Cato Events Podcast

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Cato Events Podcast episodes

March 20, 2019 Chevron: Accidental Landmark
1 hr 10 min
March 19, 2019 Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support for Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements
The first few generations of American leaders made a sharp distinction between advancing the legitimate interests of the republic and taking on foreign causes that purported to overthrow tyrannical rule and establish democratic systems based on respect for fundamental rights. Within the last half-century, however, a number of foreign insurgent groups have been able to manipulate U.S. policymakers and opinion leaders into supporting their causes. Sometimes those efforts have even entangled the U.S. military in bloody, unnecessary, and morally dubious wars, as in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.In Gullible Superpower, Cato Senior Fellow Ted Galen Carpenter examines the most prominent cases in which well-meaning Americans have ended up supporting misguided policies. He underscores the need for future U.S. leaders to adopt a policy of skepticism and restraint toward foreign movements that purport to embrace democracy.
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1 hr 9 min
March 19, 2019 Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support for Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements
1 hr 9 min
March 15, 2019 Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration
“Mass incarceration” has been a ubiquitous term in criminal justice circles because of the extraordinary number of people behind bars in the United States. Many partial solutions have been implemented on the state and federal levels, mostly concerned with sentence length and re-entry services for nonviolent offenders. Those changes have been improvements, for the most part, and have been life changing for thousands of inmates, returning citizens, and their families.

However, the fundamentals of our criminal justice system remain unchanged, and our policies continue to put too many people in cages for too long. The politics surrounding crime policy are often driven by fear and vengeance, not experience and data, and thus many jurisdictions are one tragedy — or a crime-rate increase — away from another wave of bad criminal laws. Our collective desire to punish wrongdoing through our criminal justice system too often outweighs the data that suggest better ways to improve public safety and reduce criminal recidivism.
In her new book, Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration, Professor Rachel Elise Barkow provides a new conceptual framework for criminal justice policy. Barkow suggests new institutions and policies to provide oversight to prosecutors who currently have free rein over the most important aspects of criminal cases. She also proposes new expert bodies to collect and analyze data to formulate evidence-based crime policy to insulate policymakers from the populist whims that too often result in punitive laws and long sentences. In these and other ways, Barkow shows how our criminal justice system could reduce crime and roll back mass incarceration at the same time.
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1 hr 33 min
March 15, 2019 Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration
1 hr 33 min
March 13, 2019 Media Misconceptions about the Crisis in Venezuela
With tensions in Venezuela at a boiling point, the worsening humanitarian and economic crisis continues to capture headlines across the U.S. But how accurate are the media reports on Venezuela’s political upheaval? Latin American policy analyst Juan Carlos Hidalgo will clarify some of the common misconceptions repeated in news coverage of the crisis and share his outlook on what’s next for the troubled nation.
33 min
March 06, 2019 #CatoConnects: Religion and Attitudes about Immigration, Race, and Identities
Increasing political polarization and rising conflict over identity, race relations, immigration, and LGBT rights have left the American political landscape with two increasingly divided extremes and a seemingly elusive moderate middle. Many Americans have come to view religious institutions as a major contributor to this ever-increasing divide — a catalyst for increased intergroup societal conflict rather than a possible cure.However, new research by Cato Institute Director of Polling Emily Ekins finds that religious participation may moderate conservatives’ attitudes on other important culture war issues, particularly matters of race, immigration, and identity.In Religious Trump Voters: How Faith Moderates Attitudes about Immigration, Race, and Identity, Ekins finds that Trump voters who attend church regularly are more likely than nonreligious Trump voters to have warmer feelings toward racial and religious minorities, to be more supportive of immigration and trade, and to be more concerned about poverty. These data are important because they demonstrate that private institutions in civil society can have a positive effect on social conflict and can reduce political polarization.
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41 min
March 06, 2019 #CatoConnects: Religion and Attitudes about Immigration, Race, and Identities
41 min
March 01, 2019 Who's Afraid of Big Tech? - Panel 3: Free Speech in an Age of Social Media
News of foreign interference in elections and allegations of mismanagement have prompted lawmakers to take action. Executives from the largest and most popular technology companies have been called before congressional committees and accused of being bad stewards of their users’ privacy, failing to properly police their platforms, and engaging in politically motivated censorship. At the same time, companies such as Google and Amazon have been criticized for engaging in monopolistic practices.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 15 min
March 01, 2019 Who's Afraid of Big Tech? - Panel 3: Free Speech in an Age of Social Media
1 hr 15 min

About Cato Events Podcast

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The Cato Events Podcast brings you live recordings from the Cato Institute's events, where leading scholars, policymakers, journalists, and experts come together each week to discuss the ideas and…