The Pomp Podcast
#451 Christian Angermayer on Investing in Innovation
- Longevity as an investable thesis: Christian views aging as a disease rather than natural inevitability, focusing capital on therapies to extend healthy human lifespan significantly beyond current norms.
- Psychedelics for mental health: After personal experience with psilocybin, Christian founded Compass (first for-profit psychedelic company) and ATAI Life Sciences as a platform backing 12+ clinical-stage psychedelic drug candidates for depression, addiction, and PTSD.
- Biotech as best-performing asset class: 50% of Christian's portfolio is in biotech, driven by exponential cost reductions in sequencing and therapy development, plus shifting political priorities toward voter health.
- Mental health as underestimated crisis: Hundreds of millions suffer from depression and addiction; Christian emphasizes medical-supervised psychedelic therapy with trained guides rather than recreational use.
- Bitcoin as fiat hedge: Christian expects decade-long currency devaluation cycle from structural money-printing addiction; Bitcoin's integrity makes it core hedge alongside tech, fintech, and biotech.
- Deep tech and brain-computer interfaces: Christian invests across space, AI, robotics, and neural prosthetics, betting that direct brain-to-computer communication will transform human capability within 10–15 years.