Parag KhannaEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

In this episode, Parag Khanna, founder and CEO of AlphaGeo and a leading geopolitical thinker, joins S2G managing partner Sanjeev Krishnan for an expansive conversation about the structural forces reshaping our world. Drawing on decades of research and first-hand experience, Parag explores how geopolitics is not an aberrational disruption but a constant, foundational reality shaping markets, supply chains, and investment strategies. Sanjeev and Parag discuss why regionalization is accelerating while globalization is far from dead, and how shifting demographics, climate volatility, and affordable housing are becoming defining challenges for companies and governments. They dive into how values are becoming more horizontal across generations, the rise of technocratic governance, and the imperative of mobility of goods, resources, and people as a driver of resilience. This episode arms business leaders with a timely and clear-eyed geopolitical analysis to help them navigate complexity and position themselves for long-term adaptation. Key takeaways: 1. Geopolitics Is Structural, Not Cyclical: Parag emphasizes that geopolitical shifts aren’t temporary shocks. They are enduring forces that shape supply chains, capital flows, and business strategy. Leaders should integrate geopolitics into core planning, not treat it as a side risk. 2. Regionalism Is Rising, Globalization Is Evolving: According to Parag, the world is organizing into regional trade blocs, but digital services and cross-border alliances ensure globalization continues in new forms. Success will depend on balancing both. 3. Horizontal Values Are Driving Global Culture: Studies are showing that younger generations increasingly derive values from peers rather than inherited traditions, emphasizing connectivity, sustainability, and mobility. 4. Technocratic Leadership Is Gaining Ground: Parag notes that around the world, voters are showing a growing preference for leaders who prioritize efficiency, modernization, and evidence-based governance, an important signal for investors assessing policy environments. 5. Physical Mobility Is Essential to Economic Mobility: Parag underscores that enabling physical and social mobility is key to long-term economic opportunity, whether through climate-resilient geographies, affordable housing models, or circular cities. This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change. For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures .

In this conversation, Anthony and Parag Khanna discuss the concept of the 'Periodic Table of States,' which categorizes countries based on their stability and governance. Parag emphasizes the need for a balance between democracy and effective governance. They explore the philosophical debate surrounding democracy and authoritarianism, the role of technology in governance, and the potential of blockchain to enhance global mobility and economic growth. Read Parag's latest thoughts in Foreign Policy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/13/periodic-table-states-rankings-strength-stability-stateness/?utm_content=gifting&tpcc=gifting_article&gifting_article=cGVyaW9kaWMtdGFibGUtc3RhdGVzLXJhbmtpbmdzLXN0cmVuZ3RoLXN0YWJpbGl0eS1zdGF0ZW5lc3M=&pid=OC20506955 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Future Fossils, we sync up with globe-trotting (Singapore-based) futurist Parag Khanna, author of several internationally best-selling books on the shifting landscape of human geography and technological evolution. My acquaintance with Parag dates back all the way to 2011 when I found his Hybrid Reality Institute, and started writing for his BigThink blog, thanks to the writing of Jason Silva — I knew this was a party I couldn’t miss, even though I was then, as now, deeply ambivalent about the contours of the futures he and his colleagues were making visible with their rigorous research. This spirit has defined my entire adult life: if you want to help steer something in a better direction, you might just have to get your hands down into the murk and engage with it deeply enough to be in the position to make a difference. So when his agent contacted me about interviewing him about his latest book, 2021’s Move: The Forces Uprooting Us , I knew it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. But let me be clear that Parag sees things very differently than I do, and I appreciate that about him: he has a keen sense of the risks and dangers of our times but emphasizes the opportunities because the facts are there to support it. If you move around as much as he does, and always has, you get a kind of synoptic view of the planet and the tension between individual destiny and collective momentum comes into a new tuning. This is a beast of a conversation. It was hell to edit. I’m glad it happened. Here you go! Complete, extensive show notes at Patreon. ✨ Housekeeping: • Intro music is " You're In My Self-Portrait " from my 2012 album Golden Hour . Outro music is " City of Jewels " from my 2013 EP of the same name. For something completely different, check out my latest live album , recorded at Meow Wolf Santa Fe while opening for DeVotchKa. ✨ Other Ways To Support The Work & Community: • My roughly-monthly newsletter at Substack • Venmo: @futurefossils • PayPal.me/michaelgarfield • ETH: FutureFossils.eth • BTC: 1At2LQbkQmgDugkchkP6QkDJCvJ5rv3Jm • NFTs: Rarible | Foundation | Voice | Hic Et Nunc | Mint Songs Get bonus content on Patreon Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/futurefossils . Hosted on Acast. See <a style="color:grey;"

Michael Beckerman, CEO, CREtech & Climate sits down with Parag Khanna, Founder and Managing Partner, FutureMap, to unpack the inspiration and drive behind Parag's international best-selling book, ‘Move: The Forces Uprooting Us’. Parag also shares insight on his recent launch of new technology solution, ClimateAlpha, how technology is critical in adaptation and climate resilient geographies.

