Let's Know Things

This week we talk about OxyContin, opium, and the British East India Company. We also discuss isotonitazene, fentanyl, and Perdue. Recommended Book: The Thinking Machine by Stephen Witt Transcript Opioids have been used as painkillers by humans since at least the Neolithic period; there’s evidence that people living in the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas kept opium poppy seeds with them, and there’...

This week we talk about Mach 1, the Bell X-1, and the Concorde. We also discuss the X-59, the Tu-144, and Boom Supersonic. Recommended Book: Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow Transcript The term “supersonic,” when applied to speed, refers to something moving faster than the speed of sound—a speed that is shorthanded as Mach 1. The precise Mach 1 speed of sound will be different depending on the natu...

This week we talk about robots, call center workers, and convenience stores. We also discuss investors, chatbots, and job markets. Recommended Book: The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton Transcript Though LLM-based generative AI software, like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, are becoming more and more powerful by the month, and offering newfangled functionality seemingly every day, it’s still anything...

This week we talk about entanglements, monopolies, and illusory money. We also discuss electrification, LLMs, and data centers. Recommended Book: The Extinction of Experience by Christine Rosen Transcript One of the big claims about artificial intelligence technologies, including but not limited to LLM-based generative AI tech, like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, is that they will serve as universal...

This week we talk about trade wars, TACO theory, and Chinese imports. We also discuss negotiation, protectionism, and threat spirals. Recommended Book: More Than Words by John Warner Transcript In January of 2018, then first-term US President Trump announced a slew of tariffs and trade barriers against several countries, including Canada, Mexico, and those in the European Union. The most significa...

This week we talk about Electronic Arts, 3DO, and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. We also discuss Jared Kushner, leveraged buyouts, and loot boxes. Recommended Book: Bandwidth by Dan Caruso Transcript Electronic Arts, often shorthanded as EA, was founded in 1982 in California by a former Apple employee named Trip Hawkins, who also went on to found the ill-fated 3DO company, which made vi...

This week we talk about Article 4, big sticks, and spheres of influence. We also discuss Moldova, super powers, and new fronts. Recommended Book: More Everything Forever by Adam Becker Transcript The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, was originally formed in 1949 in the wake of World War 2 and at the beginning of the Cold War. At that moment, the world was beginning to orient toward wha...

This week we talk about corruption, influencers, and pro-monarchy protests. We also discuss Nepalese modern history, Gen Z, and kings. Recommended Book: Superagency by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato Transcript The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, usually referred to as just Nepal, is a country located in the Himalayas that’s bordered to the northeast by China, and is otherwise surrounded by Indi...

This week we talk about stablecoins, crypto assets, and conflicts of interest. We also discuss the crypto industry, political contributions, and regulatory guardrails. Recommended Book: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas Transcript A cryptocoin is a unit of cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that uses some kind of non-central means of managing its ledger—keeping track of...

This week we talk about cyberespionage, China, and asymmetrical leverage. We also discuss political firings, hardware infiltration, and Five Eyes. Recommended Book: The Fourth Turning Is Here by Neil Howe Transcript In the year 2000, then-General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin (jong ZEM-in), approved a plan to develop so-called “cyber coercive capabilities”—the infrastructur...

This week we talk about the RSF, coups, and the liberal world order. We also discuss humanitarian aid, foreign conflicts, and genocide. Recommended Book: Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer Transcript In 2019, a military government took over Sudan, following a successful coup d'état against then-President Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power for thirty years. al-Bashir’s latter years were pla...

This week we talk about General Motors, the Great Recession, and semiconductors. We also discuss Goldman Sachs, US Steel, and nationalization. Recommended Book: Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Transcript Nationalization refers to the process through which a government takes control of a business or business asset. Sometimes this is the result of a new administration or regime taking con...

This week we talk about flesh-eating screwworms, weeds, and the US cattle industry. We also discuss genetic modification, procreation, and tsetse flies. Recommended Book: 1177 BC by Eric H Cline Transcript The term ‘autocidal control‘ refers to a collection of techniques that are meant to control populations of some type of living thing, animal or plant, by disrupting their procreationary capacity...

