From German re-armament to the Iran deal to China's eyes on Taiwan, Russia's war on Ukraine is setting off big changes around the world. What do these shifts mean for America's interests? Can we get Saudi Arabia to help with the global oil crunch? Is it time for rapprochement with Venezuela? And what will Russia's stamina for this war be if China gets impatient? Michael Singh of the Washington Institute, a former National Security Council official, takes Josh on a global tour of the ramifications and unnerving risks of this war in an especially serious episode of the Very Serious podcast.

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Children are necessarily central to our politics. Their lives are highly regulated by the state, which ensures (among other things) that they are educated rather than employed, that they are supported by their parents or someone else if their parents are unable. The other authority in children’s lives is, of course, their parents. A liberal society is based on the idea that we butt out of each other’s decisions and let people live according to the beliefs they want, but we must make collective decisions about how the government interfaces with children – and what it will permit and require parents to do with regard to their children. How we make those decisions is at the center of many current political debates. In this episode, Josh Barro talks with The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig, author of the piece “Kids Have No Place in a Liberal Democracy,” and Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner and the American Enterprise Institute.

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Personality is a key determinant of life success, and we all have opinions about other people’s personalities, but can we change our own? Olga Khazan, science writer for The Atlantic, set out to change her personality in three months – more extroverted, more agreeable, less neurotic. She talked with Josh about her experience and the psychological research into personality change – and about what life might be like if we took more control over our personalities.

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Inflation is the highest it’s been in decades. Why? Economist Jason Furman talks with Josh Barro about where inflation comes from, and what we've misunderstood about it in the past. Fixes to the supply chain or to COVID aren’t likely to do much about it, and Jason tells us why. Plus: what the Federal Reserve can and should do to tame inflation, and whether Congress and the Biden administration can jump in to ease economic pain, and what President Biden’s picks for the Fed are likely to do on inflation, banking and climate in years to come.

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David Leonhardt, author of The Morning newsletter from the New York Times, is one of the most influential writers on COVID and COVID policy. He talks with Josh about how he synthesizes expert views for a broad audience, how to help people weigh costs and benefits, and the future of COVID response after Omicron.

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Matt Yglesias joins Josh to make the case for popularism – the idea that politicians win by doing popular things and talking about them. Sounds obvious, right? Well, it’s controversial, and besides, figuring out what’s popular isn’t always easy. Matt has specific ideas for Joe Biden to be popular. Plus, Matt revisits his endorsement of Bernie Sanders and describes his experience of appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which included being “fat shamed” and then losing 50 pounds.

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Two years into the COVID pandemic, the relationship between experts and the public is frayed. There is blame to go around. Josh talks with experts on expertise Tom Nichols and Lanhee Chen about what experts are for, how expertise has been misused and misunderstood, and how politicians can best combine expert opinion with value judgments to make policies the public will accept.

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If your friends have ever struggled to choose a place to go to dinner, you know people aren’t always very good at accessing and articulating their preferences. This also matters in politics – how do you get voters to tell you what they feel about the issues and which ones they really care about, when they may not really know? Pollsters Kristen Soltis Anderson and Brian Stryker talk to Josh Barro about how they collect useful information about what voters think, and how it can be used to explain why Democrats lost in Virginia, how voters on both sides think about January 6, and what's on voters' minds going into the midterm election cycle.

For notes and links mentioned in this episode (and for more Very Serious conversation and opinions), join us at joshbarro.com. Send your Very Serious comments to [email protected].

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It’s a question you hear a lot during COVID: How do you balance the economy with people’s well-being? But the economy is part of people’s well-being. On this week’s show, Josh talks with Elizabeth Bruenig of the Atlantic and Megan McArdle from the Washington Post about what COVID has taught us about what makes a good economy for the people. They discuss where the public and private sectors have stumbled, and how the most acute economic need has shifted from income support to sufficient provision of goods and services. Plus they talk about Customers Behaving Badly, and how the pandemic has impaired individuals’ good sense about how to behave economically.

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A new, weekly podcast from Josh Barro launching January 14!

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