Past Present Future Talking Geopolitics with Helen Thompson: The Weirdness of American Power
64 snips
Jan 25, 2026 
Helen Thompson, political economist and writer on geopolitics and energy, explores why US power feels so strange. She traces the geographic oddity of a Western-hemisphere hegemon. She discusses continental expansion, resource drivers like oil and guano, migration and slavery, federalism’s foreign policy effects, and the role of violence and contingency in America’s rise.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
A Geopolitical Break From Eurasia
- Helen Thompson argues the US rise marks a geopolitical break from Eurasian-centered history.
- The US dominates geopolitically while remaining culturally rooted in Eurasian traditions.
Improbable Leap From Colony To Superpower
- Thompson calls a future US continental empire improbable from a 17th-century perspective.
- Becoming a global power required continental conquest plus projecting influence beyond North America.
Silver And Oceans Seed Global Reach
- Thompson highlights silver and maritime trade as 16th–17th century drivers linking the Americas to Eurasia.
- Early Pacific-Atlantic trade patterns foreshadowed later US global trading power.
