The Good Fight

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Dan Wang on China and the United States Nov 27, 2025

Show notes

Dan Wang is a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and author of Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Dan Wang explore the conflict between the United States as a society of lawyers and China as a society of engineers, what this means for their relationship, and why the two countries are more similar than they may first appear.

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Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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Nate Soares on Why AI Could Kill Us All Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

Nate Soares is president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author, with Eliezer Yudkowsky, of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All. He has been working in the field for over a decade, after previous experience at Microsoft and Google.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Nate Soares explore why AI is harder to control than traditional software, what happens when machines develop motivations, and at what point humans can no longer contain the potential catastrophe.

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Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community

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The Good Fight Club: A Warm Welcome for MBS, the Future of MAGA, and Democrat Infighting Nov 22, 2025

Show notes

Edward Luce, Russell Muirhead, Lauren Harper Pope, and Yascha Mounk on this week’s news.

In this week’s conversation, Ed Luce, Russ Muirhead, Lauren Harper Pope, and Yascha Mounk discuss the recent Saudi visit and what it says about Donald Trump’s broader foreign policy, the direction of the MAGA movement, and the fallout in the Democratic Party from Marie Gluesenkamp Perez challenging Chuy Garcia’s succession scheme.

Edward Luce is the U.S. national editor and a columnist at the Financial Times, and the author of Zbig: The life of Zbig Brzezinski: America’s Great Power Prophet.

Russell Muirhead teaches Government at Dartmouth College. He is the author, with Nancy Rosenblum, of Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos. He serves in the New Hampshire House of Representatives where he focuses on election law.

Lauren Harper Pope is a Welcome Co-Founder working to depolarize American politics and strengthen a centrist faction of the Democratic Party that wins and governs responsibly through work with The Welcome Party (c4), WelcomePAC, and The Welcome Democracy Institute (c3). Lauren leads the coordinated (hard side) program for WelcomePAC, and she writes at WelcomeStack.org.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion

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James Loxton on Democracies and Dictators Nov 18, 2025

Show notes

James Loxton is a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Authoritarianism: A Very Short Introduction.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and James Loxton explore different types of authoritarian regimes, why they fail, and whether the United States passes the fear test.

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Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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William MacAskill on Effective Altruism Nov 15, 2025

Show notes

Yascha Mounk and William MacAskill also discuss artificial intelligence.

William MacAskill is a moral philosopher and cofounder of the effective altruism movement.

He's the author of Doing Good Better and What We Owe the Future. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Forethought Research and works on preparing society for rapid AI-driven technological change.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and William MacAskill discuss the arguments for effective altruism, the motivations of Sam Bankman-Fried, and whether AI is a risk to humanity.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community

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Shadi Hamid on Why We Need American Power Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

Shadi Hamid is a columnist at The Washington Post and a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Hamid’s new book isThe Case for American Power.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Shadi Hamid explore why the world still needs America, how to improve U.S. foreign policy, and to what extent their views on the Iraq War have changed.

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Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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George Packer on Liberal Values in Authoritarian Times Nov 08, 2025

Show notes

Yascha Mounk and George Packer discuss autocracy in literature and real life.

George Packer is an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His latest book is The Emergency.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and George Packer discuss authoritarianism in fiction, living humanist virtues in morally complex times, and how the Democrats can defeat Donald Trump.

Note: This conversation was recorded on October 21, 2025.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community

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The Good Fight Club: Mayor Mamdani, the Crackup at Heritage, and the Death of Dick Cheney Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

In this conversation, Sam Kahn, Mike Pesca, Christine Rosen, and Yascha Mounk discuss what the election results mean for the direction of the Democrats, what the Heritage Foundation scandal shows about anti-Semitism on the right, and Dick Cheney’s mixed legacy.

Sam Kahn is associate editor at Persuasion and writes the Substack Castalia.

Mike is the host of The Gist, the longest-running daily news and analysis podcast in existence.

Christine Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She is also a monthly columnist for Commentary magazine, one of the cohosts of The Commentary Magazine Daily Podcast, a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, and senior editor at The New Atlantis.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone.

Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion

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Joseph Heath on the Death of Marxism Nov 04, 2025

Show notes

Joseph Heath is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Trudeau Foundation, Heath is the author of several books, including Enlightenment 2.0 and The Machinery of Government.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Joseph Heath discuss the death of Western Marxism, approaches to equality, and how to create an equal society.

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Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community

Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay.

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