Podcasts about hidden forces

In Episode 460 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Professor of International Politics at the Bundeswehr University Munich, Carlo Masala, whose book "If Russia Wins," makes the case for European national rearmament and the urgent need to deter near-term Russian threats against NATO member countries in the absence of American leadership. Masala and Kofinas spend the first hour of their conversation detailing the scenario Calro puts forward in his book—a limited Russian incursion into the Estonian city of Narva. They explore why Carlo thinks that Russia might attempt such an operation, the similarities to and differences from the approach Russia took in Ukraine in 2014, whether NATO's Article 5 commitment would hold in such a scenario, and whether the gradual erosion and eventual destruction of the NATO alliance is the ultimate goal of the Russian Federation, irrespective of who is in office. The second hour is devoted to a conversation about: Europe's defense challenges in the face of a declining American commitment to NATO The material and financial constraints European nations face in strengthening their deterrence The advantages and disadvantages of Russia's conventional and unconventional forces The deeper crisis of identity and purpose afflicting Western democracies. They discuss the immigration debate, culture wars, the failure of democratic leadership in the context of European politics, and what ordinary citizens can do to defend democratic systems in the face of threats, both external and internal. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 01/22/2026

Frankfurt, 1519. Seven prince-electors perform a holy ritual—Latin prayers, incense, sacred oaths.But behind the ceremony is the real mechanism: an auction financed by debt.In this episode of Hidden Forces in History, we trace how Jakob Fugger and his banking network helped decide who would wear the imperial crown—by underwriting bribes, guaranteeing pensions, and turning future imperial revenue into collateral.History books say Charles V was chosen by God. The ledgers say he was installed by the bank. This wasn't an election; it was a liquidation sale of the Holy Roman Empire.What this episode exposes:• How the Fugger network turned loans into political leverage• Why Charles V's victory depended on credibility, not just bloodline• How indulgence money and church finance became a revenue pipeline• What happens when an emperor governs under structural dependence• Why legitimacy had to be purchased after power was boughtIf a throne can be bought, who really rules—the man with the crown, or the man who holds the note?

The Medici are remembered as enlightened patrons of art—the family behind Michelangelo, Botticelli, and the Renaissance itself.That version of history is incomplete.In this episode of Hidden Forces in History, we strip away the marble and mythology to examine Medici family as they actually were: a private banking dynasty that embedded itself inside moral authority, captured a republic without abolishing it, and rewrote its legacy through art, architecture, and storytelling.We follow the money—from Florentine ledgers to the Vatican—showing how the Medici:• Plugged into Church finance to gain leverage across Europe• Used patronage as a form of long-term propaganda• Helped trigger the Reformation through indulgence financing• Lost their bank—but preserved their legendThis isn't just a Renaissance story.It's a repeatable playbook—one still used by modern elites, foundations, and institutions today.Same system.Different century.

In a highly unusual move - the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. As America faces a high-stakes standoff over the future of the Federal Reserve, the traditional independence of the nation's central bank is under direct attack. This video explores the intensifying war between the White House and Fed Chair, over a $2.5 billion headquarters renovation. We break down why many experts believe this probe is a mere pretext intended to bully the Fed into slashing interest rates to rock-bottom levels, potentially putting the long-term stability of the U.S. economy at risk for short-term political gains.We also take a closer look at the "agents of chaos" Bill Pulte, Judge Jeanine Pirro and the "shadow" economic strategies currently in play, from the FHFA's controversial bond-buying programs to the proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates. From the strategic blockade in the Senate by Senator Thom Tillis to the "Miran Limbo" on the Fed's Board of Governors, we unpack the technical and political maneuvers being used to bypass Jerome Powell. Is the U.S. headed toward a "banana republic" risk premium, or can its institutional guardrails hold firm? Join us as we examine the true price of a political Fed and what it means for the future of the dollar.Patrick Boyle on Hidden Forces: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7JqqPA70sutlCJ9bh7kruL?si=Cxz13eubSnGHtHSoVDMgKQPatrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3eerLA0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Derivatives For The Trading Floor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://amzn.to/3cjsyPF⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Corporate Finance: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ways To Support The Channel:Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/patrickboyle

Episode 459 of Hidden Forces is the twelfth episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with Kamran Bokhari, a strategic forecaster and geopolitical analyst who specializes on the Middle Eastern and Eurasia, about Iran's nationwide protests, what they reveal about the power and stability of the Iranian regime, and what the state of Iranian affairs portends for Iran's future, the region's geopolitics, and the strategic considerations and objectives of the United States. The conversation's opening hour traces Iran's modern formation—beginning in the early 1900s with the Constitutional Revolution, moving through the 1953 coup and the Shah's rule, and culminating in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and its aftermath. Kamran walks the audience through the evolution of Iran's dual military structure, explaining the critical distinction between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regular armed forces (Artesh), and how the IRGC grew from an ideological militia into an oversized parallel state controlling everything from telecommunications to Iran's nuclear program, while becoming increasingly corrupt and internally divided. The second hour is devoted to analyzing the current protests engulfing Iran, how they differ from previous uprisings, and the implications for a severely weakened IRGC following Israel's dismantling of its proxy network, the relentless targeting of its commanders, and its failure to secure the safety of its own citizens from Israeli reprisals. They explore the regime's internal factionalization, the role of the merchant class in these protests, the potential pathways forward—from managed regime decay to military intervention to outright chaos—and the cascading effects that Iran's instability could have on its neighbors, from Turkey and Azerbaijan to Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 01/15/2026

Episode 459 of Hidden Forces is the twelfth episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with Kamran Bokhari, a strategic forecaster and geopolitical analyst who specializes on the Middle Eastern and Eurasia, about Iran's nationwide protests, what they reveal about the power and stability of the Iranian regime, and what the state of Iranian affairs portends for Iran's future, the region's geopolitics, and the strategic considerations and objectives of the United States. The conversation's opening hour traces Iran's modern formation—beginning in the early 1900s with the Constitutional Revolution, moving through the 1953 coup and the Shah's rule, and culminating in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and its aftermath. Kamran walks the audience through the evolution of Iran's dual military structure, explaining the critical distinction between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regular armed forces (Artesh), and how the IRGC grew from an ideological militia into an oversized parallel state controlling everything from telecommunications to Iran's nuclear program, while becoming increasingly corrupt and internally divided. The second hour is devoted to analyzing the current protests engulfing Iran, how they differ from previous uprisings, and the implications for a severely weakened IRGC following Israel's dismantling of its proxy network, the relentless targeting of its commanders, and its failure to secure the safety of its own citizens from Israeli reprisals. They explore the regime's internal factionalization, the role of the merchant class in these protests, the potential pathways forward—from managed regime decay to military intervention to outright chaos—and the cascading effects that Iran's instability could have on its neighbors, from Turkey and Azerbaijan to Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 01/15/2026

