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 185 guests with 5 or more scored statements, ranked. 43 more have fewer than 5, too few for a fair average. Sort or filter below.
| # | Person | Avg debate potential | Statements scored |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Ginn Co-Founder and CEO, Hydra Host | 3.6 | 10 |
| 2 | George Hotz Founder, Tiny Corp | 3.4 | 10 |
| 3 | Pablo Torre Host & Executive Editor, Meadowlark Media | 3.25 | 12 |
| 4 | Will Manidis Angel Investor & Writer | 3.22 | 9 |
| 5 | Sam Lessin Founding Partner, Slow Ventures | 3.18 | 57 |
| 6 | Tyler Hogge Founder and General Partner, Captain Ventures | 3.17 | 6 |
| 7 | Ben Thompson Founder & Author, Stratechery | 3.1 | 29 |
| 8 | Max Marchione | 3 | 8 |
| 9 | Ethan Thornton Founder & CEO, Mach Industries | 3 | 9 |
| 10 | Doug O'Laughlin President, SemiAnalysis | 3 | 16 |
| 11 | Balaji Srinivasan Founder, The Network School | 3 | 9 |
| 12 | Florent Crivello Founder & CEO, Lindy | 3 | 20 |
| 13 | Martin Shkreli Co-founder, DL Software | 2.98 | 42 |
| 14 | Alex Karp Co-founder & CEO, Palantir Technologies | 2.98 | 40 |
| 15 | Samuel Hammond | 2.94 | 16 |
| 16 | Alap Shah | 2.93 | 14 |
| 17 | Bill Gurley General Partner, Benchmark | 2.92 | 12 |
| 18 | Chrisman Frank Co-Founder and CEO, Synthesis | 2.91 | 11 |
| 19 | Sheel Mohnot Co-Founder & General Partner, Better Tomorrow Ventures | 2.9 | 10 |
| 20 | Jordan Schneider Founder & Editor-in-Chief, ChinaTalk | 2.88 | 24 |
| 21 | Nic Carter General Partner, Castle Island Ventures | 2.87 | 15 |
| 22 | Dwarkesh Patel Host, Dwarkesh Podcast | 2.86 | 29 |
| 23 | Roy Lee Co-founder & CEO, Cluely | 2.86 | 14 |
| 24 | Adam Kovacevich Founder & CEO, Chamber of Progress | 2.86 | 7 |
| 25 | Lulu Cheng Meservey Founder and CEO, Rostra | 2.86 | 7 |
| 26 | Casey Handmer Founder and CEO, Terraform Industries | 2.85 | 20 |
| 27 | Packy McCormick Founder & Writer, Not Boring | 2.82 | 17 |
| 28 | Joshua Steinman Co-Founder & CEO, Galvanick | 2.82 | 11 |
| 29 | Tyler Cowen Professor of Economics, George Mason University | 2.8 | 20 |
| 30 | Mark Cuban Co-founder, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company | 2.8 | 44 |
| 31 | Mike Knoop Co-Founder & CEO, Ndea | 2.79 | 14 |
| 32 | Amjad Masad Co-founder & CEO, Replit | 2.78 | 18 |
| 33 | Soham Parekh | 2.77 | 13 |
| 34 | Connor Love General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz | 2.77 | 13 |
| 35 | Calley Means Co-founder, Truemed | 2.75 | 20 |
| 36 | Karol Hausman Co-founder & CEO, Physical Intelligence | 2.75 | 16 |
| 37 | Delian Asparouhov Partner, Founders Fund | 2.74 | 69 |
| 38 | Jeff Huber Co-founder & CEO, Chroma | 2.73 | 15 |
| 39 | Mike Gallagher Head of Defense, Palantir Technologies | 2.71 | 7 |
| 40 | Harry Stebbings Founder & Host, 20VC | 2.71 | 7 |
| 41 | Keith Rabois Managing Director, Khosla Ventures | 2.71 | 17 |
| 42 | Shawn 'swyx' Wang Co-founder & CEO, AI Engineer | 2.69 | 13 |
| 43 | Jimmy Iovine Co-founder, Beats Electronics | 2.66 | 29 |
| 44 | Bryan Johnson Founder, Project Blueprint | 2.65 | 20 |
| 45 | Nichole Wischoff | 2.64 | 14 |
| 46 | Brad Gerstner Founder & CEO, Altimeter Capital | 2.62 | 21 |
| 47 | Andrew Huberman Associate Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine | 2.61 | 49 |
| 48 | Peter Steinberger Agent Lead, OpenAI | 2.61 | 18 |
| 49 | Yacine Mtibaa Creator, Dingboard | 2.6 | 5 |
| 50 | Gavin Baker Managing Partner & CIO, Atreides Management | 2.58 | 19 |
| 51 | Cristóbal Valenzuela Co-founder & CEO, Runway | 2.58 | 12 |
| 52 | Will Depue AI Researcher, OpenAI | 2.57 | 7 |
| 53 | Bryce Roberts Founder and Managing Partner, Indie.vc | 2.57 | 7 |
| 54 | Mark Gurman Chief Correspondent, Bloomberg News | 2.56 | 27 |
| 55 | Trae Stephens Partner, Founders Fund | 2.56 | 16 |
| 56 | Tae Kim Founder and Author, Key Context | 2.55 | 31 |
| 57 | Gary Vaynerchuk Chairman, VaynerX & CEO, VaynerMedia | 2.55 | 11 |
| 58 | Matthew Prince Co-Founder & CEO, Cloudflare | 2.54 | 28 |
| 59 | Marc Andreessen Co-Founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz | 2.54 | 39 |
| 60 | Shaun Maguire Partner, Sequoia Capital | 2.54 | 35 |
| 61 | Morgan Housel Partner, The Collaborative Fund | 2.54 | 13 |
| 62 | Dr. Drew Pinsky Host and Producer, Dr. Drew Productions | 2.53 | 17 |
| 63 | Will Brown Research Lead, Prime Intellect | 2.53 | 15 |
| 64 | Augustus Doricko Founder & CEO, Rainmaker | 2.51 | 45 |
| 65 | Palmer Luckey Founder, Anduril Industries | 2.5 | 40 |
| 66 | Logan Bartlett Managing Director, Redpoint Ventures | 2.5 | 30 |
| 67 | Joe Weisenthal Executive Editor of News, Bloomberg Digital | 2.5 | 12 |
| 68 | Seth Rosenberg General Partner, Greylock | 2.5 | 6 |
| 69 | Ryan Cohen Chairman and CEO, GameStop | 2.47 | 58 |
| 70 | Bill Bishop Publisher and Author, Sinocism | 2.47 | 17 |
| 71 | Jeff Yan Founder & CEO, Hyperliquid | 2.47 | 17 |
| 72 | Justin Mares Founder & CEO, Truemed | 2.47 | 15 |
| 73 | Everett Randle General Partner, Benchmark | 2.46 | 13 |
| 74 | Kian Sadeghi Founder & CEO, Nucleus Genomics | 2.44 | 9 |
| 75 | Dylan Patel Founder & Chief Analyst, SemiAnalysis | 2.42 | 24 |
| 76 | Chris Power Founder & CEO, Hadrian | 2.41 | 17 |
| 77 | Dan Romero Co-founder, Tempo | 2.4 | 5 |
| 78 | Gaurav Misra Co-founder & CEO, Captions | 2.4 | 5 |
| 79 | Shaan Puri Co-Host, My First Million | 2.4 | 10 |
| 80 | Jeremy Giffon Founder & Investor, Octave | 2.38 | 24 |
| 81 | Mike Vernal Partner, Conviction | 2.38 | 13 |
| 82 | Akhil Iyer | 2.38 | 8 |
| 83 | Garry Tan President & CEO, Y Combinator | 2.37 | 27 |
| 84 | Logan Kilpatrick Product Lead, Google DeepMind | 2.37 | 19 |
| 85 | Jake Adler Founder & CEO, Pilgrim | 2.35 | 17 |
| 86 | Turner Novak Founder and General Partner, Banana Capital | 2.33 | 6 |
| 87 | Sam Altman CEO, OpenAI | 2.33 | 40 |
| 88 | Scott Wu Co-founder & CEO, Cognition | 2.33 | 27 |
| 89 | Ryan Petersen Founder & CEO, Flexport | 2.33 | 9 |
| 90 | Cyan Banister General Partner, Long Journey Ventures | 2.33 | 6 |
| 91 | Satya Nadella Chairman and CEO, Microsoft | 2.32 | 19 |
| 92 | Chris Dixon Founder & Managing Partner, a16z crypto | 2.32 | 31 |
| 93 | Shyam Sankar CTO & EVP, Palantir Technologies | 2.32 | 25 |
| 94 | Pratap Ramade | 2.31 | 13 |
| 95 | Changpeng Zhao (CZ) Founder, Giggle Academy | 2.3 | 10 |
| 96 | David Tisch Managing Partner, BoxGroup | 2.3 | 10 |
| 97 | Brendan Foody Co-Founder and CEO, Mercor | 2.3 | 10 |
| 98 | Alex Epstein Founder, Center for Industrial Progress | 2.29 | 14 |
| 99 | Koki Mochida Co-Founder & CEO, Aeolus Labs | 2.29 | 7 |
| 100 | Erik Palitsch Co-Founder & CEO, Freeform | 2.29 | 14 |
