E59: Twitter's content warning algo, equity audits, politicians trading stocks, Fed's next move

1. 0:00 – 8:30

   Bestie Intro: Sweater update, NYC stories

   1. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:00

      Let's talk about the sweaters, okay? Let David- l- let's start with you 'cause I love it.

   2. DSDavid Sacks0:04

      (laughs)

   3. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:04

      I love it.

   4. JCJason Calacanis0:04

      David-

   5. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:05

      I (censored) love that sweater.

   6. DSDavid Sacks0:06

      I decided to up my sweater game for Chamath. This is Tom Ford.

   7. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:10

      I love it. It's beautiful.

   8. JCJason Calacanis0:11

      Tom Ford?

   9. DSDavid Sacks0:11

      Tom Ford. The buttons are made out of endangered rhino horn.

   10. DFDavid Friedberg0:16

       (laughs)

   11. DSDavid Sacks0:17

       (laughs)

   12. JCJason Calacanis0:17

       (laughs) We just lost a third of the audience.

   13. DSDavid Sacks0:20

       (laughs)

   14. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:20

       So my sweater-

   15. JCJason Calacanis0:21

       Oh. (laughs)

   16. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:21

       ... is a, is a very light Italian cashmere made by a company called Doriani, Doriani Cashmere. Uh-

   17. JCJason Calacanis0:28

       (laughs)

   18. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:28

       ... this right here is a li-

   19. JCJason Calacanis0:28

       I thought we weren't doing plugs for our startups here. (laughs)

   20. DSDavid Sacks0:30

       (laughs) This is how we're monetizing the All-In pod, yeah.

   21. JCJason Calacanis0:32

       Here we go. Doriani Cashmere just got a free-

   22. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:34

       Now, this right here, this right here is, uh-

   23. JCJason Calacanis0:35

       Glow-up.

   24. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:35

       ... a little, uh, young calf leather.

   25. DSDavid Sacks0:38

       (laughs)

   26. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:38

       Very soft, very soft.

   27. DSDavid Sacks0:40

       (laughs)

   28. CPChamath Palihapitiya0:40

       And the buttons, uh, like David's, uh, are made from shark fin.

   29. DSDavid Sacks0:44

       (laughs)

   30. JCJason Calacanis0:45

       And for those of you at home who would like to spend $150 and stay warm, may I recommend the marine layer?
2. 8:30 – 14:37

   Sacks got flagged on Twitter, theorizing on Twitter's content warning algorithm

   1. JCJason Calacanis8:30

      All right, uh, it was an eventful week on Twitter where only one week into the new Twitter CEO's reign, Jack is gone and already David Sacks has been flagged. (laughs) It's, I, it can't be a coincidence that you were talking about them flagging accounts at the end of free speech and then, uh, pull it up on the screen everybody. "Investors should be spending their time finding good investments, not endlessly debating interest rates, inflation and tax policy. But that's the uncertainty Washington has created." That's a great tweet. Uh, I like that tweet actually. And then the flag, the conversation from Sacks has been flagged. "Some conversations can get heavy. Don't forget the human behind the screen."

   2. CPChamath Palihapitiya9:16

      Do you think that this is, that's machine learned or do you think that that's a, an editor that goes in there and actually just manually-

   3. DFDavid Friedberg9:22

      Machine learned.

   4. CPChamath Palihapitiya9:22

      ... flags.

   5. DFDavid Friedberg9:23

      Machine learned for sure.

   6. CPChamath Palihapitiya9:24

      No, I, I think that's a great question.

   7. But what did, but what is in there that actually triggers-

   8. JCJason Calacanis9:27

      The word debating. Washington.

   9. DFDavid Friedberg9:31

      Interest rates, tax policy.

   10. JCJason Calacanis9:33

       Endlessly debating.

   11. DFDavid Friedberg9:33

       Washington.

   12. CPChamath Palihapitiya9:34

       I, I'm not sure, I'm not sure that you could build a-

   13. JCJason Calacanis9:36

       Or maybe it's the ratio.

   14. CPChamath Palihapitiya9:38

       I don't, I don't know how you would build a function that would weight this in a way where this could get flagged of all the things you could say with those words. This is so benign.

   15. DFDavid Friedberg9:45

       Well, I think it's the kind of... Uh, it seems to me this thing's trying to ward off bullying attacks on Sacks, which I don't think Sacks needs to be too worried about.

