Category: Interviews

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Mike talks with Osita Nwanevu, a contributing editor at The New Republic, columnist at The Guardian, and the Democratic Institutions fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He’s also the author of The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, which they discuss on this episode

Topics Mike & Osita cover include:

• why democracy is the best political system
• the ‘folk theory’ of democracy
• if Americans actually care about democracy
• democracy and demagogues
• grounding principles for modern democracy
• the Framers’ views of democracy
• reforms to make the US system more democratic

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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 David Garland, the Arthur Vanderbilt Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at New York University. He’s the author of multiple books, including the recently released Law and Order Leviathan: America’s Extraordinary Regime of Policing and Punishment, which they discuss on this episode

Topics Mike & David cover include:

• why the US justice system is so deeply punitive
• how American capitalism affects our penal system
• American gun culture and crime
• why crim is down but incarceration is up
• race, family cohesion, and the prison population
• how the US differs from other rich democracies
• regional incarceration differences within the US

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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 welcomes back George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan to discuss Bryan’s latest collection, Pro-Market AND Pro-Business: Essays on Laissez-Faire.

Topics Mike & Bryan discuss include:
– Mike’s skepticism of big business and Bryan’s response
– why Bryan thinks businesspeople earn every penny
– the pro-market case for noncompete clauses
– consumer harm and antitrust law
– positive and negative externalities
– Bryan’s ideal pro-market healthcare system
– opportunity costs and using paper plates

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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 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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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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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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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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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.

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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

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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 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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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.