Let's Know Things

This week we talk about peaker plants, blackouts, and at-home battery backups.

We also discuss energy resiliency, solar panels, and hydro.

Recommended Book: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Transcript

Peaking power plants, often just called peaker plants, are power plants that are only turned on during periods of high energy demand. That’s in contrast to a base load power plant, which is the sort of plant that operates more or less 24/7 to ensure there’s a steady amount of electricity available on the local power grid.

The...

This week we talk about borders, trade wars, and belligerence.

We also discuss Trump’s tariffs, inflation, and nationalism.

Recommended Book: Vulture Capitalism by Grace Blakeley

Transcript

The US and Canada share the longest international border in the world, totaling more than 5,500 miles, or nearly 8,900 km. The specific details of this border have changed over the decades, but the current delineation was largely in place following the San Juan Islands water arbitration of 1872, which brought a 12-year joint military standoff between the US and Great Britain, known as the Pig War, to...

This week we talk about the liver, viral infections, and the NHS.

We also discuss blood scandals, needle usage, and Nobel Prizes.

Recommended Book: A World Appears by Michael Pollan

Transcript

The term “hepatitis” refers to the inflammation of the liver, which can result from all kinds of things, including environmental toxins, the consumption of alcohol, or autoimmune diseases. It can also result from viral infections, and the most prominent liver-inflaming viruses are called viral hepatitis.

There are five types of viral hepatitis, A, B, C, D, and E, and...

This week we talk about Evo 2, bacteriophages, and antibiotics.

We also discuss AI models, medical innovations, and the Red Army.

Recommended Book: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

Transcript

A bacteriophage, sometimes just called a phage, is a type of virus that only infects bacteria. “Phage” means to devour, and that’s what bacteriophages do—they infect and replicate within bacteria that they target, injecting their own genome into that target’s cytoplasm, which are all the materials contained within the bacteria’s cell membrane.

Phages are super-ab...

This week we talk about Melilla, hybrid warfare, and migration.

We also discuss Morocco, civil conflict, and immigration politics.

Recommended Book: Playground by Richard Powers

Transcript

Ceuta is a Spanish-owned territory located in northwestern Africa, along the top of Morocco. It’s small—about seven square miles—and is unusual because it is a city owned by a European Union member state that isn’t located on the European continent; it’s bordered by Morocco and the Mediterranean, and is located at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, which is the strait...

This week we talk about Fable, sandboxes, and the Jacobian conjecture.

We also discuss counterexamples, X, and ChatGPT.

Recommended Book: After the Fall by Edward Ashton

Transcript

In mathematics, a conjecture is a proposition, something like a guess by someone who knows what they’re talking about, about something believed to be true, but not yet proven in a formal sense. The goal is to then eventually come up with a formal proof for that informed guess, at which point the conjecture becomes a theorem. If even a single exception is fo...

This week we talk about cyclospora, FoodNet, and Taylor Farms.

We also discuss iceberg lettuce, Taco Bell, and foodborne pathogens.

Recommended Book: Babel by R.F. Kuang

Transcript

Foodborne pathogens cause about 48 million illnesses and around 3000 deaths in the US alone each year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the main agency tasked with keeping those numbers as low as possible, and the CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, is one way that they’ve tackled this pernicious, persistent problem since 1995, in partnership with the...

This week we talk about Russia, Ukraine, and the Warsaw Pact.

We also discuss Patriot interceptors, Hungary, and Article 5.

Recommended Book: The Alternative by Nick Romeo

Transcript

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, was founded in the wake of WWII, in 1949, in order to affirm unity between non-Soviet European nations, Atlantic nations like Greenland and Iceland, and the US and Canada, over in North America.

The main purpose of this unity was to establish a sort of firewall around the western perimeter of the Soviet Union, which at...

This week we talk about Sony, Nintendo, and the Playstation.

We also discuss Grand Theft Auto, the 3DO, and digital dark ages.

Recommended Book: 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi

Transcript

The earliest video game consoles that were made to be used in the home, as opposed to being set up in an arcade, were hardwired like their arcade kin. That means rather than being able to play a bunch of different games, they were basically just single-game boxes: you would buy a machine that allowed you to play Pong, for...

This week we talk about air conditioners, pressure systems, and heat stress.

We also discuss weather memes, climate change, and dirty grids.

Recommended Book: Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore

Transcript

An air conditioner, or AC, or maybe air con if you’re in the UK, is a device that moves heat from one location to another. In doing so, it usually dehumidifies the air, as well, so it can rapidly cool a room or entire building by shifting both heat and humidity from that room or building, elsewhere—usua...

