Star Treatment
Does prominence change the questions? Every guest, plotted: their public prominence (rated 1–10 by an LLM, methodology below) against the host pushback they met, measured from every diarized word of their episodes.
An aggregate AI reading of public interviews: pushback per exchange, plotted against guest prominence. It describes questioning patterns across the whole catalogue, not any single guest, and every point opens to its episode. full disclaimer →
-0.03pushback per +1 prominence
0.5/10host pushback, prominence 8–10
0.9/10host pushback, prominence 1–4
222guests measured
dot size = rated episodes · gold line = average per prominence level · every dot links to the person
All guests, by prominence
| Guest | Prominence | Host pushback | Guest pushback | Eps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elon Musk CEO, Tesla and SpaceX | 10 | 0 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Mark Zuckerberg Founder & CEO, Meta | 10 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Jensen Huang Founder and CEO, NVIDIA | 9 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Satya Nadella Chairman and CEO, Microsoft | 9 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Sam Altman CEO, OpenAI | 9 | 1.1 | 1.7/10 | 20 |
| Reid Hoffman Partner, Greylock | 9 | 1.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Paul Graham Co-founder, Y Combinator | 9 | 2.3 | 2.7/10 | 3 |
| Demis Hassabis CEO & Co-Founder, Isomorphic Labs | 8 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dr. Fei-Fei Li Co-Founder & CEO, World Labs | 8 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Andrew Ng Managing General Partner, AI Fund | 8 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| John Jumper AlphaFold Lead, DeepMind | 8 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Andrej Karpathy Founder, Eureka Labs | 8 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jocko Willink Co-founder & CEO, Echelon Front | 8 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Anne Wojcicki Co-Founder & CEO, 23andMe | 8 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Greg Brockman President & Co-founder, OpenAI | 8 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Eric Ries Founder & CEO, Long-Term Stock Exchange | 8 | 1 | 4/10 | 1 |
| Marques Brownlee Creator & Host, MKBHD | 8 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Patrick Collison Co-founder & CEO, Stripe | 8 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Casey Neistat Filmmaker and YouTube Creator | 8 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Vinod Khosla Founder, Khosla Ventures | 8 | 2 | 5/10 | 1 |
| Jeff Dean Co-founder & CEO, Discovery Loop | 7 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Alexandr Wang Chief AI Officer, Meta Platforms | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Tony Xu Co-Founder and CEO, DoorDash | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jarvis Johnson Content Creator & Podcast Host, Sad Boyz | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dr. Werner Vogels VP & CTO, Amazon | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Emily Weiss Founder and Executive Chairwoman, Glossier | 7 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Tim Urban Co-Founder & Writer, Wait But Why | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jason Kilar Co-founder & CEO, Hubcap, Inc. | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jessica Livingston Co-founder, Y Combinator | 7 | 0.2 | 0.8/10 | 6 |
| Dylan Field Co-founder and CEO, Figma | 7 | 0.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Parker Conrad Co-founder & CEO, Rippling | 7 | 0.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Elad Gil Founder, Gil Capital | 7 | 0.7 | 1/10 | 3 |
| François Chollet Co-Founder, Ndea | 7 | 1 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Carl Pei Founder & CEO, Nothing | 7 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Simone Giertz Founder & Product Designer, Yetch Studio | 7 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Diane Greene Board Director, Stripe | 7 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Drew Houston Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Dropbox | 7 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Aravind Srinivas Co-founder & CEO, Perplexity AI | 7 | 1.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Mark Pincus Founder & Executive Chairman, Zynga | 7 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Sarah Friar CFO, OpenAI | 7 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Cory Doctorow Special Consultant, Electronic Frontier Foundation | 7 | 2 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Paul Buchheit General Partner, Standard Capital | 7 | 2.3 | 2/10 | 3 |
| Aaron Levie Co-Founder & CEO, Box | 7 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Blake Scholl Founder & CEO, Boom Supersonic | 6 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Pedro Franceschi Co-Founder and CEO, Brex | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Max Hodak Co-founder & CEO, Science Corporation | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Derek Thompson Contributing Writer, The Atlantic | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Russ Roberts Host, EconTalk | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Qi Lu Founder and CEO, MiraclePlus | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Carolynn Levy Managing Director, Legal, Y Combinator | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 4 |
