The John Batchelor Show

A podcast by John Batchelor

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Enjoy a whole world of audiobooks and e-books, everything from new releases to the classics

9987 Episodes

S8 Ep273: CORPORATE GROUPTHINK AND THE SEC'S PROGRESSIVE SHIFT Colleague Charles Gasparino. Gasparino argues that corporate adoption of progressive policies was a defensive reaction to populism like O
Published: 04/01/2026
S8 Ep273: THE ORIGINS OF CORPORATE RADICALIZATION AND STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM Colleague Charles Gasparino, Fox Business correspondent and author of Go Woke, Go Broke. Gasparino discusses his book Go Wo
Published: 04/01/2026
S8 Ep272: THE FATAL 1930 LAUNCH AND INEVITABLE TRAGEDY Colleague S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne argues that the fatal 1930 launch was rushed so Thompson could arrive in India as the new Viceroy and return for an
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep272: THE R101: AN OVER-ENGINEERED SOCIALIST PROJECT Colleague S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne describes the R101 as an over-engineered "socialist" government project filled with unproven technology, includin
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep272: KIT THOMPSON AND THE IMPERIAL AIRSHIP SCHEME Colleague S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne introduces Christopher "Kit" Thompson, an aristocratic Air Secretary obsessed with Romanian Princess Marta Bibesco.
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep272: THE 1921 DISASTER OF THE R38 AND THE HELIUM PROBLEM Colleague S.C. Gwynne. S.C. Gwynne details the 1921 disaster of the R38, a British rigid airship that broke apart due to inadequate testin
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep271: SHOW 12-2-2026 THE SHOW BEGIJS WITH DOUBTS ABOUT AI -- a useful invetion that can match the excitement of the first decades of Photography. November 1955 NADAR'S BALLOON AND THE BIRTH OF
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: THE BLIP AND THE FUTURE Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. The viral success of ChatGPT shifted OpenAI's focus from safety to commercialization, despite early internal warnings about the e
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: SILICON VALLEY KINGMAKER Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. At Stanford, Altman co-founded Loopt, a location-sharing app that won him a meeting with Steve Jobs and a spot in the App Store
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: THE ROOTS OF AMBITION Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. Sam Altman grew up in St. Louis, the son of an idealistic developer and a driven dermatologist mother who instilled ambition and re
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: FOUNDING OPENAI Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. In 2016, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever founded OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab to develop safe artificial general inte
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: PRISON AND LAWFARE Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. Following the 2020 National Security Law, authorities raided Apple Daily, froze its assets, and arrested Lai, forcing the newspa
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: CONSCIENCE AND CONVERSION Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. The 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre radicalized Lai, who transitioned from textiles to media, founding Next magazine and A
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: THE FACTORY GUY Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. By 1975, Jimmy Lai had risen from a child laborer to a factory owner, purchasing a bankrupt garment facility using stock market pro
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: FAMINE AND FLIGHT TO FREEDOM Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. Jimmy Lai was born into a wealthy family that lost everything to the Communist revolution, forcing his father to flee
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: STAGNATION UNDER SURVEILLANCE Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. The severe lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic shattered consumer confidence, leaving citizens insecure and unwilling t
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: GHOST CITIES AND THE STIMULUS TRAP Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. China's growth model shifted toward massive infrastructure spending, resulting in "ghost cities" and replica West
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: RED CAPITALISTS AND SMUGGLERS Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. Following the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, China reopened to investment in 1992, giving rise to "red capitalists"—often t
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: THE AWAKENING OF CHINA'S ECONOMY Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. Returning to China in 1994, the author witnessed a transformation from the destitute, Maoist uniformity of 1985 to
Published: 03/01/2026
S8 Ep270: X-RAYS, SURVEILLANCE, AND MOTION Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. The discovery of X-rays in 1895 sparked a "new photography" craze, though the radiation caused severe injurie
Published: 03/01/2026

