The Argument Index
Debate potential by speaker, the highest-scored statement each year, and the companies with the most bearish calls on record. All of it clickable, all of it playable.
People
Average debate potential by speaker
All 173 guests with 5 or more scored statements, ranked. 44 more have fewer than 5, too few for a fair average. Sort or filter below.
| # | Person | Avg debate potential | Statements scored |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Nocera Senior Writer, The Free Press | 4.2 | 5 |
| 2 | Scott Galloway Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern | 2.87 | 15 |
| 3 | Bethany McLean Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair | 2.83 | 6 |
| 4 | Lama Nachman (Lema Nachman) Director, Intelligent Systems Research Lab, Intel | 2.8 | 5 |
| 5 | Suzy Welch Professor, NYU Stern School of Business | 2.78 | 9 |
| 6 | Aza Raskin Co-Founder & President, Earth Species Project | 2.71 | 7 |
| 7 | Suzanne Clark President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce | 2.71 | 14 |
| 8 | James Daunt CEO, Barnes & Noble and Waterstones | 2.7 | 10 |
| 9 | Pat Gelsinger General Partner, Playground Global | 2.64 | 11 |
| 10 | Tom Freston Principal, Firefly3 | 2.62 | 13 |
| 11 | Scott Farquhar Co-Founder & Board Member, Atlassian | 2.61 | 18 |
| 12 | Kern Schireson Chairman & CEO, Known | 2.6 | 5 |
| 13 | David Luan AI Pioneer, Adept | 2.6 | 5 |
| 14 | Arvind Krishna Chairman and CEO, IBM | 2.57 | 23 |
| 15 | Gary Vaynerchuk Chairman, VaynerX & CEO, VaynerMedia | 2.56 | 16 |
| 16 | Rachel Botsman Lecturer, Oxford Saïd Business School | 2.53 | 17 |
| 17 | Bret Taylor CEO & Co-Founder, Sierra | 2.53 | 15 |
| 18 | Alexandr Wang Chief AI Officer, Meta Platforms | 2.5 | 12 |
| 19 | Sam Altman CEO, OpenAI | 2.5 | 8 |
| 20 | Andrew Anagnost President & CEO, Autodesk | 2.47 | 15 |
| 21 | Amjad Masad Co-founder & CEO, Replit | 2.46 | 35 |
| 22 | Mark Pincus Founder & Executive Chairman, Zynga | 2.43 | 21 |
| 23 | Arthur Brooks Professor of the Practice, Harvard Kennedy School | 2.42 | 12 |
| 24 | Daniel Lubetzky Founder and Chairman, Camino Partners | 2.41 | 17 |
| 25 | Paul Polman Co-founder & Chair Emeritus, IMAGINE | 2.4 | 5 |
| 26 | Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist, Canva | 2.38 | 21 |
| 27 | Mustafa Suleyman CEO, Microsoft AI | 2.38 | 24 |
| 28 | Sallie Krawcheck CEO & Co-Founder, Ellevest | 2.38 | 13 |
| 29 | Simon Sinek Founder, The Optimism Company | 2.36 | 14 |
| 30 | Mark Read Chairman, Kantar Media | 2.33 | 18 |
| 31 | Satya Nadella Chairman and CEO, Microsoft | 2.33 | 6 |
| 32 | Steve Huffman Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Reddit | 2.31 | 16 |
| 33 | Elizabeth Brink Co-CEO, Gensler | 2.29 | 7 |
| 34 | Mike Maples Founding Partner, Floodgate | 2.29 | 28 |
| 35 | Austin Russell Founder, Luminar Technologies | 2.28 | 46 |
| 36 | Eric Schmidt Founder & Chair, SCSP | 2.25 | 16 |
| 37 | Ari Wallach Founder and Executive Director, Longpath Labs | 2.25 | 12 |
| 38 | Ray Dalio Founder and Mentor, Bridgewater Associates | 2.25 | 8 |
