The Jacob Shapiro Podcast

Michael Every, Rabobank’s senior macro strategist, joins a spirited debate over Canada’s bid for sovereignty. They clash over whether Washington’s economic pressure reflects grand strategy or improvisation, and examine defense limits, tariffs, China-linked supply chains, industrial renewal, and the hard realities of scale. Canada, America, and the future of alliances all come under scrutiny.

Justin Mankin, a climate scientist studying extreme weather and its societal costs, explores El Niño’s global reach. They discuss shifting climate baselines, drought monitoring, the El Niño-La Niña cycle, and how scientists measure these events. Mankin also examines multitrillion-dollar economic losses, climate-driven conflict thresholds, and why GDP may overlook the human cost of a warmer world.

Luke Gromen, macro analyst focused on fiscal dynamics, commodities, and monetary systems. He warns fiscal math has crossed a threshold and discusses Treasury buybacks, true interest expense, and three painful policy paths. They explore allies repatriating capital, China’s gold-yuan strategy, gold and Bitcoin as hedges, and AI’s boom-then-bust risk and white-collar disruption.

Charlie Becker, a seventh-generation bookseller and O'Shaughnessy fellow building AI tools for used bookstores. He traces mysterious bulk orders that send obscure mid‑20th century books into Amazon warehouses and discusses which titles are vanishing. Conversation covers ISBN gaps, why certain books are vulnerable, odd FBA arbitrage patterns, and tools to preserve bibliographic records.

Peter Harrell, visiting scholar and former White House senior director for international economics, explains the surge of tariff tools and legal maneuvers reshaping trade. He talks about mounting investment uncertainty, how tariffs and rules of origin complicate supply chains, the case for stronger industrial policy using drones as an example, and opaque government equity stakes in private firms.

Peter Zeihan, geopolitical strategist and public speaker; Matt Gertken, geopolitical analyst for finance and corporates; Marko Papic, macro-geopolitics expert and author. They trade formative Stratfor stories, debate training pipelines versus academia, argue whether firms need Chief Geopolitical Officers, and name the books that shaped their thinking — all with candid lore, practical frameworks, and whiskey-fueled banter.

Matt Gertken, geopolitical analyst with Stratfor roots, and Peter Zeihan, strategist and author on demographics and deglobalization, reunite for a wide-ranging talk. They probe deglobalization, collapsing oil and chip supply chains, demographic decline, drone and autonomous warfare, Russia and China contingencies, and whether nation-states can withstand tech and infrastructure shocks.

Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China Global South Project and longtime China watcher, explains how China appears across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. He discusses how Chinese apps and goods become everyday tools in the Global South. They cover regional security shifts in Japan and Southeast Asia, Global South reactions to the US–Iran war, energy shocks pushing renewables, and why countries do not expect China to act as a rescuer.

Chris Branch, senior writer at The Athletic and author of The Pulse, brings sports journalism and World Cup expertise. They discuss politics bleeding into soccer, fan culture and international rivalries, why China and India lag while small nations surprise, MLS and U.S. soccer development, and whether soccer can truly take hold in America.

J Mintzmyer, founder at Value Investors Edge who researches maritime shipping equities, walks through why shipping barely changed tech-wise in a decade. He explains US shipbuilding decline, China’s dominance, and how owning and financing fleets could be America’s leverage. They also cover tonnage tax incentives, port automation, and why real innovation will be shoreside and financial, not just new ships.