And you won’t just be watching. You’ll get to join in on the argument, too.

Join us May 13 at The Chapel from 7 to 10 p.m. Come argue with us! RSVP here.

Betty Friedan thought Korean POWs were dying in captivity because their mothers were housewives. She thought boy moms were making their sons gay. She wrote a whole chapter comparing suburban kitchens to concentration camps — in 1963, while America was still processing what concentration camps actually were.

The Feminine Mystique is one of those important books that everyone “knows” but no one has actually read. Fair enough; until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t either.

For today’s episode of The Argument podcast, Matthew Yglesias and I read the book that kicked off second-wave feminism.

Stripped of its most… bizarre elements, Friedan’s core argument — that women in postwar America were depressed, and society’s conventional prescription was to “housewife harder” — is one of the most successful arguments of the 20th century.

Friedan blamed women’s magazines, Freudian psychoanalysts, and university curricula for suppressing women’s aspirations. Instead, she said women should strive for a career — but not just any career. To Friedan, the only people who are truly fulfilled are those who live the life of the mind, are college-educated, and have a specific set of middle-class values.

In short, she was the original #girlboss.

Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

The Argument. Libbing out.

The transcript will be after the paywall in this post for paying subscribers.

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Time stamps:

0:00 - Introduction to The Feminine Mystique

9:02 - Psychotherapy, Mad Men, and Marxist origins

20:02 - The true drivers of social change

30:52 - Famous books with massive effects

35:07 - The most insane parts of The Feminine Mystique

47:33 - The female happiness paradox

51:34 - Rating the book’s success

56:54 - Peer Review: Health benefits of WWII-era sugar rationing

New episodes post every Thursday.

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Show notes:

• The Feminine Mystique, 1963 book by Betty Friedan that serves as the main focus of this episode: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• Articles critiquing The Feminine Mystique for centering white upper class women:

  • “4 Big Problems With The Feminine Mystique”: The Atlantic article

  • “A Critical Look at The Feminist Mystique”: The Stranger article

• Information on Betty Friedan founding the National Organization for Women (NOW): NOW page

• “Shoot the messenger,” article by Jerusalem Demsas about how the people who drive the discourse forward often disproportionately center their own experiences: The Argument article

• Information on Radcliffe College presidents: Harvard page

• A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s, book by Stephanie Coontz that details some of the impacts created by The Feminine Mystique, which contains the quote (referenced by Jerusalem), “Books don’t become best sellers because they are ahead of their time”: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• “Books as Bombs,” article by Louis Menand about the impact of The Feminine Mystique: The New Yorker article

• Silent Spring, book by Rachel Carson often credited with kicking off much of the environmentalist movement: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• Unsafe at Any Speed, book by Ralph Nader that led to many consumer protection regulations: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• The Death and Life of Great American Cities, book by Jane Jacobs that critiqued 20th-century urban planning and large-scale renewal projects: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• Capital in the Twenty-First Century, book by Thomas Piketty that proposed several novel economic policies to advance income compression: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• The Anxious Generation, book by Jonathan Haidt that contains arguments against helicopter parenting: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• Don’t Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party, book by Lily Geismer about how NIMBY activism in the Boston suburbs was developed by highly educated women who didn’t have full-time careers outside the home: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• Explanation of the section of morning Jewish prayers in which traditional Jewish men praise God who, among other things, “has not made me a woman.” The Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform movements have opted to substitute that language with alternatives: My Jewish Learning article

• Coverage of the campaign against mandatory retirement ages and other discriminatory practices for stewardesses: The New York Times archive, ACLU commentary, PBS article

• “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness,” paper by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers about why self-reported happiness among women has gone down even as their material well-being and rights have empirically increased: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy article

• “Karine Jean-Pierre is not a #GirlBoss,” article by Jerusalem Demsas: The Argument article

• “In defense of the ‘girlboss’,” article by Matt Yglesias: Slow Boring article

• Peer Review: “Early-Life Sugar Restrictions Reduce Genetic Disparities in Adult Adiposity,” article by Tadeja Gracner, Claire Boone, Patrick Turley, and Paul Gertler using data from U.K. sugar rationing in World War II to show the effect lack of sugar had on individuals with high genetic risk for obesity: NBER working paper

• Coverage of people getting “excommunicated” from psych fields for contradicting Freud: Freud Museum London article, Janet Malcolm book

(Illustration by The Argument, image by Harold M. Lambert via Getty)

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And you won’t just be watching. You’ll get to join in on the argument, too.

