Café Berlin
Café Berlin brings the big, global questions down to earth. Hosted by Ian Oxnevad and Lilla Nóra Kiss, the podcast explores how global competition for security, technology, and energy shapes the future of universities, civic life, and the free world. Each episode features sharp conversations with leading scholars, policymakers, and national security experts about the ideas and conflicts reshaping higher education—and why they matter far beyond campus. The NAS is a member-supported organization. If you enjoy Café Berlin, please consider making a tax-deductible donation at https://www.nas.org/cafe-berlin-donate/ so we can keep hosting interesting conversations with interesting guests.
Episodes
On this episode of Café Berlin, Ian and Lilla speak with Diane Furchgott-Roth, a Distinguished Fellow at the Energy Policy Research Institute (EPRI), to examine the rapidly changing geopolitics of energy. Recent events have renewed interest in oil and gas extraction in the U.S., brought hope for reopening Venezuelan oil to U.S. consumers and refiners, and dashed hopes of an easy end to the Hormuz crisis. Diana, Ian, and Lilla broad...
In this episode of Café Berlin, Ian Oxnevad and Lilla Nóra Kiss speak with Dr. Anne Rathbone Bradley, professor at the Institute of World Politics, economic educator, and former economic analyst in the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis. The conversation examines how economics shapes our understanding of terrorism, foreign policy, and national security.
Topics include the relationship between poverty, economic opportunity, we...
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Daniel Di Martino, an economist, founder of the Dissident Project, and a Venezuelan immigrant.
We discuss how those with firsthand accounts of authoritarian socialist regimes can strengthen civic education in the United States. Di Martino draws on his experience growing up in Venezuela and teaching American high school students to explore how new generations of Americans wrongly misunderstand and ...
Stephanie Slade, senior editor at Reason and author of Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right, joins Café Berlin hosts Ian Oxnevad and Lilla Nóra Kiss. They discuss how fusionism united liberty and moral virtue, why the lessons of the Cold War have faded, and what that loss means for a new generation. The conversation also explores young people's attraction to socialism and statist conservatism, the role o...
Seth Cropsey of the Yorktown Institute discusses U.S. strategy in the 21st century, which should center on the New Axis: China, Russia, and Iran as a connected "Eurasian axis," united mainly by opposition to the United States. He argues that Washington should stop treating these as separate threats and instead respond with a broader maritime and alliance-based strategy.
A major theme is geography. The U.S. should strengthen partner...
Brigadier General Robert S. Spalding III, USAF (Ret.), is the former U.S. Defense Attaché in Beijing and author of Stealth War and War Without Rules. He joins Ian Oxnevad and Lilla Nóra Kiss to discuss how Beijing turns American openness into strategic leverage.
Drawing on his military career, which includes extensive experience in China, Spalding argues that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) competition with the United States re...
In this episode of Café Berlin, Ian Oxnevad and Lilla Nóra Kiss are joined by Dr. Gregory J. Moore, Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College and Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Deterrence Studies. Dr. Moore explains why Taiwan may be the most dangerous flashpoint in U.S.-China relations—and why universities should pay attention.
In this episode of Café Berlin, Ian Oxnevad and Lilla Nóra Kiss are joined by David Shedd, former Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and co-author (with Andrew Badger) of The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's Secrets (HarperCollins, 2025).
Their conversation explores how the Chinese Communist Party has pursued a long-term, whole-of-society strategy to acquire American technology, intellectual pr...
Café Berlin is a new podcast series of the National Association of Scholars, featuring Ian Oxnevad, Senior NAS Fellow for Foreign Affairs and National Security, and Lilla Nora Kiss, Senior NAS Fellow for International Affairs and Academic Integrity.
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