| 39 | Maëlle Gavet Former CEO, Techstars | 2.24 | 17 |
| 40 | Barack Obama Co-Founder, The Obama Foundation | 2.24 | 21 |
| 41 | Amy Webb Founder & CEO, Future Today Strategy Group | 2.23 | 22 |
| 42 | Brian Chesky Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb | 2.22 | 9 |
| 43 | Esther Perel Host, Where Should We Begin? | 2.21 | 14 |
| 44 | Rana el Kaliouby General Partner, Blue Tulip Ventures | 2.2 | 5 |
| 45 | Paul English Founder & CEO, Boston Venture Studio | 2.2 | 10 |
| 46 | Alex Kurtzman Founder and Executive Producer, Secret Hideout | 2.18 | 11 |
| 47 | Tristan Walker Founder, Heirloom Management Co. | 2.17 | 6 |
| 48 | Caterina Fake Co-Founder, Flickr | 2.15 | 13 |
| 49 | Eric Ryan Partner, Greycroft | 2.1 | 10 |
| 50 | Steven Eidelman Founder and CEO, Modern Animal | 2.08 | 12 |
| 51 | Byron Deeter Investor, Bessemer Venture Partners | 2.07 | 15 |
| 52 | Professor Karim Lakhani Chair, Harvard D^3 Institute | 2.07 | 14 |
| 53 | Fawn Weaver Founder, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey | 2.06 | 18 |
| 54 | Angela Duckworth Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania | 2.05 | 22 |
| 55 | Jim Collins Author | 2 | 11 |
| 56 | Nick Thompson CEO, The Atlantic | 2 | 14 |
| 57 | Shantanu Narayen Chairman and CEO, Adobe | 2 | 18 |
| 58 | Steve Case Chairman & CEO, Revolution | 2 | 5 |
| 59 | Dara Khosrowshahi CEO, Uber | 2 | 26 |
| 60 | Maayan Cohen Founder & CEO, Hello Heart | 2 | 8 |
| 61 | Marissa Mayer Founder & CEO, Dazzle AI | 2 | 11 |
| 62 | Robert Reffkin Founder & CEO, Compass | 2 | 6 |
| 63 | Aneel Bhusri Co-Founder, CEO, and Chair, Workday | 2 | 9 |
| 64 | Mark Cuban Co-founder, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company | 2 | 12 |
| 65 | Rahul Roy-Chowdhury CEO, Grammarly | 1.95 | 21 |
| 66 | Tom Hale CEO, ŌURA | 1.93 | 14 |
| 67 | RJ Scaringe Founder & CEO, Rivian | 1.92 | 13 |
| 68 | David Epstein Author & Journalist | 1.92 | 12 |
| 69 | Sophia Amoruso Founder & Managing Partner, Trust Fund | 1.92 | 13 |
| 70 | Dharmesh Shah Co-Founder and CTO, HubSpot | 1.92 | 12 |
| 71 | John Green Author & Creator, Crash Course | 1.9 | 20 |
| 72 | Cassey Ho Founder & CEO, Blogilates and POPFLEX | 1.9 | 10 |
| 73 | Mike Salguero Founder & CEO, ButcherBox | 1.89 | 18 |
| 74 | Brad Wilson CEO, Care.com | 1.89 | 19 |
| 75 | Ryan Williams Founder & CEO, Ellis | 1.89 | 9 |
| 76 | Stephen Colbert Host, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | 1.88 | 17 |
| 77 | Angela Ahrendts Board Chair, Save the Children International | 1.87 | 15 |
| 78 | Spencer Rascoff CEO, Match Group | 1.86 | 7 |
| 79 | James Dyson Founder and Chief Engineer, Dyson | 1.86 | 22 |
| 80 | Jessica Alba Founder & Board Member, The Honest Company | 1.86 | 7 |
| 81 | Mariam Naficy Executive Chairman & Founder, Minted | 1.86 | 7 |
| 82 | John Mackey Co-Founder & CEO, Love.Life | 1.85 | 20 |
| 83 | Richard Branson Founder, Virgin Group | 1.85 | 13 |
| 84 | CJ Grimes Founder & CEO, WorkMoney | 1.83 | 6 |
| 85 | Julia Hartz Co-Founder and former CEO, Eventbrite | 1.83 | 6 |
| 86 | Jimmy Iovine Co-founder, Beats Electronics | 1.83 | 12 |
