Let's Know Things

This week we talk about Keir Starmer, Labour, and the Reform UK party. We also discuss Tories, the Lib Dems, and two-party systems. Recommended Book: Peak by K. Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool Transcript For more than 100 years, the British political system has been dominated by two parties: Labour and the Conservative Party, often called the Tories. In practice, that means these two parties, whic...

This week we talk about industrialization, antibiotics, and child mortality rates. We also discuss corruption, instability, and progress. Recommended Book: Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio Transcript Demographic transition is a social sciences theory that posits, based on all sorts of modern historical data, that societies tend to change, demographically, as they transition from a largely...

This week we talk about the Strait of Hormuz, oil, and Russia. We also discuss Patriot missiles, expensive weapons, and peer rivals. Recommended Book: Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff Transcript During 2025 and early 2026, about 20 million barrels of crude oil and other petroleum products was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz every day. That’s about a quarter of the world’s total seaborn...

This week we talk about Orbán, Hungary, and reformers. We also discuss Fidesz, Tisza, and illiberalism. Recommended Book: I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin Transcript Hungary is a Central European country that was formed in the aftermath of WWI as part of the Treaty of Trianon, which—due to it having fought on the losing side of that conflict—resulted in the loss o...

This week we talk about Project Glasswing, Anthropic, and Q Day. We also discuss exploit markets, vulnerabilities, and zero days. Recommended Book: The Culture Map by Erin Meyer Transcript In the world of computer security, a zero-day vulnerability is an issue that exists within a system at launch—hence, zero-day, it’s there at day zero of the system being available—that is also unknown to those w...

This week we talk about modems, WiFi, and kinda sorta bribes. We also discuss Huawei, government subsidies, and the FCC. Recommended Book: Replaceable You by Mary Roach Transcript Many homes, those with WiFi connections to the internet, have two different devices they use to make that connectivity happen. The first is a modem, which is what connects directly to your internet service provider, ofte...

This week we talk about cheap drones, energy resources, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We also discuss the Strait of Hormuz, the war in Iran, and economic asymmetry. Recommended Book: The Age of Extraction by Tim Wu Transcript Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been pretty universally bad for everyone involved, very much including Russia, which going into the fifth year of this conflict, which it...

This week we talk about the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and decapitation attacks. We also discuss Venezuela, Iran, and the Platt Amendment. Recommended Book: The Will of the Many by James Islington Transcript Cuba is a large island nation, about the same size as the US state of Tennessee, which formally gained its independence from Spain in late 1898, following three wars of independence,...

This week we talk about BYD, Tesla, and the Blade Battery 2.0. We also discuss EVs, internal-combustion engines, and autonomous vehicles. Recommended Book: Blank Space by W. David Marx Transcript Petroleum-powered vehicles, cars and trucks and SUVs of the kind that have become the standard since the mid-20th century, work by mixing fuel that you put in the tank when you fill up at the gas station...

This week we talk about Khamenei, Trump, and Netanyahu. We also discuss Venezuela, Cuba, and cartels. Recommended Book: Plagues upon the Earth by Kyle Harper Transcript Ali Hosseini Khamenei was an opposition politician in the lead-up to the Iranian Revolution that, in 1979, resulted in the overthrow of the Shah—the country’s generally Western government-approved royal leader—and installed the Isl...

This week we talk about Anthropic, the Department of Defense, and OpenAI. We also discuss red lines, contracts, and lethal autonomous systems. Recommended Book: Empire of AI by Karen Hao Transcript Lethal autonomous weapons, often called lethal autonomous systems, autonomous weapons systems, or just ‘killer robots,’ are military hardware that can operate independent of human control, searching for...

This week we talk about Trump’s tariffs, the Supreme Court, and negotiating leverage. We also discuss trade wars, Greenland, and the IEEPA. Recommended Book: Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh Transcript I’ve spoken on this show before about tariffs and about US President Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs as an underpinning of his trade policy. Last October, back in 2025 I did an episode on tariff lever...

