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PODCAST

Clearer Than Truth

Nathan Kiker & George Bogden

The wisdom of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson inspires our podcast. It emphasizes clarity while examining the intricate global issues of today for a diverse audience. In a world where time is limited, this podcast aims to distill complex ideas into straightforward narratives, making them not just comprehensible but in Acheson’s words, “clearer than truth.” The podcast, much like other news-oriented shows, is committed to keeping listeners updated on breaking global events. Airing once every

government social sciences

All Episodes

42:52

Vali Nasr | Dean Emeritus of Johns Hopkins SAIS |...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/10/05

Vali Nasr joins Clearer Than Truth to explain why Americans often misunderstand the forces shaping the Middle East. Nasr argues that the region cannot be understood simply through religion, terrorism, or ancient sectarian divisions; instead, geopolitics, competition for power, contested borders, resources, and outside intervention are central to understanding its conflicts. He examines the evolution of terrorism, explaining why it has never been exclusively a product of poverty or religious e...

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44:51

James M. Lindsay | Distinguished Senior Fellow |...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/09/29

James M. Lindsay joins Clearer Than Truth for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of American power and the international system the United States helped build. Lindsay is a longtime scholar of U.S. foreign policy and the policymaking process at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he previously served as senior vice president and director of studies and where he hosts The President's Inbox. For roughly eight decades, American foreign policy has operated around an assumption that ...

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40:01

Joby Warrick | Two-Time Recipient of the Pulitzer...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/09/25

Joby Warrick returns to Clearer Than Truth to discuss his new book, The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos the World's First Super-Terrorist. A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Washington Post, Warrick has spent decades reporting on terrorism, intelligence failures, and the conflicts shaping the modern Middle East. This time, he goes back to the 1970s to examine the extraordinary career of Carlos the Jackal and what his story can tell us about terrorism today. Carlos was mo...

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40:05

Richard Overy | Fellow of the British Academy |...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/09/23

Richard Overy is one of the world's leading historians of the Second World War and the history of warfare. In this episode of Clearer Than Truth, Overy draws on decades of research to examine one of the most enduring questions in international politics: why do leaders continue to choose war when history repeatedly demonstrates how difficult it is to control? The conversation begins with the dangers of comparing today's conflicts too directly to the 1930s and 1940s. Overy argues that today's g...

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42:53

Robert Zoellick | Former World Bank President

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/09/15

Robert Zoellick, former U.S. Trade Representative, Deputy Secretary of State, and President of the World Bank, joins Clearer Than Truth for a wide-ranging conversation about globalization, trade, American power, and the future of the international order. Zoellick argues that the backlash against globalization has become intertwined with a broader backlash against elites and established institutions—but warns that the United States risks responding to legitimate concerns in ways that ultimatel...

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41:08

Declan Walsh | Pulitzer Prize Recipient | Chief...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/08/27

Africa is becoming increasingly central to the global order, yet many of its conflicts and political shifts remain overlooked in Western discourse. On this episode of Clearer Than Truth, Nathan speaks with Declan Walsh, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Chief Africa Correspondent for The New York Times, about the forces reshaping the continent. Walsh begins with the war in Sudan, a conflict whose scale and human toll rival some of the world's most prominent wars but has received considera...

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44:05

H.W. Brands | Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Finalist |...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/08/21

Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and acclaimed presidential historian H.W. Brands joins Clearer Than Truth to explore what history can teach us about American leadership, democracy, and the presidency. Brands discusses what separates great presidents from mediocre ones, arguing that the most important quality in a leader is good judgment—the ability to make wise decisions in circumstances where there are rarely clear answers. He explains why presidents like George Washington, Theodore Rooseve...

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37:09

Arne Westad | Author of The Coming Storm, Preeminent...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/08/14

Arne Westad, one of the world’s leading historians of international history and the Cold War, joins Clearer Than Truth to examine the geopolitical forces reshaping the world. Westad argues that today’s rivalry between the United States and China should not simply be viewed as a new Cold War. Instead, he sees stronger parallels with the period before World War I—a time when a relatively stable international system began to fracture, multiple regional conflicts emerged, and no one could predict...

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43:24

Mike Rogers | Former Commander of US Cyber Command |...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/08/07

Admiral Mike Rogers joins hosts Nathan Kiker and George Bogden to assess how cyber deterrence, disinformation, and rapid advances in AI are reshaping strategic competition. Rogers argues that the United States’ most consequential vulnerability is domestic: deep polarization that blocks consensus on hard problems—public debt, social programs, and technology governance—making solutions more costly the longer they’re deferred. The result is a political system struggling to keep pace with a secur...

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34:14

Julian Zelizer | Professor of History at Princeton |...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/07/29

Julian Zelizer joins Nathan Kiker and George Bogden to assess how polarization and party dynamics have reshaped U.S. governance—and why that matters for foreign policy, markets, and national security. He argues that political parties are indispensable institutions that organize interests and enable collective decision-making, but warns that key guardrails and leadership norms have eroded since the 1990s. The result is a Congress more prone to procedural hardball and performative conflict, wit...

