Hidden Forces

In Episode 439 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Douglas Rushkoff, a pioneering media theorist, best-selling author, and leading voice on how digital technologies shape societies, economies, and cultures. Rushkoff and Kofinas spend the first hour of their conversation tracing the arc of Douglas’ career, from his upbringing in a communal 1960s neighborhood in Queens and early work in theater to his role as a cultural and media critic chronicling the rise of the early internet. They explore how the internet’s rave-like collaborative ethos and anarchic counterculture gradually gave way in the 1990s and early 2000s to a highly centralized, commercialized, and impersonal platform for economic and political consolidation and control. The second hour turns to a conversation about consequences and remedies for our increasingly disembodied and highly intermediated world—with its blurring of public and private spaces, its hyperreality and epistemic dislocation, and its noticeable drift toward techno-feudalism and digital pacification. We examine ways to rebuild sovereignty over our communities and how to reclaim our attention, reaffirm our relationships, and reassert our power as citizens over our governments and the large-scale commercial and technological forces shaping our lives. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 09/08/2025

In Episode 438 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Charles Calomiris, former Chief Economist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, about his forthcoming paper “How Stablecoins Will Transform Banking,” which is based on a presentation he delivered at the Hoover Institution’s annual monetary policy conference this past May. Demetri and Charles spend the first hour of their conversation laying out what stablecoins are and why Calomiris believes they are poised to transform our standard units of account through a revolution in real-time payments and a wholesale reinvention of the banking system, monetary policy, and the role of the dollar internationally. They discuss the significance of the recently signed “Genius Act,” explore the importance of bank charter modernization, and consider the broad public benefits of separating loans from deposits—ranging from faster, programmable settlement and greater competition in financial services to a reduction of systemic risk in areas where bank lending has become increasingly overconcentrated. The second hour is devoted to exploring some of the most important short- and long-term implications of stablecoin adoption, including: (1) Antitrust concerns over natural monopolies and network effects in stablecoin payment rails. (2) Near-term boost to demand for U.S. government debt, including the potential issuance of tokenized bills for gross real-time settlement. (3) Longer-term prospect of moving away from the dollar as the primary unit of account toward consumer bundles tied to assets, goods, and services that better reflect people’s spending patterns—along with the implications for monetary policy, seigniorage, capital flows, and the preservation of purchasing power in these new currencies. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 09/02/2025

In Episode 437 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Marvin Barth, founder of Thematic Markets and former Chief Economist for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury, who previously served at the Federal Reserve and the Bank for International Settlements and has led global macro and FX strategy on both the sell side and the buy side. Marvin Barth and Demetri spend the first hour of their conversation unpacking his concepts of “localization,” “being is believing,” and “global entropy,” and how these thematic frameworks can help us understand changes in growth, inflation expectations, interest rates, the underperformance of emerging markets, the limits of monetary policy, and the weakening of American soft and hard power. The second hour begins with a conversation about the three pillars of Western primacy—mythology, economic dominance, and military superiority—and why Marvin believes that each of these has already peaked. They discuss how rivals to America’s Post-World War II Liberal Order have used asymmetric warfare to thwart the West’s dominance and are now in position to offer something radically different—a new sociopolitical and economic model that can rival Western capitalism and democracy. The two also explore scenarios ranging from a rapid dissolution of the global system to the managed emergence of a new bipolar order with two sets of economic and political ideologies, supply networks, and technological standards. This includes a broad discussion about portfolio construction, the role of the dollar, and how the broad international adoption of stablecoins could prove to be one of the most consequential stories of the coming decades. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 08/26/2025