Join us May 13 at The Chapel from 7 to 10 p.m. Come argue with us! RSVP here.

Matthew Yglesias wants to end asylum.

Asylum is a broadly reactive and procedural mechanism that takes control over who gets to enter the U.S. (and how many of them) out of the hands of politicians and the people who elected them. On a new episode of The Argument, Matt argues that the post-WWII asylum framework is not just politically untenable but practically unworkable.

I, true to form, disagree.

Let’s not kid ourselves, asylum is a huge political and policy problem for liberals. Anyone who takes seriously democratic legitimacy, economic growth, and basic human rights can’t pretend the backlash to Trump will fix the politics of immigration.

But I think giving up on asylum actually undersells the difficulty of the problem. People want to come to the U.S., and most Americans are open to legal, orderly immigration when they believe the system is working for them, not for foreigners. How do we produce that system?

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“Immigration policy should be designed to maximize the national interest, and the proceduralism and reactiveness of asylum does not fit into that very well,” Matt argues.

He’s right about the first part, dead wrong about the last.

Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

The transcript will be after the paywall in this post for paying subscribers.

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WATCH THE EPISODE HERE

New episodes post every Thursday.

For an ad-free version and full transcript, subscribe at TheArgumentMag.com.

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Corrections:

• At 0:17:13, Jerusalem says 2024 U.S. asylum grant rates for “Afghans, Syrians, Cameroonians, Eritreans, and Venezuelans” were at or above 75%. TRAC data shows this was true for Afghans (88.4%) and Eritreans (85.3%), but slightly higher than the rates for Cameroonians (74.4%), Syrians (68.9%), and Venezuelans (64.5%).

• At 0:17:59, Matt says “I’m sure people who want to move there [the Dominican Republic] from here [the U.S.] have good reasons for it. He means people who want to move from the Dominican Republic to the U.S.

• At 0:43:00, Jerusalem said the hiring rate in March 2022 was 7.4%, which was actually the job opening rate. The hiring rate was 4.4%.

• At 0:45:00, Matt says Trump has expanded “H-1A visa programs,” when he means H-2A.

• At 0:50:06, Jerusalem says that “I think a series of extremely specific and narrow programs is actually incentivizing this gaming the system rather than incentivizing it.” She means those programs incentivize gaming the system rather than addressing it.

Show notes:

• Border Act of 2024, sponsored by Sens. Chris Murphy, James Lankford, and Kyrsten Sinema, which would have set aside funding for immigration judges and asylum officers in an effort to get processing down to 90 days: Congressional Record, Sen. Murphy page, GovTrack bill text

• Manhattan Institute study arguing that around $1 billion a year for new judges and asylum officers would solve the asylum crisis: Manhattan Institute report

• ICE budget document showing an $11.3 billion budget in 2026 (not counting extra funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill): DHS file (PDF)

• One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger, book by Matthew Yglesias making the case for rapidly increasing the U.S. population through immigration, in an effort to reframe the conversation in a more patriotic way: Goodreads page, Amazon page

• Report showing 84% of Americans support resettling Afghans who helped troops during the war to resettle in the U.S.: With Honor PAC report

• Polling showing 78% of Americans supported admitting up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees from the war in 2022: Gallup report

• Polling showing 66% of Americans supported admitting Kosovar refugees in 1999: Gallup report

• “Europeans’ support for refugees of varying background is stable over time,” study by Kirk Bansak, Jens Hainmueller, and Dominik Hangartner showing general support for admitting asylum seekers in 15 European countries: Nature article

• “Why America is so much better than Europe at immigration,” article co-written by Alexander Kustov and Kelsey Piper about the differences between U.S. and European approaches to immigration: The Argument article

• In Our Interest: How Democracies Can Make Immigration Popular, book by Alexander Kustov examining immigration issues through a strict framework of self-interest: Columbia University Press page, Amazon page

