The Kevin Rose Show

For a long time, I approached meditation like a workout. Put in the time, keep showing up, and eventually my mind would get quieter.
Henry Shukman offered a different image that has stayed with me.
Imagine a young horse running around a meadow, with its mother quietly watching nearby. The horse has all this energy. The mother lets it run. As your meditation practice deepens, Henry says, the meadow gets bigger.
Your thoughts can keep moving. You have more space around them.
I sat down with Henry, a Zen teacher, author, and poet, in New Mexico just before heading into a weeklong meditation retreat. We started with the busy mind and ended up talking about awakening, grief, love, and what it means to be fully human.
What struck me about the meadow is how much pressure it takes off. So much of self-improvement gives us another thing to fix about ourselves. Henry’s approach invites us to notice how tightly we’re holding everything. Perhaps peace is something we gradually learn to stop interfering with.
That becomes very practical when we talk about reactivity. Someone says something, a small irritation lands, and suddenly it has taken over our afternoon. Henry describes how practice helps us recognize that reaction and give it room to soften. We can still address whatever happened. We just have a little more freedom in how we respond.
A few other moments I loved:
The pressure to “get” meditation.
We explore how chasing a particular experience can become another source of tension, and why ordinary, consistent practice matters.
Awakening and being human.
Henry talks about cherishing his emotions and feelings. As he puts it, he has no interest in becoming a “heartless sort of Zen robot.”
Grief and love.
We get into what it means to stay open to both, including the parts we’d often rather avoid.
Learning to live from the heart.
Henry shares his experience after a bicycle accident and how his years of practice supported him as he dealt with the effects of a concussion.
We also get into The Way, the meditation app Henry co-created. I was curious about its sequential approach: following one path over time, with each session building on the last.
If you’ve ever sat down to meditate and immediately decided you were bad at it, I think you’ll get a lot from this conversation.
Let me know what stays with you.
Be well,
Kevin

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I sit down with Kevin Ben Smith, founder of Snipd, for a wide-ranging conversation on why every podcast app you’ve ever used is secretly a music player - and what happens when AI finally gets to listen with you.We get into: the bicycle commute in Zurich (and the Sam Altman podcast) that started Snipd, the Amazon-reviews neural net that convinced him to bet on AI five years before ChatGPT, why Snipd has data Apple, Spotify and YouTube don’t have, why his three-person team specifically refuses to build an ad-skipping feature, why today’s podcast advertising is a “huge hack” and the YouTube-style model that should replace it, the Snipd DJ stringing 5-to-10-minute moderated supercuts across every show you’d never get to, why audiobook publishers are too paranoid to license cleanly, Kevin’s blunt verdict on ElevenLabs voices (“5 minutes and you wanna blow your brains out”), and the open API Snipd is opening for Claude, Codex, and OpenClaw - so your AI agent can finally tap into everything you’ve ever listened to.Whether you make podcasts, build with AI, or just want a smarter way to listen, this one’s for you.Chapter Markers0:00 Introduction0:47 The bike commute that became Snipd5:43 The Amazon reviews moment that hinted at ChatGPT11:30 Why every podcast app is secretly a music player12:38 The first version of Snipd (and what they got wrong)15:22 Meet the Snipd DJ20:53 Why audiobooks are stuck on Audible24:09 Why Snipd refuses to build ad-skipping25:22 Podcast ads are a “huge hack.” YouTube is the future.28:03 The data Apple, Spotify and YouTube don’t have31:36 The AI model stack behind Snipd36:55 Why Langchain is too complicated41:43 Can ElevenLabs replace a real podcaster?47:53 “5 minutes and you wanna blow your brains out”53:00 Snipd is opening an API for Claude and Codex56:09 Where to find KevinFollow Kevin Ben Smith: https://x.com/kevinbensmithFollow Kevin Rose: https://x.com/kevinrose


