Welcome to the Cynical podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with The China Project.

Subscribe to access from the China Project to get, well, access, access to not only our great daily newsletter, but to all

of the original writing on our website at theChinaproject.com. We've got recorded stories,

essays, and editorials, great explainers and trackers, regular columns, and of course, a growing

library of podcasts. We cover everything from China's fraught foreign relations to its ingenious entrepreneurs,

from the ongoing repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim peoples in China's Xinjiang region

to Beijing's ambitious plans to shift the Chinese economy onto a post-carbon footing.

It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation

that is reshaping the world. We cover China with neither fear nor favor. I'm Kaiser Guo, coming to you

from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Joining me from the thickets and brambles of storied Goldcorn

holler out there in Middle Tennessee is Dumi, also known as Jeremy Goldcourt,

who is taking time away from his balloon and drone launch center that he's built on his property,

where this very afternoon he plans on setting up a fifth craft, this time shaped like a giant alpaca

or a grass mud horse, which he's hoping will be taken down by an F-22.

You've done pretty well so far. I think you're four-for-four-four.

Tell us how many of your vehicles have already been down exactly?

No, none of them, none of them, Kaiser.

As somebody from the, I think the State Department said yesterday, none of these things were

extraterrestrial craft.

So that rules mine out.

Right, right, right.

But do greet the people.

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