Marshall here, welcome back to the realignment. Today's guest is Palantir's Madeline Hart,

co-author with Palantir's CTO and previous realignment guest, Shams Shanker, of the newly

released Mobilize How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III. In this episode,

we cover the case for embracing heretics in government and how many of our

past successes and present failures are driven by our ability to tolerate those who struggle

to operate in traditional hierarchies.

We then go on to cover the roots of the present defense budget slash Pentagon's woes, not in

the fact that we spend too much or too little, but that we've built

a consolidated private sector defense industry that can't turn resources into results.

And then we go on to the case for mobilization as a strategy of deterrence against the great

power conflicts that could lead to World War III, something I like to imagine we'd all like to

avoid.

We then also discuss the origins of the status quo defense industry giants that

absolutely no one is happy with in decisions after the Cold War to consolidate the industry,

which led to financialization, cost overruns, and a startling lack of competition.

Something we also spend some time on that I'd like to explore in future episodes is the question of what exactly is in this for the American people? Obviously, Pallantir has a financial stake in mobilization, but that's always been true, especially during the 1940s, the 1960s heyday of the defense industry and the American military. We spent more than plenty

on the military at the time, but that was also a period where the American people saw concrete

investment at home. I don't expect industry folks to solve that equation, but in our past,

the leaders that inspire me like FDR understood this dynamic. I recently read a book on FDR's Four Freedom speech,

and two of the four freedoms are relevant to this conversation,

the freedom from fear and the freedom from want.

A proper defense strategy can and must deliver on the freedom from fear side of things,

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