• Report showing that U.S. asylum seekers from five countries had grant rates at less than 20%: Dominican Republic at 11%, Mexico at 16.6%, Colombia at 19.3%, Ecuador at 19.7%, and Brazil at 19.7%: TRAC report

• Coverage of Bush-era emphasis on border security: Bush White House archived page, CBS News article

• “Democrats can’t hide from immigration forever,” 2025 article by Matt Yglesias that described the CHNV immigration parole program as having reduced irregular migration and border chaos: Slow Boring article

• Article cited by Matt about Nigerian migrants in the U.K. being coached on how to appear gay in order to get asylum: BBC article

• Coverage of Venezuela hitting 10,000,000% inflation: CNBC article

• Coverage showing over 70% of Venezuelans are still in their country: UNHCR page, N-IUSSP article

• Coverage showing around 70% of Syrians stayed in the country even through the war: MSF release

• Coverage showing over 90% of Sudan’s population remains in the country despite famine, civil war, and internal displacement: International Organization for Migration article, Al Jazeera article

• “How Deterrence Policies Create Border Chaos,” 2023 article by Jerusalem Demsas arguing that deterrence policies in immigration don’t work: The Atlantic article

• Chart showing nearly half as many U.S. job openings in 2026 as in 2022: FRED data

• Chart showing U.S. hiring rate at 3.1% in February 2026 and 4.4% in March 2022: FRED data

• Quinnipiac poll showing Biden hitting 33% approval in January 2022: The Hill article

• Coverage of Trump expanding the H-2A visa program for guest agricultural workers: Newsweek article, Time article

• Coverage of Biden-era labor regulations, which made it more difficult to get an au pair, among other things: The Washington Post article, The Wall Street Journal article, Cato Institute commentary

• Coverage of Australia having a higher share of foreign-born residents than the U.S. does: McCrindle Research article

• Coverage of Australia letting in more immigrants, relative to the existing population, than the U.S. does: NPR article, Cato Institute article

• Coverage of the creation of the CBP One app, which made it possible to set up an appointment with an asylum officer ahead of time: Los Angeles Times article, CBS News article

• Peer Review: “Germs in the Family: The Short- and Long-Term Consequences of Intra-Household Disease Spread,” by N. Meltem Daysal, Hui Ding, Maya Rossin-Slater, and Hannes Schwandt, showing younger siblings have much higher rates of hospitalization due to respiratory conditions contracted from older siblings: NBER working paper (PDF)

• Study showing that households with at least two children have an illness at least 50% of the time: Clinical Infectious Diseases article

• Studies showing that, on average, younger siblings…

  • Have higher delinquency rates: NBER working paper

  • Have less educational attainment: Intelligence study

  • Have lower lifetime earnings: PNAS Nexus study, The Times article

• Studies showing that, on average, winter birth dates are…

  • Slightly worse for life outcomes (higher risk of schizophrenia, asthma, or cardiovascular disease): Current Biology article, The Lancet article, JAMIA article

  • Slightly better for life outcomes (longer lifespan): PNAS article, The Science of Nature article, PLoS One article, Demographic Research article

• Next week’s reading: The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan: Goodreads page, Amazon page

(Illustration by The Argument, image by David Dee Delgado/Stringer via Getty)

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While the United States was preaching the right to self-determination, it also decided it needed to make some practical choices. Ethiopia was a strategic ally in the burgeoning Cold War, and Ethiopia wanted Eritrea’s Red Sea coastline.

What followed was a brutal, decades-long oppression campaign against the Eritreans by the ruling Ethiopian government.

For all of you realpolitik heads out there, this didn’t even work out great for the U.S.’ strategic interests: Ethiopia ended up siding with the USSR anyway.

It’s easy for someone to look at this period of history and conclude that American liberal hypocrisy was a big failure. America could be a force for good, but only when it was convenient.

My podcast cohost Matt Yglesias makes a version of this argument. He thinks the push to frame foreign policy in idealistic terms tends to obscure more than it clarifies. It stops people from doing proper cost-benefit analysis and can justify bloody interventions.

The transcript will be after the paywall in this post for paying subscribers.

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He points to the NATO bombing campaign in Libya as an example. “It’s not super clear how helpful that was. It cost billions of dollars. And, like, the whole time, nobody was saying, ‘maybe we should try to develop a malaria vaccine.’”

