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Casey Handmer on Solar Energy and AI

    Dwarkesh Podcast | 15 August 2025 | 1h 08m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
    Interview with Casey Handmer discussing how to meet the hundreds of gigawatts of extra energy demand AI will generate over the next decade. Argues that solar power will be the major part of this energy singularity, despite hyperscalers currently choosing natural gas. Handmer highlights solar’s astonishing learning rates, which make it increasingly cost-effective and abundant. Suggests that the US can ramp up solar manufacturing to compete with China. Large AI data centers might require tens of thousands of acres for solar panels, primarily in areas like Texas, with batteries increasingly replacing traditional grid functions. Ultimately, Handmer suggests that AI’s true value may be better measured by total energy use rather than GDP, envisioning a future where silicon is both the power source and the computational unit.

    I recommend Casey Handmer’s blog. See also the Multiverses episode about his firm Terraform Industries and its work synthesising methane and hydrocarbons from the air.

    Patrick McGee on Apple in China

      ChinaTalk | 24 June 2025 | 1h 10m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
      Interview with Patrick McGee about his book Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company. Discusses the history of Apple’s relationship with China, where iPhone manufacturing became a project of nation-building; why Apple moved production to China in the 1990s, and why it struggles to leave; how Apple’s obsession with perfection catalyzed China’s industrial upgrading; the political side of production in China, including how Apple’s relationship with the Chinese authorities has evolved; the rise of Foxconn and other partners in Apple’s network; and anecdotes about Apple’s management style, including the “Divorce Avoidance Program.”

      Arthur Kroeber on China’s Economy

        Dwarkesh Podcast | 19 June 2025 | 2h 26m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
        Interview with Arthur Kroeber about his book China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know. Discusses how China achieved high-tech manufacturing dominance, where they’ll go from here, and how to create a productive and mutually beneficial, rather than adversarial, relationship with China.

        Clare Morrell on The Tech Exit

          Thinking in Public with Albert Mohler | 4 June 2025 | 0h 56m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
          Interview with Clare Morell about her book The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones. Argues that the dangers of tech cannot be managed with parental controls and screen-time limits and outlines an approach for families, local communities, and society to raise children without phones.

          Darryl Campbell on Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software

            New Books in Economics | 10 May 2025 | 1h 09m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
            Interview with Darryl Campbell about his book Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software. Outlines the problem of technical companies run by managers through the abstractions of finance, with only a superficial knowledge of technology. Argues for tech workers with actual expertise establishing industry-wide principles of ethics and safety that corporations would be forced to follow.

            Jeffrey Lee Funk on Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles

              Peoples & Things | 24 March 2025 | 0h 53m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
              Interview with Jeffrey Lee Funk about his book Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles: A Guide to Spotting, Avoiding, and Exploiting Investment Bubbles in Tech. Discusses perspectives for identifying technology bubbles, recent bubbles, and the likely current bubble centered on generative AI.

              Wolfgang Münchau on Germany Going Kaput

                Bookstack | 9 March 2025 | 0h 38m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
                Interview with Wolfgang Münchau about his book Kaput: The End of the German Miracle. Argues that the neo-mercantilist policies of the German state, driven by close connections between the country’s industrial and political elite, have left Germany technologically behind and over-reliant on authoritarian Russia and China – with little sign of being able to adapt to the digital realities of the 21st century.

                Robert Kaplan on Waste Land

                  C-SPAN Bookshelf | 28 January 2025 | 1h 12m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
                  Interview with Robert Kaplan about his book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis. Focuses on the importance of technology in determining the world’s future. Argues that the ongoing decay of the West is manifested not only in racial tensions coupled with new barriers to free speech, but in the deterioration of dress codes, the erosion of grammar, and the decline in sales of serious books and classical music.

                  See also episodes with Robert Kaplan about other books.