   16. JCJason Calacanis9:53

       Oh right, 'cause you're telling this to people who would reply.

   17. CPChamath Palihapitiya9:55

       You're saying it's there to protect me.

   18. DFDavid Friedberg9:57

       It's to protect you. It's one of those things where they're, like, trying to get people to not insult you in the comments.

   19. JCJason Calacanis10:02

       They're talking about that's his life breath.

   20. DFDavid Friedberg10:02

       Maybe you get a lot... Do you get, do you get a lot of insults in comments on your tweets?

   21. CPChamath Palihapitiya10:06

       Oh, undoubtedly, but, uh-

   22. DFDavid Friedberg10:08

       So it could just be a blanket tweet.

   23. CPChamath Palihapitiya10:09

       ... but, but this tweet, this twe- this, this tweet's comments section were, was pretty benign.

   24. JCJason Calacanis10:12

       Oh right, and it may not be about the tweet, it might be about the replies.

   25. CPChamath Palihapitiya10:15

       No, but see this wasn't-

   26. JCJason Calacanis10:16

       So it might be that you're getting-

   27. CPChamath Palihapitiya10:17

       ... that hot, this wasn't that hot.

   28. JCJason Calacanis10:18

       Huh.

   29. CPChamath Palihapitiya10:19

       I think Chamath might be onto something. You know, Michelle Taylor got the same label around the same day for a tweet that seemed totally innocuous too.

   30. Mm-hmm.
3. 14:37 – 27:37

   "Racial equity audits" with product-level consequences might be coming to Big Tech

   1. JCJason Calacanis14:37

      Okay. Uh, in a related story, Democrats want racial equity audits at tech companies. According to the Washington Free Beacon, uh, which Sax, correct me if I'm wrong, that's some sort of wacky right-wing, uh, publication? Uh...

   2. CPChamath Palihapitiya14:50

      Never heard of it.

   3. JCJason Calacanis14:52

      Okay. Washington Free Beacon, "If instituted orders would have veto power over every product or initiative, that's not an exaggeration," is what the story says. One proposal from House Democrats would fine companies 20,000 a day for not completing biennial independent racial equity audits. A left-wing nonprofit called Color Of Change is pushing for these audits. Last week, their president called for independent auditors to vet new products from tech companies before they're released in front of Congress. 2018, Color Of Change successfully pushed Facebook into completing an audit. They called for more restrictions on Trump's posts. Color Of Change itself pushed for Trump to be permanently banned from the platform.

   4. CPChamath Palihapitiya15:30

      Just so you know, this is exactly the, the, the rough version of what happened to Microsoft in their DOJ settlement. Their antitrust settlement was effectively an oversight where lawyers at the DOJ were the product managers and had, not effectively veto right, but you had to approve product (laughs) features before you could push them for 10 years. You know, this is essentially what caused Bomber's reign to be so, you know, ignominious. It's like you couldn't do anything because like you had, you had a plan to do something and you'd have to go to these random folks who didn't really have the context to make a, a, a decision one way or the other on features. So, I mean, the idea that they would do this is a pretty, it's pretty crazy.

   5. JCJason Calacanis16:06

      I need a point of clarification here. I've heard the term, uh, racial audits or racial equity audits. My understanding of those were to understand the composure of the company, uh, in terms of, you know, the diversity in the company. But this is something different. This is in the product to make sure the product isn't racist. Can products be racist? What, uh, what's an example of a product being racist? I don't understand what they would f- find.

   6. CPChamath Palihapitiya16:33

      Let me unpack this for you, okay?

   7. JCJason Calacanis16:35

      Yeah, please.

   8. CPChamath Palihapitiya16:35

      What they are basically saying is that these big companies and the... For example, they've called on Google to ha- conduct one of these audits. They want all these big companies to conduct these audits. These so-called auditors are actually political consultants who are-

   9. JCJason Calacanis16:49

      Ah.

   10. CPChamath Palihapitiya16:49

       ... members of the Democratic Party, who are friends of the senators who are pushing for this. They're political activists.

   11. JCJason Calacanis16:54

       Oh, it's a grift.

