners, the secrets of mental toughness and self-belief building and mastering CONFIDENCE, the key to performance in any field.

Investor, business journalist, writer, and author of the Nightcrawler Newsletter shares his lessons and wisdom.

Eric Markowitz is a Partner and the Director of Research at Nightview Capital. Nightview is an investment management firm that runs a concentrated, "best ideas" public equity strategy for long-term investors. Eric was previously a business journalist and published in The New Yorker, Newsweek, and Inc. magazine, among other outlets. He is a winner of a Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He currently writes The Nightcrawler, an idea-driven weekly newsletter about long-term investing. He resides in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter.

My guest today is John Purkiss. He is the author of a truly wonderful book, a best seller called the “Power of Letting Go.”

John has had a successful corporate career first, learned mindfulness later, only to combine both in his later and current pursuits.

John studied economics at Cambridge University and began his career in banking and management consultancy. He then completed his MBA at INSEAD, where won first prize. Within three months John was diagnosed with clinical depression, which nearly proved fatal. He began searching for a solution, which led him to learn mindfulness and become an executive search consultant, recruiting senior executives and board members. He also began to invest in high-growth companies. John then learned Transcendental Meditation. In 2014 he met his guru, SPH Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam.

My guest today is Lucas Miller, it’s his second time on the show; please look up his earlier episode. I highly recommend it. We met over a year ago in Zurich, where I shared with a small group of investors what I learned about my life, investing process, and work in general during the unusual pandemic years. We bonded right away since Lucas told me that my lessons rhyme with what he is studying and researching as a cognitive neuroscientist and human performance researcher at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he is the youngest faculty member.

“It takes a lot of ambition to maximize your wealth over 100 years” - Luca Dellanna

I was introduced to Luca’s work by Guy Spier in our conversation a year and a half ago. I got see Luca in person a few times since, and we recorded by now three episodes of Talking Billions. Given the kind of long-term, patient, disciplined investing that I practice, Luca’s thoughts on long-term games and reproducible success resonate with me and have had a big impact on me. Luca expanded my vocabulary to explain something that I and my clients intuitively understand.

My guest today is Pieter Slegers. He is the writer behind the widely popular newsletter Compounding Quality. He lives in Belgium, and used to work for a Belgian Asset Manager. His hobbies are running (he ran his first marathon last year), lifting weights and reading books. Pieter is a co-author with Luc Kroeze of a recently published book The Art of Quality Investing: How to Invest in the Best Companies in the World. It’s Pieter’s second appearance on the show, I highly recommend looking up his earlier episode.