| 101 | Lachy Groom | 2.29 | 7 |
| 102 | Greg Brockman President & Co-founder, OpenAI | 2.29 | 14 |
| 103 | Jake Paul Co-Founder, Anti Fund | 2.28 | 18 |
| 104 | Willem Van Lancker | 2.25 | 8 |
| 105 | David Perell Founder, Write of Passage | 2.25 | 8 |
| 106 | Aravind Srinivas Co-founder & CEO, Perplexity AI | 2.24 | 37 |
| 107 | Eric Ries Founder & CEO, Long-Term Stock Exchange | 2.23 | 13 |
| 108 | Guillermo Rauch Founder & CEO, Vercel | 2.22 | 23 |
| 109 | Brian Chesky Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb | 2.21 | 42 |
| 110 | Michael Mignano General Partner, Union Square Ventures | 2.2 | 10 |
| 111 | Alexis Ohanian Founder & General Partner, Seven Seven Six | 2.19 | 27 |
| 112 | Travis Kalanick CEO, Atoms | 2.17 | 48 |
| 113 | Jon Ma Co-Founder & CEO, Artemis | 2.17 | 6 |
| 114 | David Rosenthal Co-Host, Acquired | 2.17 | 6 |
| 115 | Matt Schlicht Creator, Moltbook | 2.13 | 15 |
| 116 | Doug DeMuro Co-founder, Cars & Bids | 2.12 | 17 |
| 117 | Christian Garrett Partner, 137 Ventures | 2.11 | 9 |
| 118 | Samir Chaudry Co-Host & Co-Founder, Colin and Samir | 2.1 | 10 |
| 119 | Mike Isaac Technology Correspondent, The New York Times | 2.09 | 11 |
| 120 | Casey Neistat Filmmaker and YouTube Creator | 2.09 | 23 |
| 121 | Aidan McLaughlin | 2.08 | 13 |
| 122 | Anjney Midha Founder & CEO, AMP | 2.07 | 14 |
| 123 | Andrew Reed Partner, Sequoia Capital | 2.07 | 14 |
| 124 | Ryan Hudson Founder & CEO, ZeroClick | 2.06 | 16 |
| 125 | Thomas Laffont Co-Founder & Senior Managing Director, Coatue Management | 2.05 | 21 |
| 126 | Gabe Whaley Founder and CEO, MSCHF | 2.05 | 20 |
| 127 | Saman Farid Founder & CEO, Formic | 2.05 | 21 |
| 128 | Alex Hormozi Founder & Managing Partner, Acquisition.com | 2 | 21 |
| 129 | Andy Dunn Founder & CEO, Pie | 2 | 13 |
| 130 | Dylan Field Co-founder and CEO, Figma | 2 | 6 |
| 131 | Mark Chen Chief Research Officer, OpenAI | 2 | 6 |
| 132 | Drew Houston Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Dropbox | 2 | 6 |
| 133 | Shane Arnott Senior Vice President, Anduril Industries | 2 | 11 |
| 134 | Kirsten Green Founder & Managing Partner, Forerunner Ventures | 2 | 11 |
| 135 | Avlok Kohli CEO, AngelList | 2 | 8 |
| 136 | Chad Byers Co-Founder and General Partner, Susa Ventures | 2 | 15 |
| 137 | Bridget Harris Co-founder & CEO, YouCanBookMe | 2 | 10 |
| 138 | Roger Lynch CEO, Condé Nast | 1.96 | 28 |
| 139 | Brian Armstrong Co-Founder & CEO, Coinbase | 1.96 | 23 |
| 140 | Tyler Cosgrove Head of Engineering & Cohost, TBPN | 1.94 | 32 |
| 141 | Marc Benioff Chair, CEO & Co-Founder, Salesforce | 1.93 | 14 |
| 142 | Edward Mehr | 1.92 | 13 |
| 143 | Daniel Yanisse Co-Founder & CEO, Checkr | 1.91 | 11 |
| 144 | Ben Gilbert Co-founder & Co-host, Acquired | 1.9 | 10 |
| 145 | Ahti Heinla Co-Founder and CEO, Starship Technologies | 1.9 | 10 |
| 146 | Steven Schwartz CEO, Whop | 1.88 | 8 |
| 147 | Car Dealership Guy | 1.88 | 16 |
| 148 | Robin Langtry Co-Founder and CEO, Avalanche Energy | 1.87 | 15 |
| 149 | Ashlee Vance Founder & Host, Core Memory | 1.86 | 7 |
| 150 | Sean Frank | 1.85 | 13 |
| 151 | Pavel Asparouhov Co-founder & CTO, Silna Health | 1.83 | 6 |
| 152 | Alex Dhillon Founder & CEO, Outtake | 1.82 | 11 |
| 153 | Tyler Denk Co-founder & CEO, beehiiv | 1.8 | 10 |
| 154 | Bill Peebles Former Head of Sora, OpenAI | 1.8 | 5 |
