Night Owls

A conversation with Brown University's Marc Dunkelman who has written an important book: Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and how to Bring it Back.” Dunkelman has written an alternative history of the Democratic Party, a 150 year struggle between top-down and bottom-up progressivism that has led to stagnation. 

We interviewed Daniela Rus, Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. She talks about the marriage of robotics and AI; what she calls "physical intelligence." It's a fascinating hour.

The last part of our interview with the brilliant Wolgang Munchau

The 2nd in our series where we interview Wolfgang Munchau

Larry Summers on Team Trump's economic policies, the attack on academia and the future of artificial intelligence.

Capitulation Week  A major liberal law firm capitulates to Trump pressure. A major Ivy League University capitulates to Trump pressure. Zelensky capitulates to Trump pressure. In Israel, Bibi Netanyahu tries to replicate Trump pressure…and the Dems best response is yesterday's Bernie singing yesterday's song. John and Joe revisit last week. 

A conversation with Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London.  We discuss his recent book -- The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism -- and recent events.   

Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) talks about his new book -- "Seven Things You Can't Say About China" -- and says most of them. 

A world in disarray

Al From, the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, talks about how to rebuild the Democratic Party—and how he did it last time.

Inauguration Week in Review! Joe and John on the ascendant Trump, the triumph of the Tech Bros, Dems in disarray, the Lars Anderson Bridge and the whereabouts of Philip K. Howard. 

Nobody knows the New York Post like Susan Mulcahy. She wrote the book. She talked about it with us.   

Episode Four: A dream assignment: David moves to Shanghai and begins covering China. He goes from "Sock City" to Apple, to the extraordinary changes in China's economy, politics and culture. The final episode covers everything from Wuhan to Taiwan, fentanyl to semiconductors, quantum computing to cyberhacking, to Xi's political standing and how much (and how many of) China's most successful people dislike and distrust Xi. 

Episode Three: The not-a-partnership partnership of one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs and one of the world's richest men is a case study in modern China. David describes the "partnership" that became the subject of an extraordinary report co-produced by The New York Times and David's news magazine, The Wire China.

Episode Two: We begin our conversation with David about China and whether the "Thucydides Trap" can be avoided.

Episode One: David Barboza, former Shanghai Bureau Chief for The New York Times, is building a new kind of media company. Call it Bloomberg for China. 

In the final episode of our Cortico trilogy, we talked with the company's founder and CEO, Deb Roy, about the future of "building civic muscle" and his roadmap for a national Cortico network. 

Part two of our conversations with the senior management of Cortico, the platform for "deeper conversations". Featuring Deb Roy and Alex Kelly Berman.

Cortico, in collaboration with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC), has built a platform that connects rather than divides communities, and in so doing, helps create a healthier society. We talked to its CEO and co-founder, Deb Roy, and one of its Directors, Prof. Kathy Cramer, about how it works and how it's working.   

Part Two of our interview with Jane Metclafe, a woman who saw the future clearly. Twice. 

Part One of our interview with Jane Metclafe, a woman who saw the future clearly. Twice. 

An interview with University of California San Diego Professor Barbara Walter, whose book -- "How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them" -- examines the risk factors that presage civil wars. Those factors are "anocracy," factionalism, loss of power and loss of hope, all hyper-linked by social media. The U.S. has been on her watch list for civil war for some time. She's keeping it there. 

A last look at the 2024 presidential campaign. A disagreement about Jeff Bezos. A watershed moment in Germany. And more! 

Rita Singh is one of the leading voice forensics scientists in the world. In this podcast, she discusses her work at length; what our voices tell us about our physical stature, our ethnicity, our age, our health, our honesty, our intentions and our mental states. It's riveting.   

General David Petraeus (Ret.) talks about the paperback edition of his book, Conflict, written with Andrew Roberts—and brings us up to date on the state of war in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and potential wars in Iran and Taiwan.

Three topics -- the VP debate, the Middle East and Hurricane Helene -- in 30 minutes. Joe's experience covering the Middle East is on full display. 

Part 2: John talked with Daron Shaw, one of the nation's best pollsters who most people have never heard of. They talked about polling, politics and the presidential election. 

John talked with Daron Shaw, one of the nation's best pollsters who most people have never heard of. They talked about polling, politics and the presidential election.     

John and Joe discuss yesterday's presidental debate 

John and Joe welcome Paul Vallas to the show! Paul Vallas is best known for his innovative work in public education — as superintendent of schools in Chicago and in the all-charter school system in New Orleans — and (most recently) his impressive campaign for Mayor of Chicago (he got 48% of the vote, running against the mighty machine of the Chicago Teachers Union). Joe Klein, who has been campaigning in print against teachers unions for the better part of four decades, conducted the lion's share of the interview.

Joe and John interview Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Maurice R. Greenberg senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), about her recent article in Foreign Affairs, "China's Real Economic Crisis." 

Joe and John assess the Democratic National Convention, the collapse of RFK Jr.'s presidential campaign, and the rising political influence of the crypto-currency "industry." 

Joe and John discuss volatility in the markets and the Middle East...and Kamala Harris's running mate: "Coach" Walz.

Joe and John talk with Ann Selzer, the great Iowa pollster. It's a smart, interesting conversation about the 2024 presidential campaign, because she knows what she's talking about.   

Is Trump the the one to beat as the polling suggests? What does VP Kamala Hariss's ascent to the to the presidential nominee mean for her chances? Joe and John discuss

The last days of the Biden campaign? Joe and John go back and forth.

Rebecca Patterson, the former chief investment strategist at Bridgewater Associates, gave us a guided tour of the global economy. She's very smart and very articulate; the perfect podcast guest. 

Joe Klein and John Ellis interview writer and political advisor Philip K. Howard. His latest book Everyday Freedom offers human-centric solutions to the crippling bureaucracy of American government.

John and Joe discuss the concern of Joe Biden's age. Plus, they talk about Biden's investigation of monopolistic tech companies; new demographic data that suggests too many boys are sitting at their parents' houses; and the results of the Mexican election.

Joe Klein chats with an old friend, member of the House of Lords Daniel Finkelstein, about the complicated legacy of Brexit, the state of populism, and his new book Two Roads Home.

Q. What do you do when you need a public health weather report? A. You talk to Katelyn Jetelina. That's what we did and this podcast is the result. 

Our interview with New York Times tech correspondant Cade Metz, author of 'Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World.' We talk all things AI. 

Joe praises Tom Friedman and ponders RFK Jr. John is all worked up about 7 EV chargers. Biology is being transformed by Google DeepMind. And more.

There is only one Jim Cramer. We talked to him about everything. 

Joe and John talk to veteran Democratic Party campaign manager Joe Trippi about why Trump might lose and what Biden has to do to beat him. 

Joe and John talk to Mark Tercek about the changing climate and the challenges it presents. Mark is well-qualified to discuss the "issue," having served as CEO of the Nature Conservancy for over a decade. It's a very informative discussion, entirely due to Mark's encyclopedic knowledge of the subject matter. Listen and learn. You'll learn a lot. 

John and Joe consider the Arizona Supreme Court decision on abortion. Joe unpacks five potential threats to President Biden this fall. Plus, a discussion of NPR's integrity in light of a bombshell essay about its inherent bias.

Joe and John interview Jane Perlez, former New York Times Beijing bureau chief, about her upcoming 8-part podcast series: "Face-Off, The U.S. vs. China." Once friends, now foes, the question is: what happens next? 

Part Two of a two-part interview with Nicole Perlroth, author of "This is How They Tell Me The World Ends: The Cyber-Weapons Arms Race." It's the future coming at you. 

Part One of a two-part interview with Nicole Perlroth, author of "This is How They Tell Me The World Ends: The Cyber-Weapons Arms Race." It's the future coming at you.

Trump's mighty cash crunch, Larry Summers' persuasive  inflation research, Carville and Hunt's Politics War Room and the future coming at you: a $10,000 BYD EV from China called "Seagull." All that and more from an undisclosed location in Key West, Florida.