That’s all well and good, but the purpose of having high standards, even if you often fail to meet them, is that hopefully you try to hold yourself to them sometimes.

During the Cold War, Soviet propaganda highlighted the contradiction between America’s stated liberal ideals of freedom and equality on the international stage and the reality of Jim Crow at home. This painful truth became impossible to ignore domestically, and it helped create the conditions for the Civil Rights Movement.

What would the world look like without liberal hypocrisy, anyway? Well, we’re kind of living it.

While Trump’s typical off-the-cuff and offensive rhetoric has been charitably read as “telling it like it is” by his supporters, it also emboldens his most nefarious instincts. What we’re left with is the president’s gross justifications for military action — like capturing the president of Venezuela for the oil and attacking Iran before it could supposedly attack us. Any stated desire for peace and prosperity in these regions is offered like an afterthought.

WATCH THE EPISODE HERE

New episodes post every Thursday.

For an ad-free version and full transcript, subscribe at TheArgumentMag.com.

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Show notes:

• “Missing liberal hypocrisy,” Jerusalem’s article on foreign policy ideals that Matt reacted to: The Argument article

• Coverage of the United Arab Emirates funding militia groups in Sudan: The Guardian article, Council on Foreign Relations post

• Coverage of U.S. supporting Ethiopia as a Cold War ally instead of supporting Eritreans’ right of self-determination: Britannica page, UCLA article

• Coverage of British intervention of Sierra Leone: The Guardian article, DTIC case study

• Coverage of Kenya training Haitian police officers: NPR report, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime analysis

• Coverage of Brazilian efforts to train Haitian police officers: The Rio Times article

• Oregon bill preempting Portland and other municipalities from enforcing affordable housing requirements on developers in many cases: Oregon State Legislature overview

• Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy, book by Mary Dudziak about how U.S. self-interest aligned with its ideals during the Civil Rights Movement: Goodreads page

• Coverage of money being spent on global public health programs after USAID was shuttered: The New York Times article

• Coverage of Libyan intervention costing over $1 billion: Council on Foreign Relations article, CNN article

• Why Nations Fail, book by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson arguing that there are critical junctures in time where a country develops extractive or inclusive institutions: Goodreads page

• Peer review: “Easy A’s, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation,” study by Jeffrey T. Denning, Rachel L. Nesbit, Nolan G. Pope, and Merrill Warnick: NBER working paper

• Coverage of Harvard limiting the number of A grades teachers can distribute: The Harvard Gazette article, Harvard Magazine article, Inside Higher Ed article

(Illustration by The Argument, image by XNY/Star Max via Getty)

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But modern anonymity is an entirely new beast.

When Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote the essays that would become The Federalist Papers, they weren’t anonymous in the modern sense. That is, friends of Hamilton and Madiso…

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The case, decided along ideological lines, caused a stir among progressives.

But was this discrimination the inevitable consequence of affirmative action policies? Or did it simply give cover to people with genuinely racist beliefs?

“The core problem with affirmative action — how it was being practiced, particularly at Harvard — is that they were just being racist to Asians … What was happening was not just like, ‘Oh, we’re all well-meaning people trying to improve [society].’ These people had racist views about Asian Americans,” declared Jerusalem Demsas in The Argument’s premiere podcast episode.

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In this heated conversation, Matthew Yglesias and Jerusalem tackled affirmative action, an increasingly unpopular policy. And the Harvard case sits at the heart of the debate.

“In a basic way,” lamented Matt, “it is not a good idea to be slotting people into racial and ethnic categories and judging them on that basis. It’s not fair to people, and it’s not healthy for society.”

WATCH THE EPISODE HERE

New episodes post every Thursday.

You can find The Argument on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading:

“Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges” by Raj Chetty, David J. Deming, and John N. Friedman

“Breaking Systemic Barriers: Being Black in the Aquatic Sciences and Related Fields” by Lauren Pharr

“Smartphones, Online Music Streaming, and Traffic Fatalities” by Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham, Michael Liu, and Anupam B. Jena

Corrections:

• At 0:05:36, Matt says “LSAT flunk rates” when he means “bar exam flunk rates.”

• At 0:07:06, Jerusalem says “data from Sander’s” when she means “data from Sander’s critics.”

