The Good Fight

David Goodhart, journalist and author known for the Anywhere vs Somewhere framework, outlines how mobile, university-educated elites reshaped politics and policy. He traces the rise of the anywhere worldview, its effects on meritocracy and elites, and why care, skilled trades, and demographic shifts matter for democracy. The conversation also weighs AI, social mobility, and ways to rebalance social values.

Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor at The Economist and Middle East security analyst, joins to map the unfolding war of attrition between the US, Israel and Iran. He discusses strikes on missile stockpiles, Iran’s threats to the Strait of Hormuz, the state of Tehran’s nuclear program, and how political aims and economic costs shape the conflict’s trajectory.

Ibram X. Kendi, historian and scholar of racism who founded the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, discusses how great replacement theory mutates globally. He explores its roots, links to xenophobia and homophobia, and implications for education, identity, and affinity groups. The conversation also contrasts equity and equality and examines how ideas shape political movements worldwide.

Adrian Wooldridge, global business columnist and author of Centrists of the World Unite, traces how liberalism originally solved problems of identity, belief, and mobility. He discusses why 18th-century solutions still matter, how liberalism was reinvented amid crises, and debates over property, welfare, and education. Short, lively history with a forward-looking take on renewing liberal ideas.

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and author of Restoring Truth and Trust. He discusses the future of globalization and whether Davos-era ideas can endure. He talks about the globalization–democracy tension, the rise of populism, loss of shared truth in the digital age, and how stakeholder capitalism might reshape corporate responsibility.

Dean Ball, former White House AI policy advisor and Hyperdimensional writer, joins to unpack the Anthropic–Pentagon clash and conflicts over AI use. Short takes cover how AI enables mass domestic surveillance, who should wield control of transformative systems, and why governance must reckon with radical uncertainty and targeted transparency.

Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford and author known for work on liberalism, offers a brisk take on recent strikes on Iran. He discusses the limits of decapitation strikes. He examines what does and does not destabilize regimes. He weighs regional fallout, U.S. escalation choices, and the political optics shaping possible outcomes.

Danielle Allen, Harvard professor and director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, offers a sharp critique of technocratic liberalism. She explores why that worldview collapsed. She outlines power-sharing liberalism, debates participation versus managerial capture, and details practical democratic design and local civic education as paths for renewal.

Janice Gross Stein, a conflict management scholar and founding director at the Munk School, discusses the limits of rational-choice thinking in politics. She explores why cooperation and norms often beat pure calculation. Short, vivid conversations cover nuclear strategy, trust in leaders, communication failures during COVID, and practical ways to build resilient coalitions.

Chang Che, a China and Japan reporter; Pratap Bhanu Mehta, an Indian political theorist; and Bethany Allen, a China investigations journalist. They explore Japan’s surprising election and youth appeal. They debate China’s coercion tactics, tech and soft power rise. They probe India’s technological limits and the shifting dynamics of Asian stability.