September 11, 2025· 41 min

What China's Military Parade and Newest Jets Tell Us About the Battle For Air Supremacy

Kelly Grieco

Orality

Model

55%

Mixed oral/literate (blogs, casual essays)

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(1,769 words)

M:29%

HostTracy Alloway(1,285 words)

M:94%

GuestKelly Grieco(4,634 words)

M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic28%

literally, completely, massive

Engagement71%

you, our, your

Memory Aids100%

listen, now, see

Repetition100%

know (136x), like (83x), aircraft (65x)

Parallelism80%

And I'm Tracy Alloway...., So this was the this is actual..., So we're recording this know h...

Sound Patterns57%

54 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"

Formulaic Phrases6%

you know what, i mean, believe it or not

Literate Indicators

Hedging9%

may, probably, maybe

Passive Voice7%

is carmen, are outdated, being raised

Abstract Nouns19%

investment, recommendation, business

Subordination7%

while, because, though

Sentence Length38%

Avg: 14.6 words/sentence

Word Complexity49%

investment, analyze, anticipate

Academic Markers0%

Impersonal Style29%

672 personal pronouns found

Descriptive Style100%

literally, completely, apply

Description

The recent parade in Beijing once again raised questions about the relative strengths of the US and Chinese militaries. Meanwhile, because of recent global conflicts (including the clash between Indian and Pakistan earlier this year), we've gotten fresh data on how certain hardware actually holds up on the battlefield or in the skies. Separately, China is known to be working on a new 6th generation fighter for which some video has been shown. So who is ahead in terms of both cutting edge technology and also defense production at scale? And what does it even mean to have air superiority -- or even air "supremacy" when we're talking about modern warfare? On this episode, we speak with Kelly Grieco, senior fellow at the Stimson Center about the state of the two air forces. More: Here’s the Military Hardware China Showed Off at Xi’s Parade Odd Lots is coming to Chicago for a live episode! Get your tickets here See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

← Josh Wolfe on AI and the Breaking of Sil...Rob Kaplan on the Fed, AI, and How Globa... →