A weekly discussion of current affairs in China with journalists, writers, academics, policymakers, business people and anyone with something compelling to say about the country that's reshaping the world. Hosted by Kaiser Kuo.
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Welcome to a dog’s guide to fatherhood in suburbia. On Child of Dog, Stephen and Ben talk about how they build meaningful relationships, raise open minded children, and navigate their careers in the rapidly-changing world around them. Ben Garson, a respected dog trainer, and Stephen Roth, a holistic therapist who lives on a farm, decided to record the kinds of conversations they have about life — and that other young people raising families might find entertaining and educational.
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COMMNTD is a podcast hosted by four friends where we talk about your favorite international & domestic movies, music, tv shows, & more! Join the crew as we review & recap our latest watches, noting our reactions, and dissect the meaning and the lasting impacts of various pop culture & events. We also love to explore our lives and share our individual experiences as Black women living in the States. Taking an initial from each host’s name, COMMNTD is a space for black girl joy and our various ...
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The band is back together for another episode of Child of Dog! The boys discuss the perfect Thanksgiving leftover sandwich, Vas recounts how his pup Gus has eaten a container of dried Szechuan chili peppers, and Ben proclaims himself as the "King of Analogies," to which Stephen objects. Topics include Turkey day responsibilities, the origin of Vas'…
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Murder House: Zhong Na on the Silicon Valley Tragedy That Exposed the Cracks in China's Meritocracy
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49:58This week on Sinica, I speak with Zhong Na, a novelist and essayist whose new piece, "Murder House," appears in the inaugural issue of Equator — a striking new magazine devoted to longform writing that crosses borders, disciplines, and cultures. In January 2024, a young couple, both Tsinghua-educated Google engineers living in a $2.5 million Silico…
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Finbarr Bermingham of the SCMP on Nexperia, Export Controls, and Europe's Impossible Position
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51:01This week on Sinica, I welcome back Finbarr Bermingham, the Brussels-based Europe correspondent for the South China Morning Post, about the Nexperia dispute — one of the most revealing episodes in the global contest over semiconductor supply chains. Nexperia, a Dutch-headquartered chipmaker owned by Shanghai-listed Wingtech, became the subject of e…
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We Were Right: Kaiser and Jeremy Reunite to Riff on the China Vibe Shift
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54:07This week on Sinica, I welcome back Jeremy Goldkorn, co-founder of the show and my longtime co-host, to revisit the "vibe shift" we first discussed back in February. Seven months on, what we sensed then has fully borne out — there's been a measurable softening in American attitudes toward China, reflected not just in polling data but in media cover…
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Welcome back to another episode of Child of Dog! Join Stephen and Ben for a conversation focused on child rearing, including topics such as: the hosts' middle-of-the-road curiosity about "parenting from the past," balancing analog and digital, protection versus exposure, homeschooling, progress, resilience, and how all of these topics inevitably re…
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Lizzi Lee on Involution, Overcapacity, and China's Economic Model
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1:24:51This week on Sinica, I chat with Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute and one of the sharpest China analysts working today. We dig into the 4th Plenary Session of the 20th Party Congress and what it reveals about China's evolving growth model — particularly the much-discussed but often misunderstood push a…
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Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan on Shifting Views of China
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1:05:08This week on Sinica, I chat with Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, editor of Foreign Affairs, about how the journal has both shaped and reflected American discourse on China during a period of dramatic shifts in the relationship. We discuss his deliberate editorial choices to include heterodox voices, the changing nature of the supposed "consensus" on China pol…
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After a brief and unplanned hiatus - and without their trusty producer Vas - Stephen and Ben return to the studio for another great episode! The boys recount Ben's birthday celebration in NYC, Stephen's recent and powerful experience with a cadaver dissection training, the hosts' relative experience with death and the question of what lies after, s…
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The View from Behind Xi Jinping's Desk, with Jonathan Czin
1:19:43
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1:19:43This week on the Sinica Podcast, I speak with Jonathan Czin, the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. His new essay in Foreign Affairs, “China Against China: Xi Jinping Confronts the Downsides of Success,” challenges the dominant Western narrative of Xi Jinpin…
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The Symbolism of the Flying Tigers: Peking University's Wang Dong on the American Volunteer Group and its Historical and Diplomatic Usages
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38:57This week on Sinica, I chat with Peking University's Professor Wang Dong (王栋), an international relations scholar at the School of International Studies at Peking University, where he also serves as Deputy Director and Executive Director of the Office for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding. Pro…
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Jasmine Sun on Silicon Valley through a Chinese Mirror
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1:11:18This week on Sinica, co-host Tianyu Fang makes his debut on the show to join me in interviewing his Stanford classmate and talented writer Jasmine Sun, who studies the anthropology of disruption. This summer, she took a trip to China with a group of friends with different levels of China experience, from people raised in the country to total novice…
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Yascha Mounk on China and Western Liberalism
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1:22:03This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with well-known author and public intellectual Yascha Mounk about his recent fascination with China, his approach to learning about the country and learning Chinese, and his thoughts on how China fits into the current crisis of Western liberal democracy. 7:15 – Yascha’s experience of living in China and learn…
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Today’s episode is a shorter, more somber one, focused on the life and death of Charlie Kirk. As young thinkers, fathers, and fellow humans, Stephen and Ben address the incident that has shaken the country, and share honest reflections about hope, optimism, free speech, community, globalism versus localism, mortality, and the future of humanity.…
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What Did the September 3 Parade Mean?
