Dave Troy Presents

Scott Reich recently took the TED Democracy stage in Philadelphia to argue that a renewed ethos of service could help repair our fractured country. He joins Dave Troy for a conversation that runs from ancient Athens to a modern "GI Bill for civic service," by way of Robert Putnam, the 1917 baseball All-Star Game, and the simple, radical idea that citizens owe something to one another. Reich and Tr...

Most of the predictions you encounter every day are closer to the realm of power than the realm of knowledge — and once you see that, you can't unsee it. Oxford philosopher Carissa Véliz joins Dave to talk about her new book  Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI . From the Oracle of Delphi (less a holy shrine than a thriving business) to court astro...

You may not be interested in crypto, but crypto is interested in you. Cryptocurrency has stopped being a finance story. In 2026 it's a political-money machine - woven into our elections, our regulators, the President's family balance sheet, and the everyday plumbing of how Americans get paid, borrow, and save. You can decide never to buy a single token and still be exposed to the fallout. To open...

If you've been following world events, you know that Taiwan's future has become a major question, and a fulcrum for the future of democracy. Chris Horton is the author of "Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival," a new book that offers a unique view into Taiwan's complex history, its precarious present, and its potential futures. "Ghost Nation" is a must read for those int...

In this episode, we dive into geopolitical tensions, focusing on Russia’s influence on global politics and its ideological underpinnings. David Troy and Jason Pack from the Disorder Podcast discuss Russian nationalism, the continuity of Soviet-era tactics, and the extensive influence of Project Russia. The conversation also delves into the intersections with Western ideologies and strategies to co...

Journalist and political communications specialist Gil Duran joins Dave for a discussion of The Network State, the latest in a long line of Libertarian Exit ideologies. Based on the ideas of people like Patri Friedman, Balaji Srinavasan, and Curtis Yarvin, the movement ultimately aims to dismantle the American government in favor of a network of federated states, all competing for citizens. The id...

Donald Trump wasn't the first presidential candidate to be groomed by the KGB to advance Russian interests. That dubious honor belongs to Henry A. Wallace, who ran for president in 1948. Dave interviews Benn Steil, an economist and historian from the Council on Foreign Relations. They discuss his latest book, 'The World That Wasn't, Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century.' The conversa...

Dave interviews Katherine Stewart about her new book 'Money, Lies, and God,' which explores extremist movements in the United States, particularly focusing on the rise of anti-democratic sentiment and Christian nationalism. Katherine shares her background in reporting over the past 16 years and discusses how she began investigating these movements after a 'Good News Club' appeared at her daughter'...

Dave interviews Dina Khapaeva, Russian culture expert at Georgia Tech, about the book "Third Empire: Russia as it ought to be," written by Mikhail Yuriev, one of the authors of Project Russia, which we have also covered in the last two episodes. Dina specializes in Russian historical memory and contemporary issues. She provides an in-depth background on her research and her personal history, inclu...

Dave interviews noted British journalist and documentarian Lucy Ash about her new book, The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin. They discuss intricate relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the modern Russian state. The interview explores the history of Orthodoxy in Russia, tracing its origins from medieval times through periods of upheaval, including the Bolsh...

You've heard of Project 2025, but there's another framework that may be even more important for understanding the current assault on Western democracies. "Project Russia" is a series of books published between 2005 and 2010, and it outlines a strategic vision for total war on the West, against democracies, and against the US dollar and other fiat currencies. Nearly unknown to Western analysts, the...

Big tech companies are playing an outsized role in our world and are increasingly involved in creating policy that has negative impacts on democracies. In her book The Tech Coup , Marietje Schaake argues that companies need to be reined in, and that democracies need to organize themselves in ways that can withstand the challenges posed by these companies and their increasingly imperious owners. Ma...

In this special bonus episode, Dave interviews author Peter Pomerantsev about his new book "How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler." The book explores the work of Sefton Delmer, a journalist who developed unique ways to destabilize Hitler's propaganda programming. Their conversation was recorded on October 28, 2024, at Bird In Hand Books in Baltimore, Maryland. Pomera...

