352 episodes
ChinaTalk Jordan Schneider
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- News
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4.5 • 249 Ratings
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Conversations exploring China, technology, and US-China relations. Guests include a wide range of analysts, policymakers, and academics. Hosted by Jordan Schneider.
Check out the newsletter at https://www.chinatalk.media/
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A BREATHER: Making Clothes in China
This is a show about globalization, fashion design, and the future of manufacturing-based economic growth.
For a breather from the election chaos, ChinaTalk interviewed Will Lasry, Montreal-based designer, manufacturing specialist, and founder of Glass Factory. Will and his team are on a mission to make manufacturing transparent. They fly all around the world making documentaries on clothing factories and playing matchmaker between designers and producers. Check out his Youtube channel here.
We discuss:
How clothes are made, including the complicated processes behind distressed denim and other trends;
What makes a country an ideal destination for manufacturing clothing, and whether rising labor costs will drive the industry out of China entirely;
Xinjiang cotton, environmental destruction, and other unethical practices hanging over the fashion industry;
Why Gucci and other high-end designers are betting that “Made in India” will soon be even more chic than “Made in Italy.”
Co-hosting today is longtime ChinaTalk editor Irene Zhang.
Outtro music: Vinida Weng - WAIYA! (Youtube Link)
Thumbnail image: Link.
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EMERGENCY POD: JD Vance's Economics + How to SPR Critical Minerals + Policy Entrepreneurship
What does JD think about currency, tariffs, and industrial policy?
How has the Strategic Patroleum Reserve evolved into new relevance with some fun new powers over the past few years, and how can America take lessons from this success and apply them to addressing critical minerals?
And what secrets of policy entrepreneurship can Arnab teach me?
To discuss we have on Arnab Datta of Employ America and Matt Klein of The Overshoot podcast.
Plus we get some parent corner!
Outtro music: Melody by Ash Island (matched my mood of wanting to scream things I don't understand) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWWGm0nxYk
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Sen. Young on Tech Legislation
Where is Congress on AI? How will a second Trump term impact US innovation? Does Congress have what it takes to step up and legislate in a world without Chevron?
To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Senator Todd Young of Indiana (R). He’s a rare breed on Capitol Hill these days: an actual legislator. Sen. Young drafted the Chips and Science Act with Sen. Schumer and is the co-author of my personal favorite bill this Congress which aims to establish an Office of Global Competition Analysis. He announced earlier this year that he would not be endorsing Trump’s candidacy this cycle.
We get into…
Biden’s woes
The case for an office of tech net assessment
The future of tech legislation post-Chevron
The Senate’s AI Policy Roadmap and where the GOP is on AI regulation
Chinese espionage and high-skill immigration policy
Outtro music: AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Youtube Link)
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EMERGENCY POD: Biden and Shakespeare
How can Shakespeare help explain the dynamics we're seeing around Biden today?
We get into King Lear, Richard II, Macbeth and Coriolanus to illustrate themes on conniving courtiers, political marriages, and politicians facing the end.
Joining us today: Eliot Cohen, author of The Hollow Crown, two dramaturgs Drew Lichtenberg and Kate Pitt, as well as actor Phil Schneider.
Kate's substack: https://shakespearenews.substack.com/
Phil's still looking for an agent! Reach out to me jordan@chinatalk.media to connect with him!
Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqnXNsAFL8
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A National Vision for Competitiveness
What will it take for the US to remain competitive in 21st-century technologies? Is high state capacity a thing of the past?
To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed David Lin, Abigail Kukura, and Venkat Somala from the Special Competitive Studies Project. SCSP’s new report outlines exactly how America should compete in the tech-powered future of geopolitics.
We get into…
The role of public-private research partnerships and SCSP’s relationship with the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence;
A strategy for upgrading US institutions with the help of emerging technologies like AI;
The historical decline of government-backed research in the US;
China’s industrial espionage and the potential for stolen innovations to consolidate authoritarianism across the globe;
Bureaucratic moonshots and techniques for communicating urgency to the slow-moving American polity.
Our past episode on tech net assessment: Crafting A National Tech Strategy and Reviving Net Tech Assesment (Spotify Link) (Apple Podcasts Link)
Our past episode on bureaucratic moonshots: Peter Harrell on Bureaucratic Barriers to Competition (Spotify Link) (Apple Podcasts Link)
Outtro music: SadSvit - Касета (Youtube Link)
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Scale's Alex Wang on the US-China AI Race
How could AI change the global balance of power? What could the US and allies do to preserve national moats?
To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed the CEO of Scale AI, Alex Wang. In a blog post announcing Scale’s $1 billion fundraising success, Alex wrote that Scale is aiming to grow into the world's data foundry for AI.
Alex grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, with two physicist parents who worked in the national labs, and he started Scale in college.
I am particularly excited to have Alex on the show because he is perhaps the only private-sector AI leader working with the DoD and thinking seriously about the national security implications of AI.
We discuss:
The three key factors limiting rapid AGI takeoff, and how quickly these barriers will be overcome;
China’s strengths and weaknesses in the race for AGI;
National security implications for winning (or losing) the AI race;
Prospects for AI net assessment and the case for a Manhattan project for data;
Methods to prevent AI espionage without kneecapping innovation or profiling immigrants.
Outtro music: Zach Bryan - Pink Skies (Youtube Link)
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Customer Reviews
Excellent podcast with thoughtful host who sometimes strays too far
Jordan covers China from angles I haven’t found in other podcasts, and his passion and sincerity are contagious. His interests are many and his questions are thoughtful. I appreciate Jordan’s ability to have hard-nosed policy discussions without being a perma-hawk and while retaining some sense of wonder about and kinship with a country that fascinates him.
I also appreciate how many episodes feel like organic conversations, with some but not too much preparation. On occasion, however, this leads to a tendency to ramble, and to gaps in the flow of the show.
I (reluctantly) took a star off for that as well as for the fact that a lot of episodes lately have touched on China only tangentially, if they have at all. It’s natural for a host to stray once he has a platform, especially when he is as curious and knowledgeable as Jordan. But a show named ChinaTalk should always have China at its core. A show here and there about semiconductors, AI, and US defense policy is welcome enough, and these can be tied back to China without too much trouble. Don’t do it too hastily, though, and don’t do it too often. Other episodes, like the recent one about macroeconomics (how worried should we be about US wage inflation? To what degree should central banks experiment?) with Jason Furman, stray a little too far.
Jordan Schneiderman is borderline unlistenable
The guests are great and the topics are very timely. However, as a host, Jordan Schneiderman is a trainwreck. If you did a word cloud based on his portion of the dialogue, the words ‘Um’ ‘Like’ and ‘You Know’ would crowd out all other words. He also doesn’t come across as highly prepared, will go on a long soliloquy before asking the guests “do you agree?”, and overall just sounds unprofessional (see Rahm Emmanuel replying to facile questions with “is that really what you want to ask me” or Dmitri Alperovich telling him he is wrongly interpreting Soviet Cold War history). I want to like the show but he makes it very hard.
China Talk Numba won!!!
Excellent guests and goes in depth!