In Episode 458 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Patrick Boyle, a former hedge fund manager, finance professor, and the creator and host of one of the most successful business channels on YouTube, with over a million subscribers and nearly 150 million views spread across several hundred videos. Patrick brings a unique combination of domain expertise and media savvy to his analysis of financial markets, economic scandals, and the complex web of power that connects Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Washington. Demetri asked Patrick Boyle to appear on the podcast after discovering that his channel had been demonetized as a result of his exploration of the Jeffrey Epstein story—not the salacious details that have dominated headlines, but the deeper questions about the intersection of power, wealth, regulatory capture, and institutional failure that the story reveals. They explore where Epstein's massive fortune actually came from, why simple explanations accounting for his wealth don't add up, what the heavily redacted release of FBI files tells us about how our two-tiered justice system operates in practice, and what Patrick's personal experience of having his YouTube channel demonetized for covering this story reveals about algorithmic censorship and the incentive structures shaping modern media. The rest of the conversation is devoted to a broader discussion about the transformation of our information ecosystem, the power of platforms like YouTube to amplify or suppress content, what it would take to build a viable media company or platform that prioritizes quality and truth over engagement and controversy, the challenges facing young journalists trying to break into rapidly evolving industry, and why maintaining networks of trustworthy content creators and sources has become more important now than ever. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 01/12/2025

On May 29th, 1453, Constantinople fell—and with it, the last continuation of Rome.But the real story isn't just Ottoman cannons and overwhelming numbers.It's the cold mathematics of power: betrayal, sabotage, and profit-driven neutrality.In this episode of Hidden Forces in History, we follow the receipts behind one of the most pivotal days in world history:why the city was still defensible (if help had come)how Genoa's colony of Galata stayed “neutral” while Ottoman ships passedwhy Venice negotiated safe passage instead of fightinghow Western Europe sent prayers instead of armiesand why the fall wasn't inevitable—it was a series of choicesBecause the most disturbing truth is this:Constantinople didn't fall because it was weak. It fell because powerful allies decided it was convenient to let it fall.If you want history as investigation—documents, incentives, and the people who benefited—subscribe for weekly deep dives into the hidden forces behind the official story.Question for you: Was this “inevitable”… or a calculated sacrifice?

In Episode 457 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with philosopher Rebecca Goldstein about her latest book, "The Mattering Instinct," which explores our fundamental human longing to feel that our lives matter—that we didn't just come and go and that it was all for nothing. Rebecca and I spend the first hour exploring the origins of her fascination with the question of mattering, how this instinct manifests differently from our biological drive for self-preservation, and why we long not just to matter to ourselves but to feel that we matter objectively. We discuss the critical role played by attention and deservingness in our sense of mattering, the distinction between happiness and fulfillment, and how parenting and early family dynamics shape our relationship with this fundamental human longing. The second hour is devoted to a more in-depth exploration of Rebecca's concept of the "mattering map," which identifies four distinct archetypes: heroic strivers, socializers, competitors, and transcenders. We examine the relationship between depression and our longing to matter, the role of social media in shaping how contemporary generations experience their own search for validation, and how some approaches to mattering are objectively better than others. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 01/05/2025   RSS Description (Libsyn/Supercast): In Episode 457 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with philosopher Rebecca Goldstein about her latest book, "The Mattering Instinct," which explores our fundamental human longing to feel that our lives matter—that we didn't just come and go and that it was all for nothing. Rebecca and I spend the first hour exploring the origins of her fascination with the question of mattering, how this instinct manifests differently from our biological drive for self-preservation, and why we long not just to matter to ourselves but to feel that we matter objectively. We discuss the critical role played by attention and deservingness in our sense of mattering, the distinction between happiness and fulfillment, and how parenting and early family dynamics shape our relationship with this fundamental human longing. The second hour is devoted to a more in-depth exploration of Rebecca's concept of the "mattering map," which identifies four distinct archetypes: heroic strivers, socializers, competitors, and transcenders. We examine the relationship between depression and our longing to matter, the role of social media in shaping how contemporary generations experience their own search for validation, and how some approaches to mattering are objectively better than others. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 01/05/2025

Episode 456 is the eleventh installment in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, Brian Winter. He's an expert on Latin America, having lived and worked in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, and possesses a deep understanding of the region's politics, economics, and security dynamics. The three of them begin their conversation discussing the Trump administration's almost cinematic removal of Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela. They speculate about who is currently in charge of the country, the implications of Maduro's exit for Venezuela's economy and the region's geopolitics, the rising tide of right-wing political movements across Latin America, and how this operation fits into the Trump administration's broader initiatives as they have been conveyed in the new National Security Strategy. They also explore the rising tide of right-wing political movements across Latin America, the role of organized crime in driving political change, how demographic shifts and artificial intelligence might reshape the region's future, and the unique role that Trump's National security adviser and secretary of state Marco Rubio has played in shaping US foreign policy in Latin America and whether Cuba and its communist government is next on the administration's list of seemingly every-expanding targets. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 01/07/2025

On Friday the 13th, October 1307, the Knights Templar were destroyed in a single coordinated operation across France.Hundreds of Templar knights were arrested at dawn. Their property was seized. Their leaders were tortured. And within a few years, the most powerful military and financial institution in medieval Europe was erased.The official story says the Knights Templar were heretics.This investigation shows something very different.In this episode of Hidden Forces in History, we uncover how the Knights Templar became Europe's first international banking system — and how a bankrupt king used fabricated heresy charges to eliminate his creditors in what may be the largest sovereign debt default of the Middle Ages.We examine:• How the Knights Templar became the bankers of kings and popes • Why King Philip IV of France was deeply indebted to the Templars • How heresy accusations were engineered as political weapons • The role of torture, propaganda, and legal theater • Why Friday the 13th still carries a legacy of power and fear This wasn't religious persecution.It was financial warfare — disguised as morality.Subscribe for weekly deep dives into the hidden forces behind history, power, money, and control.

This video introduces Cesare Borgia, a central figure of the "italian renaissance" whose audacious "power struggle" and "machiavellian tactics" are explored. We examine the "historical facts" behind his ascent, noting how his actions influenced "niccolo machiavelli" and shaped the era of "pope alexander vi."In this episode of Hidden Forces in History, we follow the Borgia rise:- How Rodrigo Borgia bought the papacy and became Pope Alexander VI- The murder of Juan Borgia and why Rome blamed Cesare- Cesare's brutal conquest of the Romagna (and the Senigallia trap)- The poison rumors, the fear weapon, and why their reputation “worked”- How their corruption helped ignite the chain reaction leading to Reformation-era backlash- The real pattern: institutions with moral authority becoming cover for private powerThis isn't Renaissance gossip. It's a template—old, repeatable, and still visible today.

In Episode 455 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Nicolas Colin, a former French Treasury official and the co-founder of a European startup accelerator whose work sits at the intersection of technology, markets, geopolitics, and global finance. In the first hour of their conversation, Kofinas and Colin break down Colin's "Late Cycle Investment Theory" and the framework behind it. They draw on Carlota Perez's model of technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms, explore the role of speculative manias and market concentration, and examine why Colin argues that AI is less a brand-new technological revolution than an intensification of the computing-and-network paradigm that has been unfolding for the past 50 years. They also compare the current moment to the 1970s as a historical analogue and discuss why Colin believes financial systems are often the last piece to be rebuilt after a major paradigm shift. In the second hour, Kofinas and Colin explore what this late-cycle thesis means for investors, the public, and the geostrategic competition between the United States and China. They discuss how tokenization and programmable money could reshape the global financial system's infrastructure, and how today's "Trump Shock" might be the opening move in a broader financial reset. They also examine what financial fragmentation between two competing spheres—one led by China and one by the U.S.—may look like in practice, why programmable grid infrastructure and a new scale of electrification may be leading candidates for the next technological revolution, and what all of this implies for public debt servicing, inflation, financial repression, and wealth redistribution as proximity services replace the factory floor as the central battleground over which a new social contract will be formed. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 12/22/2025

