Ivan Krastev on 2026

In a strange way, the most interesting story about the Trumpian revolution, because they have the energy, they have the anger, but there is no future project. And now the good fight with Yasha Monk. Look, I I always do my best here to try and tell you what's coming up in this conversation to give you some orientation, but some conversations are just impossible to summarize and That is nearly always the case with one of my absolute favorite podcast guests, Ivan Kashtev. Ivan is a permanent fellow at the Institute for Humane Sciences in Vienna, where I'm also a non-resident fellow this year.

He is the founder of the Central Liberal Strategies in Sophia. And as you will know, if you've listened to past episodes with him, he is just one of the most interesting generative thinkers in the world. And so I thought I should have him on towards the end of. 2025 to pass this year in review to try and help us uh help orient us in understanding what state the world is in and what we might expect for 2026. We talked about Trump and how his revolutionary administration may or may not be getting its gears uh sanded up.

Um we're talking about the state of Europe. and how it can respond to this moment. We talk about uh China and why it is that the world seems to be getting accustomed to the idea that China may be the preeminent power over the next decades. We talk about 17 other super interesting things. Believe me, just listen to this damn conversation.

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