This week we talk about plug-in power, renewables, and Germany.

We also discuss inverters, solar arrays, and microgrids.

Recommended Book: Consider This by Chuck Palahnuik

Transcript

Most climate scientists and knowledgable folks in adjacent fields will tell you that, as a species, we’re way behind where we need to be if we’re going to avoid a whole lot of negative consequences caused by global climate change.

We’ve blazed past a bunch of tipping points already, and while the worst-case scenarios we were worried about a decade ago ar...

This week we talk about LDL, HDL, and cardiovascular issues.

We also discuss one-time therapies, statins, and pharmaceutical economics.

Recommended Book: Blood by Dr. Jen Gunter

Transcript

Cholesterol is the most common type of what’s called a sterol, which is a type of steroid, but also structurally technically an alcohol. But functionally, and classified by scientists, cholesterol is a lipid, which in this case is similar to a fat in all but how the body uses it. Cholesterol is the type of sterol most commonly found in animals—other types are...

This week we talk about initial public offerings, Anthropic, and investment flywheels.

We also discuss AI, financial entanglements, and backstops.

Recommended Book: Superconvergence by Jamie Metzl

Transcript

An initial public offering, or IPO, is what happens when a private company goes public and starts selling shares of itself, occasionally to just institutional investors like banks and sovereign wealth funds, but usually also to retail investors, which means normal people who buy stocks as part of their investment strategy.

Often private companies go this route, go public, because it’s on...

This week we talk about the Merchant Marine Act, trade routes, and incentives.

We also discuss Wesley Jones, foreign competition, and artificial monopolies.

Recommended Book: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

Transcript

In 1920, the then-Senator for the state of Washington, Wesley Jones, who was also the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced the Merchant Marine Act as a method by which the American merchant marine could be sustained and remain competitive in the face of external competition, and in the wake of the destruction of a bunch of ship during...

This week we talk about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, malaria, and healthcare infrastructure.

We also discuss militants, Uganda, and the Bundibugyo virus.

Recommended Book: We Should Get Together by Kat Vellos

Transcript

Ebola, which is more formally called Ebola Virus Disease or Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, is caused by an infection by a type of RNA virus called an orthoebolavirus.

There are six known species of orthoebolavirus, and four of them have at some point infected and caused illness in humans. Those four are the ebola virus, sometimes...

This week we talk about oceanic surface temperatures, trade winds, and global climate change.

We also discuss the Polar Jet Stream, hurricanes, and climate models.

Recommended Book: Kleptopia by Tom Burgis

Transcript

Under normal circumstances, the Pacific Ocean’s average surface temperature, the distribution of heat across its vast expanse, is moderated by trade winds that blow east to west along the equator, which help move warm water from South America over toward Asia.

Those winds are called trade winds because, back during the European age of Exploration, they he...

This week we talk about Keir Starmer, Labour, and the Reform UK party.

We also discuss Tories, the Lib Dems, and two-party systems.

Recommended Book: Peak by K. Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Transcript

For more than 100 years, the British political system has been dominated by two parties: Labour and the Conservative Party, often called the Tories.

In practice, that means these two parties, which are center-left and center-right in their leanings, respectively, have tended to shape the direction of British politics and the Overton Window of thinkable proposals—th...

This week we talk about industrialization, antibiotics, and child mortality rates.

We also discuss corruption, instability, and progress.

Recommended Book: Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

Transcript

Demographic transition is a social sciences theory that posits, based on all sorts of modern historical data, that societies tend to change, demographically, as they transition from a largely agrarian, low-industrial society, to that of a less-agrarian, high-industrial society.

Most modern, post-hunter-gatherer societies have started out plowing the vast majority of their labor into bare subsistence, human beings spending their days, throughout...

This week we talk about the Strait of Hormuz, oil, and Russia.

We also discuss Patriot missiles, expensive weapons, and peer rivals.

Recommended Book: Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Transcript

During 2025 and early 2026, about 20 million barrels of crude oil and other petroleum products was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz every day. That’s about a quarter of the world’s total seaborne oil, and essentially all of that oil, and gas, and those other energy products that pass through this strait are from Middle Eastern suppliers like Saudi Arabia, Iraq...

This week we talk about Orbán, Hungary, and reformers.

We also discuss Fidesz, Tisza, and illiberalism.

Recommended Book: I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin

Transcript

Hungary is a Central European country that was formed in the aftermath of WWI as part of the Treaty of Trianon, which—due to it having fought on the losing side of that conflict—resulted in the loss of more than 70% of its former territory, most of its economy, nearly 60% of its population, and about 32% of ethnic Hungari...