| 87 | Steven Ellsworth Co-Founder, Poppi | 1.8 | 5 |
| 88 | Christina Cacioppo CEO and Co-founder, Vanta | 1.8 | 15 |
| 89 | Shellye Archambeau Former CEO, MetricStream | 1.8 | 10 |
| 90 | Katherine Maher President & CEO, NPR | 1.8 | 10 |
| 91 | Payal Kadakia Founder and Executive Chairman, ClassPass | 1.8 | 5 |
| 92 | Ryan Holiday Founder & Host, The Daily Stoic | 1.78 | 9 |
| 93 | Danny Meyer Founder & Executive Chairman, USHG | 1.78 | 23 |
| 94 | Stacy Brown-Philpot Founder & Managing Partner, Cherryrock Capital | 1.77 | 13 |
| 95 | Arianna Huffington Founder & CEO, Thrive Global | 1.77 | 13 |
| 96 | Jeremy Levine Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners | 1.76 | 17 |
| 97 | Michael Lazerow Managing Partner, Velvet Sea Ventures | 1.75 | 8 |
| 98 | Tim Ryan Head of Technology and Business Enablement, Citigroup | 1.75 | 8 |
| 99 | Arnaud Quemin Middle East Regional Director, Mercy Corps. He oversees humanitarian operations and shares first-hand perspectives on crisis responses in the Gaza Strip and Jordan. | 1.73 | 11 |
| 100 | Todd Graves Founder and Co-CEO, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers | 1.71 | 17 |
| 101 | Linda Rottenberg Co-founder & CEO, Endeavor | 1.71 | 7 |
| 102 | Allison Ellsworth Co-Founder, Poppi | 1.7 | 10 |
| 103 | David Novak Founder & CEO, David Novak Leadership | 1.7 | 10 |
| 104 | Noah Kagan Founder & CEO, AppSumo | 1.7 | 30 |
| 105 | Rohan Oza Co-Founder and Managing Partner, CAVU Consumer Partners | 1.69 | 13 |
| 106 | Jason Robins Co-Founder and CEO, DraftKings | 1.69 | 13 |
| 107 | Ju Rhyu Co-founder & Former CEO, Hero Cosmetics | 1.69 | 13 |
| 108 | Whitney Wolfe Herd Founder & CEO, Bumble | 1.69 | 13 |
| 109 | Stewart Butterfield Co-founder & Former CEO, Slack | 1.69 | 13 |
| 110 | Sarah Stein Greenberg Executive Director, Stanford d.school | 1.67 | 9 |
| 111 | Poppy Gustafsson Member, House of Lords | 1.67 | 9 |
| 112 | Elan Lee Co-founder & CEO, Exploding Kittens | 1.67 | 21 |
| 113 | Ed Catmull Co-Founder, Pixar | 1.67 | 27 |
| 114 | Morgan DeBaun Founder and CEO, Blavity Inc. | 1.67 | 9 |
| 115 | Sara Blakely Founder & Executive Chairwoman, Spanx | 1.67 | 6 |
| 116 | Mark Zuckerberg Founder & CEO, Meta | 1.67 | 12 |
| 117 | Chris Cocks CEO, Hasbro | 1.64 | 11 |
| 118 | Matthew Pohlson CEO and Co-Founder, Omaze | 1.62 | 13 |
| 119 | Mark Barrocas CEO, SharkNinja | 1.62 | 13 |
| 120 | Dr. Iman Abu Zayed Founder, Incredible Health | 1.62 | 13 |
| 121 | Jonathan Neman Co-Founder & CEO, Sweetgreen | 1.62 | 21 |
| 122 | Amy Howe CEO, FanDuel; Former Leader, Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Ticketmaster | 1.6 | 15 |
| 123 | Eric Yuan Founder & CEO, Zoom | 1.6 | 15 |
| 124 | Mike Cessario Founder & CEO, Liquid Death | 1.6 | 30 |
| 125 | Fei-Fei Li Co-Founder and CEO, World Labs | 1.6 | 5 |
| 126 | Lauren Wang Founder & CEO, The Flex Company | 1.59 | 17 |
| 127 | Brian Grazer Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Imagine Entertainment | 1.57 | 7 |
| 128 | Eileen Fisher Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Eileen Fisher | 1.57 | 7 |