Today, I'm thrilled to reconnect with Dr. Rocio Salas-Whalen, a board-certified endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist with more than 15 years of clinical experience, widely recognized as one of the earliest adopters of GLP-1 therapies in the United States. She is also the author of the upcoming book Weightless: A Comprehensive Guide to the New Era of GLP-1 Medications. In our discussion, we explore the transgenerational impact of obesity as a complex, chronic, and deeply multifactorial condition. We discuss the effects of environmental exposures and trauma, the essential role of education in overcoming weight-loss resistance and managing obesity, and the physiological changes women experience in the perimenopause-to-menopause transition. We explain the importance of body positivity and image, reframing our thoughts around obesity and being overweight, and why building and maintaining muscle is non-negotiable. We dive into the physiology of GLP-1 medications and specific targets for women in perimenopause and menopause, ways to address weight-loss stalls, and the effects of the weight bias so deeply entrenched in our society. Dr. Salas Whalen also shares her thoughts on alternatives and additions to GLP-1 therapies, clarifying the importance of protein and strength training while using GLP-1 drugs.  This conversation with Dr. Salas-Whalen is truly invaluable, and I highly recommend her upcoming book, Weightless. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: • What people come to understand about “normal eating” after starting GLP-1s • How GLP-1s interrupt the binge–guilt–shame cycle • The role GLP-1s play in helping people stay in control of food rather than letting food control them • Strategies for avoiding side effects when using GLP-1 medications • Why certain foods trigger problems on injection days • Importance of proper guidance to prevent severe side effects • The impact a prescriber's guidance has on your success with GLP-1s • Why treatment plans must be tailored to each patient's needs and metabolism • Factors doctors consider when deciding whether to add additional medications to a GLP-1 plan Connect with Cynthia Thurlow   Follow on X, Instagram & LinkedIn Check out Cynthia's website Submit your questions to support@cynthiathurlow.com Join other like-minded women in a supportive, nurturing community (The Midlife Pause/Cynthia Thurlow)  Cynthia's Menopause Gut Book is on presale now! Cynthia's Intermittent Fasting Transformation Book The Midlife Pause supplement line Connect with Dr. Rocio Salas-Whalen Website On social media: @drsalaswhalen Dr. Rocio's Book, Weightless - Pre-order now! (Releases 12-30-25)

In this episode of Hidden Forces in History, we explore how a historical figure achieved a significant "conquest" in "ancient egypt". This figure not only dominated the region but also declared himself a living god, altering his perceived "divinity original sin 2" within months. This "ancient history" is presented as a compelling "history documentary", inviting viewers to understand the figure's profound impact on the era.

In Episode 454 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with author, futurist, and U.S. foreign policy expert Jamie Metzl about the aims and objectives of the 2025 National Security Strategy and its implications for American prosperity and power in the 21st century. Jamie and Demetri spend the first hour of this conversation digging into the Trump administration's 2025 National Security Strategy and the story that the administration is trying to tell to the American people and to itself about America's place in the world, where it went astray, and what needs to be done on a strategic planning level in order to "Make America Great Again." From there, Metzl and Kofinas debate whether the strategy amounts to a "containment" of China or something closer to a 19th-century balance-of-power where the largest and most powerful countries—namely the United States, Russia, and China—will be granted the freedom to operate with impunity within their own spheres of influence, dealing a final death blow to the international rules-based liberal order that the United States sought to universalize after the fall of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago. The second hour is a wide-ranging tour through what this strategy might look like in practice, from the Western Hemisphere and Venezuela to Europe and Ukraine, and what "power politics" means when so much of modern conflict is fought through influence campaigns, institutional sabotage, and cyber operations rather than through the use of conventional arms and occupations. The two also explore the dangerous vacuum created when a superpower can no longer clearly articulate what it stands for—at home or abroad—and how that confusion can lead to a cascade of unintended consequences that further destabilize the international system, resulting in a new form of total war. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 12/15/2025

History says Napoleon Bonaparte lost his empire on the battlefield —in Russia, at Leipzig, or finally at Waterloo.But what if the real defeat happened years earlier, behind closed doors in Paris?In this episode of Hidden Forces in History, we uncover the quiet diplomatic, financial, and political plot that made Napoleon's fall inevitable long before his armies collapsed.We explore:- How Charles Maurice de Talleyrand undermined Napoleon from inside his own government- Why the Continental System failed — and how British credit networks outlasted French power- How bankers, diplomats, and senators prepared a France without Napoleon- Why Paris surrendered before Napoleon even returned to the capital- And how empires are often destroyed not by generals… but by elites who quietly move onThis wasn't a single conspiracy.It was something far more realistic — overlapping networks of power deciding an emperor had outlived his usefulness.Because wars aren't only lost with cannon fire.They're lost with ink, ledgers, and whispered conversations.

In this episode of the Good Leadership Podcast, host Charles Good engages with customer experience strategist Jon Picoult to explore the principles of creating memorable customer experiences. They discuss the importance of customer impressions, the power of choice, customer advocacy, relevance, attention to detail, personalization, and the impact of pleasant surprises. The conversation also highlights effective recovery strategies when things go wrong, using IKEA as a practical example of successful customer experience implementation.CHAPTERS00:00 The Power of Perceived Control04:06 Advocating for Customers: The Southwest Airlines Example08:21 Creating Relevance in Customer Experience11:20 The Importance of Details in Customer Interactions13:47 Personalizing Customer Experiences16:59 The Impact of Pleasant Surprises20:35 Recovering with Style After Failures25:11 IKEA: A Case Study in Customer Experience Principles29:23 Final Thoughts: Making Customers Feel Special31:54 Key Insights and Takeaways

In Episode 453 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jason Furman, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, about the state of the U.S. economy, the AI Bubble, monetary policy, inflation, price controls, and much more. Jason and Demetri spend the first hour of their conversation exploring his economic framework, what he learned from his time working inside the Clinton and Obama White Houses, and how these experiences shaped his perspective on the role of government in the economy. The two then delve into Furman's thoughts on artificial intelligence. They discuss whether we're living through an AI bubble, where Jason anticipates the greatest productivity gains from the adoption of AI in the U.S. service sector, and his perspective on AI regulation. They also discuss the limitations of our inflation models, whether we have a good working understanding of the causes of inflation, whether the Fed has implicitly raised its inflation target, and how large, structural deficits and political constraints will shape the Fed's ability to manage that target in the years ahead. In the second hour, Kofinas and Furman shift to a discussion about the politics of affordability and a growing sense, especially among younger Americans, that the costs associated with achieving the American dream have become insurmountable for almost all but the very wealthy. They debate the political appeal and efficacy of price controls, as well as the extent to which tariffs, industrial policy, and currency depreciation can or should be used to reshape global supply chains and rebuild U.S. domestic manufacturing in areas deemed critical for national security. They also discuss the US trade deficit and capital account surplus, what a weaker dollar may tell us about the government's policy objectives, how corruption, rule of law, and institutional decay might eventually feed back into foreign appetite for US assets, and what is at stake in the choice of the next Fed chair—both for the independence of the central bank and for the long-term credibility of American monetary policy. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 12/08/2025

This time on Code WACK! Join us on a deep dive into the hidden forces behind soaring out-of-pocket costs, from rising medical costs to pandemic aftershocks and corporate profit pressures. Our guest, health insurance agent Sherry Davis Johnson, shares eye-opening stories from the front lines. We'll also explore how the Affordable Care Act has saved lives, what protections still matter most, and what it really takes to navigate today's healthcare maze. This is the second episode in a two part-series. Sherry Davis Johnson - a former nurse turned long–time insurance agent in Southern California - has seen our challenging healthcare system from every angle, as a nurse and home health provider, insurance agent and patient. Today, she's here to help us make sense of it all. Check out the Transcript and Show Notes for more! And please keep Code WACK! on the air with a tax-deductible donation.

