Show · Hosted by Lex Fridman

Lex Fridman Podcast

Long-form conversations with high-profile figures in science, technology, and politics, often running for hours and going deep.

Listen on YouTube · Spotify · Apple Podcasts

191 episodes tracked · 7 guests covered · 17 pieces published, latest 2026-09-27

All Lex Fridman Podcast coverage

Don Lincoln says Fermilab was two or three years from discovering the Higgs boson before CERN got there
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Don Lincoln says Fermilab was two or three years from discovering the Higgs boson before CERN got there

The Fermilab physicist frames the Higgs discovery as a near miss, not a clean victory lap for CERN, and he has the machine numbers to make that sting.

Sep 27, 2026
Anthony Kaldellis says Rome’s three biggest disasters were the Arab conquests, the Seljuk conquest of Asia Minor, and the Fourth Crusade
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Anthony Kaldellis says Rome’s three biggest disasters were the Arab conquests, the Seljuk conquest of Asia Minor, and the Fourth Crusade

The Byzantine historian’s Roman Empire is not a marble statue collapsing in 476, but a long-running state repeatedly injured by three fast, brutal shocks.

Sep 25, 2026
Andrew Scull says Nazi gas chambers were developed first to kill mental patients
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Andrew Scull says Nazi gas chambers were developed first to kill mental patients

The historian of psychiatry connects asylum overcrowding, American eugenics, California sterilization laws, Rockefeller-funded genetics research, and the Nazi T4 program into one grim family tree.

Sep 18, 2026
Don Lincoln says Maxwell's equations turned magnets and sparks into the internet
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Don Lincoln says Maxwell's equations turned magnets and sparks into the internet

On the Lex Fridman Podcast, the Fermilab physicist makes the case that the weirdest, least practical physics is often the stuff that later rewires civilization.

Sep 13, 2026
Khabib Nurmagomedov says his father prepared him for Conor McGregor by making him lose judo matches at 15
Lex Fridman Podcast·Health

Khabib Nurmagomedov says his father prepared him for Conor McGregor by making him lose judo matches at 15

On Lex Fridman’s podcast, Khabib turns his invincibility myth into something more annoying and more useful: repetition, discomfort, and losing early where nobody was watching.

Sep 13, 2026
DHH says Omarchy's Linux install world record is 45 seconds
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

DHH says Omarchy's Linux install world record is 45 seconds

David Heinemeier Hansson turns a Linux distro install time into a philosophy of overbuilt software, Elon Musk ambition, and mildly deranged stopwatch joy.

Sep 7, 2026
DHH says Omarchy's growth went vertical when it made Linux agent-first
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

DHH says Omarchy's growth went vertical when it made Linux agent-first

The Rails creator argues that the Linux crowd’s hostility to AI is exactly why Omarchy can break out.

Sep 3, 2026
DHH says one person can now build the 5 percent of Premiere or Photoshop they need on Linux
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

DHH says one person can now build the 5 percent of Premiere or Photoshop they need on Linux

The Basecamp co-founder’s real claim isn’t that every solo coder is Adobe now, it’s that cloning the part you actually use has become weirdly plausible.

Aug 30, 2026
Don Lincoln says galaxies with no dark matter are strong evidence dark matter is real
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Don Lincoln says galaxies with no dark matter are strong evidence dark matter is real

The physicist’s best pro dark matter argument is wonderfully backward: the missing stuff looks more real when you can find places where it’s missing.

Aug 29, 2026
Don Lincoln says the speed of light comes out of Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Don Lincoln says the speed of light comes out of Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism

The Fermilab physicist makes the old physics story feel properly weird again, then uses it to defend basic research from the eternal question, what good is this?

Aug 14, 2026
Khabib Nurmagomedov says Islam Makhachev can overtake Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, and Georges St-Pierre, but time is running out
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Khabib Nurmagomedov says Islam Makhachev can overtake Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, and Georges St-Pierre, but time is running out

Khabib’s praise for Makhachev comes with the most Dagestani compliment possible: you can become the greatest ever, now hurry up because your body is betraying you.

Aug 13, 2026
Don Lincoln says we exist because the early universe had one extra matter particle per billion antimatter particles
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Don Lincoln says we exist because the early universe had one extra matter particle per billion antimatter particles

The Fermilab physicist framed existence as the leftover scrap from a cosmic matter-antimatter wipeout, then admitted nobody knows what caused the imbalance.

Jul 30, 2026
Anthony Kaldellis says Byzantine Greek fire came in hand grenade form
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Anthony Kaldellis says Byzantine Greek fire came in hand grenade form

The historian’s best detail on Lex Fridman was not just that Greek fire burned on water, but that the Romans apparently bottled the stuff and threw it at siege engines.

Jul 21, 2026
Don Lincoln says quantum field theory predicts dark energy 10^120 times too large
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Don Lincoln says quantum field theory predicts dark energy 10^120 times too large

The Fermilab physicist puts a number on the vacuum catastrophe, and the number is so stupidly large it makes ordinary scientific failure look dainty.

Jul 15, 2026
Anthony Kaldellis says the Plague of Justinian probably did not kill half the Roman Empire
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Anthony Kaldellis says the Plague of Justinian probably did not kill half the Roman Empire

The historian's case is brutally practical: if half the empire died, why did Justinian's wars, taxes, and courts keep running?

Jul 8, 2026
Anthony Kaldellis says Roman families voluntarily castrated their sons to place them at the emperor's court
Lex Fridman Podcast·Culture

Anthony Kaldellis says Roman families voluntarily castrated their sons to place them at the emperor's court

The Byzantine historian explains how castration was sometimes a family's smartest power move, not just a cruelty imposed on slaves.

Jul 3, 2026
Don Lincoln Wants You to Understand Why Time Is Weirder Than You Think
Lex Fridman Podcast·Interviews

Don Lincoln Wants You to Understand Why Time Is Weirder Than You Think

A Fermilab physicist walks Lex Fridman through the history of spacetime, and the most interesting part is what nobody actually understands.

Jun 2, 2026
Don Lincoln Has Spent 30 Years Looking for Dark Matter and Has Absolutely No Idea What It Is
Lex Fridman Podcast·Interviews

Don Lincoln Has Spent 30 Years Looking for Dark Matter and Has Absolutely No Idea What It Is

The Fermilab physicist makes a compelling case for something he cannot find, cannot name, and cannot stop thinking about.

Jun 2, 2026