Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)
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About the show
Latest episodes
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The $900 million wire that wasn't final
October 8, 2026 · 33 minPatrick McKenzie (patio11) reads his 2022 Bits about Money essay "Finality does not exist in payments." It argues that how final a payment is depends on the rails, the parties, and the governing law, not on the payment method alone. He…
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Why banks pay you to use their credit cards
October 1, 2026 · 26 minPatrick McKenzie (patio11) reads his Bits about Money essay on how credit cards make money. The prompt was a listener who wondered how a card can include free travel insurance for someone who never carries a balance. He covers the four…
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Stranded? Who pays when air travel breaks
September 25, 2026 · 42 minPatrick McKenzie (patio11) got stranded overnight after a backhoe severed a single fiber optic cable, knocking out air traffic control across much of the eastern US. His airline declined to pay for the hotel. In this episode, he walks…
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Forced vacations are a fraud control
September 17, 2026 · 28 minPatrick McKenzie (patio11) reads his Bits About Money essay "Financial systems take a holiday" (originally published February 2024), prompted by a conversation with a prior guest about how even exchanging calendars between financial…
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Everyone wants to be your wallet
September 3, 2026 · 33 minPatrick McKenzie (patio11) reads his Bits About Money essay on the business of wallets, with new commentary, prompted by paying his barber $100 over Venmo and wondering why PayPal so badly wants to be in the middle of that transaction. He…
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How AI detection actually works, with Pangram’s Max Spero
August 27, 2026 · 1 hr 5 minPatrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Max Spero, co-founder and CEO of Pangram Labs, which builds models that identify AI-generated text and images. Max goes under the hood to explain how AI detection actually works. They also discuss…
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Two banks can't agree on fourth-grade math | Alex Elliott
August 20, 2026 · 1 hr 4 minPatrick McKenzie (@patio11) is joined by Alex Elliott (@alexpotato), who has spent his career in SRE and operations roles at financial firms ranging from ten-person fintechs to global investment banks, to discuss what the back office…
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LLMs and the economics of Evil, Inc., with Manish Goregaokar
August 13, 2026 · 1 hr 3 minPatrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Manish Goregaokar, a senior software engineer and member of the Rust security response team, to discuss what LLMs do to the cost side of running a sophisticated con. They walk through a scam built…