Ian Bremmer sits down with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to dissect what may go down as the most consequential month in the Middle East in years. Just weeks after Israel launched a war against Iran—and after President Trump authorized US airstrikes—an uneasy ceasefire is in place. But what was actually achieved? Iran, the clear loser of the 12-Day War, entered as the most vulnerable player and emerged weaker still. Tehran stood largely alone, with Hamas degraded, Hezbollah decimated, ...
Jul 03, 2025•26 min•Ep. 355
What if the next virus isn’t natural, but deliberately engineered and used as a weapon? As geopolitical tensions rise and biological threats become more complex, health security and life sciences are emerging as critical pillars of national defense. In the special edition episode from our new series, “The Ripple Effect: Investing in Life Sciences”, host Dan Riskin is joined by two leading voices at the intersection of biotechnology and defense: Dawn Meyerriecks, former CIA Deputy Director for Sc...
Jun 30, 2025•31 min•Ep. 354
Small businesses are more than just corner shops and local services. They’re a driving force of economic growth, making up 90% of all businesses globally. As the global middle class rapidly expands, new opportunities are emerging for entrepreneurs to launch and grow small businesses. In this special edition podcast episode, the first of GZERO's “Local to global: The power of small business” series, host JJ Ramberg sits down with Shamina Singh, Founder and President of the Mastercard Center for I...
Jun 27, 2025•28 min•Ep. 353
President Trump has never been shy about his revolutionary ambitions. In his second term, he’s moved aggressively to consolidate power within the executive branch—signing more than 150 executive orders in just over 150 days, sidelining Congress, and pressuring the institutions that were designed to check his authority. His supporters call it common sense. Critics call it dangerous. Either way, it’s a fundamental shift in American governance—one that’s unlike anything happening in any other major...
Jun 14, 2025•29 min•Ep. 352
It was an extraordinary public fight between two billionaires—President Donald Trump, the world’s most powerful man, and Elon Musk, the world’s richest. On a special bonus episode of the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Semafor co-founder and editor-in-chief Ben Smith to talk about Trump and Musk’s messy breakup, what led to the explosive public fallout, and whether there’s any chance of reconciliation. Though their feud appears to be cooling down, there’s still a lot at stake for...
Jun 11, 2025•20 min•Ep. 351
On this week’s GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for a look at one of the most dangerous flashpoints in the world: the Taiwan Strait. China has been conducting drills around Taiwan for years, but since the current pro-independence president, William Lai, took office in 2024, Beijing has been staging near-daily military exercises near the island–larger, louder, and more aggressive t...
Jun 07, 2025•32 min•Ep. 350
Ian Bremmer sits down with Jesuit priest and bestselling author Father James Martin to discuss the unprecedented election of Pope Leo XIV—the first-ever (North) American Pope—and what his leadership could mean for the Catholic Church, American politics, and a divided, secular world. Known for his humility and spiritual depth, Pope Leo has a chance to bridge widening rifts within the Church. “There’s a lot of division and anger,” Martin says, “but Pope Leo has the opportunity to build bridges bet...
May 31, 2025•31 min•Ep. 349
How much could our relationship with technology change by 2027? In the last few years, new artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek have transformed how we think about work, creativity, even intelligence itself. But tech experts are ringing alarm bells that powerful new AI systems that rival human intelligence are being developed faster than regulation, or even our understanding, can keep up with. Should we be worried? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer is joined by Daniel Ko...
May 17, 2025•38 min•Ep. 348
In the latest episode of the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen to unpack what he calls a constitutional crisis unfolding under the Trump administration. At the center of the conversation is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia , a Maryland father of three who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and remains imprisoned in a maximum-security facility known for human rights abuses. Van Hollen recently traveled to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia and...
May 10, 2025•27 min•Ep. 347
Free speech has become one of the most contentious issues in American politics, but what does it actually mean today? On the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with conservative legal scholar Ilya Shapiro of the Manhattan Institute and New York Times free speech reporter Jeremy Peters . They discuss how free expression is being defined—and challenged—on university campuses and by the Trump administration, particularly when it comes to national immigration policy. “The dynamic of ‘free sp...
May 03, 2025•39 min•Ep. 346
It’s been 50 years since the fall of Saigon, but the impact of the Vietnam War still reverberates across generations and continents. On the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and historian Mai Elliott —two writers whose lives were shaped by the conflict. Nguyen, author of the bestselling book and TV series "The Sympathizer," recounts growing up in a tight-knit refugee community in California, where “melancholy, rage, anger, bitterness, sa...
Apr 26, 2025•26 min•Ep. 345
What will it take to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? President Trump is pushing hard for a ceasefire deal, but is Vladimir Putin actually interested in negotiation? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer is joined by former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for a sober assessment of the war with Russia—and what it will take to end it. Kuleba resigned last year amid a cabinet shuffle, but spent years at the heart of Ukraine’s diplomatic fight for survival. As long as Russia believes it ...
Apr 12, 2025•37 min•Ep. 344
What does global energy transition look like in a time of major geopolitical change, including rebalancing of trade? In this special episode of "Energized: The Future of Energy”, host JJ Ramberg and Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel talk to Arjun Murti , partner at Veriten and founder of the energy transition newsletter Super-Spiked. They discuss the impact of President Trump ’s new energy policies, the role of North America in the global energy transition, and the possible impact of tariffs and trade tens...
Apr 10, 2025•38 min•Ep. 342
For a special edition of the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers to get his economic assessment of President Trump 's unprecedented imposition of tariffs, which has sparked an escalating trade war. "I don't see this as a rational way of either pursuing the objective of strengthening US manufacturing or the objective of reducing other countries' trade barriers," Summers tells Bremmer. "This is probably the worst, most consequential, self-inflict...
Apr 09, 2025•25 min•Ep. 343
On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer is joined by the most prominent opposition leader in Venezuela, María Corina Machado . Machado has a long political history as a center-right opposition figure in Venezuela, but she became the leader of that opposition during the presidential election last summer. That’s when the regime-friendly electoral council declared Nicolás Maduro the winner, despite widespread allegations of fraud and international condemnation from the US and Europe. But this is mo...
Apr 05, 2025•26 min•Ep. 341
Elon Musk , the world’s richest man, made his fortune-breaking industries—space, cars, social media—and is now trying to break the government… in the name of fixing it. But what happens when Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast and break things’ ethos collides with the machinery of federal bureaucracy? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with WIRED Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to unpack the implications of Musk’s deepening role in the Trump administration and what’s really behin...
Mar 29, 2025•32 min•Ep. 340
On the GZERO World Podcast with Ian Bremmer , we ask The Economist's editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes : Did Wall Street get President Trump wrong? Candidate Trump promised to lower taxes and drastically reduce government regulation. This message resonated as much with Wall Street as it did with Main Street. After surviving, if not thriving, under President Trump's first term in office, the business community no longer feared Trump's unpredictability. They overlooked his fixation on tariffs a...
Mar 22, 2025•33 min•Ep. 339
In seven short weeks, the Trump administration has completely reshaped US foreign policy and upended trade alliances. Will China benefit from US retrenchment and increasing global uncertainty, or will its struggling economy hold it back? On the GZERO World Podcast, Bill Bishop, a China analyst and author of the Sinocism newsletter, joins Ian Bremmer for a wide-ranging conversation about China—its domestic priorities, global administration, and whether America’s retreat from global commitments is...
Mar 15, 2025•26 min•Ep. 338
On the GZERO World Podcast, we're bringing you two starkly different views on Ukraine's future and European security. First, Ian Bremmer speaks with Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže about the growing security threats facing the Baltics—from cyberattacks and disinformation to undersea sabotage in the Baltic Sea. When an oil tanker linked to Russia’s shadow fleet recently severed a vital power cable between Estonia and Finland, it was a stark reminder of how hybrid warfare is playing out beyon...
Mar 01, 2025•54 min•Ep. 337
Three years into the invasion of Ukraine, and amid the Trump administration’s rapid shift in US-Russia relations, can European and NATO allies continue to rely on the United States for support? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer is on the ground in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference for a hard look at the future of European security with US Senator Elissa Slotkin . World leaders and diplomats gathered at the annual conference to discuss global security challenges, bu...
Feb 22, 2025•24 min•Ep. 336
On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour to discuss the future of Gaza, Trump ’s radical proposal, and what Palestinians want. As a fragile ceasefire holds, Trump has suggested that the US take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” while relocating displaced Gazans elsewhere. The idea has been widely rejected by America’s Middle Eastern allies, but does it signal a new phase in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Fo...
Feb 15, 2025•35 min•Ep. 335
In President Trump’s short time in office, he’s already made sweeping changes to US public health policy—from RFK Jr.’s nomination to lead the health department to withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. On the GZERO World Podcast, New York Times science and global health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli joins Ian Bremmer for an in-depth look at health policy in the Trump administration, and what it could mean, not just for the US, but for the rest of the world. President Trump has mad...
Feb 08, 2025•29 min•Ep. 334
On the GZERO World Podcast, Finnish President Alexander Stubb joins Ian Bremmer in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders, business executives, and diplomats gathered for the annual World Economic Forum. Just days after President Trump was sworn in for a second term, the mood in Davos was that of cold pragmatism. As Trump made clear in his speech to the Forum, Europe can no longer rely on the kind of copacetic relationship with the United States it had enjoyed since World War II or even during ...
Feb 01, 2025•15 min•Ep. 333
What will the future of tech policy look like in a second Trump administration? And how will changes in the tech world—everything from the proliferation of AI and bots to the fragmentation of social media—impact how people talk, interact, and find information online? On the GZERO World Podcast, Nicholas Thompson , CEO of The Atlantic, joins Ian Bremmer to discuss the intersection of technology, media, and politics as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House. Trump had a contentious rel...
Jan 18, 2025•33 min•Ep. 332
On the GZERO World Podcast, we’re taking a look at some of the top geopolitical risks of 2025. This looks to be the year that the G-Zero wins. As longtime listeners will know, a G-Zero world is an era when no one power or group of powers is both willing and able to drive a global agenda and maintain international order. We’ve been living with this lack of international leadership for nearly a decade now. But in 2025, the problem will get a lot worse. We are heading back to the law of the jungle....
Jan 11, 2025•28 min•Ep. 331
It's officially the new year, and 2025 will bring a whole new set of challenges as governments react to the shifting policies of the incoming Trump administration, instability in the Middle East, China’s economic weakness, and a world where the global order feels increasingly tenuous. 2025 will be a year of heightened geopolitical risks and global disorder, with the world no longer aligned with the balance of power. So what should we be paying attention to, and what’s the world’s #1 concern for ...
Jan 09, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 330
Outgoing US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan joins Ian Bremmer in front of a live audience at the 92nd Street Y in New York City for a rare and wide-ranging GZERO World interview about the biggest geopolitical threats facing the United States, Joe Biden’s foreign policy legacy, and how much will (or won’t) change when the Trump administration takes office in 2025. The world has changed dramatically since Biden entered the White House in 2021, and Sullivan has been the driving force behind...
Dec 21, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 329
How did Syria’s government rule with an iron fist for five decades, only to collapse in two weeks? And after 14 years of bloody civil war, why was now the moment that a frozen war exploded into the global spotlight? The cost Syrians have already paid is greater than any nation could reasonably be expected to bear. Since 2011, more than 500,000 Syrians have died, including 200,000 civilians, and nearly six million refugees flooded neighboring Arab States and some European nations, most notably Ge...
Dec 14, 2024•34 min•Ep. 328
Donald Trump has promised to fix what he calls a broken economy and usher in a “golden age of America.” He’s vowed to implement record tariffs, slash regulation, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. But what will that mean practically for America’s economic future? On the GZERO World Podcast , Ian Bremmer is joined by Oren Cass , founder and chief economist at the conservative think tank American Compass, to discuss Trump’s economic agenda and why Cass believes it will help American w...
Dec 07, 2024•43 min•Ep. 327
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump will re-assume the most powerful office in the world amidst the global backdrop of two major wars, comparatively weaker US allies, more aggressive rogue states, and a more complex and competitive international architecture. On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with New York Times national security and White House correspondent David Sanger to talk about what US foreign policy might look like under Trump 2.0. "It's a Donald Trump administration," San...
Nov 23, 2024•36 min•Ep. 326