With massive global shifts happening due to forces like the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, people have started to migrate further away from cities. To understand how people, ideas, and innovation are moving around the world, host Rana Sarkar talks to geo-strategist Parag Khanna: Founder and Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario-based strategic advisory firm. Khanna recently authored a new monograph MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us. According to Khanna, economic collapse, the destablization of democracy, and technological disruption is leading us into a new era of mass migration. In this episode, we try to understand how we got here, and follow along with Khanna on a journey to where we’re going. In times of unequal resource distribution, how will people organize themselves in the future? How will governments adapt to changing population demographics? And how can we come to terms with new climate geographies for the future? LINKS: Parag Khanna Website Parag Khanna LinkedIn Parag Khanna Twitter FutureMap Website Move: Mapping Human Talk at Google McKinsey & Company Author Talks: Parag Khanna on the forces creating a new geography of opportunity Migration, geography and humanity: Parag Khanna, author of ‘MOVE’ on the Book Club Podcast Immigration, booming population and global influence: Is this the ‘heroic’ Canadian dream? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Over the holiday season we are bringing you a special mini-series looking at how the things that keep us connected – like trade, tech, the internet and migration – can also tear us apart. But rather than despairing at the state of the world, the geopolitics and ongoing superpower battles, Mark Leonard is joined by a number of high-level thinkers in this mini-series in order to find strategies for shaping and surviving our new reality. We call it The Age of Unpeace: Therapy for internationalists. Join us on this journey to a more therapeutic approach to international relations. The mini-series brings you five episodes with guests including today’s Parag Khanna, Thomas Wright, and Anne Marie Slaughter. We hope you find some healing! _____________Next up on the couch is Parag Khanna, founder and managing partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario-based strategic advisory firm and best-selling author. He has recently published the book ”Move: the forces uprooting us” in which he looks at how mass migration will reshape the world. Together with Mark Leonard, they go through the five steps of self-help for internationalists and discuss the weaponisation of migration which we see in today’s world more and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Right after taking the stage at our NEXT Conference Limited Edition in September 2021, Dr Parag Khanna sat down with our conference curator Monique van Dusseldorp to follow up on the important points he made regarding the political issue of mass migration and how this will influence the years to come. Parag also revealed his special connection to Hamburg and gave us a little insight into his growing up, being a son of a migrant family himself.

**Reminder** Each episode of Macro N Cheese is accompanied by a transcript and an “Extras” page with links to related material and resources. To access, go to realprogressives.org/macro-n-cheese-podcast. In one sentence: the winners and losers of the 21st century are the countries that attract young people. Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor and best-selling author of numerous books on globalization, migration, the info-state, and the future of the world order. In this episode, he speaks with Steve about his newest book, Move: The Forces Uprooting Us. Most people who pretend to understand globalization reduce it to the rate of world trade growth. Khanna says we need a broader and more nuanced view, even though there are aspects that cannot be quantified. In his work he takes a multi-dimensional and systemic approach. An earlier book, Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization , was about the functional geography of infrastructure and supply chains. Its “punchline” is that connectivity is destiny. The recent book, Move, looks at how these ever-greater volumes of infrastructure affect the evolving distribution of population across the world. Human geography, Khanna explains, answers the questions: Who are we? Where are we? What are we? It is not simply a matter of the number of people inhabiting the planet, but what is our demographic composition - the distribution of age and race? Most people agree both climate change and economics are global in nature. They know the price of goods in one country can be affected by various phenomena in other parts of the world. Likewise, the impact of climate change is dramatically different from region to region. Because climate change is so much more extreme and occurring at a much faster pace than we previously acknowledged, it means that adaptation is as important as mitigation. This is a huge theme in the book and, quite frankly, an open door, a big hole that I'm trying to drive a truck through because I'm beside myself with rage . For all our concern about climate change, the focus is skewed. According to Khanna, only 6% of climate-related funding goes to adaptation. Meanwhile, people are dying every single day. You got your rising sea levels in Bangladesh and people dying in floods and heat waves, droughts and cyclones -- all these climate related phenomena. Every single day hundreds, if not thousands, of people are dying. The number of climate refugees in the world is greater than any other category of refugees. Climate migration will soon exceed all other drivers of migration, and yet we don't have a collective discourse on adaptation. Khanna describes the US as “second world,” by which he means it is both first and third world at the same time. He finds lessons in the history of the rise and fall of past civilizations. Societies collapse when their brittleness is exposed by their vulnerability to complex supply chains and structures they haven't fully grasped or untangled. Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. Parag's newest book is MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us (2021), which was preceded by The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century (2019). He is author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also the author of Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017) and co-author of Hybrid R

