Samanth Subramanian on the Fragile and Resilient Technologies that Bind Us

Today my guest is Samanth Subramanian, who is a journalist and writer and the author of the recent books The Web Beneath the Waves and A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane.

We talked about under water sea cables and choke points in critical global infrastructure, the intersection of technology and geopolitics, large language models, JBS Haldane and the relationship between science and politics, and much more.

Recorded March 25th, 2026.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:02:35) - Vulnerability and Resilience: Grappling with the Fragility of Undersea Connections
(00:03:48) - Underwater Sea Cables
(00:10:48) - How America's Big Tech Companies Dominate Bandwidth
(00:14:37) - Concentration of Infrastructure
(00:20:27) - The 2Africa Cable and Countries Without Leverage
(00:27:17) - Geopolitical Vulnerabilities
(00:34:51) - Indian Resilience
(00:39:27) - Choke Points in the Global AI Economy
(00:44:05) - The Challenges of Decommissioning Nuclear Plants
(00:49:45) - On the Frontiers and Ethics of AI Technology
(00:56:37) - Haldane's Legacy and Science in the Public Square
(01:06:34) - Optimism and Pessimism About the Future of Science
(01:12:59) - Outro