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1:43:11This week on Sinica, I speak first with retired Senior Colonel Zhou Bo, a frequent commentator on Chinese military and security affairs and a prolific writer now at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, and with Rana Mitter of the Harvard Kennedy School and author of Forgotten Ally, a book about World War II in …
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What Does China Want? The Authors of a New Paper Challenge the DC Consensus
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1:29:32This week on Sinica, I chat with Dave Kang (USC), Zenobia Chan (Georgetown), and Jackie Wong (American University in Sharjah, UAE) about their new paper in International Security titled "What Does China Want?" The paper, which has generated quite a bit of controversy, takes a data-driven approach to examine the claim that China seeks global hegemon…
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Stephen and Ben are back for episode five! The gap was longer than usual, but the conversation doesn't miss a beat. Ben is on the other side of his vasectomy, and Stephen has recently cut his finger and eaten a bad egg. Episode topics include: the ebb and flow of friendships, navigating medical situations with humor, drinking vessels, recreational …
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Trump's India Tariff Tirade: A Gift to Beijing? With Evan Feigenbaum
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1:03:36This week on the Sinica Podcast, I welcome back Evan Feigenbaum, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Evan served for many years as a State Department official, was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asia among his numerous positions in government, and was instrumental in buil…
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The Engineering State and the Lawyerly Society: Dan Wang on his new book "Breakneck"
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1:32:43This week on Sinica, I'm delighted to be joined by Dan Wang, formerly of Gavekal Dragonomics and the Paul Tsai Law Center at Yale University, now with the Hoover Institute's History Lab. Dan's new book is Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, and it's already one of the year's most talked-about books. In this conversation, we go beyond w…
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Chinese and U.S. AI Applications in Public Administration: Lessons and Implications for Ukraine
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1:18:46
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1:18:46Artificial intelligence has been a frequent topic on Sinica in recent years — but usually through the lens of the two countries that have produced the leading models and companies: the United States and China. We’ve covered generative AI, national strategies, governance frameworks, and the geopolitical implications of AI leadership. This webinar, b…
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Nuclear Weapons, Ukraine, and Great-Power Competition
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1:12:49Join me for a conversation with four fantastic panelists about nuclear safety and security issues brought on by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and more broadly on the state of nuclear security globally during this era of dramatic change. This program was made possible by the Ukrainian Platform for Contemporary China and the Center for Sla…
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The World AI Conference in Shanghai: Two tech veterans share their impressions
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1:26:01This week on Sinica, Paul Triolo of DGA Albright Stonebridge and tech investor Ryan Cunningham join to talk about their observations and insights from the World AI Conference (WAIC), held in July in Shanghai, and what it tells them about China's ambitions in the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence. Don't miss this one! 04:21 - Ryan on his …
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Chinese Cooking Demystified: Chris Thomas and Stephanie Li visit Shaxi!
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1:17:54This week on Sinica: On my final two days in Shaxi in Yunnan, Chris Thomas and Stephanie Li, the hosts of the marvelous YouTube channel Chinese Cooking Demystified, joined me for some cooking and lots of chatting about food! We recorded this show together and focus our conversation on their heroic attempt at a taxonomy of different Chinese cuisines…
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Welcome back for episode four of the COD POD (yes, we're making that nickname happen)! It's our first recording since the official launch of the show, and we're already talking abbreviations, merch, and the manifestation of a large listening audience! On today's episode, Ben and Stephen discuss heavy metal music, Ben's upcoming vasectomy, celebrity…
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Adam Tooze Climbs the China Learning Curve
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1:03:28I'm in Shaxi, a wonderful little town in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, and I was joined here by the Columbia economic historian Adam Tooze, who shared his thoughts on what he sees happening on the ground in China. Adam's been in China for the last month and reflects on his experiences learning about the country — and even attempting the langu…
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Ben and Stephen are back for episode three! Having just returned from Paris, Ben is sporting a haircut that is trés chic, even though he got it in the States...The show takes off in its usual, organic yet relatively unpredictable manner, covering topics such as: Hebrew school, the hosts' relationship with religion, the future and AI cults, attitude…
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From black coffee and Christian Slater, to Dave Matthews, the Zodiac Killer, and a discussion on capacity versus will, Ben and Stephen are back for episode two of the newly renamed Child of Dog podcast. Topics include nuance in media, failures of the expert class, groupthink, anti-heroes, boring conversations, the American West, and the difference …
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Welcome to Child of Dog! Or at this point, the Outrider Dogs Podcast. Ben and Stephen start by discussing the show's name (which changes after this episode) and the meaning behind the term "Outrider." The conversation organically flows from there, covering topics from dog training, generational attunements to emotion, parenting and interpersonal le…
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Carnegie's Tong Zhao on the Expansion of China's Nuclear Arsenal
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1:10:21
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1:10:21This week on Sinica, in a show taped in early June in Washington, Kaiser chats with Tong Zhao (赵通) of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading expert on Chinese nuclear doctrine, about why the PRC has, in recent years, significantly increased the size of its nuclear arsenal. Zhao offers a master class in the practice of strategic e…
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The Strange Afterlife of an American Football Story from China
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45:20In 2014, the writer Christopher Beam published a humorous, heartwarming story in The New Republic about an unlikely team of American football enthusiasts in Chongqing who went on to defeat their archrivals in Shanghai to win a championship. The piece was optioned by Sony Pictures, and had some big names attached, but was ultimately never made — not…
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The Raider: China and the Life of Evans Carlson, with Historian Stephen Platt
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1:22:06This week on Sinica, I chat with Stephen Platt, historian at UMass Amherst and author, most recently, of the book The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II. Like his previous works, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom and Imperial Twilight, it offers a compelling narrative history of an overlo…
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