The Ledger, every show

Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks, across all 44 shows. Pick shows below, then mix any filter with any other.

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AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Claudine Gay targeted Roland Fryer over police violence research
“And of course, Clyde and Gay, who at the time wasn't even president yet, but she was like a big internal African-American woman activists at Harvard. She went after him and she found a former student who, and she got the former student from like 10 years ago t…”
Joe Lonsdale Feb 14, 2025 ▶ 44:39 How AI Might Solve the Alien Mystery: Thought Leader's Paradox · Joe Lonsdale
20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Israel Will Keep Fighting and Completely Wipe Out Hamas
“The way it stands now is, is we're going to keep fighting. We're going to wipe out Hamas and hopefully we can work with others to have a government there. That's not, you know, does not allow terrorism.”
Joe Lonsdale Mar 11, 2024 ▶ 34:38 Joe Lonsdale: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security? | E1125 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Anti-Israel Hatred in Gaza Stems From School Indoctrination
“I think basically what creates a generation of civilians that hate Israel is you have the schools in that area have been run by people who teach people that Jews are pigs and Jews are wrong and our religion hates Jews.”
Joe Lonsdale Mar 11, 2024 ▶ 34:58 Joe Lonsdale: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security? | E1125 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Contradicted
Lonsdale: Majority of Young Adults Dislike Jews for Their Success
“And now in 19 to 25 year olds, majority of them don't like Jews because we're successful.”
Joe Lonsdale Feb 8, 2024 ▶ 8:34 Ep 77: Mike Solana on Exposing Corruption, Saving San Francisco, and Building a New Media Empire · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Brands get 10x better sales using fit models over obese models
“One of the funny things, which I probably shouldn't say, but I will, is that we have consumer stuff we do sometimes, and a lot of the consumer companies I see around are starting to put, like, very obese people as their models, and I asked our partners who kno…”
Joe Lonsdale Aug 8, 2022 ▶ 24:11 How Psychedelic Medicine Could Transform Healthcare | Why Medical School Is Broken · Joe Lonsdale
ALL-IN Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale claims BLM movement ideas caused thousands of additional Black deaths
“There's a lot of truth and positive parts of the BLM movement the last couple years, but it's actually led to thousands more deaths in the black community because of the things that it was pushing. Because of the bad ideas.”
Joe Lonsdale Jun 2, 2022 ▶ 11:30 #AIS: Joe Lonsdale on the problem with higher education
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Robots will be able to perform any task within two years
“In the next couple years, robots are going to be able to do everything.”
Joe Lonsdale Aug 24, 2026 ▶ 1:25 Ex-DeepMind Scientist Just Solved Robotic's Toughest Challenge
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: AI-native startups will crush incumbents by redesigning workflows from scratch
“It's so hard to like re-engineer how some of these things work based on what's possible today. That they're just going to get crushed by new companies started by younger people who are like, maybe not even younger necessarily, but people who are just doing thi…”
Joe Lonsdale Jul 30, 2026 ▶ 16:04 Why AI Creators Keep Panicking (They're Wrong)
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Contradicted
Lonsdale: Russia funded European green parties to halt fracking and eliminate competition
“They funded the green parties, they funded the protests, and they turned off fracking in Europe because it's so good for the environment. They tricked everyone because obviously they don't want competition.”
Joe Lonsdale Jun 5, 2026 ▶ 21:16 SpaceX’s Secret, Nuclear's Rebirth, and the AI Power Crisis · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Contradicted
Lonsdale claims Biden's HUD forced facilities to allow drug use
“For a while, HUD, the national government was actually coming in under the Biden administration, and it was forcing people to allow people to use drugs in their treatment areas”
Joe Lonsdale Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 15:55 How this Governor is Proving Trump Right · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Zuckerberg Built an 'Anti-Woke' School After Facebook's Became Far-Left
“He and a bunch of my friends have a school that's, like, sort of anti, anti-woke, because the school of Facebook was super woke, and so they all had to, like, build something else.”