In Episode 436 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with economist, policy adviser, and investor Sony Kapoor about why developed world demographics, debt, and political sclerosis will crush forward returns for investors who fail to rebalance their portfolios for the new investment paradigm. Kapoor and Kofinas spend the first hour of their conversation unpacking the thesis explored by Sony in two of his papers: “Winter Is Coming” and “The Case for a Great Rebalancing” in which he argues that global capital has been increasingly misallocated due to factors such as the growth of passive indexation, maladaptive benchmarking, and an excessive focus on short-term performance at the expense of long-term returns. They explore how demographic tailwinds in advanced economies have flipped into headwinds; whether AI driven productivity gains can realistically offset the drag of declining birth rates; why accommodative post GFC monetary and fiscal policies undermined political stability in developed countries; and what recent stresses—including dollar weakness, Treasury market liquidity scares, and an increased reliance on short-term debt financing—suggest about looming financial repression, fiscal dominance, and a rotation out of U.S. capital markets. The second hour is devoted to a conversation about investor incentives, market structure, investment opportunities in emerging markets, and how to construct a more diversified portfolio suitable for the world that is coming into being. Demetri and Sony discuss why political and currency risks may now be lower for a diversified emerging markets basket than for a similarly diversified portfolio of developed market assets. They discuss what a reweighting toward emerging markets could look like; why India stands out given its digital public rails and domestic-demand engine; how places like Indonesia, Brazil, and Nigeria fit into a rebalancing; and how to think about geopolitics, US policy risk, and portfolio construction in this new paradigm. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 08/18/2025

Episode 435 is the eighth episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with leading realist scholar Jonathan Kirshner about how eroding cultural norms, weakened political guardrails, deepening polarization, and the collapse of shared narratives and belief structures are leading to a break-down in the American-led order, paving the way for a new moneyed elite to seize power in Washington. Their discussion begins with a deep dive into the realist tradition: its origins, how it differs from other ideological schools, its various interpretations, and why classical realists grant primacy to uncertainty and the inherently unpredictable nature of world events. They explore what it means for states to define and pursue their national interests at a time when the American-led world order is fragmenting and deep domestic polarization is weakening the institutional checks and balances that once constrained presidential power. Jonathan also educates the audience on the parallels between the United States today and France in the 1930s—politically fractured, inwardly focused, and increasingly unable to act with purpose on the world stage—and why Kirshner believes the situation may now be closer to France in the 1940s, marked by a willingness to collaborate with the occupying forces of a new plutocracy. Grant, Demetri, and Jonathan also grapple with how the politics of scapegoating, the collapse of shared narratives, and the deliberate erosion of truth claims are undermining the foundations of participatory democracy. Jonathan explains how this epistemic breakdown accelerates America’s imperial collapse, undermining its political influence abroad, weakening its alliances, and threatening the long-term stability of the dollar-based global financial system. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 08/07/2025

In Episode 434 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Bruno Maçães, a geopolitical strategist and the former Minister of European Affairs for Portugal, whose latest book titled "World Builders" explores the intersection of technology and geopolitics. In the first hour, Bruno puts forward a radical new theory of geopolitics and technology that no longer views the world as a neutral battlefield between great powers to control territory and resources, but rather as a contest in world building that will afford the most powerful states back-doors into all aspects of our lives that they can use to alter the state of the world at any time or place of their choosing. In the second hour, Kofinas and Maçães explore why the United States has ceased building the global order it once championed, paving the way for China to construct a new world according to its own technological standards and ideological blueprints. We discuss what this means for the nature of the international order, individual freedom, the form that governance is likely to take in an increasingly virtualized world, and what is in store for all of us if things remain on their current trajectory and the United States recedes from its world building project, or perhaps, even worse, decides to destroy it entirely. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 08/04/2025

In Episode 433 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Sam Freedman, a former senior policy advisor in the UK's Department for Education, political analyst, and the author of "Failed State," a timely exploration of the deep-rooted dysfunction within British governance and how to fix it. In their conversation, Sam Freedman examines the origins and nature of the current crisis, focusing on issues such as extreme centralization, the dominance of executive power, and the corrosive impact of modern media dynamics on politics and policymaking. He also takes listeners through several critical turning points in recent British political history, explaining how the solutions to past crises have, paradoxically, laid the groundwork for today's dysfunction. The episode ends with an exploration of Sam’s proposed radical institutional reforms, why incremental solutions are insufficient, and how these issues compare to those facing the United States and other western democracies. The two discuss decentralization, the strengthening of parliamentary scrutiny, civil service reform, and the complex interplay between governance, media influence, and public trust in political institutions. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 07/31/2025

