Beyond Politics

Matt was a guest on West Virginia radio legend Howard Monroe's morning show, talking about how we got into such a divided place in American politics and what some solutions would look like

Last week's news that the economy added just 266,000 jobs when many economists were expecting closer to 1 million made for a lot of head-scratching. Republicans say that excessive Covid relief benefits are creating a disincentive for people to come back to work. Democrats say that recovery is a long road and that if anything, the anemic jobs numbers show that the economy needs an additional boost.

So, what’s really going on? To find out, you have to look at who has gone back to work, who hasn’t, and why they haven’t.

Our guest Diane Lim is an economist who over the course of a distinguished 30 year career has worked in the federal government, nonprofit and academic sectors. She writes the EconomistMom blog and has served as an advisory board member of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.

In 2020, one thing was clear: as goes African American voters, so goes the Democratic Party.  And as goes the Democratic Party, so goes the balance of power in America.  Understanding the evolving views and priorities of Black Americans -- and what drives their enthusiasm to vote -- will be critical if Democrats are to have any chance in the 2022 midterms (and beyond).  The authors of a new report on African American voter priorities in 2021 -- Promises Made Must Be Promises Kept -- join the show to explain their findings. 

We’ve got something a little different for you: a conversation between Beyond Politics host Matt Robison and PoliticusUSA Editor-in-Chief Sarah Jones, available as a podcast, a video, and an excerpt on PoliticusUSA. Matt and Sarah are both fascinated by the same question: how did we get to this pretty awful place in American politics and society…and how do we get out of it? In other words, what is way back from Trump’s America?

Apple's decision this week to clamp down on how apps to track your behavior and movements online has reignited a debate about privacy and the information we share, both willingly and unwittingly, in the digital age.  What is often overlooked is just how much we make decisions, sometimes without even realizing it, about how much information we share about our kids. This is a deep, fraught, and complicated topic that too many of us have not really thought about. One of the world leading experts on it is Leah Plunkett, the author of "Sharenthood: why we should think before we talk about our kids online," and an very accomplished legal scholar with positions at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and the Berkman Klein center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She makes the case that there are many consequences to every piece of information we share--some we know about, and some that go in unknown and disturbing directions

What does Apple's big privacy release mean for Facebook's business and the broader "free" economy?  Also, the hottest investment opportunity is...house paint?

Sean Carberry, the former Kabul correspondent for NPR and the lead on Department of Defense Inspector General reports on Afghanistan, walks through what has happened in Afghanistan, whether the US could have done anything differently, and ultimately whether President Biden made the right decision to withdraw US troops once and for all. 

The Senate is a mess.  All legislative roads lead there, and usually it’s a dead end. When Presidents take executive action, it’s usually to work around the Senate. It’s the site of national catharsis over judges. And when something actually does get passed, it’s major news.

But now, things might...just might... be changing. Democrats have used special senate "reconciliation" rules to pass the massive American Rescue Plan. More bills like that may be on the way. And there's a possibility of striking deals with a group of 10 Republican senators to pass actual bipartisan bills on important issues in American society.

Its never been been more valuable to understand the dynamics of the Senate, the people, the rules, and the politics. Ryan McConaghy is one of the country’s absolute top notch experts on the Senate, and he joins the show to break down the prospects for legislation, progress, and making things work in Congress.

Photo by Matthew Bornhorst on Unsplash

As more signs emerge of an impending surge in the economy, Chris and Matt explore how we can think about what those signs are telling us about investing and business in the near term, and also how to think beyond them to what the longer term future looks like. 

Photo by Tomasz Frankowski on Unsplash

The big news on Covid last week was the decision by the CDC and FDA to call for a nationwide halt to delivering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine while they investigate a rare blood-clotting disorder. Our guest, Dr. Angela Rasmussen, is a virologist and one of the most well-known and oft-quoted scientists on Covid vaccines.  She has written for Forbes, Foreign Affairs, Slate, the Guardian, and Leapsmag, and appeared many times in media outlets including the New York Times (including an op-ed last week), the Washington Post, National Public Radio, ABC, NBC, CNN, CBC, and BBC.  And last week, she appeared in a really good explanatory article on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine by Katherine Wu in The Atlantic. So we invited her to walk us all through what we need to know about the J&J pause and the fight against Covid in general.