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9987 Episodes

S8 Ep273: CORPORATE GROUPTHINK AND THE SEC'S PROGRESSIVE SHIFT Colleague Charles Gasparino. Gasparino argues that corporate adoption of progressive policies was a defensive reaction to populism like O

S8 Ep273: THE ORIGINS OF CORPORATE RADICALIZATION AND STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM Colleague Charles Gasparino, Fox Business correspondent and author of Go Woke, Go Broke. Gasparino discusses his book Go Wo

S8 Ep272: THE FATAL 1930 LAUNCH AND INEVITABLE TRAGEDY Colleague S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne argues that the fatal 1930 launch was rushed so Thompson could arrive in India as the new Viceroy and return for an

S8 Ep272: THE R101: AN OVER-ENGINEERED SOCIALIST PROJECT Colleague S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne describes the R101 as an over-engineered "socialist" government project filled with unproven technology, includin

S8 Ep272: KIT THOMPSON AND THE IMPERIAL AIRSHIP SCHEME Colleague S.C. Gwynne. Gwynne introduces Christopher "Kit" Thompson, an aristocratic Air Secretary obsessed with Romanian Princess Marta Bibesco.

S8 Ep272: THE 1921 DISASTER OF THE R38 AND THE HELIUM PROBLEM Colleague S.C. Gwynne. S.C. Gwynne details the 1921 disaster of the R38, a British rigid airship that broke apart due to inadequate testin

S8 Ep271: SHOW 12-2-2026 THE SHOW BEGIJS WITH DOUBTS ABOUT AI -- a useful invetion that can match the excitement of the first decades of Photography. November 1955 NADAR'S BALLOON AND THE BIRTH OF

S8 Ep270: THE BLIP AND THE FUTURE Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. The viral success of ChatGPT shifted OpenAI's focus from safety to commercialization, despite early internal warnings about the e

S8 Ep270: SILICON VALLEY KINGMAKER Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. At Stanford, Altman co-founded Loopt, a location-sharing app that won him a meeting with Steve Jobs and a spot in the App Store

S8 Ep270: THE ROOTS OF AMBITION Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. Sam Altman grew up in St. Louis, the son of an idealistic developer and a driven dermatologist mother who instilled ambition and re

S8 Ep270: FOUNDING OPENAI Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. In 2016, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever founded OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab to develop safe artificial general inte

S8 Ep270: PRISON AND LAWFARE Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. Following the 2020 National Security Law, authorities raided Apple Daily, froze its assets, and arrested Lai, forcing the newspa

S8 Ep270: CONSCIENCE AND CONVERSION Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. The 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre radicalized Lai, who transitioned from textiles to media, founding Next magazine and A

S8 Ep270: THE FACTORY GUY Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. By 1975, Jimmy Lai had risen from a child laborer to a factory owner, purchasing a bankrupt garment facility using stock market pro

S8 Ep270: FAMINE AND FLIGHT TO FREEDOM Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. Jimmy Lai was born into a wealthy family that lost everything to the Communist revolution, forcing his father to flee

S8 Ep270: STAGNATION UNDER SURVEILLANCE Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. The severe lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic shattered consumer confidence, leaving citizens insecure and unwilling t

S8 Ep270: GHOST CITIES AND THE STIMULUS TRAP Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. China's growth model shifted toward massive infrastructure spending, resulting in "ghost cities" and replica West

S8 Ep270: RED CAPITALISTS AND SMUGGLERS Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. Following the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, China reopened to investment in 1992, giving rise to "red capitalists"—often t

S8 Ep270: THE AWAKENING OF CHINA'S ECONOMY Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. Returning to China in 1994, the author witnessed a transformation from the destitute, Maoist uniformity of 1985 to

S8 Ep270: X-RAYS, SURVEILLANCE, AND MOTION Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. The discovery of X-rays in 1895 sparked a "new photography" craze, though the radiation caused severe injurie