• "liberal democracy might win... but it might win at top a cramped and partial vision of the human soul one that believed in our ability to consume but had little room for our desire for recognition for greatness for daring" - Ezra Klein [00:00:46]

• "The question of the end of history was not the end of events it was to what objective does this…

• "If you lie enough, the marginal cost of your 10,000th lie is nothing while the marginal cost of your first, second, or third is very high." - Walter Russell Mead [00:05:18]

• "The Donald Trump show is the most compelling entertainment-infotainment spectacle that humanity has ever seen since the dawn of time." - Walter Russell Mead…

Note: Recorded on 9 Sep 2026

• "oh it's AI to me overwhelmingly because it marks a qualitative leap in human civilization it will change everything from top to bottom" - George Yeo [00:00:31]

• "humanity should be coming together to cooperate and say how do we manage this new beast this new monster that has emerged" - Kishore Mahbubani…

• "American power is not in crisis... the networks that we built up, the way of dealing with the world, the institutionalized relations with Europe and so on, those are all burning or crumbling, but the United States as a power... is still charging ahead." - Walter Russell Mead [00:02:06]

• "If you lie enough, the marginal cost of your 10,000th lie is…

• "everything pretty much in terms of how we understand the global system whether it be the security architecture the geopolitical architecture the geoeconomic architecture or the geofinancial architecture is coming apart at the seams" - Michael Every [00:00:00]

• "That's the western disease... It's all about the quick buck financialization and the…

• "The internal divisions in the United States... those internal divisions have been building for the last 5 years, they've been normalizing political violence in the United States." - Robert Pape [00:00:43]

• "I think the United States right now is the greatest threat to global peace because for the past 30 years Pax Americana has been dominant and now…

• "The more government has tried to create services for people and help bring them up the ladder, the more expensive those things get." - David Friedberg [00:00:09]

• "The key measure of a country's success is how many people are transitioning from labor to capital each year." - David Friedberg…

"If Scott Bessent is the only thing holding us back from certain doom, doom is upon us—you might want to start prepping." - Jacob Shapiro [00:00:52]

"The bond market is reacting to really bad vibes... bond investors just hate uncertainty." - Marko Papic [00:07:10]

"On Liberation Day, Howard…

• "the DJI Mavic saved Ukraine this is the game-changing weapon of Ukraine ukraine would have fallen if it wasn't for this thing" - Wounded Ukrainian Veteran [00:00:00]

• "one Javelin I can get 250 to 500 FPVs and at 250 they'll be the big ones with a thermal camera that can each one can carry a tank destroying munition that we can make ourselves in a…

• "in our book we identify nine billionaires plureaucrats if you will whose own statements indicate that Israel is the driving motivation for their engagement in American politics And these nine donors have given now over $1.7 billion in campaign contributions alone" - Eli Clifton [00:00:00]

• "When John and Steve wrote their book they were able to be…

• "Great powers are undone less by their rivals than by their own restlessness and hubris and that prudence rather than gratuitous use of force is the true mark of a durable empire." - Demetri Kofinas [00:01:05]

• "Both of those are based on shallow decontextualized readings of this vast and brilliant work... Graham Allison made a book about the…

Ep 1: Origins of the War In Ukraine

Quotes

"The Iranians are more aware than ever that they're in the driver's seat. They're more aware than ever that President Trump is in deep trouble and that he needs an agreement." - John Mearsheimer [00:00:00]

• "When you have an incident, it's like being in a car wreck at 5 m an hour versus 80 m hour, particularly when they happen in these key what we call choke points." - Sal Mercogliano [00:00:12]

• "Under UNCLOS, you should be able to do it. Now I will note that there's a couple of caveats... Iran is not a signatory to UNCLOS, and by the way, neither…

• "So the most successful companies, the ones right out the gate, are the ones that are taking business models that have been tried and true in the rest of the world and localizing them for Iran." - Jana Torbati [00:01:07]

• "In a normal society all citizens are equal and they benefit the same from the government... but in a mafia state you should imagine…

• "It is good for human beings to know to be aware of hubris—that just because a new technology arrives which gives you the seeming power of God, it doesn't mean that you can achieve what you set out to do." - George Yeo [00:09:07]

• "When the Chinese say that they have no wish to be a global hegemon, it is not a tactical statement; it is because they…

1. Executive Briefing (TL;DR)

• Regionalization over Deglobalization: Global trade is not dying, but shifting toward internal regional consolidation and security-first supply chains across energy, data, cyber, and critical technology [[00:00:29](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysym7pV23L0&t=00h00m29s)].
• 30 Years of Structural Resilience: Historical crises—from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis to…