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PODCAST

The Dynamist

Foundation for American Innovation

The Dynamist, a podcast by the Foundation for American Innovation, brings together the most important thinkers and doers to discuss the future of technology, governance, and innovation. The Dynamist is hosted by Evan Swarztrauber, former Policy Advisor at the Federal Communications Commission. Subscribe now!

technology

All Episodes

00:46:31

Unions and the New Right w/Liya Palagashvili

The Dynamist ·

2025/05/08

For decades, conservatives treated unions like an economic flu—tolerable in small doses, but best avoided altogether. But starting with Trump's election in 2016, that narrative began to unravel, with prominent Republicans increasingly taking pro-union positions.Perhaps the most striking example was Teamsters President Sean O'Brien speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Despite both parties courting working class voters, union membership has cratered to just 10%, down from over 20% in

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00:53:55

AI for Science and Discovery, w/Austin Carson

The Dynamist ·

2025/05/05

The race to harness AI for scientific discovery may be the most consequential technological competition of this time—yet it's happening largely out of public view. While many AI headlines focus on chatbots writing essays and tech giants battling over billion-dollar models, a quiet revolution is brewing in America's laboratories.AI systems like AlphaFold (which recently won a Nobel Prize for protein structure prediction) are solving scientific problems that stumped humans for decades. A bipartisan

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00:54:42

How to Make Social Media Better w/Alissa Cooper

The Dynamist ·

2025/04/25

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 daily—not to mention billions of people around the world. And over the past decade, we’ve seen a major backlash over the various failings of Big Tech. Much of the ire of policymakers has been focused on content moderation choices—what content gets left up or taken down. But arguably there hasn’t been much focus on the underlying design of social media

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00:52:17

Can AI Be Privately Regulated? w/Andrew Freedman

The Dynamist ·

2025/04/22

When it comes to AI policy, and AI governance, Washington is arguably sending mixed signals. Overregulation is a concern—but so is underregulation. Stakeholders across the political spectrum and business world have a lot of conflicting thoughts. More export controls on AI chips, or less. More energy production, but what about the climate? Less liability, or more liability. Safety testing, or not? “Prevent catastrophic risks”, or “don’t focus on unlikely doom scenarios.” While Washington looks

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00:41:50

Tech and the Family: Building for the Next Generation...

The Dynamist ·

2025/04/14

In this week’s episode of The Dynamist, guest host Jon Askonas is joined by Katherine Boyle, (General Partner at a16z), and Neil Chilson, (AI Policy at the Abundance Institute), to tackle a critical yet often overlooked question: How is technology reshaping the American family? As tech giants like TikTok and Instagram come under scrutiny for their effects on children’s mental health, and remote work continues to redefine domestic life, the conversation around technology’s role in family dynamics has

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00:53:22

Antitrust and Big Tech: from Biden to Trump w/Lina Khan

The Dynamist ·

2025/04/07

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 published over 80 editorials criticizing her approach, while politically opposed tech titans like LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and Tesla's Elon Musk called for her firing. Meanwhile, an unlikely coalition of progressive Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and populist Republicans like JD Vance rallied behind her vision of more aggressive antitrust

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00:45:21

BlueSky: Feed Freedom, or X-odus Refuge? W/ CEO Jay...

The Dynamist ·

2025/04/04

BlueSky was once a research initiative within Jack Dorsey’s Twitter aimed at decentralizing the architecture or the platform social media writ large. Today, BlueSky is an independent platform with remarkable momentum. Following Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and subsequent policy shifts, BlueSky has experienced unprecedented growth, expanding from 3 million to 30 million users since February 2024.That “X-odus” of frustrated progressives to BlueSky has perhaps inadvertently shaped public

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00:50:13

Mutually Assured Malfunction and the AI Arms Race...

The Dynamist ·

2025/03/27

AI has emerged as a critical geopolitical battleground where Washington and Beijing are racing not just for economic advantage, but military dominance. Despite these high stakes, there's surprising little consensus on how—or whether—to respond to frontier AI development.The polarized landscape features techno-optimists battling AI safety advocates, with the formerdismissing the latter as "doomers" who exaggerate existential risks. Meanwhile, AI business leaders face criticism for potentially

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00:46:42

A Counterfeit Cloud over U.S.-China Trade w/ Joel Thayer

The Dynamist ·

2025/03/21

It’s an understatement that U.S.-China relations have been tense in recent years. Policymakers and industry leaders have elevated concerns around China’s trade practices, including currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, and allegations that China is directing or enabling fentanyl to flood into the U.S.Trade and public health are increasingly linked, as COVID revealed the vulnerability of medical supply chains when U.S. overreliance on China led to delays and shortages of masks and

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00:54:21

Tech Made in America: Trump’s Tariffs and Industrial...