Joe Lonsdale Jun 26, 2025 ▶ 22:15 Tucker, Shapiro & The New Right—Dave Rubin Calls for an Honest Debate · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Competitors are weaponizing Reid Hoffman's politics against Joby
“One fund that put a billion dollars in is my friend. Michael Thompson, who he, you know, I feel like I'm friends with both sides, but I'm kind of on the moderate right, I'm on the right, and Michael is on the right, and his partner Reid Hoffman's on the left, …”
Joe Lonsdale Jun 4, 2025 ▶ 20:52 How 200MPH Flying Cars are about to Change the World · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Slow FDA review enables China to commercialize US biotech IP first
“We'll start something here that's based on a new breakthrough, a really important new target, and because the FDA is so slow, because it takes you a decade, and China only takes four or five years, they'll literally start something a few years after taking all…”
Joe Lonsdale Jun 4, 2025 ▶ 25:46 How 200MPH Flying Cars are about to Change the World · Joe Lonsdale
ALL-IN Assertion Partly supported
Lonsdale: Coinbase and Winklevosses refuse to hire Gensler's SEC staff
“They won't even hire anyone who worked with Gary on any of this stuff they were doing.”
Joe Lonsdale Dec 7, 2024 ▶ 21:17 New SEC Chair, Bitcoin, xAI Supercomputer, UnitedHealth CEO murder, with Gavin Baker & Joe Lonsdale
BIGDEAL Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: Harris-Warren price gouging proposal covers 23,000 large companies
“Well, if you look at the price gouging law that Kamala Harris and Senator Warren and all these people on the very extreme left were putting forward, it's actually something that applies to about 23,000 big companies, and it would give them a lot of arbitrary p…”
Joe Lonsdale Oct 1, 2024 ▶ 19:55 Billionaire Entrepreneur: “America Will Collapse Without A Recession” | Joe Lonsdale
BIGDEAL Assertion Partly supported
Lonsdale: US federal government abandoned merit-based testing 45 years ago
“So this was basically a form of DEI. It's like proto-DEI in the late seventies, and it was under Jimmy Carter's administration, and then eventually the courts pushed it and finalized it in the early eighties. So for 45 years, We haven't had merit-based tests i…”
Joe Lonsdale Oct 1, 2024 ▶ 25:20 Billionaire Entrepreneur: “America Will Collapse Without A Recession” | Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: British intel chief believed Iran tricked US into Iraq war
“And one of my mentors ran British intelligence and was involved before the Iraq war in the U.S. And he tells me that the Iranians are very, very clever, the regime and certain people there. And he says that, that he believes from the best intelligence he saw, …”
Joe Lonsdale Apr 18, 2024 ▶ 22:26 Ep 85: The Path to Regime Change in Iran with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi · Joe Lonsdale
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: China Controls TikTok's Algorithms to Brainwash Tens of Millions of Americans
“Yeah, I would force them to divest of Tik Tok. I think that, I think that's fine for Americans own Tik Tok. I think right now, China controls the Tik Tok algorithms. I don't care if the guy's based in Singapore, some of the data's here. It's very clear China c…”
Joe Lonsdale Mar 11, 2024 ▶ 28:35 Joe Lonsdale: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security? | E1125 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: China Is Likely to Launch a Military Strike Within Four Years
“I'm very concerned about the geopolitical situation with China and Russia and the potential of war. When I was in, you know, a country in Asia, I won't say the name, seeing our ambassador there, who's on the other political side, but a very smart guy. Even he …”
Joe Lonsdale Mar 11, 2024 ▶ 1:00:35 Joe Lonsdale: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security? | E1125 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: China censors Hollywood films intended for US audiences
“They tell me there's two different looks that Chinese get for every one of their movies. One look is things where they say before it comes out, if you have to censor these or can't go to China, but the other look is things you have to censor for American audie…”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 30, 2023 ▶ 21:34 Ep 72: Illegal Chinese Bio Labs & Secret Police Inside America! Congressman Mike Gallagher · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: US Pensions and Endowments Finance Chinese Military Innovation
“We have lots of U.S. Pensions, U.S. Endowments financing their military innovation right now still.”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 30, 2023 ▶ 25:55 Ep 72: Illegal Chinese Bio Labs & Secret Police Inside America! Congressman Mike Gallagher · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Ophthalmologist Lobbying Delayed AI Diabetic Retinopathy Approvals for Years
“Yeah, we did the first AI treatment for diabetic retinopathy with the company, and it took You know, because you can scan the eye and see if the diabetes might make them go blind, which you can then treat very, very affordably with AI. And it took us years to …”
Joe Lonsdale Feb 9, 2023 ▶ 18:22 This New Startup Is Disrupting Healthcare As We Know It · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Populists will mismanage the AI workforce transition
“What's gonna happen is some crazy populists, both on the right and left, this is like a non-political comment, crazy populists want to manage it because they want the power, and then they're just gonna screw it up, right? And they're gonna steal.”