   12. CPChamath Palihapitiya16:55

       And it's partly a grift, but it's more than that because, you know, when you conduct an audit, let's just take this word audit for a second, okay? You bring in a big five accounting firm and they will check your numbers according to generally accepted accounting principles, GAAP, and make sure that the numbers are what you've reported them to be. That is the purpose of an audit. And if the auditor ever says that you've done anything wrong, like you have to fix it. There's no choice. Or you can appeal to some other auditor and have them redo the work, okay, according to these generally accepted principles. With an equity audit, what exactly are the principles that are being enforced or checked here? There is no generally accepted list of equity principles that must be enforced to these companies. Basically, you have to do whatever this political activist tells you to do. I mean, it's essentially like bringing in a party commissar to now take over the company-

   13. JCJason Calacanis17:46

       Hm.

   14. CPChamath Palihapitiya17:46

       ... or at least be inside the company telling the executives and officer of the company what to do. It's something that, frankly, the CCP would do.

   15. JCJason Calacanis17:53

       It does feel a little like, uh, yeah, Stasi-like. Didn't we have all of the companies, uh, on their own, from Twitter to Google to Facebook release their own diversity stats years ago?

   16. CPChamath Palihapitiya18:09

       I think this is about more-

   17. JCJason Calacanis18:09

       And they'd do it yearly.

   18. CPChamath Palihapitiya18:10

       ... than diversity. It's about equity. It's about equity, so-

   19. JCJason Calacanis18:12

       So let's explain the difference in what that means. This is somehow-

   20. CPChamath Palihapitiya18:15

       Well, I mean-

   21. JCJason Calacanis18:15

       ... how the company's run, like the day-to-day life of the employees there, not just the composure and the breakdown of the employees?

   22. CPChamath Palihapitiya18:21

       Look, equity, equity means anything that progressives say it means. We've seen on this program before how equity has jumped the shark. There's now, uh, there was a provision in the infrastructure bill for tree equity, so-I mean, really, any disparity that occurs that progressives don't like can now be called a violation of equity and this gives them the authorization to come in there and start giving orders.

   23. JCJason Calacanis18:41

       Hmm. It's very weird that it... I don't understand how the product then review gets stopped.

   24. CPChamath Palihapitiya18:47

       Well, maybe-

   25. JCJason Calacanis18:48

       Is that meant to throttle you from releasing product as a punitive?

   26. CPChamath Palihapitiya18:51

       Let me give you an example. So-

   27. JCJason Calacanis18:53

       Please, yeah.

   28. CPChamath Palihapitiya18:53

       ... recently, you know, I wrote a piece called The No Buy List, where I... Basically, you had companies like PayPal and some of these other financial firms were starting to deny service to customers, to users, based on their political affiliations. And not just, like, people who are in, you know, well-known hate groups that, like, everybody sort of, you know, eschews and wants to stay away from. But these are people with relatively down the middle conservative, you know, conservative groups, and they were being denied service by, you know, fintech firms. So now, I'm not saying that this is what this means, but if this equity auditor tells you, "Well look, I don't think it's equitable to allow these conservative groups to, you know, be a user of your product," well, what's the company gonna do? They're gonna have to listen to that. And, and that, that is a plausible scenario given that it's already occurred.

   29. We've all... We've, we said this so many times on the pod, but I just wanna say it again for... 'Cause I guess a lot of folks are new and listening. Whenever you hear equity used by a politician, it usually means there's a power grab involved.

   30. JCJason Calacanis19:54

       Yeah.
4. 27:37 – 42:56

   Elizabeth Warren vs. Elon on Twitter, birth of "Senator Karen," understanding where the Fed can go from here

   1. CPChamath Palihapitiya27:37

      or form.

   2. JCJason Calacanis27:37

      Speaking of Karens, uh, Elizabeth Warren, uh, was bashing-

   3. CPChamath Palihapitiya27:41

      (laughs)

   4. JCJason Calacanis27:41

      ... Elon over taxes.

   5. CPChamath Palihapitiya27:42

      Goodness, what

   6. NANarrator27:43

      (laughs)

   7. JCJason Calacanis27:43

      Uh, and Elon, um, has a Twitter handle, um, with some followers, and he responded. Uh, Elizabeth Warren says, "Let's change the rigged tax code so the Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else." Unfortunately for, uh, Elizabeth Warren, uh, Elon Musk is pretty good at Twitter. He replied, "And if you opened your eyes for two seconds, you would realize I pay more taxes than any American in history this year." (laughs) He pay- which is, I, I guess, true. He paid more in taxes now than any American in history. As a side note, Elizabeth Warren has a $12 million net worth, and I saw that he paid no taxes on her equity holdings, because she didn't sell anything, which is how the tax code works.

