The Dynamist
Episodes
Looking Forward, Looking Back: a 2025 Tech Policy ‘Wrapped’ w/Luke Hogg and Josh Levine
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2025, tech policy felt like everything happened everywhere at once. Google lost two antitrust cases but avoided a breakup. Meta won its case entire...
The U.S. and China Tussle on Rare Earths w/Joseph Krause and Farrell Gregory
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
China's October decision to add five rare earth elements to its export control list confirmed what policymakers have long feared. China controls 60% o...
The Feds Have a $100 Billion IT Problem w/Luke Hogg and Dan Lips
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The federal government spends over $100 billion on information technology (IT) every year. About 80 percent of that goes toward operating and maintain...
Trump Calls for Federal AI Standard w/Dean Ball
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The push for a federal standard on AI is back. With support from President Trump, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is looking to add an effective b...
Grid-Locked: The Battle over Data Centers w/ Asad Ramzanali and Daniel King
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The future of AI may be decided in backyards. Data Centers—the sprawling facilities designed to support the massive computing required to train and ...
A Conservative Agenda for American Science Policy w/Ian Banks
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For three decades, conservatives abandoned science policy. Now they have a chance to rebuild it.That rebuilding effort comes with political challenges...
Who Should Regulate AI, and How? w/Matt Perault and Jai Ramaswamy
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
California governor Gavin Newsom recently signed into law the country’s first comprehensive regulatory framework for high-risk AI development. SB 53...
LIVE: FCC Launches Space Month
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr just announced "Space Month" at the agency. Speaking from Apex's new satellite manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Califor...
Trump Asserts Control over Agencies Humbled by Courts w/Tom Johnson
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In President Trump’s second term, federal agencies are navigating uncharted territory. Two Supreme Court cases from June 2024 fundamentally changed ...
How to Stop U.S. Gov’t Payments to Dead People and Chinese Banks w/ Dan Lips and Lars Schönander
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this follow-up to his interview with Senator Joni Ernst, Evan dives into the legislative weeds of government efficiency reform with FAI scholars Da...
A Decade-Long War Against Government Waste w/ U.S. Senator Joni Ernst
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For over a decade, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has been a persistent voice against government waste, issuing "squeal awards" that exposed bureaucratic e...
NVIDIA and Intel: A Tale of Two Chip Firms w/Oren Cass
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Not too long ago, NVIDIA was a niche tech company known for the graphics cards that powered computer gaming. Thanks to skyrocketing growth over the pa...
Tech Politics in the AI Age w/Nick Solheim
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we're crossposting this episode where our own Evan Swarztrauber joined American Moment CEO Nick Solheim on the Moment of Truth podcast to d...
There Are Chinese Spies at Stanford w/Elsa Johnson and Garret Molloy
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Stanford students Elsa Johnson and Garret Molloy began investigating Chinese intelligence operations on their campus for the Stanford Review, the...
An American AI Action Plan w/Charles Clancy and Joshua Levine
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While Silicon Valley builds advanced AI models and Beijing integrates them into state power, Washington faces an uncomfortable reality: America's inno...
Racing China to the Quantum Future w/Dr. Peter Shadbolt
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Quantum computing has been "five years away" for decades, but when NVIDIA's Jensen Huang says we've hit an inflection point, Congress listens and stoc...
A Free Speech Recession? w/Ashkhen Kazaryan and Jacob Mchangama
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is free speech in global decline? A new survey suggests public support for free expression is dropping worldwide, with citizens in authoritarian count...
America First Antitrust w/ Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Gail Slater
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gail Slater is the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Department of Justice (DOJ). She was nominated in December of last year and confirm...
A Post-Mortem on a Moratorium w/James Wallner and Luke Hogg
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The One Big Beautiful Bill is now President Trump's signature legislative achievement, including sweeping changes to taxes, immigration, and spending ...
The Techno-Industrial Policy Playbook: Part II w/Austin Bishop and Julius Krein
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week on the Dynamist, we spoke with several of the architects behind the Techno-Industrial Policy Playbook (TIPP). Part I covered key questions o...
