In this episode, I speak with Jordan Schneider, creator of Chinatalk, to explore the new phase of US–China competition. Both countries are using trade policy, export controls and industrial strategy to shift the balance of global power. Yet, their economies remain tightly bound.

We cover:

(01:34) The US and China’s decoupling

(07:28) Why attempts to control China backfired

(08:51) Understanding the Oct. 9th rare Earth rules

(11:27) The modern iteration of Chinese communism

(14:23) Is decoupling a strategy to avoid weaponization?

(16:12) US leadership might be shooting from the hip

(19:22) Are system changes inherently messy?

(21:27) “Vibe-based” sovereignty

(26:03) AI incumbents aren’t entrenched—yet

(29:07) Why China remains focused on AI deployment

(32:45) The different versions of tech-accelerationism

(33:37) How will societies withstand rapid change?

(36:54) What the West can learn from China

(40:10) Where China is most misunderstood

(43:14) Imagining an improved US-China relationship

Where to find Jordan:

• Substack: https://substack.com/@chinatalk
• YouTube: @ChinaTalkMedia‬
• Linkedin: / jorschneider
• X: https://x.com/jordanschnyc

Where to find me:

• Substack: https://www.exponentialview.co/
• Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/
• LinkedIn:/ azhar
• X: https://x.com/azeem

Produced by EPIIPLUS1 Ltd and supermix.io

Production and research: Chantal Smith, Hannah Petrovic and Marija Gavrilov.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem Azhar sat down with Matthew Prince, co-founder & CEO of Cloudflare. Matthew is a rare operator with the vantage point to answer a simple question: if agents do the reading, who gets paid?

This conversation is a practical map of how AI “answer engines” upend the web’s traffic-funded model – and what could replace it.

Chapters:

• (00:46) The currency of the web is dying
• (06:08) Google's inflection point
• (10:08) Why a broken business model might save the internet
• (14:44) The incentivization of ragebait
• (20:38) Content scarcity as a solution
• (24:35) What could a new content business model look like?
• (28:51) The challenge of pricing information
• (29:31) How Cloudflare thinks about the creator economy
• (32:06) Should smaller companies pay less?
• (34:24) Can markets solve this without Congress?
• (39:11) How does the agentic web affect content?
• (43:40) A rare chance to redesign the internet

Produced by EPIIPLUS1 Ltd and supermix.io

Production and research: Chantal Smith, Hannah Petrovic, Nathan Warren and Marija Gavrilov.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, I spoke with Dan Wang, author of “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future”, shortlisted for the FT & Schroders Business Book of the Year.

Dan is one of the most astute observers of China’s technological and industrial development, and his annual letters from Beijing have long been required reading for those seeking to understand the country’s evolving role in the world.

We unpacked a bold thesis: China is not merely a competitor in AI and tech, but is re-imagining its entire state apparatus as an engineering state - in contrast to the more “lawyerly” institutions of the US and UK.

If you’re interested in AI, energy or geopolitics, this conversation is for you.

We covered:

(00:47) Why China is an engineering state

(03:40) China’s pro-engineering disposition

(06:08) The role of market competition in China

(08:07) Living through Zero COVID

(11:35) What political science terms get wrong

(12:58) Characteristics of a lawyerly society

(15:23) What Americans misunderstand about China

(21:54) Has China produced essential tech?

(23:50) The AI divide: China vs. US

(27:45) Differences in energy production

(32:07) The inherent value of process knowledge

(38:34) Is the US developing pro-engineering policies?

(44:23) What does it take for countries to compete?

Where to find me:

• Substack: https://www.exponentialview.co/
• Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/azeem

Where to find Dan:

• Website: https://danwang.co/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danwang15/
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/danwwang

Production by supermix.io and EPIIPLUS1 Ltd, including Chantal Smith, Marija Gavrilov, Nathan Warren and Hannah Petrovic.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.