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinrose.com

New episode just dropped.
I sat down with Anish Acharya, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) and one of the most plugged-in consumer investors in tech. We worked together at Google years ago, and what I love about Anish is that he’s not just writing checks - he’s a programmer. He’s in the code every day, same as me.
We got into all of it: why I’ll never look at code again, the personal injury lawyer who won the global Claude Code hackathon by building software that rivals a venture-backed startup, why SaaS is getting demolished, and Anish’s wildest prediction - that America will get the 4-day work week the same way it solved obesity. Not through discipline. Through Ozempic. I also made the mistake of pitching my wife on using AI agents to settle our marriage arguments. It did not go well.
Whether you’re deep in the 1% or wondering what the hell we’re all so excited about, this one’s for you.
Listen or watch the full episode here.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinrose.com

Watch the episode on YouTube
In this episode, I sit down with Ben Cera, solo founder and CEO of Polsia.
Polsia is a platform where you type in a business idea and AI agents instantly go to work building it for you. From market research and landing pages to Meta ad campaigns and cold outreach, Polsia spins up autonomous agents that function like a full startup team.
Ben shares how he went from building alone with AI 16 hours a day to hitting product–market fit, scaling to millions in ARR as a one-person company, and why he believes AGI is already here.
Whether you’re a non-technical dreamer with a business idea or a seasoned builder rethinking what’s possible, this conversation offers a front-row seat to the solopreneur revolution.
Topics Covered
* How building alone with AI for a year led Ben to realize agents could replace an entire startup team
* The origin of the name Polsia (”AI Slop” spelled backwards) and why he stopped caring what investors think
* Rick Rubin’s creative philosophy and why building for yourself, not others, is the only way to survive the grind
* Universal Paperclips as design inspiration: choosing weird over polished on purpose
* Why Polsia’s autonomous “night shift” cycle is both a product decision and a cost + feedback loop strategy
* The Meta ads engine: click a button, set a budget, and AI creates Sora-generated UGC video ads deployed on your behalf
* Scaling pain as a solo founder: rate limits, infrastructure meltdowns, and building support agents to fix what broke
* Why Ben refuses to hire, “eating his own dog food” so customers never face a problem he hasn’t solved
* The case that 80% autonomous companies will outcompete everyone else within the next few years
* Travis Kalanick as mentor, the “push through the pain” philosophy, and five years at CloudKitchens
* Polsia’s long-term vision: an AI-native economy with investor agents, micro-acquisitions, and a more democratic American dream
* Opus vs. Codex: Ben’s dual-model workflow for pragmatic shipping and ruthless bug-finding
* Why the solo billion-dollar company isn’t about ego, it’s a wake-up call
Links
* Polsia — https://polsia.ai
* Polsia Live Dashboard — https://polsia.ai/live
* Ben Cera on X (Twitter)
* Universal Paperclips — the clicker game that inspired Polsia’s design


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinrose.com

Watch episode on YoutubeIn this episode, Kevin sits down with writer, photographer, and technologist Craig Mod for a wide-ranging conversation on the value of slowness in a fast-moving world. From walking solo across Japan to rethinking the economics of independent publishing, Craig shares his philosophy of presence, deep attention, and building creative ecosystems that last. Whether you're an aspiring creator or simply seeking to live with more intention, this episode is a masterclass in meaningful modern living.Topics covered
* Craig’s early years in the BBS/ANSI art scene and how it shaped his creative drive
* Escaping post-industrial America and finding healing in the structure of Japanese life
* The joy and challenge of learning Japanese, and how language opens cultural doors
* From blog software in the '90s to essays that changed the course of his career
* Silicon Valley vs. Tokyo: ambition, trade-offs, and choosing a slower life
* The transformative power of walking: from ancient pilgrimages to solo introspection
* Building a reader-funded membership model and launching handcrafted books
* How a 200-word essay led to $100M+ in economic impact for a rural Japanese city
* Addiction, self-worth, fatherhood, and the emotional repair of being seen
* The cultural weight of jazz kissa, pizza toast, and public bathhouse rituals
* Anti-influencer media: binaural audio, slow video, and presence in a distracted world
Links
* Craig’s blog
* Things Become Other Things - Craig’s new book


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinrose.com