In Episode 432 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Vincent Deluard, Director of Global Macro Strategy at StoneX Group, where he advises large institutional investors on asset allocation, economic forecasting, and quantitative modeling informed by historical patterns and structural economic analysis. Vincent Deluard and Demetri spend the first hour of their conversation exploring Deluard’s macroeconomic framework and the key structural forces that he believes are shaping the emergence of a new macro regime of fiscal dominance, including shifting demographics, politically driven inflation, geopolitical fragmentation, and the decline of institutional trust. The two discuss his provocative thesis that recessions have been "canceled," examining the structural and technological forces that Vincent believes are reducing economic cyclicality and reshaping the role of monetary and fiscal policy. In the second hour, Vincent Deluard delves much deeper into his specific investment theses, including his call for an Asia "reverse currency crisis," his long-term outlook for the U.S. dollar, and an Asian-driven oil demand shock that could rile markets and challenge the ability of monetary authorities to balance their mandates of maintaining price stability while also supporting economic growth and maximum employment. Vincent also shares his suggestions on how to construct a "fiscal dominance" portfolio, including which asset classes he believes will outperform under the new macroeconomic conditions that they discuss in their conversation and how investors can best manage risk and reward in this new paradigm. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 07/29/2025

Episode 431 is the seventh episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with Edward Chancellor, a financial historian, award-winning journalist, and the author of “Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation." Eddie, Grant, and Demetri discuss how excessively interventionist monetary policies and widespread speculative excesses have prolonged the final phase of a “Debt Supercycle,” whose bursting will likely usher in a new era of financial repression, marked by increased capital controls, currency crises, heightened geopolitical risk, and social turmoil. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 07/24/2025

In Episode 430 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Vance Spencer and Michael Anderson. Mike and Vance are the founders of Framework Ventures, one of the largest venture capital firms in crypto and one of the earliest and biggest investors in Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Kofinas, Spencer, and Anderson spend the first hour surveying the current state of crypto—how the space has evolved since Michael and Vance were last on the podcast and how institutional participation in Bitcoin and Ethereum has expanded through ETFs and corporate treasury strategies. They also unpack the latest legislative developments, including the Genius and Clarity Acts, and their implications for stablecoin adoption and the broader digital asset ecosystem. In the second hour they zoom out to examine the far-reaching implications of dollar-backed stablecoin adoption outside the United States. The three of them explore how diverging regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions are shaping the future of decentralized finance and consider the rise of digital asset treasury companies as a powerful new force in the crypto economy. They also examine the practical intersections between blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence, including how AI might leverage decentralized finance applications and cryptocurrencies for the purposes of capital formation and data monetization. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 07/24/2025

In Episode 429 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Weston Nakamura, a Tokyo-based financial analyst and the creator of “Across the Spread,” a market analysis and information service that identifies key market developments from the Asia-Pacific trading session, exploring their impact on equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities across global markets. Weston recently spoke with members of the Hidden Forces Genius community, helping them make sense of the Japanese elections that took place over the weekend. He explained what the results mean for what he calls “the world’s most dangerous market” and why a new governing coalition made up of Japan’s opposition parties could cause significant dislocations in international bond markets, raising government financing costs and inciting further political turmoil in countries already riled by debates about trade and immigration. This is the audio from that conversation. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 07/22/2025

In Episode 428 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Joseph Wang, Chief Investment Officer at Monetary Macro and the founder of Fed Guy, an educational media platform that provides financial market analysis to investors and policymakers informed by a deep understanding of monetary mechanics and public policy. Joseph and Demetri spend the first hour of their conversation discussing Joseph’s monetary and public policy frameworks, how these frameworks help us make sense of the White House’s trade policy, and the downstream consequences for financial markets and the broader economy that stem from these observations. The second hour is devoted to a conversation about the long-term consequences of capital flight for the U.S. government’s finances, the strength of its economy, the performance of U.S. asset markets, the value of the dollar, and how all of these variables could influence future policy decisions and the tenor of politics in the country over the next 10 years. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 07/15/2025

