News Items Podcast with John Ellis

Latest Episodes:

Why China Is Just as Polarized As the US Jun 28, 2021

Show notes

John interviews Elizabeth Economy, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. They talk about China’s political history, Xi Jinping’s rise to power and the country’s not-so-unified front.

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How the GOP Became the Trump Party, with The WSJ’s Gerald Seib Jun 24, 2021

Show notes

John interviews Gerald Seib, executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal, and the author of "We Should Have Seen It Coming: From Reagan to Trump—A Front-Row Seat to a Political Revolution."

They talk about the evolution of populism within the GOP, how party leadership misread its base on immigration, and what’s next for Republicans in 2022 and beyond.

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Oh, Canada: Always Whining about American Cultural Imperialism Jun 23, 2021

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Science and tech headlines:

Researchers have mapped in detail how a compound modeled on a natural microorganism produces hydrogen. One distant but possible application: clean energy.
mRNA vaccines are one thing, but the next medical revolution could rely on proteins (like parts of the coronavirus spike) created entirely in labs rather than found in nature.

News items:

COVID-19 news: the Delta Plus variant could cause a third wave in India. The original Delta variant is 50% more transmissible than the current major strain in the U.S., and it’s expected to become the dominant strain here within a few weeks. Finally, low-vaccination areas around the country are seeing spikes in hospitalizations.
Engine No.1, the activist hedge fund that landed three board members at ExxonMobil last month, launched an ETF on Wednesday. It will try to influence the direction of the companies it invests in via shareholder elections. Rebecca is skeptical.
Canada’s House of Commons passed a bill to make the digital media landscape in Canada — from TikTok to Netflix — more, well, Canadian. Now it just has to pass the Senate. John and Rebecca discuss the merits, and the chance that it’ll inspire copycat legislation across the pond.
Pandemic-related protections for renters and homeowners in the U.S. are fading, and mobile home owners may stand to lose the most. John and Rebecca say the Biden administration needs to act fast.

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Where Is El Chapo’s Money? With Phoebe Eaton Jun 22, 2021

Show notes

John interviews investigative journalist Phoebe Eaton about her book, “In the Thrall of the Mountain King: The Secret History of El Chapo, the World's Most Notorious Narco.” Phoebe tells John about meeting the drug kingpin’s mother in Culiacán – and how she got her to open up by asking about the secretive religious traditions practiced by the family. She also explains why pilots are venerated in Culiacán’s narco culture; how drug bosses use straw owners to shield their earnings from seizure; and how details in the recent guilty plea by Emma Coronel (El Chapo’s wife) suggest she’s cooperating with the American government.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Biden Became a China Hawk Jun 21, 2021

Show notes

Science and tech headlines:

Google’s internet browser, Chrome, will block cookies starting in early 2022. John and Rebecca discuss the implications.
Cuba’s three-jab Soberana 2 vaccine has qualified for approval from the WHO, giving the world one more tool in the fight against COVID-19.

News items:

BuzzFeed is negotiating the purchase of Complex Networks, and it has plans to merge with a SPAC and go public soon. But it might all be for naught – John explains why he thinks most digital media companies are doomed.
According to The New York Times media reporter Ben Smith, Tucker Carlson has been leaking stories about Trump and Fox News to the mainstream press for years. John explains why the news is underwhelming.
Supply chain woes will probably lead to inflation faster than experts expected. Rebecca says she’s sticking with Fed chair Jay Powell.
Economic historian Adam Tooze is out with a timeline of the Biden administration’s evolution from dovish to hawkish vis-à-vis China. Rebecca and John discuss what role the strategic consulting firm WestExec might have played in that evolution, and how Trump can make hay of it in 2024.

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Sen. Tom Cotton Part II Jun 18, 2021

Show notes

In the second half of John’s interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), they talk about what it was like to live through the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; Biden’s goals in office; and the Senator’s recent talks with former President Donald Trump.

This is a follow up episode to part I of John’s interview with the Senator that aired on Tuesday, June 15th.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Xi Jinping President for Life? with David Barboza Jun 17, 2021

Show notes

John interviews David Barboza, former Shanghai bureau chief at the New York Times and co-founder of The Wire China. The two discuss China’s leverage on the global economy; the geopolitics of Taiwan; and what’s changed since Barboza first arrived in China in 2004.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Perpetually Unregulated Crypto Is a Pipe Dream Jun 16, 2021

Show notes

Science and tech headlines:

There are roughly a million animal and plant species at risk of extinction. A special section in The Economist argues biodiversity loss is a threat on par with climate change.
A leading Arctic researcher warns that irreversible global warming may already be upon us.

News Items:

Fox Corp. announced a $100 million bet on NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens. Rebecca and John explain why they like the move.
American regulators are anxious about the $100+ billion market capitalization for stablecoins. Rebecca and John say FedCoin is the answer.
Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo rejected Coca-Cola in favor of water... and the beverage giant’s stock slumped. Maybe they should have Dasani, their H2O brand, sponsor him?
The UK’s new conservative news channel, GB News, drew eyeballs in its debut last weekend, but John thinks it will have a long road to profitability.

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Sen. Tom Cotton on the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory Jun 15, 2021

Show notes

John interviews Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) on the Senator’s efforts to sound the alarm about COVID-19 early in 2020; why he thinks the lab-leak theory is the most plausible explanation for the novel coronavirus’s origins; and the CDC’s failure to meet the moment.

Part two of the interview, which delves into Senator Cotton’s experiences during the January 6th Capitol riots, will be published this Friday, June 18th.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Holmes: Folk Hero of (Alleged) Fraud Jun 14, 2021

Show notes

Science and tech headlines:

Writing poetry, creating pictures, modeling proteins — the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence’s latest artificial intelligence model appears to be a massive step forward for China’s AI efforts.
Could machine learning help us understand (and speak to) whales?

News items:

Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history, is out. John explains why he thinks Bibi may be back, in the not-too-distant future.
Election officials across the country are still getting death threats over imagined election fraud. John and Rebecca discuss why that probably won’t stop anytime soon.
Has Biden’s agenda hit a wall? John and Rebecca discuss why the split Senate makes passing an infrastructure bill – let alone anything more ambitious – so tricky.
Elizabeth Holmes swag is selling fast. Ahead of the Theranos founder’s trial in August, mugs, t-shirts, and even shower curtains are in high demand. Rebecca points out the undercurrent of misogyny behind the boom — and how P.C. culture may have led to Holmes’ ascent.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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