Cheap Talk

By: Jeff Kaplow and Marcus Holmes
  • Summary

  • Cheap Talk is an every-week-or-so international relations podcast with Jeff Kaplow and Marcus Holmes, professors of government at William & Mary.

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Episodes
  • A Time of Intense Difficulty or Anger
    Sep 27 2024

    Israel’s aims in its attacks on Hezbollah; Iran’s role in the current conflict; what is a crisis, really; the US perspective; how to get to a ceasefire from here; OpenAI’s new ChatGPT model; evaluating model risk; deceptive alignment; and Marcus is still an AI optimist

    The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.

    Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.

    Please send us your questions or comments!

    Further reading:
    OpenAI. 2024. “OpenAI o1 System Card.”

    Signal Samuel. 2024. “The new followup to ChatGPT is scarily good at deception,” Vox.

    See all Cheap Talk episodes

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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • A Big Thing When I Was in High School
    Sep 19 2024

    The exploding pager attacks in Lebanon; the use of pagers as communications infrastructure; supply chain vulnerabilities; the supposed safety of outdated technology; Israeli motivations for the attacks; the risk of escalation in the Middle East; and Marcus consults a focus group

    The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.

    Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.

    Please send us your questions or comments!

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    56 mins
  • Balloons are Back
    Sep 13 2024

    Trash balloons on the Korean Peninsula; unification policy and public diplomacy; checking in on anarchy in the international system; why there isn’t a world government; reasons to study (or ignore) international relations paradigms; the importance of thinking big thoughts in IR; and Marcus reveals he is anti-science

    The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.

    Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.

    Please send us your questions or comments!

    Further reading:
    Jin Yu Young. 2024. “North Korea Launches New Salvo of Balloons, but the South Barely Shrugs.” New York Times.

    David A. Lake. 2009. Hierarchy in International Relations. Cornell University Press.

    David A. Lake. 2011. “Why "isms" Are Evil: Theory, Epistemology, and Academic Sects as Impediments to Understanding and Progress.” International Studies Quarterly 55(2): 465–480.

    John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M.Walt. 2013. “Leaving theory behind: Why simplistic hypothesis testing is bad for International Relations.” European Journal of International Relations 19(3): 427–457.

    See all Cheap Talk episodes

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    1 hr and 4 mins

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