This week we talk about Project Glasswing, Anthropic, and Q Day.

We also discuss exploit markets, vulnerabilities, and zero days.

Recommended Book: The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

Transcript

In the world of computer security, a zero-day vulnerability is an issue that exists within a system at launch—hence, zero-day, it’s there at day zero of the system being available—that is also unknown to those who developed said system.

Thus, if Microsoft released a new version of Windows that had a security hole that they didn’t know abo...

This week we talk about modems, WiFi, and kinda sorta bribes.

We also discuss Huawei, government subsidies, and the FCC.

Recommended Book: Replaceable You by Mary Roach

Transcript

Many homes, those with WiFi connections to the internet, have two different devices they use to make that connectivity happen.

The first is a modem, which is what connects directly to your internet service provider, often via an ethernet jack in the wall that connects to a series of cables webbed throughout your city.

The second is a router...

This week we talk about cheap drones, energy resources, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We also discuss the Strait of Hormuz, the war in Iran, and economic asymmetry.

Recommended Book: The Age of Extraction by Tim Wu

Transcript

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been pretty universally bad for everyone involved, very much including Russia, which going into the fifth year of this conflict, which it started by massing troops on its neighbor’s border and invading, unprovoked, following years of funding asymmetric military incursions in Ukraine’s southeast. Following their fu...

This week we talk about the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and decapitation attacks.

We also discuss Venezuela, Iran, and the Platt Amendment.

Recommended Book: The Will of the Many by James Islington

Transcript

Cuba is a large island nation, about the same size as the US state of Tennessee, which formally gained its independence from Spain in late 1898, following three wars of independence, the last of which brought the US, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines into play against the Spanish when the Spanish military sunk the USS Maine in...

This week we talk about BYD, Tesla, and the Blade Battery 2.0.

We also discuss EVs, internal-combustion engines, and autonomous vehicles.

Recommended Book: Blank Space by W. David Marx

Transcript

Petroleum-powered vehicles, cars and trucks and SUVs of the kind that have become the standard since the mid-20th century, work by mixing fuel that you put in the tank when you fill up at the gas station with air, in the engine, and then creating a controlled explosion—in modern vehicles using what’s called a four-stroke combustion cycle of intake, comp...

This week we talk about Khamenei, Trump, and Netanyahu.

We also discuss Venezuela, Cuba, and cartels.

Recommended Book: Plagues upon the Earth by Kyle Harper

Transcript

Ali Hosseini Khamenei was an opposition politician in the lead-up to the Iranian Revolution that, in 1979, resulted in the overthrow of the Shah—the country’s generally Western government-approved royal leader—and installed the Islamic Republic, an extremely conservative Shia government that took the reins of Iran following the Shah’s toppling.

Khamenei was Iran’s third president, post-Shah, and he was president during the...

This week we talk about Anthropic, the Department of Defense, and OpenAI.

We also discuss red lines, contracts, and lethal autonomous systems.

Recommended Book: Empire of AI by Karen Hao

Transcript

Lethal autonomous weapons, often called lethal autonomous systems, autonomous weapons systems, or just ‘killer robots,’ are military hardware that can operate independent of human control, searching for and engaging with targets based on their programming and thus not needing a human being to point it at things or pull the trigger.

The specific nature and capabilities of these devi...

This week we talk about Trump’s tariffs, the Supreme Court, and negotiating leverage.

We also discuss trade wars, Greenland, and the IEEPA.

Recommended Book: Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh

Transcript

I’ve spoken on this show before about tariffs and about US President Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs as an underpinning of his trade policy. Last October, back in 2025 I did an episode on tariff leverage and why the concept of an ongoing trade war is so appealing to Trump—it basically gives him a large whammy on anyone he enter...

This week we talk about mass surveillance, smart doorbells, and the Patriot Stack.

We also discuss Amazon, Alexa, and the Super Bowl.

Recommended Book: Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

Transcript

In 2002, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the US government created a new agency—the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, operating under the auspices of the US Department of Homeland Security, which was also formed that year for the same general reason, to defend against 9/11-style attacks in the future.

...

This week we talk about OpenAI, nudify apps, and CSAM.

We also discuss Elon Musk, SpaceX, and humanistic technology.

Recommended Book: Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

Transcript

xAI is an American corporation that was founded in mid-2023 by Elon Musk, ostensibly in response to several things happening in the world and in the technology industry in particular.

According to Musk, a “politically correct” artificial intelligence, especially a truly powerful, even generally intelligent one, which would be human or super-human-scale capable, would be dangerous, leading to systems like H...

