Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)

Patrick McKenzie

patrick@kalzumeus.com

For verified host and producer emails, sign up to view.

Booking Overview

This is an interview-led show about the institutions, incentives, technology, finance, and government systems that shape daily life, supplemented by solo analytical episodes; external guests are typically specialized practitioners, writers, editors, and creators with firsthand expertise. Credible pitches include technology and finance operators, economists, policy experts, investigative journalists, and experienced creators who can explain complex systems accessibly; booking difficulty is medium because guests need substantive expertise but need not be major celebrities.

Metrics

Episodes: 99

Frequency: Weekly

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Male

Location: USA

Contact Information

patrick@kalzumeus.com

For verified host and producer emails, sign up to view.

Host

Patrick McKenzie - Technology entrepreneur and writer known for analyzing software businesses, finance, technology, and institutional systems.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

medium
Typical Credentials:  
Experienced practitioners, writers, editors, creators, technologists, economists, and institutional operators with firsthand knowledge of complex systems and the ability to explain their mechanics clearly.
Required Achievements:  
Leadership or specialized work in technology, finance, media, government, or other complex institutions, Published writing, investigative reporting, or original research, Built or operated a notable product, organization, publication, or creator business

Recent Guest Discussions

Clara Collier - How Working Writers And Reporters Use Large Language Models, Writing As Thinking, Investigative Reporting, Source Protection, Evidence Gathering, And Political Reporting.

Justin Kuiper - Youtube Economics, Creator Monetization, Advertising, Sponsorships, Production Labor, Recommendation Systems, And The Evolution Of Creators Into Firms.

Recent Topics

Complex Systems, Finance, Technology, Government, Economics

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on
Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)
:

Cheap cognition, supercharged surveillance, and AI risks, with Garrison Lovely

July 30, 2026

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Garrison Lovely, journalist and author of Obsolete: The AI Industry's Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us and How to Stop It, to map the three-sided debate over AI risk and why the arguments keep talking past each other. They then turn to what cheap cognition does to surveillance that already exists: FinCEN receives roughly 4 million suspicious activity reports a year and reads almost none of them, ICE agents run about a million queries against that data...

What you're actually getting paid in, with Leila Clark

July 23, 2026

In this episode, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Leila Clark, founder of Stardrift and formerly a software engineer at Jane Street, to discuss her essay "What Are You Getting Paid In?"  They cover how a Jane Street manager staffed the firm's least lucrative corner by paying people in culture, why Ken Griffin is worth roughly fifty Taylor Swifts, and how a longtime Google product manager quietly ends up with Grammy-winner money. The conversation ranges from academia's brutal tournament...

What LLMs can and can't do for writers, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine

July 16, 2026

Patrick McKenzie is joined by returning guest Clara Collier, editor-in-chief of Asterisk Magazine, to discuss how working writers and reporters actually use LLMs. Patrick walks through the machinery behind his recent SPLC reporting, including "parallel construction" with LLMs: when sources can't go on the record, models can surface public confirmation of the same facts in unguarded podcast interviews, press releases, and prepared remarks. They also cover why the best smoking gun sat unnoticed...

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