Animal Spirits Podcast

Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson work at Ritholtz Wealth Management, and Animal Spirits is the Wednesday morning conversation they'd be having anyway, just with microphones running. The format has barely changed in 700-plus episodes and that's part of why it works. They read a lot during the week, they send each other charts, and the show is basically them reacting to the charts in real time with whatever historical context or skepticism the numbers deserve. What keeps it useful for finance professionals rather than just the retail crowd is that Michael and Ben are both practicing wealth managers who have to actually allocate capital for clients, and their instincts reflect that. They're not trying to sell you a newsletter or a course. They laugh at bad flows data, get irritated at misleading media framing, and are usually the first to point out when a chart is technically true but practically worthless. Regular topics include housing affordability, the mechanics of concentrated index returns, the strange resilience of the US consumer, private credit growth, and the psychological reality of sitting on cash during a bull market. The tone is casual, the analysis is serious, and the show is one of the longer-running market conversations on the internet. Ninety minutes, Wednesdays, and a genuinely easy listen for anyone who spends their day staring at markets.