   8. CPChamath Palihapitiya28:27

      (laughs)

   9. JCJason Calacanis28:27

      And, uh, Elon then responded, uh, "Don't spend it all at once. Oh, wait, you already did." (laughs) And then, you know, after the warmup replies, Elon really, you know, uh, got in the zone and, uh, like Steph Curry, just started draining half-court shots.

   10. CPChamath Palihapitiya28:45

       He ratioed her every single time. Wow.

   11. JCJason Calacanis28:46

       Ratioed with 50,000 replies. "You remind me of when I was a kid, and my friend's angry mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason. Please don't call the manager on me, Senator Karen." Elon also responded to Bernie Sanders's (laughs) , uh, tweet today about climate change. Bernie Sanders said, "When future generations ask us, 'What did we do to stop the climate crisis?' how will we answer?" And, uh, Elon said, " (clears throat) ." And so great tweets. Uh, but to the bigger picture, did these people even know what's going on in the world?

   12. CPChamath Palihapitiya29:20

       No, they woke up, they woke up on the wrong side of the tilt bed.

   13. JCJason Calacanis29:24

       (laughs)

   14. CPChamath Palihapitiya29:25

       Yeah. (laughs)

   15. Because, uh, in, in, like, a 24-hour period, he was the Time Person of the Year, the FT Person of the Year, and they just went into super mega tilt mode.

   16. JCJason Calacanis29:36

       And the Build Back Better Act got shelved, and he paid-

   17. CPChamath Palihapitiya29:39

       And then, and then Build Back Better-

   18. JCJason Calacanis29:40

       ... tax on $20 billion in sales.

   19. CPChamath Palihapitiya29:42

       ... got shelved and... Um, well, I mean, you know, I think we, we talked about this last week, but that bill is dead now. I mean, they pushed it to March to (laughs) basically avoid a down vote. Nothing's gonna happen. David, you're right.

   20. JCJason Calacanis29:52

       But wait a second.

   21. CPChamath Palihapitiya29:52

       I think this bill is dead.

   22. JCJason Calacanis29:53

       We said last week, wouldn't it be hilarious if Elon said, "Kill it," and then it got killed?

   23. CPChamath Palihapitiya29:58

       Well, I don't, I don't think that that's why the bill is dying. I think the real reason is that we now see a Fed posture which is actually pretty reasonable-

   24. JCJason Calacanis30:07

       Mm-hmm.

   25. CPChamath Palihapitiya30:07

       ... which actually says, "Oh, wait, there's way too much money in the system as it is."

   26. JCJason Calacanis30:12

       Yeah.

   27. CPChamath Palihapitiya30:12

       You know, the Fed two days ago basically said, "We're gonna see up to three rate hikes next year, probably 50 basis points each." So, you know, it's basically acknowledging that these, these last, you know, several years, we have printed way too much money, and they're trying to fix the problem that they created. So that's, I think, the real reason. And then the CBO comes out and basically says, the Congressional Budget Office, and says, "This thing is a white albatross that's gonna cost way more than you guys think it will." And so it puts Biden in this very awkward situation, which is, you know, on the one hand, he supports Powell, um, and, you know, he supports institutions or has historically, like the CBO-... but he effectively then has to push back on both of them all in one fell swoop to try to ram this bill down people's throats and the support is... I think it's crumbling. And so, you know, to save face, they basically said, "Well, we'll put a pin on this and we'll revisit it in March." But you guys know what's going to happen. In the next three months, there's going to be some other crisis, most folks will forget, and it may just allow them to move on without having to actually deal with the potential of this thing getting defeated, which would just be, I think, cataclysmically bad for-

   28. JCJason Calacanis31:19

       Sacks.

   29. CPChamath Palihapitiya31:20

       ... for Democrats.

   30. JCJason Calacanis31:20

       You were on CNBC today. I thought you said something really important where you said, "Hey listen, maybe if we just calm things down for a year, we can s- you know, get through..." I'm not sure what the exact quote was, but maybe you could unpack that sentiment you had on CNBC today, because I thought that was pretty important.
5. 42:56 – 53:02

   Omicron spreading rapidly in NYC, but deaths are still relatively flat, anticipating the quality of life split for blue/red states going forward

   1. CPChamath Palihapitiya42:56

   2. JCJason Calacanis42:56

      And related to that, Omnicron is spreading like crazy. Uh, New York City has now-

   3. CPChamath Palihapitiya43:00

      Oh, Omnicron (laughs) .

