Politicology

Hagar Chemali (Former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations) joins Host Ron Steslow to unpack Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington—and why the two powers keep meeting more often while agreeing on less.

They begin with the administration's turn from tariffs to hospitality, and why a quickening calendar of summits signals not warming ties but a conflict neither side can resolve—with Beijing playing the longer game.

Next, they examine the fragile trade truce beneath the pageantry—why rare earths and chip controls are ultimately questions of military advantage, and what it means that a crisis-communications pact remains unsigned.

Then they compare the two governments' diverging readouts on Iran, Taiwan, and trade, and Xi's offer to host 100,000 young Americans—a soft-power play that could complicate the pipeline of future U.S. China experts.

Finally, they debate whether the language of "competition" obscures a fundamentally adversarial relationship, and how the way Americans talk about China became a partisan question.

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Ron Steslow and Mike Madrid unpack the suspicious four-day push by some of the biggest AI companies begging to be regulated and why it’s less a safety awakening and more a bid to build a moat around who gets to control this technology. 

Then, they turn to an essay by Franciscan sister Ilia Delio’s essay on why our fear of AI is really a fear of confronting what it means to be human.

Read Ilia Delio: “We Will Not Be Killed By Machines. We Will Overthink Ourselves To Death.”

https://iliadelio.substack.com/p/we-will-not-be-killed-by-machines?r=izyvx&utm_medium=ios 

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Mike Madrid (author of The Latino Century) joins host Ron Steslow trace how eroding trust, the kind that backs the electoral map and the dollar, is reshaping American politics and everyday affordability. 

They start with the redistricting wars and how they eroded trust in institutions and how both parties traded credibility by using zero-sum tactics.

Next, they turn to dealignment, the generation of Americans untethering from both parties, and how younger voters’ belief that the American dream was stolen shows their lack of trust in the stewards, not the republic. 

Then they examine affordability through the bond market, where rising yields price mortgages and loans, and why the crisis can’t be understood without it. 

Finally, they weigh the dollars fading neutrality, gold leaving U.S. vaults, reserves diversifying, and a world reorganizing around an America it trusts less. 

In Politicology+, they discuss why some of the biggest AI companies are begging to be regulated and an essay by a Franciscan sister about why our fear of AI is really a fear of confronting what it means to be human. 

POLITICOLOGY+

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Hagar Chemali (former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations) and Nick Anthony (Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute and a Fellow at the Human Rights Foundation) join host Ron Steslow to trace how the financial surveillance regime born after 9/11 is being rebuilt for programmable money.

They begin with the machinery of financial surveillance: reporting, identification, blocking, seizing, and exclusion powers banks and payment companies wield on the government’s behalf, without warrants or recourse. 

Next, they examine how private institutions became the system’s front line with millions of suspicious-activity reports a year, billions in compliance costs, and a public that wrongly assumes Fourth Amendment protection.  

Then they turn to the shift underway, as stablecoins move those controls off intermediaries and onto individual digital dollars that can be frozen, seized, or burned coin by coin. 

Finally, they weigh whether Americans still hold a right to transact privately, and what permissioned money would mean. 

In Politicology+, they discuss an unspoken contradiction in the human rights movement: it backs sanctions that rely on centralized financial choke points while also championing Bitcoin, a currency built to erase that system. 

POLITICOLOGY+

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Nick Anthony on X: https://x.com/EconWithNick

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Zack Czajkowski (co-founder of Civly) joins host Ron Steslow to map the first election of the chatbot era and to ask why the party that once led on campaign technology is now the one recoiling from it. 

They begin with voters already asking chatbots how to vote, perhaps millions directly and tens of millions more nudged by AI summaries without even realizing it. 

Next, they turn to how campaigns are adapting, the next era of search-engine optimization, a fight over how a candidate appears across major AI models, and why Republican operatives have leaned in faster. 

Then they discuss the cultural resistance on the left, from a reflexive disdain for AI-assisted work to the class fault lines beneath the “slop” discourse in prestige media. 

In Politicology+, they break down the abrupt resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and the bipartisan praise trailing him out the door.

POLITICOLOGY+

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Read Pax Machina: https://paxmachina.ai/welcome-to-pax-machina 

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Katherine Mangu-Ward (Editor in Chief of Reason) joins host Ron Steslow to examine the growing revolt against automated license-plate surveillance company Flock and what it reveals about privacy in the age of AI. 

They begin with the backlash against flock: cameras cut down across dozens of states, communities canceling contracts, and an unlikely coalition uniting against the technology.  They dive into what the anger is really about and whether it channels a broader anxiety about losing control. 

From there, they turn to what these systems can now do, as leaked code points to tools that track people—not just license plates—and invites comparisons to China’s surveillance state. 

Then, they weigh the deeper tension of a company whose only customer is the state, the problem of overcriminalization, and the specter of automated law enforcement. 

Finally, they consider the Supreme Court’s geofence ruling, the data-broker loophole it leaves wide open, and what privacy is ultimately for. 

In Politicology+, they look at a single case that tests how far privacy itself can be treated as a crime: an American Citizen charged with a felony for deleting his phone’s data. 