Joe Lonsdale Jul 9, 2026 ▶ 39:56 Why AI is Bigger Than the Industrial Revolution
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: Europe Is Poorer Than All US States Due to Slower Growth
“Which is what happened to Europe, by the way, is they don't realize they're the poorest relative to all of our states because we've just been growing so much faster for the generation.”
Joe Lonsdale May 19, 2026 ▶ 19:06 Trump’s Plan for AI Dominance · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Autonomous AI Agents Are Now Much Better Hackers Than Humans
“The new agents, actually, it turns out, are now much better hackers than people. They manage other agents. They do it.”
Joe Lonsdale Feb 17, 2026 ▶ 45:26 Top Tech Investors: This AI Wave Is 10X Bigger Than SaaS · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Facebook asked Peter Thiel to be openly gay for diversity
“I remember they had to ask Peter Thiel if you, if he could be openly gay for the Facebook board because it was important to count for the number of people.”
Joe Lonsdale Jan 26, 2026 ▶ 31:38 Investing in 2026: What You Need to Know (SEC Chairman) · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: Mississippi has a higher GDP per capita than the UK
“And in Mississippi, I think, is our poorest state right nearby, and you think of Mississippi, and you don't think of wealthy people, and it's wealthier now than the UK, obviously.”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 8:55 What Steve Jobs Knew About Innovation That You Don't · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: Tech startup formations in China have collapsed over four years
“You've seen the number of tech starts have collapsed over the last four years in China.”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 24:11 What Steve Jobs Knew About Innovation That You Don't · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: Chinese models now dominate global open-source AI
“Their open source models in the world, for example, are now dominated by the Chinese.”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 25:40 What Steve Jobs Knew About Innovation That You Don't · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Contradicted
Lonsdale claims over 48 district attorneys funded the Wren Collective
“More than 48 DAs were caught specifically funding the Wren collective around this.”
Joe Lonsdale Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 18:42 How this Governor is Proving Trump Right · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Contradicted
Lonsdale: Venezuela is manufacturing weapons for United States adversaries
“It's producing with manufacturing plants, weapons for our adversaries.”
Joe Lonsdale Aug 21, 2025 ▶ 1:53 From Prosperity to Ruins: Venezuela’s Fight for Freedom · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: Former SF DA Chesa Boudin Worked with Hugo Chavez
“Our recent DA in San Francisco, who we threw out of power chase a boot, and I guess worked with Chavez as did many other of the far left in the U S.”
Joe Lonsdale Aug 21, 2025 ▶ 16:44 From Prosperity to Ruins: Venezuela’s Fight for Freedom · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Protesters targeting Palantir are paid by the political left
“The protesters get paid by the left to do it, but then they're actually just encouraging you.”
Joe Lonsdale Aug 13, 2025 ▶ 7:45 From Palantir to Space Defense: Building a $100 Billion Company · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Palantir caught Chinese intelligence blackmailing employees to steal IP
“Obviously, you know, at Palantir, we catch them in the old days trying to steal stuff. And it's, it was interesting. The thing that really I've mentioned before, but that shocked me was there's people we knew and trusted from PhD programs who are working with …”
Joe Lonsdale Aug 13, 2025 ▶ 41:12 From Palantir to Space Defense: Building a $100 Billion Company · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Majority of Young People Taught Critical Frameworks Resent Jews
“19 and twenty-five-year-olds who've gone through the system, who have these frameworks, the majority of them have problems with Jews right now, which is terrifying to me.”
Joe Lonsdale Jul 28, 2025 ▶ 33:47 Two Billionaires Debate: Should We Fear AI? · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Partly supported
Lonsdale: Harvard's Jewish population fell from 20% to under 5%
“One, it used to be for a long time based on merit, over 20% Jewish. It's very clear that along with this other kind of anti-Semitic stuff that was like not okay for the people running it, and they, and they've pushed that down to, I think, under five percent n…”
Joe Lonsdale May 17, 2025 ▶ 28:30 The Truth About AI: Sam Lessin’s Contrarian Take · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Top 100 universities will not hire non-leftist historians
“You can't get hired as a historian at any of the top hundred universities anymore if you're not kind of on one side of things”
Joe Lonsdale May 17, 2025 ▶ 31:39 The Truth About AI: Sam Lessin’s Contrarian Take · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Prediction Didn’t hold up
Lonsdale: Xi Jinping will shut down TikTok rather than allow a sale
“I think because this is such a powerful tool for the CCP that Xi Jinping will not allow it to be Sold out of his control and we'll turn it off instead.”
