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Interesting Times with Ross Douthat: Daily Summaries Delivered
by New York Times Opinion
The first draft of our future. Mapping the new world order through interviews and conversations. From New York Times Opinion.
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- Today1h 21m
Anna Paulina Luna Wants Everything Disclosed
In an era defined by deep institutional distrust, a new trend within populist conservatism has emerged. It’s a sense that the federal government is keeping secrets and protecting the powerful at our expense. My guest this week is Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a conservative Republican from Florida who has quickly established herself as a political troublemaker. She’s challenging fellow lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats — on issues like sexual harassment and ethics, but she doesn’t see her campaign to clean up Congress as in tension with her allegiance to President Trump. Luna has focused her first years in Congress on exposing what she views as coverups, from the Epstein files to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and longstanding government secrecy around U.F.O.s. 00:00 - Intro 01:31 - Luna's politics: "Conservative with a streak of populism" 08:07 - From chaos to conservative influencer 16:17 - Critiquing the ethics of Congress 24:55 - Presidential ethics and the Epstein files 36:25 - The U.A.P. activity at Eglin Air Force Base 41:02 - The "mosaic" around the J.F.K. assassination 47:50 - U.A.P. evidence 54:30 - Whistleblower retribution and protections 57:57 - Secret programs: "A stronger dose of strangeness" (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- 1 weeks ago59 min
Our Military Is Built for the Wrong Century
The future of high-tech warfare has arrived. Just look to the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran to see how much drones and robots have remade the modern battlefield. Is the U.S. positioned to win wars in this new era? What are the ethical constraints of waging autonomous warfare? My guest this week is Christian Brose, the president and chief strategy officer of Anduril, a defense technology company building a slate of autonomous weapons and defense systems for the American military. 00:00 - Intro 03:18 - Drones on the Russia - Ukraine battlefield 8:17 - Iran's stalemate and American military readiness 17:11 - Anduril is more than a "Lord of the Rings" reference 25:33 - Force fields and a layered defense 31:12 - The challenges of "finicky" autonomous systems 44:44 - The ethics of automating the kill chain (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- 2 weeks ago1h 3m
A Defense of a Liberal Arts Education in the Age of A.I.
What’s really driving the humanities crisis in higher education? As enrollment and reading decline, I asked Jennifer Frey, a professor of philosophy, what it was like to run a liberal arts program that was gutted. I wanted to know whether she thinks the age of A.I. could bring back the kind of education she says is fundamental to human formation. 00:00 - Intro 2:08 - Why study the humanities? 5:00 - Do the humanities mean more morality? 15:00 - Shakespeare vs. John Grisham 24:07 - The Tulsa Honors College 34:43 - Left-wing critiques and specialization 44:10 - Is conservatism a friend to liberal arts? 56:32 - Why the humanities are crucial in the age A.I. (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- 3 weeks ago53 min
Why China Isn’t Worried A.I. Will Replace Its Workers
The United States and China are really the only two countries that matter right now in shaping the A.I. future. As President Trump and President Xi Jinping meet in Beijing, there’s a kind of Cold War atmosphere, with people talking about an A.I. arms race. But who is winning? Are we even in a race at all? Kyle Chan, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, says it’s hard to call it a race because the U.S. and China have very different A.I. goals. 00:00:25 U.S. vs. China in A.I. 00:03:07 Everyday A.I. in China 00:07:41 China's A.I. chip limitations 00:12:14 China's A.I. advantage: energy & deployment 00:16:10 China's public mood on A.I. 00:19:44 AI, job displacement and social concerns 00:23:53 Robots for China's labor shortage 00:26:55 China's view on America's AGI fixation 00:31:16 Distilling A.I. models 00:38:39 U.S. needs more A.I. deployment 00:41:48 U.S. chip policy and the hawk's argument (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- 4 weeks ago51 min
A Legendary Investor on How to Prevent America’s Coming ‘Heart Attack’
A stalemated war. Fractured alliances. A rival waiting in the wings. It feels to me that we’re having an “end of the American empire” moment. My guest this week, Ray Dalio, is an unlikely prophet of doom — the billionaire Bridgewater investor conquered Wall Street by studying history and mastering global trends. He foresaw the 2008 financial crisis,and these days he’s warning that the U.S. is repeating the patterns that ended great empires of the past. 0:00 - Intro 01:24 - The rise and fall of empires through big cycles 08:35 - Geopolitical tensions: China, Iran and the Suez Canal 14:27 - Fiat currency or gold? 24:19 - America’s coming ‘heart attack’ 30:37 - Acts of nature, A.I. and technology 43:37 - ‘Could we have a Japanese future?’ (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Apr 30, 202657 min
Why Are We Still Driving?
Self-driving cars are here. But what kind of future will they bring: safe roads and extra time or dystopian traffic jams? My guest this week is Andrew Miller, who writes about self-driving cars and transportation policy. I love the open road, so I press him on what’s lost when we give away driving to the robots. 0:00 - Intro 01:27 - The sales pitch for Waymo, Tesla, and Zoox 12:24 - How autonomous are autonomous cars? 20:14 - Liability: Who is responsible for an accident? 31:56 - Political obstacles: Spying, data, labor 38:53 - 20:35: The good and bad scenarios 48:25 - Are we losing the “romance of the road”? (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Apr 23, 20261h 5m
A Bitcoin Evangelist Tries to Convert Me
One question has haunted my investment strategy for years: What is cryptocurrency actually for? It feels as though the vibes are constantly shifting — one day it’s the dollar’s successor, and the next it’s little more than a meme. My guest this week is bitcoin evangelist Anthony Pompliano, the chief executive of ProCap Financial. We get into whether crypto is a bet against the American empire and whether its volatility is actually a strength. 0:00 - Intro 01:27 - Physical to digital: The evolution of financial assets 05:00 - The wealth inequality gap 09:58 - The global adoption of crypto 14:51 - Bitcoin vs. Ethereum 20:26 - Why "stability" is a financial lie 29:30 - A “digital savings account” 41:57 - The role of Bitcoin in political dynamics 56:05 - “A bet against America” (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Apr 16, 202659 min
Trump Is the End of a 100-Year Experiment
President Trump has tested the limits of presidential power since he returned to office — from his assertion of total control over federal agencies to his war in Iran. But so far, many of Trump’s most aggressive moves have been stopped by the Supreme Court. My guest this week is Sarah Isgur, a conservative court watcher, who argues that the Supreme Court isn’t just a firewall against Donald Trump, but the real power center in American politics today. 0:00 - Intro 01:28 - Remaking the presidency: The hundred-year experiment 04:26 - Trump’s legal retribution campaign 09:15 - The Supreme Court’s strategy in the face of Trump 18:15 - “Looming" cases: Tariffs and birthright citizenship 28:23 - Supreme Court internal dynamics 43:32 - The future bench (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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