   4. JCJason Calacanis43:02

      (laughs) Omnicron, Omicron.

   5. CPChamath Palihapitiya43:04

      There is no N.

   6. JCJason Calacanis43:06

      Omicron.

   7. CPChamath Palihapitiya43:07

      Omicron.

   8. JCJason Calacanis43:07

      Omicron, yes. I- I'll learn how to pronounce it when it's gone.

   9. CPChamath Palihapitiya43:11

      Omicron. Omicron.

   10. JCJason Calacanis43:12

       Uh, is spreading like crazy in New York City and in the UK, amongst other places. Uh, the NBA and the NFL are seeing surges.

   11. DFDavid Friedberg43:21

       I've had a ton of people I know test positive this week. Have you guys had that? Family, friends? Crazy.

   12. JCJason Calacanis43:26

       No. No, not one person.

   13. DFDavid Friedberg43:27

       It's insane how many people are... I know so many people -

   14. JCJason Calacanis43:29

       In New York City? East Co-

   15. DFDavid Friedberg43:32

       Related, yeah. And a lot of people that don't have, um, any symptoms.

   16. JCJason Calacanis43:35

       So here's the chart of cases. Uh, cases spiking, but hospitalizations and deaths are flat or going down, um, in places where these outbreaks are occurring. The UK, uh, charts are even starker. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence. Everybody on TikTok and Instagram and Twitter, uh, young people in New York who went to SantaCon are saying they all got it. But if you look at this chart-

   17. CPChamath Palihapitiya43:55

       I'm sorry, but what, what is SantaCon?

   18. JCJason Calacanis43:56

       SantaCon is the worst holiday of the year. It's a time when a bunch of young people dress as Santa Claus and get drunk. And you have 10,000 people-

   19. CPChamath Palihapitiya44:06

       Sorry, but like-

   20. It's a bar crawl.

   21. JCJason Calacanis44:08

       It's a bar crawl.

   22. CPChamath Palihapitiya44:09

       Like, Sexy Santa?

   23. DFDavid Friedberg44:09

       This is like SantaCon. Do you see this? You see how, you see how Monty's wearing his Santa outfit?

   24. CPChamath Palihapitiya44:14

       (laughs)

   25. JCJason Calacanis44:14

       Aww, Monty Claus.

   26. CPChamath Palihapitiya44:16

       (bells jingling)

   27. DFDavid Friedberg44:16

       That's what goes on. Everyone wears their little Santa outfit and they go bar crawling.

   28. CPChamath Palihapitiya44:20

       So it's not Sexy Santa?

   29. JCJason Calacanis44:21

       Well, actually, I have a story about that. I was in San Francisco when I first moved up here.

   30. CPChamath Palihapitiya44:26

       Oh my god. I don't... I don't... You were Sexy Santa?
6. 53:02 – 1:08:57

   Jeremy Strong's New Yorker profile and backlash, politicians trading stocks

   1. CPChamath Palihapitiya53:02

   2. What'd you guys think about Succession?

   3. JCJason Calacanis53:04

      Oh, no, I haven't seen it.

   4. CPChamath Palihapitiya53:05

      Oh, good. I loved it.

   5. NANarrator53:07

      I haven't seen it yet.

   6. CPChamath Palihapitiya53:07

      Don't say anything.

   7. I loved it.

   8. Jeremy Strong. Jeremy Strong. Let's talk about the Jeremy Strong thing.

   9. But but but but but go back.

   10. JCJason Calacanis53:11

       Jeremy Strong, okay? Jeremy Strong is a weirdo, uh, according to a New Yorker profile, and there's been a huge response to it. Uh, this profile came out-

   11. CPChamath Palihapitiya53:19

       This is Kendall, Kendall Roy on Succession.

   12. JCJason Calacanis53:21

       Kendall Roy, who is woke and dumb and ineffective as an executive. And obviously the show is modeled after Rupert Murdoch and Fox and the kids there, who are not dopey, actually. In the article, it hinted that most of Succession's coworkers dislike him due to his intensity and mething acted... me- method acting rituals. He won't rehearse with anybody, he's in character all the time, like Daniel Day-Lewis. He won't get makeup whenever everybody else does 'cause he doesn't wanna reduce the energy and the buildup. Uh, the a- article notes there is a fine line that Strong walks between being a legendary (laughs) method actor and just a completely awesome networker.

   13. CPChamath Palihapitiya54:03

       Wait, can I tell you why this story was interesting to me and why I sent this to you guys?

