Hidden Forces

Will Manidis, co-founder of healthcare AI company ScienceIO and 2019 Thiel Fellow, blends tech entrepreneurship with a revival of Christian thinking. He explores the collapse of secular institutions and the reemergence of faith and political violence. He maps tech movements to religious cycles and probes how AI-driven wealth concentration reshapes labor, mobility, and the social contract.

Jon Alterman, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy at CSIS, offers sharp analysis from decades in U.S. foreign policy. He explains why Iran refuses to capitulate and the unconventional tools it uses. He outlines how Russia and China are positioning to exploit the conflict. He also explores shifting U.S.-Israeli military ties and regional power shifts in the Gulf.

Edward Luce, Financial Times columnist and author on geopolitics, offers sharp analysis of US grand strategy and the return of geopolitics. He traces post-Cold War strategic drift. He explores how recent American politics reshaped risk, process, and alliances. He highlights the central tension in US–China relations and the challenges of managing great-power competition.

Marvin Barth, founder of Thematic Markets and former U.S. Treasury international economist, breaks down the US-Israel campaign and its global stakes. He maps strategic aims, compares the Iran campaign to past conflicts, and assesses maritime and regional risks. He also explores shifting alliances, Europe's defense limits, and the broader implications for American power and geopolitical realignment.

John Burn-Murdoch, FT columnist and chief data reporter who explains trends with data and visuals. He discusses which jobs are most exposed to AI and who is likely to be augmented versus displaced. They compare AI to past automation, examine entry-level hiring declines, and explore how creativity, soft skills, geography, and talent concentration will shape who wins and who loses.

A deep dive into the supply shock from the Strait of Hormuz closure and how its effects are finally reaching global markets. They unpack why diesel and jet fuel are the crisis epicenter and how spot markets are fracturing across regions and time. The conversation covers emergency reserve releases, demand rationing, and how the shock might reshape electrification, stockpiling, and global oil production growth.

Captain John Konrad, founder of gCaptain and maritime strategist, explains the Hormuz Hypothesis in plain terms. He outlines how shipping, insurance, and naval capacity turn the Strait of Hormuz into geopolitical leverage. He describes U.S. moves to use reinsurance and maritime tools to shape international concessions and why reopening the chokepoint may be intentionally delayed.

Sebastian Mallaby, a narrative nonfiction writer and author of The Infinity Machine, profiles Demis Hassabis and DeepMind. He traces Hassabis's chess prodigy roots and scientific drive. The conversation covers the shift from symbolic AI to deep learning, Hassabis's early skepticism of transformers, and how ChatGPT reshaped the competitive AI race.

Gregg Carlstrom, The Economist’s Middle East correspondent based in the Gulf with 15 years on the beat, walks through Gulf sentiment and the shifting politics since the US–Iran campaign began. He discusses Iranian restraint, the mosaic defense doctrine, the gap between tactical strikes and strategic outcomes, and the energy market fallout from disruptions like a closed Strait of Hormuz.

Jacob Siegel, writer, editor, U.S. Army veteran and author of The Information State, explores how the internet created a new form of political rule. He traces intellectual roots from cybernetics to Cold War control. They examine digital swarms, anonymity-driven mass formation, platform power, surveillance entanglement, and proposals for restructuring the internet’s political economy.