Rapid Response

Prediction markets incentivize truth. Everything else incentivizes clickbait. That's the core argument Luana Lopes Lara makes for Kalshi — the prediction market platform she co-founded that has gone from $5 billion to $22 billion in valuation in under a year, and is now being sued by New York's attorney general for $36 billion. Luana joins Rapid Response to make the case that Kalshi is fundamentally different from DraftKings — even though 75% of its volume is sports — explain why George Santos got banned for trying to trade on his own congressional attendance, and share what Kalshi's data actually says about the midterms. Plus the Timothée Chalamet dentist-chair ad, what ballet taught her about running a company, and what it's actually like to become the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.
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What happens when you interview an AI? Bob Safian found out, and while it didn't break out into Cantonese, it was stranger than he expected. This episode is split in two: first, a conversation with Eline van der Velden, the Dutch actress-turned-tech-founder who created Tilly Norwood, the AI "actor" who sent Hollywood into a spiral. Then, Bob sits down with Tilly itself. Eline explains how a personal art project became one of the most controversial figures in entertainment — attracting talent agency interest, death threats, and a global debate about whether AI will kill acting or democratize it. She makes the case that great storytelling still requires human craft, and that the most dangerous thing anyone can do right now is stick their head in the sand.
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The second a brand like Hershey stops being culturally relevant, says its CEO Kirk Tanner, you should be worried. He joins Rapid Response to explain exactly what he's doing to make sure that never happens. Tanner also reveals why GLP-1 users are actually good for the candy business, how AI is now routing Hershey's sales force in real time through Target and Walmart, and why the Reese's Oreo collaboration (which generated $100 million in its first five months) is the model for how iconic brands find new energy. And with a major Hollywood film about Milton Hershey coming this fall, he talks about whether this is Hershey's Barbie moment.
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This episode of Rapid Response first aired in 2025.
Live on stage at Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya joined the New York Times’ David Gelles to explore the intersection of values and commerce. They reveal their different strategies for dealing with an activist White House, the pressure for what David calls “anticipatory compliance,” and how they grew their businesses while also prioritizing causes like environmental conservation and immigration. The pair also shared personal stories that mark key inflection points for their companies, and what most gives them hope for the future.
For more conversations like this, join us at this year’s Masters of Scale Summit, coming up October 20-22 in San Francisco.
Go to masters of mastersofscale.com/summit to learn more.
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The world has never faced so many humanitarian crises at once, and the systems built to respond to them are fraying. Tjada McKenna, CEO of Prosper Global — the organization long known as Mercy Corps — joins Rapid Response during UN General Assembly week to share what she's seeing firsthand from Syria to Sudan to Ukraine to Gaza, and why she rebranded a 40-year-old institution in the middle of a funding crisis rather than in spite of one. She explains how the Strait of Hormuz conflict is quietly writing next year's food shortages into fragile countries right now, why Russia's playbook of attacking civilian infrastructure has spread to conflicts around the world, and what she's asking AI companies to do that no one has figured out yet.
Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.