Category: Interviews

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Mike welcomes back Heather Cox Richardson, a professor of history at Boston College and author of the “Letters from an American” Substack. Professor Richardson is also the author of Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, which has recently come out in paperback.

Topics Mike & Heather discuss include:
– why the elections went so well for Republicans
– why Harris’ messaging failed to carry the day
– the media and political misinformation
– leftism and liberalism in contemporary America
– voter (mis)understanding of economics
– why Heather is still optimistic

Here’s Mike’s 2023 interview with Heather Cox Richardson.

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The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Mike talks with Stephen J. Ducat, an author, political psychologist, psychoanalyst, and former psychology professor in the School of Humanities at New College of California. They discuss Professor Ducat’s most recent book, Hatreds We Love: The Psychology of Political Tribalism in Post-Truth America.

Topics Mike and Stephen discuss include:
– why tribal loyalty often overrides material self-interest
– demonizing outsiders to reinforce in-group virtue
– conservative disgust vs liberal disdain
– the ‘malignant, intuitive genius’ of Donald Trump
– the dark side of political purity
– the importance of being morally multi-lingual

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Mike talks with Mark Green, founder of The Democracy Project, twice-elected Public Advocate for New York City, and the author of multiple books, the latest being, The Inflection Election: Democracy or Fascism in 2024?, which they discuss in this episode.

Topics Mike and Mark discuss include:
– the importance of the 2024 presidential election
– if Donald Trump is a fascist
– if Trump is an existential threat to American democracy
– why Mike has more faith in the Supreme Court than Mark does
– the rise of right-wing populism in democracies around the world
– election integrity and public faith in elections
– responsibility for the ‘culture wars’
– if Trump is so awful, why nearly half of all voters support him

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Mike talks with Pedro Domingos, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. He’s an AI researcher, tech industry insider, and author of the best-selling book The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World. Recently, he’s turned his hand to political fiction, in the often hilariously funny novel 2040: A Silicon Valley Satire, which is very funny but also has plenty to say about serious issues facing us concerning technology and politics/

Topics Mike and Pedro discuss include:
– why we should speed up, not slow down AI development
– the serious AI dominance threat from China
– why our big concern should be incompetent AI
– AI transparency and bias
– how AI makes direct democracy possible
– the limits of AI direct democracy
– reasons to be optimistic about AI and politics

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

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Mike talks with Rebecca Glazier, a Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Professor Glazier is the Director of the Little Rock Congregations Study and the author of the book Faith and Community: How Engagement Strengthens Members, Places of Worship, and Society, which they discuss in this episode.

Topics Mike and Rebecca Cover Include:
– the forms of religious engagement
– religious engagement and political efficacy
– the tension between community engagement and partisanship
– engagement in liberal and conservative congregations
– declining institutional authority and religious organizations

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

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Mike talks with Matt Grossmann, Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University. Matt was on the show in 2019 when we talked about his book on public policy change, Artists of the Possible, and he’s back again for a discussion of his latest book, co-authored with David Hopkins, Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics.

Topics Mike & Matt Discuss Include:
– the educultural realignment in American Politics
– the degree divide as an international phenomenon
– if the progressive left has moved too fast
– the dangerous ramifications of destroying institutional trust
– the political right and ‘woke capitalism’
– why liberals dominate popular culture
– conservatives’ attempts to set up parallel institutions

Matt Grossmann on X

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Mike welcomes back to the show George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan to discuss his book, Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation.

Topics Mike and Bryan discuss include:
– why housing prices are so high
– bipartisan agreement on housing deregulation
– the value of building more high-rise residential units
– the many costs of NIMBYism
– the Supreme Court and housing regulation
– government housing regulations that do make sense
– building and immigration
– which jurisdictions are moving in the right direction
– and lots more!

Bryan on X
Bryan’s Substack: Bet on It

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Travis talks with political scientist and the CEO of PRRI, Dr. Melissa Deckman about her new book, The Politics of Gen Z: How the Youngest Voters Will Shape our Democracy, in which she explores the political activities of American Zoomers, especially among Gen Z women, including a robust analysis of survey data coupled with rich detail from focus groups and interview with young political entrepreneurs.

Topics Travis and Melissa cover include:

• The rise of women’s political participation and how it compares to historical participation
• The ideology of the new cohort of American women and a comparison to her previous research on the politics of conservative women
• What the future of politics looks like in America and how right-of-center actors can appeal to young voters

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castbox | PocketCasts | Overcast

Mike talks with Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University about his recently released book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.

Topics Mike & Josh Cover Include:
– how vouchers work
– Milton Friedman’s role as a voucher pioneer
– vouchers as a response to school desegregation
– why modern voucher programs are less accountable
– the ‘woke’ agenda of k-12 education
– vouchers and religious freedom
– Harris v Trump on vouchers

Josh Cowen on X

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.