Category: Interviews

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In Part 2 of this crossover episode between The Politics Guys and Beyond Politics, Mike and Beyond Politics host Matt Robison consider potential solutions to the problems plaguing Congress. They cover a lot of ground, including the influence of money in politics, the impact of media on political discourse, and the intricacies of the voting system. Specific reforms they discuss include a voucher system for campaign finance, the restoration of the talking filibuster in the Senate, approval voting, and rank choice voting.

Be sure to listen to Part 1 of the conversation on the Beyond Politics podcast.

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Mike talks with Richard McGahey, an economist and senior fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, at The New School. He’s served as executive director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, and in senior governmental positions in New York State and New York City. He’s also the author of Unequal Cities: Overcoming Anti-Urban Bias to Reduce Inequality in the United States, which they discuss on this episode.

Topics Mike and Rick discuss include:
– the economic importance of cities
– cities vs. metropolitan areas
– why we should care about inequality
– causes of anti-urban bias in American politics
– how to address anti-urban bias

Rick McGahey on X

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Mike talks with Colby College political scientists Nick Jacobs and Dan Shea about their book The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America.

Topics Discussed Include:
– what it means to be a rural voter
– misconceptions of rural voters
– if conservatives in rural areas are truly distinct
– what rural identity is, and why it matters
– why Democrats have been doing so poorly with rural voters
– Donald Trump’s appeal in rural areas
– ruralness and racism
– if Democrats can ever compete again outside of cities and suburbs

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Mike talks with Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of the Chamber of Progress and former head of Google’s US policy strategy and external affairs team about the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.

Topics Mike and Adam Discuss Include:
– FTC Chair Lina Khan’s views on Big Tech and antitrust
– if Amazon is hurting consumers
– how dominant Amazon is in retail
– potential effects of FTC lawsuits against tech firms
– if antitrust law needs to be updated for the 21^st century

Adam Kovacevich on X

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In the fall of 2017, only a few years after Jim Jordan co-founded the House Freedom Caucus, he had this conversation with Jay, who knew Jordan from their days in the Ohio House of Representatives (Jordan was a freshman legislator, Jay was a staffer).

Jordan talks about why he helped create the Freedom Caucus, what it stands for, his views on government spending and debt, as well as some ideas that Mike thinks end up in “tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theory” territory.

Given Jordan’s rise to power and his current bid to be the next Speaker of the House, we thought listeners might appreciate hearing this interview from our Politics Guys archive.

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Trey talks with Lainey Newman, co-author of Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party about how the changing nature of social networks has shifted Union voters from Democrats to Trump voters.

Topics Trey and Lainey Discuss Include:
– how Lainey and Theda Skocpol came to work on the book
– how social networks including unions defined the “union man”
– why union workers shifted voting patterns as a result of social network changes
– the reason for the decline of unions
– what the future of unions are in the United States

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Mike talks with Max Bo‍‍‍rders, the founder and Executive Director of Social Evolution —a non-profit organization dedicated to liberating humanity through innovation. Max is also the co-founder of the Future Frontiers conference and festival. He’s the author of a number of books, including The Decentralist, The Social Singularity, After Collapse, and his most recent book, Underthrow: How Jefferson’s Dangerous Idea Will Spark a New Revolution, which is the focus of their discussion.

Topics Mike and Max discuss include:
– the modern faith in the Church of State
– what luxury beliefs are, and why they’re a problem
– why Max things we should relate to each other as consumers
– libertarianism and anarchism
– hubris and revolutionary change

Check out Max’s Constitution of Consent contest. It’s free to enter and the winner will get $25,000.

Max Borders on X

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Mike talks with Garrett Neiman, author of the recently released book Rich White Men: What it Takes to Uproot the Old Boys’ Club and Transform America. Mr. Neiman has a BA in economics from Stanford, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was a founding CEO of CollegeSpring, a national college access nonprofit, a co-creator of Liberation Ventures (a philanthropic fund focused on building power toward reparations), a Senior Fellow at Prosperity Now, and an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.

Topics Mike & Garrett Discuss Include:
– the problem with rich white men (is there one?)
– inequality and standards of living
– the role of personal responsibility & culture
– reverse discrimination and a colorblind Constitution
– the reparations movement

Garrett Neiman on Twitter

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Mike has another conversation with one of his all-time favorite guests: Bryan Caplan. Bryan is an economist at George Mason University, a prolific author, and blogs at Bet on It. In this episode, they discuss Bryan’s latest collection: Voters as Mad Scientists: Essays on Political Irrationality.

Topics Mike & Bryan Discuss Include:
– Twitter & Nazis & Meth (oh my!)
– why Bryan hates politics
– social desirability bias
– hyperbole and overconfidence
– innumeracy
– the irrationality of voters
– if irrationality has gotten worse
– why Bryan doesn’t vote
– the case for DEI being worse than McCarthyism
– politics as not utterly hopeless but “mostly hopeless”
– some small reasons for cautious optimism

Bryan Caplan on Twitter

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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.