#18: Alec Stapp - The Institute for Progress, American Dynamism, and Fixing Governance

Alec Stapp is the co-founder and co-CEO of the Institute for Progress, a non-profit think tank dedicated to accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress.

Chapters

0:00 - Intro

1:13 - Why can’t smart people fix the Bay Area?

3:38 - How to get normal people on board with IFP

10:23 - How to get smart people into governance

15:55 - How IFP chose its priorities

21:56 - How will IFP avoid mission creep?

24:17 - How important is academia today?

26:03 - Would Alec press a button to fully open borders?

29:45 - How prepared are we for another pandemic?

33:16 - Why don’t easy wins happen?

36:17 - Is Biden’s spending good?

40:51 - How important is the repeal of Chevron deference?

43:23 - Are land value taxes good?

45:01 - “The Project” for AGI and AI Alignment

48:19 - Is globalism dying?

50:32 - Overrated or Underrated?

59:28 - The most overrated issue

1:00:26 - The most underrated issue

Links

Institute for Progress: ifp.org

• “Progress Is A Policy Choice” founding essay by Alec Stapp and Caleb Watney: https://ifp.org/progress-is-a-policy-choice/

• “How to Reuse the Operation Warp Speed Model” by Arielle D’Souza: https://ifp.org/how-to-reuse-the-operation-warp-speed-model/

• “How to Be a Policy Entrepreneur in the American Vetocracy” by Alec Stapp: https://ifp.org/how-to-be-a-policy-entrepreneur-in-the-american-vetocracy/

• “To Speed Up Scientific Progress, We Need to Understand Science Policy”: https://ifp.org/to-speed-up-scientific-progress-we-need-to-understand-science-policy/

• “But Seriously, How Do We Make an Entrepreneurial State?” by Caleb Watney: https://ifp.org/how-do-we-make-an-entrepreneurial-state/

• Construction Physics newsletter by Brian Potter: https://constructionphysics.substack.com/

• Macroscience newsletter by Tim Hwang: https://www.macroscience.org/

• Statecraft newsletter by Santi Ruiz: https://www.statecraft.pub/

IFP’s Twitter: x.com/IFP

Alec’s Twitter: x.com/AlecStapp

Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/18-alec-stapp

More Episodes

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/57jr42wk

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/mrxkkhb4

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/yck8pnmf

My Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffee

My Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com