Dr. Parag Khanna is my guest on Episode 141 of Inside Ideas with Marc Buckley. Parag is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is the Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data, and scenario-based strategic advisory firm. Parag's newest book is MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us (2021), which was preceded by The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century (2019). He is the author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also the author of Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017) and co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelors and Masters degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has traveled to nearly 150 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. https://www.paragkhanna.com/

Because of the pervasive media coverage of Trumpism, Brexit, and the like, it is easy to assume that the dominant sentiment around the world is that mass migration is a new and terrifying phenomenon that could upend the world as we know it. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth, and we’ve brought Parag Khanna, founder of FutureMap, to explain why. Not only has most of the world remained pragmatic about the topic, but mass migration has been occurring for decades, and although there are some exceptions, in the majority of cases, societies have absorbed the newcomers and the newcomers have assimilated remarkably well. Parag is an Asian-American who has also lived in Europe, and his personal perspective combined with the in-depth research that he has conducted around migration, sustainability, community, governance, citizenship and more, reveals a lot about what drives us to do the things we do, and offers a glimpse of what our future could look like. Key Points From This Episode: • Parag shares his thoughts on why the US should (hypothetically) buy Greenland. • The premise of Parag’s new book, Move. • Two megatrends that are currently shaping the world. • Four potential futures that Parag thinks we are heading for. • Immigration policies in the UK, US, and Canada, and what these indicate about the future. • Changes in migration dynamics since Parag’s school days, and what is driving those changes. • The sentiment amongst European politicians about migrants that Parag has picked up through his research. • How societies have historically dealt with mass migration. • High volumes of migration that take place in East and South-East Asia. • Value that lies in having civilizational confidence. • Parag explains how Germany is breaking open the definition of what German-ness is. • A brief analysis of the migration situation in the UAE. • Primary factors which motivate the migration of Western expats. • The nuanced nature of citizenship. • Sustainability, mobility, and connectivity from the perspective of the youth of today, and Parag’s opinion on where these ideas emerged from. • How definitions of community have changed, and how they are changing now. • The important role that cities are going to play in coming migrations. • Parag explains what the mobile real estate phenomenon is, and what is driving it. • Why Parag does not think de-urbanization is a major trend, although it is being talked about as if it is. • Plans that Parag has for the future. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Parag Khanna Future Map Charter Cities Institute Charter Cities Institute on Facebook Charter Cities Institute on Twitter

In this inaugural episode of Dialogues at Fulcrum, William Choong, Managing Editor of Fulcrum, sits down with Parag Khanna, author of “The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict and Culture in the 21st Century”. Published in 2019, the book covers a broad spectrum of themes such as Asian history, the region’s economic rise and the ongoing Asianisation of Asia. Dr Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveller and author. Dialogues at Fulcrum is a podcast published by the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. For quick reference, the themes below were addressed during the podcast. 1:00 - Has the West and Asians themselves accepted the “rise of Asia”? 8:50 - Fears about a gradual US withdrawal from the region 11:05 - Interdependence or pragmatism in Sino-US relations? 15:40 - Does the Quad have legs to run? 21:38 - The US and China: different visions of regional order 32:00 - What kind of traction can ASEAN get on Myanmar? 37:50 - Can Singapore’s model of technocratic governance be replicated?

GFA342. Excited to share with you this week show - we are talking about the future of Asia with our guest who has a lot of resources and amazing insights. I learned a few things and got re-inspired. Let's tune in. For full show notes, check out GlobalFromAsia.com/asia-future/. The post Asia’s Rise In The War For Talent with Dr. Parag Khanna appeared first on Global From Asia .

Dr. Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. Parag has been honored as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and has served on the WEF’s Global Future Council on Mobility, Global Agenda Council on Geoeconomics, and advisory board of its Future of Urban Development Initiative. He also serves on the board of trustees of the New Cities Foundation, Council of the American Geographical Society, advisory board of Independent Diplomat. He is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In 2002, he was awarded the OECD Future Leaders Prize.