| Pejman Nozad Founding Managing Partner, Pear VC | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Josh Elman Partner, Andreessen Horowitz | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Wojciech Zaremba Co-founder & Scientist, OpenAI | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Amjad Masad Co-founder & CEO, Replit | 6 | 0.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Eric Migicovsky Founder, Core Devices | 6 | 0.7 | 0.7/10 | 3 |
| Tom Blomfield Member of Technical Staff, Anthropic | 6 | 0.9 | 0.9/10 | 9 |
| Kirsten Green Founder & Managing Partner, Forerunner Ventures | 6 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jesse Pollak Creator and Lead, Base | 6 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jared Kaplan Co-founder & Chief Science Officer, Anthropic | 6 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Vlad Magdalin Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer & Board Chair, Webflow | 6 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Scott Aaronson Chair of Computer Science, UT Austin | 6 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Mr. Money Mustache Founder and Blogger, Mr. Money Mustache | 6 | 1 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Wade Foster Co-founder & CEO, Zapier | 6 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Alex Blumberg Co-founder & CEO, DaisyChain Energy | 6 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Geoff Ralston Founder, Safe AI Fund | 6 | 1.1 | 1.6/10 | 12 |
| Olivier Pomel Co-Founder & CEO, Datadog | 6 | 2 | 4/10 | 1 |
| Matt Cutts Former Administrator, U.S. Digital Service | 6 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ryan Hoover Founder and General Partner, Weekend Fund | 6 | 2 | 0.5/10 | 2 |
| Leonard Susskind Professor of Theoretical Physics, Stanford University | 6 | 2 | 4/10 | 1 |
| Chris Best Co-Founder and CEO, Substack | 6 | 3 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Ryan Petersen Founder & CEO, Flexport | 6 | 3 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Juan Benet Founder & CEO, Protocol Labs | 6 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Brian Halligan Co-Founder & Executive Chairperson, HubSpot | 6 | 4 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Karri Saarinen Co-Founder & CEO, Linear | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Josh Reeves Co-Founder and CEO, Gusto | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Vidit Aatrey Co-founder and CEO, Meesho | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Cindy Mi Founder & CEO, VIPKid | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Shola Akinlade Co-founder and CEO, Paystack | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| David Rusenko Founder & Managing Partner, Leap Forward Ventures | 5 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Suhail Doshi Founder & CEO, Playground | 5 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jason Kwon General Counsel, Y Combinator | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Laura Behrens Wu Founder & CEO, Shippo | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Morgan DeBaun Founder and CEO, Blavity Inc. | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Murray Shanahan Principal Scientist, Google DeepMind | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Adora Cheung Co-founder, Instalab | 5 | 0.6 | 1.3/10 | 7 |
| Kat Manalac Partner, Convective Capital | 5 | 0.6 | 0.4/10 | 10 |
| Gustaf Alströmer Group Partner, Y Combinator | 5 | 0.9 | 0.9/10 | 10 |
| Michael Truell Co-founder & CEO, Anysphere | 5 | 1 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Aadit Palicha Co-Founder and CEO, Zepto | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Nicolas Dessaigne Group Partner, Y Combinator | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 4 |
| Chelsea Finn Co-Founder, Physical Intelligence | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Camille Fournier VP of Engineering, CoreWeave | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Mathilde Collin Co-Founder & Executive Chair, Front | 5 | 1 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Peter Reinhardt Co-founder and CEO, Charm Industrial | 5 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| John Preskill Professor of Theoretical Physics, Caltech | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Courtland Allen Founder and Podcast Host, Indie Hackers | 5 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Des Traynor Co-Founder and CSO, Intercom | 5 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Robin Sloan Author & Media Inventor | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Bob McGrew Co-founder, Arda | 5 | 1.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Kevin Hale Former Partner, Y Combinator | 5 | 1.8 | 1.4/10 | 5 |
| Spencer Skates CEO & Co-Founder, Amplitude | 5 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Mike Knoop Co-Founder & CEO, Ndea | 5 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Andrew Kortina Co-Founder, Fin | 5 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Austen Allred Founder & CEO, Bloom Institute of Technology | 5 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Avichal Garg Managing Partner, Electric Capital | 5 | 3.5 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Karen X. Cheng Founder & Creative Director, KarenXCheng Inc. | 5 | 5 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Jeff Bussgang General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners | 5 | 6 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Katie Dill Head of Design, Stripe | 4 | 0 | 0.3/10 | 3 |
| Andy Lapsa Co-founder & CEO, Stoke Space | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Jake Heller Head of Product, CoCounsel, Thomson Reuters | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 2 |
| Rujul Zaparde Co-founder & CEO, Zip | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Sarah Nahm Board Member, All Raise | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Tyler Bosmeny General Partner, Y Combinator | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ooshma Garg Former Founder & CEO, Gobble | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jon Levy Partner, YC | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Adam Coates AI Researcher | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Vivek Ravisankar Co-founder and CEO, HackerRank | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Kirsty Nathoo Partner Emerita, Y Combinator | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 2 |
| Leah Culver Cofounder & CTO, Breaker | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Kevin Slavin Co-founder & Managing Director, Fairfield Bio | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Camille Ricketts Partner & Head of Marketing, XYZ Venture Capital | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Sonal Choksi Editor-in-Chief, a16z crypto | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ed Baker Former Head of Growth, Uber | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Raphael Schaad Visiting Partner, Y Combinator | 4 | 0.3 | 1/10 | 4 |
| Elizabeth Iorns Co-Founder & CEO, Science Exchange | 4 | 0.3 | 0.5/10 | 4 |
| Boris Cherny Head of Claude Code, Anthropic | 4 | 0.5 | 1/10 | 2 |
| Holly Liu Co-Founder, Kabam | 4 | 0.5 | 1/10 | 2 |
| Bryant Chou Cofounder, Webflow and Ploy | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Pete Koomen General Partner, Y Combinator | 4 | 1 | 1.3/10 | 8 |
| Peter Steinberger Agent Lead, OpenAI | 4 | 1 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Mike Mignano Investor, Lightspeed | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Amber Atherton Partner, Patron | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Diego Saez-Gil Co-Founder and CEO, Pachama | 4 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Jessica Brillhart Founder & Director, Vrai Pictures | 4 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Tim Hwang Global Public Policy Lead, Google | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 2 |
| Miles Brundage Executive Director, AVERI | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Linda Xie Co-Founder & Managing Director, Scalar Capital | 4 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Tikhon Bernstam Managing Partner, Uncommon Capital | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Sam Chaudhary Co-founder & CEO, ClassDojo | 4 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Doug Eck Senior Research Director, Google DeepMind | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ryan Ridley Writer | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Brad Flora Group Partner, Y Combinator | 4 | 1.5 | 1.4/10 | 8 |
| David Lieb General Partner, Y Combinator | 4 | 1.7 | 1.6/10 | 7 |
| Calvin French-Owen Co-Founder & Former CTO, Segment | 4 | 2 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Joe Betts-Lacroix Co-founder & CEO, Retro Biosciences | 4 | 2 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Tracy Young Co-founder & CEO, TigerEye | 4 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Liz Wessel Partner, First Round Capital | 4 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Lauren McCarthy Professor of Design Media Arts, UCLA | 4 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Andy Bromberg Chairman, Eco | 4 | 3 | 1/10 | 1 |
| James Hawkins Co-Founder and Co-CEO, PostHog | 3 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Jordan Fisher AI Alignment Research Lead, Anthropic | 3 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| David Hua Co-Founder & CEO, Meadow | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Vincent Ning CEO & Co-founder, Nabis | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Frank Lantz Founding Chair, NYU Game Center | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Mike Sarraille Chief Talent Officer, Overwatch | 3 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Carola Schönlieb Applied Mathematician, University of Cambridge | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Jennifer Kim Startup Advisor | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Rana Adhikari Professor of Physics, Caltech | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dr. Rosalind Watts Founder, ACER Integration | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Alexandria Lafci Founder & Managing Partner, Hometeam Ventures | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Brett Hagler Co-Founder & Board Member, New Story | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Szymon Sidor Research Scientist, OpenAI | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Kor Adana Screenwriter & Co-Executive Producer | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Ammon Bartram Co-founder, Tabula Bio | 3 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Kate Courteau | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Aaron Epstein General Partner, Y Combinator | 3 | 0.4 | 0.4/10 | 14 |
| Reham Fagiri Co-founder, AptDeco | 3 | 0.5 | 0/10 | 2 |
