Lost Debate

The Branch

Lost Debate

  • 24 minutes 32 seconds
    More Epstein Revelations

    Ravi breaks down the week’s most important stories. He examines what’s wrong with the Epstein file release—and what it reveals about elite culture, status addiction, and moral drift. He then turns to an under-covered AI development: a bot-only social network powered by autonomous agents already behaving in unsettling ways. Plus: a striking Cato Institute report on immigration and deficits, a Texas special-election swing, election-system warning signs, and new reporting on foreign money and influence around Trump. The throughline: power without accountability distorts behavior—and the consequences are no longer theoretical.


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    5 February 2026, 11:00 am
  • 1 hour 19 minutes
    Pretti Killing, ICE Impunity, NVIDIA Dominance

    Ravi begins by explaining why this conversation matters to him: although he’s often skeptical of tech leaders, he sees Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as a rare and genuinely consequential figure. He briefly reflects on the Pretti shooting in Minnesota and the broader questions it raises about accountability and transparency before turning to the interview. Ravi then speaks with author Stephen Witt about the forces that shaped Jensen’s leadership—from a punishing childhood and Nvidia’s early brush with failure to the high-risk CUDA bet that helped make modern AI possible. It’s an absorbing portrait of leadership, obsession, and the building of one of the most important tech companies of our time.


    Stephen Witt’s Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip

    Ravi's Garbage Town

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    28 January 2026, 10:21 pm
  • 46 minutes 6 seconds
    The Moral Cost of Phones

    Ravi sits down with journalist Nick Niarchos, author of The Elements of Power, to expose the hidden human and geopolitical costs behind the batteries powering our phones and cars. They connect Congo’s brutal mining realities and China’s dominance of the battery supply chain to the myths we tell ourselves about “green” tech. It’s a gripping, unsettling look at whether EVs and other battery-powered solutions are nearly as clean—or as moral—as we think.


    Nicolas Niarchos’ The Elements of Power

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    21 January 2026, 4:48 pm
  • 1 hour 12 minutes
    Minnesota, Powell, MAGA Intellectuals

    Ravi opens by running through a turbulent week: the Minnesota ICE shooting, concerns about escalating federal power, and the DOJ’s reported probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s independence, alongside global flash points like Iran and a U.S. electorate that’s increasingly independent. With institutions under strain and norms being tested in real time, he then turns to the ideas shaping this moment. That sets the stage for his conversation with political philosopher Laura K. Field, author of Furious Minds, on the thinkers and factions behind the MAGA New Right—and why understanding them now matters more than ever.


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    14 January 2026, 11:10 pm
  • 50 minutes 26 seconds
    Venezuela, Bari Weiss, State Censorship

    The U.S. just carried out a stunning strike in Venezuela—capturing Nicolás Maduro—and Ravi argues the hard part isn’t the raid, but the chaos, precedent, and “what happens next,” with oil looming over everything. He’s then joined by The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer to unpack the CBS/60 Minutes controversy, where a vetted segment on deportations to an overseas prison was spiked, allegedly to appease the Trump administration. Serwer argues this exposes a growing double standard on the right: “free speech” as the freedom to speak, but not to criticize—backed by real pressure on newsrooms, universities, and public debate. A sharp episode about power—who gets to invade, who gets to speak, and who decides what the public is allowed to see.


    Adam Serwer’s writing at The Atlantic


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    7 January 2026, 8:41 pm
  • 56 minutes 41 seconds
    The End of Culture

    Ravi sits down with cultural critic W. David Marx (author of Blank Space) to ask a simple question: if there’s more music, TV, and art than ever, why does culture feel so… stuck? Marx argues it’s not that people stopped creating—it’s that we’ve stopped treating new, daring work like it matters, so breakthroughs rarely spread and change the mainstream. They unpack how algorithms and money-driven incentives steer us toward what’s already popular and easy, instead of what might challenge or surprise us. If you’ve ever wondered why everything feels like sequels, recycled trends, or endless scrolling, this conversation puts clear language to that feeling—and offers a way out.


