Episodios

  • "The Psychology of World War III" with Dr Nicholas Wright

    "The Psychology of World War III" with Dr Nicholas Wright
    Dec 4 2025
    Bluffing, double-crossing, predicting, testing your enemy. The mind games of international relations are wildly complex. And at the end of the day, the outcome of the next major conflict will be decided not by military questions but by psychological ones. Why did France lose to the Nazis, despite having more tanks, troops, and guns? How did Ukraine stand firm against Russia? Why was Winston Churchill right and Neville Chamberlain wrong? How do you know if you can trust an ally? Will the logic of nuclear mutually-assured destruction hold? How will technology shape the future of war? What will happen if China goes for Taiwan? In an era of asymmetric warfare, of killer drones and bunker-busting bombs, it’s more important than ever to tease out the psychological games of conflict. Dr Nicholas Wright is a leading neuroscientist who advises the Pentagon and the UK Cabinet Office on psychological strategy. His new book is Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain. He joins Josh to explain how all wars come down to psychology, to prediction, to second-guessing, to mental games... and how we in the West might master them. Go to https://surfshark.com/joshs or use code JOSHS at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
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    40 m
  • Josh vs The News: Bezos' Trump Bribe, Banning Refugees, & is Hegseth a War Criminal?

    Josh vs The News: Bezos' Trump Bribe, Banning Refugees, & is Hegseth a War Criminal?
    Dec 4 2025
    Josh takes a look at the week’s news, and tries to make sense of it. A
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    1 h y 1 m
  • "The Secret Economic History of the World" with Pulitzer finalist Sven Beckert

    "The Secret Economic History of the World" with Pulitzer finalist Sven Beckert
    Dec 1 2025
    Is faith in our economic system cracking up? From Mayor Mamdani's win to Elon's trillion-dollar payday, from Instagram infuluencers embracing communism to Bernie and AOC, from Trump's tariffs to Chinese communism. Critiques abound of the neoliberal order that has dominated the past half century. But those assumptions - not just about policies, like free trade and low taxes, but about the very structure of we live our lives, how we produce stuff, and get stuff; assumptions like the existence of money and markets and wages - are not inescapable facts of reality. They evolved, over the course of the last thousand years. They made us very rich. And they could've been otherwise. Professor Sven Beckert is a professor of history at Harvard University and one of the world's leading historians of capitalism. He's not a free-market cheerleader, not a libertarian economist defending unfettered capitalism. He's a historian who studies how, in the real world, violence, coercion and empire were foundational to capitalism's rise... but how capitalism remains the indispensable system that made you richer than most people who ever lived. Beckert got his PhD in history from Columbia University and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. His new book is Capitalism: A Global History, and he joined Josh to shed light on what capitalism is, how it came about, and how might we re-anchor capitalism in moral and ecological limits... without extinguishing the creativity that has made it the most productive engine of all time. Go to https://surfshark.com/joshs or use code JOSHS at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
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    1 h y 15 m
  • Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Refugees, Fossil Fuels & the fate of Western Civilisation

    Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Refugees, Fossil Fuels & the fate of Western Civilisation
    Nov 27 2025
    Tony Abbott was the 28th Prime Minister of Australia. Here, he visits Josh for an Uncomfortable Conversation about his government’s policy of “turning back” asylum-seeker boats; about climate change (as PM, he abolished Australia’s short-lived tax on carbon); and about his view of the historical treatment of First Nations Australians. Josh and Tony wrestle with the challenges facing the U.K. and the U.S. from right-wing populism, illegal immigration, multiculturalism, and the fate of Western democracy. His new book is “Australia: A History“.
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    1 h y 31 m
  • "Obama, Trump & the Great American Contradiction" with Pulitzer-Prize-winner Paul Starr

    "Obama, Trump & the Great American Contradiction" with Pulitzer-Prize-winner Paul Starr
    Nov 24 2025
    The difference between America's last two consequential presidents (sorry, Joe) couldn't be starker. How did the same country - sometimes even the same voters - endorse an urbane, professorial, hopey-changey Black man and a foul-mouthed, regressive clown? Is there some deep American contradiction that explains them both? That's the claim of Paul Starr, a Pulitzer-winner who co-founded the iconic magazine The American Prospect. He worked in the Clinton administration and is now a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. Starr's new book is "American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now". He joined Josh to explain how, from MLK to Nixon to Gingrich to NAFTA to tariffs to wokeness, we find ourselves in the latest cycle of a grand American battle between revenge, fear and freedom. Go to https://surfshark.com/joshs or use code JOSHS at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
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    1 h y 22 m
  • "The Case for American Power" with Shadi Hamid

    "The Case for American Power" with Shadi Hamid
    Nov 20 2025

    The left has become increasingly uncomfortable about arguing for the moral superiority of the United States, let alone for the exercise of American dominance around the world. But is the American Empire something which even left-wingers should, in fact, fight for?

    Shadi Hamid is a columnist at The Washington Post who opposed the Iraq War and supported Bernie Sanders. An Arab-Muslim American, he lived in Jordan on a Fulbright Scholarship and got his PhD in political science from Oxford University. He's not your average neo-conservative.

    Shadi and Josh debate American influence, American decline, the Gaza War, democracies, dictatorships, China, Russia, Ukraine, Trump, and the future of the American Empire.

    Go to https://surfshark.com/joshs or use code JOSHS at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
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    47 m
  • “Have We Got Morality Backwards? The Case Against Utilitarianism” with Bo Winegard

    “Have We Got Morality Backwards? The Case Against Utilitarianism” with Bo Winegard
    Nov 17 2025

    What does it mean to do the right thing, and how do we know when we’re doing wrong? Is it ever okay to lie? To exact vengeance? To eat meat? To abort a foetus? To pamper your kids when that money could save a poor child's life overseas?

    All of our most uncomfortable conversations stem, at their heart, from a conflict about what we ought to do. And the basis of our modern morality, in secular Western culture at least, is utilitarianism: the pursuit of the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Its most important living advocate, Peter Singer, has shaped how generations think about ethics, from animal rights to abortion, foreign aid, euthanasia, religion and more.

    But what if your utilitarian assumptions are wrong? "Spectacularly and extravagantly wrong", in the words of today's guest?

    Bo Winegard is a social psychologist whose essay, Against Singerism, is an audacious critique of our basic moral framework. Josh and Bo unpack the appeal and limits of utilitarianism, the traps of moral absolutism, and what it means to lead a good life. If "the greatest good" isn't the ultimate moral goal, then... what is?
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    1 h y 49 m
  • “The New Race to the Moon: China, MAGA, SpaceX & Mars” with Jeffrey Kluger

    “The New Race to the Moon: China, MAGA, SpaceX & Mars” with Jeffrey Kluger
    Nov 13 2025

    President Trump has nominated a billionaire to be the new head of NASA as the United States gears up for its most ambitious mission in decades: a return to the Moon. This time, the adversary to beat isn’t the Soviets, but China. And the players at the heart of the new space race are no longer just nation-states but private companies.

    Who are these visionaries, planning galactic domination? What are they cooking up? Is this a new dawn of exploration, or a bunch of rich kids with planet-sized egos?

    Jeffrey Kluger is Time magazine’s editor-at-large and the co-author of the book on which Apollo 13 was based, Lost Moon. He joins Josh to unpack the strange intersection of science, politics, and power shaping the new era in space. From Elon Musk’s embattled Starship plans, to China’s steady march toward a lunar landing, will the new space race be a platform for hare-brained geopolitical whims? Or is the human species deeply hardwired to take giant leaps for mankind?
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    38 m