The Cosmopolicast

Note: This is not new! You’ve probably heard this already. I’ve republished it because the original version wasn’t showing up on people’s feeds. (If you haven’t heard this already, though, it’s great. Peter Zeihan was such a good sport.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claireberlinski.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you to everyone who sent questions for Vlad and Regina. They were good questions. We decided to answer them in a podcast today because I was just exhausted last night—I hadn’t slept at all the night before. My three-legged cat slept like a log, but every time she yawned, stretched, purred, chuffed, or snored, I bolted awake, worried she’d split open at the seams or toppled headfirst into her...

I was looking today for good articles explaining exactly what’s happening in Iran, and growing increasingly frustrated because I couldn’t find any—even though it’s obvious that what’s happening is massively significant. So I asked Shay Khatiri to come on the Cosmopolicast to help me make sense of what’s happening there. Shay’s an immigrant to the United States from Iran who studied Strategic Studi...

Some of you have asked me to put our podcasts on the RSS feed. I thought that happened automatically, but apparently it doesn’t. I think—but I’m not sure—that if I post the podcasts under the “Podcasts” tab, they’ll show up on the RSS feed. I’m trying this today with our first podcast with Dina Khapaeva, which I initially published along with this article: * The West doesn’t realize how much dange...

Vladislav Davidzon was in Odessa last week. He at last managed to persuade his elderly father-in-law, a salty old sailor, to abandon the hooch in his garage and leave for Romania with him. When we spoke to them last night, they’d just finished the exhausting sixteen-hour journey from Odessa by taxi, ferry, bus, taxi, and train. Volunteers at the border told them they were the first refugees they’d...

Yesterday we spoke to Vladislav Davidzon and Olga Tokariuk in Kyiv. You can download the podcast here or at the Cosmopolitan Globalist . More by Vladislav at the Cosmopolitan Globalist: LENINFALL AND THE GREAT DANE The story of the Viking who defeated the Odessa mafia and erected a runestone. ON MOSCOW’S OBJECTIVES Ukrainian leaders visited Washington, D.C. The CIA and the Department of Defense ga...

From Claire —If you missed it, here’s the first part of today’s Cosmopolicast: Energy Week: Beyond Thunderdome. Today we begin in medias res , so be sure to listen to them in order; otherwise, you’ll have no idea who’s who or why we’re all so agitated. Energy Week has expanded well beyond the original plan; we’re now nearing on an Energy Month with the debate nowhere near settled, our readers hurl...

From Claire —This is the first part of our Energy Week Cosmopolicast, which went on for two full hours. We’ll post the second half tomorrow. Robert Zubrin and the Lewises, père et fils, duked it out in an all-out brawl with Casey Handmer, Alexander Hurst, and Benjamin Wolf. Monique, Ron, Vivek, and I tried to keep our guests from punching below the belt. I know we always say, “This was our best Co...

In Part I of this essay, French foreign policy and security specialist Nicolas Tenzer begged France to weigh the implications of its alliances more carefully. Today, he explains his recommendations in detail. We recorded this podcast last weekend. Since then, Russia has escalated its brinkmanship in and around Ukraine, and Czech authorities have expelled 18 Russian diplomats identified as operativ...

Henry signed off after the Cosmopolitan Globalists finished recording the China Cosmopolicast . (If you haven’t yet listened to that, we highly recommend it; it’s the best so far, except maybe for the Russia Cosmopolicast .) But Adam, Monique, Vivek, and Claire hung around a while longer to chat. We assumed we were done recording, so we were very relaxed. We’d planned just to throw the last part o...

From Claire —So a Ukrainian, two Estonians, two Americans and a Canadian walked into the Cosmopolicast—and I’ve been looking for the right punchline all day, but it’s just not happening. Still, it’s a great podcast. Before anything else, though. Yesterday, in haste, I copied the wrong map into our newsletter. It was an important map, too. Here’s the right one, without which you can’t make sense of...

From Claire —We think this is our best Cosmopolicast yet. Do you remember Adam Garfinkle’s debate with Vivek about China, the 7th Fleet, and the future of US power ? We brought Adam on the podcast to discuss this, and Henry Hill joined us. Is Chinese global hegemony inevitable? Vivek says yes. Adam says no. Who’s right? We ask what the Chinese regime is really all about: Is it Marxist? Leninist? M...

The Cosmopolitan Globalists, one and all, wish our readers, all and one, a happy Easter. Our China Cosmopolicast, with Adam Garfinkle, Henry Hill, and the editors, is our best so far. We’re itching to hit “publish.” But we figure no one will listen to it on a holiday, and we certainly wouldn’t want anyone to miss it. So above is a trailer. (It is our first trailer. We are proud.) We’ll publish it...

From Claire —and now, it’s Wednesday afternoon. The Suez is unblocked. But listen all the same to our Saturday night Cosmopolitan Globalist Partycast, because it is one fine discussion of global shipping and it was a rollicking good Saturday night—by pandemic standards. We marvel at the weirdness of China’s recent diplomatic self-sabotage. We drink. We ask what Macron’s thinking about Russia. We w...

The authors of the Cosmopolitan Globalists’ blueprint for ending the pandemic joined to howl in frustration with the world’s inability to do the obvious and end the pandemic. We’re beside ourselves. Claire and Monique are, anyway. Robert’s clearly at the end of his rope. Rachel is composed. Owen and Jon sound just fine. From Vienna: Jon Nighswander. From Houston: Rachel Motte. From Paris, Claire B...

From Claire —I know. You’ve been waiting for the Cosmopolitan Globalists’ reading list. It’s late. You’re impatient. You keep checking your mail, over and over—but nothing shows up. “What could be wrong?” you wonder. “I do hope they’re not all dead.” Not to worry. We’ll get to it. But today, we have something even better for you. Over the weekend, Monique Camarra—our Cosmopolitan Globalist in Sien...

The Cosmopolitan Globalists get on a Zoom call and ask themselves, “So, what are we doing here?” We also ask why Piero’s friend, a fully-qualified engineer, believes the earth is flat, and we adopt Vivek’s turtle as our mascot—all the way down. Some of you wrote to me yesterday to ask, “Why can’t I listen to the podcast?” I assumed you were just whingers. “I don’t know,” I wrote back. “It works fo...