Today I speak with Dr. Nina Schwalbe, a public health scientist and former senior leader at UNICEF and Gavi who helped lead a Biden-appointed $7B global COVID vaccine effort, about why she's running for Congress in New York's District 12 in a crowded, money-dominated primary (June 23). We unpack how fundraising, media coverage, Democratic club endorsements, and super PACs shaped by Citizens United create a self-fulfilling "arms race," and she proposes reforms like campaign finance limits, matching funds, and equal-time standards. We also discuss evidence-based, systems-oriented policy priorities: expanding community health centers, lowering drug prices via pooled purchasing and single-payer, restoring CDC/FDA capacity, strengthening Medicare/Medicaid/ACA, investing in public housing, improving transparency and constituent services, and rebuilding trust in science through listening and primary care.

(01:59) Why She Ran(05:55) Money And Primaries(08:26) Minimum Viable Campaign(12:08) Machine And Super PACs(16:13) Fixing Campaign Finance(17:06) Public Health Mindset(20:52) Transparency And Accountability(23:45) Street Level Messaging(26:08) NYC Infrastructure Priorities(27:49) Hyperlocal Transit Problems(28:06) What Congress Controls(30:46) Abundance Agenda Debate(32:46) Fixing Public Housing(33:23) Trust in Institutions(35:38) Rebuilding Health Trust(37:12) Community Health Centers(38:13) Why Drugs Cost More(39:42) Restore Public Health Agencies(41:35) Economics Shapes Health(43:39) Single Payer and Prevention(45:58) Chronic Illness Care Gaps(48:58) Working With Paul Farmer(52:23) Vision for Healthcare Justice

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I interview Canadian political scientist Daniel A. Bell (University of Hong Kong) about his latest book Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters and how Chinese political theory broadens a West-centric Anglophone canon. Bell explains major pre-unification traditions—Confucianism (graded love, harmony, ritual, soft power, political meritocracy), Legalism (state-strengthening through uniform, ruthless law and fear), Mohism (populist focus on material welfare and opposition to state-funded ritual/music), and Taoism (skepticism of social engineering and preference for limited state action)—and notes their modern revival after 20th-century anti-traditionalism and the Cultural Revolution. We discuss timeless debates on corruption, family law, culture funding, just war, and idealism vs. realism (including Xunzi vs. Legalists), Bell's argument in The China Model for legitimate variation beyond "one person, one vote," sources of legitimacy in China, Xi's role versus structural pressures, and the need for more people-to-people engagement to reduce demonization and improve US–China understanding.

(02:43) West Centric Theory(04:29) Writing The Book(05:59) Schools Of Thought(06:49) Confucians Explained(08:35) Legalists And Power(10:07) Mohists And Populism(10:56) Taoism And Withdrawal(11:56) Ancient Debates Today(15:08) Idealism Versus Realism(18:49) Confucianism Endures(23:02) Traditions In The 1900s(29:29) Lessons For Western Leaders(30:18) Ritual Music And Order(31:40) Just War And Intervention(32:55) Harmony Not Conformity(33:56) Confucian Harmony Not Sameness(35:44) Just War and Tyranny(37:04) Questioning One Person One Vote(39:17) Why Meritocracy Fits China(43:03) Cultural Fit and Export Failures(46:42) Western Thinkers in China(48:03) Censorship and Reform Prospects(49:38) Xi Versus Structural Forces(52:54) Legitimacy Performance and Trust(56:03) Taiwan Prosperity and AI Optimism(58:30) More Participation Not Elections(59:46) Meritocracy Weak Spots and Dialogue

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Conversation with Washington Post columnist and political scientist Shadi Hamid on American power, democracy, and the case for hegemony in the 21st century

Is America a force for good in the world? It's a question that has become increasingly uncomfortable to ask—and even more uncomfortable to answer. In this episode of Due Diligence, I sit down with political scientist, columnist, and author Shadi Hamid to explore one of the central tensions of modern politics: how should we think about American power in a world where power is unavoidable? Drawing from his new book, The Case for American Power, Shadi argues that while America has often fallen short of its ideals, it remains the least bad option in a world where someone will inevitably wield power.

Throughout the conversation, we wrestle with a question that sits at the heart of Due Diligence: How do we hold America accountable for its failures without losing sight of what makes the American project worth preserving? Whether you're skeptical of American power, broadly supportive of it, or deeply conflicted about both, this conversation offers a thoughtful exploration of democracy, empire, idealism, realism, and the future of the international order.

(00:43) Meet Shadi Hamid

(01:56) Why power must be embraced

(04:14) Why America is morally superior among great powers

(05:28) The Nirvana fallacy

(09:28) Is American foreign policy responsive to democracy?

(12:09) How Gaza became a progressive litmus test

(15:13) James Baldwin's argument

(17:37) Why Democratic pride in America collapsed

(20:44) Pride in country vs. love of country

(25:17) Why American hypocrisy is a feature, not a bug

(33:50) Sincerity vs. propaganda

(36:21) Why having ideals makes America different

(37:53) Why presidents fold on their foreign policy promises

(41:15) The Obama tragedy & disappointment

(42:59) How Obama obstructed Arab democracy

(45:37) The uncomfortable reason America doesn't support Arab democracy

(48:02) When America chose the moral path

(51:23) Why supporting democracy is in America's self-interest

(54:27) Why China's rise has been overstated

(59:43) The role of cultural values in democracy

(01:03:50) Idealism vs. realism

(01:06:35) The challenge of writing this book

(01:08:54) Why America's advantage is immigration

About Shadi Hamid

Shadi Hamid is a columnist at The Washington Post, where he focuses on culture, religion and foreign policy. He is also a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Previously, he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Hamid is the author of several books, including most recently, “The Case For American Power.”