POLITICOLOGY+

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Ron Steslow on X: https://x.com/RonSteslow

Katherine Mangu-Ward on X: https://x.com/kmanguward

Related Reading: 

Wired - Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code | WIRED

Reason - Flock Safety’s new privacy rules do little to ease concerns over ALPR surveillance

Reason - America is building a surveillance state like China's

Pirate wires - Flock's Case for the Panopticon

Wired - Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code | WIRED

ACLU - Surveillance Company Flock Now Using AI to Report Us to Police if it Thinks Our Movement Patterns Are “Suspicious”

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Susan Del Percio (crisis communications expert and political analyst at MS NOW) joins host Ron Steslow to trace how a revolt against data centers opens larger questions into how the AI buildout is financed and who holds the risk. 

They begin with the politics of the backlash and the town by town opposition that has turned data centers into a bipartisan populist flashpoint. Then they look at the leaked Republican memo warning the backlash could cost the party a Senate seat in November. 

Next, they turn to the real constraint beneath the fight, energy, the race with China, and reporting that foreign actors are attempting to amplify the opposition. 

Then, they look at the federal debt and how Washington is betting that AI-led growth is the only survivable way out. 

In Politicology+, they break down the DNC’s newly approved 2028 presidential primary calendar and what it means for the factional power struggle within the party.

POLITICOLOGY+

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Ron Steslow on X: https://x.com/RonSteslow

Susan Del Percio on X: https://x.com/DelPercioS

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Hagar Chemali (former spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations) joins host Ron Steslow to take the Democratic Socialists of America’s foreign policy seriously on their own terms, reading what the movement has written down.

They begin with the DSA’s ascent: a run of 2026 primary wins and Democratic leadership inclined to accommodate the energy rather than resist it, echoing MAGA’s takeover of the GOP. 

From there, they turn to the left’s foreign policy lineage—the distance from establishment liberalism's alliance and diplomacy to a progressivism warier of American power and rosier about its adversaries. 

Then they break down the DSA’s national security strategy: defund the military, close overseas bases, and dissolve what it calls the U.S. empire. 

Finally, they weigh the stakes for a shifting party with Israel as the first flashpoint of a weakening alliance and a broader diagnosis of populism without ideology and the institutional decay it accelerates. 

In Politicology+, they discuss the recent mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and what it exposes about Europe.

POLITICOLOGY+

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Ron Steslow on X: https://x.com/RonSteslow

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Mike Madrid (author of The Latino Century) joins host Ron Steslow to examine how AI is redrawing the machinery of politics and forcing a reckoning with what remains distinctly human. 

They begin with campaigns, where operatives now test messages on synthetic electorates, AI agents built to think like real voters, before a word reaches anyone.  

From there, they turn to the parties, which are unraveling into digital networks: brands so weak a cultural figure could hijack a nomination like Trump did in 2016. 

Then they dive into Pax Machina, a publication arguing powerful AI opens the first stage of institutional invention since the founding, warning that a president commanding loyal AI delegates could hollow out constitutional checks without changing the texts. 

Finally, they weigh Gregory Conti’s warning of science without scientists, asking whether choosing which questions matter is foundation enough for a dignity no machine can supply. 

In Politicology+, they discuss what a major Bitcoin wallet heist shows about where AI-era security is headed.

POLITICOLOGY+

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Send your questions and ideas to [email protected]

Ron Steslow on X: https://x.com/RonSteslow

Mike Madrid on X: https://x.com/madrid_mike

Related Reading: 

AXIOS: We're headed toward the first true AI electionhttps://www.axios.com/2026/08/05/ai-election-bots-simulated-voters-2026-2028

AXIOS: GOP campaigns go all-in on AI — Dems not so muchhttps://www.axios.com/2026/04/14/republicans-ai-campaigns-democrats-2026

The Launch of Pax Machinahttps://paxmachina.ai/welcome-to-pax-machina

Clawed by Dean Ball (March 2026) - Dean is now a founding editorial board member at Pax Machina)https://www.hyperdimensional.co/p/clawed

Rebuilding our world, with reference to strong AI by Tyler Cowen (Feb 2026)https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/02/rebuilding-our-world-with-reference-to-strong-ai.html

The End of Vocation by Gregory Conti (July 2026)https://www.thefp.com/p/ai-human-work-vocation-meaning-obsolete

Nothing can stop the AI Revolution by Tyler Cowen (Aug 2026)https://www.thefp.com/p/tyler-cowen-nothing-can-stop-the

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In this episode, Ron talks to Nick Anthony (Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute and a Fellow at the Human Rights Foundation) about Central Bank Digital Curriences, their potential to invade privacy, alter the dynamics of financial control, how governments are trying to justify them, and why those arguments are insufficient .

They discuss:

(04:16) Intro to CBDCs

(07:58) How CBDCs would give unprecedented control over how you can spend money 

(12:15) The Arguments for and against CBDCs

(19:53)The hidden assumptions behind CBDC arguments 

(24:50) The real world privacy implications of CBDCs

(33:05) CBDCs around the globe 

(36:21) The political dynamics in the U.S. 

(47:47) Bitcoin vs CBDCs

Check out the HRF’s CBDC Tracker: https://bit.ly/3WtFb3g

Follow Ron and Nick on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/RonSteslow

https://x.com/EconWithNick

Email your questions to [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at ‪(202) 455-4558‬ 

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