• At 0:18:46, Jerusalem says Raj Chetty’s data shows that attending an elite school “doubles” the likelihood of reaching the top income quintile when she means “increases by 50%.”

Show notes:

• Research showing Black patients have better health outcomes in areas with more Black doctors: JAMA Network Open study, JAMA Network Open study

• Research showing Black doctors are more likely to choose primary care specialties than their white counterparts: Journal of the National Medical Association study, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) study

• Coverage of U.S. shortage of primary care doctors: Harvard Health Publishing article, AAMC study

• Research showing the presence of Black judges on a federal appellate panel changes behavior of their non-Black colleagues: Princeton study, Crime & Delinquency study

• Research on India’s caste-based reservation system: International Journal of Law study

• Research showing presence of female legislators in India makes female constituents’ concerns more likely to be heard: Cambridge University Press study

  • Research showing this increases water and road infrastructure: Econometrica study

• Research on mismatch effect in law schools: Journal of College and University Law article, ABA Journal article, Journal of Legal Education article

• Research on selective school enrollment only having a significant effect on lifetime earnings if the student comes from a disadvantaged background: National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, National Bureau of Economic Research working paper

• Coverage of decrease in professional diversity after California’s affirmative action law was struck down: NPR article, Berkeley Law study, Industrial and Labor Relations Review study

• Coverage of Elizabeth Warren taking a DNA test to demonstrate Native American ancestry and subsequently apologizing The New York Times article, The Washington Post article, NPR article

• Raj Chetty, David Deming, and John Friedman research showing large effects of attending elite schools: NBER working paper

• Coverage of future-President Obama saying his daughters didn’t need affirmative action assistance: Politico article, The Seattle Times opinion article, The New York Times article

• Coverage of President Clinton campaigning on a promise to “mend not end” affirmative action: The New York Times article, The Baltimore Sun article

• Coverage of Harvard admissions discriminating against Asian Americans: European Economic Review article, Harvard Law Review article

• Article by Judge Glock describing how firms promote minority leaders in order to obtain contracts set aside for “disadvantaged” companies: City Journal article

• Coverage of men getting an advantage in college admissions because of gender imbalances: The New York Times Magazine article, New York Post article

• 2021 argument that marine biology needed more diversity: Coastwatch magazine article

• Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Coverage of affirmative action gaining momentum during Kennedy and LBJ administrations: UCI Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity brief

• Books by Richard Kahlenberg on affirmative action:

  • The Remedy: Class, Race, And Affirmative Action, 1996: Goodreads page

  • Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges, 2025: Goodreads page

• Coverage of Texas’ “Top 10% Rule,” which initially stated that anyone in the top 10% of their high school class was automatically admitted to UT Austin. The rule has since been amended to the top 6% being admitted to UT Austin: UT News article, Texas Comptroller program page

• Peer Review^TM study: “Smartphones, Online Music Streaming, and Traffic Fatalities,” by Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham, Michael Liu & Anupam B. Jena: NBER working paper

• Public opinion data on self-driving cars: The Argument polling, Pew Research Center polling, Brookings article

• Coverage of voice-activated devices proving distracting for drivers: AAA study, ABC News article

(Illustration by The Argument, image by Harvard University)

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Welcome to The Argument, a weekly podcast from yours truly and Matthew Yglesias.

Matt and I have been on many podcasts together, back in the days of The Weeds where we first libbed out about zoning reform, to when I interviewed him at The Atlantic for Good on Paper, and just last year when we talked about liberalism here at The Argument.

We have a lot in common—particularly when it comes to housing and economic policy—but that makes it all the more interesting how much we tend to disagree.

So instead of a Crossfire-style debate show where two people who have no overlapping interests yell at each other and make you feel bad about the world, we’re doing something different.

The Argument is a show where two friends, well, argue about politics, policy, and whatever else is on their minds.

It’s a debate show for people who want to get into the weeds and are turned off by screaming matches and softball interviews where everyone just agrees with each other. Each week, one host argues a distinctive point of view — armed with facts and research, not just pundit bluster — and then Matt and I hash it out.

New episodes post every Thursday, starting April 9.

WATCH THE TRAILER ON YOUTUBE HERE

You can find The Argument on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of The Argument, host Jerusa…

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Jennifer Doleac thinks criminal justice is one of the rare places where that’s wrong.