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In Episode 452 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Iain McGilchrist, a neuroscientist and author of The Master and His Emissary and The Matter with Things. His work on the divided brain has helped millions of people find wisdom, meaning, and guidance for living in the modern world. Iain and Demetri begin their conversation exploring McGilchrist's core thesis about the divided brain, how the left and right hemispheres attend to the world in fundamentally different ways, where we see evidence of an increased preponderance in left-brain thinking, and how this has impacted the way we conduct science, reason through problems, use our imagination, and apply wisdom to the world. Iain believes that our civilization is caught in what some have described as a metacrisis, exacerbated by the encroachment of the left hemisphere onto more and more areas of lived experience. We see it in the procedurally abysmal manner in which modern medicine goes about formulating diagnoses, the ever-increasing obsession with process over outcomes, the commodification of writing, the rise in depression, the policing of language, and the reverence for machine-like efficiency and profit maximization at the expense of almost everything else. The two discuss the importance of self-actualization in the context of community and why Iain is inspired by the change of heart he sees in younger generations who are no longer satisfied with furthering a broken paradigm and are willing to imagine something different—a different way forward that makes room for our humanity and which provides people with a relational sense of meaning and purpose.  Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 12/01/2025

After nearly a decade of building content across interviews, politics, history, and culture… I've made the biggest YouTube decision of my career.My original channel became what I call a ghost channel — not because of bad content, not because of politics, not because of algorithm punishment…but because I changed, the content changed, and the platform no longer knew how to classify what we were doing.So today, I'm sharing the full story of why we're retiring the old Jeremy Ryan Slate YouTube channel and launching a brand new channel:

This time on Code WACK! Join us on a deep dive into the hidden forces behind soaring out-of-pocket costs, from rising medical costs to pandemic aftershocks and corporate profit pressures. Our guest, health insurance agent Sherry Davis Johnson, shares eye-opening stories from the front lines.  We'll also explore how the Affordable Care Act has saved lives, what protections still matter most, and what it really takes to navigate today's healthcare maze.  This is the second episode in a two part-series. Sherry Davis Johnson — a former nurse turned long–time insurance agent in Southern California — has seen our challenging healthcare system from every angle, as a nurse and home health provider, insurance agent and patient. Today, she's here to help us make sense of it all.  Check out the Transcript and Show Notes for more! And please keep Code WACK! on the air with a tax-deductible donation.  

Nine Years Old & Online: The New Reality Of Tech Use Kids are stepping into the online world earlier than ever, often before parents have mapped out the rules. We look at what changes when the average nine-year-old gets a smartphone, and the small, practical choices that can keep the experience safe without every day turning into a power struggle for parents. The Hidden Forces Behind Modern Breakups Breakups now unfold in a world where politics, feeds, and public opinion quietly shape how couples drift apart. And with so much of life happening online, those moments don't stay private for long. Often, friends, followers and even strangers can influence how people interpret what happened and how they should feel about it. We cover how these subtle pressures make break up's feel even harder these days. Viewpoints Explained: The Tiny Clues That Expose Artificial Intelligence Footage AI-generated videos now look startlingly real, but small inconsistencies in movement, lighting and context can still give them away. We cover how to spot these details and the importance of questioning what you're really watching online. Culture Crash: Two “Succession” Co-Stars, Two New Thrillers Two Succession standouts, Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen, return in new streaming thrillers. We cover if the new releases are worth your time this holiday season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This time on Code WACK! Join us on a deep dive into the hidden forces behind soaring out-of-pocket costs, from rising medical costs to pandemic aftershocks and corporate profit pressures. Our guest, health insurance agent Sherry Davis Johnson, shares eye-opening stories from the front lines. We'll also explore how the Affordable Care Act has saved lives, what protections still matter most, and what it really takes to navigate today's healthcare maze. This is the second episode in a two part-series. Sherry Davis Johnson — a former nurse turned long–time insurance agent in Southern California — has seen our challenging healthcare system from every angle, as a nurse and home health provider, insurance agent and patient. Today, she's here to help us make sense of it all. Check out the Transcript and Show Notes for more! And please keep Code WACK! on the air with a tax-deductible donation.

Breakups now unfold in a world where politics, feeds, and public opinion quietly shape how couples drift apart. And with so much of life happening online, those moments don't stay private for long. Often, friends, followers and even strangers can influence how people interpret what happened and how they should feel about it. We cover how these subtle pressures make break up's feel even harder these days. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for an informative discussion with John De Goey, a professional portfolio manager, published author, and dedicated advocate for financial consumers. John shares his journey into finance, which was fueled by a desire to challenge the "amoral" practices of the financial services industry and protect consumers from misleading information. This advocacy is the foundation of his work and his books, including his latest, Bullshift: How Optimism Bias Threatens Your Finances. We discuss the core problem: both advisors and investors often fall victim to cognitive biases, believing things "for sure that just ain't so". John explains that the industry benefits from keeping clients "bullish," leading people to ignore high debt, expensive markets, and other warning signs. To combat this, he champions Decision Hygiene—the active process of challenging your own assumptions and priors, rather than seeking out information that confirms what you already believe (confirmation bias). He shares why he transitioned to discretionary portfolio management to prevent clients' emotions from derailing sound investment plans, demonstrating that sometimes, letting a fiduciary make unemotional decisions is the best way to secure a client's wealth. An empowered human, John concludes, is simply one who is self-aware and makes choices based on truth, not just self-interest. Connect with John:Website: www.johndegoey.ca YouTube: Make Better Wealth Decisions X(Twitter): John De Goey Let's keep the conversation going!Website: www.martaspirk.com Instagram: @martaspirk Facebook: Marta Spirk Want to be my next guest on The Empowered Woman Podcast?Apply here: www.martaspirk.com/podcastguest  Watch my TEDx talk: www.martaspirk.com/keynoteconcerts    Professional moms — if you're juggling work, mom guilt, and nightly discipline debates, meet The Calm and Connected Parent by psychotherapist Todd Sarner. This attachment-first guide is your roadmap to unity, confidence, and a calmer home. Out now. Visit transformativeparenting.com and click "New Book" at the top for bonuses, details, and updates starting today.  

