I am excited to bring this conversation to you all today! Kerry Chavez is an exceptionally sharp scholar at the United States Air Force Academy working on research related to national security and future tech. While she has published quite a bit looking at the use of drones and their effect on the battlefield, her work has also taken her into the realms of AI, quantum computing and a bunch of other fascinating topics. In this wide ranging discussion, Kerry introduces us to some of the major deve...
Aug 06, 2025•58 min•Season 6Ep. 72
Joseph Eptstein, newly minted Director of the Yorktown Institute’s Turan Research Center, returns to the podcast for a barnstorming tour of the Middle East. Joseph was last on the show at the very end of 2024 to discuss the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. In the first six months of 2025, we’ve seen significant developments in almost every major conflict in the region. From renewed Israeli offensives in Gaza to Operation Midnight Hammer to the rush to rehabilitate Syria as a member of the inte...
Jul 23, 2025•56 min•Season 6Ep. 71
After a brief summer break, I am back and Matt Van Hook is back on the podcast to discuss Operation Midnight Hammer, the US-lead air raid to strike Iranian nuclear facilities that occurred earlier this summer. Dr. Van Hook is a retired Air Force pilot and, pertinent to this conversation, served as a air tanker pilot. The KC-135 was a pivotal, but unsung hero in Operation Midnight Hammer as it was these flying gas stations that provided American B-2 Stealth Bombers the ability to fly from the mid...
Jul 09, 2025•57 min•Season 6Ep. 70
To help us assess the Trump administration’s first 100 days in power, I’ve called back to the podcast guests who have all been on to talk about different aspects of this administration. Dr. Scott Waller, Dr. Matt Van Hook, and Dustin Steeve all on the podcast on individual prior episodes to discuss Inauguration Day and the GOP platform (Dr. Waller), VP Vance’s Munich speech and the Trump foreign policy (Dr. Matt Van Hook), and the work of Elon Musk and DOGE (Dustin Steeve). In this conversation,...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 69
Dr. Andrew Bailey returns to the podcast to talk about Bitcoin, or rather, the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. Amidst the flurry of President Trump’s executive orders was one that was celebrated by many in the cryptocurrency world, but generally raised, at best, ambivalent eyebrows in the broader policy world: the creation of 1) a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve (BSR) and 2) a cryptocurrency stockpile. On the surface, this seemed to be a major step forward in mainstreaming cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin in pa...
Apr 16, 2025•54 min•Season 5Ep. 68
Mark David Hall is back on the podcast to talk about Christian nationalism, only this time, we’re talking about the broader topic of religious nationalism globally. While Christian nationalism has received quite a bit of (inflated) attention in the US, there has been a noticeable trend towards religious nationalism around the world. It was a trend I picked up on and wrote about in a blog post (see below) ten years ago, but Mark and I discuss this trend now because earlier this year, Pew Research...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 67
For the moment, the press and populace appear to be focused on the Trump administration’s handling of Ukraine, but don’t let that fool you; the lightning rod of controversy in the second Trump administration remains Elon Musk and DOGE. Just what is DOGE doing? What is the method behind Musk’s seeming madness? My guest today is a good friend and longtime Musk watcher, Dustin Steeve. Dustin, not unlike Musk, sits at the intersection of business, entrepreneurship, and politics, and he’s one of the ...
Mar 19, 2025•55 min•Season 5Ep. 66
Whoa, Nelly! Starting with the Munich Security Conference this past February, Vice President Vance outlined a bracing critique of the emerging political cultures in America’s European allies. As of this posting, US-Europe relations have been on one crazy rollercoaster, careening from Vance’s speech to a two-week whirlwind of Ukrainian diplomacy that culminated in the now mythical dust up in the Oval Office that had critics of the Trump administration wringing their hands over the future of the t...
Mar 05, 2025•49 min•Season 5Ep. 65
We’re only one month (not even) into the second Trump administration, and word is we’re in the midst of a “constitutional crisis”! So, set your hair on fire, clutch your pearls, and rage tweet! Of course, you know I don’t think you should do that. Google Trends indicates that the term “constitutional crisis” really peaked only in the last couple of weeks, and largely peaked in the Washington DC metro area. Outside the Beltway, the term has not gained that much traction. Why? Are average American...
