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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep569: SHOW SCHEDULE 3-11-2026 1906 SF ON FIRE AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE.

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, Books, News, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

SHOW SCHEDULE 3-11-2026

1906 SF ON FIRE AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE.

1. SEG 1: Gordon Chang and Peter Huessy discuss China’s petroleum reserves and rising fuel prices. They analyze the potential for nuclear escalation and Iran’s efforts to disrupt global trade through the Strait of Hormuz. (1)

2. SEG 2: Rebecca Grant and Gordon Chang analyze the US Navy's carrier shortage. The USS Nimitz remains active for Latin American exercises while the USS Gerald R. Ford faces a prolonged 11-month combat deployment. (2)

3. SEG 3: Alan Tonelson and Gordon Chang discuss China’s failure to stop fentanyl precursor exports. They evaluate tariffs as non-military tools to pressure nations while addressing war-related shortages in fertilizer and electronics components. (3)

4. SEG 4: Bill Roggio details the tragic US missile strike on an Iranian girl’s school. He argues that while air strikes destroy military assets, air power alone cannot achieve regime change or ensure final victory. (4)

5. SEG 5: Jack Burnham analyzes China’s "lukewarm" support for Iran and its focus on energy security. Beijing is learning lessons from Western precision strikes while continuing internal repression of ethnic minorities through forced labor. (5)

6. SEG 6: Jack Burnham reports on the DOJ dropping charges against Chinese scientists accused of smuggling biological samples. This reversal, involving the Chinese consulate, may be linked to upcoming trade negotiations or prosecutorial challenges. (6)

7. SEG 7: Kevin Fraser warns that state legislatures are rushing to regulate AI with potentially unconstitutional laws. He advocates for market-driven transparency and allowing consumers to choose models based on their specific needs and preferences. (7)

8. SEG 8: Kevin Fraser explores distinctions between AI models like Grok and Claude. He highlights regulatory "sandboxes" in states like Utah and Montana that foster innovation while monitoring for potential technological harms and ensuring transparency. (8)

9. SEG 9: Michael Bernstam explains how the American shale revolution mitigates global energy shocks. He warns central banks against fueling inflation and emphasizes that while global supply chains are vulnerable, US production provides a critical buffer. (9)

10. SEG 10: Michael Bernstam discusses how rising oil prices bolster Russia's budget. However, the Russian economy faces contraction and "military Keynesianism," while the United States remains a resilient net energy exporter despite global supply chain disruptions. (10)

11. SEG 11: Ivana Stradner examines the Kremlin’s information warfare campaign to keep Viktor Orbán in power. Orbán, formerly an anti-Soviet activist, now aligns with Putin to ensure political survival and counter Western democratic decision-making processes. (11)

12. SEG 12: Ivana Stradner outlines strategies to counter Russian influence in Hungary, including exposing Orbán's corruption and ties to China. She argues that information is a potent, invisible weapon used to polarize and weaken the West. (12)

13. SEG 13: Simon Constable reports on skyrocketing European energy prices due to Middle East conflict. Shortages in sulfur and bromine threaten global semiconductor manufacturing and food security as fertilizer costs nearly double for struggling farmers. (13)

14. SEG 14: Simon Constable critiques Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s hesitant leadership. He notes the Royal Navy has been "hollowed out" over three decades, leaving Britain with fewer warships than France and a tiny, underfunded standing army. (14)

15. SEG 15: Bob Zimmerman discusses the Senate's shift toward private space exploration, potentially ending the SLS program. NASA is increasingly contracting commercial entities for lunar habitats, reusable rockets, and specialized satellite launch capabilities to reduce costs. (15)

16. SEG 16: Bob Zimmerman reviews the DART mission's success in altering an asteroid's orbit. He also reports that the European Space Agency lost contact with a solar probe after its batteries drained due to misaligned solar panels. (16)

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is John Batchel. My favorite report of the day will be up tomorrow.

0:05.0

Conversation with the astronomer Peter Fandokum at Yale University about leading a team that has discovered a runaway black hole.

0:15.5

How big? The professor said about the distance between Mercury and the sun, black hole, moving at

0:24.2

a thousand kilometers a second, the fastest known object flying in the cosmos so far that we've

0:31.2

discovered, we as in mankind. Discovered by accident, serendipitous, how does it it happen that a black hole runs away i thought a

0:41.2

black hole was was stationary no it turns out it is subject to gravity is everything else in the

0:50.7

universe as far as we understand and the professor describes the collision of two or more galaxies.

0:58.7

Remember, Andromeda is headed to us.

1:01.4

We're headed to Andromeda, so we're going to collide.

1:04.9

And a black hole gets spun off, thrown out of the nest, and goes winging it on its own across the cosmos in the

1:12.8

gas-rich area between galaxies. I think. This is never seen but assumed. You see it,

1:20.7

or you assume it, around the edges as it's distorting the field of gas.

1:29.9

And we can believe eating planets on the way,

1:35.0

but the detail that I liked, especially from the professor with a smile in his face,

1:36.6

was it's headed our way, soarled.

1:38.7

Now, there's a plot.

1:46.2

Astronomers using the telescopes in Chile discover a runaway black hole that's headed our way in say 500,000 years. Okay, that's long enough not to think about it. 500,000 years, that's

1:53.1

Cambrian explosion. No, that was 500 million years. Check that. Five hundred thousand years is a very

2:00.7

brief amount of time. It's not

2:02.4

something that we humans can easily understand. How many generations is that a lot? But it would

2:11.6

be impossible to live without thinking that everything we've achieved on earth in the 2,000 years of

2:21.5

recognized progress, 3,000 years, 4,000 years, 5,000 years, whatever, whether from Egypt or

...

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