The Dynamist ·

2025/03/19

Since President Trump returned to office, tariffs have once again dominated economic policy discussions. Recent headlines have highlighted escalating trade tensions with China, renewed disputes with Canada and Mexico, and the ongoing controversy surrounding Trump’s proposal to repeal the CHIPS Act—a $52 billion semiconductor initiative that enjoys wide support in Congress as essential for U.S. technological independence.But while tariffs capture public attention, beneath these headlines is a much

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00:47:46

Public Service Error 404: Tech Talent Not Found...

The Dynamist ·

2025/03/13

Everyone wants government to work better, and part of that is updating outdated systems and embracing modern technology. The problem? Our federal government faces a critical tech talent crisis. Only 6.3% of federal software engineers are under the age of 30, which is lower than the percentage of total federal workers under 30. That means that federal tech talent skews older than lawyers, economists, etc. Not to mention, Silicon Valley pays 2-3x more than the feds, which makes it hard to attract

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00:55:32

Fusion: A Thousand Years of Energy? w/Sachin Desai...

The Dynamist ·

2025/03/06

Fusion energy, potentially a fuel source that could last a thousand years, is transitioning from science fiction to business reality. Helion Energy recently signed the first fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft, promising 50 megawatts by 2028. But the story isn't just about the physics breakthroughs that make fusion possible. The U.S. and China are tussling for global leadership in fusion, as is the case in so many fields. And as China is outspending the US on fusion research by about $1.5

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00:58:11

Finding the Middle of Social Media w/Renée DiResta...

The Dynamist ·

2025/02/18

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, Instagram, and Threads. Critics lamented the potential for more mis/disinformation online while proponents (especially conservatives) rejoiced, as they saw the decision as a rollback of political censorship and viewpoint discrimination. Beneath the hot takes lie bigger questions around who should control what we see online. Should critical decisions around

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00:48:47

America's Education Emergency w/Chester Finn, Dan...

The Dynamist ·

2025/02/11

During the pandemic from 2020 to 2021, Congress dropped $190 billion to help reopen schools, provide tutoring, and assist with remote learning. The results? Fourth graders' math scores have plummeted 18 points from 2019-2023, eighth graders’ have dropped 27 points - the worst decline since testing began in 1995. Adult literacy is deteriorating too, with Americans in the lowest literacy tier jumping from 19% to 28% in just six years. Are we watching the collapse of academic achievement in real

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00:39:03

Building American Talent: Education as National...

The Dynamist ·

2025/02/11

During the pandemic, Congress spent an unprecedented $190 billion to help reopen schools and address learning loss. But new test scores show the investment isn't paying off - fourth and eighth grade reading levels have hit record lows, performing worse than even during COVID's peak. As the Trump administration signals dramatic changes to federal education policy, from eliminating the Department of Education to expanding school choice, questions about federal involvement in education are moving from

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00:59:38

Unbreaking Bureaucracy: State Capacity 101 w/Jennifer...

The Dynamist ·

2025/02/06

The newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has put state capacity back in the spotlight, reigniting debates over whether the federal government is fundamentally broken or just mismanaged. With Elon Musk at the helm, DOGE has already taken drastic actions, from shutting down USAID to slashing bureaucratic redundancies. Supporters argue this is the disruption Washington needs; critics warn it’s a reckless power grab that could erode public accountability. But regardless of where

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00:49:42

A Little Tech Agenda for 2025 w/Garry Tan and Jon...

The Dynamist ·

2025/01/31

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 Pichai and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg—placed even ahead of Cabinet members. As the plum seating signaled a striking shift in Silicon Valley's relationship with Washington, just 24 hours later, the administration announced Stargate, a $500 billion partnership with OpenAI, Oracle, and other tech giants to build AI infrastructure across America.But beneath the

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00:47:23

DeepSeek: Deep Trouble for U.S. AI? w/Tim Fist and...

The Dynamist ·

2025/01/28

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s release of AI reasoning model R1 sent NVIDIA and other tech stocks tumbling yesterday as investors questioned whether U.S. companies were spending too much on AI development. That’s because DeepSeek claims it made this model for only $6 million, a fraction of the hundreds of millions that OpenAI spent making o1, its nearest competitor. Any news coming out of China should be viewed with appropriate skepticism, but R1 nonetheless challenges the conventional American

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00:59:08

Copyright vs. AI Part 4: The Road Ahead w/Tim Hwang...

The Dynamist ·

2025/01/17

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 critical juncture. In this final episode of The Dynamist's series on AI and copyright, Evan is joined by FAI's Senior Fellow Tim Hwang and Tech Policy Manager Joshua Levine to discuss how these legal battles could determine whether world-leading AI development happens in Silicon Valley or Shenzhen.The conversation examines the implications of Meta's

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00:39:35

Copyright vs. AI Part 3: IP and Cybersecurity w/Jason...

The Dynamist ·

2025/01/16

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 market dynamics, technological solutions, and geopolitics could reshape today's contentious battles over AI training data. Joined by Jason Zhao, co-founder of Story AI, and Jamil Jaffer, Executive Director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University, the conversation moves beyond current lawsuits to examine practical paths

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