Podcast Club ONLINE: China and the U.S. Now and Ahead
Details
- This week's podcast is Freakonomics Radio with host Stephen J. Dubner and guest Dan Wang, a Canadian technology analyst and writer on contemporary China and a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover History Lab. Wang was previously an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics and a visiting scholar at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. He has commented extensively on U.S. - China relations through the lens of technology, including semiconductor manufacturing and social media. Wang is the author of the new book Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, which was a New York Times #3 bestseller in its opening week, is long-listed for the FT/Schroders Book of the Year 2025, and has been excerpted in The Atlantic.
PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to the podcast below before attending the meeting to optimize discussion.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/china-is-run-by-engineers-america-is-run-by-lawyers-frbc/
(includes podcast transcript)
or
(1 hr., 2 min.)
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What's this podcast about?
In contemplating the attributes of Americans and people in China, podcast guest Dan Wang says, "I think that no two peoples are more alike." Nevertheless, in considering the U.S. and China, he sees a very significant difference: China is a country run by engineers, while the U.S. is a country run by lawyers. This is the foundation of Wang's thesis, laid out in his new book, Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, and discussed in this podcast episode. Wang provides a political, economic, social, and philosophical analysis of how the two countries have been and will continue to be affected by an engineering vs. lawyerly mindset and what he thinks each needs going forward. Along the way, Wang talks about his upbringing in China (including China's one-child policy), his family's immigration to Canada and the U.S., and his return to China for purposes of observing and understanding that country, including his time being stuck in China due to its Zero-Covid policy. For those of you who participated in our last book club book discussion, this podcast provides an update to our study of China and the U.S.
What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times during the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm
Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.