The Z.ai Playbook
Zixuan Li is Director of Product and genAI Strategy at Z.ai (also known as Zhipu 智谱 AI). The release of their benchmark-topping flagship model, GLM 4.5, was akin to “another DeepSeek moment,” in the w...
21 Nov 20251h 16min
Jake Sullivan on Playing the Long Game
After five long years since his last ChinaTalk appearance, Jake Sullivan returns to the show! We discuss… Sullivan’s experience managing crises, implementing grand strategy, and cultivating lea...
18 Nov 20251h 10min
Second Breakfast: Acquisition Reform? Are We Really Doing It?
Justin and Eric cohost with Pete Modigliani and Matt McGregor, coauthors of the Defense Tech and Acquisition substack (https://defenseacquisition.substack.com/). Chapters 16:24 The Future of Defense...
15 Nov 20251h 4min
Overfit: AI Lovers, Chinese Model Takeover, Vice Signalling, Hefei Model
Jasmine Sun (https://jasmi.news/), Nathan Lambert (https://www.interconnects.ai/), and special guest Afra Wang (https://afraw.substack.com/). Our article on 'China makes AI girlfriends and America m...
11 Nov 202559min
Second Breakfast: Colby's Pigpen, Counter-UAS, Training, Eat like a Trumper (or Iranian Spy?)
we cooked better than cafe milano 00:00 Colby's trainwreck of a hearing + right wing DC food 16:42 Countering Drones 35:32 How to train seriously Guests include: Tony Stark, Army vet who write...
7 Nov 20251h 5min
EMERGENCY POD: Tariffs on Trial
Peter Harrell and Oren Cass join the show to talk IEEPA at the Supreme Court and broader US grand strategy towards China. 03:01 IEPA Tariffs and Their Implications 17:27 Reciprocity and Trade Agreem...
6 Nov 20251h 21min
CCP Bureaucracies in War
Why do leaders with vast expert bureaucracies at their fingertips make devastating foreign policy decisions? Tyler Jost, professor at Brown, joins ChinaTalk to discuss his first book, Bureaucracies at...
2 Nov 20251h 21min
Second Breakfast: Xi-Trump, Taiwan Deterrence, Tibetan Buddhism, Antietam
Featuring the Kirsten and Charlotte Asdal alongside Tony (https://www.breakingbeijing.com/) Eric Robinson, Justin (https://justinmc.substack.com/) and myself Chapters 02:55 US-China Relations: Punct...
30 Okt 202553min