In Episode 451 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with author and long-time China analyst Dinny McMahon about the Chinese leadership's efforts to redesign China's economic model in the face of structural headwinds to growth, mounting trade barriers, and growing concerns in Western capitals about Chinese economic and military domination. The first hour is spent exploring why McMahon believes that China is at a transformational moment. He details the kind of economy that Beijing intends to build by 2035 and the internal debate over whether China should rebalance toward household consumption through welfare and redistribution or double down on its investment-driven growth model as the primary mechanism for raising household living standards. The second hour is devoted to understanding China's evolving industrial strategy that Dinny describes as a potential "China Shock 2.0" driven by legacy industry upgrading, innovation at the technological frontier in sectors like batteries and electric vehicles, flying cars, and humanoid robots, and import substitution in areas like machine tools and semiconductors all while pushing intermediate manufacturing offshore to circumvent Western trade barriers. McMahon lays out his best and worst case scenarios, as well as what China's economy is most likely to look like by the middle of the next decade; he and Demetri examine the risks of further deindustrialization and strategic dependency by the United States and Europe on Chinese manufacturing; and discuss how all of this collides with global climate goals, the energy transition, and a world in which China's state-driven capitalist model is increasingly setting the pace for innovation, growth, and material abundance. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 11/24/2025

Join the host on Right On Radio for a wide-ranging Friday episode that begins with Thanksgiving reflections, the show's Word on Word segment (1 Chronicles 16:8 vs. Proverbs 31:28–29), and a musical nod before diving into hard-hitting news and commentary. The episode opens with breaking coverage of a reported anti-corruption probe tied to President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration: searches of senior offices, allegations centered on the Energia Atom energy sector, the role of ally Timur Mindich, and broader claims about widespread skimming of foreign aid. The host analyzes Sky News reporting and offers context and commentary about how the scandal could affect negotiations and ceasefire discussions. Shifting to U.S. domestic developments, the program covers the recent attack on two National Guard members, updates on the victims, and reporting that connects the suspected shooter to refugee resettlement. The host discusses alleged pre-attack online searches traced to foreign IPs, references to the Charlie Kirk shooting, and federal responses including troop deployments to Washington, D.C. President Trump's recent statements on immigration, tax policy and national security are reviewed and critiqued. The show also examines the role of intelligence agencies and transnational crime: a featured interview excerpt with Laura Logan and former CIA operations officer Gary Bernstein explores election interference, U.S. activity near Venezuela, and claims that large criminal networks there may rival state intelligence capabilities. The host lays out a view of the CIA and FBI as powerful actors within a global hierarchy. Listeners will hear concerns about surveillance and biometric data after a segment on school photography companies (LifeTouch), ownership by major asset managers, and how large photo databases could be used to train facial recognition systems. The episode links this to broader worries about tech, privacy and the so-called Genesis mission referenced by the host. The host also speaks personally about a paid course he's released—its goals, structure and reception—encouraging listeners on how to approach the material, and announces a Saturday night prayer meeting and brief weekend schedule changes. Throughout, he intersperses political analysis with spiritual themes and references to scripture. To close, the show lightens up with music recommendations (including an 80s toe-tapper by a Canadian band and a later Jimmy Cliff clip), invites listeners to community engagement, and promises more reporting and specials in upcoming episodes. Want to Understand and Explain Everything Biblically?  Click Here: Decoding the Power of Three: Understand and Explain Everything or go to www.rightonu.com and click learn more.  Thank you for Listening to Right on Radio. Prayerfully consider supporting Right on Radio. Click Here for all links, Right on Community ROC, Podcast web links, Freebies, Products (healing mushrooms, EMP Protection) Social media, courses and more... https://linktr.ee/RightonRadio Live Right in the Real World! We talk God and Politics, Faith Based Broadcast News, views, Opinions and Attitudes We are Your News Now. Keep the Faith

In Episode 450 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Lawrence McDonald, the founder of The Bear Traps Report and the author of a recently published book about the risks and investment opportunities present in today's radically reshaped economy titled "How to Listen When Markets Speak." In today's conversation, Demetri and Lawrence discuss how social media and the gamification of investing have amplified behavioral biases and fueled the AI boom, as well as the growth of crypto and other "tertiary" assets. They then zoom out to examine how the macro environment has changed since the Covid 19 pandemic, and how the government's response to both the GFC and covid crisis have sent investors scrambling for new frameworks to help them understand government's role in the economy and how to position themselves and their client's portfolios for a radically new world—one that you will not learn about in financial text books or most macroeconomics courses. Kofinas and McDonald also explore the "dark side of passive investing," the extreme concentration risk present in a handful of AI-linked mega-caps, the risk to markets of more capricious government trade policies, and why Lawrence McDonald believes that one of the most underappreciated opportunity sets in AI lies not at the intersection of semiconductors and AI companies, but in the physical energy and delivery infrastructure needed to power them. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 11/17/2025

The Bitcoin Boomers Ep. 02: Fiat's Final Days & AI Job Apocalypse | Larry Lepard, Dr. Bob Murphy, Bob Burnett, Gary LelandDr. Bob Murphy (NYU PhD, Mises Institute Senior Fellow, former Contra Krugman host) joins Bob Burnett, Larry Lepard, and Gary Leland for the most explosive Bitcoin Boomers episode yet. From the very first minutes the gloves come off: fiat's 100-year Keynesian experiment is mathematically doomed, AI is already wiping out entry-level jobs overnight, robots are on track to rival nation-states, and deflationary technology just made debt-based money impossible to sustain. Larry drops the hammer (“the whole experiment is about to blow the fuck up — and it deserves to”), Bob Murphy calmly explains why Bitcoin proves you don't need the state to have money, and the crew debates UBI inevitability, spend-and-replace adoption strategies, and why BlackRock & nation-states are suddenly begging for Bitcoin.This is the red-pill episode you send to every boomer, uncle, or normie who still thinks the dollar is fine. If you want the intellectual ammo to orange-pill anyone over the holidays, this is it.Key Topics:Why fiat is now mathematically unsustainableAI silently killing entry-level hiring todayRobots rivaling nation-states in powerDeflationary tech destroying debt-based moneyBitcoin proves you don't need government to issue moneyThe regression theorem tragedy that cost Austrians millionsUBI is politically unstoppableGreenspan's private confession: being Fed Chair was “absolutely intoxicating”Spend-and-replace vs pure HODL debateBlackRock begging for Bitcoin — Bob's biggest 2025 shock20% Bitcoin discount at the CrossFit gym storyWhy the next 100 M users could arrive in monthsChapters:00:00:00 Cold Open – The end of fiat has begun00:01:11 Welcome Dr. Bob Murphy & Bob Burnett00:03:20 Why economics has warring schools00:12:17 MMT exposed00:19:16 Larry: “It's about to blow the fuck up — and it deserves to”00:26:26 AI already killing entry-level jobs00:33:46 UBI is coming — politically impossible to stop00:39:50 Robots will rival nation-states00:43:10 Deflation just killed debt-based money00:46:48 “Bitcoin proved you don't need the state to issue money”00:52:31 The regression theorem tragedy00:55:21 Spend-and-replace debate01:00:41 Real-world Bitcoin adoption stories01:04:38 BlackRock begging for Bitcoin01:10:57 “I cannot believe we got here this fast”Guest : Dr. Robert Murphy (@BobMurphyEcon) – NYU PhD, Mises Institute Senior Fellow, Chief Economist at InfinitoWebsite: https://www.bobmurphyshow.com/Hosts:Lawrence Lepard (@LawrenceLepard): Sound money advocate, fund manager, author of "The Big Print" Bob Burnett (@boomer_btc): Bitcoin evangelist, Founder/CEO of Barefoot Mining, former CTO at Gateway Inc. Board member at Ocean with over 40 years in tech and mining.Gary Leland (@GaryLeland): Founder of Bit Block Boom Bitcoin Conference.Supported By:Blockstream Jade: Easy, open-source Bitcoin-only cold storage. Get 10% off with code BOOMERS at blockstream.com.Unchained Signature: Premium custody for serious holders. 10% off first year with code BOOMERS10 at unchained.com/btcboomersAbundant Mines: Fully managed Bitcoin mining. Learn more at abundantmines.comBITCOIN WELL is the best place to buy Bitcoin in Canada and the USA.Visit BITCOINWELL.COM/BTCSESSIONSBook Private Sessions: Master Bitcoin with experts at bitcoinmentor.io. Check Out the Previous Episode w George Bodine: https://youtu.be/vO6J_JEDxKc#bitcoin #bitcoinboomers #fiatcollapse #bobmurphy #bobburnett #larrylepard #austrianeconomics #bitcoin2025 #ai #deflation #bitcoinadoption #soundmoney #btc

