Santi Ruiz is a policy researcher at the Institute for Progress and host of the Statecraft newsletter and podcast. He's one of the editors of the Techno-Industrial Policy Playbook, a comprehensive strategy document produced by three American think tanks to help the US compete with China's manufacturing dominance. The playbook outlines concrete policy proposals across frontier science, energy abundance, and national security—from creating special compute zones to reforming naval shipbuilding and accelerating geothermal development.

The Society for Technological Advancement (SoTA) is organising a hackathon on 31st May and 1st June focused on geoengineering and weather control. Click here to find out more.

Episode outline

* How China's 230x shipbuilding advantage over America represents an existential threat to Western naval power

* The X-Labs proposal to fund cutting-edge research institutions outside traditional universities using flexible block grants

* Special compute zones that would fast-track energy infrastructure for AI development in exchange for security commitments

* Why America's Loans Programs Office has funded every nuclear plant built this century and shouldn't be dismantled by DOGE

* How regulatory carve-outs for geothermal energy could unlock abundant clean power using proven oil and gas drilling techniques

* The critical minerals challenge where China could crash markets to destroy American mining operations

* Why American naval shipbuilding fails because design is outsourced instead of done in-house like it used to be

* Whether Britain should be America's lapdog or develop independent techno-industrial capacity focused on European threats

* How elite consensus matters more than popular mobilisation for implementing transformative policy changes

* The difference between financialisation that enables productive investment versus financialisation that replaces it

Mentioned in this episode:

The Techno-Industrial Policy Playbook: How to Kickstart America's Techno‑Industrial Renaissance

Statecraft on Substack

Why FORGE Works by Tom Ough for IFP

A break from our regular schedule to bring you urgent news on the Chagos Islands and a sudden change for Britain’s immigration policy.

We’re back with the regular podcast on May 28th when we’ll be talking to Alexander Fitzgerald, industrialist and Founder/CEO of Isembard.

Marc Warner is CEO and co-founder of Faculty, a British AI company that partners with organisations to deploy artificial intelligence in the real world. After beginning his career in quantum physics research at UCL and Harvard, Marc shifted his focus to AI, believing it would be the most important science of the 21st century. Faculty first gained prominence for its fellowship program that helps PhD graduates transition into commercial data science, and later for its critical work with the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic, using AI to predict hospital demand and resource allocation.

Calum and Tom talk to Marc Warner about:

* Britain's missed opportunities in cloud computing and foundation models, and what can still be done to ensure technological sovereignty

* The challenges of aligning AI with human values and controlling frontier models as systems become increasingly powerful

* ⁠Faculty's crucial role during COVID-19, developing world-leading predictive models that helped allocate healthcare resources and save lives

* The bureaucratic obstacles that hinder innovation in government, including procurement rules that favour foreign tech giants over British companies

* How Faculty evolved from an educational fellowship into one of the UK's leading AI companies helping organisations bridge the gap between data and effective decision-making

* How AI's economic transformation could create both extraordinary wealth and potential risks, requiring thoughtful governance approaches

Josef Chen is the founder of KAIKAKU, a London-based company developing automation technology for restaurants. A former Imperial College student, Chen created his first Bitcoin faucet at age 13 and previously worked as the first intern at Bitpanda (Austria's first unicorn startup). After growing up working in his parents' Chinese restaurant from age six, Chen has now returned to the industry with a mission to transform it through robotics and technology.

Calum and Tom talk to Josef Chen about:

• Josef's remarkable journey from peeling potatoes in his parents' Austrian restaurant at age six to founding a cutting-edge robotics company
• How KAIKAKU's "living laboratory" approach enables rapid hardware development and real-world testing of restaurant automation
• Why specialised robots designed for specific tasks will outperform humanoid robots in practical applications
• The widespread misallocation of engineering talent in Britain, with top graduates being lured into finance instead of building tangible solutions
• How restaurant automation can free staff from mundane tasks to focus on genuine hospitality and customer experience
• Josef's vision for rebuilding Britain's engineering culture through initiatives like London Micro Grants

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack. Produced by Aeron Laffere.

Sweetgreen’s S-1 Filing - Deep dive into a US tech-forward restaurant chain’s unit economics, vision, and automation strategy

Ocado’s AI-powered robotic arms: levelling up efficiency in online grocery and logistics - Case study of one of the few globally competitive UK hardware automation efforts

Neko Health - Example of vertically integrated tech x real-world experience design, referenced by Joseph

London Micro Grants - A live initiative for empowering grassroots builders in the UK with small-scale funding

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We welcome Cllr Tom Jones to the KCIII. Tom serves as the Councillor for Scotton & Lower Wensleydale on North Yorkshire Council and is also an accomplished essayist.

Cllr Jones joins Calum and Tom to discuss Anglofuturism, immigration reform, and how Britain can build a more productive, high-wage future:

The origins and appeal of Anglofuturism as both an aesthetic and political movement responding to economic stagnation and declining living standards for young Britons

Tom Jones' immigration paper "Selecting the Best" which argues Britain's reliance on mass immigration has created a low-wage, low-productivity economy

How "human quantitative easing"—importing cheap labor rather than investing in automation—has damaged British productivity and wages

The car wash industry as a case study where cheap migrant labor replaced automated systems, creating exploitation and environmental problems

The need to redirect state capacity toward strategic priorities like energy, manufacturing, and defence instead of dispersing resources

How greater automation and selective high-skill immigration could transform Britain into a high-wage economy capable of meaningful global influence

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Produced by Aeron Laffere.

The government is attempting to seal its giveaway of the Chagos Islands: a crucial archipelago in the Indian Ocean that was uninhabited when the Portuguese found them, but to which Mauritius – thousands of miles away – has made a specious claim. Extraordinarily, the British government is trying to indulge that claim – and to pay billions to continue to use the island that hosts a military base.

The public has still not been given a satisfactory explanation for the giveaway, but the prime minister and the attorney general are thought to be of the view that Britain should obey a non-binding judgment by a partisan international court. That court is stacked with enemies of Britain... but the wallet inspector must be obeyed!

Starmer and co are inches away from sealing the giveaway. But they reckoned without a ruddy young Anglofurist...

Our very own Calum Drysdale!

Calum and Lord Kempsell are together launching a judicial review into the putative giveaway. As news breaks of the judicial review, Tom and Calum discuss:

• The history of the Chagos Islands
• The bizarre logic of the government
• Britain's slender hopes of keeping the islands

HMG now has 14 days to respond to Calum and Lord Kempsell.

Co-presenters: Tom Ough and Calum Drysdale

Producer: Æron Laffere

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.