| 155 | Andrew Bosworth Chief Technology Officer, Meta | 1.8 | 5 |
| 156 | Emily Sundberg Founder & Author, Feed Me | 1.8 | 5 |
| 157 | Ali Partovi CEO & Founder, Neo | 1.8 | 10 |
| 158 | Leif Abraham Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Public | 1.8 | 10 |
| 159 | Daniel Singer | 1.75 | 8 |
| 160 | Blake Resnick Founder & CEO, BRINC | 1.75 | 12 |
| 161 | Erik Torenberg General Partner, a16z | 1.75 | 8 |
| 162 | Eric Glyman Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Ramp | 1.73 | 15 |
| 163 | Keller Rinaudo Cliffton Co-Founder & CEO, Zipline | 1.73 | 15 |
| 164 | David Senra Host, Founders Podcast | 1.72 | 36 |
| 165 | Russell D'Sa CEO & Co-Founder, LiveKit | 1.71 | 17 |
| 166 | Quaid Walker Co-Founder and CEO, Bezel | 1.7 | 10 |
| 167 | Nima Jalali Founder | 1.69 | 13 |
| 168 | David Baszucki Co-founder & CEO, Roblox | 1.67 | 15 |
| 169 | Ted Feldmann Founder & CEO, Durin | 1.67 | 18 |
| 170 | Jannick Malling Co-founder & Co-CEO, Public.com | 1.67 | 6 |
| 171 | Conor Macdonald CMO, Ridge | 1.67 | 9 |
| 172 | Immad Akhund Co-founder & CEO, Mercury | 1.67 | 21 |
| 173 | Andrew Ross Sorkin Co-Anchor, CNBC | 1.65 | 17 |
| 174 | Zachary Perret Co-founder & CEO, Plaid | 1.62 | 8 |
| 175 | Kris Marszalek Co-Founder & CEO, Crypto.com | 1.56 | 9 |
| 176 | Grant LaFontaine Co-Founder & CEO, Whatnot | 1.56 | 16 |
| 177 | Preston Holland | 1.55 | 11 |
| 178 | John Gedmark Co-Founder and CEO, Astranis | 1.54 | 13 |
| 179 | Rob Mohr | 1.5 | 8 |
| 180 | Kevin Espiritu Founder, Epic Gardening | 1.44 | 16 |
| 181 | Chad Janis Founder & CEO, Grüns | 1.38 | 16 |
| 182 | Eddy Cue SVP of Services, Apple | 1.33 | 6 |
| 183 | Jeremy Hindle Production Designer | 1.3 | 10 |
| 184 | Bridgit Mendler CEO & Co-Founder, Northwood Space | 1.29 | 14 |
| 185 | Austin Petersmith Co-Founder & CEO, Howie | 1.29 | 7 |
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 487 companies, funds and products with at least one bearish claim on the record.
Highest debate potential, by year
2026
Bishop: CIA allegedly financed promotions for rising Chinese PLA officers
“And this was and there are, there's been certainly, I don't think it's been in the media, but I'd certainly heard that among the funders of some of these officers in years past was our America CIA, because it was a great way to push people in and, you know, ev…”
Andreessen: Biden Officials Told VCs Not to Fund AI Startups
“They actually said flat out to us, don't start, don't do AI startups. Like, don't fund AI startups. Let's not, Something that we're going to allow to happen. They're not going to be allowed to exist. There's no point. They basically said AI is going to be a ga…”
2025
Asparouhov: Biden Admin Rejected Early SpaceX Return Due to Musk's Politics
“What's incredibly clear is SpaceX offered to bring the astronauts back sooner And because it was in the middle of the election cycle, and because Musk was campaigning for Trump, the Biden administration turned down that offer.”
2024
Coogan: Shaun Maguire's political commentary gave Sequoia Capital a public adversary
“Sequoia was like, you know, the untouchable firm, no enemies, and then Sean McGuire, you know, decided to wage a holy war against Islam, and so now they have an enemy, and now they're not just this, like, untouchable brand.”