America's lawyers vs. China's engineers

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

America has a hard time building stuff. Roads. Trains. Bridges. Housing. Everything takes seemingly forever. Meanwhile, China seems to have no trouble at all: high-speed rails, solar panels, electric cars, bridges, ports, all churned out at breakneck speed. Why is that? Sean's guest is Dan Wang, author of the new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future. They discuss the policies and mindset that allow China to tackle remarkable feats of engineering, the advantages and drawbacks of America’s "lawyerly society," and what China and America must learn from each other. Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future This episode was made in partnership with Vox's Future Perfect team. We would love to hear from you. To tell us what you thought! Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. We read and listen to everything, and might use your comments and questions in future episodes. Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members and watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:21.5	America has a hard time building stuff.
1:27.1	Roads, trains, light rail, bridges, housing.
1:32.3	Everything takes seemingly forever if it even happens at all.
1:37.3	Last week, New York City approved a contract to start work on a subway extension that was proposed a century ago.
1:48.2	A century. Meanwhile, there's China, a country that builds much, much faster. High-speed rails take
	...

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