Evidence before investing conviction.
The Rational Reminder Podcast treats personal finance as a discipline, not a collection of tips. Its conversations move from academic evidence to portfolio consequences, with careful attention to indexing, factor investing, risk, pensions, and the behavior of real households.
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The Rational Reminder Podcast is an evidence-first finance show for investors who would rather understand a decision than be handed a slogan. Its center of gravity is sensible investing, but the range is wider than asset allocation alone. Recent episodes move through the SPIVA report, factor research, stock crash risk, private markets, ETF launches in Canada, pension commuted values, and the evolution of index fund investing. The show likes structure. A topic usually begins with a premise or a paper, then turns into a careful walk through the logic, the evidence, and the investor-facing implication. It is technical, but not performatively so. When the conversation gets into alphas, regressions, factor exposure, or lifetime welfare, the point is usually brought back to a practical question: what does this change in a real portfolio or financial plan? That makes the show unusually useful for listeners who enjoy academic finance but still care about implementation. It is also willing to complicate tidy narratives. A conversation about 100% equity portfolios becomes a discussion of job income, household commitments, and spending that cannot easily be deferred. A discussion of index funds looks beyond ownership share to trading volume, price discovery, and how critics frame the evidence. A pension case study turns a seemingly settled client preference into a broader planning problem. The show’s rhythm is patient and cumulative. It repeats core ideas because the details matter, and because investing errors often come from skipping the boring middle of the argument. Guests add depth, but the editorial posture stays consistent: research is valuable only if it helps investors set better expectations and make better decisions. The dry closing risk disclaimers fit the larger sensibility. Markets are uncertain, models are incomplete, and overconfidence is expensive.
Made for: The show suits serious DIY investors, advisors, and finance-minded listeners who are comfortable with academic research, portfolio theory, and detailed planning tradeoffs. It is best for people who want patient reasoning rather than market calls.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the repeated bridge from research to implementation: papers, scorecards, and models are treated as tools for real investor behavior. The show is more rigorous than most personal finance podcasts, but still grounded in everyday portfolio and planning decisions.
A weekly reality check on sensible investing and financial decision-making, from three Canadians. Hosted by Benjamin Felix, Cameron Passmore, and Dan Bortolotti, Portfolio Managers at PWL Capital.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Research-driven conversations make portfolio theory, index investing, and household risk decisions more legible without flattening their complexity.
The Rational Reminder Podcast treats investment ideas as claims to be tested, with Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore moving from academic research to the decisions households and portfolio managers actually face.
The case against index funds runs into trading-volume data; you get the cross-examination.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured discussion of what SPIVA can reveal about active fund performance, market behavior, and investor expectations.
SPIVA sits at the center of a familiar active-versus-indexing debate, and this episode revisits it through Tim Edwards, Managing Director of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
A measured walk through the paper that shaped factor investing, with room for the anomaly it still cannot quite explain.
This episode uses Fama and French's 1993 Journal of Financial Economics paper as a clean way into factor investing. Benjamin Felix and Dan Bortolotti revisit why the three-factor model mattered: it moved the conversation beyond the CAPM and helped explain more than 90 percent of…
A research-led look at how fixed household commitments can quietly shape an investor's room for stock-market risk.
Stock-market risk gets a practical reframing here as Patrick Adams, a PhD candidate at MIT, discusses research on how household spending commitments affect the ability to hold equity risk when job or private-business income dries up.
A rigorous, math-heavy look at why familiar portfolio rules can trail the model without being useless.
James Choi brings a more mathematical practical-finance lens to the question of how investors choose equity allocations across a lifetime. The episode sets familiar rules, including 100 minus age and 60/40, against an optimal rule, and the comparison is careful rather than…
A careful look at Fama and French turns factor investing into a grounded explanation of portfolio returns.
Factor investing can feel abstract until The Finance Paper that Changed Everything connects it to Fama and French's 1993 work on expected returns and asset prices.
A clear, practical look at how portfolio theory holds up inside real investment decisions.
Portfolio construction gets a grounded stress test through a discussion with Don Kalkagny, CIO at a large US RIA whose firm draws on industry and academic expertise.
Real-estate freedom, taught in plain numbers.
The hosts of the Rational Reminder Podcast answer listener questions about dollar cost averaging and mutual funds versus ETFs, while also discussing their firm's expansion.
Benjamin Felix and Dan Bortolotti of The Rational Reminder Podcast dive into Fama and French's 1993 paper 'Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds'.
The Rational Reminder Podcast hosts a conversation with Don Calcagni, CIO of Mercer Advisors, a $63 billion RIA in the US.
Episode 405 starts with the SPIVA report: why it matters, what it can show, and where people overread it.
Factor investing gets its origin story.
Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore introduce a conversation with MIT PhD candidate Patrick Adams about his research challenging the idea that 100% equity is always best for long-term investors.
The hosts of the Rational Reminder Podcast discuss the problems with private markets and clarify that their firm, PWL Capital, offers holistic wealth management services beyond just asset management.
Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore discuss the launch of Avantis ETFs in Canada with Eduardo Repeto and Caitlin Ebanks, marking a milestone for factor-based investing accessibility.
The Rational Reminder Podcast marks its 400th episode by examining 50 years of retail index investing, anchored by Benjamin Felix's moderation of an industry panel at the New York Stock Exchange hosted by Vanguard and S&P in early 2026.
Yale professor James Choi joins Benjamin Felix and Cameron Passmore on episode 399 of the Rational Reminder Podcast to discuss his new paper 'Practical Finance: An Approximate Solution to Lifecycle Portfolio Choice,' co-authored with Sanya Liu and Pengcheng Liu.
This episode discusses the acquisition of EB Wealth by PWL Capital and a case study on whether to take a pension's commuted value or keep the benefit.
The hosts introduce an AMA episode, discuss their firm's expansion in Canada, and welcome new team members.
Louai Bibi joins the Rational Reminder podcast to discuss how he approaches life, disability, and critical illness insurance for clients, sharing his journey from a bank job to PWL Capital.
Abby Davisson discusses her book 'Money and Love' and how to make holistic decisions about life's biggest choices involving money and relationships.