CC: Patrick McGee – How Apple Built a Superpower
5 November 2025 - 1 hour 14 minsThis week on Conflicted, Thomas Small is joined by Patrick McGee, technology reporter and author of the phenomenal new book, Apple in China. Patrick provides an exclusive look at how Apple, in its relentless pursuit of operational excellence, drove a unique form of globalization that profoundly reshaped the economic and geopolitical world.
Thomas and Patrick dissect the story of Apple's pivot from near-bankruptcy to becoming a global superpower, focusing on the often-overlooked genius of CEO Tim Cook - the operations mastermind who built a manufacturing model that, while pioneering, effectively hollowed out US industrial capacity. They explore the critical role of Taiwan’s Foxconn and its f...
Series Episodes
The Madman Theory from Nixon to Trump
Is Donald Trump mad? Or is he a practitioner of the Madman Theory — and therefore not mad at all? James D. Boys, author of U.S. Grand Strategy and the Madman Theory: From Nixon to Trump, argues that the Madman Theory is not madness, but the performance of madness: a tactic by which a sane leader feigns irrationality to make an adversary believe there is even a one percent chance of overwhelming, disproportionate force. In this new Conflicted Conversation, Boys explains: What the Madman Theory means Donald Trump, unpredictability and Trump Derangement Syndrome Nuclear strategy, Eisenhower, and Cold War brinkmanship Barry Goldwater, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the politics of nuclear fear Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and the Madman Theory in Vietnam Trump’s use of Madman tactics against North Korea, Iran, NATO and trade partners Whether Trump’s second-term grand strategy is chaos, coercion or calculated geopolitical pressure Follow James on X: https://x.com/jamesdboys Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm *** DONATE to Thomas’s fundraising campaign! *** *** WATCH the campaign's documentary film! *** Find us on X: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1 hour 13 mins
21 May Finished
The UAE’s OPEC Withdrawal & Trump’s Wartime Dilemma
*** DONATE to Thomas’s fundraising campaign! *** *** WATCH Thomas's documentary film! *** Aimen is back with a huge amount of behind-the-scenes information on what’s been happening in the Middle East in the past three weeks—especially on the real reasons the UAE withdrew from OPEC, and what’s been going on inside Donald Trump’s head as he tries to chart a course to victory in the Iran War. Aimen and Thomas discuss: The recent discovery of HUGE shale oil reserves in the UAE The Mar-a-Lago deal the UAE struck with Trump Why the recent OPEC shake-up had NOTHING to do with Saudi Arabia The truth about UAE and Saudi attacks on Iran Did the UAE, Saudi, and Qatar really beg Trump not to resume the war? How Iran’s military capability remains STRONGER than people think The corruption behind Pakistan’s mediation efforts in the Iran War The benefits and liability of Trump as a War Leader Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1 hour 9 mins
20 May Finished
Utopia or Dystopia? The Truth About Jewish-Muslim History
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks to Marc David Baer, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, about his new book Children of Abraham: The Story of Jewish-Muslim Relations. Marc discusses: The recent stabbing in Golders Green, North London The myth of utopian co-existence and the counter-myth of total antagonism The earliest encounters of Jews and Muslims in Arabia The Qur'an's mixed messaging about Jews The reality of Sharia dhimmitude laws Jewish-Muslim relations in the Khazar Kingdom, in Al-Andalus, and in the Ottoman Empire Colonialism and the rupture of Jewish-Muslim relations Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Jewish-Muslim solidarity today Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Find Marc on X: https://x.com/MarcDavidBaer1 Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1 hour 1 min
14 May Finished
Mali’s Crisis is Not What it Seems
As we eagerly await Aimen’s return to Conflicted next week, today Wassim Nasr returns to the show. As only Wassim can, he draws on his expertise of the Sahel to explain the remarkable events in Mali over the past several weeks — events which Aimen forecast on the show back in January. Wassim explains: France’s failed counterterrorism strategy in Mali JNIM’s emergence from AQIM and local insurgencies Iyad Ag Ghaly’s political and jihadist leadership The junta’s repression and strategic miscalculations The JNIM–FLA alliance in northern Mali The 25 April 2026 coordinated attacks Negotiating with Islamists after the War on Terror Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Follow Wassim on X: https://x.com/SimNasr Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
59 mins
12 May Finished
Sir Vince Cable: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks to Sir Vince Cable, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK, about his new book Eclipsing the West: China, India and the forging of a new world. Sir Vince discusses: Postcolonial state-building, development economics, and his formative experiences in Kenya Globalisation, financialisation, and the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis The rise of China and India as “superstates” in a new tripolar world Geo-economics, US–China rivalry, and the breakdown of the liberal international order Democracy versus authoritarianism and the crisis of liberal governance Ideology, nationalism, and the limits of rationality in geopolitics Multipolarity, global disorder, climate crisis, and the future of world order Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced by Thomas Small & Ross Field and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
55 mins
7 May Finished
Iraq: Anatomy of a Broken State
Aimen's in the thick of it this week so isn't able to appear on the show. Sitting in for him is Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli researcher and analyst, and a doctoral student at Princeton University. During field research in Iraq in 2023, she was kidnapped by Kata'ib Hezbollah and held in captivity for over two years, suffering torture and solitary confinement. In what we hope will be the first of many appearances on Conflicted, Elizabeth discusses: Saddam Hussein’s faith campaign and the rise of Shia religious politics in Iraq The Sadrist movement in Iraq and Muqtada al-Sadr The politicisation of sectarian identity in post-2003 Iraq Iraqi militias as criminal-political enterprises engaged in in theft, extortion, oil smuggling, and dollar smuggling The difference between Iraqi militias and Lebanese Hezbollah The impact of militia rule on ordinary civilian life Iraq’s extreme inequality despite its oil and gas wealth The 2003 Iraq War and the debate over American responsibility Iraqi elite agency and the failures of Iraq’s political class The 2010 Iraqi election crisis and Nouri al-Maliki’s return to power The Iraqi constitution and the failure of constitutional democracy Iraq’s dependence on oil revenues and the Strait of Hormuz The impact of the current Iran war on Iraq’s economy Iranian attacks on Iraqi oil exports and oil tankers The U.S. military presence in Iraq after ISIS American influence over Iraqi prime ministerial politics Nouri al-Maliki, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and Ali al-Zaidi Fa’iq Zaidan and the power of Iraq’s judiciary Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Elizabeth's personal website: https://elizabeth-tsurkov.net/en/ Find Elizabeth on X: https://x.com/LizHurra Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-tsurkov-79491b15/ Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1 hour 14 mins
5 May Finished
