In conversation with Sheryl Sandberg, plus open-source AI gene editing explained

**David Friedberg** (0:00)
David Sacks had a last-minute board meeting, so he will not be joining us.

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:04)
I'll be David Sacks.

**David Friedberg** (0:05)
Please do your best impression.

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:07)
Can you imagine? Hi, Jason.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:09)
Hello, sister, how are you?

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:11)
Jason, do you know what I'm about to do? I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:15)
Tell me.

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:16)
Do you remember fake Chamath?

**Jason Calacanis** (0:18)
Of course, yes.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:19)
Do we have to log it?

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:19)
Do you know who that is, of course, right?

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:22)
Oh, you're going to reveal who faked Chamath?

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:23)
I'm revealing.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:24)
Oh, wow, it's a big reveal.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:26)
Nine years later.

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:28)
I want that handle.
I would like to get that handle and give it to someone to be. I can it to you, whoever you want.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:34)
Well, trust me, there's a lot of people who would love to have the fake Chamath handle.

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:37)
Well, how do I get it? Do I ask the... Can I ask Linda at Twitter for it?

**David Friedberg** (0:41)
Yeah.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:42)
You know, we might know somebody at Twitter who could reset the password.

**Sheryl Sandberg** (0:45)
Maybe you can help me. I am so credible as the person who deserves that password.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:49)
Of all the people who've suffered spending time with Chamath, you're at the top of that list.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:55)
If anybody has the right to mock Chamath.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:58)
I mean, you've had to watch his growth over 20 years. You've had to suffer.

**Sheryl Sandberg** (1:05)
I raised him. I raised Chamath, and he raised me right back.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:26)
All right, welcome back to the program, everybody. One of the guests we've always dreamed about having on the show is considered one of the great business operators of all time in Silicon Valley. For the past 20 years, Sheryl Sandberg was a key, some might say the key, piece in building the two largest advertising and technology companies in the world, Google and Facebook.
Paradoxically, they don't go by those names anymore, Alphabet and Meta. When she joined Google in 2001, it had 20 million in revenue. They were private. And when she left in 2008, they had $22 billion in revenue. When she joined Facebook in 2008, it was at $270 million in revenue. When she left, it was at $117 billion. Market caps of those two companies have grown $100 billion and $950 billion during her tenures. And today, both are worth over $3 trillion combined, and are the number four and number seven market cap companies in the world. However, to our crew, she will always be Bestie Dave Goldberg's dream girl, as he once described it to me. He told me he pursued her relentlessly until she finally gave in, dated, and then married him and started a beautiful family together. Dave Goldberg passed away nine years ago this week in 2015 In an alternate universe, on a different timeline, Goldie would have been one of the four people on this panel, because he was the most wise, funny supermensch of the entire 10-person core poker group, the original poker group. In fact, he was twice the man of any of us, which given the low benchmark we've set, isn't that difficult. We can get at least three shows worth of wisdom from our current guest, but that's not why she's joining us today. She made a documentary, and we're here to talk about that, and we'll have some time for business talk at the end, which is going to be a very hard pivot, given the nature of the doc.
The doc she co-produces called Screams Before Silence, I watched it on the flight back from New York. I had to take three breaks, and it took a lot of tissues, if I'm being honest.
It is one of the most difficult hours of viewing I've ever had in my life.
It is focused on the sexual violence committed by Hamas during and after the October 7th attacks, and which tragically, in all likelihood, continues today with the hostages who are still somewhere in Gaza. The documentary also takes on claims in our polluted, journalistic, conspiracy-filled media landscape that claim none of this happens. She traveled to Israel to conduct interviews for it, and outside of comforting the victims, she spends less than 90 seconds speaking in it herself. The stories, of course, speak for themselves.
Now, this isn't a disclaimer, but some context about this podcast, for those of you who are here for the first time, might be helpful. We realize we're wading into a conflict that is thousands of years old, and it's shrouded in pain and suffering with a foundation on the most deeply held religious beliefs humanity has ever formed. When we do podcasts like this and have guests, we'll be championed by one side and derided by the other. But as you know, we don't shy away from the hard discussions on this podcast. We go all in on them. Equal time will always be given, and we welcome all sides on these difficult discussions. It goes without saying that we're not here to be your expert or final authority. We're here to have a first principle discussion and to personally learn alongside each other in good faith.