Cheap Talk
Jeff Kaplow and Marcus Holmes
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About This Podcast
Cheap Talk is an every-week-or-so international relations podcast with Jeff Kaplow and Marcus Holmes, professors of government at William & Mary.
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Recent Episodes
S6E26 Other Forms of Dust
Cheap Talk ends season 6 with listener questions: Control of the Strait of Hormuz; an arrest for trading on classified information on Polymarket; Thucydides and parallels to current US foreign…
S6E25 Waiting at the Airport
The current state of US-Iran negotiations (or lack thereof); escalation and mixed signal-sending in the Strait of Hormuz; multiple veto players on each side; Pakistan’s interesting role; the shadow…
S6E24 It's Real and It's Dangerous
Excitement in the world of digital diplomacy; face-to-face diplomacy to end the Iran war; blockading Iran as a plan B and its prospects for success; Anthropic’s Mythos and AI that is too dangerous to…
S6E23 Something Revolutionarily Wonderful
Trump’s threats against Iranian civilization; nuclear threats and the risk of nuclear use in Iran; threatening war crimes is both bad and bad policy; the prospects for the ceasefire and remaining…
S6E22 Seems Like a Bad Idea
How Russia benefits from the Iran war; President Trump’s recent statements about how the war is going; China is both helped by and hurt by the Iran war; prediction markets as an aggregation mechanism…
S6E21 15 Points of Agreement
Uncertainty about the state of US-Iran peace talks; the challenges of US military operations in the Strait of Hormuz; getting nuclear material out of Iran; whether the United States needs a…
S6E20 Had You Asked Us, We Would Have Said No
Washington’s allergy to the “w”-word in describing the conflict in Iran; the Trump administration seems to have been caught off guard by some aspects of the conflict; what we have learned about the…
S6E19 Analysts Are Fairly Skeptical
Failed diplomacy in the lead-up to the conflict; rationales for military action; windows of opportunity and the road to war; the prospects for regime change in Iran; the track record of strategic…
S6E18 Those Secret Words
The State of the Union foreign policy lightning round; the possibility of imminent war with Iran; confusing signals from the US; strategic clarity and the effectiveness of deterrent threats; the…
S6E17 Pro-Peace and Prosperity
The last remaining nuclear arms control treaty has expired; the beneficial side effects of arms control; the value of treaty-breaking as a low-cost signal in international relations; the decline of…
S6E16 Learn to Code, Kids
Cheap Talk takes a break from IR to discuss vibe coding; the CheapTalkBot origin story; new opportunities to express creativity via vibe coding; mid-century modern architecture in Palm Springs;…
S6E15 It's Doomsday Day!
It is 85 seconds to midnight (according to the Doomsday Clock); evaluating the risk of catastrophe; the latest Board of Peace developments; another speech pointing to the end of the international…
S6E14 Crazy Things in Foreign Policy
Cheap Talk returns from winter break to discuss the Venezuela situation; what is driving US Venezuela policy; implications of the US capture of Maduro; signaling US seriousness in international…
S6E13 Inherent Greatness and Decency
The degradation of the State Department’s official correspondence due to font choice; the Trump Administration releases its National Security Strategy; the return of spheres of influence and the…
S6E12 A Living, Breathing Document
The US plan for peace between Russia and Ukraine; what Putin wants out of a settlement; the wider effects of the war on Europe; Jared Kushner is back; what AI is actually good for (according to a new…
S6E11 Live from Williamsburg, Virginia!
Cheap Talk Live! The students of William & Mary’s “Introduction to International Politics” course join the podcast to discuss drug boats; the UN-approved peace plan for Gaza; an AI arms race; the…
S6E10 Wars on Things
Strikes by the United States military on suspected drug boats in the Pacific; the legality of these strikes; why it might matter if the US is violating international law; building pressure on…
S6E9 A Little Bit of a Vibration
Dick Cheney’s outsized foreign policy role in the George W. Bush administration; what President Trump is talking about when he talks about nuclear testing; the nuclear testing announcement as…
S6E8 The Remaining Four-to-Five Minutes of Your Life
The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast…
S6E7 More Efficient Powerpoint Production
Ceasefires are good; Trump’s personal stake in Middle East diplomacy; the implausibility of the AI apocalypse; the incremental ceding of human control over autonomous systems; plausible mechanisms…
Frequently Asked Questions
Cheap Talk has published 125 episodes since September 2020, covering topics in Government, History.
Cheap Talk is currently declining with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 56m.
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