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In Episode 449 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Chase Taylor, head of research at Bulwark Capital Management and founder of Pinecone Macro Research about investment opportunities around the buildout of the new "electric stack" and the AI CapEx Boom that relies on them. Chase and Demetri spend the first hour of this episode exploring his methodology, how he extracts signals from noise, and why a multidisciplinary approach to investing is especially important during periods of disruptive sociopolitical and technological change like the kind we are experiencing today. They then apply these ideas to two important technological trends underway in the global economy: (1) the transformation of the so-called "electric stack" or electro-industrial stack and (2) the AI CapEx Boom that relies on it. They begin with a deep-dive exploration of the dramatic cost declines happening across the entire electric stack, beginning with the addition of new sources of energy, advancements in battery technology for storage, the use of magnets and motors that turn electricity into mechanical motion, power electronics that shape it into the precise force needed by today's technologies, and the embedded compute that orchestrates and decides how and when to put that force into action. They discuss the sources of China's dominance in this industry, the horizontal complementarities in its manufacturing ecosystems, the advantages of vertical integration, and what America and Europe need to do in order to remain competitive in this new industrial ecosystem. The second hour is devoted to exploring the implications for investors of the current AI CapEx boom, how the USD might behave in a growth slowdown scenario post-Liberation Day, and what the Trump administration's military and covert action threats against Maduro's regime in Venezuela can tell us about his foreign policy and whether we are returning to a more colonial phase of domination by the American empire over the Western hemisphere. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 11/10/2025

Ryan Cristián is the founder and editor of alternative independent media & news website, https://www.TheLastAmericanVagabond.com/. You can find The Last American Vagabond on all the major podcast platforms and also on many of the alternative video platforms.Ryan CristiánX: https://x.com/TLAVagabondWEBSITE: https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/user/TheLastAmericanVagabondTHE RIPPLE EFFECT PODCAST:WEBSITE: http://TheRippleEffectPodcast.comWebsite Host & Video Distributor: https://ContentSafe.co/SUPPORT:PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/TheRippleEffectPodcastPayPal: https://www.PayPal.com/paypalme/RvTheory6VENMO: https://venmo.com/code?user_id=3625073915201071418&created=1663262894MERCH: Store: http://www.TheRippleEffectPodcastMerch.comTHEORY 6 MUSIC: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1w91xRlB4b2MJYyXXhJcyFSPONSORS:OPUS A.I. Clip Creator: https://www.opus.pro/?via=RickyVarandasUniversity of Reason-Autonomy: https://www.universityofreason.com/a/2147825829/ouiRXFoLWATCH:RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/therippleeffectpodcastBANNED.VIDEO: https://banned.video/channel/the-ripple-effect-podcastOFFICIAL YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRippleEffectPodcastOFFICIALYOUTUBE CLIPS CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/@RickyVarandasTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ricky.varandasLISTEN:SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4lpFhHI6CqdZKW0QDyOicJiTUNES: http://apple.co/1xjWmlFPodOmatic: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/rvtheory6THEORY 6 Music:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1w91xRlB4b2MJYyXXhJcyFPandora: https://www.pandora.com/artist/theory-6/ARxrlZ2ldhqtP6kiTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/theory-6/688897877CONNECT:TeleGram: https://t.me/TREpodcastX: https://x.com/RvTheory6IG: https://www.instagram.com/rvtheory6/FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheRippleEffectPodcast/THE UNION OF THE UNWANTED: https://linktr.ee/TheUnionOfTheUnwanted

This episode was recorded on November 6th 2025. Artificial intelligence has been the movement of the moment in recent years. Since it burst to prominence in 2022, hundreds of millions of people have started using AI systems every day – for everything from writing essays to coding software, generating art and planning their lives. But with soaring valuations, constant hype, and growing concerns about how much these systems really understand, some experts and investors are starting to ask whether we're heading for an AI bubble. One of them is Gary Marcus, a scientist, author, entrepreneur, and one of the AI industry's most outspoken critics. Over the years, Gary has become a leading voice in debates about artificial intelligence, and many of his predictions about where the technology is heading have proven remarkably prescient. In this episode, Gary cuts through the noise and digs into hype vs reality, what current systems still can't, and may never be able to do, and what a more reliable path forward might look like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Episode 448 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Nathan Benaich, founder and general partner of Air Street Capital and the creator of the annual State of AI Report, an open-access compendium that tracks advances across AI research, industry, policy, and geopolitics. Nathan Benaich and Demetri spend the first hour of their conversation exploring some of the most important AI breakthroughs of the year. They unpack the DeepSeek moment, dig into some of the advancements made by the latest reasoning models, and discuss why there appears to be a regression in capabilities across certain domains in artificial intelligence at the same time as we are seeing marked improvements in reasoning-heavy use cases like coding and scientific research. The second hour turns to a conversation about the commercial implications and geopolitical dynamics of the AI arms race, including China's strategy to become the leader in open-weight models and tooling. They look at what industries, sectors, and professions may be most ripe for disruption, where the investment opportunities are, whether we're in a bubble comparable to the 1990s Internet boom, and how export controls, energy constraints, and regulatory red-tape could play an outsized role in shaping the trajectory of the current arms race. Lastly, Kofinas and Benaich examine where along the AI stack most of the value is likely to accrue—from the underlying picks and shovels, through the foundation models, to the apps that ride on top of them—and what all this means for labor markets, education, and the cadence of scientific discovery. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 10/29/2025

