Category: Interviews

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Mike talks with Anand Pandian, a professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. He’s the author of Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down, which they discuss on this episode..

Topics Mike & Anand cover include:

• how distance feeds conspiratorial thinking
• the rise of “fortress homes”
• the decline of front porches
• why American vehicles are so enormous
• “White Body Armor”
• the walls of the mind
• mutual aid and caretaking

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Check out the excellent Sustainable Planet podcast.

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 Deb Otis, Director of Research and Policy at FairVote, a nonpartisan organization seeking better elections for all. 

Topics Mike & Deb discuss include:
– problems with our current voting system
– the benefits of  ranked choice voting (RCV)
– potential issues with RCV
– the pushback against RCV in Republican states
– the Fair Representation Act
– multi-member districts
– nonpartisan redistricting
– expanding the House of Representatives
– Senate representation and the Electoral College

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Mike’s Substack: What Fresh Hell is This?

Check out the excellent Sustainable Planet podcast.

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 Tim Murphy, a national correspondent at Mother Jones, about the NYC mayoral campaign of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani.

Topics Mike and Tim discuss include:
– lessons learned from Trump’s NYC gains in 2024
– disillusionment and disengagement in Democratic cities
– Mamdani’s limited experience
– how much Mamdani benefited from running against Cuomo
– Mamdani’s affordability platform
– how he plans to pay for everything he wants to do
– an attempt to revoke Mamdani’s citizenship
– the ‘globalize the Intifada’ controversy

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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 talks with Leah Downey,  a junior research fellow at St. John’s College, Cambridge. They discuss her book, Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.

Topics Mike & Leah Cover Include:
– fiscal vs monetary policy
– the Federal Reserve’s legal mandate
– the money neutrality myth
– Fed dominance as legitimate, but harmful to democracy
– iterative governance at the Fed
– auditing or otherwise constraining the Fed’s independence
– why the Fed should be regularly rechartered

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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 talks with Greg Lukianoff, attorney, New York Times bestselling author, and President and CEO of FIRE: the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. They discuss Greg’s latest book,  The War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech – And Why They Fail, with Nadine Strossen.

Topics Mike & Greg discuss include:
– Why calling words “violence” leads to actual violence
– The case against hate speech laws
– Free speech lessons from Nazi Germany and Rwanda
– Shoutdowns as mob censorship on campus
– Whether the internet makes speech protections obsolete
– Mill’s trident and the case for truth through debate
– Who really benefits from free speech protections
– The limits of regulating misinformation and disinformation

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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 talks with Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law and Hastings Foundation Chair (emerita) at University of California College of Law San Francisco. She’s the author of the recently released book, Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, which they discuss in this episode.

Topics Mike & Joan cover include:
– class blindness on the left
– the ‘missing middle’
– why moving to the center isn’t the answer
– why red states with ‘family values’ have so much family dysfunction
– toxic masculinity and deploying alternative masculinities
– the left’s problem with patriotism

Take the New Class Bubble Quiz

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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.

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

Mike talks with Lura Forcum, president of the Independent Center, an organization that represents people who are fed up with partisan politics and feel politically homeless.

Topics Mike & Lura discuss include:

• how Lura went from a marketing professor to running the Independent Center
• true independents vs learners
• if there are enough independents to make a real difference
• whether partisan politics is such a bad thing
• the two-party stranglehold on political power
• how the Independent Center hopes to change things

Check out Lura’s podcast, We Made This Political

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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.

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

Mike talks with Eric Heinze, professor at Queen Mary University of London and author of Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left. 

Topics Mike and Eric discuss include:

• why critical theory resists a single definition
• the Radical Critique of Western Liberal Democracy
  the left’s greatest legacy: redefining history as collective self-scrutiny
• the left’s big blind spot
• prospects for change

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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.

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

Mike talks with Eva Posner, founder and CEO of Evinco Strategies, a political consulting firm specializing in first-time candidates from diverse backgrounds who face barriers in traditional campaigns. 

Topics Mike & Eva discuss include:

• why you have to be weird to run for office
• the importance of ‘Rolodexing’
• the power of relatability
• the value of ‘hard asks’
• challenges first-time candidates face
• the importance of call time
• getting potential donors to open their wallets
  

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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.

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

Mike talks with David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Project: How Project 2025 is Reshaping America.

Topics Mike and David discuss include:
– what makes Project 2025 different from previous policy blueprints
– how closely connected President Trump is to Project 2025
– personnel policies in Project 2025
– Project 2025 and the Unitary Executive theory
– how Christian Nationalism ties in to Project 2025
– implementation of Project 2025
– best and worst case scenarios

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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.