With political violence on the rise and new weapons like drones proliferating, is it still possible to protect America’s leaders?  Why has such a basic governmental mission been overstretched and underfunded?  Which is the bigger threat—invisible “lone wolves” among us, or nation-states like Iran who openly threaten assassinations? 

Ron Rowe was acting director of the U.S. Secret Service, and he personally protected multiple presidents as a career agent. In his first-ever podcast, Ron joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to explain what’s different about today’s threats, how agents stay mentally focused, and why America should build a full-scale replica of the White House. 

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Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

Guest: 

Ronald L. Rowe, Jr.

People are worried that AI will automate their jobs. Yet Brian Merchant has interviewed hundreds of workers disrupted by AI, and what he sees isn’t a technological revolution but a centuries-old power struggle: bosses wielding new tech as leverage to deskill and destabilize workers.

Merchant is a tech journalist and critic whose book, Blood in the Machine, gives a sympathetic history of the original Luddites. He joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to explain what 19th century English craftsmen can tell us about AI, why he doesn’t lose sleep over Chinese models, and how to have a better industrial revolution.

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Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

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Brian Merchant: https://x.com/bcmerchant

Data centers may be the most controversial objects in America. They’re blamed for draining water reservoirs, stressing electrical grids, and driving up utility bills.  Communities throughout the country are pushing back and seeking moratoria.

But Andy Masley says this is all wrong—that data centers aren’t especially resource-hungry. Through his dogged research and insistence on putting numbers in context, Andy has emerged as the most influential debunker of data center myths.

He joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to compare ChatGPT prompts with microwaving a burrito and explain why a bestselling book overestimated AI’s water use by one thousand times.

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Andy Masley: https://x.com/AndyMasley?lang=en 
 

NATO’s future remains in doubt as Donald Trump again threatens to pull U.S. troops from Europe. But the practical stakes of these debates aren’t always clear. What military capabilities does Europe stand to lose? How long would it take to replace them? And how might Russia exploit any gap? 

Sophia Besch, a German expert on European defense policy who has worked inside NATO, joins The World Unpacked to explore U.S. pullout scenarios — up to and including Russian attacks on the Baltics. She and host Jon Bateman dig into Europe's historic rearmament, its chance to invent a new way of war, and why peace in Ukraine could unleash new dangers. 

Find the episode transcript and streaming audio, and get the show direct to your inbox, here: https://carnegieendowment.org/preview/podcasts/the-world-unpacked/how-europe-fights-russia-without-the-us 

Host: Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

Guest: Sophia Besch: https://x.com/SophiaBesch

The U.S. and Israel just fought a second war over Iran's nuclear program—and one of the world's leading nuclear experts says America lost. Iran's uranium stockpile sits fully intact in tunnels too deep to reach, and Tehran walked away with more leverage in nuclear talks.

James Acton, a physicist and longtime analyst of Iran’s program, joins host Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to give a detailed update on this crisis. Has the new supreme leader already decided to build a weapon? How quickly could Iran “break out” or “sneak out” to the bomb? And why does Acton now expect more wars—followed by a nuclear detonation?

Host: Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

Guest: James Acton: https://x.com/james_acton32?lang=en 
 

A U.S.-China war over Taiwan would be catastrophic for all sides and the world. Preventing such a war requires understanding how it might unfold—from start to finish—including worst-case scenarios. 

How much warning would there be? Where might China strike first? Which countries join the fight? Can Taiwan defend its coasts? Would nuclear threats determine the outcome? 

Charles Hooper is a retired U.S. general who served as one of the Pentagon’s top China strategists and spent years living in the country. He joined Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to give a step-by-step scenario for the war that no one wants.

Find the episode transcript, and get the show direct to your inbox, here: https://carnegieendowment.org/podcasts/the-world-unpacked/how-a-us-china-war-would-unfold 

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Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

Guest: 
Lieutenant General (Ret.) Charles “Hoop” Hooper: https://x.com/LTG_CHooper 

00:00 Introduction 
01:42 Understanding China Through Military Engagement 
09:54 How a Taiwan Conflict Could Begin 
20:27 U.S. and Allied Responses 
35:04 Global Economic Impact 
39:03 Taiwan's Defense Prospects 
47:14 Nuclear Escalation Risks 
52:28 Avoiding Conflict and Looking Ahead

The wars unleashed by October 7th have left the Middle East deeply fractured—Iran battered and defiant, Gaza destroyed, Israel militarized, the Gulf insecure and divided. And an even bigger disruption lies just ahead: the oil revenues that built the modern Arab world will halve by 2050, forcing countries to redesign themselves. 

Marwan Muasher—a former foreign minister of Jordan and now a VP at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace—joins The World Unpacked to make sense of a region in flux. He explains why Washington should get tougher on Israel, Gulf countries may already have peaked in power, and the end of oil could be a good thing. 

Like and subscribe to our channel: https://bit.ly/38sljlH 

Find the episode transcript and streaming audio, and get the show direct to your inbox, here: https://carnegieendowment.org/podcasts/the-world-unpacked/in-the-new-middle-east-no-one-is-in-charge 

Host: Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

Guest: Marwan Muasher: https://x.com/MarwanMuasher

Theo Baker is no ordinary college senior. His student newspaper articles brought down Stanford’s president. Now he’s written a book about the making of the young tech elite.

How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University reveals the “Stanford within Stanford”—the unofficial pipeline linking Silicon Valley investors to top students. It’s a pathway to power unlike any other, fueling the AI gold rush and remaking Stanford itself.

Theo joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to debate the deeper meaning of Stanford’s tech ties. Is it a normal and necessary part of capitalism, or a devil’s bargain corrupting education? And what does Stanford’s story say about other civic institutions fighting for their souls as AI eats the world?

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Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman

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Theo Baker: https://x.com/tab_delete

Russia’s surprising recent Internet shutdown did more than disrupt daily life: it also crippled the regime’s own communications and propaganda. It’s one of a series of strange events—from a diminished Victory Day parade to crackdowns on businesspeople and celebrities—that suggest growing disorder and confusion within the Russian state.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Moscow insider who quit over the Ukraine War, says that Vladimir Putin has lost focus on running the country. She joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to explain the erosion of Russia’s social contract and share stories from her new book From Sovereigns to Servants: How the War Against Ukraine Reshaped Russia’s Elite.

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Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

Guest: 

Alexandra Prokopenko: https://x.com/amenka 
 

There’s been remarkably little public debate about a potential U.S. attack on Cuba.  President Trump said last week that he “will be taking over” Cuba “almost immediately”—and similar threats led to military action in both Venezuela and Iran.

Javier Corrales, a political scientist at Amherst College and the son of Cuban exiles, joins The World Unpacked to game out this crisis. Javier and host Jon Bateman discuss Cuba’s economic vulnerability, its political staying power, and why Trump might wind up making a deal with the Castros very similar to one made by Barack Obama.

Host: Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman 

Guest: Javier Corrales: https://x.com/jcorrales2011 
 

AI-powered bots and slop content are everywhere now, making it harder to tell who’s human. Will the Internet become so bot-ridden that it’s simply unusable? Or will people be forced to prove their identities online—giving up privacy and eroding democracy?

Nick Pickles battled bots at Twitter and is now chief policy officer at Tools for Humanity, the Sam Altman-founded startup that reads eyeballs with an Orb. On this episode of The World Unpacked, Nick joined host Jon Bateman to explore the brewing authenticity crisis, the geopolitics of privacy, and the surprising legacy of a 1993 New Yorker cartoon.