The Techno-Industrial Policy Playbook w/Robert Bellafiore, Kelvin Yu, Santi Ruiz, and Chris Griswold
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. production base has slipped: China passed America in manufacturing output in 2011 and last year ran a surplus roughly equal to Britain’s en...
China, Made by Apple w/ Patrick McGee
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump’s tariffs on China have highlighted how much American companies, and consumers, depend on products made in China. And arguably no co...
Nuclear 101: Reactors of the Future with Ed Petit De Mange, Patrick O’Brien, Kathleen Nelson Romans and Emmet Penney
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nuclear power is experiencing a notable revival in policy circles. The Trump administration has moved quickly on this front, drafting executive orders...
Keeping Kids Safe Online w/Clare Morell
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most American parents say technology makes it harder to raise kids than in the pre-social media era. And while social scientists debate the exact impa...
Permission to Build: How States Are Shaping our Energy Future w/ Thomas Hochman and Emmet Penney
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
America's infrastructure future isn't being decided in Washington—it's being fought permit by permit in state capitals across the country. While pol...
Digitizing the State: Lessons from Estonia w/Joel Burke and Keegan McBride
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In an era where government tech projects often end in billion-dollar failures and privacy nightmares, there's a tiny Baltic nation that's quietly revo...
A Conservative Realignment on Antitrust w/FTC Commissioner Mark Meador
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Meador is the newest commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, which plays a dual role: enforcing both antitrust and consumer protection laws...
Unions and the New Right w/Liya Palagashvili
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, conservatives treated unions like an economic flu—tolerable in small doses, but best avoided altogether. But starting with Trump's elec...
AI for Science and Discovery, w/Austin Carson
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The race to harness AI for scientific discovery may be the most consequential technological competition of this time—yet it's happening largely out ...
How to Make Social Media Better w/Alissa Cooper
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy to take for granted how much social media pervades our lives. Depending on the survey, upwards of 75-80 percent of Americans are using it ...
Can AI Be Privately Regulated? w/Andrew Freedman
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to AI policy, and AI governance, Washington is arguably sending mixed signals. Overregulation is a concern—but so is underregulation. ...
Tech and the Family: Building for the Next Generation w/Katherine Boyle and Neil Chilson
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this week’s episode of The Dynamist, guest host Jon Askonas is joined by Katherine Boyle, (General Partner at a16z) and Neil Chilson (Head of AI ...
Antitrust and Big Tech: from Biden to Trump w/Lina Khan
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During the Biden Administration, few figures in Washington sparked so much debate and caused so much spilled ink as Lina Khan. The Wall Street Journal...
Bluesky: Feed Freedom, or X-odus Refuge? W/ CEO Jay Graber
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
BlueSky was once a research initiative within Jack Dorsey’s Twitter aimed at decentralizing the architecture or the platform social media writ large...
Mutually Assured Malfunction and the AI Arms Race w/Dan Hendrycks and Sam Hammond
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
AI has emerged as a critical geopolitical battleground where Washington and Beijing are racing not just for economic advantage, but military dominance...
A Counterfeit Cloud over U.S.-China Trade w/ Joel Thayer
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s an understatement that U.S.-China relations have been tense in recent years. Policymakers and industry leaders have elevated concerns around Ch...
Tech Made in America: Trump’s Tariffs and Industrial Policy w/Marc Fasteau and Ian Fletcher
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since President Trump returned to office, tariffs have once again dominated economic policy discussions. Recent headlines have highlighted escalating ...
Public Service Error 404: Tech Talent Not Found w/Arun Gupta
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone wants government to work better, and part of that is updating outdated systems and embracing modern technology. The problem? Our federal gove...
Fusion: A Thousand Years of Energy? w/Sachin Desai and Thomas Hochman
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fusion energy, potentially a fuel source that could last a thousand years, is transitioning from science fiction to business reality. Helion Energy re...
