Lost Debate

The Branch

Lost Debate

  • 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
  • 56 minutes 17 seconds
    Shrinking US Pop, SC on Tariffs, Low Expectations

    Ravi and Idrees Kahloon start with the current Supreme Court showdown: can a president raise tariffs alone, or does Congress have to sign off? They unpack why the Court might push back—and what that could mean for future presidents. Then they turn to immigration, where the U.S. may soon have more people leaving than arriving, with big effects on jobs and Social Security. Finally, they dig into education: why test scores are falling even as grades rise, and how places like Mississippi and New Orleans are turning things around by raising standards and focusing on real learning.

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    The Inconvenient Success of New Orleans Schools (The 74, 8/25/25)

    The Court Must Decide If the Constitution Means What It Says  (The Atlantic, 11/5/25)

    America’s Impending Population Collapse (The Atlantic, 10/29/25)America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy (The Atlantic, 10/14/25)

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    6 November 2025, 8:57 pm
  • 1 hour 6 minutes
    Things Are Really Bad

    Ravi welcomes back Tangle News founder Isaac Saul to discuss his viral essay, “Things Are Really Bad Right Now,” and why he believes recent actions should trouble Americans across the spectrum. They dig into alleged abuses in immigration enforcement, killings at sea, politicized prosecutions, and mounting pressure on the press. Isaac explains why abandoning party loyalty—and focusing only on whether leaders uphold basic principles—led him to sound the alarm, and how his mixed audience reacted. The conversation closes with a challenge: what values are we willing to defend, no matter who holds power?

    30 October 2025, 8:51 pm
  • 34 minutes 17 seconds
    Everything I Know About Health & Fitness

    Ravi Gupta shares the health and fitness lessons he’s learned from running Squadra, his training program for professionals. He emphasizes simplicity and breaks down what truly works—lifting heavy, sprinting occasionally, eating protein, and tuning out wellness hype. Covering biomarkers, wearables, and supplements, his message is clear: real progress comes from consistency, not trends. Fitness, Ravi reminds us, isn’t about perfection—it’s about showing up when most people quit.


    Analog Writer’s Group

    Substack Post


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    22 October 2025, 7:50 pm
  • 30 minutes 29 seconds
    Why I’ve Changed How I Invest

    Ravi Gupta asks: What if the greatest risk in markets today isn’t missing out on AI—but believing it can never crash? In this solo deep dive, he unpacks why today’s trillion-dollar bets on artificial intelligence may mirror past manias—and why, with pensions, private equity, and passive index funds all in the mix, the next downturn could look less like Silicon Valley in 2000 and more like Japan’s lost decade. All of these arguments build toward a single point: how Ravi is rethinking his own portfolio, and why he believes resilience—not hype—is the smarter path forward.


    Signal Award Voting (make sure to vote if you haven’t yet)


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    8 October 2025, 8:07 pm
  • 39 minutes 22 seconds
    Why AI Kisses Your Ass

    Ravi Gupta sits down with The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong to dig into why AI chatbots act like digital yes-men—and the risks that come with it. They explore how reinforcement learning fuels this sycophancy, why companies shape bot “personalities,” and what it means for safety. Along the way, they cover teen harms, Musk’s Grok pushing conspiracies, Google’s Gemini edge, and OpenAI’s massive reach. The episode asks the big question: can anyone break the OpenAI–Google–Anthropic monopoly, or is the future of AI already locked in?


    Signal Award Voting (make sure to vote if you haven’t yet):

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    1 October 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 47 minutes 6 seconds
    Why America’s Kids Are Anxious

    Ravi Gupta welcomes back Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids and president of Let Grow, to explore how fear-driven parenting and digital distraction are reshaping childhood. From the 1980s milk-carton panic to today’s surveillance tech, they show how over-scheduling breeds helplessness instead of competence. Citing new polling, Skenazy reveals kids overwhelmingly prefer unstructured play with friends over screens or adult-run activities. They link these trends to rising youth anxiety, falling literacy, and weakened civic resilience—arguing that restoring children’s freedom is both a personal and political imperative.


    Signal Award Voting (make sure to vote if you haven’t yet):

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    Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    24 September 2025, 7:00 pm
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