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E159: The Bestie Awards! Recapping the best and worst of 2023

Jason Calacanis on All-In Bestie Awards 2023: Politics, Business, Science, and Self-Owns.

Jason CalacanishostDavid SackshostChamath PalihapitiyahostDavid Friedberghost

Dec 29, 20231h 22mWatch on YouTube ↗

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Bestie Awards kickoff: holiday vibes, drinks, and toasts
The Besties open the fourth annual Bestie Awards with holiday banter, drink choices, and a couple of roasts-toasts. Jason frames the episode as a rapid-fire recap of 2023 across politics, business, science, and culture.
- •Fourth annual Bestie Awards format and categories
- •Holiday energy: champagne/tequila/beer and playful ribbing
- •Quick toasts and reflections on the show’s success
- •Transition into the first award category (politics)
Biggest Political Winner: Trump, Saudi Arabia, abortion rights, and outsider candidates
The group debates who gained the most political momentum in 2023—from Trump’s nomination-strengthening legal battles to Saudi Arabia’s geopolitical leverage. They also discuss abortion rights succeeding at the ballot box and the growing viability of non-traditional/outsider candidates.
- •Sacks: Trump as winner due to prosecutions galvanizing support
- •Chamath/Friedberg: Saudi Arabia’s leverage across global power blocs
- •Sacks: abortion rights winning referenda and reshaping elections
- •Jason: outsider candidates (RFK Jr., Vivek, Dean Phillips) gaining traction
Biggest Political Loser: DEI backlash, Zelenskyy’s fading narrative, and a forced rematch
They move to political losers, contrasting geopolitical setbacks with domestic cultural and institutional backlash. Picks range from Zelenskyy’s deteriorating standing to the DEI/ESG ‘acronym era’ losing favor, and Jason’s view that the public loses with a Biden–Trump rematch.
- •Friedberg: DEI movement damaged post–Oct 7 and congressional hearings
- •Sacks: Zelenskyy’s year-end reversal in Western media and support
- •Chamath: ‘death of the acronyms’ (DEI/ESG) as money and patience fade
- •Jason: American voters stuck with an unpopular Biden–Trump rematch
Biggest Political Surprise: Oct 7 shock and the rise of third-party possibilities
The biggest surprise category centers on the Oct 7 Hamas attack and the broader geopolitical and cultural aftershocks. Domestically, they focus on RFK Jr.’s independent run and what a true third-party surge could mean, including why branding and naming might matter more than people think.
- •Sacks: Oct 7 attack as paradigm-shifting surprise
- •Friedberg: Hamas thrust into global discourse and sympathy dynamics
- •Chamath: RFK Jr. as unexpected high-favorability independent
- •Third-party appetite (Gallup) and debate over who RFK would ‘hurt’
- •Third-party branding problem: ‘No Labels’ as an example of weak naming
Biggest Business Winner: Elon vs. the Magnificent Seven vs. Microsoft vs. Uber
Business winners focus on market cap creation and execution under pressure. Picks include Elon’s multi-company year (X/Twitter, SpaceX, Tesla), the ‘Magnificent Seven’ driving most index gains, Microsoft’s strategic dominance, and Uber’s profitability and regulatory progress.
- •Chamath: Elon Musk’s impact across X, SpaceX/Starlink/Starship, Tesla/FSD
- •Sacks: Magnificent Seven responsible for outsized market gains
- •Friedberg: Microsoft’s trillion-dollar market-cap jump and OpenAI weekend
- •Jason: Uber’s profitability, S&P 500 inclusion, and regulatory cleanup
Biggest Business Loser: 2021 vintage VC hangover and Disney’s collapse narrative
They argue 2023 exposed the downside of 2021’s venture exuberance and punished companies stumbling on product, pricing, and cultural positioning. Disney becomes the emblematic loser, while Friedberg highlights how 2021-era deployments could torpedo firms and LP allocations.
- •Friedberg: VCs who deployed heavily in 2021 face disastrous vintage outcomes
- •Sacks: Disney failures across films, Marvel, streaming churn, theme parks, ad fights
- •Jason: Disney + Warner Bros. as broader media/streaming and franchise collapse
- •Chamath: broader ‘go woke’ marketing backlash (Disney/Bud Light/Target)
Biggest Business Surprise: emergency Fed backstops, Meta’s comeback, and OpenAI’s weekend coup
This chapter covers ‘nobody saw that coming’ moments: the Fed’s crisis tools after SVB, the sudden dovish pivot signaling cuts, Meta’s operational turnaround, and the dramatic Sam Altman firing-and-return saga. They debate whether these actions prevented recession but created long-term moral hazard.
- •Sacks: BTFP and Fed liquidity support halted regional banking contagion
- •Jason: Meta’s ‘year of efficiency’ and AI progress driving resurgence
- •Chamath: Powell’s December pivot and market ‘melt-up’ implications
- •Friedberg: Sam Altman ouster/return as the defining corporate shock
Best Science Breakthrough: CRISPR sickle-cell therapy and emerging brain decoding
Science winners mix serious medical breakthroughs with humor and personal anecdotes. Chamath highlights the FDA-approved CRISPR cure for sickle cell disease, while Jason spotlights early ‘brain decoder’ work pairing fMRI patterns with language models to reconstruct intended speech.
