LSE: The Ballpark

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Scott Kennedy | To talk about the current state of US-China relations, in October 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a leading authority on Chinese economic policy and US-China commercial relations. The discussion conversation covered the October 2025 deal between US president Donald Trump and China’s president Xi Jinping, the state of relations between China and the US two countries during the first months of the second Trump presidency, and the insights that can be gained by speaking to scholars and experts on the ground in China. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources China Field Notes podcast – with Scott Kennedy The Center for Strategic and International Studies China’s Tech Obsession Is Weighing Down Its Economy – Scott Kennedy and Scott Rozelle – Foreign Policy, 10 October 2025 Red Ink: Estimating Chinese Industrial Policy Spending in Comparative Perspective by Gerard DiPippo, Ilaria Mazzocco, Scott Kennedy, and Matthew P. Goodman – CSIS – 23 May 2022 Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark is ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey: Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Kayode Adeniyi, Natasha Chávez, Francesca Nicolodi | Recent years have seen growth in the capability and use of AI tools across society, including by business, academia, the media, and in the economy more widely. Many institutions have embraced AI tools and models such as ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Gemini (Google) to provide solutions to a variety of challenges, from the everyday to the global. At the same time, many commentators have expressed concerns about bias in AI, its contribution to other global challenges like climate change, and that it may even be a threat to society or democracy. In 2025, the Phelan US Centre ran an essay competition for master’s students with the prompt, “Is AI a threat or an opportunity for the US?” In this episode we spoke to the author of the winning essay, Kayode Adeniyi, and the runners-up, Natasha Chávez and Francesca Nicolodi. We discussed their essays, the competition, what it’s like for students to engage with a wider audience, and the opportunity they had to present their essays in the UK parliament to MPs and the British-American Parliamentary Group. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Read the essays from the winner and runners-up on the Phelan US Centre’s USAPP blog AI in the US: The Next Space Race or the Next Subprime Crisis? - Kayode Adeniyi - LSE Department of Management (winner) The AI race: will the US lead or fall behind? - Natasha Chávez - LSE Department of International Relations (runner-up) Trump’s hunger for AI domination is allowing Silicon Valley to seize the state but not its people - Francesca Nicolodi - LSE Department of Social Policy (runner-up) Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark is ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until Monday 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes a few minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Gordon Hanson | The last 40 years have seen a sharp decline in America’s manufacturing industries with growing joblessness in many previously prosperous industrial regions of the US. But how and why did these job losses happen, and how did the US move from an economy based on manufacturing to one that’s now based on services? And what can be done to help workers affected by technological disruption in what are called “left-behind places”? To discuss the origins of job loss, left behind places, and the place-based policies that can help them, in November 2025, the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Gordon Hanson, the Peter Wertheim Professor in Urban Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Hanson is best known for his research on the labor market consequences of globalization, including pioneering work on the China trade shock. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse, New York Times, 14 July 2025 Reimagining the Economy at Harvard Kennedy School What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Michael Cox | This year LSE is celebrating its 130th anniversary, and how it has shaped history and driven change across the world. Much of LSE’s history is linked to the United States, from philanthropic support from the US in LSE’s early days to famous alumni and American directors of the School. To talk about the LSE’s long and close relationship with the United States, in October 2025, the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Michael Cox. Professor Cox is a Founding Director of LSE IDEAS, LSE's foreign policy think tank, and was its Director between 2008 and 2019. He is also Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE and has been writing a history of LSE. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources Cox, Michael, John Ikenberry, and Takashi Inoguchi (eds), American Democracy Promotion: Impulses, Strategies, and Impacts(Oxford University Press, 2000) Cox, M., & Stokes, D. (Eds.), US Foreign Policy(Oxford University Press, 2026) Celebrating LSE's 130th anniversary Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Charles Kupchan | Since returning to the White House for his second term in January 2025, Donald Trump has renewed his “America First” agenda by pursing a transactional approach to diplomacy and a desire to limit the US’ involvement overseas. This in turn is remoulding the global order. To discuss Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and the US’ place in the changing world order, in October 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Charles Kupchan, Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources Charles A. Kupchan., No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn(Oxford Academic, 2012), Charles A. Kupchan, Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).