   14. JCJason Calacanis54:07

       Go ahead. Yeah.

   15. CPChamath Palihapitiya54:08

       Okay. So here's a guy who, in many ways, is a virtuoso, and the reason... I mean, he's a, he's a really good actor because I despise Kendall Roy on that show. Uh, and I was wondering, like, is this guy just a terrible actor or is he such a good actor that... I hate them.

   16. JCJason Calacanis54:24

       Yes.

   17. CPChamath Palihapitiya54:24

       I hate him. And that's why I was attracted to this article, and in it or after it... So basically what happens is he's a virtuoso, just... And I'll come back to it in a second. These people at The New Yorker, who I guess are just jealous or wanna write clickbait, try to destroy this guy. But what they didn't factor is that when they published this article, all these other actors would come to his defense and do it really publicly.

   18. JCJason Calacanis54:50

       Yes, Anne Hathaway, uh, Jessica Chastain-

   19. CPChamath Palihapitiya54:54

       Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain-

   20. JCJason Calacanis54:54

       Aaron Sorkin wrote a letter.

   21. CPChamath Palihapitiya54:56

       Exactly, that Jessica Chastain published to Twitter because Aaron- Aaron Sorkin doesn't have access to social media (laughs) by design.

   22. JCJason Calacanis55:03

       Yeah.

   23. CPChamath Palihapitiya55:03

       And in all of it, they said, "This is the most incredible person we've seen." Aaron Sorkin says, "This guy is as good as Dustin Hoffman."

   24. JCJason Calacanis55:10

       Mm.

   25. CPChamath Palihapitiya55:10

       Which is like... That's as...

   26. JCJason Calacanis55:11

       As good as it gets.

   27. CPChamath Palihapitiya55:12

       So why was it interesting to me? It's... You have these people-... who are grinding-

   28. JCJason Calacanis55:18

       Hmm.

   29. CPChamath Palihapitiya55:18

       ... and trying to perfect their craft, be a virtuoso. You talked about Steph Curry grinding, trying to perfect his craft.

   30. JCJason Calacanis55:23

       Right.
7. 1:08:57 – 1:15:39

   Future of mRNA technology

   1. JCJason Calacanis1:08:57

      all right, talk to us about the MRNA news for cancer, Freeberg, that came out this past week.

   2. DFDavid Friedberg1:09:03

      So, I think the article that you guys sent around was one related to, uh, an oncology treatment that uses MRNA tech. But I, I think it's... What, what I wanted to kinda... What I thought would be interesting to talk about for a second is just zooming out on MRNA technology as a whole, um, which, you know, has been theorized for, you know, the be- the, the potential of it's been talked about for 50 years. Um, if we talk about, real quick, what, what RNA is, remember your DNA, your genetic code, uh, you know, defines, um, the, uh, uh, the printing of proteins in your cells. And so every three letters of DNA is, is an amino acid. A bunch of amino acids in a, in a row form a protein, and that protein has some function in your body. The way that the DNA gets translated into protein is through these MRNA snippets. So, uh, a little snippet of RNA is a copy of DNA which floats over from the DNA strand, and it floats into what's called the ribosome, and the ribosome's the protein printer in the cell. And there's lots of ribosomes, and there's lots of RNA floating around all the time, and it's being copied over. So some chemical triggers the expression of that gene, of that sequence of DNA into RNA, that then turns into protein. And so a chemical induces the protein. Then the protein does something interesting, and the protein has a function in your body. And some of those proteins in human body can, you know, do bad things, and some of them can do good things. And so the idea has always been that we can actually use proteins as a way to modulate our health and modulate disease. For example, creating a protein that can attach to cancer cells and signal immune cells to come and kill those cancer cells, as an example. And some people have genetic problems where their DNA prints the wrong protein, and then that protein is malformed or causes some harm to your health. And so the idea for RNA technology has always been that instead of having DNA be the source of truth for the proteins that get expressed in your body, can we stick RNA directly into cells and use that RNA to trigger the production of proteins that can do specific things in your body? And remember, the biggest segment of the pharma market, or a huge segment of the pharma market, is what's called biologic drugs, which are largely antibodies, which are a type of protein, that have some specific function. But very many of these proteins are hard to get into the body and get them into the right place and get them to do the things we want them to do. So it would be a lot easier if we could get RNA into the right cells, to get those cells to make the right protein to do that thing that we want them to do.

Episode duration: 1:28:26