Christian Angermayer is a prolific entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of the Enhanced Games, the competition that lets athletes use performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision. It hosted its inaugural event the day after this discussion was recorded. He is also the founder of Apeiron Investment Group, through which he invests billions across life sciences, fintech, crypto, and frontier technology. In 2018 he founded the psychedelics biotech company AtaiBeckley to bring compounds like psilocybin and DMT into mainstream medicine for depression and other mental health conditions. In this conversation, Christian traces the personal story and principles that shaped his contrarian view of the world, unpacks the societal stories he is most worried about, and lays out his vision for a radically different future across medicine, politics, economics, and more.
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We discuss
The adversities in Christian’s childhood that shaped his current success
Why fear, not technology, is the real obstacle to progress
How Hollywood fuels fear and Christian’s unique prescription for countering it
The 28-year quest behind the Enhanced Games
The Enhanced Games as a “Woodstock of bodily sovereignty”
A near future of “robot slaves” and how this could change democracy and capitalism
Lessons for our future from the Roman Republic
Whether aliens are aliens, or just ancient civilizations
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:02 Growing up in a 100-person Bavarian village
4:06 Deciding at twelve not to come out
06:11 How a story drove Christian to become one of Bavaria's best students
07:51 The disappearance of optimistic tech stories
09:03 Why fear is the real obstacle to progress
12:19 Psychedelics as the medicine for fear
16:25 A provocative case for giving world leaders psychedelics
18:42 Does Christian just love pushing taboos?
20:15 The 28-year quest behind the Enhanced Games
22:15 The future of medicine that Christian puts in his ow n
24:46 Will capitalism and democracy survive AGI?
29:24 Conspiracy Corner: aliens, angels, and ancient civilizations
