Category: Interviews

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Mike talks with Allen Guelzo, the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Research Scholar in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Professor Guelzo is a three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize, awarded annually for the finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier, or a subject relating to their era. They discuss his latest book, Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment.

Topics Discussed Include:
– why Lincoln had such faith in democracy
– if Lincoln saw Blacks as truly equal
– Lincoln’s constitutionally questionable actions
– what current-day politicians could learn from Lincoln
– Lincoln’s cosmic optimism

Check out Mike’s other podcast, Sustainable Planet.

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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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Kimberly Weir, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northern Kentucky University and co-host of Sustainable Planet talks with Akshat Rathi, award-winning senior reporter for Bloomberg News and the host of Zero, a climate-solutions podcast for Bloomberg Green and author of Climate Capitalism: Winning the Race to Zero Emissions and Solving the Crisis of Our Age.

Topics Kimberly & Akshat discuss include:

• How a misinformed campaign marketing slogan about ‘clean coal’ led Akshat into the year-long pursuit of uncovering the truth about climate technology
• Why economists feel the way to address climate change is to put a price on carbon
• How to achieve negative carbon emissions since zero emissions alone isn’t enough
• Why, when it comes to electric cars, you’ve never heard of Wan Gang, though Elon Musk is a household name
• Why the very industries that created lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, and carbon capture and storage are so resistant to employing that technology
• How private capital from billionaires like Bill Gates and anyone with a 401K plan is a key part of pursuing climate technology
• That climate justice is both ethically the right path but also reaps global economic benefits
• The need to shift from ‘shareholder’ to ‘stakeholder’ if we’re going to meet the less-ambitious Paris Conference climate change goals

Akshat Rathi on X

Listen to Part 2 of the interview on Sustainable Planet.

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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 to the show Bryan Caplan, a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, prolific author, and blogger at Bet on It. They discuss his latest essay collection, You Will Not Stampede Me: Essays on Non-Conformism.

Topics Mike and Bryan Discuss Include
– disobedience to authority
– why the world is wrong and the weird is right
– herding and hysteria
– the ubiquity (and danger) of crusades
– what the world got wrong about COVID
– combining cynicism and idealism

Bryan Caplan 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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Trey talks with author Sasha Issenberg  about his new book The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age, in which he talks about the left’s campaign strategies to combat “disinformation” and “misinformation.”

Topics Trey and Sasha Cover Include
– why the left is primarily interested in disinformation
– the campaign strategies of Democrats online
– the focus on engagement in political persuasion
– how overseas democracies have faced similar disinformation strategies
– Brazilian cautions for some leftwing approaches to disinformation

Follow Sasha on X, and check out The Lie Detectives

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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 historical anthropologist Nicholas Dirks, Chancellor of UC Berkeley from 2013-2017, about his book City of Intellect: The Uses and Abuses of the University.

Topics Include:
– the public’s decline of faith in higher education
– if higher ed is focused on the right kind of diversity
– free speech as privileging dominant views
– what elite institutions are doing with their massive endowments
– rising education costs and administrative bloat at universities
– if public universities should take positions on political issues

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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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Trey talks with constitutional law professor Maxwell Stearns about his new book Parliamentary America which argues the U.S. needs to adapt the U.S. House to include proportional representation.

Topics Trey and Max Cover Include
– how the median voter theory is inaccurate
– why American parties are tending in extreme directions
– proposals to double the size of the House of Representatives
– proposals to transform the selection of president and vice president
– proposals to change how to remove a president
– the historic necessity of convincing relevant actors to agree to these changes.

Follow Max on X, and check out Parliamentary America

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Mike talks with George Laws Garcia, a former acting director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration and Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council.

Topics Mike and George Cover Include:
– how Puerto Ricans are second class US citizens
– Puerto Rico and federal income taxes
– independence as opposed to statehood
– how Puerto Ricans feel about statehood
– US domestic political considerations
– what making Puerto Rico a state might cost
– short and medium-term prospects for statehood

Follow George on X, and check out Puerto Rico 51st

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Kimberly talks with Mary Chung Hayashi, national healthcare advocate, former California State Assembly member, Principal of Public Policy & Advocacy Solutions, and author of Women in Politics: Breaking Down the Barriers to Achieve True Representation.

Topics Kimberly & Mary discuss include:

• Why we’re still having the same discussions about increasing the number of women in politics, even though not only women—but Americans as a whole—benefit from having women in elected government positions
• Why women shouldn’t focus on what they’re lacking, but instead focus on what they can ‘bring to the table’
• How Mary’s personal experience as an immigrant woman of Asian descent has brought her face-to-face with the plethora of challenges all women face running for—and serving in—public office, and strategies to overcome these barriers
• The often-invisible biases against women of color running for office
• Why it’s important for women with political ambitions to cultivate the support of men
• The many ways in which men seeking or in political office benefit from a societal double standard for men and women
• Why women should be encouraged, regardless of their political affiliation, to participate in politics
• The importance of breaking down the imagination barrier to encourage both men and women to rethink their own preconceived notions about women’s roles
• While money matters, and men almost always have more financial support, deep pockets aren’t necessarily the only way to win an election

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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.

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Kimberly Weir, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northern Kentucky University talks with Martin Daunton, Professor Emeritus of Economic History at the University of Cambridge. Professor Daunton is a former president of the Royal Historical Society and author of The Economic Government of the World From 1933-2023.

Topics Kimberly & Martin discuss include:

• Why considering the economic events of 1933 is necessary for understanding the multilateral policies and institutions that emerged out of World War II
• That food and labor security—not economic policies—were much more immediate concerns for policymakers in the first international conferences at the end of World War II
• How domestic considerations are imperative to successfully coordinate international economic policies
• Dealing with autocratic governments and increased populism when pursuing global economic governance
• How global institutions (particularly the IMF, World Bank, FAO, and WHO) can aid developing countries, rather than just perpetuate a global economic divide advantaging developed countries
• How China and Russia, along with the BRIICS bloc, impact global economic governance
• How resolving countries’ debt is unquestionably tied to tackling climate change

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Mike talks with Alexander Ward, a national security reporter at Politico and anchor of National Security Daily. He’s the author of the recently released book, The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump, which they discuss on this episode.

Topics Mike and Alexander Cover Include:
– why post-Trump foreign policy needed restoration
– comparing Biden and Trump’s Secretaries of State
– Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan
– meeting the rising threat from China
– Russia and the war in Ukraine
– Middle East policy
– North Korea
– climate change

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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.