Joe Lonsdale Apr 3, 2025 ▶ 29:26 Billionaire vs. U.S. Senator: Should TikTok Be Banned? · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Palantir partnered with special operations to eliminate thousands of terrorists
“And I know what this means, because obviously building Palantir, we partnered to help you know, use a lot of very advanced techniques in partnership with special operations forces to wipe out Several thousand terrorists.”
Joe Lonsdale Apr 3, 2025 ▶ 31:33 Billionaire vs. U.S. Senator: Should TikTok Be Banned? · Joe Lonsdale
ALL-IN Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Epirus shot down drones 9.5 times farther than legacy contractors
“When we went head to head with them, we didn't just like beat them by a little bit. We shot down the hardened drones nine and a half times farther away. Same size, same power, nine and a half times, completely wiped the floor.”
Joe Lonsdale Mar 8, 2025 ▶ 34:33 Tariffs, Trump's Economic Endgame, Market Chaos, Bitcoin Reserve, CoreWeave IPO
ALL-IN Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: European civilization will decline over the next 20 to 30 years
“I did not see European civilization going the right way the next 20 or 30 years.”
Joe Lonsdale Mar 8, 2025 ▶ 1:17:09 Tariffs, Trump's Economic Endgame, Market Chaos, Bitcoin Reserve, CoreWeave IPO
ALL-IN Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: U.S. defense market will yield 7 to 10 new prime contractors
“I think there's probably the right answer for the U S it's not going to be like a thousand businesses or a hundred businesses. It's going to be like seven to 10 new primes.”
Joe Lonsdale Dec 7, 2024 ▶ 46:46 New SEC Chair, Bitcoin, xAI Supercomputer, UnitedHealth CEO murder, with Gavin Baker & Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Joe Lonsdale: Palantir helped locate over 10,000 terrorists for elimination
“And so Palantir ended up, as you probably know, helping find like over 10,000 terrorists to be eliminated in those years.”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 29, 2024 ▶ 47:47 Turning Whiskey Into Millions — The Hustler Behind WhistlePig · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Lonsdale: US NGOs receive over $100B in government funding
“In this country, NGOs receive over a hundred billion dollars of funding from governments now. It's actually probably a lot higher than that.”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 15, 2024 ▶ 8:06 From Entrepreneur To Governor: How He's Changing America · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Anduril integrated with Saronic in three days versus legacy primes
“So we have this company, Sironic, I think you're also just invested in them, that we helped, I helped build, and it's growing really fast for the Navy, and the people, they asked us to weaponize some of the autonomous vessels, and they, and so we reached out t…”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 2, 2024 ▶ 20:59 Secrets Of Investing Early – Lessons From A Billion-Dollar Investor · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Regulators destroyed PayPal's early competitors in Europe
“When we were building PayPal, I was a kid there Eliot Spitzer kept trying to destroy the company with regulation, and he came very close to doing so, and in Europe, there actually were companies that, that were destroyed by the regulators, so it's funny, like,…”
Joe Lonsdale Oct 25, 2024 ▶ 28:47 Economist Vs. Billionaire: How The Myth Of Income Inequality Is Dividing America · Joe Lonsdale
AMERICAN OPTIMIST Assertion Supported
Joe Lonsdale Claims Massive Racial Disparities in Top-Level Math Achievement
“So I think right now, for example, between the races, maybe it's not comfortable, but Asians have 25% of them that score, you know, at the top level in math, whereas with Hispanics, it's two percent and blacks is one percent.”
Joe Lonsdale Oct 25, 2024 ▶ 37:00 Economist Vs. Billionaire: How The Myth Of Income Inequality Is Dividing America · Joe Lonsdale
BIGDEAL Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Palantir Helped Reduce IED Deaths in Iraq
“Palatine worked because we worked really closely with a lot of the special forces communities and the teams and people like that who were competent, and we helped go to Iraq, we helped reduce the number of IED deaths, and really kind of, you know, fix things, …”
Joe Lonsdale Oct 1, 2024 ▶ 4:31 Billionaire Entrepreneur: “America Will Collapse Without A Recession” | Joe Lonsdale
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