Liberty’s Highlights
Liberty's Highlights
David Senra on Deadwood (also: founders, entrepreneurs, civilization, Henry Singleton, Walt Disney, David Ogilvy, etc)
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David Senra on Deadwood (also: founders, entrepreneurs, civilization, Henry Singleton, Walt Disney, David Ogilvy, etc)

Podcast #15 with David Senra 🤠

🤬 First a warning: This podcast includes a few swear words. It’s impossible — or at least not as fun — to talk about Deadwood without them.🤬

The podcast has spoilers for the show — as much as you can spoil a 16-year-old show — but don’t let that deter you because it’s kind of an unspoilable show. What’s good about it isn’t primarily the plot, it’s the characters, the writing, the acting, the world-building, the metaphors, the themes, and how it’s filmed...

With that out of the way:

The main topic is Deadwood (HBO, 2004-2006), what makes it special and what we can learn from it, but of course, this being David & I, we also talk about:

  • founders,

  • entrepreneurs,

  • obsessive creators,

  • the power of focus,

  • the power of strategy,

  • how civilization emerges,

  • intelligence as a currency,

  • violence as humanity’s fatal flaw,

  • sanitized origin stories,

  • addiction & abuse,

  • Andrew Carnegie,

  • Henry J. Kaiser,

  • Henry Singleton,

  • David Ogilvy,

  • Walt Disney,

  • Warren Buffett,

  • Vannevar Bush,

  • creating a body of work and planting seeds,

  • optionality from future technology,

  • the lessons of history about violence and corruption,

  • and all kinds of other interesting things.

We also talk about Tombstone (1993), which I hadn’t seen at the time, but watched soon after we recorded. I shared some thoughts on it here in edition #338.


🎧 Listen on Spotify

If you prefer to listen on Spotify, here’s the feed:

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts

Here’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts:

📺 Watch on YouTube

📃 Full transcript


This podcast is only possible thanks to the support of paid supporters (💚 🥃). Tip of the hat to all of them! 🤠 If you aren’t part of the club yet, please upgrade:

Want more on Deadwood? 🤠

Here’s a great 26-minute video essay about the show by Matt Zoller Seitz, narrated by Jim Beaver (who plays Ellsworth on the show):

Here’s a great podcast that goes episode-by-episode and makes you re-live the show in a different format, with some great discussions and plenty of laughs:

If you want to go really deep, Matt Zoller Seitz’s Deadwood Bible is amazing:

I have a signed hardcover of it because I backed the Kickstarter for it in 2019. 🤘

This one is harder-to-find, but it’s also great:

Want more David Senra? 🎙📚

Here’s our previous recorded conversation together:

More Podcasts from the Archives 🗄


If you liked the pod and want more, please become a paid supporter (💚 🥃):

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