In this episode, Jerusalem Demsas, host and editor of The Argument talks with Doleac, economist and author of The Science of Second Chances, about what happens when you treat crime policy like an empirical problem instea…

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New York Times columnist Ross Douthat joins host Jerusalem Demsas to map the new right: the collapse of fusionism, the rise of nationalism, and a media ecosystem where influencers matter more than institutions.

Then they argue about what liberalism can an…

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In this episode, host Jerusalem Demsas is joined by economist Carolina Arteaga to unpack new rese…

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What if people oppose new housing not only because of who might move in or what it might do to traffic, but because the building just looks …

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Matthew Yglesias argues liberals undermined their own principles when politics shifted from judging people as individuals to sorting them into moral categories based on group identity. We debate “the fox in liberalism’s henhouse,” collective blame, and why “accurate” generalizations …

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The Argument’s Kelsey Piper has a few explanations, from foreign competition to a sense of inevitability to a conservative party terrified of regulation. Even if the ince…

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In Gratton’s telling, the populist backlash isn’t irrational; it’s a democratic response to elite failure. But his prescription isn’t to abandon liberalism. This conversation explores how we got here and whether liberal democracy can course-correct before it’s too late.

The Argument is a podcast dedicated to honest, unflinching debate about the biggest questions facing democracy, culture, and our future. As the host, Editor-in-Chief Jerusalem Demsas brings together voices across the political spectrum to argue, challenge, and persuade. Each episode is a space where disagreements are confronted directly, with clarity and conviction, rather than hidden or shouted down.

For full-length, ad-free episodes of our podcast, you can become a paid subscriber. You can watch the full version with ads for free by subscribing to our YouTube channel. The audio version is also available wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Argument podcast with Jerusalem Demsas is available wherever you get podcasts (with video here and on YouTube). New shows drop every Monday. If you like the show, leave a comment and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

Show notes:

• Articles by Gabriele Gratton about democratic backsliding:

  • “The Rise and Fall of Technocratic Democracies: Unstable Majorities and Delegation to Technocrats”

  • “The democracy seesaw: Why experts fall as populists rise”

• Explanation of the Second Welfare Theorem, which posits that a perfectly efficient allocation of resources can be achieved purely through market forces if the initial endowments are suitably and accurately distributed: Harvard lecture

• “Markets and Freedoms: Achievements and Limitations of the Market Mechanism in Promoting Individual Freedoms,” Amartya Sen essay wherein he emphasized the importance of the redistributive element of the Second Welfare Theorem. Princeton link

• Literature on China Shock: NBER working paper, CATO Institute article

• Comparison of biggest TV news viewership figures to those of Joe Rogan’s podcast: Insideradio article

• Coverage of Trump saying immigrants are eating cats and dogs: BBC News article, PBS article, NBC News article

• Coverage of European countries legislating budgetary restraints into existence, such as those saying that the deficit must not be greater than a certain percentage of GDP: European Commission explanation, Bruegel policy brief

• Oliver Kim article on how austerity measures led to the rise of the Nazis in Germany: The Argument article

• Coverage of class politics and majoritarianism leading to political instability in Argentina: Council on Foreign Relations article

• Coverage of preoccupation with demographics held by people like Elon Musk and JD Vance: NPR article, The Guardian article, The Hill article

• Profile of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who like Trump, was known for using controversial comments to portray himself as a “man of the people.” CNN article

• Jerusalem Demsas article pitching DEI initiatives for conservatives: The Argument article

• Gabriele Gratton’s annoying take^TM: The idea that all theories must be aimed at empirically testable predictions. Michigan Technological University post, Ian Shapiro book

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They dig into how family histories of ensl…

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Sociologist Lane Kenworthy doesn’t think so. In his new book Is Inequality The Problem? Kenworthy argued that inequality is overrated as “the” cause of our problems — and discussed why the data pushes him toward a different set of priorities. Ho…

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They got their bill: the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate law in U.S. history. Then youth support for Democrats fell, Republicans tore key pieces out all …

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We talk about:

• The rise of “effective accelerationism” (E/acc)

• Why parts of the tech elite feel betrayed by the Biden administration

• How backlash to regulation, internal …

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