Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast, I'm Asma Khalid, I cover the White House.

I'm Susan Davis, I cover politics.

And today on the show, we are joined by Republican presidential candidate Will Heard.

Welcome, thank you for joining us.

What's up everybody, it's great to be on with you all.

So for folks who may be unfamiliar with your bio, you are a former CIA agent.

For six years, you were a member of the House of Representatives, where you had, I would

say, quite a reputation for bipartisanship.

And now, at the age of 45, you want to be president.

So why this next step?

Look, the reason I'm running is real simple.

I think we're faced with a number of generational defining challenges, everything from the Chinese

government, China's to pass us as a global superpower.

Every American should care about that, because that's going to impact our quality of life,

our way of life into the future.

We have a time where persistent inflation and our economy is going to be impacted and

upended by technologies like artificial intelligence.

And that's not in 10 years.

That's in two or three years.

And we have to be prepared for ensuring that artificial intelligence and other technologies

like quantum computing, synthetic bio, lead to increased opportunities, not unemployment.

And then we've all seen how our kids in reading math and science have the worst grades in

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