EVEN MORE about this episode!What if ancient wisdom held the key to protecting your energy and transforming your life from the inside out? In this powerful episode, spiritual teacher and psychic healer George Lizos reveals how to navigate today's hyper-connected world without losing your energetic balance. We uncover how emotional contagion spreads through social media, why drama addiction keeps us drained, and how to reclaim your power through mindful energy protection and digital detoxing.George also shares his experiences as a priest of the Hellenic ethnic religion, offering a rare glimpse into how ancient Greek practices of purification, healing, and balance are more relevant than ever. We explore energy-clearing tools like cord-cutting, the violet flame, and alignment with your soul's frequency—bridging timeless mysticism with modern spiritual science.This conversation dives deep into healing trauma, cleansing energetic residue, and rediscovering your divine purpose. You'll learn how intuition and spiritual discipline can restore your vitality, helping you live from alignment rather than reaction. Tune in for an unforgettable journey that reminds us: energy protection isn't just self-care—it's soul preservation.Guest Biography:George Lizos is a spiritual teacher, psychic healer, and priest of the Hellenic Ethnic Religion, dedicated to helping lightworkers discover their life purpose and use their spiritual gifts to create meaningful change. He is the host of The Lit Up Lightworker and Can't Host podcasts and the #1 bestselling author of Be The Guru, Lightworkers Gotta Work, Protect Your Light, Secrets of Greek Mysticism, and Ancient Manifestation Secrets. As the creator of the Intuition Mastery School® and the Psychic Healing Practitioner Course, his work has been featured in Goop, National Geographic, Mind Body Green, Kindred Spirit, and more. Named Spiritual Writer of the Year 2024 by Kindred Spirit Magazine, George blends ancient wisdom with modern spirituality to guide others toward empowerment, healing, and authentic self-expression.Episode Chapters:(0:00:01) - Protect Your Light(0:09:09) - Ancient Greek Religion and Healing(0:18:46) - Rediscovering Ancient Healing and Manifestation(0:24:50) - Navigating Trauma and Spiritual Awakening➡️Subscribe to Ask Julie Ryan YouTube➡️Subscribe to Ask Julie Ryan Español YouTube➡️Subscribe to Ask Julie Ryan Português YouTube➡️Subscribe to Ask Julie Ryan Deutsch YouTube➡️Subscribe to Ask Julie Ryan Français YouTube✏️Ask Julie a Question!

Demetri Kofinas speaks with financial historian and investor Russell Napier about his "Practical History of Financial Markets" online course, which is provided in conjunction with Edinburgh Business School. Hidden Forces premium subscribers can sign up using their subscriber email + code "HF50" for a generous 50% DISCOUNT. Genius members can access the course for an even more generous discount of 75%. Sign up today at libraryofmistakes.com/course. The course runs in three formats: a ~14-hour online version; a two-and-a-half-day in-person version in London (capped at about 30 people); and a university version for mostly post-grad students. This is not just for professionals—many attendees are principals or retail savers who feel responsible for managing their and their families' wealth. The course is "radically different" from standard finance classes. Instead of starting from pricing theory or discounted cash flow, it takes a historical approach to asset valuation across equities, bonds, cash, commodities, and property, asking the question: "what repeatable conditions caused valuations to change?" The course leans heavily on long-run U.S. and international data, examines market behavior in different monetary and inflation regimes, and includes a module on investing in periods of inflation, disinflation, and deflation. After completing this course, you should be able to: ✔️ Critically evaluate different methods of valuing stock markets and identify faults in the valuation methods. ✔️ Explain the idea of mean reversion in financial markets and identify valuation techniques that follow mean reversion using data from the last 100 years to demonstrate this. ✔️ Understand the impact inflationary or deflationary forces have on the returns to different classes of financial assets. ✔️ Understand the impact liquidity and the supply of money has on stock market returns over time. ✔️ Understand the impact of psychological biases on returns in the stock market and the role that they can play in major stock market events. ✔️ Critically evaluate the lessons from the history of the financial markets over the past 200 years or more. As Russell has often said, "when regime change occurs, the greatest risk for any investor is to get all the right answers to all the wrong questions." The ultimate goal of this course is to teach people how to find and ask the RIGHT questions. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 10/31/2025

Episode 447 is the tenth installment in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with Peter Atwater, a recognized expert on the impact of confidence and mood on individual and group decision-making. Peter's work has been instrumental not only in helping his clients, students, and readers understand how people make decisions under conditions of chaos and uncertainty, but also in showing how to use those insights to gain a competitive advantage. The three begin their conversation by mapping out Peter's Confidence Quadrant and using it to explain how individuals and crowds move between feelings of high and low certainty and control. They explore the immense contemporary pressure people feel to conform—particularly on social media and in an educational system that rewards conformity. They discuss financial nihilism, the search for community in unusual places, and why real, in-person networks, relationships, and conversations matter now more than ever. The second half of the episode turns to the political economy of confidence: the rise of leader-centric movements, the fragility of "passenger-seat" societies, the lasting impact of COVID, and the "velvet-rope" economy that has transformed everything from airline cabins to financing. They discuss wealth stratification, powerlessness, the risks of a genuine socialist revolution, the search for leadership, and practical ways individuals can regain agency—through epistemic hygiene, disciplined storytelling, and service to others. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 10/23/2025

In Episode 446 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with geopolitical analyst and forecaster Kamran Bokhari about Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan and the new security order taking shape in the Middle East. Kamran first appeared on Hidden Forces in the days following the October 7th attacks to discuss the wider war unfolding between the U.S., Israel, and Iran, and how Hamas's attacks could serve as a catalyst for the remaking of the modern Middle East. In his subsequent appearances, he has provided critical context for understanding U.S., Israeli, and Iranian strategic aims and limitations, as well as the interests and constraints of other states in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey. For all intents and purposes, Israel has won its war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. It has decimated both its conventional and unconventional forces and revealed to its proxies, affiliates, and supporters across the region—and even to its own people—that Iran is a weak and tottering power. With the initiation of Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan and the cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, we may be witnessing the emergence of a new security order in the Middle East—one that relies more on regional stakeholders, allowing the United States to reduce its direct exposure and the commitment of U.S. forces while still maintaining influence over regional politics. Kamran and Demetri spend the first hour of their conversation recapping the Middle East's transformation over the last two years. They revisit Israel's systematic campaign against Hezbollah's leadership, the subsequent collapse of the Assad regime, and the consequences of the U.S.'s strategic strikes on Iran's known nuclear facilities. They also discuss the diplomatic fallout from Israel's recent attacks in Qatar, Prime Minister Netanyahu's subsequent apology call from the White House, and Washington's push for an international stabilization force in Gaza led by regional partners. The second hour turns to what a new regional security architecture could look like and how U.S. strategy is shifting from direct management to burden-sharing among regional powers such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. They explore the practical implications of this emerging arrangement for Gaza—including discussions about an Arab-Muslim stabilization force, governance over the Palestinian territories, and a long reconstruction financed by Gulf and international donors—while setting realistic expectations for the creation of an independent Palestinian political entity over the next decade. They conclude by assessing which countries stand to gain the most from Iran's retreat and the decimation of its proxies, closing with a frank discussion about America's polarized media ecosystem and the growing anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiments being expressed on both the American left and right. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 10/20/2025

Episode 445 is the ninth installment in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with Roger Mitchell, an entrepreneur and writer whose essay “The Answer Was Here All the Time,” published in Grant Williams's 2025 compendium, explores faith, meaning, and the search for moral grounding in a contemporary West that feels increasingly unmoored and in epistemic freefall. The conversation begins with a diagnosis of the cultural and spiritual malaise that seems to have taken hold of Western societies: the fraying of the social contract, the “boomer blues,” as Roger Mitchell calls them, and why life inside “the machine” leaves us lonely, angry, afraid, and in dire need of real human contact. The second half of the episode turns to a discussion about the dangers of politicizing religion and weaponizing faith in response to growing social and existential angst in Western societies. Demetri, Grant, and Roger explore Europe's identity crisis, the destabilizing effects of uncontrolled immigration, the cultural consequences of collapsing birth rates, the economic and social tragedy facing younger generations, and the broader epistemic collapse that has made consensus-building nearly impossible and replaced reasoned debate with a totalizing ambition for political domination. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 10/10/2025

