John Ellis talks with MIT political scientist Charles Stewart III about the mechanics, vulnerabilities and public perception of American elections. They revisit the disputed 2000 contest, the administration of the 2020 vote, and the reasons false claims of fraud gained traction despite extensive verification. Stewart explains why machine counting is generally more reliable than hand counts, why California takes longer to certify results, and how election officials measure performance. The con...

John Ellis talks with The New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about their book, Regime Change, an account of Donald Trump’s second presidency. They discuss how power operates inside a White House built around speed, instinct, and direct access to the president, often with little traditional process. The conversation covers Stephen Miller’s influence, Trump’s tariff decisions, the role of tech executives, the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, and the path t...

John Ellis talks with Richard Rushfield, founder of The Ankler, about a Hollywood business model under stress. Rushfield traces the industry’s troubles back to the end of fin-syn rules, the rise of Netflix, and a wave of consolidation that has left studios bigger, safer, and more risk-averse. They discuss Disney’s parks-first future, Paramount’s high-stakes tie-up with Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox’s Roku bet, YouTube’s dominance, AI anxiety, China’s fading promise, and why horror still works w...

John Ellis talks with historian David Blackbourn, author of Germany in the World: A Global History, 1500-2000, about five centuries of German history viewed through a global lens. They discuss Germany before there was a German state; the role of merchants, soldiers, missionaries, commodities and culture; the rupture of 1914; the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust’s international machinery; and the country’s postwar rebuilding, division and reunification. The conversation then turns to the Germa...

John Ellis talks with retired Brigadier General Russ Howard about the wars in Iran and Ukraine, why modern warfare is changing faster than most militaries can adapt, and a much bigger problem that could be coming down the road. Howard argues that food, fertilizer, water, and supply chains are becoming national security issues in their own right. They discuss the real-world effects of conflict on agriculture, growing concerns over global water shortages, and a project at Arizona State Universi...

California's primaries may be local elections, but Jeff Greenfield argues they're offering an early glimpse of the political battles that could define the next presidential cycle. Joining John Ellis, the veteran political analyst breaks down the chaotic races for governor and mayor of Los Angeles, the surprising rise of reality-TV candidate Spencer Pratt, and why vast campaign spending isn't always enough to buy momentum. The conversation then widens to the national landscape, from the emergi...

In this episode of the News Items podcast, Josh Tyrangiel joins John Ellis for a wide-ranging conversation about the promises, dangers, and strange human realities of artificial intelligence. Drawing from his new book, AI for Good, Tyrangiel argues that the most important breakthroughs in AI are not happening inside Silicon Valley boardrooms, but among stubborn doctors, educators, and public servants quietly trying to solve impossible problems. The discussion moves from Palantir Technologies ...

In this episode of News Items, John Ellis sits down with author and Council on Foreign Relations fellow Sebastian Mallaby to unpack the astonishing rise of Demis Hassabis and the race to build artificial general intelligence. From Hassabis’s childhood as a chess prodigy to the creation of Google DeepMind, the conversation traces how a London-born gamer and coder became one of the most consequential scientists alive. Mallaby explains the breakthroughs behind AlphaGo and AlphaFold, why AI may s...

On this episode of the News Items Podcast, John Ellis sits down with economist and longtime China watcher Stephen Roach for a sweeping conversation about the uneasy future of the U.S.-China relationship. Roach reflects on three decades of watching China evolve from an open, fast-rising economic experiment into a far more centralized and controlled superpower under Xi Jinping. The discussion ranges from AI, semiconductors, and electric vehicles to Taiwan, Evergrande, COVID lockdowns, and the m...

In this episode of the News Items podcast, John Ellis sits down with Taegan Goddard, the founder of Political Wire, for a sprawling conversation about the chaos engine that is modern American politics. Goddard traces the unlikely origins of Political Wire, from downloading newspaper front pages at 4 a.m. on a commuter train, to building one of the internet’s earliest and most influential political blogs. From there, the discussion turns to Trump’s collapsing approval numbers, Democratic momen...