{"podcast":{"title":"School of War","slug":"school-of-war-4485553","podcast_index_feed_id":4485553,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/school-of-war","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/e7539186-26e3-11ec-8093-d77d6bdef305/image/b1fa56a68d8727cd9fba08793d37de34.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Free Press","episode_count":319,"summary":"In School of War, CBS News National Security Analyst and Free Press columnist Aaron MacLean sits down with secretaries of state, top military historians, war planners, and key political decision-makers to help understand the lessons of war. Tune in as School of War takes you to the front lines. Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Visit our Substack for episode transcripts Follow along on Instagram","last_synced_at":"2026-06-19T18:21:00.710717+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-war-4485553"},"episode":{"title":"America’s Coming Population Crash—and China’s, with Nicholas Eberstadt","slug":"america-s-coming-population-crash-and-china-s-with-nicholas-eberstadt","published_at":"2026-05-08T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-war-4485553/america-s-coming-population-crash-and-china-s-with-nicholas-eberstadt","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-war-4485553","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VOdNgcECFk0maZgOJbmx/traffic.megaphone.fm/CBS9627331013.mp3?updated=1778216224","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VOdNgcECFk0maZgOJbmx/traffic.megaphone.fm/CBS9627331013.mp3?updated=1778216224","summary":"Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, joins School of War to discuss global population decline. What does a shrinking and aging population mean for the United States? What does it mean for China, whose demographic crisis may be even more severe? How could population decline reshape economic growth, military power, and geopolitical competition? And what happens to the international order when the world stops growing? 03:02 Population decline in America 006:15 Deaths exceeding births in the US 07:31 Global birth crash 14:49 Grounds for optimism 17:12 Small family trend 18:17 GDP relationship with population size 19:23 Individual prosperity vs. National strength 21:24 Rise in human life expectancy 24:36 Ben Carson’s prediction 27:11 Ukraine’s military revolution 30:47 American bad habits 33:48 AI and the labor market 37:25 Chinese depopulation crisis 48:50 What would a world war look like today? 51:48 US Alliance relationships Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast Find more at The Free Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, joins School of War to discuss global population decl…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3285,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/school-of-war-4485553/episodes/america-s-coming-population-crash-and-china-s-with-nicholas-eberstadt/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/school-of-war-4485553/america-s-coming-population-crash-and-china-s-with-nicholas-eberstadt.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}