The Profile: Palantir’s secretive CTO & the crypto casino
This edition of The Profile features Shyam Sankar, Adam Levy, Rony Denis, and others.
Good morning, friends.
I recently read the following quote in James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter:
Writer and scholar C.S. Lewis on what matters most:
“To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavor. The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a person alone reading a book that interests them; and all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, are only valuable in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes.”
With so much going on in the world right now, it’s helpful to remember that the point of this life is to protect and multiply those little scenes.
So today, if you can, step away from the noise. Linger a little longer at the table. Call a friend. Close the laptop, and be present with your kids. The real work is smaller — and closer — than we think.
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For more ideas like this, you can check out my 2021 interview with James Clear here:
PROFILES.
— Palantir’s secretive CTO [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The AI that built a viral Epstein podcast
— The Georgia pastor accused of defrauding the VA
— The gravedigger grappling with grief — The crypto casino
PEOPLE TO KNOW.
Palantir’s secretive CTO: For two decades, Shyam Sankar has been Palantir’s hidden engine: the CTO who built its “forward-deployed” culture. He sent engineers into the field to turn chaotic government data into real-world decisions. The profile traces how an immigrant childhood marked by violence, instability, and relentless grind hardened him into a builder obsessed with meritocracy and national strength. Now, with Palantir’s valuation exploding on the AI wave, Sankar is stepping into public view as an evangelist for “defense reformation” and American industrial revival. (Colossus)
“He’s been one of the most impactful people in defense tech, working for 20 years, and he’s done it privately, quietly, and very much behind the scenes.”
The AI that built a viral Epstein podcast: Adam Levy built an AI-generated podcast about the Epstein files, and it rocketed into Apple’s top 10 after pulling in 700,000 downloads in days. Created in 48 hours, it uses large language models to mine 3.5 million documents and crank out twice-daily episodes. Critics call it bloodless and mechanical, but its viral rise signals a new reality: in the race to dominate sprawling investigations, speed may be beating soul. (Fast Company)
“People just want no bullshit. Strip the emotion, strip the bullshit, strip everything away—just tell me things for what they are and when you tell it to me, help me understand the facts.”
The Georgia pastor accused of defrauding the VA: A struggling young soldier finds faith, only to become entangled in a church former members say operated like a cult. Prosecutors allege its leader, Rony Denis, used spiritual control to build a hidden real-estate empire and siphon more than $23 million in veterans’ benefits. Now Denis is jailed on fraud charges, and the church is fracturing as followers confront claims that even his identity was fake. (Bloomberg; alternate link)
The gravedigger grappling with grief: A young gravedigger in Asheville takes a job hoping it will make him wiser about mortality, only to find death far harder to face than expected. His work partner Alison, who embraced death with humor and grace, becomes a close friend until Hurricane Helene kills her and her entire family. Forced to bury his own colleague on the same land where they once guided others through grief, he confronts loss as the bereaved. In the end, nature slowly covers the graves, reminding him how grief, like life, eventually grows over even the deepest wounds. (New York Times Magazine; alternate link)
“I was desperate to keep her death alive, to keep reckoning with our cataclysm, before it was all gone for good.”
COMPANIES TO WATCH.
The crypto casino: Drake’s Stake livestream showed him torching millions in crypto until co-founder Ed Craven jumped on the call, topped up his balance, and urged the crew to make the wins go viral. A Bloomberg Businessweek analysis of hundreds of hours of footage found that Drake and a few other influencers hit unusually frequent “big wins” on slots owned by Stake’s parent company, while their odds on third-party games looked typical. The profile argues this influencer-fueled jackpot theater helps power one of the world’s largest, lightly regulated crypto casinos, which is now facing lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. Stake denies giving anyone preferential treatment and disputes the findings. (Bloomberg; alternate link)
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