This week we talk about mass surveillance, smart doorbells, and the Patriot Stack. We also discuss Amazon, Alexa, and the Super Bowl. Recommended Book: Red Moon by Benjamin Percy Transcript In 2002, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the US government created a new agency—the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, operating under...

This week we talk about OpenAI, nudify apps, and CSAM. We also discuss Elon Musk, SpaceX, and humanistic technology. Recommended Book: Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler Transcript xAI is an American corporation that was founded in mid-2023 by Elon Musk, ostensibly in response to several things happening in the world and in the technology industry in particular. According to Musk, a “politic...

This week we talk about the European Union, India, and tariffs. We also discuss trade barriers, free trade, and dumping. Recommended Book: The Kill Chain by Christian Brose Transcript A free trade agreement, sometimes called a free trade treaty, is a law that reduces the cost and regulatory burden of trading between two or more states. There are many theories as to the ideal way to do internationa...

This week we talk about social networks, propaganda, and Oracle. We also discuss foreign adversaries, ByteDance, and X. Recommended Book: Rewiring Democracy by Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders Transcript In 2021, TikTok, a short-form video platform that’s ostensibly also a social network, though which leans heavily toward consuming content over socializing, was ranked the most popular website...

This week we talk about war, inflation, and currency devaluation. We also discuss tyrants, police violence, and social media threats. Recommended Book: Post-Growth Living by Kate Soper Transcript Back in mid-June of 2025, a shooting war erupted between Iran and Israel, with Israeli military forces launching attacks against multiple Iranian military sites, alongside sites associated with its nuclea...

This week we talk about Venezuela, Maduro, and international law. We also discuss sour crude, extrajudicial killings, and Greenland. Recommended Book: The Keep by F. Paul Wilson Transcript Back in mid-November of 2025, I did an episode on extrajudicial killings, focusing on the targeting of speedboats, mostly from Venezuela headed toward the United States, by the US military. These boats were alle...

This week we talk about prediction markets, incentives, and gambling addiction. We also discuss insider trading, spot-fixing, and Gatorade. Recommended Book: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta Transcript Prediction markets are hundreds of years old, and have historically been used to determine the likelihood of something happening. In 1503, for instance, there was a market to det...

This week we talk about energy consumption, pollution, and bipartisan issues. We also discuss local politics, data center costs, and the Magnificent 7 tech companies. Recommended Book: Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth Transcript In 2024, the International Energy Agency estimated that data centers consumed about 1.5% of all electricity generated, globally, that year. It went on to project tha...

This week we talk about NVIDIA, AI companies, and the US economy. We also discuss the US-China chip-gap, mixed-use technologies, and export bans. Recommended Book: Enshittification by Cory Doctorow Transcript I’ve spoken about this a few times in recent months, but it’s worth rehashing real quick because this collection of stories and entities are so central to what’s happening across a lot of the...

This week we talk about in-game skins, investment portfolios, and Counter-Strike 2. We also discuss ebooks, Steam, and digital licenses. Recommended Book: Apple in China by Patrick McGee Transcript Almost always, if you buy an ebook or game or movie or music album online, you’re not buying that ebook, or that game, or whatever else—you’re buying a license that allows you access it, often on a spec...

This week we talk about floods, wildfires, and reinsurance companies. We also discuss the COP meetings, government capture, and air pollution. Recommended Book: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares Transcript The urban area that contains India’s capital city, New Delhi, called the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has a population of around 34.7 million people...

This week we talk about radioactive waste, neutrons, and burn while breeding cycles. We also discuss dry casks, radioactive decay, and uranium. Recommended Book: Breakneck by Dan Wang Transcript Radioactive waste, often called nuclear waste, typically falls into one of three categories: low-level waste that contains a small amount of radioactivity that will last a very short time—this is stuff lik...

This week we talk about Venezuela, casus belli, and drug smuggling. We also discuss oil reserves, Maduro, and Machado. Recommended Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman Transcript Venezuela, which suffered all sorts of political and economic crises under former president Hugo Chávez, has suffered even more of the same, and on a more dramatic scale, under Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro. B...