In Episode 427 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Le Shrub, the author of the Shrubstack Substack who in his previous life was part of a famous team known for putting on “The Big Short” during the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. This recording is the result of a phone call Demetri made to Le Shrub to catch up on markets and life after returning from a recent trip to Italy where he spent time with some guests of the podcast discussing the effect that rapid technological changes are having on the evolution of human societies, culture, politics, and the economy. Le Shrub and Kofinas spend the first hour exploring some of these themes and the collective sense in Western countries that our governing systems, societal norms, and democratic institutions are unraveling at a quickening pace, hurdling us toward some inexorable economic and political reset. They shift their focus in the second hour toward the markets as Le Shrub educates listeners on his investment process and how it has fared in this increasingly chaotic information landscape where signal is often drowned by a cacophony of bad information spread by malicious actors, uninformed clout chasers, and bots. This includes a discussion about how Le Shrub has sought to monetize the second order effects of the most recent Trump tariffs on copper and the Brazilian economy. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 07/10/2025

In Episode 426 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, about American grand strategy, the Trump Doctrine of Coercive Primacy, and the implications of Washington’s new Gunboat Diplomacy in the Middle East. Stephen is a prominent member of the realist school in international relations. He’s been a long-time critic of American adventurism and an advocate for a more restrained approach to U.S. foreign policy. In the first hour, Stephen provides his assessment of recent events in the Middle East, how U.S. policy in the region improves or worsens America’s global position, and what we can say with certainty about the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy. In the second hour, he and Demetri discuss: (1) America’s policy in the Middle East (2) Iranian intentions and the potential for regime change (3) Solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (4) American grand strategy (5) The long-awaited U.S. pivot to Asia that has failed to fully materialize Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 06/25/2025

In Episode 425 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with geopolitical and intelligence analyst Dmitri Alperovitch about the new security dynamics and economic opportunities that arise from America’s and Israel’s attacks on Iran, the risks of strategic overreach, and whether U.S. actions do more to compel or deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. In the first hour, Alperovitch scrutinizes Israel’s decision to initiate a series of targeted strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, including their decision to assassinate key nuclear scientists and senior members of the IRGC. We discuss America’s choice to participate in this campaign, Iran’s response, potential additional repercussions from these attacks, political conditions within the Islamic Republic, and whether this latest round of violence might precipitate the collapse of the Iranian government or incite a coup against its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. In the second hour, Alperovitch is asked whether he believes Trump's decision to involve the American military directly in Israel’s war with Iran was in America’s national interests or if it results in strategic overreach that will further undermine American security and the credibility of American global leadership. He and Kofinas discuss how this move is perceived by other regional players like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, how it alters the security dynamics in the Middle East, and how it affects Dmitri’s assessment of the risks Washington faces in its broader Cold War with the People's Republic of China. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 06/23/2025

In Episode 424 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kamran Bokhari, Senior Director at the New Lines Institute for Strategy & Policy, who has served in the U.S. State Department and as a Senior Consultant with the World Bank. Bokhari first appeared on the podcast shortly after the October 7th attacks to discuss the violence ignited by Hamas, the nature and scope of Iranian involvement, and how various regional actors exploited the growing disorder to their advantage, as the Biden administration struggled to stabilize a region on the brink of another major war. In subsequent appearances, Bokhari has provided the Hidden Forces audience with critical context for understanding U.S.-Israeli and Iranian strategic aims and limitations, the interests and constraints of other regional states (including Saudi Arabia and Turkey), how the events in the Middle East are perceived in Beijing and Moscow, and how the situation may evolve from here. The broader conflict with Iran, which has consistently framed these discussions, has now directly involved the United States following its recent deployment of fourteen 30,000-pound bombs targeting three Iranian nuclear sites: the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the nuclear facility in Natanz, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center. What happens next—and whether the White House's actions will ultimately prove beneficial to America's long-term strategic objectives—forms the central focus of this two-hour conversation. In the first hour, Bokhari and Kofinas update listeners on recent developments, assessing the initial successes and failures of U.S. and Israeli strategic planners, the Iranian response, immediate risks to the United States and its allies, and how this war is likely to reshape the economic and security order of the Middle East over the next five years. In the second hour, Demetri and Kamran widen their aperture to examine how the conflict will affect the economic and military imperatives of the United States and China, along with their respective alliances and trading networks. They also discuss the potential economic repercussions and secondary impacts resulting from America's attack on Iran. The episode concludes with an examination of best- and worst-case scenarios, ranging from a new investment supercycle in the Middle East to the deployment of battlefield nuclear weapons and heightened risks of international terrorism in the United States and Europe. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 06/23/2025

