The Realignment

Alec Ross, author of The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People - and the Fight for Our Future and The Industries of the Future, joins The Realignment to discuss how the 2020s will be defined by the breakdown and reforging of our social contract, what we can learn from 19th-century tumult during industrialization, and the importance of defining the role increasingly powerful corporations will play in the 21st century.

In the last episode of The Realignment’s post 9/11 era foreign policy series, Peter Bergen, author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden and Vice President at New America, joins to discuss how Osama bin Laden’s worldview, actions, and strategies defined the post-Cold War world and how he was ultimately undone by his inability to understand how the U.S. would react to 9/11, for good for ill.

Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, co-hosts of The DarkHorse Podcast, James Madison Program Visiting Fellows at Princeton University, and co-authors of A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life, join The Realignment to discuss how an increasingly “hyper-novel” 21st century is pulling our lives and societies apart.

Elbridge Colby, co-founder of The Marathon Initiative, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Force Development at the Defense Department, and author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict, joins The Realignment to discuss the War on Terror’s legacy, how great power conflict will change U.S. foreign policy, and it will reshape the military and American society as a whole. New Yorker Profile: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/will-the-next-american-war-be-with-china

Adam Tooze, professor of history at Columbia University and author of Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy and Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, joins The Realignment to discuss how Covid reshaped capitalism, geopolitics, the U.S. vs. China, and more...

Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires (adapted into The Social Network, Bitcoin Billionaires, and The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders that Brought Wall Street to Its Knees, joins The Realignment why he believes WallStreetBets represents the first shot in a revolution that could upend the entire financial system.

Mehran Sahami and Jeremy M. Weinstein, Stanford University professors and co-authors (with Rob Reich) of System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot, join The Realignment to discuss their new approach to empowering users, citizens, and technologists, and founders to develop new approaches to the tech industry’s future. You can preorder System Error at our Bookshop or wherever else you purchase your books.

Jeffrey Selingo, special advisor for innovation and professor of practice at Arizona State University and author of Who Gets In & Why: A Year Inside College Admissions, joins The Realignment as a new school year kicks off to discuss COVID’s effect in higher education, plus, debates over affirmative action, endowments, and student debt.

Amy Chua, professor at Yale Law School and author of Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability, and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, joins The Realignment to discuss how political and ethnic tribalism undermines American foreign policy and domestic politics.

Before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming on Thursday, we’re kicking this season off with the last extended Q&A episode for the foreseeable future. We’re working on the Realignment’s format this season, so be sure to tune in for more