- •(Jokes aside) space imagery becomes a setup for the science segment
- •Chamath: CRISPR/Vertex sickle-cell treatment as landmark gene-editing win
- •Jason: fMRI + language models enabling early thought-to-text reconstruction
- •Friedberg: the aggregate pace of AI/ML breakthroughs as the story itself
Biggest Flash in the Pan: SBF, effective altruism fallout, and LK-99 superconductivity hype
They recap hype cycles that burned out fast—from celebrated figures imploding to ‘world-changing’ tech claims that couldn’t be replicated. The conversation ties social movements and governance drama (OpenAI) to reputational blowback for effective altruism.
- •Chamath: SBF’s rapid fall from wunderkind to convicted grifter
- •Sacks: effective altruism damaged by SBF and OpenAI board drama
- •Friedberg: LK-99 room-temperature superconductor excitement then debunking
- •Jason: George Santos as a pure pop-culture/political flash phenomenon
Best CEO: Taylor Swift Inc., Satya’s execution, Jensen’s GPU moment, and Altman’s aura
Best CEO picks span pop culture to semiconductor dominance to AI empire-building. Jason argues Taylor Swift operated like the year’s most effective ‘CEO,’ while others pick Nadella, Huang, and Altman for strategic advantage, timing, and ability to attract talent and capital.
- •Jason: Taylor Swift’s tour/movie/merch machine and direct distribution power
- •Chamath: Satya Nadella’s market-cap impact, Activision close, OpenAI optionality
- •Sacks: Jensen Huang and NVIDIA’s planning paying off in the AI boom
- •Friedberg: Sam Altman as unmatched at attention, recruiting, and capital raising
Best Investor: Citadel’s machine vs. Ackman’s bond timing (and culture war afterburners)
They hand out best investor to both systematic consistency and sharp macro timing. Chamath praises Ken Griffin/Citadel’s steady returns, while Sacks and Friedberg focus on Bill Ackman’s near-perfect Treasury trade timing and his newfound appetite for high-profile institutional fights.
- •Chamath: Citadel/‘pod shops’ as dominant, steady return engine
- •Sacks: Ackman’s bond short then cover at peak yields (near-perfect timing)
- •Friedberg: agrees on Ackman’s Treasury trade excellence
- •Jason: wildcard praise for SIG’s TikTok/ByteDance stake resilience
Best Turnaround: Novo Nordisk GLP-1 boom, Solana revival, Uber profits, Altman’s comeback arc
Turnarounds highlight multi-year patience paying off and dramatic reputational reversals. Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 dominance reshapes healthcare narratives, Solana’s price recovery fuels crypto debate, Uber’s financial turnaround continues, and Altman’s ‘fired to desired’ storyline becomes a meme-worthy corporate reversal.
- •Chamath: Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic/Wegovy transformation after long investment cycles
- •Sacks: Solana’s ~10x rebound and ‘bag holder’ vindication vibe
- •Friedberg: Uber’s shift from losses to strong EBITDA and market-cap recovery
- •Jason: Altman’s rapid reinstatement and expanded power after board revolt
Worst Company: Pfizer, factory farming, FTX/SVB, and Fox News
The ‘worst company’ category becomes a values-and-trust debate spanning pharma credibility, industrialized animal suffering, financial misconduct, and media deception. The hosts disagree sharply on what’s most harmful, but converge on the idea that institutional trust took hits across sectors.
- •Sacks: Pfizer—post-COVID demand collapse and credibility/communication crisis
- •Friedberg: Mu Yuan Foodstuff as emblem of brutal industrial pig farming
- •Chamath: tie between FTX fraud and SVB risk-management failure
- •Jason: Fox News—election lies, legal exposure, and audience deception
Memes, new tech, and trends: GFY, ChatGPT app, open-source LLMs, and DEI pushback
They lighten the mood with meme picks before pivoting to tech and societal trends. The conversation ranges from Elon’s ‘GFY’ clip and the Boston slide meme to practical AI usage (ChatGPT voice) and the political-cultural backlash against DEI, plus worries about debt and youth wellbeing.
- •Best meme picks: Boston cop slide; Elon ‘GFY’; ‘I’m in journalism’
- •Best new tech: ChatGPT mobile + voice; Starlink-in-flight; local open-source LLMs
- •Best trend: profitability focus and AI productivity; pushback on DEI/affirmative action
- •Worst trends: antisemitism, national debt explosion, youth mental health stress, normalized government spending
Favorite media, the ‘Giuliani’ self-immolation award, and end-of-year reflections
The episode closes with media recommendations, then the ‘self-immolation’ award focused on Ivy League leadership failures post–Oct 7 and Rudy Giuliani’s legal unraveling. Final thoughts reflect on dodging recession, ongoing geopolitical risk, personal milestones, and cautious optimism entering 2024.
- •Favorite media: Succession finale, The Bear S2; Taylor Swift cultural dominance
- •Sacks recommends geopolitics podcasts; Friedberg recommends Bell Labs history book
- •Self-immolation picks: Ivy League presidents/brands; Liz Magill; Rudy Giuliani
- •Closing reflections: soft landing surprise, war risks, personal highlights, 2024 predictions tease

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