Demetri Kofinas interviews specialists on geopolitics, energy markets, AI, and finance at length.
Hidden Forces treats investing as inseparable from war, energy, technology, and political order. Its conversations move slowly and deliberately, giving guests room to build frameworks rather than trade quick reactions.
PRESS PLAY
Hidden Forces is built around one-on-one interviews conducted by host Demetri Kofinas, who typically frames each episode with detailed context on the guest and topic before letting the conversation run long-form. Guests are drawn from journalism, academia, and finance rather than entertainment: examples from recent episodes include Financial Times data reporter John Burn-Murdoch, Council on Foreign Relations fellow Sebastian Mallaby, Columbia Law professor Tim Wu, commodity economist Rory Johnston, gCaptain founder John Konrad, Americas Quarterly editor-in-chief Brian Winter, and financial advisor Cullen Roche. Episodes generally start from a current event or a guest's recent book and widen into structural questions - how AI reshapes entry-level hiring, how platform monopolies changed media and commerce, how a Hormuz closure ripples through fertilizer and shipping-insurance markets, or how U.S. policy toward Venezuela, Cuba, and Mexico is being reset. The tone is analytical and data-driven, with recurring use of historical analogies (the ATM, the internal combustion engine, the Carter Doctrine, 1980s tanker wars) to test whether current events fit or break past patterns. A recurring spinoff, The 100-Year Pivot, pairs Kofinas with investor Grant Williams for a narrower focus on geopolitical and economic reordering. Personal finance and portfolio-construction episodes appear alongside the geopolitics and technology coverage, giving the show a broader remit than a single-beat interview program. Episodes run long relative to typical interview podcasts, mostly 45 to 90 minutes, consistent with unhurried, detail-oriented conversation rather than news-clip pacing. The production is conversation-first with minimal narrative sound design, centered on Kofinas's prepared questions and the guest's expertise. Listeners who want quick takes or lighter tone are not the primary audience; the show rewards attention to policy mechanics, market structure, and historical framing. Political and economic events are treated as case studies for broader systemic questions rather than as standalone news coverage.
Made for: Listeners who want in-depth, expert-level discussion of geopolitics, energy markets, AI, and macro finance and prefer long-form interviews over news soundbites.
What sets it apart: Rather than covering news cycles as standalone segments, Hidden Forces uses each guest's book or original research to build a systems-level argument that spans disparate beats - AI labor economics, oil chokepoints, platform monopoly power, and hemispheric foreign policy - in a single hour-plus conversation.
Get the edge with Hidden Forces where media entrepreneur and financial analyst Demetri Kofinas gives you access to the people and ideas that matter, so you can build financial security and always stay ahead of the curve.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Hidden Forces connects portfolios and markets to geopolitics, technology, supply chains, and the institutional power behind financial outcomes.
Hidden Forces follows money outward, from personal portfolio decisions to the political, technological, and physical systems that shape markets.
Hidden Forces makes you connect portfolio time horizons to shipping chokepoints and platform power.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp energy market briefing on how Hormuz can turn oil scarcity into consumer stress and fiscal pressure.
Hidden Forces frames the closed Strait of Hormuz as a physical supply shock whose full force arrives with a lag, then follows the pressure into energy prices, household budgets, and public finances.
A maritime-first look at Hormuz, shipping risk, energy flows, and the politics behind global choke points.
Hidden Forces frames the Strait of Hormuz as a maritime chokepoint where energy, trade, defense policy, and financial risk converge. Demetri Kofinas and Captain John Konrad build the discussion around the Hormuz Hypothesis, linking U.S.
A clear, systems-level look at how platform power turned internet openness into a problem of economic control.
Hidden Forces puts platform power at the center of the internet economy, with Tim Wu drawing on his Columbia Law work, writing on technology and power, and White House competition-policy experience.
A practical portfolio conversation about timelines, liabilities, costs, and the financial goals investors actually need to fund.
Cullen Roche frames portfolio construction less as a hunt for the right market style and more as a household balance sheet problem. In conversation with Dmitry Kofinas, he keeps returning to the variables investors actually live with: time horizon, income, spending, liabilities,…
A sharp geopolitical risk conversation on Venezuela, Rubio, and Latin America's return to the center of U.S. strategy.