Finding the Middle of Social Media w/Renée DiResta and Luke Hogg
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Zuckerberg sent shockwaves around the world when Meta announced the end of its fact-checking program in the U.S. on its platforms Facebook, Insta...
America's Education Emergency w/Chester Finn, Dan Lips, and Robert Bellafiore
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During the pandemic from 2020 to 2021, Congress dropped $190 billion to help reopen schools, provide tutoring, and assist with remote learning. The re...
Building American Talent: Education as National Security w/Melissa Moritz, Sara Schapiro, Dan Lips, and Robert Bellafiore
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During the pandemic, Congress spent an unprecedented $190 billion to help reopen schools and address learning loss. But new test scores show the inves...
Unbreaking Bureaucracy: State Capacity 101 w/Jennifer Pahlka and Andrew Greenway
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has put state capacity back in the spotlight, reigniting debates over whether the fed...
A Little Tech Agenda for 2025 w/Garry Tan and Jon Askonas
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At Trump's second inauguration, one of the biggest stories, if not the biggest, was the front-row presence of Big Tech CEOs like Google’s Sundar Pic...
DeepSeek: Deep Trouble for U.S. AI? w/Tim Fist and Sam Hammond
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s release of AI reasoning model R1 sent NVIDIA and other tech stocks tumbling yesterday as investors questioned whethe...
Copyright vs. AI Part 4: The Road Ahead w/Tim Hwang and Josh Levine
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As revelations about Meta's use of pirated books for AI training send shockwaves through the tech industry, the battle over copyright and AI reaches a...
Copyright vs. AI Part 3: IP and Cybersecurity w/Jason Zhao, Jamil N. Jaffer, and Tim Hwang
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the third installment of The Dynamist's series exploring AI and copyright, FAI Senior Fellow Tim Hwang leads a forward-looking discussion about how...
Copyright Versus AI Part 2: Hollywood and Creators
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From the SAG-AFTRA picket lines to the New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI, the battle over AI's role in creative industries is heating up. In this ...
Copyright Versus AI Part 1: The Legal Battle w/Pamela Samuelson
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Copyright law and artificial intelligence are on a collision course, with major implications for the future of AI development, research, and innovatio...
The Future of Digital War w/Kevin Kennedy
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As we approach the three-year mark of the war in Ukraine, and conflict continues to rage in the Middle East, technology has played a key role in these...
Looking Forward, Looking Back: a 2024 Tech Policy ‘Wrapped’ w/Luke Hogg and Josh Levine
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 has been a whirlwind year for tech policy, filled with landmark moments that could shape the industry for years to come. From the high-profile an...
Age Gates & Free Speech: The Texas Porn Law Debate w/Adam Candeub and Robert Corn-Revere
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is growing concern among parents and policymakers over the Internet’s harms to children—from online pornography to social media. Despite tha...
Is Medicare a ‘Valley of Death’ for Innovation? w/Katie Meyer
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is Medicare a valley of death for medical innovation? While the U.S. is seen as a global leader in medical device innovation, the $800+ billion progra...
How Regulators Should Approach Big Tech and Corporate Power w/ Andrew Ferguson
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a once sleepy, three-letter agency in Washington that serves as the nation’s general purpose consumer protecti...
Elon, Vivek, and Government Efficiency w/Sam Hammond and Dan Lips
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
President-elect Trump recently announced that entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk had ...
Tech Election Postmortem
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Republicans won control of the Senate, and the GOP is slated to maintain control of the House. If you...
From Quantum Realm to Quantum Reality with Travis Scholten
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When people hear 'quantum physics,' they often think of sci-fi movies using terms like 'quantum realm' to explain away the impossible. But today we're...
Election Forecasting w/Derek Robertson
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When voters head to the polls next week, tech policy won't be top of mind—polling shows immigration, the economy, abortion, and democracy are the pr...
Should Conservatives Embrace Elon Musk? w/Chris Griswold
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few years, Elon Musk’s political evolution has been arguably as rapid and disruptive as one of his tech ventures. He has transformed f...
