Germany and France have historically formed the core of Europe and the European Union. Joseph de Weck - political analyst, historian, author, columnist, and Europe Director at Greenmantle - knows both exceptionally well and joins Danny Buerkli to unpack the state of Europe. They discuss the influence of Paul Ricœur on Emmanuel Macron, why French baguette bread is so standardized, what may happen at the German elections in 2029, and the big shifts under way in Europe’s geopolitical posture.

Every aspect of modernity was shaped by individuals with intellectual roots in Vienna, argues Richard Cockett, author of "Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World". Richard, historian and senior editor at The Economist, joins Danny Buerkli to discuss his latest book. They cover the story of the stunningly productive and creative Viennese emigrés, discuss implications for progress today and trace how the intellectual feud between Vienna and Frankfurt still reverberates today.

Which effects of AI are we already seeing in the labor market? And what might be coming down the line? Bharat Chandar, postdoc at Stanford and co-author of the "Canaries in the Coal Mine" paper, joins Danny Buerkli to discuss what we know about the impacts of AI on the labor market and where the jury is still out.

Patricia Ryan Madson, professor emerita at Stanford and author of "Improv Wisdom", joins Danny Buerkli to talk about how she got into improv, how she starts a class, how status works, Keith Johnstone's dark side, and the four A's of improv: attention, acceptance, appreciation, and action.

Jamais Cascio, futurist, scenario expert, and author of Navigating the Age of Chaos, joins Danny Buerkli for a deep dive into scenario planning. They discuss how the discipline has evolved since the days of Herman Kahn at RAND and Pierre Wack at Shell, whether the military or the private sector do it better, why geoengineering might lead to predictable trouble (and why we might do it anyway), and whether today’s AI is more or less weird than Jamais once imagined. Jamais also reflects on his time working with Ken Waltz and shares the story behind his BANI framework, which captures how many now perceive the world: brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible.

Antoine Bosselut, Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, joins Danny Buerkli to explain how he and his team built Apertus, the 'open' LLM. Antoine and Danny discuss why taxpayers should fund this work, which constraints bite hardest when creating an LLM outside one of the large labs, and which public investments may be needed now.

Vishal Jodhani, a master facilitator, joins Danny Buerkli to talk about what makes facilitation work. They discuss what makes for a good question, how to know the difference between productive chaos and unproductive confusion, and what is underappreciated about the Berlin club scene.

Don Kettl — prolific scholar of public administration — joins Danny Buerkli talk about state capacity and government reform. They discuss what DOGE got right (and what it didn't), whether gradual government is possible at all, why Operation Warp Speed was so unreasonably effective, and what lessons we should learn from Paul Volcker.