ChinaTalk
ChinaTalk
Jordan Schneider
The Think Tank New Breed (IFP + FAI)
1 hour 8 minutes Posted Apr 16, 2026 at 2:22 am.
— Applied think tank vs. white paper mill
— Partisanship: FAI's conservative tent vs. IFP's cross-partisan design
— Why researchers should do their own comms and outreach
— Betting on young talent as policy entrepreneurs
— Will AI eat the think tank?
0:00
1:08:00
Download MP3
Show notes
Caleb Watney (Institute for Progress) and Max Bodach (Foundation for American Innovation) on what the new breed of DC think tanks does differently and why the old model is broken.
We discuss:
Why "counterfactual policy impact" matters more than white papers and what's wrong with project-based funding
Cross-partisanship vs. picking sides: IFP pulls the rope sideways, FAI builds a big tent on the right
Vertical integration over specialization — the person who wrote the brief should be the one selling it on the Hill
Whether AI eats the think tank or just the parts that weren't working anyway
Timestamps
song: https://suno.com/s/I244K1rIpPdB6lO9
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices