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The John Batchelor Show

1: SHOW SCHEDULE 7-3-25 GOOD EVENING. The show begins in Vietnam, and the news that Trump advisers have reached a deal for a 20% tariff cap on goods into the US.

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, Books, News, Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary


SHOW SCHEDULE 
7-3-25
GOOD EVENING. The show begins in Vietnam, and the news that Trump advisers have reached a deal for a 20% tariff cap on goods into the US.

1920S VIETNAM

CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR

FIRST HOUR 9:00-9:15 Trade: Vietnam settles for 20% and why China protests. #ScalaReport: Chris Riegel CEO, Scala.com @stratacache. 9:15-9:30 Ohio: Ambition to be the new Texas for investors and high tech. #ScalaReport: Chris Riegel CEO, Scala.com @stratacache. 9:30-9:45 Oceania: PRC attacks with lawfare in the Solomons. Cleo Paskal, FDD. 9:45-10:00 Argentina: New court proceedings to prosecute Iran and Hezbollah agents in absentia. Mary Anastasia O'Grady.

SECOND HOUR 10:00-10:15 Iran: Ayatollah still hiding. Mohsen Sazegara, Malcolm Hoenlein @conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1 10:15-10:30 PRC: Teaching Yiddish in Beijing. Meng Yang, Malcolm Hoenlein @conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1 10:30-10:45 Israel: PM Netanyahu to the White House. Malcolm Hoenlein @conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1 10:45-11:00 Cosmology: Discovering most early galaxies as little red dots. Ken Croswell, Science News. Galaxies

THIRD HOUR 11:00-11:15 5/8: Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic by James Romm (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Plato-Tyrant-Greatest-Philosophic-Masterpiece/dp/1324093188/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

Plato is one of history's most influential thinkers, the "sublime philosopher" whose writings remain foundational to Western culture. He is known for the brilliant dialogues in which he depicted his teacher, Socrates, discussing ethical truths with prominent citizens of Athens. Yet the image we have of Plato—an ethereal figure far removed from society and politics, who conjured abstract ideas in peaceful groves—is a fiction, created by Plato's admirers and built up over centuries. In fact, Plato was very much a man of the world.

In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato—documents that have long been kept in obscurity—to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power. That dream has echoed down through the ages and given rise to a famous term, one that Plato himself didn't actually use: philosopher-king.

As Romm reveals, Plato's time in Syracuse helped shape Republic—and also had disastrous results for Plato himself and for all of Greek Sicily. The younger Dionysius, emotionally unstable but intellectually curious, welcomed Plato with open arms, but soon the relationship soured. Plato's close friendship with Dionysius's uncle, Dion—possibly a bond of romantic love—created a rift in the ruling family that led to a chaotic civil war.

Combining thrilling political drama with explorations of Plato's most cherished ideas, Romm takes us into the heart of Greece's late classical age, a time when many believed that democracy had failed. Plato's search for solutions led him to write his fervent plea for a new political order, and also led him to a place where he believed his theories might be put into practice. But Plato and the Tyrant demonstrates how Plato's experiment with enlightened autocracy spiraled into catastrophe, and also gives us nothing less than a new account of the origins of Western political thought.

11:15-11:30 6/8: Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic by James Romm (Author) 11:30-11:45 7/8: Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic by James Romm (Author) 11:45-12:00 8/8: Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic by James Romm (Author)

FOURTH HOUR 12:00-12:15 Canada: Measuring the Trump White House first five months. Conrad Black. 12:15-12:30 Ukraine: Will NATO follow through? Anatol Lieven 12:30-12:45 Interstellar: Found object from another system. Bob Zimmerman behindtheblack.com 12:45-1:00 AM NASA: Senator Cruz wants more. Bob Zimmerman behindtheblack.com


Transcript

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0:29.0

slash audio. Good evening. The show starts tonight in Vietnam. The news from Washington is that Vietnam has agreed to a 20% tariff on shipments out of Vietnam towards the U.S.

0:57.0

China protests vehemently. Why? I learned that China was using Vietnam as a cutout to ship

1:04.9

its items, pretending that they're from Vietnam when in fact their Chinese goods and ordinarily would be burdened with a much higher terror.

1:16.5

The game is afoot, talking to Chris Regal.

1:20.8

We also talk about his native Ohio.

1:24.2

I learned that Ohio has ambition to be the new Texas and New Florida to reduce a 3.125 state tax to zero.

1:34.1

Vivek Ramoswamy, who is campaigning for governorship next year, wants it to be zero.

1:39.8

Why?

1:40.6

To attract Silicon Valley.

1:42.1

Already it's happening a proposal by Peter Thiel and his colleagues

1:47.0

to start a bank in Columbus, Ohio, like the Silicon Valley Bank to fund startups. Angel investors, venture

1:55.0

capitalists come to Ohio where no state tax, all the infrastructure, a deep history, lots of well-educated

2:05.5

people, lots and lots, opportunity to draw from Chicago, from Indiana, from Oklahoma, from Kentucky,

2:15.0

the whole Midwest, a bank in Columbus, promising.

2:20.5

And given that there are prominent politicians hailing from Ohio,

2:26.1

namely the Vice President of the United States,

2:29.9

and others, very promising.

...

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