| 129 | Julie Uhrman Co-Founder, Angel City Football Club | 1.56 | 16 |
| 130 | J.J. Abrams Co-CEO & Founder, Bad Robot Productions | 1.56 | 9 |
| 131 | Kevin Systrom Co-founder, Instagram | 1.56 | 9 |
| 132 | Andy Cohen Global Co-Chair, Gensler | 1.55 | 11 |
| 133 | Andrew Yaffe CEO, Dude Perfect | 1.55 | 11 |
| 134 | Julia Collins Founder & CEO, Planet FWD | 1.55 | 11 |
| 135 | Ali Webb Founder, Drybar & Squeeze; Author, "The Messy Truth," she scaled the blowout salon concept and sold its hair care line before starting massage business Squeeze. She is known for her franchising strategy and memoir. She scaled Drybar across the country. | 1.54 | 13 |
| 136 | Reshma Saujani Founder & CEO, Moms First | 1.54 | 24 |
| 137 | Bobbi Brown Founder & CCO, Jones Road Beauty | 1.53 | 15 |
| 138 | Zayleen Jamohamed President & CEO, Bay Area Host Committee | 1.5 | 6 |
| 139 | Maya Shankar Senior Director of Behavioral Economics, Google | 1.5 | 14 |
| 140 | Katlin Smith Founder and Advisor, Simple Mills | 1.5 | 12 |
| 141 | Rashid Ali Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Chomps | 1.5 | 10 |
| 142 | Nora Weinstein Co-CEO, Baby2Baby | 1.5 | 6 |
| 143 | Katy Milkman Professor, The Wharton School | 1.5 | 10 |
| 144 | Adam Miller Co-founder and CEO, Better Angels | 1.5 | 18 |
| 145 | Matt Abrahams Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business | 1.47 | 19 |
| 146 | Ben Van Leeuwen Co-Founder & CEO, Van Leeuwen | 1.46 | 13 |
| 147 | Amy Weaver CEO, Direct Relief | 1.44 | 9 |
| 148 | Tyra Banks Founder & Owner, SMiZE & DREAM | 1.44 | 9 |
| 149 | Daniel Ek Founder & Executive Chairman, Spotify | 1.42 | 12 |
| 150 | Gwyneth Paltrow Founder & CEO, Goop | 1.41 | 17 |
| 151 | Scott Harrison Founder & CEO, charity: water | 1.4 | 30 |
| 152 | Jesse Cole Founder, Savannah Bananas | 1.4 | 15 |
| 153 | Leah Solivan General Partner, Fuel Capital | 1.39 | 18 |
| 154 | Kat Cole CEO, AG1 | 1.38 | 13 |
| 155 | Kara Nortman Founder & Managing Partner, Monarch Collective | 1.38 | 8 |
| 156 | Davis Smith Founder & Chairman, Cotopaxi | 1.36 | 11 |
| 157 | Pete Maldonado Co-founder & Co-CEO, Chomps | 1.33 | 6 |
| 158 | Austin Allison Co-Founder and CEO, Pacaso | 1.33 | 6 |
| 159 | Shan-Lyn Ma Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Zola | 1.33 | 12 |
| 160 | Nicholas Jammet Co-Founder & Chief Concept Officer, Sweetgreen | 1.33 | 6 |
| 161 | Cesar Carvalho Co-Founder and CEO, Wellhub | 1.31 | 13 |
| 162 | Amy Errett Founder and CEO, Madison Reed | 1.31 | 13 |
| 163 | Stephanie Linnartz Independent Board Director, The Home Depot | 1.31 | 13 |
| 164 | Kelly Sawyer Patricof Co-CEO, Baby2Baby | 1.29 | 7 |
| 165 | Ana Rowena Mallari Co-founder & CEO, QuestBridge | 1.29 | 7 |
| 166 | Lew Frankfort Former Executive, Coach | 1.25 | 12 |
| 167 | Rick Shadyak Jr. Former CEO, St. Jude Fundraising Organization | 1.25 | 12 |
| 168 | Ben Teuber Co-Managing Director, CATAN GmbH | 1.25 | 8 |
| 169 | Ron Howard Co-Founder, Imagine Entertainment | 1.22 | 9 |
| 170 | Marcus Samuelsson Founder, Marcus Samuelsson Group | 1.2 | 10 |
