Does America have a plan for winning the competition of the future—mastering artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and space, plus other material and developmental sciences? Amy Zegart, the Hoover Institution’s Morris Arnold and Nona Cox Senior Fellow and cochair of the Stanford Emerging Technology Review (SETR), explains how this one-of-a-kind partnership between the Hoover Institution and Stanford University’s School of Engineering gives policymakers the tools they need to better address the challenges facing cutting-edge industries. Also discussed: the Trump national security team’s inelegant use of a chat app while prepping for a military strike in Yemen, plus the significance (or lack thereof) of Trump’s nemeses caving in to his demands—and whether other entities (Canada, Panama, Greenland, Venezuela’s trade partners) will follow suit.

Recorded on March 26, 2025.

Download the SETR report here: Stanford Emerging Technology Review 2025

US and Ukrainian officials will meet on March 12 to talk peace in Eastern Europe; a new US approach to China may or may not be in the works; and the Trump administration’s gas-brake approach to imposing tariffs on trade partners has a Hoover economist baffled.

Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and author of Seven Things You Can’t Say About China, joins Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane and H.R. McMaster to discuss the latest in Ukraine and his concerns over China’s military, economic, and cultural hegemony. After that: The fellows dig deeper into the economic and strategic ramifications of Trump’s tariff ploys, followed by a “lightning round,” including the merits of a US “crypto strategic reserve”; the renaming an army fort in Georgia (H.R. having known the late general whose name was removed); the creator of Hamilton refusing to play a “Trumpier” Kennedy Center; plus what the two would give up for Lent if so inclined.

Recorded on March 7, 2025.

A one-week window into the Trump administration’s worldview—the president blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion; his vice president taking to social media to accuse a Hoover scholar of “historical illiteracy”; the US then refusing to join other UN members in condemning Russian aggression—raises the question: Is the Trump brand of confusion and controversy mere happenstance or a calculated means to an end?

American Enterprise Institute scholar, author, and columnist Matthew Continetti joins Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane, H.R. McMaster, and Niall Ferguson (the subject of the vice president’s lashing on X) to discuss Trump’s unorthodox style, the showcasing of executive orders, and his chances of success at home and overseas. Also discussed: the significance of Trump’s firing top military brass, a $5 million “gold card” for US residency, the Washington Post’s editorial shift to “personal liberties and free markets,” Scotland’s rugby disappointment at the hands (and legs) of England, plus the late Gene Hackman’s best performances.

Recorded on February 27, 2025.