The Politics Guys

Mike talks with Professor Marion Nestle, one of most respected and sought-after academic commentators on food politics, health, and nutrition. She’s the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University as well as a Professor of Sociology at NYU, and a Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences … Continue reading "Marion Nestle Interview"

Donald Trump has been busy issuing executive orders, with his move to ban immigration from a number of Muslim countries perhaps the most controversial. Mike and Jay look at this, as well as President Trump’s orders that froze government hiring, stopped foreign aid to groups providing abortion counseling, withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific … Continue reading "PG84: Immigration Ban, NSC Reorg, Fake News, Border Walls, Jay’s Defenders"

This week we catch up on listener mail, answering some great questions, including: What’s up with Jay’s unwillingness to criticize Donald Trump? Why does Mike support better relations with an awful regime like Cuba? Where do you Guys get your facts from, anyway?

This week the Guys start by discussing the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. His inauguration speech was dark, depressing, and hyperbolic by normal presidential inaugural address standards, but Jay argues it was actually pretty restrained for a Trump speech. Mike and Jay also look at Trump’s historic unpopularity, … Continue reading "PG83: President Trump, Women’s March, Chelsea Manning"

This week, Mike and Jay talk about the legacy of President Barack Obama. They discuss what presidential greatness means, whether ‘great’ presidents are something we should even hope for, Mike’s four-point criteria for measuring presidential success, Obama’s ‘Top 10’ achievements (according to Mike) and his biggest failures (according to Jay).

This week’s show starts off with Mike getting all misty-eyed about President Obama’s farewell speech. Unsurprisingly, Jay wasn’t quite so choked up. Mike contrasts what he sees as the grace and eloquence of the outgoing president with the decidedly different style of President-Elect Donald Trump, who recently held his first news conference since winning the … Continue reading "PG82: Farewells, Fake News, Russia Scandal?, Trump’s Ethics, Hearings, Obamacare"

Mike interviews Pat Rosenstiel, from National Popular Vote, an organization working to ensure that the winner of the national popular vote for the presidency actually becomes president, something that hasn’t happened in two of the last five presidential elections. Mike and Pat discuss: – how the system can be changed without a Constitutional amendment – … Continue reading "A National Popular Vote for President?"

This week, Mike and Jay start off by talking about the intelligence community’s now-released report on Russian hacking, which concluded that not only did the Russians attempt to influence the presidential election, but that they favored Donald Trump. The report was met with bipartisan acceptance in Congress, and even the President-Elect admitted that the Russians … Continue reading "PG81: Russian Hacking, Building the Wall, House Ethics, Repealing Obamacare"

Mike talks with futurist and author Martin Ford. His most recent book is Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. They discuss the Seven Deadly Economic Trends, what jobs are … Continue reading "Martin Ford Interview"

This week, Mike and Jay start out by talking more about Russian hacking: What we know, how it may have affected the election, Donald Trump’s response, and if the U.S. should retaliate. After that they look at the latest picks in Donald Trump’s administration, particularly the hard-liner he’s chosen as Ambassador to Israel. Finally, it’s … Continue reading "PG80: Russian Hacking, Questionable Trump Picks, Fed Rate Hike"

Mike interviews political scientist Brendan Nyhan, a professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. His research on political misperceptions has been published in many of the top journals in the field. He’s also a contributor to ‘The Upshot‘ at the New York Times – one of Mike’s ‘must read’ sites. Show Links – … Continue reading "Brendan Nyhan Interview"

This week, the Guys start out by talking about ongoing controversies surrounding the 2016 presidential election. Now that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s recount effort has mostly fizzled out, attention has focused on the Russians, who the CIA has concluded attempted to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump. Both Jay and Mike are … Continue reading "PG79: Russian Election Influence, Cabinet Picks, Trump’s Tweets, Congress Works?"

This week’s Ask The Politics Guys looks at two election-related questions. The first question – submitted by Alex, from Sandy, UT – is whether ranked-choice voting (sometimes called ‘instant runoff voting)) is a good idea. The second question is whether the Electoral College – which will have made the popular vote loser the president in … Continue reading "Ask The Politics Guys: Election Questions"

This week, Mike and Jay start with a look at the three-state recount effort launched by Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. The Clinton campaign has reluctantly become involved – reluctantly because they know that there’s essentially no way the recounts will change the result of the election. After that, they talk about Donald Trump’s … Continue reading "PG78: Recounts, The Carrier Deal, More Trump Picks, OSU Terror Attack"

Mike talks to one of his favorite economists: Bryan Caplan, a Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Professor Caplan is the author of multiple books, including The Myth of the Rational Voter, named “the best political book of the year” by the New York Times, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, and The Case … Continue reading "Bryan Caplan Interview"