Cognitive Revolution

The Cognitive Revolution is an AI podcast and newsletter introduced in February 2023 by hosts Erik Torenberg and Nathan Labenz. Its work combines interviews with AI builders, discussion of AI’s effects on business and society, and Labenz’s educational AI Scouting Reports.[3][1][5]

The February 6, 2023 announcement described a weekly interview podcast distributed through Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. The companion newsletter offered interview highlights, special show notes and direct commentary from the hosts. Torenberg and Labenz stated their editorial commitment: “We are committed to surfacing different opinions in the space and track them as they evolve.”[3]

By June 11, 2023, Cognitive Revolution reported 34 released episodes and identified itself as part of the Turpentine podcast network, which had officially launched during the preceding week. That update also thanked Omneky for sponsoring the show.[4]

In the AI Scouting Report introduction published July 6, 2023, Labenz expanded the interview format into an educational synthesis. His report for June 2023 aimed to explain AI fundamentals in about 90 minutes, surveying capabilities, model design and training, and what was understood about how models work. He set a goal of giving viewers the equivalent of a high-school AP-course-level understanding of machine learning fundamentals.[5]

The need for curated graphs, illustrations and figures drove the distribution decision: Labenz chose a YouTube series, with short audio announcements in the podcast feed directing listeners to the videos. Athena sponsored the report in part. Labenz said its first audience after his wife, Amy, was a group of 200 Athena executive assistants.[5]

Earlier that July, Latent Space published The Tiny Model Revolution on July 1, 2023, for a July 4 weekend feed swap. The Cognitive Revolution interview featured Microsoft Research’s Ronen Eldan and Yuanzhi Li discussing their TinyStories and phi-1 work, evaluation and interpretation with GPT-4, and smaller language models. Latent Space characterized Cognitive Revolution’s coverage as spanning AI in technology, business and society, with longer episodes allowing deeper discussion of research papers.[1]

The collaboration continued with an October 8, 2023 crosspost featuring swyx. Latent Space explained that the earlier feed swap had led to his invitation for a full episode on AI engineering and a preview of the AI Engineer Summit schedule. The summit’s speakers included many former Cognitive Revolution guests.[2]

On April 21, 2025, Andreessen Horowitz announced that it would acquire Turpentine and that Torenberg would join the firm as a general partner. The announcement concerned the network and did not specify Cognitive Revolution’s individual ownership rights or sale terms.[6]