Geopolitics
International affairs, defense, intelligence, and regional conflicts
#4300: Why 2% Inflation Is a Policy Choice, Not a Law of Nature
Why central bankers fear zero inflation more than 2% — and who actually wins and loses.
#4298: Does Every Country Trade With Every Other?
Ireland's new settlement goods ban reveals a surprising truth about how we measure — and miss — global trade.
#4279: The Senator Who Became Israel's Backchannel
How one senator built a unique role as Israel's most trusted American ally — and why his death leaves a gap no one can fill.
#4269: Who Are the Haredim? Inside Israel's Fastest-Growing Community
How a temporary 1947 exemption for 400 yeshiva students became a crisis for 66,000 — and what it means for Israel's future.
#4267: The World's Most Dangerous Airline and Airspace
Yeti Airlines tops the fatal accident rate. But the real hazard may be the airspace it flies through.
#4261: The Security You Can't See at Ofer Prison
What looks like a shabby, low-tech prison is actually a high-tech fortress. Here's what you're missing.
#4258: How Spies Know When a Source Is Lying
From dead bodies with forged letters to double agents invented from guidebooks — how intelligence agencies validate sources.
#4257: Peeling Paint and Broken AC: What Real Safe Houses Look Like
Hollywood bunkers vs. actual CIA flats with peeling paint and broken AC. What safe houses really are.
#4256: Secret Prisons: What We Actually Know About Black Sites
Court rulings, parliamentary inquiries, and declassified cables reveal what's fact vs. fiction about secret detention.
#4254: How to Vanish at a Picnic
A playbook for revealing nothing about yourself over four hours of casual conversation — without seeming weird.
#4251: How to Run a Job Interview Like a Spy
Three elicitation techniques that reveal what a company is really like — without sounding like an audit.
#4248: How Libertarianism Found Its Label and Its Fault Lines
The surprising leftist origins of "libertarian" and the Hayek-Rothbard split that still defines the movement.
#4246: When Left Meets Right: The Two-Axis Political Spectrum
Why libertarians can't win elections but welfare chauvinists are surging across Europe.
#4245: How Conservatives Actually Innovate
Discovery vs. design: How Burke, Hayek, and Oakeshott built a theory of progress without central planning.
#4243: What to Call Politics That Actually Fixes Daily Life
A listener asks: what do you call a political outlook that prioritizes housing and cost of living over ideology?
#4242: Where Left and Right Actually Come From
The French seating chart that gave us political labels — and why centrism struggles to be more than a mood.
#4241: How "Liberal" Means Opposite Things in Different Countries
The same political word can mean opposite things depending on which country you're in.
#4240: When Political Disagreement Becomes Mortal Enmity
Two sitting UK MPs were murdered by extremists. What does the respectful response to Ann Widdecombe's death tell us about political discourse?
#4238: How Incoterms Keep Global Trade From Falling Apart
Why a 1936 trade standard still governs global shipping — and where it's starting to break.
#4235: What Actually Unites Global Conservatism?
Burkean roots, wildly different branches — how one political label produces opposite policies worldwide.