Feb 19, 2025•47 min•Season 5Ep. 64
Today’s show is a rebroadcast of Episode 34 where I discussed the nature and limitations of executive orders. Both the Biden and Trump administrations spent their first days in office signing executive orders almost as fast as staffers could get them across their desks. And while those executive orders demonstrate the “energy” Publius sought to imbue the executive branch with, they also come with some real limitations. In today’s show, I’m going to provide you with a brief overview of executive ...
Feb 05, 2025•48 min•Season 5Ep. 63
This week ushered in the second Trump administration as President Trump took the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda due to inclement weather. Rather fitting, no? A storm is raging outside, but the American republic literally and figuratively takes shelter within the physical and political structures established by the Constitution. That wasn’t the only thought provoking visual the inauguration ceremony presented. In style and substance, this second Trump inauguration signaled a serious shift ...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 62
It’s 2025 and we’ve got a new year, new Congress, new President, and a very different political landscape in the US and abroad. How, then, should America conduct itself on the world stage? How will the new Trump administration approach the many simmering conflicts around the world while navigating the still fluid political realignment at home? Are we entering a period of renewed American isolationism? To answer these questions (and a whole lot more), I talk about the future of American foreign p...
Jan 08, 2025•44 min•Season 5Ep. 61
Joseph Eptstein is back on the podcast to discuss recent events in the Middle East. As listeners of my podcast and readers of my newsletter know, Syria has undergone a seismic change in the last month with the collapse of the Assad regime, and the emergence of a new government composed of elements of a Turkey-backed rebel coalition. Where do we go from here? Joseph and I unpack this question as we explore the events that led up to Assad’s ouster, the groups and people now seeking to build a bett...
Dec 31, 2024•55 min•Season 5Ep. 60
Disclaimer: Since we’re talking about bitcoin, cryptocurrencies in this podcast, and I reference my work as a financial advisor, I must emphasize that the content of this podcast is for information and educational purposes ONLY. Nothing discussed here should be taken as personal financial or investment advice for any individual or group. Onwards! Bitcoin keeps pushing close to the $100,000 mark, which is a long way from where the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency started in 2010. The crazy t...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 5Ep. 59
There was a time not too very long ago when the so-called Global War on Terror dominated American national security and foreign policy thinking. Not so today as the doyens of American grand strategy fret over great power competition with Russia and China, and the return of nuclear proliferation with Iran and North Korea. So what happened to global terrorism? What became of Al-Qaeda and ISIS? They never went away, in fact, in some respects, these two organizations have never been more active. The...
Nov 27, 2024•53 min
It’s a week after Election Day and what a fascinating election it was. You can see my initial assessment of the election in my newsletter (link below), but in this podcast I’m going for a bit of a palette cleanser. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed or generally weary with all the election coverage, may I recommend the Gettysburg Address? Arguably one of the greatest speeches, if not the greatest, in American history, Abraham Lincoln’s brief words memorializing the Gettysburg battlefield present...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 2 min
We’re less than a week away from Election Day and the presidential race looks as tight as most people anticipated. However, recent media appearances by Kamala Harris have again failed to move the needle in her favor, and may even be accelerating a sense of alienation between independent voters and the Democratic Party as well as growing frustration within the Democratic base. In this second of two episodes looking at the major party platforms, I sit down with my friends and colleagues in Biola U...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 15 min
As America careens towards another presidential election, it’s already been a campaign season marked by once in a generation changes such as the pro-life movement getting marginalized inside the GOP, key blocs of voters breaking with the Democratic Party, assassination attempts on Donald Trump, and the list goes on. But what is it that Democrats and Republicans are trying to achieve in this election cycle, besides winning, that is? What does a vote for a Republican or Democrat even mean these da...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 12 min
As we hit the homestretch of the 2024 election, we’re witnessing significant changes to the demographics of the Democratic and Republican coalitions. Political scientists call this “realignment” and we haven’t seen one this big in a generation. Just this last week, a new report came showing that for the first time ever, registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats nationwide. That expanding tent creates a more favorable electoral map for the GOP, but it also creates some difficult reali...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr
Christian nationalism has gotten a lot of play the last few years, particularly in the rhetoric of its opponents in journalism, academia, and even the White House. According to its critics, Christian nationalism is a malevolent ideology that has allied itself with Donald Trump to capture conservative politics in America with the aim of bringing about a dystopian Christian theocracy akin to The Handmaid’s Tale . Mark David Hall argues in his new book, Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism? , that...