This week we talk about the European Union, India, and tariffs.

We also discuss trade barriers, free trade, and dumping.

Recommended Book: The Kill Chain by Christian Brose

Transcript

A free trade agreement, sometimes called a free trade treaty, is a law that reduces the cost and regulatory burden of trading between two or more states.

There are many theories as to the ideal way to do international trade, with some economists and politicians positing that complete free and open trade is the way to go, because it allows...

This week we talk about social networks, propaganda, and Oracle.

We also discuss foreign adversaries, ByteDance, and X.

Recommended Book: Rewiring Democracy by Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders

Transcript

In 2021, TikTok, a short-form video platform that’s ostensibly also a social network, though which leans heavily toward consuming content over socializing, was ranked the most popular website by internet services company Cloudflare, beating out all the other big tech players, including search engine juggernaut, Google.

It was a neck and neck sort of thing, with Google taking the le...

This week we talk about war, inflation, and currency devaluation.

We also discuss tyrants, police violence, and social media threats.

Recommended Book: Post-Growth Living by Kate Soper

Transcript

Back in mid-June of 2025, a shooting war erupted between Iran and Israel, with Israeli military forces launching attacks against multiple Iranian military sites, alongside sites associated with its nuclear program and against individual Iranian military leaders.

Iran responded to these strikes, which left a lot of infrastructural damage and several military leaders assassinated, with large waves of missiles and drones against...

This week we talk about Venezuela, Maduro, and international law.

We also discuss sour crude, extrajudicial killings, and Greenland.

Recommended Book: The Keep by F. Paul Wilson

Transcript

Back in mid-November of 2025, I did an episode on extrajudicial killings, focusing on the targeting of speedboats, mostly from Venezuela headed toward the United States, by the US military. These boats were allegedly carrying drugs meant for the US market, and the US government justified these strikes by saying, basically, we have a right to protect ourselves, protect our citizens from the harm...

This week we talk about prediction markets, incentives, and gambling addiction.

We also discuss insider trading, spot-fixing, and Gatorade.

Recommended Book: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta

Transcript

Prediction markets are hundreds of years old, and have historically been used to determine the likelihood of something happening.

In 1503, for instance, there was a market to determine who would become the next pope, and from the earliest days of commercial markets, there were associated prediction markets that were used to gauge how folks thought a given...

This week we talk about energy consumption, pollution, and bipartisan issues.

We also discuss local politics, data center costs, and the Magnificent 7 tech companies.

Recommended Book: Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth

Transcript

In 2024, the International Energy Agency estimated that data centers consumed about 1.5% of all electricity generated, globally, that year. It went on to project that energy consumption by data centers could double by 2030, though other estimates are higher, due to the ballooning of investment in AI-focused data centers by some of the world’s largest tech companies.

Th...

This week we talk about NVIDIA, AI companies, and the US economy.

We also discuss the US-China chip-gap, mixed-use technologies, and export bans.

Recommended Book: Enshittification by Cory Doctorow

Transcript

I’ve spoken about this a few times in recent months, but it’s worth rehashing real quick because this collection of stories and entities are so central to what’s happening across a lot of the global economy, and is also fundamental, in a very load-bearing way, to the US economy right now.

As of November of 2025, around the sa...

This week we talk about in-game skins, investment portfolios, and Counter-Strike 2.

We also discuss ebooks, Steam, and digital licenses.

Recommended Book: Apple in China by Patrick McGee

Transcript

Almost always, if you buy an ebook or game or movie or music album online, you’re not buying that ebook, or that game, or whatever else—you’re buying a license that allows you access it, often on a specified device or in a specified way, and almost always in a non-transferrable, non-permanent manner.

This distinction doesn’t matter much to most...

This week we talk about floods, wildfires, and reinsurance companies.

We also discuss the COP meetings, government capture, and air pollution.

Recommended Book: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares

Transcript

The urban area that contains India’s capital city, New Delhi, called the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has a population of around 34.7 million people. That makes it the most populous city in the country, and one of the most populous cities in the world.

Despite the many leaps India has made over th...

This week we talk about radioactive waste, neutrons, and burn while breeding cycles.

We also discuss dry casks, radioactive decay, and uranium.

Recommended Book: Breakneck by Dan Wang

Transcript

Radioactive waste, often called nuclear waste, typically falls into one of three categories: low-level waste that contains a small amount of radioactivity that will last a very short time—this is stuff like clothes or tools or rags that have been contaminated—intermediate-level waste, which has been contaminated enough that it requires shielding, and high-level waste, which is very radioactive material that crea...