Americano: can anyone beat a madman President? episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 22, 2026 · 29 MIN

Americano: can anyone beat a madman President?

from Best of the Spectator

Freddy Gray speaks to James D. Boys, author of the new book US grand strategy and the madman theory. He is also a senior research fellow at UCL. They discuss the origins of the madman theory – which applies insights from psychology to understand how your enemies think. James covers it from from Nixon to Trump and its intellectual home in Boston. They also explore how the madman theory is being applied in the Middle East conflict and how regularly the theory can be misapplied. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks to James D. Boys, author of the new book US grand strategy and the madman theory. He is also a senior research fellow at UCL. They discuss the origins of the madman theory – which applies insights from psychology to understand how your enemies think. James covers it from from Nixon to Trump and its intellectual home in Boston. They also explore how the madman theory is being applied in the Middle East conflict and how regularly the theory can be misapplied. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Americano: can anyone beat a madman President?

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This episode was published on March 22, 2026.

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Freddy Gray speaks to James D. Boys, author of the new book US grand strategy and the madman theory. He is also a senior research fellow at UCL. They discuss the origins of the madman theory – which applies insights from psychology to understand how...

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