Sep 19, 2024•55 min
Joseph Epstein is back on the show to give us an update on the regional conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Iran. While Hamas remains the main target of Israeli operations in Gaza, the conflict with Iran is increasingly coming to the forefront, which is raising fears of a broader war. We discuss how the July assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Syria and Iran is shaping Iran’s strategic calculus, and explore why, despite the high profile nature of Ismail Haniyeh’s assassina...
Aug 29, 2024•53 min
OK, the title is a little dramatic, but I wanted to build off of comments I made in my last podcast as well a theme I’ve been developing this summer in my newsletter: The American news media is so caught up in the drama of the upcoming presidential election that it is not serving the American people well in keeping readers abreast of what else is happening in the world. To illustrate that point, I’m going to run you through the Council of Foreign Relations’ Global Conflict Tracker, and I’ll put ...
Aug 24, 2024•43 min
The Summer of 2024 will go down in American history as one of the most exciting, if not consequential, summers in modern history. The way I’ve been putting it to people is that it’s like we’ve taken the political violence, economic turmoil, and geopolitical tensions of the 1960s, that whole decade, and just squeezed it into one summer. That’s intense. quick review of domestic politics in the Summer of 2024 and look ahead to what’s in store for this publication in the coming months. Just a remind...
Aug 14, 2024•30 min
When you hear people talk about World War III do you typically envision nuclear armed superpowers slinging nukes at hordes of robot soldiers until human civilization is blasted into a post-apocalyptic desert? Or maybe you imagine something akin to the last World War with millions of soldiers fighting on every continent and in every domain. My guest today argues that in reality, World War III may have already started and it’s not what we typically imagine. Joseph Epstein is the Legislative Analys...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 3
This past semester, I had the opportunity to explore the Arab-Israeli conflict, its history and politics, with a class of undergraduate students. During that class, I brought in my good friend, and former TTP podcast guest, Judith Rood to discuss her personal background and its connection to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to explore some of the more complex elements that animate Israeli-Palestinian relations. This is Part 2 of that guest lecture. In it, we discuss the contentious issues surroundi...
May 08, 2024•40 min•Season 5Ep. 2
October 7, 2023 marked a fresh round of warfare between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist organization governing the Gaza Strip. I had the opportunity to explore the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, its history and politics, with a class of undergraduate students this last semester. During that class, I brought in my good friend, and former TTP podcast guest, Judith Rood to discuss her personal background and its connection to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to explore some of the more complex element...
May 01, 2024•34 min•Season 5Ep. 1
One of the major demographic trends pollsters and politicos have been watching for the past few decades is the growing electoral clout of Hispanic voters in America. Traditionally, this trend line has been read as translating into an almost one for one electoral advantage for Democrats. Then Donald Trump happened... and a pandemic... and a President-Biden induced inflationary period... and an increasingly unstable southern border. Over the course of the last three election cycles, a steady strea...
Nov 03, 2022•53 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In this episode, I’m going evaluate several questions related to the Dobbs ruling and abortion more broadly. There is a LOT of misinformation/misinterpretation on this ruling out in the media ecosystem, so I think a little Q&A clarification may be in order. Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter the Weekly Brief on Substack for a weekly summary of the major events shaping our world (30% for podcast listeners)! Get the show notes at www.timtalkspolitics.com ....
Jun 30, 2022•45 min•Season 4Ep. 1
We’re almost a month past America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, and it is shocking to see how quickly the conflict and the debacle of the withdrawal has faded already in the public square. Today on the podcast, I unpack the history of the Afghanistan war, the withdrawal and its effects with two veterans of the Afghanistan conflict, Joseph Lake and Matt Said. Besides being personal friends and all around great guys, I asked Joseph and Matt to be on the podcast at the same time so that listeners ...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 44
We conclude our read through of the UN Charter by evaluating the International Trusteeship System (yeah, I hadn’t heard of it either), the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat. Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter the Weekly Brief on Substack for a weekly summary of the major events shaping our world (30% for podcast listeners)! Get the show notes at www.timtalkspolitics.com ....
Sep 16, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 43
