Hidden Forces

In this episode of Hidden Forces, hosts Dmitri Ahenus and Grant Williams sit down with Latin‑America expert Brian Winter to dissect President Trump’s dramatic extraction of Nicolás Maduro, its connection to a newly‑styled “Donroe Doctrine,” and the wider surge of right‑wing movements across the region. The conversation also examines how organized crime, demographic shifts, AI, and U.S. policymakers such as Marco Rubio are reshaping the geopolitics of Venezuela, Cuba, and broader Latin America.

In this episode of Hidden Forces, finance educator Patrick Boyle explains how his YouTube channel was repeatedly demonetized after publishing videos that examined the mysterious wealth, connections, and partially redacted FBI files surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, using the incident to illustrate the broader power of platform censorship and incentive‑driven media. The conversation also unpacks the limited release of the Epstein documents, the odd redactions, and why many high‑profile figures remain obscured despite public promises of full transparency.

In this episode of Hidden Forces, philosopher and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Goldstein unpacks her new book The Mattering Instinct, examining why humans crave both subjective and objective “matter‑ness,” how attention, deservingness, and early family dynamics shape that longing, and outlining her four‑archetype “mattering map” that links the search for meaning to happiness, depression, and social media. Host Dmitri Capenas guides the conversation through personal anecdotes, psychological research, and practical implications for parenting and everyday life, offering listeners a concise philosophy of why we need to feel that we matter.

In this episode of the Hidden Forces podcast, former French official and European‑accelerator co‑founder Nicolas Kol​an walks host Demetri Cafenas through his “Late‑Cycle Investment Theory,” arguing that we are now in the maturity phase of the decades‑long computing‑and‑networks paradigm and that AI is merely an acceleration of that existing technological wave. He then explores how this late‑stage environment fuels market concentration, speculative manias, and a looming financial reset—highlighting the emerging US‑China monetary rivalry, programmable money, and the strategic implications for investors, policymakers, and the broader geopolitical landscape.

In this episode of Hidden Forces, Demetri Cafenas sits down with Jamie Metzl to dissect the Trump administration's 2025 national security strategy, exploring its implications for America's global role and its stance towards China. Through a critical lens, they debate whether the strategy signifies a containment approach towards China or reflects a return to historical power dynamics reminiscent of the 19th century.

In this episode of Hidden Forces, former White House Council of Economic Advisers chair Jason Furman debates whether we’re in an AI bubble, critiques the Fed’s ability to curb inflation, and examines how monetary policy, government deficits, and regulatory choices shape the U.S. economy’s structural challenges. Drawing on his three‑decade career in economic policy—from the Clinton and Obama administrations to Harvard—Furman offers listeners a nuanced view of AI’s productivity prospects, the limits of traditional inflation models, and the political forces reshaping affordability and industrial strategy.