| 171 | Randy Goldberg Co-founder & Chief Brand Officer, Bombas | 1.14 | 7 |
| 172 | David Heath Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Bombas | 1.09 | 11 |
| 173 | Anastasia Soare Founder & CEO, Anastasia Beverly Hills | 1.08 | 13 |
Companies
The most bearish calls
Debate potential is an AI score of how much a statement invites disagreement. Bearish counts tally what was said about a company on the show; they describe the conversation, not the company. Every count opens to the exact tape. full disclaimer →
All 161 companies, funds and products with at least one bearish claim on the record.
Highest debate potential, by year
2026
Freston: Political Attacks on DEI Are Racism Without the Dog Whistle
“It's racism without the dog whistle.”
Masad: Most people wanting to build software should not learn to code
“Like, you know, I don't think you, most people who want to make things with software and computers don't need to learn how to code. It's going to be a huge cost on them. It's going to take a lot of time, but instead just jump into making things.”
2025
Hoffman: Most government tech procurement RFPs produce broken, quickly outdated software
“It's one of the reasons why, you know, most governments around the world have really broken RFP solutions for technology because they go, oh, I will specify the 150 requirements. And then when whoever provider Usually pretty incompetent people, you know, kind …”
Eidelman: Private equity veterinary roll-ups optimize economics but ignore clinic operations
“The private equity roll ups and that model that were, you know, happening in parallel elsewhere where you would have, you know, sort of shadow private equity firms buying up mom and pop clinics. The motto of one of the largest ones was join us, stay you, which…”
2024
2023
Hoffman: Elon Musk's AI Pause Petition Was Intellectually Dishonest
“Well, Elon's in particular was signing this six month pause letter while trying to hire people and buy as much compute and get going as fast as possible. Everyone else slow down so I can catch up. That's not intellectually honest.”
2022
Tyra Banks admits a Top Model race-swapping photoshoot was unintentional blackface
“We did one shoot in Hawaii where me thinking that my skin is beautiful and different colors of brown skin is beautiful, we transformed the skin color and the races of all of our girls. Never thought that it was blackface.”
2021
Obama: Republican filibuster obstruction in 2009 was unprecedented in US history
“At the time, there was no precedent for the kind of obstruction that we had seen from the Republican Party. There was no precedent for the use of the filibuster to literally block everything.”
Obama: Single-payer healthcare would have been economically disruptive and politically impossible
“Not only politically would it be impossible to start from scratch, but economically be wildly disruptive. A lot of people work for insurance companies and a lot of people work for hospitals under current arrangements and doctors get paid in certain ways and so…”