Tech Coup: Has Silicon Valley Become A Shadow Government? w/ Marietje Schaake
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have tech companies become more powerful than governments? As the size and reach of firms like Google and Apple have increased, there is growing conce...
Gov. Newsom Vetoes Controversial AI Bill w/ Dean Ball & Sam Hammond
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On September 29th, Governor Newsom vetoed SB 1047, a controversial bill aimed at heading off catastrophic risks of large AI models. We previously cove...
A ‘Public Option’ for the Gig Economy? w/Wingham Rowan
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since the advent of platforms like Uber, Instacart, and DoorDash, the so-called gig economy has been intertwined with technology. While the apps no do...
Nuclear Power: Fear, Cost, and Politics w/ Emmet Penney & Thomas Hochman
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the average person thinks of nuclear energy, there’s a good chance they’re thinking in terms influenced by pop culture—Homer Simpson’s un...
What Should Be Done About Misinformation? w/Renée DiResta
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The recent riots in the United Kingdom raise new questions about online free speech and misinformation. Following the murder of three children in Sout...
The Right to Repair w/ Kyle Wiens
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has made headlines for being picked as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate. One underreported aspect of his reco...
Scarlett Johansson’s Voice in Congress w/ Luke Hogg & Josh Levine
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
OpenAI unleashed a controversy when the famed maker of Chat GPT debuted its new voice assistant Sky. The problem? For many, her voice sounded eerily s...
J.D. Vance and the Future of the Right w/Oren Cass, Marshall Kosloff, & Jon Askonas
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Trump’s pick of J.D. Vance as his running mate is seen by many as the culmination of a years-long realignment of Republican and conservative politic...
SCOTUS Rules on State Social Media Laws w/Daphne Keller
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On July 1, the Supreme Court issued a 9-0 ruling in NetChoice v. Moody, a case on Florida and Texas’s social media laws aimed at preventing companie...
Reindustrializing America w/ Austin Bishop & Jon Askonas
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time for American industry’s Lazarus moment. At least, that’s what a growing coalition of contrarian builders, investors, technologists, an...
Hard Tech on the Space Coast w/ Andrew Côté & Jon Askonas
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For this special edition episode, FAI Senior Fellow Jon Askonas flew down to Palm Bay, FL to mix and mingle with the brightest minds in aerospace, man...
How the Valley Turned Silicon into Gold and Power w/ Rob Lalka
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley was once idolized for creating innovations that seemed like modern miracles. But the reputations of tech entrepreneurs have been tren...
Is Big Tech Co-Opting Startups? w/ Adam Rogers
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is how many assume the tech economy is supposed to work. Big, established companies are at risk of getting disrupted as they get set in their way...
Tornado (Cash) Warning w/ Peter Van Valkenburgh
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tornado Cash is a decentralized cryptocurrency mixing service built on Ethereum. Its open-source protocol allows users to obscure the trail of their c...
Is America’s ‘Free-Market’ a Myth? w/Rob Atkinson
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Social media undermines democracy. Small businesses are more innovative than big ones. Corporate profits are at all-time highs. America’s secret wea...
Can We Be Ready for the Next Pandemic? w/ Swati Sureka
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is American ready for the next pandemic? The answer is a resounding “no,” according to a recent Washington Post editorial. When the U.S. was caugh...
California Comes for AI w/ Brian Chau & Dean Ball
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to AI regulation, states are moving faster than the federal government. While California is the hub of American AI innovation (Google,...
How to Win the New Cold War w/ Michael Sobolik
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is America in a new Cold War with China? If so, who is winning? One of the defining features of the 21st century has been the intensifying competition...
LIVE: Beff Jezos, Andrew Côté, & Sam Hammond on the Future of AI
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Should we accelerate into the AI future or proceed with caution? Do we even have a choice?From deep-tech disruptors to policymaking under time pres...