In Episode 423 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Joseph Torigian, an expert on the politics of authoritarian regimes and the Chinese Communist Party, with a particular focus on elite power struggles, civil-military relations, and grand strategy. Torigian is also the author of a widely discussed new book titled “The Party’s Interests Come First,” a political biography and historical analysis of Xi Zhongxun, the father of Xi Jinping,  the leader of China and the head of the Chinese Communist Party. In the first hour, Torigian and Kofinas trace the evolution, internal contradictions, and complex dynamics of political power and succession within the Chinese Communist Party, revealing the critical role that personal networks, ideological discipline, factional struggle, and narrative have played in shaping Chinese political history and culture. They explore several critical periods in Chinese communist party history, including Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the period of reform and opening up under Deng Xiaoping, and the post-Tiananmen period following the 1989 crackdown. In the second hour, Kofinas and Torigian focus on China's current leader, Xi Jinping, examining the political lessons he has drawn from the struggles endured by his father while exploring how those experiences have shaped his party loyalties and reinforced his commitment to restoring China’s greatness and securing its position on the global stage. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 06/17/2025

Episode 422 is the sixth episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with Lawrence Fossi, about the recent fallout between President Donald Trump and his biggest political booster, Elon Musk. This is a critical and sober exploration of the political and budgetary challenges facing the country. It spares no criticisms of either Trump or Musk and is not meant for politically sensitive or easily offended partisans. In it, we discuss Musk’s failed efforts to address the budget, his support for the formation of a new third party, and what the future holds for the world’s richest man. We also place an equally critical lens over the Trump administration, examining the president’s time in office, the sum effect of his actions, and what the next three and half years could mean for the country.   Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespodFollow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 06/09/2025

In Episode 421 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ian Fletcher, one of America’s foremost experts on industrial policy, about the problems with free trade and how to revitalize the U.S. economy. Ian and Demetri spend the first hour of the episode laying the foundation for the argument Fletcher and his co-author, Marc Fasteau, present in their book Industrial Policy for the United States: Winning the Competition for Good Jobs and High-Value Industries. This portion includes a comprehensive critique of free-market economics and a systematic exploration of the tools that can be deployed to build critical industries and ignite flywheels of innovation essential to the long-term success of a modern economy. In the second hour, Kofinas and Fletcher examine international and historical examples of both successful and unsuccessful implementations of industrial policy, discussing what went right, what went wrong, and how those lessons can inform the development and implementation of a successful industrial policy for the United States in the 21st century. The conversation concludes with a series of policy recommendations for the White House and Congress. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 06/2/2025

In Episode 420 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Kyle Chan—an expert on the Chinese economy and China’s industrial policy—about why he believes China is poised to dominate high-end technology and manufacturing, and why factories worldwide will reorganize their supply chains with China at the center, as the world’s preeminent technological and economic superpower. Kyle and Demetri spend the first hour dissecting China’s industrial policy and dispelling misconceptions about the historical foundations of economic prosperity. Their discussion highlights the reciprocal interactions among the state, financial capitalism, and the market economy—dynamics that have driven the technological revolutions transforming modern life over the past two centuries. In the second hour, Chan and Kofinas delve deeper into China’s playbook, drawing lessons for the United States. They outline policy choices that are both self-evident and broadly bipartisan: investing in research and development; forging strategically important economic ties with other nations; and fostering a welcoming, attractive climate for international talent and capital. Subscribe to our premium content—including our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports—by visiting HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you’d like to join the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community—with benefits like Q&A calls with guests, exclusive research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners—you can also sign up on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Hidden Forces, please support the show by: Subscribing on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, CastBox, or via our RSS Feed Writing us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Joining our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and support the podcast at https://hiddenforces.io. Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 04/20/2025