Skip to content

Inherent Greatness and Decency

December 15, 2025 · 1 h 10 min

Show notes

The degradation of the State Department’s official correspondence due to font choice; the Trump Administration releases its National Security Strategy; the return of spheres of influence and the primacy of the Western Hemisphere for US policy; the supposed decline of European civilization; the general problem with national security strategy documents; the glaring absence of the liberal international order in US strategy; and Marcus is generally confused about fonts

Cheap Talk is taking a holiday break, but will be back with new episodes in January. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast player of choice to be notified when new episodes are posted.

The opinions expressed on this podcast are solely our own and do not reflect the policies or positions of William & Mary.

Check out our online store at https://cheaptalk.shop.

Further Reading:
Michael Crowley and Hamed Aleaziz. 2025. “At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke.” New York Times.

The White House. 2025. National Security Strategy of the United States.

Emily Harding. 2025. “The National Security Strategy: The Good, the Not So Great, and the Alarm Bells.” Center for Strategic and International Studies.

See all Cheap Talk episodes

All episodes of Cheap Talk

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.