Sebastian Mallaby, senior fellow for global economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Jim Falk for a conversation about his recent New York Times bestseller, The Infinity Machine, and the extraordinary race to develop artificial intelligence.Mallaby takes us inside the world of one of the most important AI pioneers, Demis Hassabis, whose ambition to build machines capable of human-level intelligence helped transform what once seemed like science fiction into one of the defining technological revolutions of our time.Their conversation explores the promise and risks of increasingly powerful AI, the intense competition among companies and nations, and whether the world can develop safeguards, including some form of AI nonproliferation, before the technology moves beyond our ability to control it.

This November, New Mexico voters will elect a new lieutenant governor this November. But what exactly should voters expect from the person who holds the state’s second-highest office?On this edition of The Forum, Jim Falk and co-host Peter Smith talk separately with the two candidates for lieutenant governor: Democrat Stephanie Garcia Richard, New Mexico’s Commissioner of Public Lands; and, Republican David Gallegos, a longtime state legislator from southeastern New Mexico.

Americans lose billions of dollars each year to fraud, but today’s scams are about far more than stolen credit cards or suspicious emails. On this edition of The Forum, we look at The Business of Deception: how scams work, why even careful and well-informed people can fall victim, and what we can do to protect ourselves and those around us. Criminals are increasingly sophisticated, using stolen identities, convincing impersonations, artificial intelligence, and even cloned voices to gain our trust and separate us from our money. Increasingly, they are also targeting children and older adults, who can be especially vulnerable to deception.

With the 2026 midterm elections less than three months away, control of Congress is at stake, but so are larger questions about presidential power, the role of Congress, and Americans’ declining trust in their political institutions.Tonight’s discussion centers on the Common Sense Coalition’s recently published report, Betrayed: America Didn’t Vote for This, which was written and edited by a group of Republican and Democratic experts who describe their work as a “damage assessment” of the first 16 months of Trump 2.0.During the conversation, John Lawrence and Ira Shapiro examine how the Trump administration has taken actions they argue go far beyond what was promised during the 2024 campaign.

Rarely does a day go by without New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez making news. Coming off a week in which the First Judicial District Court ordered Meta to pay $567 million and implement reforms in a case widely viewed as a landmark, Torrez was eager to explain why New Mexico’s lawsuit against the social media giant was so consequential.What makes this conversation particularly compelling is Torrez’s discussion of how his early years as a prosecutor ignited an unwavering commitment to protecting children. That experience continues to shape his approach to laws and regulations governing today’s technology, which he believes, if not adequately regulated, poses a significant threat to society, particularly to young people.The conversation also covers New Mexico’s investigation into allegations that DEA agents knowingly allowed fentanyl to reach communities; the state’s refusal to release unredacted voter registration lists; and issues surrounding the ongoing investigation of Zorro Ranch.

In this episode of The Forum Plus, Jim Falk talks with British journalist and author Antonia Senior about her acclaimed new book, Stalin's Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire. Drawing on newly declassified documents from Britain and Eastern Europe, Senior offers a fresh assessment of one of the most damaging espionage networks of the twentieth century.The conversation examines how five young Cambridge University students became committed Soviet spies, betraying Britain and the United States by passing some of their nations' most closely guarded secrets to Moscow. Senior argues that their actions influenced the course of World War II and the Cold War far more profoundly than previously understood, including the transfer of intelligence that helped accelerate the Soviet Union's atomic weapons program.

According to Feeding America, one in six New Mexicans experiences food insecurity, including more than 108,000 children. Hunger affects far more than empty stomachs; it can undermine a child's ability to learn in school and thrive later in life.In this episode of The Forum, our guests describe how rising food prices, inflation, and higher transportation costs are driving more individuals and families to food banks while increasing reliance on federal and state nutrition assistance programs. At the same time, recent changes to federal food assistance programs brought about by the One Big Beautiful Bill are making it more difficult for many to receive the support they need.

Featuring an Interview with Student Financial Aid Expert Mark Kantrowitz

What if the next great geopolitical competition isn't over oil, rare earth minerals, or artificial intelligence but biotechnology?In this episode of The Forum Plus, Jim Falk talks with Dr. Jeremy Levin, physician, entrepreneur, and longtime biotechnology executive, about the warning at the heart of his new book, Biotech in the Balance: Saving a Strategic Industry in an Age of Distrust. Levin argues that biotechnology is essential to both public health and national security, and that the United States is at risk of losing its leadership at a critical moment.

In this episode of The Forum, hosts Jim Falk and Peter Smith explore the growing erosion of trust and its impact on personal relationships, communities, and some of America’s most important institutions, including the judiciary and the presidency. Their guests, Dennis Shaw and Yoram Solomon, both military veterans and authors who have written extensively about trust, explain why trust is indispensable in high-stakes environments where confidence in one another can mean the difference between life and death