In conversation

Interviews & Podcasts

Munger gave few interviews and almost no podcasts — which makes the ones that exist worth keeping. His final CNBC conversation two weeks before his death, the one longform podcast he ever did, and the rest, gathered here.

13 recordings

2023 Interview Charlie Munger's Final CNBC Interview (2023) The last interview Munger ever gave — taped with Becky Quick on November 14, 2023, just two weeks before he died at 99. A valedictory conversation on Berkshire's secret, what he got wrong, why he revered Costco, his contempt for the modern money game, and his abiding faith in the progress of civilization. 2023 Podcast Charlie Munger on the Acquired Podcast (2023) Munger's only dedicated long-form podcast appearance — recorded over dinner at his Los Angeles home, weeks before his death, with Acquired's Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. An hour-plus on Costco, the Daily Journal, what makes a business worth owning, and a life spent thinking clearly. 2023 Podcast Charlie Munger & John Collison (Invest Like the Best, 2023) Stripe co-founder John Collison interviews Munger at home in Los Angeles — a conversation tied to Stripe Press's reissue of Poor Charlie's Almanack, released the very day it aired, the week after Munger died. Wide-ranging: evaluating business quality, why he passed on Amazon, the Costco model, crypto, the opioid crisis, architecture, and the origins of the Almanack itself. 2022 Interview On Leadership & Capital Allocation, with Todd Combs (2022) Munger in conversation with Berkshire investment manager Todd Combs, anchored on Henry Singleton — the Teledyne founder Munger called the best capital allocator who ever lived. A working seminar on what great capital allocation actually looks like, why most managers are bad at it, and what makes a leader worth following. 2020 Interview A Conversation with Charlie Munger — Caltech Distinguished Alumni (2020) A roughly hour-long virtual conversation tied to Munger's Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award, recorded when he was 96. Looking back across his life, he talks about rationality as a moral duty, what made the Berkshire partnership work, the careers and mistakes that shaped him, and how to keep thinking clearly in old age. One of the richest late-life Munger interviews on video. 2019 Interview Charlie Munger on Investing (CNBC, 2019) Berkshire's vice-chairman, then 95, on what actually drives long-run investing returns — patience, temperament, and a short list of businesses worth owning. Vintage Munger: blunt about index funds, the cult of activity, and the difference between investing and gambling dressed up as finance. 2019 Interview Charlie Munger on China's Rise and Elon Musk (Yahoo Finance, 2019) Munger on two things that genuinely impressed him late in life: the speed of China's economic ascent, and Elon Musk's raw intellect. Characteristically two-handed — he admires the brilliance while warning about the overconfidence, and explains why he was willing to own Chinese equities despite the political risk. 2019 Interview Charlie Munger on Investing and the Life Choices That Build Wealth (2019) Munger's plainest advice on getting wealthy, and it has almost nothing to do with stock-picking: spend less than you earn, invest the difference, avoid ruin, and let time and compounding do the heavy lifting. A short clinic on temperament, patience, and deferred gratification from a man who lived it. 2019 Interview · text only Charlie Munger, Unplugged (WSJ / Jason Zweig, 2019) The edited transcript of a six-hour dinner interview Munger gave Wall Street Journal reporters Jason Zweig and Nicole Friedman at his Los Angeles home in 2019, at 95. Sprawling and unguarded — on his global fan base of self-improving 'nerds,' what he refuses to call investing, regret, mortality, and how to live a rational life. 2018 Interview Charlie Munger & Li Lu on China (2018) A rare joint conversation between Munger and Li Lu — the only outside manager Munger ever trusted with his own money — ranging across China's economy, value investing across cultures, and the rare temperament that makes a great investor. Three parts; part one is embedded here, parts two and three linked in the notes below. 2017 Interview A Conversation with Charlie Munger (Michigan Ross, 2017) A second long-form conversation hosted by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in 2017 — an alumni event recorded in Los Angeles, where Munger lived. At 93, he talks business quality, capital allocation, the kinds of mistakes that ruin people, and how to think about a career — covering much of the same ground as the 2011 session but with another six years of perspective. 2016 Interview The Power of Partnership with Warren Buffett (2016) Munger on the relationship that defined both their careers — six decades alongside Warren Buffett, with almost no friction and never a serious quarrel. How two strong-minded men built one of history's great partnerships on shared values, division of labor, and a refusal to do business with people they didn't trust. 2011 Interview A Conversation with Charlie Munger (University of Michigan, 2011) An extended on-stage conversation at Munger's undergraduate alma mater, the University of Michigan, where he studied before the war. Over more than an hour he ranges across his life story, the discipline of investing, the mental habits that compound, and the advice he'd give students — relaxed and discursive in a way the shareholder Q&As rarely allow.