‌ The promise and peril of Trump's America first – LSE Phelan US Centre event, including links to event video and podcast recording Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Gili Vidan | As long as there has been photographic and video imagery, there have been manipulated videos and photos. But only in the last decade or so have the public become aware of what are known as “deepfakes”, computer or AI generated fake images, often of celebrities. The spread of deepfake imagery raises questions about truth and authenticity online – can we still trust what we see on screen? To discuss deepfakes, and the idea of trust and authenticity in the digital sphere more broadly, the Phelan US Centre spoke to Dr Gili Vidan, Assistant Professor of Information Science at Cornell University’s Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources Robert Chesney & Danielle K. Citron, Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security,107 California Law Review 1753 (2019). Habgood-Coote, Joshua (2023). Deepfakes and the epistemic apocalypse. Synthese 201 (3):1-23. Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Dr Jennifer Lind, Chris Gilson | The last three decades have seen China’s economic rise. Alongside this, China has become much more influential on the global stage, emerging as a competitor to the United States in many arenas, including as a technology and innovation leader. China has accomplished all this while continuing to be an authoritarian state, which is at odds with many conventional ideas about the relationship between autocracies and technology. To discuss China’s technological rise in the context of its autocratic government, in October 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Dr Jennifer Lind, Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College and a leading expert on the international relations of East Asia, about her new book, Autocracy 2.0 How China's Rise Reinvented Tyranny. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources Autocracy 2.0 How China's Rise Reinvented Tyranny by Jennifer Lind (Cornell University Press, 2025) Jennifer Lind and Michael Mastanduno. Hard Then, Harder Now: CoCom’s Lessons and the Challenge of Crafting Effective Export Controls Against China - Texas National Security Review (2025) Blue Blaze on Substack Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Evan Medeiros | In August 2025, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization held its 25th annual summit in Tianjin, China, with the country’s leader Xi Jinping, hosting representatives from more than 20 countries including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and India’s Narendra Modi. The absence of the United States in this gathering of global leaders may tell us about how China is competing with the US and building its own global order. To discuss China’s strategic competition with the US, and how it is evolving under the Trump administration, in September 2025, the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Evan Medeiros, the Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies and the Cling Family Senior Fellow in US-China Relations at Georgetown University. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources “China and Russia Will Not Be Split”, Michael McFaul and Evan S. Medeiros, Foreign Affairs, 4 April 2025 Medeiros, E. S., & Polk, A. (2025). China’s New Economic Weapons. The Washington Quarterly, 48(1), 99–123. “S.-China Relations for the 2030s: Toward a Realistic Scenario for Coexistence”, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace”, 17 October 2024 “The Delusion of Peak China”, Evan S. Medeiros, Foreign Affairs, 24 April 2024 Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Josephine Lukito | To talk about social media and politics, and how AI can help spread – or tackle – disinformation, the Phelan US Centre spoke to Dr Josephine Lukito, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. Her research specializes in malicious political language in the public sphere, focusing on cross-platform flows of messages and frames about global economic and political issues. The discussion covers how social media and AI are influencing political communication, disinformation, and election strategies in the US and globally and about the evolving role of platforms, algorithms, and AI tools in shaping elections and democratic governance. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Avan Fata. Further reading and resources Lukito, J., & Pevehouse, J. C. (2022). Competing for attention on Twitter during the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential debates. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 20(2), 125–138. Rodarte, A. K., & Lukito, J. (2024). Does Social Media Level the Political Field or Reinforce Existing Inequalities? Cartographies of the 2022 Brazilian Election. Political Communication, 42(3), 382–404. Lukito, J., Lee, T., Martin, Z., Glover, K., Hu, A., & Cui, Z. (2023). Connective action in Myanmar: a mixed-method analysis of Spring Revolution. Information, Communication & Society, 27(7), 1422–1440. Candidata - https://www.candidata24.org/ Take the Ballpark Listener survey and enter the prize draw for £250 in vouchers! The Ballpark will be ten years old in 2026, and we want to hear from you to make the podcast even better, so we’re running a listener survey until 2 February 2026. Fill in our listener survey – it only takes 15 minutes – here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025

Contributor(s): | The LSE Phelan US Centre's regular podcast, The Ballpark, will be 10 years old in 2026. Ahead of our anniversary, and after more than 140 episodes speaking to academic experts on topics from across the social sciences, we'd like to find out what you think about the podcast with a listener survey. It only takes 10-15 minutes, and you'll have the chance to enter a prize draw to win £250 in vouchers.  The Ballpark brings academic commentary to a wide audience, including to students, policymakers and a global community of academics. Recent highlights include The US’ changing relationship with NATO and Europe with Dr Celeste Wallander and an ongoing mini-series on AI and the US covering topics including AI’s effects on the workplace and the US-China AI race. Fill in our listener survey, here: https://forms.office.com/e/Vcj8V8uGM1 Voucher prize draw terms and conditions are available here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/ballpark-listener-survey-prize-terms-conditions-2025 Thanks for listening!