Category: Interviews

Mike talks with James Fallows, a legendary figure in American journalism. Mr. Fallows was chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, editor of US News & World Report, a program designer at Microsoft, and is currently a national correspondent for The Atlantic, a magazine he’s written for since the late 1970s. His work there has won great acclaim, including a National Magazine Award. In addition to his journalism, Mr. Fallows is the founding chairman of New America, a think tank committed to renewing American politics, prosperity, and purpose, and the author of numerous books on subjects as diverse as the news media, travel, America’s war in Iraq, and, most recently, two books on China: Postcards from Tomorrow and China Airborne.

• James Fallows’ Atlantic Columns
• Follow James Fallows on Twitter

Show Links
– Scrivener
– Tinderbox
– Scapple

First up is Mike’s interview with political scientist Larry Sabato. Professor Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, which includes Sabato’s Crystal Ball – the foremost election forecasting site in the United States. Professor Sabato is the author of many books, including A More Perfect Constitution, The Kennedy Half-Century and, most recently he was the lead editor on Trumped: The 2016 Election That Broke All The Rules. He regularly appears on national news outlets such as Fox, CNN, and MSNBC offering invaluable insight and analysis of polls and elections.

After the interview, Mike and Jay respond to listener mail.

Episode Links
– Follow Professor Sabato on Twitter: @LarrySabato
– Sabato’s Crystal Ball
– Decision Desk HQ
– CQ Almanac
– Almanac of American Politics
– Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
– Daily Kos Elections
– Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
– The Bellwether: Why Ohio Picks the President. Kyle Kondik

This episode is sponsored by Dollar Shave Club – the smarter choice. Politics Guys listeners can get their 1st month of the Executive Razor with a tube of Dr. Carver’s Shave Butter for ONLY $5 dollars – with FREE shipping by going to dollarshaveclub.com/tpg

Mike talks to Jeremy Haile, co-author of the Indivisible Guide – a practical guide to influencing Members of Congress, written by a team of former Congressional staffers. From 2008-2012, Jeremy served as a legislative aide to Rep. Lloyd Doggett along with Indivisible board members Ezra Levin and Sarah Dohl. Since then, Jeremy has worked in criminal justice reform advocacy at The Sentencing Project and as a public interest lawyer in San Francisco.

A longtime activist, Jeremy’s advocacy has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and NPR’s All Things Considered. His writing has appeared in such publications as The Marshall Project, The Nation, and The Hill. Jeremy has given talks to numerous audiences, including students at Harvard Law School and Princeton University.

Jeremy’s Recommended Reading (and Listening)
– The Unwinding. George Packer
– Evicted. Matthew Desmond
– The New Jim Crow. Michelle Alexander
– Pod Save America

After we went off air, Jeremy also mentioned OurStates, which “connects communities to actionable information and tools to reject the Trump / GOP agenda in every state and protect communities from harm.”

Mike talks to Republican pollster and political analyst Kristen Soltis Anderson. Ms. Anderson is co-founder of the research and analytics firm Echelon Insights, a contributor at ABC News, a Washington Examiner columnist, a regular guest on shows like Morning Joe, Fox News Sunday, and Real Time with Bill Maher, author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up), and the co-host of The Pollsters, a bipartisan weekly podcast.

Show Links
– The Pollsters Podcast
– The Weekly Substandard Podcast
– Huffington Post Pollster
– The Lost Majority, by Sean Trende
– Sean Trende’s RealClearPolitics articles

Follow Kristen
– Twitter
– Her Website

Mike talks to Professor Andrew McAfee, Co-Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Initiative on the Digital Economy and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Professor McAfee’s work has appeared in numerous academic and popular publications, including the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. He is the author of a number of books, including The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (co-authored with Erik Brynjolfsson).

– Professor McAfee on Twitter

Mike talks to UC Berkeley economist Brad DeLong. Professor DeLong, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, blogs at ‘Grasping Reality with All Tentacles‘ – one of the best economics blogs around.

Topics they discuss include economic inequality, economic growth, why this is the best time ever to be poor (in the United States, at least), grifters and suckers, alien sinister forces, McDonalds, restaurant gift cards, how the best con artists are those who can con themselves, and lots more.

– Brad DeLong on Twitter

Mike talks with political scientist Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, contributing writer for The Atlantic, columnist for National Journal, and the author of many books on U.S. Politics, including It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, coauthored with the Brookings Institution’s Thomas Mann.

Dr. Ornstein’s Recommended Reading
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer–and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson

American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson

The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics. John Judis.

Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism–From Goldwater to Trump and Beyond. E.J. Dionne

Mike talks with Steve Hilton, the founder of Crowdpac, which he created in 2014 in order to help reconnect regular people to politics by making it easier for everyone to learn about politicians, find and support candidates that match their beliefs, and even run for office. Prior to starting Crowdpac, Steve was a director of strategy for former UK Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. In addition to running Crowdpac, Steve teaches at Stanford University’s Institute of Design, is a commentator for Fox News, and is the author of More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First.

Mike talks to Lane Kenworthy, a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on social policy, including poverty, inequality, mobility, and economic growth in the United States and other rich countries.

Professor Kenworthy is the author of many academic articles and six books, including Social Democratic America and, most recently How Big Should Our Government Be?, co-authored with John Bakija, Peter Lindert, and Jeff Madrick.

Show Links
Professor Kenworthy’s Website
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Luxembourg Income Study

Mike talks to Jason Brennan, an Associate Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at Georgetown University. He’s the author of a number of books, including The Ethics of Voting, Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know, *Why Not Capitalism?, and, most recently Against Democracy. 

Professor Brennan’s Recommended Reading
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics: An Anthology. Jonathan Anomaly, Geoffrey Brennan, Michael C. Munger, and Geoffrey Sayre-McCord

Political Philosophy: An Introduction by Jason Brennan

Introduction to Political Philosophy YouTube video lecture series.

Madison’s Metronome: The Constitution, Majority Rule, and the Tempo of American Politics. Greg Weiner