This week we talk about tech bubbles, building moats, and infrastructure investment. We also discuss capital expenditure, data centers, and employee compensation. Recommended Book: The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker Transcript Many technology booms have early periods in which innovators have a first-mover advantage, and a lot of what happens in their industry is informed by the decisions those i...

This week we talk about surge pricing, Walmart, and the Robinson-Patman Act. We also discuss personal data, AC settings, and Delta’s earnings call. Recommended Book: How the World Became Rich by Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin Transcript The US Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 is also called the Anti-Price Discrimination Act, and it was passed to make it illegal for a product supplier to charge different p...

This week we talk about lobbying, Steam, and adult-themed games. We also discuss cultural influence, extreme ideologies, and itch.io. Recommended Book: Limitarianism by Ingrid Robeyns Transcript In mid-July of 2025, Valve, the company behind the gaming platform Steam, announced that it was tightening its adult-only content guidelines, its not-safe-for-work content, basically, following pressure by...

This week we talk about the PKK, Turkey, and the DEM Party. We also discuss terrorism, discrimination, and stateless nations. Recommended Book: A Century of Tomorrows by Glenn Adamson Transcript Kurdistan is a cultural region, not a country, but part of multiple countries, in the Middle East, spanning roughly the southeastern portion of Turkey, northern Iraq, the northwestern portion of Iran, and...

This week we talk about AI therapy chatbots, delusions of grandeur, and sycophancy. We also discuss tech-triggered psychosis, AI partners, and confident nonsense. Recommended Book: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Transcript In the context of artificial intelligence systems, a hallucination or delusion, sometimes more brusquely referred to as AI BS, is an output usually from an AI c...

This week we talk about crawling, scraping, and DDoS attacks. We also discuss Cloudflare, the AI gold rush, and automated robots. Recommended Book: Annie Bot by Sierra Greer Transcript Alongside the many, and at times quite significant political happenings, the many, and at times quite significant military conflicts, and the many, at times quite significant technological breakthroughs—medical and...

This week we talk about the NOAA, FEMA, and the SSMIS. We also discuss Arctic ice, satellite resolution, and automated weather observation stations. Recommended Book: Superbloom by Nicholas Carr Transcript The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is a US scientific and regulatory agency that tackles an array of environmental, climatic, and weather-related issues, alongside its...

This week we talk about OPEC, the Seven Sisters, and the price of oil. We also discuss fracking, Israel and Iran’s ongoing conflict, and energy exports. Recommended Book: Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf Transcript The global oil market changed substantially in the early 2000s as a pair of innovations—horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing—helped the plateauing US oil and g...

This week we talk about tit-for-tat warfare, conflict off-ramps, and Israel’s renewed attacks on Iran’s nuclear program. We also discuss the Iron Dome, the Iran-Iraq War, and regime change. Recommended Book: How Much is Enough? by Robert and Edward Skidelsky Transcript In late-October of 2024, Israel launched a wave of airstrikes against targets in Iran and Syria. These strikes were code-named Ope...

This week we talk about drone warfare, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and total war. We also discuss casualty numbers, population superiority, and lingering munitions. Recommended Book: The Burning Earth by Sunil Amrith Transcript Eight years after Russia launched a halfheartedly concealed invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, under the guise of helping supposedly oppressed Russian-speakers and...

This week we talk about gene-editing, CRISPR/Cas9, and ammonia. We also discuss the germ line, mad scientists, and science research funding. Recommended Book: The Siren’s Call by Chris Hayes Transcript Back in November of 2018, a Chinese scientist named He Jiankui achieved global notoriety by announcing that he had used a relatively new gene-editing technique on human embryos, which led to the bir...

This week we talk about greenhouse gases, renewable energy capacity, and China’s economy. We also discuss coal power plants, natural gas, and gigatons. Recommended Book: What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Transcript In 2024, global CO2 emissions hit a new all-time high of 37.8 gigatons, that figure including emissions from industrial processes, oil well flaring, and the combustion...