Andrew Horowitz, host of The Disciplined Investor and DH Unplugged, stepped into the co-host chair alongside Adam Curry for Episode 1908 of the No Agenda Show, titled 'Chivatican.' The pairing, built on a 15-year friendship and a shared history with the late John C. Dvorak, delivered one of the most finance-forward episodes in the show's recent memory. Broadcasting from the Texas Hill Country, Curry and Horowitz spent three hours dissecting tariffs, jobs numbers, artificial intelligence hype, and a hijacking mystery over Saudi airspace.
The episode's significance lies in its specificity. Horowitz brought a markets lens to the show's trademark narrative deconstruction, unpacking the $15 billion Mesabi Metallics / SR steel plant deal in Iowa, dubbed 'Patriot Pellets,' and the Section 232 tariffs that enabled it. He contrasted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's Oval Office pitch with Iowa TV6 reporting that no permits have been filed and no major Lee County land has been purchased for the plant. He also flagged the Indian ownership of SR Technologies and connected the timing to the midterms, raising questions about the gap between political messaging and on-the-ground reality.
On economic data, the pair examined Kevin Hassett's shifting commentary on BLS jobs reports, PCE methodology changes, and ShadowStats founder John Williams. They also discussed Scott Bessent's bond-buying 'blunder,' private credit refinancing walls, and commercial real estate losses. For listeners, these segments offered a skeptical counterpoint to official narratives, emphasizing how methodological tweaks and policy missteps can obscure underlying economic stress.
The AI discussion was equally pointed. Curry championed Meta's Muse assistant, predicted the collapse of traditional podcast apps, and recounted building a prototype 'while watching West Wing.' Horowitz and Curry also analyzed Trump's rebrand of AI as 'SI' (super intelligence) and Anthropic's reported $2 trillion IPO prospectus. The segment underscored the gap between AI hype and practical adoption, with Curry's prototype anecdote serving as a case study in how easily the technology can be repurposed outside established platforms.
A FlyDubai cockpit stabbing incident and Netanyahu's pre-election messaging provided the episode's most dramatic thread. Curry hammered the shifting official story, noting conflicting ABC, BBC and Netanyahu accounts of whether the plane dropped from 34,000 to 16,000 feet in two or three minutes, whether a knife or crash axe was used, and the now-famous Israeli plumber who allegedly leveled the aircraft. The contradictions, Curry argued, illustrate how quickly a single event can be spun into multiple competing narratives.
Horowitz's investing philosophy got its own set piece when he recounted a horseback ride in Costa Rica with his wife Jill. 'The horse doesn't want to fall off the mountain just as badly as you don't want to fall off the mountain. Hang on to the horse. It's the same thing with these markets.' The metaphor encapsulated the episode's broader theme: in both media and markets, survival depends on recognizing the incentives of the vehicle you're riding.
Additional segments touched on AOC, Bill Gates, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman's 'Dots' launch, Pope Leo's Chicago-accented AI remarks, and Pete Hegseth's Pentagon purge. For a show powered entirely by its audience of producers, knights and dames, Episode 1908 demonstrates how value-for-value funding allows for long-form analysis that commercial outlets rarely attempt. The episode is available wherever podcasts are heard, and at noagendashow.net.
