Animal Spirits Podcast
Animal Spirits is a show about markets, life, and investing. Join Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson as they talk about what they're reading, writing, listening to and watching. Look for new episodes every Wednesday morning. See our disclosures here - https://ritholtzwealth.com/podcast-youtube-disclosures/
Episodes
July 7, 2025 • 34 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Matt Kaufman, Senior Vice President and Head of ETFs at Calamos to discuss the Calamos Autocallable Income ETF (CAIE), a first-of-its-kind fund bringing institutional-style structured notes to the ETF world. They explore what makes CAIE structurally unique compared to traditional autocallable note...
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July 5, 2025 • 35 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Leif Abraham, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Public to discuss updates in fintech, the brokerage industry, and an evolving investor landscape.
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense
Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor
Fe...
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July 2, 2025 • 69 mins
On episode 419 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss recession hypotheticals, all-time highs in the stock market, the death of the permabear, international outperformance, a crashing dollar, the automatic investing revolution, yield magicians, fast food price inflation, AI vs financial advisors, the potential for a housing market correction and more!
This episode is sponsored by V...
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June 30, 2025 • 33 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Scott Litman, Portfolio Manager at GCM Grosvenor to discuss types of infrastructure investments, revenue drivers within infrastructure, the risk/return profile for infrastructure investments, thoughts around liquidity, and much more!
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Ben Carlson’s ...
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June 25, 2025 • 60 mins
On episode 418 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss why investors are ignoring scary headlines, war vs the stock market, a slowdown in the labor market, not every bad thing is a crisis, all stock markets are concentrated, it's getting more expensive to own a car, Mark Zuckerberg is desperate, the stablecoin opportunity set, baby boomers are never selling their houses and more!
T...
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June 23, 2025 • 29 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Sean O'Hara, Director at Pacer Financial and President at Pacer ETFs to discuss why free cash flow is important, how the index is constructed, how momentum works, valuations within growth stocks, and much more!
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense...
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June 18, 2025 • 79 mins
On episode 417 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss valuations not mattering, volatility is the new normal, all-time highs in rich people, bubble behavior in AI, gambling is off and running, limit orders on crypto trades, the housing market is not fair, the downside of illiquidity, Michael's email pet peeves and more.
This episode is sponsored by Nuveen and Fabric by Gerber Life.
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June 16, 2025 • 34 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Steve Hlavin, Portfolio Manager at Nuveen to discuss the muni market structure, the best states for muni bonds, risks around deficits and liquidity, and much more!
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense
Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investo...
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June 11, 2025 • 72 mins
On episode 416 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss the stock market bet of the century, the most interesting market environment ever, positive trends in retirement saving, Europe is outperforming, downturns might be different now, the Fed should cut rates, how to invest in AI, crypto is Tradfi now, private market scrutiny, the most 1990s movie ever and much more!
This episode is sponsor...
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June 9, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Todd Mathias, Head of U.S. Product Strategy & Development at Franklin Templeton to discuss US outperformance vs international, currency headwinds, macro uncertainty in the US, the value factor overseas, and much more!
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense
...
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June 7, 2025 • 34 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson speak with Daniel Crosby about his book, The Soul of Wealth.
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense
Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor
Feel free to shoot us an email at animalspirits@thecompoundnews.com with any feedback, questions, recommendations...
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June 4, 2025 • 64 mins
On episode 415 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss why technical analysis matters in a downturn, why stockpicking is so hard, do we need a recession, Jamie Dimon is worried about government bonds, how many millionaires there are, AI deflation vs. government spending inflation, when to worry about government debt, the bull market is self-driving cars, it's finally a buyer's market for housi...
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June 2, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Scott Blasdell, Portfolio Manager and Don San Jose, Chief Investment Officer of the U.S. Value Team at J.P. Morgan to discuss what value means today, looking for quality within value, why valuation still matters, why the wine business is in trouble, and much more!
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carl...
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May 28, 2025 • 66 mins
On episode 414 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss long-term bond yields rising, why government debt won't fall, where all the dry powder is coming from, how often you should expect bear markets, a weird time to be rich, $97 salads, why starter homes died, retail bagholders, why everyone takes Social Security early, Tom Cruise and much more!
This episode is sponsored by Betterment Advisor S...
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May 26, 2025 • 49 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Imaru Casanova, Portfolio Manager for the active gold and Precious Metals Strategy at VanEck to discuss gold hitting all time highs, gold miners vs gold performance, macro factors investing in gold, demand from central banks, and much more! Learn more at: https://www.vaneck.com/us/en/investments/international-investors-g...
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May 24, 2025 • 31 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Samir Kerbage, CIO of Hashdex to discuss price action in 2025, narratives around price action, how the index is constructed, Bitcoin's investment thesis, and much more!
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense
Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor
Feel free...
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May 21, 2025 • 61 mins
On episode 413 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: how retail became the smart money, why long-term investing caught on, where the money is coming from to buy the dips, chances of re-testing the lows, the Moody's downgrade, millionaires next door, takeout food culture, the broken housing market and much more!
This episode is sponsored by Nuveen and YCharts.
Invest like the future is watc...
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May 14, 2025 • 65 mins
On episode 412 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss the China trade deal, retail was right, Wall Street was wrong, price vs. sentiment, markets saved us from a recession, record stock buybacks, 4-to-1 leverage and private equity in your 401k, Michael's real estate deals and more!
This episode is sponsored by STF Management. Visit: https://stfm.com/ to learn more.
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May 12, 2025 • 32 mins
On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Brendan Ahern, CIO at KraneShares to discuss an update on China's economy, China real estate, the AI race with China, stock picking within China, consumerism outside the US, and much more!
Find complete show notes on our blogs...
Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense
Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor...
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May 7, 2025 • 65 mins
On episode 411 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss Warren Buffett's legacy, no one can guess where the market is going, a 9 day win streak for stocks, Americans love to buy the dip, the next recession is going to be wild, Wall Street is very bearish, retail is bullish, Bitcoin didn't decouple yet, a housing market slowdown, the benefits of drinking and more.
This episode is sponsored by YCharts and Fa...
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