Interesting Times

By New York Times OpinionSociety & Culture News

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Interesting Times episodes

May 14China's Not the Problem. We Are.
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 [email protected]. 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.

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54 min
May 07A 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 [email protected]. 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.

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52 min
April 30Why 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 [email protected]. 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.

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58 min
April 23A 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 [email protected]. 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.

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1 hr 6 min
April 16Trump 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 [email protected]. 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.

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1 hr
April 09How Ben Sasse Is Living Now That He Is Dying
How would you live if you knew when you were going to die? I sat down with the former Republican senator Ben Sasse to hear how he is facing his own mortality after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis. For Sasse, cancer brings pain, but also clarity, sharpening his focus on the state of our politics, his wife and three children, and the God he expects to shortly meet.
0:00 - Intro

01:51 - Ben Sasse’s terminal diagnosis

07:14 - Oncology navigation and clinical trials

16:10 - Sasse’s career in the Senate and reflections on politics

32:55 - What could a civic-minded Senator achieve?

38:15 - Reforming academia and liberal arts

54:49 - Facing mortality: The “final enemy”

59:27 - Advice for the living

1:01:10 - The “prayer of pancreatic cancer”
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. 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.

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1 hr 8 min
April 02Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? A Debate.
Even if you don’t believe he walked on water, the teachings of Jesus still have a certain power. My guest this week, the New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, calls himself a “Christian atheist.” I asked Ehrman to come on the show to explore Jesus’ message, discuss how the Bible has shaped the morality of the Western world and explain what even the biggest skeptic can learn from one of mankind’s oldest texts.
0:00 - Intro

02:20 - Jesus’s moral teachings

08:15 - Ehrman’s path away from Christianity and faith

21:22 - The historical evidence for Jesus and the New Testament

33:26 - The challenges in interpreting the Gospels

52:07 - The contradictions in the New Testament

01:04:10 - Historical and geographical validity

01:09:25 - The visions and reality of the Resurrection

01:19:21 - A “Christian atheist”
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. 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.

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1 hr 25 min
March 26How Far Will Trump Go in Iran?
Is the U.S. winning the war with Iran? Even though President Trump claims success, it doesn’t quite feel like it — oil and gas prices are high, the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed, and the Iranian regime is still in place. Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a prominent Iran hawk, explains why “total victory” is within reach in spite of the cost. I pressed him on the gap between Trump’s desire for a quick deal and his desire to end the Islamic Republic.
00:00 - Intro

00:03:49 - Is Iran biding its time until Trump leaves office?

00:07:07 - Three phases to regime change

00:09:42 - Iran's military capabilities and the Strait of Hormuz

00:14:54 - How will the next American president treat Iran?

00:18:48 - The battle for the Strait of Hormuz

00:23:27 - Will Iran attack its neighbors?

00:28:43 - Will Trump cut a deal?

00:38:19 - Does Israel think Trump is its best chance?

00:43:04 - Risk of U.S. alienation from Israel

00:48:01 - The cost of inaction and the Iranian people
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.

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52 min
March 19White Identity Is Galvanizing the Right
The idea that white people — and white men in particular — face discrimination has become something of an obsession on the American right.
It’s a view that my guest this week shares. Jeremy Carl was nominated to a State Department post by the Trump administration, which sparked a lot of controversy. Carl is the author of “The Unprotected Class,” in which he makes the case that white Americans are in danger of becoming “second-class citizens.”
I wanted to know what he thinks constitutes anti-white discrimination and whether focusing on it inevitably leads to white nationalism. After we taped this interview, Carl withdrew his nomination, acknowledging that he lacked enough support to be confirmed.
0:00 - Intro

01:59 - Jeremy Carl’s trajectory and State Department Nomination

05:24 - The Civil Rights Act and rise of anti-white Discrimination

12:20 - The impact of immigration on white Americans

24:53 - The "radicalization" of D.E.I.

37:37 - Carl’s provocative language and controversial tweets

51:06 - “White culture” vs. “civic nationalism”

01:01:00 - The fours pillars of “Americanness”
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. 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.

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1 hr 3 min
March 12The Democrats Could Still Screw This Up
Can the Democrats finally seize on President Trump’s increasing unpopularity and end their slump? It seems to me as though 2026 is providing them ample opportunity. But I wanted to know what they actually stand for. Have they learned anything about immigration? Are they ready for the new politics of artificial intelligence? To find out, I asked someone I consider a true man of the left, Chris Hayes, the host of “All In With Chris Hayes” on MS NOW.
00:00 Intro

02:09 - Democrats: The state of play in 2026

06:46 - How Israel fractures the Democrats

09:19 - Immigration reform beyond the “old consensus”

19:46 - Models for Democratic leadership: Mark Kelly, Ruben Gallego, Rafael Warnock, and Jon Ossoff

27:22 - 2028: Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and “the Hillary Clinton problem”

30:41 - The politics of attention

36:19 - The challenges of achieving a Leftist society

45:37 - A Leftist case against A.I.

1:04:23 - Will A.I. define the 2028 election?
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. 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.

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1 hr 7 min