Why America's Crisis Is Predictable: George Friedman on US Cycles & Trump's Role

Why America's Crisis Is Predictable: George Friedman on US Cycles & Trump's Role

Author: Geopolitical Futures - Geopolitics from George Friedman and his team at GPF October 15, 2025 Duration: 32:59

As GPF Chairman George Friedman has written about in recent months, the United States is trying to reduce its exposure in foreign conflicts. With the US now entering its third week of a government shutdown, the nation has its own set of crises to work through, while Trump is also working to broker peace in Gaza and a trade agreement with China.

How does the current situation fit within the framework of institutional and socioeconomic cycles, as described in George's most recent book, The Storm Before the Calm? And where does President Trump fit into it all? Host Christian Smith is back on the podcast with Dr. Friedman to discuss the US and the historic shifts of the 2020s.

Visit www.geopoliticalfutures.com for world-class geopolitical analysis and discussion. There you'll also find George's new series on the 2020s and Its Historic Shift, including his updated forecast for Poland, Turkey and Japan.


Talking Geopolitics offers a clear-eyed, non-partisan look at the forces shaping our world, moving beyond the daily headlines to examine the deeper historical and strategic currents. This podcast comes from the team at Geopolitical Futures, the publication founded by George Friedman, whose analysis is grounded in decades of experience. You'll hear discussions that distinguish between fleeting noise and the underlying realities that truly matter in international affairs. The conversations focus on understanding national imperatives, regional tensions, and long-term trends, all framed within a historical context. It’s for anyone who feels overwhelmed by fragmented news cycles and seeks a more structured, insightful perspective on global power dynamics. By tuning into this podcast, you gain access to a disciplined method of thinking about geopolitics, one that prioritizes enduring geographic, economic, and political constraints over partisan narratives. Each episode aims to provide listeners with a coherent framework, making sense of complex events from Eastern Europe to the South China Sea. The analysis presented here is designed to be practical and forward-looking, exploring not just what happened, but the likely consequences and strategic options available to key nations. Engaging with this content regularly helps build a more nuanced understanding of why states behave as they do, offering a valuable resource for navigating an interconnected world. The tone is conversational yet precise, reflecting the serious work done by Friedman and his analytical team at GPF.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Talking Geopolitics
Podcast Episodes
George Friedman on the Real Stakes of the Trump-Putin Alaska Summit [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:07
A long-awaited meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin is slated for this Friday in Alaska. The summit, which comes after three and a half years of war in Ukraine, was announced last Friday after President Trump said…
Drug Wars: George Friedman on Why the Cartels Are So Hard To Destroy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:43
Last week, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Venezuelan group the Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization. President Trump has long considered the cartels to be terrorists and has made their destruction a key poli…
Are Xi Jinping's Days Numbered? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:44
For this episode of Talking Geopolitics, we turn our attention to China, where President Xi Jinping has been busy intensifying a crackdown on high-ranking officials. But although China's president may seem like a permane…
George Friedman on the Iran Strike: A New War or the End of One? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:49
On Saturday US time, 7 B2 Spirit Bombers dropped more than a dozen Bunker Buster Bombs on Iran as part of a coordinated strike on three nuclear sites inside the country. It came just over a week after Israel began its ow…