Conversation on Global Supply Chains post COVID-19 with Bob Ferrari and highy noted strategy Advisor guest, Dr. Parag Khanna.

What will happen after the COVID-19 nightmare ends? What has it revealed about the risks and rewards of global dependency? If globalization is replaced by regionalism and nationalism, how will the U.S.’s relationship with Asia change? What will supply chains look like? Will automation accelerate as a corporate defense against the effects of pandemics on the labor force? Leading global strategy advisor Parag Khanna, bestselling author of “The Future is Asian,” has a conversation with Jim Falk about the “Asian century” in a post-pandemic world. Parag Khanna is founder and managing partner of the global strategic advisory firm FutureMap. His career spans service at the World Economic Forum, Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, New America Foundation and the National University of Singapore. Khanna is the bestselling author of six books including “The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century” and “Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization.” He earned his BS in international affairs and MA in security studies from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics. Khanna was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century” and has been honored as a “Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.”

Episode 58. John Rossant sits down with international relations guru and best-selling author Parag Khanna in Singapore about where our world is heading: Khanna believes this century will be an Asian century -- though not necessarily a Chinese one. And the coronavirus pandemic will only be a setback to that future, not its death knell. John also chats with Greg Lindsay about the pandemic and its effect on the world of mobility.

In this week’s podcast I’m joined by Parag Khanna managing partner of Future Map and author of Connectivity and the Future is Asian, to discuss how to map the next property investment hotspots, global trends and connectivity. To find out more about me head on over to www.ncrealestate.co.uk or join my Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/propertyinvestmentmastery/ Instagram/Twitter @natashaccollins To find out more about Parag - https://www.paragkhanna.com or http://futuremap.io/ Twitter @paragkhannah

"The rise of China is not the biggest story in the world," says Parag Khanna. "The Asianization of Asia, the return of Asia, the rise of the Asian system, is the biggest story in the world." This new Asian system, where business, technology, globalization, and geopolitics are intertwined, stretches from Japan to Saudi Arabia, from Australia to Russia, and Indonesia to Turkey, linking 5 billion people.

Jason Hartman talks with Parag Khanna, author of The Future is Asian and founder of FutureMap, about what's really going on in regards to the trade war and its impact on Asia (which doesn't just mean China). The two discuss the role of technology in killing jobs around the world and Asia's impact on global consumption growth. Key Takeaways: [1:07] What is Connectography? [5:59] The premise of The Future Is Asian [9:09] Parag can tell you who's going to win a trade war with China [11:03] Technology is killing jobs a lot faster than trade is [15:33] Most of the consumption growth is coming from Asia [19:24] International competition is getting bigger and bigger, making any missteps even costlier [25:23] Companies are shifting entire operations overseas to take advantage of those markets, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for America Website: www.ParagKhanna.com

Jason Hartman talks with Parag Khanna, author of The Future is Asian and founder of FutureMap, about what’s really going on in regards to the trade war and its impact on Asia (which doesn’t just mean China). The two discuss the role of technology in killing jobs around the world and Asia’s impact on global […] The post JS 117: Changes in Asian Consumers & Companies with Parag Khanna appeared first on Jet Setter Show .

Jason Hartman talks with Parag Khanna, author of The Future is Asian and founder of FutureMap, about what's really going on in regards to the trade war and its impact on Asia (which doesn't just mean China). The two discuss the role of technology in killing jobs around the world and Asia's impact on global consumption growth. Key Takeaways: [1:29] What is Connectography? [6:21] The premise of The Future Is Asian [9:31] Parag can tell you who's going to win a trade war with China [11:25] Technology is killing jobs a lot faster than trade is [15:55] Most of the consumption growth is coming from Asia [19:46] International competition is getting bigger and bigger, making any missteps even costlier [25:45] Companies are shifting entire operations overseas to take advantage of those markets, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for America Website: www.ParagKhanna.com

Many clever political scientists and philosophers have put their minds together to studying democracy and writing about its problems. Today, I’m honored to welcome one of the best – Parag Khanna, a global strategist and bestselling author, as well as a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. In this episode, we discuss how the U.S. is showing up in the world today as an example of democracy, how other countries govern, and how we can redesign our democratic institution. Don’t miss this provocative glimpse into what Parag suggests is possible for America’s future. Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/2AUAmVw