The Internet of Things is Less Secure Than You Think w/FCC Commissioner Simington
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The number of internet-connected devices in the world has skyrocketed. According to one estimate, there are currently 17 billion connected devices in ...
Debate: Should TikTok Divest or Face a Ban?
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, President Biden signed into law a bill that would require TikTok to divest itself from Chinese parent company ByteDance or else face a ban ...
Will Congress Tackle FBI Spying? w/ David DiMolfetta
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the U.S., there is supposed to be some division between domestic and foreign police activities. The CIA handles overseas activities, while the FBI ...
Cloak and Data: The New Surveillance State w/Byron Tau
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the digital world, there is an enduring tension between privacy and security. What is our right to privacy from the government or the companies who...
Is the Internet Broken? w/Frank McCourt, Jr.
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is the Internet broken? The original promise of this great invention is that it would offer a platform for free information exchange, empowering indiv...
Congress Plays TikTok-Toe w/Adam Kovacevich & Nathan Leamer
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On March 13, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 352 to 65 on the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. This bi...
Beeper Tries to Burst Apple’s Bubble w/Eric Migicovsky
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are you an Android user? Have you been ridiculed for the dreaded green text bubble, or been accused of “messing up the group chat?” In December, ...
Conservative Futurism w/Jim Pethokoukis, Jon Askonas, & Robert Bellafiore
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Many conservatives lament a decades-long stagnation of innovation. As Peter Thiel once quipped, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 character...
A Supreme Debate on Social Media w/ Carl Szabo & Adam Candeub
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our inaugural live recording ofThe Dynamist, FAI hosted a debate on two upcoming Supreme Court cases, Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton. T...
China's Influence in Entertainment w/ Chris Fenton
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the ways the Chinese government looks to exert influence is by changing the behavior of businesses and individuals who operate in China. Rememb...
The Worldwide Web of Online Privacy w/Jennifer Huddleston
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee brought the CEOs of major tech companies like Meta and TikTok to answer questions about the impact of social...
Can AI Unlock Transparent Governance? w/Jamie Joyce
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our government agencies are hopelessly out of date. Public documents are stored in backroom file cabinets, instead of being digitized and posted onlin...
OpenAI Gets Sued w/Matthew Sag & Zach Graves
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the tech companies violated the newspaper’s copyrights by training ChatGPT on millions of...
Can China Outmatch the U.S. in ‘Discourse Power’? w/ Kenton Thibaut
16 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In examining international competition between the U.S. and rivals like China, we tend to think of two types of power—military and economic. How lar...
Could AI Blunt the Next Pandemic? w/ Phil Siegel
26 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
With the benefit of hindsight, there’s a lot that people wish they could have done differently after a pandemic, wildfire, or other disasters. That’...
Google’s Epic Battle w/ Adam Kovacevich
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A San Francisco jury recently ruled that Google's Android app store is a monopoly, siding with Epic Games in a lawsuit initiated in 2020. The verdict ...
LIVE: Jennifer Pahlka & Michael Kratsios on Building a Tech to Government Talent Pipeline
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The worlds of tech and policy are increasingly integrated, for good or ill. Tech professionals are recognizing government service as a vital way to co...
Solving America's Math Problem Pt. 2 w/ Mark Schneider
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A recent New York Times editorial painted a damning portrait of learning loss from COVID-19 school closures, arguing it “may prove to be the most da...
Bison Nationalism w/ Micah Meadowcroft
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last few years, a small but influential group of right-of-center Twitter/X users have begun outlining a vision for what they half-jokingly re...
Faith in the Algorithm pt. 2 w/Taylor Barkley
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The human fascination with creating life dates back centuries. From the ancient myth of Pygmalion, who carved the statue that came to life, to the Jew...
Marc Andreessen on Techno-Optimism and Its Enemies
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto set the tech world ablaze just a few short weeks ago – and now, he responds to his critics. A bold sta...
Solving America’s Math Problem w/ Melissa Moritz
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to science and math education, America’s report card has been in decline. According to the National Science Foundation, U.S. students ...