| Avni Patel Thompson Founder & CEO, The Commons Company | 3 | 0.7 | 1/10 | 3 |
| Francois Chaubard Visiting Partner, Y Combinator | 3 | 1 | 0.5/10 | 2 |
| Nick Joseph Head of Pre-training, Anthropic | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Raza Habib Member of Technical Staff, Anthropic | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Iba Masood Co-founder & CEO, Tara AI | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jeremy Rossmann Former Co-Founder & CEO, Make School | 3 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Dan Hockenmaier Chief Strategy Officer, Faire | 3 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Samantha Bradshaw Assistant Professor, American University | 3 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Brian Donohue CEO & Co-owner, Instapaper | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Eli Schwartz SEO & Growth Advisor | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Joan Lasenby Professor of Image and Signal Analysis, University of Cambridge | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| David Zeevi Senior Scientist, Weizmann Institute of Science | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Luís Batalha Co-founder & CPO, Amplemarket | 3 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| João Batalha Co-Founder & CEO, Amplemarket | 3 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Simon Benjamin Professor of Quantum Technologies, University of Oxford | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Patrick Moberg Former Co-founder & CEO, Playdots | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Matt Hackett Co-founder, Oda | 3 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Michelle Kuo Chief Curator at Large, MoMA | 3 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Craig Cannon DevRel and Marketing, Supabase | 3 | 1.1 | 1.1/10 | 77 |
| Ankit Gupta General Partner, Y Combinator | 3 | 1.5 | 1/10 | 2 |
| Mukund Jha Co-founder & CEO, Emergent | 3 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Max Junestrand Co-founder and CEO, Legora | 3 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Michael Babineau Co-founder & CEO, Second Measure | 3 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Karn Saroya CEO & Co-founder, Cover | 3 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Porter Braswell Founder & CEO, 2045 Studio | 3 | 2 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Laks Srini Chief Technology Officer, Flyhomes | 3 | 3 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jay Reno CEO & Founder, Feather | 3 | 4 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Nick Winter SVP, Frontier Lab Safety, Gray Swan | 3 | 5 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Finbarr Taylor Co-founder & CTO, Shogun | 3 | 5 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Keith Schacht Founder & CEO, The Explanation Company | 3 | 6 | 4/10 | 1 |
| Misha Smulyanski Co-founder, Marlowe | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Domonique Fines Venture Scout, Zeal Capital Partners | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Matt Long Software Engineer, Y Combinator | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Sean Mitchell Co-Founder and CEO, Ryse | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Claire McDonnell Co-founder & COO, True Link Financial | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Erica Jensen Co-Founder, The Flex Company | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Kalam Dennis Co-Founder, AptDeco | 2 | 0.5 | 0/10 | 2 |
| Ian Fisher Co-founder & Co-CEO, Poetiq | 2 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ed McManus Technical Advisor, Silicon Valley | 2 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Lillian Chou Co-Founder, Turnstile | 2 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jonathan Gill Cofounder & CEO, Backtracks | 2 | 3 | 3/10 | 1 |
| George Saines Co-Founder, CodeCombat | 2 | 5 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Stuart (Stu) Researcher, Stanford & Cursor | 1 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Tom Feldman Co-founder & CTO, Stoke Space | 1 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Arne Englander Co-Founder & CTO, Model ML | 1 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Chas Englander Co-founder & CEO, Model ML | 1 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Kat Mignalek Partner, Convective Capital | 1 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Vanessa Torridilla Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Goldbelly | 1 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Tom Sparks Software Engineer, Y Combinator | 1 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Quan Vuong Co-founder, Physical Intelligence | 1 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Karine Malata Co-Founder & CEO, Variance | 1 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Rio Lu Head of Design, Cursor | 1 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| David Paffenholz Co-founder & CEO, Juicebox | 1 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Madhav Jha Co-founder & CTO, Emergent | 1 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ralph Goody Co-founder & CTO, TigerEye | 1 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
host and guest pushback: scored 0-10 per topic segment by an LLM with a published rubric over the diarized transcript; an episode’s number is the peak-weighted p75 · prominence: rated 1–10 by an LLM from the person's public profile · full method on /methodology.