1:1: Bliss <> Joel Kotkin

Attendees: Bliss Perry, Joel Kotkin Date: February 10, 2026 Type: Informal Meeting Source: Signal chat debrief

Summary

About Joel Kotkin

Joel Kotkin is an author and urban policy scholar at Chapman University. He is known for work on cities, economic geography, and American national interest. He co-teaches the “Global Futures” class at Stanford with Condoleezza Rice, which both Bliss and Dustin attended.

Meeting Context

Bliss had an “absolutely fire meeting” with Kotkin on Feb 10. He showed her an origami crane that Palantir CEO Alex Karp had given him at the Bilderberg meeting — signaling his access to the intersection of tech, national security, and global power.

Key Observations

• Kotkin is “more plugged into the tech + national interest/commercialization space than you would expect from such an intense academic”
• He gave Bliss his personal email and told her to reach out anytime
• He wants to keep engaging: “he definitely wants to keep engaging with me”

Strategic Assessment

Framing from Signal debrief: “I think he’s more of a long term guy to have in our corner and stay in touch with.” Not an immediate tactical advisor, but a powerful intellectual ally for the national interest framing of Project TBD.

His “Global Futures” class taught alongside Rice provides a network of policy, tech, and geopolitics thinkers.

Next Steps

• Maintain long-term relationship
• Reach out when thesis is tighter and more externally shareable
• Could be a powerful voice on the national interest framing of supply chain intelligence