Cheap Talk Live! The students of William & Mary’s “Introduction to International Politics” course join the podcast to discuss drug boats; the UN-approved peace plan for Gaza; an AI arms race; the intersection of IR theory and policymaking; ending the war in Ukraine; overconfidence and fear in IR; whether IR students have to go to grad school; the ideal podcast co-host; our IR origin stories; Thanksgiving dinner picks; and Marcus takes food safety very seriouslySpecial thanks to William & Mary’s Jeff Herrick for audio support and to all the GOVT 204 students who participated in the show. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.Check out our online store at https://cheaptalk.shop.Recommended Thanksgiving Recipes:J. Kenji López-Alt. “Mayo-Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey with Gravy.” New York Times Cooking.J. Kenji López-Alt. “The Best Crispy Roast Potatoes Ever.” Serious Eats. See all Cheap Talk episodes
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1:00:09
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1:00:09
Wars on Things
Strikes by the United States military on suspected drug boats in the Pacific; the legality of these strikes; why it might matter if the US is violating international law; building pressure on Venezuela; the US strategy (if there is one); the problems with wars on things; and Marcus has never had TofurkeyThe opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.Check out our online store at https://cheaptalk.shop.Further Reading:Lazaro Gamio, Carol Rosenberg, and Charlie Savage. 2025. “Tracking U.S. Military Killings in Boat Attacks.” New York Times. See all Cheap Talk episodes
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57:13
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57:13
A Little Bit of a Vibration
Dick Cheney’s outsized foreign policy role in the George W. Bush administration; what President Trump is talking about when he talks about nuclear testing; the nuclear testing announcement as diplomatic leverage; US readiness to test; nuclear testing for deterrence; the downsides of exploding nuclear weapons in Nevada; and Marcus loves Election DayThe opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.Check out our online store at https://cheaptalk.shop.See all Cheap Talk episodes
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39:36
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39:36
The Remaining Four-to-Five Minutes of Your Life
The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.Check out our online store at https://cheaptalk.shop.Further Reading/Watching:A House of Dynamite, streaming on NetflixNuclear Decisions Online GameJeffrey Lewis. 2018. The 2020 Commission Report On The North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against The U.S.: A Speculative Novel. Harper. Fail Safe, streaming on TubeNukeMap, a nuclear weapons effect simulator by Alex WellersteinSee all Cheap Talk episodes
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1:06:44
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1:06:44
More Efficient Powerpoint Production
Ceasefires are good; Trump’s personal stake in Middle East diplomacy; the implausibility of the AI apocalypse; the incremental ceding of human control over autonomous systems; plausible mechanisms for AI control of nuclear arsenals; misalignment, poisoning, and the manipulation of AI models; and Marcus discusses the meaning of consciousnessThe opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.Please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.Check out our online store at https://cheaptalk.shop.Further Reading:Alexandra Souly et al. 2025. “Poisoning Attacks on LLMs Require a Near-constant Number of Poison Samples.” Arxiv 2510.07192.“AI: What Could Go Wrong? With Geoffrey Hinton.” 2025. The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart.See all Cheap Talk episodes
Ireland