Money touches every part of a relationship — from who pays the bills to who feels free to spend, to how faith, privilege, and even family expectations shape the way we see our financial roles. But for many couples, these conversations stay on the surface — focused on budgets or account balances — instead of the deeper emotions and power dynamics underneath.My guests today, Heather and Douglas Boneparth, set out to change that. They're the husband-and-wife duo behind the new book Money Together, a guide that goes beyond financial planning to explore the real forces that drive how couples handle money — things like caregiving, identity, gender, faith, and generational wealth.Heather is a corporate attorney turned author and financial advocate; Douglas is a certified financial planner and founder of Bonafide Wealth. Together, they spent years interviewing more than 60 couples and experts to unpack what really happens behind closed doors when money meets love.In our conversation, we talk about what they discovered — why traditional money advice often fails couples, how gender roles and caregiving reshape financial power, how to talk about privilege or family wealth without resentment, and why sometimes the healthiest financial decision is saying “no” to money that comes with strings attached. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 444 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, about his pioneering new framework that compares the U.S. and China not along ideological lines or modes of governance, but by state capacity and the propensity to build. According to Dan Wang, China is an “engineering state,” focused on building big projects and diffusing technologies across its economy, while America is a “lawyerly society” that has become proficient at protecting what it has and obstructing progress in areas that are vital for its long-term prosperity. Kofinas and Wang compare each nation's leadership—staffed by engineers and mega-project managers in China and litigators and regulators in America—against each other and against each country's own history, and examine when and why the United States, in particular, went from being a country that excelled in constructing things to one more concerned with obstruction and safeguarding a comfortable way of life for the wealthiest and older segments of society. The second hour is devoted to a discussion about the failures and unintended consequences of China's engineering state, most notably the devastating human impact of its one-child and zero-COVID policies. They also explore the similarities between the American and Chinese people, the prospects for conflict between the two superpowers, and what policies the United States can implement to get back to building again—like reforming immigration, advancing clean energy development, permitting the buildout of more housing, and increasing funding for basic scientific research and development. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 10/06/2025

In Episode 443 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with former investment banker turned global strategist Viktor Shvets, whose books The Great Rupture and The Twilight Before the Storm provide an audaciously comprehensive and compelling framework for understanding the forces shaping our world. These include technology and finance, amplified by climate change, demographics, and a series of socioeconomic and geopolitical shocks that have created the once-in-a-century superstorm now enveloping Western democracies. Viktor and Demetri spend the first hour of this episode exploring Shvets' central critique of neoliberalism and why he believes that much of the current crisis stems from this failed ideology. They compare today's sociopolitical and economic dynamics to those that overtook the world in the 1930s, focusing on technology-driven social disruption, a decline in the marginal utility of labor, runaway asset prices, repeated financial shocks, pandemics, climate stress, migration, and a deep loss of faith in institutions, in our collective identity, and in our shared capacity to solve problems. The second hour turns to questions of policy design, institutional reform, and portfolio strategy. Viktor and Demetri debate the pros and cons of redistributive solutions such as universal basic income and more heavy-handed fixes to America's broken healthcare system and antiquated educational model. They also stress-test alternative modes of sociopolitical organization such as despotic feudalism, techno-communism, or models that attempt to better balance the more extreme outcomes that a highly technologized society like ours would produce. The two end the episode with a conversation about digital currencies and the disruptive potential that decentralized finance will have on money and banking. Kofinas also asks Shvets what assets he believes will outperform if governments are able to institute the types of reforms that he believes are necessary, and similarly, what assets investors will want to own if we trend toward some of the darker scenarios that he envisions.  Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 09/29/2025

In Episode 442 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kurt Campbell and Rush Doshi. Kurt is the chairman and co-founder of The Asia Group and served as the United States Deputy Secretary of State in the Joe Biden administration and as the Indo-Pacific Coordinator from 2021 to 2024. Rush also served under the previous administration in his capacity as the Deputy Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs on the National Security Council and is the author of the extremely influential book, “The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order.” Kofinas, Doshi, and Campbell spend the first hour of their conversation discussing the nature of China's rise and the challenges it poses to American power, both in terms of its economic, technological, and military development and the scale at which it operates. They also explore the limitations of a ‘go-it-alone' approach to great power competition in this new century and the importance of achieving what Kurt and Rush call "allied scale"—the notion that America's decisive advantage comes from its network of alliances. This first hour also includes a series of historical deep dives ranging from the Cold War and the Anglo-German rivalry to America's own period of rapid industrial development beginning in the late 19th century, how American industrial capacity proved decisive in shaping the balance of power in the 20th, and the lessons that can be learned when applying this history to the Chinese economy today. The second hour is devoted to a conversation about what "allied scale" would look like in practice, the steps that would need to be taken in order to get us there, and the obstacles the United States and its historical allies face in implementing this approach. Demetri also asks Kurt and Rush whether the United States may be exaggerating the threat that China poses at the expense of more important domestic priorities, and the consequences to the stamina of America's alliances and the durability of international peace and security if it is. The three conclude the second hour with an important conversation about Taiwan, including military contingencies, the diplomacy of deterrence, the public support (or lack thereof) for any type of security commitments to Taipei, and whether the United States is even in a position to win a war in the Pacific. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 09/23/2025

In Episode 441 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, about the profound transformations underway in the global economy driven by America's transition away from being the world's primary insurance provider for international security to its most enterprising racketeer. In a recently published Foreign Affairs essay titled “The New Economic Geography: Who Profits in a Post-American World?” Adam compares America's role in the post-World War II era to that of an insurance provider, underwriting global security by protecting international shipping lanes, providing deep and liquid capital markets, and enforcing international laws and standards that have formed the bedrock of the last 80 years of economic growth and prosperity. Kofinas and Posen spend the first hour of this episode digging into Adam's insurance framework and why he believes the United States was the largest beneficiary of the system it created. They discuss some of the recent policy changes out of Washington and why they are transforming America's sphere of influence into something that looks more like a protection racket than a market for affordable insurance. Adam Posen draws implications for the continued role of US Treasuries as a global safe asset and whether a reduction of foreign capital flows into dollars will ultimately prove stimulative for the resurrection of industrial ecosystems that the administration has identified as vital to American national security and the long-term prosperity of the United States. The two also consider the degree to which the increased premiums that Washington is now charging its allies can be justified by rising risks in the international security environment and by the unpopularity among the MAGA base for foreign U.S. involvement. The second hour of their conversation turns to questions of execution—specifically, what is required for the successful implementation of a U.S. industrial policy. This includes a discussion about apprenticeships, skilled immigration, government-supported R&D, federal funding for university science and technology programs, and more integration and collaboration with allied economies. Posen and Kofinas also discuss why the use of tariffs, subsidies, and export controls—including the CHIPS and Science Act—implemented during both Joe Biden's and Donald Trump's administrations have underdelivered. They also examine why the current administration's trade policies have been oddly more accommodative toward China than toward America's closest allies and why this will ultimately prove to be a losing strategy in the long-term. Lastly, Demetri asks Adam for his view on what the recent battles between the Fed and the White House mean for the future of Fed independence and if Washington is laying the groundwork for a long-term rise in inflation expectations as it seeks to monetize its debt and deficits through an increasingly compliant and captured central bank. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you'd like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today's episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 09/16/2025