NewsGovernmentEducation

The World Unpacked

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The World Unpacked is a weekly podcast where insiders, intellectuals, and iconoclasts dive deep into the most pressing global issues. In a time of violent convulsions and heady new possibilities, host Jon Bateman mixes it up with the thinkers making sense of what’s happening and the power brokers building what comes next. Tune in for lively, free-wheeling conversations with some of the world’s most interesting and informed people.

Play

Open in

20 episodes
Avg 55 min
English

Episodes 20

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

#288
September 11 · 1 hr 7 min
Inside the Secret Service | An Impossible Job Is Getting Harder
An ex-head of the Secret Service in his first-ever podcast on growing threats to U.S. leaders.
#287
July 31 · 57 min
A Luddite's Guide to the AI Economy
Brian Merchant on the Industrial Revolution’s failures, how AI undercuts workers, and the social order of technology.
#286
July 17 · 1 hr 1 min
Data Centers Are Fine, Actually
The missing context that shows how AI isn’t the resource hog everyone thinks it is – with Andy Masley.
#285
July 10 · 56 min
How Europe Fights Russia Without the U.S.
Sophia Besch games out NATO’s future, Baltic scenarios, German rearmament, and Europe’s next way of war.
#284
June 26 · 1 hr 7 min
Iran Will Probably Still Get Nukes – Here’s How
James Acton gives 50% odds of an Iranian nuke in 3 years and tells U.S. negotiators what to prioritize.
#283
June 12 · 56 min
How a U.S.-China War Would Unfold
A Mandarin-speaking U.S. general gives a step-by-step scenario for the war that no one wants.
#282
June 5 · 1 hr 5 min
The Real Middle East Crisis Hasn't Started Yet
Marwan Muasher makes sense of a disordered region and the coming crisis that’s even bigger than war.
#281
May 22 · 57 min
Is Silicon Valley Corrupting Stanford?
A Stanford student’s new book critiques the tech industry’s deep ties with the university.
#280
May 15 · 50 min
Putin Is Losing His Grip on Russia
Sasha Prokopenko on a regime without rules, DIY drone defense, Internet shutdowns, and Prigozhin’s legacy.
#279
May 8 · 50 min
What to Know Before Trump Attacks Cuba
Javier Corrales on Rubio vs. Trump, Castro vs. Diaz-Canel, and economic weakness vs. political endurance.
#278
May 1 · 58 min
How Humans Take Back the Internet From AI Bots
On this episode of The World Unpacked, Nick Pickles joined host Jon Bateman to explore the brewing authenticity crisis, the geopolitics of privacy, and the surprising legacy of a 1993 New Yorker cartoon.
#277
April 24 · 47 min
Elon Musk Is Reinventing Capitalism
A new book on Elon Musk’s post-neoliberal worldview and his historic fusion of tech and power.
#276
April 14 · 1 hr
Why Orbán Lost and What Happens Next
Tom Carothers on Magyar, MAGA, and how electoral autocracy exhausts itself.
#275
April 10 · 43 min
Inside the Hidden World of Think Tanks
How AI, new media, and polarization are changing the “idea sector” in the U.S. and beyond.
#274
April 3 · 52 min
What Trump Really Wants From China
Ali Wyne on the “G2” summit, how China sees Iran, and the psychology of great power competition.
#273
March 27 · 53 min
Inside the Pentagon’s AI War Machine
A new book on Project Maven reveals how U.S. forces really use AI – with Katrina Manson.
#272
March 13 · 43 min
Did Trump Kill International Law – Or Was It Already Dead?
Oona Hathaway, one of the foremost scholars of international law, argues that Trump’s attacks on Iran and Venezuela represent a new level of American lawlessness that has fatally weakened the rules of war.
#271
March 6 · 1 hr 2 min
Who’s Running Iran?
On this special episode of The World Unpacked, Karim and host Jon Bateman go inside Tehran’s power structure as the Islamic Republic faces one of the greatest crises in its 47-year history.
#270
February 27 · 59 min
Trump’s Two-Front Battle With Europe and Iran
Daniel Drezner, Professor of International Politics at The Fletcher School at Tufts University is a leading scholar of global politics, makes sense of these dizzying crises on a new episode of The World Unpacked. He joined Jon Bateman to explain why Europe and the U.S. are still so obsessed with each other, whether Trump’s Venezuela playbook could work in Iran, and how Substack has changed foreign policy decision-making.
#269
February 20 · 45 min
Epstein’s America: How Modern Corruption Works
Sarah Chayes, who lived in and studied the world’s most corrupt nations, warns that the U.S. is walking the same path.

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes