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RareErth Podcast

Rare Individuals.
Rare Conversations.

I sit with people who followed an idea into the unknown. Founders, artists, tinkerers, and quietly brilliant misfits. Some have Wikipedia pages; many don't. All of them changed how I see the world.

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Latest Episode

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Season 4

Meet Anjali, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at 78Health, a leukemia survivor, a polymath, and someone whose story found me through one of the more unlikely routes: a voice on Air Chat, a mixtape I made from it without asking, and Naval Ravikant somewhere in the middle of it. In this episode, Anjali traces her path from a first-generation immigrant childhood in the Bay Area, through more than two decades in tech, to a 2019 leukemia diagnosis that put her in the hospital for 80% of that year, reshaping how she thinks about a few things that came after. We get into her roots, her parents, the books that keep her grounded, the near-death experiences she describes as a soft light lullaby, and the company she's now building with her cofounders to fix the gaps in care she lived through. Expect honest reflections on faith, fear, the things people get wrong when someone they love is sick, and what it actually means to feel unafraid.

Core Ideas

  • Roots are not where you were born, they're what you carry. Anjali says it's like being a moving tree.
  • Why "why not me?" is a more useful question than "why me?" when life turns upside down.
  • The single most important thing you can do for someone who is sick, and the one thing you should stop saying to them.
  • How a single thread of purpose can pull you through 10 months of chemo when nothing else can.
  • Reading as a mood, not a task, and why no book has to be finished.
  • Building a healthtech company in a market where Amazon, Google, and OpenAI have just arrived, and what differentiates 78Health.
  • The redefinition of health after illness: stop punishing your body for how someone makes you feel.
  • Why the most essential skill nobody calls a skill is simply liking other people for no reason other than that they made it here too. Anjali says making an effort to see the best in others is a superpower.

Resources & References

Listen on Spotify →

Meet Harsha Venkatesh, an investor, engineer, and serial entrepreneur who has lived across three continents and built a life at the intersection of technology and finance. In this opening episode of Season 4, Harsha traces his journey from childhood visits to the Bangalore Stock Exchange with his father, through a decade-long semiconductor career spanning Germany and the US, to becoming one of India's top-performing portfolio managers. We dig into his investment philosophy shaped by Buffett, Munger, and Pabrai, the low point of navigating SEBI regulations as a first-time fund manager, and his deeply practical approach to teaching his children about money. Expect sharp thinking on India's economic future, the changing face of warfare through drones, and why the best investment you can make is in the people around you.

Core Ideas

  • The power of curiosity as a compounding asset, and why being an all-rounder is an edge in investing.
  • How cloning the best investors' frameworks (not their stock picks) builds a durable investment practice.
  • Why the people around you, spouse, friends, business partners, are the single most important factor in long-term success.
  • India's non-threatening positioning on the global stage as a structural economic advantage.
  • The intersection of AI and wealth management, and what it means for the next generation of investors.
  • Teaching children money management from age five through pocket money, incentives, and real stock portfolios.

Resources & References

Listen on Spotify →

What guests say

In their words

“It feels like a great honor and responsibility to shape someone’s world. … Thank you for hosting such a gorgeous conversation.”

Vijay GuptaMacArthur Fellow · Founder, Street Symphony

“You asked questions with a depth I’m very rarely asked about, and I’m leaving this conversation with a lot to think about.”

Melanie AmblerCellist & Stanford-trained physician · Musical Rounds

“In a world with so many podcasts, I still feel you have a place to contribute.”

Siphiwe TapisiSoftware developer, Soweto

Read what some of the guests are saying →

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