Other Forms of Dust
From Cheap Talk by Jeff Kaplow and Marcus Holmes
May 8, 2026 · 1h 2m · Season 6 · Episode 26
About this episode
The episode concludes season 6 with listener questions covering various topics including US foreign policy and diplomacy.
Cheap Talk ends season 6 with listener questions: Control of the Strait of Hormuz; an arrest for trading on classified information on Polymarket; Thucydides and parallels to current US foreign policy; does face-to-face diplomacy build trust or generate more information; teaching tomorrow’s foreign policy leaders in the age of AI; did Hans Neimann cheat; dust as a metaphor in IR; and Marcus doesn’t see the resemblance We’ll be podcasting less regularly over the summer, but we’ll be back to our usual weekly schedule in the fall. In the meantime, please subscribe to Cheap Talk on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted. The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary. Check out our online store at https://cheaptalk.shop . Further Reading: Wesley Parnell. 2026. “Soldier Pleads Not Guilty in $400,000 Betting Case Over Maduro’s Ouster.” New York Times. Stewart Patrick. 2026. “The Warmongers Are Getting History All Wrong.” New York Times. See all Cheap Talk episodes
People in this episode
Hosts: Marcus Holmes, Jeff Kaplow
Topics covered
- US foreign policy
- diplomacy
- AI in foreign policy
- trust in international relations
- listener questions
- current events
Keywords
- Strait of Hormuz
- Polymarket
- Thucydides
- diplomacy
- AI
- Hans Neimann
- international relations
- trust
- foreign policy
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Polymarket
Books & works: New York Times, Soldier Pleads Not Guilty in $400,000 Betting Case Over Maduro’s Ouster, The Warmongers Are Getting History All Wrong
Places: United States, Strait of Hormuz
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