In 2019, Hamid was named one of the world’s top 50 thinkers by Prospect magazine. He is also the co-founder of “Wisdom of Crowds,” a podcast, newsletter and debate platform. Hamid received his B.S. and M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and his PhD in political science from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

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This is a solo episode on how AI may reshape the infrastructure of our economy and how it is forcing us to reckon with our values across economics, culture, and policy at a historical inflection point. This crisis is our opportunity to reshape our economic system to work for everyone — and ask ourselves how we might steer towards a post-scarcity future oriented around unlocking greater individual human potential at scale.

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In this episode I talk with Dr. Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, about why oil has shaped U.S. involvement in the Middle East and how it connects to the current U.S.-Iran war. She explains Trump's stated objectives (regime change, stopping a nuclear weapon, limiting missiles, ending proxy support) and traces the longer U.S.-Iran history from the 1953 coup through 1979. We discuss why the Middle East matters for low-cost oil, why the U.S. is still vulnerable to oil shocks despite high production, and how Strait of Hormuz disruption affects China, Europe (especially LNG), Russia's revenues and leverage, and Gulf-state relations with Iran. We cover oil's military importance, EV electrification as a partial solution, debates over U.S. grand strategy, credibility, and Taiwan, and she argues the U.S. should end the war.

(00:00) Why Oil Shapes Power

(00:21) Meet Dr. Rosemary Kelanic

(01:56) Why the US Is in Iran

(02:18) Four Stated War Goals

(04:03) 1953 Coup to 1979 Fallout

(05:59) Oil and the Cold War

(08:35) The Global Oil Bathtub

(11:24) China's Resilience and EV Edge

(13:30) Winners and Losers: Russia and Europe

(17:21) Allies React: Japan and Korea

(19:06) Victory Disease and No Exit

(21:58) Gulf States and Iran Relations

(23:39) Iran's Military and Domestic Politics

(26:16) US Politics and War Backlash

(28:03) Israel's Objectives vs US Interests

(30:52) Why Oil Matters for War

(31:24) Oil as War Fuel

(32:23) From Coal to Oil Power

(33:44) Electrifying Civilian Transport

(35:28) Oil Shocks and EV Adoption

(37:29) Defining Grand Strategy

(38:18) US Primacy and Posture

(40:47) Restraint and Overextension

(44:56) World War II Lessons

(46:25) Guns Versus Butter

(49:48) China, Bases, and Taiwan

(52:45) Credibility and Cold War Logic

(56:44) Ending the Iran War

(58:47) Further Reading and Wrap-Up

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In this episode, I sit down with Professor Darrick Hamilton — economist, public intellectual, and founding director of the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School — to understand what baby bonds are, why they matter, and how they could help us expand economic freedoms for all Americans.

What we cover:

• What baby bonds are and how they work
• Why economic freedom is the precondition for all other freedoms
• The case for economic birthrights
• Why Trump Accounts co-opt the idea
• The difference between a handout and an investment
• How wealth inequality becomes political dysfunction
• What it takes to advocate for a bold idea and tip it into the mainstream

About the guest

Darrick Hamilton is a university professor, the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, and the founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Considered one of the nation’s foremost scholars, economists and public intellectuals, Hamilton’s accomplishments include recently being profiled in the New York Times, Mother Jones magazine and the Wall Street Journal and being featured in Politico Magazine’s 2017 50 Ideas Shaping American Politics and the People Behind Them issue. Also, he is a member of the Marguerite Casey Foundation in partnership with the Group Health Foundation’s inaugural class of Freedom Scholars.

Hamilton has been involved in crafting policy proposals, such as Baby Bonds and a Federal Job Guarantee, which have garnered a great deal of media attention and served as inspirations for legislative proposals at the federal, state and local levels. He has served as a member of the economic committee of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force; he has testified before several senate and house committees, including the Joint Economic Committee on the nation’s potential policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced health and economic crises; he was a surrogate and advisor for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign; and he has advised numerous other leading Members of Congress, as well as various 2020 presidential candidates.

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Kishore Mahbubani is a distinguished Singaporean diplomat, academic, and author, renowned for his incisive commentary on global geopolitics and the rise of Asia. He served in the Singapore Foreign Service as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN, where he was President of the UN Security Council in 2001 and 2002. He was also the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from 2004 to 2017 and his bestselling books include The Great Convergence and Has China Won? Currently a Distinguished Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute, Mahbubani is celebrated as a leading voice on Asia’s growing influence, earning accolades like inclusion in Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers.(01:24) The US-China rivalry

(13:44) The Taiwan issue

(17:10) Global hegemony vs. domestic stability

(22:42) Will China ever democratize?

(24:35) Why poverty is a lack of freedom

(25:14) China's political evolution

(26:38) Pros & cons of democracy

(29:34) The future of US-China relations

(32:07) Evaluating Xi Jinping's Leadership

(34:44) The importance of diplomacy

(41:05) Lessons from Lee Kuan Yew

(46:15) Paths to peace & cooperation

(47:36) Advice for American citizens

This is a "book club" solo episode where I summarize & comment on a nonfiction book as part of the Due Diligence Book Club (Patreon available here). This episode is on All The Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer published in 2003 about Operation Ajax, the CIA overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh, the prime minister of Iran.