The News Items Podcast

John Ellis talks with interesting people doing important work. Some you've heard of. Some you haven't. All of them are worth listening to, at some length.

The News Items Podcast is a arts podcast hosted by News Items, with 23 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

News Items hosts The News Items Podcast, a arts show with 23 episodes published.

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  Episode #25

  The Global Order, With Benn Steil (Episode 25)

  Oct 2, 202634 minS1

  Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins John Ellis to examine why the postwar global economic order is under growing strain, and how China sits at the center of that story. Steil traces the evolution from Bretton Woods and GATT to the WTO, arguing that China’s integration into the global trading system created enormous benefits while also exposing deep tensions between different economic models. The conversation covers the first “China shock,” tariffs, cheap Chinese steel, and the difficulty of economically disentangling the United States and China. Steil also explains why the dollar remains dominant, how stablecoins could actually reinforce that dominance, and why Chinese subsidies in EVs and artificial intelligence present a new competitive challenge. Finally, Ellis and Steil discuss what it really means to “win” the AI race—and whether U.S. trade and economic policy has a coherent strategy for getting there. News-Items.com Hosted by John Ellis Produced by Dale Eisinger

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  Episode #24

  Investing In Ukraine, With Perry Boyle (Episode 24)

  Sep 29, 202649 minS1

  Perry Boyle, co-founder and CEO of MITS Capital, joins John Ellis from Kyiv to discuss how the war in Ukraine is reshaping modern warfare, and why he believes the West is not adapting fast enough. Boyle, a former Wall Street executive, explains how he went from retirement to investing in Ukrainian defense technology, backing startups working on drones, autonomous systems, AI, and battlefield components. He describes a war increasingly fought through sensors, robotics, data, and unmanned systems rather than traditional weapons, and argues that NATO doctrine and training remain badly behind Ukraine’s battlefield experience. Boyle also paints a stark picture of Ukraine’s financial and military position, warning that without substantially greater European support, the country could face severe difficulties sustaining the war. The conversation closes with his argument that Ukraine’s defense-tech ecosystem could become critical not only to Ukraine’s survival, but to Europe’s future security. News-Items.com Hosted by John Ellis Produced by Dale Eisinger

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  Episode #23

  What's The Matter With Polling? with Adam Berinsky (Episode 23)

  Aug 17, 202652 minS1

  MIT political scientist Adam Berinsky joins John Ellis to examine why modern polling is harder to trust and what that means for politics. They discuss collapsing response rates, the limits of margin-of-error claims, online surveys, media incentives, and why “accuracy” can be a misleading way to rank pollsters. The conversation then turns to partisan media, negative advertising, voter turnout, political fragmentation, and the persistence of conspiracy theories. Berinsky explains why misinformation is so difficult to correct, who is most susceptible to political rumors, and why trusted messengers matter. Finally, they consider how artificial intelligence could reshape evidence, persuasion, and political decision-making. News-Items.com Hosted by John Ellis Produced by Dale Eisinger

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  Episode #22

  Currencies, Prediction Markets and (of course) AI, with Rebecca Patterson (Episode 22)

  Aug 14, 202638 minS1

  Rebecca Patterson, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former chief investment strategist at Bridgewater Associates, joins John Ellis to explain why the U.S. and Japan intervened jointly to support the yen, and why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is so focused on keeping U.S. yields under control. Patterson traces the risks from currency weakness, Treasury selling, and financial contagion, while arguing that today’s conditions are far from a repeat of the Asian financial crisis. The conversation then turns to prediction markets, where Patterson sees both useful forecasting signals and growing evidence of gambling-style behavior among younger users. Finally, Ellis and Patterson examine how AI could reshape finance, employment, and corporate costs, with open-source models, especially cheaper Chinese alternatives, putting pressure on the economics of the current AI boom. The result is a wide-ranging discussion of currencies, markets, political incentives, and the next phase of artificial intelligence over the coming two years. News-Items.com Hosted by John Ellis Produced by Dale Eisinger

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  The News Items Podcast

  The AI Optimist, with Alan D. Thompson (Episode 21)

  Aug 8, 202644 min

  John Ellis talks with AI researcher Alan D. Thompson about the rapid advance of artificial intelligence and the prospect of artificial superintelligence. Thompson explains his methods for tracking progress toward AGI, the growth of trillion-parameter models, and the narrowing gap between leading American and Chinese systems. They discuss the enormous capital investment in data centers, the economics of AI infrastructure, and the sectors most likely to be transformed first, including healthcare and mental health. The conversation also covers job displacement, the difficulty of managing the economic transition, the emergence of autonomous humanoid robots, and the possibility that increasingly capable systems could reshape governance and social institutions. Thompson argues that continued scaling remains the central force driving AI progress and that the next advances may arrive faster than expected. News-Items.com Hosted by John Ellis Produced by Dale Eisinger

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