Hidden Forces frames Maduro's reported removal from power as the start of a wider U.S. strategy shift in the Western Hemisphere. Demetri Kofinas, Grant Williams, and Brian Winter use Venezuela as the anchor, then pull the discussion toward oil, political legitimacy, regional…
BBC's daily business show, from toy-industry founders to Anthropic's Pentagon standoff.
Hidden Forces brings Dimitri Kofinas together with John Byrne Murdoch, the Financial Times' chief data reporter, for a conversation built around statistics, graphics, and questions about AI, jobs, and society.
Hormuz is already closed.
The frame is maritime power.
Demetri Kofinas opens Hidden Forces with Sebastian Malaby, a Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and New Yorker writer, to discuss Malaby's biography of Demis Hassabis and DeepMind.
This episode features an interview with Middle East correspondent Gregg Carlstrom analyzing the complex geopolitical situation in the US war against Iran, including regional reactions, strategic implications, and economic consequences.
This episode explores Jacob Siegel's thesis that the Internet has created a new political regime called the information state, which governs by controlling digital protocols to engineer public compliance rather than through force or democratic consent.
An interview with an Iranian scholar analyzing the evolving US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, including strategy, nuclear implications, and regional dynamics.
Economic historian Barry Eichengreen discusses the history of international currencies from ancient coinage to modern crypto and the dollar's future.
Geopolitical strategist Bruno Massage discusses the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran and its implications for American power and global order.
Demetri Kofinas interviews Middle East expert Joshua Landis about the U.S.
Historian Odd Arne Westad discusses why the Cold War is a misleading lens for today's world and draws parallels to the pre-WWI era.
This episode explores the case for reallocating global capital from the US to emerging markets, focusing on economic, geopolitical, and investment factors, with insights from economist Soni Kapoor.
Platform power is the problem Kofinas and Wu keep circling.
Portfolio construction starts with the person.
This episode features an interview with Jeremy Grantham and Edward Chancellor discussing value investing principles, current market overvaluation, financial bubbles, and long-term existential risks.
This episode features political scientist Carlo Masala discussing why Europe must prepare for independent defense capabilities amid declining American commitments to NATO and potential Russian threats.
Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams interview Kamran Bahari about Iran's nationwide protests, the power of the Iranian regime, and implications for geopolitics and US strategy.
This episode features Patrick Boyle discussing the Jeffrey Epstein case, focusing on the origins of his wealth, the implications of FBI file redactions, and broader issues of media censorship and platform power.
Philosopher Rebecca Goldstein discusses her book 'The Mattering Instinct,' exploring humanity's fundamental need to find meaning and feel that our lives matter, covering topics like attention, fulfillment, parenting, and social media's impact on validation.
Latin America is back near the top of the agenda.
Demetri Kofinas interviews Nicolas Collin about his late-cycle investment theory, drawing on Carlota Perez's model and discussing implications for AI, geopolitics, and financial systems.
Demetri Kofinas interviews futurist Jamie Metzl about the Trump administration's 2025 national security strategy and its implications for global power dynamics.
Demetri Kofinas interviews former CEA chair Jason Furman on inflation, monetary policy, and the economics of affordability.
Demetri Kofinas interviews Ian McGilchrist about his work on the divided brain and how the left and right hemispheres shape our perception of reality.
An in-depth interview with China analyst Denny McMahon about China's economic transformation, debt, and industrial strategy.
Demetri Kofinas interviews Lawrence McDonald about the risks and opportunities in today's reshaped economy, covering AI, crypto, passive investing, and macro shifts post-COVID.
Dimitri Kofinas interviews Dimitri Alperovitch about US-China tensions, Taiwan as a flashpoint, and the implications of US involvement in Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear program.
Geopolitical analyst Kamran Bihari discusses U.S.
An interview with Joseph Tarigian about his book on the political history of the Chinese Communist Party, focusing on elite power struggles and Xi Jinping's rise.
Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams discuss the political and budgetary fallout between Trump and Musk, examining the implications for the country's future.
Demetri Kofinas interviews Ian Fletcher about the failures of free trade and the need for a modern industrial policy to secure good jobs and high-value industries in the United States.
An interview with a Princeton researcher discussing China's industrial model and lessons for US policy.
Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams discuss America's economic emergency and its implications for investors with economist Charles Calamiris.