{"podcast":{"title":"The Steady State Sentinel","slug":"the-steady-state-sentinel-7636983","podcast_index_feed_id":7636983,"rss_url":"https://media.rss.com/the-steady-state-sentinel/feed.xml","website_url":"https://thesteadystate.org/","image_url":"https://media.rss.com/the-steady-state-sentinel/20260104_040107_01c26922c58f7914214377cb41ca643e.png","author":"The Steady State","episode_count":34,"summary":"The Steady State Sentinel is produced by The Steady State , a community of former national security professionals who spent their careers safeguarding the United States at home and abroad. Today, we continue that mission by staying true to our oaths to defend the Constitution, uphold democracy, and protect national security. Each episode features expert hosts in conversation with accomplished guests whose experience sheds light on the crises and challenges facing the nation. New episodes every Tuesday and subscribe on YouTube for the video editon.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-30T14:17:04.443410+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-steady-state-sentinel-7636983"},"episode":{"title":"Saving My Life's Work: Eric Rubin on the Dismantling of American Diplomacy","slug":"saving-my-life-s-work-eric-rubin-on-the-dismantling-of-american-diplomacy","published_at":"2026-05-05T04:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-steady-state-sentinel-7636983/saving-my-life-s-work-eric-rubin-on-the-dismantling-of-american-diplomacy","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-steady-state-sentinel-7636983","url":"https://rss.com/podcasts/the-steady-state-sentinel/2792215","audio_url":"https://content.rss.com/episodes/362808/2792215/the-steady-state-sentinel/2026_05_04_11_55_09_5eaef68a-4ded-41b7-b1ce-b1a805356b09.mp3","summary":"The Spoils System Returns, the Foreign Service Professional Association Is Crushed, and Why the Next President Will Be Handicapped In the latest episode of the Sentinel, Peter Mina interviews Ambassador Eric Rubin, a 38‑year Foreign Service veteran, former president of American Foreign Service Association and current Steady State board member. Rubin describes how the Trump administration has dismantled the nonpartisan career foreign service, destroyed employee associations and affinity groups, and replaced them with a loyalty‑based “spoils system.” He reveals that membership in the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, a Heritage Foundation project, has become the equivalent of membership in the Soviet Communist Party for State Department officers seeking promotions. Rubin also discusses the catastrophic war with Iran, noting that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff (both staunch Netanyahu supporters) are the actual negotiators, while career Iran experts have been purged. He offers a sobering look at how allies will never fully trust the U.S. again, and why young people should still join the Foreign Service, because America will need diplomats long after Trump. The episode ends with a powerful call to action: international engagement is the basis of our prosperity and security, and Americans must recognize that we are less safe today than on January 19, 2025. View the transcript Ambassador Eric Rubin is a senior fellow with the Democratic Resilience Program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and a member of the board of directors of The Steady State. A career Foreign Service officer for 38 years, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria (2016‑2019) and was elected president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) from 2019 to 2023. He has he…","meta_description":"The Spoils System Returns, the Foreign Service Professional Association Is Crushed, and Why the Next President Will Be Handicapped In the latest episode o…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2580,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-steady-state-sentinel-7636983/episodes/saving-my-life-s-work-eric-rubin-on-the-dismantling-of-american-diplomacy/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-steady-state-sentinel-7636983/saving-my-life-s-work-eric-rubin-on-the-dismantling-of-american-diplomacy.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}