Ethan Thornton

speaker

1,249 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 4 Aug

Ethan Thornton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe · 497: Ethan Thornton—I Like a Lotta Problems · 4 Aug 2026 podcast

Defense isn't just like make me a viper.

Defense is also critical minerals.

Defense is also certainly energy plays into this.

Like we need sovereignty on energy.

We can't get pulled into wars over energy.

And so look, I think it's somewhere in the middle.

I think general, yeah, general principles for things where the government is the customer that are absolutely required to have ownership on for sovereignty, which is mostly defense, but a few other things.

I think I do believe in somewhat of a top-down government approach.

I don't believe in nationalization.

I just believe in thoughtful policy.

I think it is very important, and I don't think the government should do this, and I don't think the government has to do this, but I think it's really, really important that we manufacture the next wave of technologies.

I think technology will be an order of magnitude, 10 times more important in the next decade than it's been in the last few decades.

And even if you look at the manufacturing problem, if America gets really, really, really good at building high production automated factories, a lot of this gets easier.

Right.

Suddenly things make sense to make in the U.S.

again.

Now, that is how I think we need to move more atoms as a country is by innovating our way into efficiency, which then correlates to the people who work in those factories, because you will still need people in those factories making more money.

But if you try to force that top down from a government perspective without that innovation, and the government is horrible at driving innovation, it's not a knock on our government specifically, it's just the nature of big institutions.

I don't think you'll end up with that.

And I think you'll end up falling behind other countries that have thoughtful policy.

Showing 961–980 of 1,249 · page 49 of 63