The term "October Surprise" has come to mean any kind of shock that might upend a November election. But the original October Surprise was in 1980, when Ronald Reagan's campaign operatives conspired with the fundamentalist Iranian regime to keep 52 American hostages in Tehran until after the presidential election of 1980 — all but ensuring a loss for incumbent candidate Jimmy Carter. This is the a...

No joke: Peter Thiel envisioned PayPal as a way to challenge to the global political order. And that vision is just now coming into place in 2024. In this election cycle, cryptocurrency interests have surpassed $120 million, surpassing even big oil, in trying to capture candidates from both political parties. This episode features a recording of a Twitter (X) space recorded on September 12, 2024 e...

The secretive Catholic sect Opus Dei seems to be popping up everywhere. But what is it? Many people are familiar with it from depictions in fiction like "The Davinci Code," but the reality is both more mundane and in many ways, more sinister. Dave is joined by financial journalist Gareth Gore, who got into the story by covering the failure of Spanish bank Banco Popular. He found that the bank led...

Generative Artificial Intelligence has topped tech headlines for the last two years, but it's possible we may be reaching a limit of what can be achieved using current approaches. Concerns about reliability and now, return on investment for the countless billions invested in the sector, may put AI's short-term future in doubt. Dave interviews AI expert Gary Marcus , a psychologist, cognitive scien...

It's shaping up to be the hottest July on record, and things couldn't be more strange in the political realm. From multiple bombshell rulings from the Supreme Court to widespread speculation about whether Joe Biden should step aside after his halting debate performance, it feels like things couldn't get any crazier. Yet, that's entirely possible. Dave talks with Jack Bryan, director of the film AC...

For decades, a highly entrepreneurial group of researchers, scientists, and journalists has been at the center of the movement to “disclose” the existence of extraterrestrial visitors to Earth — and they’ve scored what may be their biggest legislative victory yet. The  2024 National Defense Authorization Act  (NDAA), passed in December, includes a provision that requires the federal government to...

American society seems to be devolving into two bitterly opposed and diametrically polarized camps. Not just around politics, but around culture as well. Jonathan Stray studies conflict, and tries to identify ways in which we can learn to conflict with each other more productively. He is a researcher at the Center for Human Compatible AI at the University of California Berkeley, where his work loo...

On January 8, 2024, Dave hosted a space on "X" (formerly Twitter) for an overview of what to expect in geopolitics in 2024. In this wide ranging monologue, Dave covers many topics including the US elections, Russia's war against Ukraine, the brewing conflict in the Middle East, and rising tensions in Asia between Taiwan, China, and Japan. Keywords: geopolitics, 2024, election, Russia, Ukraine, Put...

Psychedelic drugs are having a moment, like SSRI's and Valium did decades before. What if there's a simple way for people to feel happier and more connected to the world while ushering in world peace at the same time? That's what many advocates of psychedelic drugs claim, but the reality is a lot more complicated. Dave talks with Neşe Devenot, a writer and early psychedelics advocate who has incre...

No discussion of the ways that the dollar and the United States are under attack would be complete without a contemporary exploration of the world of cryptocurrencies. Zeke Faux, an investigative journalist with Bloomberg News, joins Dave to discuss his new book, "Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wide Rise and Staggering Fall," which is part research, part travelogue, and filled with bizarre schemes...

The League of Nations was established in the wake of The Great War to prevent another war like it from ever happening again. While it was a noble effort, it became clear as Hitler and Mussolini rose to power, that such a design would not be capable of curbing rampant nationalism and conflicting national interests. And Clarence Kirschman Streit saw it all unfold before his eyes. As a journalist for...

Everyone's talking about AI, how it will change the world, and even suggesting it might end humanity as we know it. Dave is joined by Dr. Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres, two prominent critics of AI doomerism, to cut through the noise, and look at where these ideas really came from, and offer suggestions on how we might look at these problems differently. And they also offer a picture of the darker...