The Spillover

Nvidia Bets Big on Hugging Face + Sebastian Sashimi + AI-Powered Toothbrushes

This week, hosts Sebastian Mallaby and Rebecca Patterson unpack Nvidia’s deal to purchase Hugging Face, the leading platform for open-weight AI models. The acquisition, t

Can the U.S. ‘Grow’ Its Way Out of Debt? + Taxing Wealth in the Age of AI

This week, host Rebecca Patterson speaks with Natasha Sarin, law professor and cofounder of the Yale Budget Lab, to unpack Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claim that t

The U.S. Buys Stake in a Venezuelan Oil Company + Why Efficiency Is the Real Path to Energy Security

This week, host Rebecca Patterson sits down with energy and climate expert Vijay Vaitheeswaran to discuss the U.S. government's acquisition of 35 percent equity stake in

Could the AI Debt Problem Create the Next Financial Crisis?

The financing behind the AI boom has grown so large that treasury bond yields are approaching levels not seen since the leadup to the 2008 financial crisis. But is the ri

The Hosts Pick a Global AI Winner + The Advanced Economy Deployment Problem + The Question Even the Experts Can't Answer

Artificial intelligence has become the biggest variable in the U.S. economy, but is the country really positioned to win the global race for economic dominance in AI? Thi

How China Is Quietly Winning the Iran War Energy Crisis

Five months of war in Iran have completely reshaped energy markets. This week, the Baker Institute’s Kristian Coates Ulrichsen joins Rebecca Patterson and Sebastian Malla

Spillover Summer Reading: The Best Books on Forecasting, Silicon Valley, and the Future

In this episode of The Spillover, Rebecca Patterson and Sebastian Mallaby swap summer reading recommendations, including fiction and nonfiction picks covering American th

Jordan Schneider Thinks the Real AI Race Is About Compute, Not Models

In this episode of The Spillover, host Sebastian Mallaby sits down with Jordan Schneider, founder and editor-in-chief of the ChinaTalk podcast and newsletter, to discuss

The AI Trilemma + Open-Weight Proliferation + the “Singularity Delusion”

In this episode, The Spillover’s Sebastian Mallaby is hosted by Dan Kurtz-Phelan, editor of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the “AI trilemma”—the challenge U.S. policymakers

Rahm Emanuel Talks Israel, Midterm Elections, and the Democratic Party

Rebecca Patterson and Sebastian Mallaby are joined by Rahm Emanuel, who served as President Bill Clinton’s political strategist, President Barack Obama’s first White Hous

Washington Considers a Stake in OpenAI + Altman’s Gambit + America, Inc.

On this episode of The Spillover, Rebecca Patterson and Sebastian Mallaby, joined by CFR expert Jonathan Hillman, examine the U.S. government's rapidly growing portfolio

Gold vs. Bitcoin Showdown

Cohosts Rebecca Patterson and Sebastian Mallaby stage a friendly debate over two so-called dollar alternatives—gold and bitcoin—weighing whether either has truly earned i

Two Brits Unpack America’s 250th Birthday + The Cultural Civil War

America’s 250th birthday is the talk of the nation. But the more important story might be what the milestone reveals about the fragile bargain between democracy and marke

What Will the Fed Become Under Chair Kevin Warsh? + Greenspan's Legacy

In this episode of The Spillover, host Rebecca Patterson and former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Roger W. Ferguson Jr. reflect on the legacy of recently deceased former Fed

"A Job Beats a Handout" + Why the World Bank Is Betting Everything on Employment

In this episode of The Spillover, host Sebastian Mallaby and CFR President Michael Froman speak with former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and World Bank President

SpaceX Goes Public + What IPOs Tell Us About Capital Markets

The scale of the SpaceX IPO is dominating financial headlines, but the more important story might be what the sale reveals about the structure of modern capital markets,

China’s $735B Trade Surplus + How Beijing Masks Its Holdings + The G7 Debates Global Imbalances

This episode unpacks why the trade and investment imbalances between the United States and China have grown to record levels despite years of pressure to correct them, an

Japan Rearms + Guns vs. Butter + Global Defense Spending Boom

As governments around the world ramp up defense spending, a new era of rearmament is reshaping economies, markets, inflation, and politics. This episode examines Japan’s

Data Centers In Space? + Planet Labs CEO Talks ‘Large Earth Models’

AI and satellite imagery are quickly converging to create “planetary intelligence,” a new generation of systems capable of capturing and analyzing images of Earth in real

Trump-Xi + Mutually Assured Disruption + Boeing, Beef, and Beans

President Donald Trump is set to meet with Xi Jinping in Beijing for a high-stakes summit shaped by Iran war tensions, trade disputes, critical mineral flows, semiconduct