Google’s Former CEO Is Dancing in Ukraine
Angry Planet
Matthew Gault
4.3 • 882 Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2025
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Earlier this year journalist Ben Makuch caught a glimpse of Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, dancing at a club in Kyiv. It was a surreal moment, a snapshot of a tragic war that the West thinks is defining the future of conflict. Tech executives have flocked to Ukraine, courting the country in an attempt to get at a resource more precious than gold: data. Makuch was just there and has written about what he saw for The New Republic and he’s on the show today to talk about it.
- Some light smoking banter
- Ben’s timeline
- Google’s CEO dancing in a bar in Kyiv
- Ukraine as laboratory for war tech
- The JSOC era is over
- In defense of the majestic American turkey
- The great America vs China speculation
- War, cheaper
- On the actual frontline
- Wheat fields of fiber optic line
- The buzz of the drone
- Life in the bloodlands
- The human suffering of living in Ukraine
- FPV-made propaganda
- “Never underestimate human innovation when it comes to killing other humans.”
- What’s Erik Prince doing in Ukraine?
New York Times on Military Reform
The Medieval—and Highly Effective—Tactics of the Ukrainian Protests
Who Is St. Javelin and Why Is She a Symbol of the War in Ukraine?
‘Cope Cages’ on Busted Tanks Are a Symbol of Russia’s Military Failures
‘Unauthorized’ Edit to Ukraine’s Frontline Maps Point to Polymarket’s War Betting
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Love this podcast. |
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| 0:05.2 | It's up to you how much you give, and there's no regular commitment. |
| 0:09.1 | Just click the link in the show description to support now. |
| 0:17.8 | And you do video too, right? |
| 0:19.5 | No, I'm not going to publish the video oh okay all right so yeah you can do |
| 0:22.5 | do whatever you need to vape you need to you know whatever whatever needs to happen oh i'm a real |
| 0:27.9 | cigarette guy and i can't i can't i can't go back what's your what's your brand oh man marley |
| 0:33.5 | lights really that is so like i can't i can't do more. I mean, I haven't smoked in a long time. I miss it every day. Oh, I know, man, me too. I do, like, every once in a while, like, well, with friends, like, if you're, if I'm drinking or something. But, I mean, I used to be, like, wake up, smoke like like a pack a day god the the best one my favorite |
| 0:58.7 | one was I would get on my porch and I'd have my cup of coffee exactly oh god camels I like to camels |
| 1:06.5 | yeah camel blues I like a camel blue yeah good camel blue oh yeah. I remember I talked to a reporter who had quit for 30 years, an old-timer, and I was like, do you miss it? And he literally looked at me. He's like, every fucking day. And I was like, oh, it doesn't bode well. It's been, it's been more than 10 years for me |
| 1:27.5 | And it still |
| 1:29.2 | Haunts you |
| 1:30.2 | It still haunts me |
| 1:31.9 | If I watch like |
| 1:32.9 | If I watch like Mad Men or something |
| 1:34.5 | Oh God yeah |
| 1:35.4 | It destroys me |
| 1:37.1 | I want it so bad |
| 1:38.2 | You know the one I can't watch |
| 1:39.4 | And even though it's like kind of supposed to not look cool |
| 1:41.7 | But it does |
... |
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