America's lawyers vs. China's engineers
August 25, 2025
51 min
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723 of 775
August 25, 2025
America's lawyers vs. China's engineers
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Gray Area Episodes Around August 25, 2025
Episode 723 of 775 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
America's lawyers vs. China's engineers
Summary
America has a hard time building stuff. Roads. Trains. Bridges. Housing. Everything takes seemingly forever. Meanwhile, China seems to have no trouble at all: high-speed rails, solar panels, electric cars, bridges, ports, all churned out at breakneck speed.
Why is that?
Sean's guest is Dan Wang, author of the new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future. They discuss the policies and mindset that allow China to tackle remarkable feats of engineering, the advantages and drawbacks of America’s "lawyerly society," and what China and America must learn from each other.
Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)
Guest: Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
This episode was made in partnership with Vox's Future Perfect team.
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