Parag Khanna is a leading global strategist, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also the Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a boutique geostrategic advisory firm, and Co-Founder & CEO of Factotum, a leading content branding agency. Parag’s latest book is Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017). He is author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. To learn more about Provocative Enlightenment Radio, go to http://www.provocativeenlightenment.com

For the rest of the summer Mark Leonard will be breaking from the usual World in 30 Minutes format to talk about how the global order is being challenged. This week, he is joined by Parag Khanna, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center on Asia and Globalization at the National University of Singapore and best-selling author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order.Bookshelf: Parag Khanna, The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Parag Khanna is a leading global strategist, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is a CNN Global Contributor and Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a boutique geostrategic advisory firm. Parag's latest book is Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012) and author of the award-winning How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011) and the international bestseller The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), which was translated into more than twenty languages. In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” Amongst his many endeavours and achievements, Parag has been an adviser to the U.S. National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 program, and served in the foreign policy advisory group to the Barack Obama for President campaign. From 2006-2015 he was a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation. During 2007 he served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a senior geopolitical adviser to United States Special Operations Forces. Topics Discussed: - How megacities are changing the map of the world - How small, traditionally powerless counties can become empowered as they shift from political geography to functional geography - The growing disparity between infrastructure spending and defence spending - Why China is racing ahead of the US and how the latter can close the gap - The concept of Sustainable Urbanisation - How technology and new energy discoveries are harnessing more peaceful societies - The implications of the 2 billion people about to come online in developing economies Show Notes: Parag's website - www.paragkhanna.com/ Parag's books: Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State - https://amzn.to/2xwBgXT Connectography: Mapping the Global Network Revolution - https://amzn.to/2QQCF3r Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization - https://amzn.to/2QTaUaG The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order - https://amzn.to/2QQzc4O How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance - https://amzn.to/2xyw2e7 The Future Is Asian: Global Order in the Twenty-first Century - https://amzn.to/2I8heqI <p data-w-id="32652a1a-736e-19e2-070b-bda7020fe6

Michael Covel interviews Parag Khanna. Parag is an international relations expert, a CNN Global Contributor and Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore. He is also the Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a geostrategic advisory firm, and Co-Founder & CEO of Factotum. Parag’s new book, “Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization” recently came across Michael’s desk. The concept of connectivity does not just relate to mobile phones and Skype. There is a very physical and tangible evolution of connectivity that can be boiled down into three categories; transportation, energies and communications. Michael and Parag start the podcast off touching on what connectivity is and then dive into the relationship between cities and states. Parag says that there is not one single successful state that is not built upon the stability of their successful cities. We have more mega and viable cities than states in the world. Cities are the drivers of growth. More mayors are sitting heads of states or presidents nowadays than any other time in history and think of themselves as CEO’s rather than politicians. Next, Parag elaborates on supply chains. The diversity of products available today is truly global. A product can have digital design from Silicon Valley, assembly in China, and a call center for product customer support in Vietnam. As a business, the combination of infrastructure investment and connecting through supply chains to global markets makes you a real player in the economy. Michael brings up the economical impact that globalization has made, in particular to taxes. Apple is working with Ireland to keep their investments outside the U.S. More and more companies are realizing that they can operate over “the cloud.” Markets are everywhere and sales are everywhere so investments should be able to be everywhere as well. American politicians have been counter productive in trying to capture taxes from some of the biggest companies in America. Michael brings the conversation back to China and their infrastructure. China has made a global plan to help counties boost their infrastructure. They are spending their own money to help gain trust and also smooth the flow of goods in and out of developing countries by building railways, airports and shipping ports. Most of the world trade growth is happening across the Indian Ocean because of the Chinese. Next, Michael brings up country borders and the reservations citizens may have about immigrants. No country has gained more from accepting immigrants into their society than America Parag argues. Parag says that unfortunately people are acting more with their hearts rather than acting on the data. There are far more benefits to welcoming immigrants into societies as opposed to shutting them out. People talk about globalization doing us wrong. It is not. It is political governments that are failing. Policies in politics are the problem. Michael and Parag finish up discussing the booming rise of Dubai, and how the city is a perfect example of infrastructure growing a city. Dubai has thought strategically about all their expansion, from their roads to their buildings to their education system. It’s a place that represents a leap in quality of life for people who are on the move and doing different things. In this episode of Trend Following Radio: Supply chains Connectivity Cities vs. State Chinese infrastructure growth Trade Trust among China’s neighbors Territory borders Globalization Winners and losers in the 21st century The idea of “not in my backyard” Growth of Dubai