ChinaTalk

Peter Harrell drops in, attorney who served in the Obama and Biden admins and submitted a brief in this case
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Bryan Clark opens the show talking Iran. Recurring cohosts include Justin Mc, Tony Stark and Eric Robinson.

Eric Slesinger of 201 Ventures drops in https://ericslesinger.com/

outtro music: rubio's speech https://suno.com/s/KnIpTyZIU7iJSeIf
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We’re here for a CHIPS Act megapod, in person with Mike Schmidt and Todd Fisher, the director and founding CIO of the CHIPS Program Office, respectively.

We discuss…


The mechanisms behind the success of the CHIPS Act,


What CHIPS can teach us about other industrial policy challenges, like APIs and rare earths,


What it takes to build a successful industrial policy implementation team,


How the fear of “another Solyndra” is holding back US industrial policy,


Chris Miller’s recent interest in revitalizing America’s chemical industry.

This post is a collaboration with the Factory Settings Substack: https://www.factorysettings.org/. Subscribe for more insights from former CHIPS Program Office leaders!

Suno song link: https://suno.com/s/wwVYK10LfrAD5zK2
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We're trying out a different format to explore "Chinese peptides." We talk to biohackers using compounds like BPC-157 to heal extreme injuries, go undercover as peptide buyers, and discuss the challenges of reporting on the Chinese pharmaceutical ecosystem with the legendary Hamilton Morris.

Special thanks to guests Jasmine Sun, Hamilton Morris, Aaron Kesselheim, Marcus, and David. This episode was produced by Lily Ottinger with additional reporting from Irene Zhang and Nick Corvino.

Check out Jasmine's NYT article here.

ChinaTalk merch available now at https://chinatalk.printful.me/. Your purchase helps us make more content like this!
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Admiral Rickover — America’s most famous, perhaps most influential admiral of the second half of the 20th century. To discuss his unbelievable life story, dramatic impact on the Cold War, and implications for the future of what the U.S. government should do when it tries to build hard things, we have two guests — Charles Yang, founder of the Center for Industrial Strategy, who also does AI science work at Renaissance Philanthropy, and Emmett Penney of FAI.

We discuss:


Rickover’s immigrant origin story from Polish village to almost being deported at Ellis Island and his improbable path into the Naval Academy.


Drive, discipline, expertise, and how Rickover bent Washington to his will.


Rickover as tyrant, teacher, technocrat — what his contradictions reveal about leadership, power, and effectiveness.


Why Rickover matters now — nuclear revival, defense procurement reform, engineers vs. lawyers, and a major archival digitization effort.

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