Category: Interviews

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Mike talks with Monica Hopkins, the executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia. Given all of the legal challenges to Trump administration actions, this seemed like an ideal time for a discussion with someone on the front lines.

Topics Mike and Monica discuss include:
– if the ACLU is a progressive-left organization
– Trump, DOGE, and threats to federal employees
– deportation of undocumented immigrants
– ending birthright citizenship
– DC statehood

ACLU DC on X

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Mike’s Substack: What Fresh Hell is This?

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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 Jason Read, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine, about his book The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work.

Topics Mike & Jason discuss include:
– work as a source of meaning and identity
– what Spinoza adds to Marx’s views on work
– what Fight Club, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul can tell us about work
– Gen X and the death of slacker culture
– why ‘selling out’ isn’t seen as such a bad thing anymore
– mythocracy and negative solidarity

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Mike’s Substack: What Fresh Hell is This?

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 George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan to talk about his latest collection, Self Help is Like a Vaccine: Essays on Living Better.

Topics Mike & Bryan discuss include:
– obese people and anti-vaxxers
– Bryan’s life of appeasement
– the value of betting on politics
– poverty and substance abuse
– reasons to spend more time in a bubble
– quality vs quantity in converts

Bryan’s Substack: Bet on It

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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 Kurt Gray, a Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directs the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. They talk about his recently released book, Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground.

Topics Mike and Kurt discuss include:
– what Jonathan Haidt gets wrong
– myths of human nature
– dehumanization and moral conflict
– social media as a Godzilla movie
– why people only want ‘their’ facts
– the importance of perceived harm
– how to connect, invite, and validate

Kurt Gray on X
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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 Justin Talbot Zorn, who has served as Legislative Director to three Members of Congress and is a Senior Adviser to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In his policy and communications work, Justin specializes in climate, innovation, manufacturing, and economic competitiveness. In this conversation, Mike and Justin focus on PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ and environmental policy.

Topics Mike and Justin discuss include:
– why the US Air Force isn’t cleaning up water it contaminated with PFAS
– the military’s big PFAS problem
– costs and benefits of cleaning up PFAS in the water supply
– what to expect concerning PFAS regulation in the Trump administration
– plausible worst and best-case scenarios for the next four years

Justin’s article on Trump’s testicle shrinking deregulation.

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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 Jeremy Young, PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program director, about the recently released report, America’s Censored Classrooms, 2024.

Topics Mike & Jeremy Discuss Include:
– how big of a problem educational censorship is
– where it’s happening
– the deviousness of ‘stealth censorship’
– institutional neutrality and viewpoint diversity
– how universities are responding to censorship attempts
– what to expect from the incoming Trump administration

PEN America on X

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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.

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

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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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.