    W. David Marx’s book Blank Space and newsletter Culture: An Owner’s Manual 

    Ravi’s Substack https://realravigupta.substack.com 


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    31 December 2025, 10:23 pm
  • 43 minutes 55 seconds
    Are We Getting Stupider?

    Are We Getting Stupider?

    Andrew Rice joins The Lost Debate to ask an uncomfortable question: why are America’s schools getting worse—even in places that claim to care most about equity? Drawing on sobering national data and reporting from affluent liberal districts, Rice argues that declining standards, political complacency, and the abandonment of accountability have quietly erased decades of progress for kids. Ravi and Rice debate how both parties walked away from what worked—and why lowering expectations has become a substitute for real reform. It’s a sharp, urgent conversation about education, power, and who pays the price when adults stop demanding better for children.


    Andrew Rice’s article The Big Fail (NY Magazine, Nov 2025)


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    18 December 2025, 8:05 pm
  • 37 minutes 43 seconds
    The Worst Story of the Year

    This episode takes a visit to the goonverse — a strange online world where hundreds of thousands of people spend hours chasing a “goon state,” a trance-like high reached through marathon adult video consumption. Ravi talks with reporter Daniel Kolitz, whose Harper’s article on this community has become a viral sensation: horrifying, riveting, and impossible to look away from. Together they explore what this subculture reveals about loneliness, post-lockdown life, and the dangers of instant, unlimited online pleasure crowding out real-world connection. It’s disturbing, darkly funny, and a warning sign about where we’re all heading.

    Daniel Kolitz’s The Goon Squad, (Harper’s, Nov 2025) 

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    10 December 2025, 9:38 pm
  • 35 minutes 35 seconds
    How to Think About 2026

    In this episode of The Lost Debate, Ravi steps back from the noise to map the forces that will shape 2026—from AI disruption and China’s industrial surge to U.S. political fractures, economic stress points, and the new wave of weight-loss drugs. Instead of predictions, he lays out the big questions we’ll all have to face in the year ahead. He also opens up about his own fight with “attention poverty,” why he’s switching to a flip phone, and how he’s rebuilding his personal moral code. It’s a wide-angle, deeply human guide to the year before it arrives.

    Ravi’s Analog Writer’s Group: https://www.ravimgupta.com/analog


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    3 December 2025, 10:16 pm
  • 56 minutes 54 seconds
    The Market Is Speaking — Are You Listening?

    Ravi sits down with Lawrence McDonald to reveal why the classic “just buy the index” advice may now be one of the biggest risks in the market. They break down how passive investing, AI-driven mega-caps, and relentless stock buybacks have concentrated everyone’s savings into a fragile handful of stocks. McDonald explains how de-dollarization, shrinking demand for U.S. treasuries, and nonstop bailouts are rewriting the safety playbook. He lays out where the real opportunities may be now—in hard assets, select energy and commodity names, and short-term cash positions ready to strike when the bubble finally pops.


    Ravi’s Analog Writer’s Group: https://www.ravimgupta.com/analog

    Lawrence McDonald’s How To Listen When Markets Speak and The Bear Trap’s Report




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    19 November 2025, 10:19 pm
  • 48 minutes 34 seconds
    The Age of Extraction

    Ravi sits down with Tim Wu, author of The Age of Extraction, to unpack how America’s biggest tech empires rose—and why they might be due for a breakup. From Teddy Roosevelt’s railroad wars to Amazon’s pay-to-play marketplace, Wu traces how antitrust battles have shaped innovation for more than a century. He explains how Amazon’s tactics—copycat products, buried listings, and punishing sellers—mirror the monopolies of the past, and what the FTC is trying to change. The episode ends on AI, asking whether Big Tech’s wild spending is fueling progress—or just building smarter walls around its power.

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    Ravi’s Analog Writer’s Group: https://www.ravimgupta.com/analog

    Tim Wu’s The Age of Extraction

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    13 November 2025, 11:30 am
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