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44:31

Bojan Pancevski - Chief European Political...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/07/23

Bojan Pancevski, Chief European Political Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and author of The Nord Stream Conspiracy, unpacks the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and its far‑reaching strategic consequences. The episode centers on attribution, tradecraft, and the emerging legal case in Germany—an unusually clear window into how a small clandestine team can generate outsized geopolitical effects by targeting critical undersea infrastructure. Nathan Kiker and George Bogdan press Pa...

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38:24

Benjamin Alarie - CEO of Blue J Legal and co-author...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/07/15

Benjamin Alarie joins hosts Nathan Kiker and George Bogdan to examine how rapidly improving AI systems can strengthen the administration of law—starting with tax, where complexity, volume, and inconsistency have long constrained access to justice. Alarie argues that legal AI is transitioning from promise to performance, producing measurably more accurate and comprehensive research while enabling the kind of population-level analysis that policymakers and practitioners have struggled to execut...

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33:40

David Ignatius - Associate Editor, The Washington Post

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/07/03

David Ignatius assesses how a fragmenting international order is reshaping U.S. strategy, allied cohesion, and day‑to‑day security. He argues the Middle East is settling into a harder-edged equilibrium: Iran’s hardliners have gained leverage despite battlefield setbacks to Tehran’s proxies; the Strait of Hormuz will likely reopen on Iran’s terms; and Turkey’s assertiveness is now a central strategic variable for Israel. These dynamics matter because they redefine risk at an energy chokepoint ...

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38:53

Brad Thor - NYT Bestselling Author of Choke Point

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/06/11

Brad Thor returns to the show to discuss his latest thriller, Choke Point, a geopolitical suspense novel that explores one of the most consequential strategic questions of the 21st century: what happens if China gains control over the world's most critical maritime chokepoints. A #1 New York Times bestselling author and creator of the Scott Harvath series, Thor explains how real-world concerns about China's Belt and Road Initiative, the Strait of Malacca, and gray-zone warfare inspired the no...

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29:47

Dr. Michael Auslin – Stanford Hoover Institution...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/06/07

Dr. Michael Auslin, historian, Hoover Institution fellow, and author of National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America, joins the show to explore the remarkable journey of America's founding document as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary. In this conversation, Auslin explains why the Declaration of Independence was originally viewed as a practical wartime necessity rather than a sacred national text. He walks through the dramatic debates surrounding independence,...

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42:10

Mark Galeotti - Author of over 25 books on Russia;...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/05/22

Mark Galeotti is one of the world’s foremost experts on Russia, an honorary professor at University College London, director of Mayak Intelligence, and author of more than 30 books on Russian history, intelligence, and organized crime. His latest work, Forged in War, explores the military history of Russia from its origins to the present day. In this episode, Galeotti explains why Vladimir Putin’s recent Victory Day parade revealed not strength—but vulnerability. He breaks down the growing st...

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36:00

Douglas Brunt - New York Times Best-Selling Author

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/05/18

Douglas Brunt is a New York Times bestselling author, and host of the podcast Dedicated. His latest book, The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel, uncovers the forgotten story of the Nobel family’s oil empire — a business that once rivaled Rockefeller’s Standard Oil before being erased from history by the Soviet regime. In this episode, Brunt explores the rise of Emanuel Nobel, nephew of Alfred Nobel, and how the Nobel family transformed the Russian oil industry into one of the largest petroleum emp...

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38:42

Ryan Crocker - Former U.S. Ambassador

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/05/12

Ryan Crocker is one of the most distinguished diplomats in modern American history, serving as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, and Kuwait over a decades-long diplomatic career at the center of U.S. foreign policy. In this episode, Ambassador Crocker argues that the world is passing through a dangerous geopolitical “hinge point” — one marked by growing instability in the Middle East, rising strain on U.S. alliances, and the potential breakdown of the post-World ...

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42:02

David McCloskey - Co-Host of The Rest is Classified

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/05/05

David McCloskey is a former CIA analyst and presidential briefer, now a bestselling author and co-host of the hit podcast The Rest Is Classified. He is the author of acclaimed spy novels including Damascus Station, Moscow X, and The Persian. In this episode, McCloskey pulls back the curtain on the world of intelligence—explaining why people are so fascinated by espionage and how secret operations can shape global events. He discusses the role of individuals versus systems in geopolitics, argu...

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38:13

Kenneth Rogoff - Professor of International Economics...

Clearer Than Truth ·

2026/04/30

Kenneth Rogoff is a professor of international economics at Harvard University and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. One of the world’s most influential economists, his work spans financial crises, central banking, and global currency systems. His latest book, Our Dollar, Your Problem, examines the future of U.S. financial dominance. In this episode, Rogoff explains why the U.S. dollar’s global dominance—long a cornerstone of American power—may be gradually weakening....

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