Explain It to Me

Dylan, German, and Jerusalem get together to discuss one of the world’s least likely but most interesting utopian ideas: open borders. They discuss the moral and economic logic for making it easy to move to and work in different countries, and the political constraints that make such an idea anathema in most rich countries. Also, they discuss a new paper about how housing regulation is making it hard for Americans to move to where they’d get the best jobs.

References:

Bryan Caplan’s case for open borders, on Vox and in comic book form

Matt Yglesias’s case for more immigration

Michael Clemens’s economic case for broader migration

A review of the evidence on voter backlash to immigration

Angela Nagle’s leftist case against open borders

Arlie Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land

Jerusalem on the intersection of refugee policy and housing policy

”Angela Merkel Was Right” by NYT's Michelle Goldberg 

“Does Immigration Produce a Public Backlash or Public Acceptance? Time-Series, Cross-Sectional Evidence from Thirty European Democracies”

White Paper: “Location, Location, Location” by David Card, Jesse Rothstein, and Moises Yi

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial advisor

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Vox senior correspondent Ian Millhiser talks with law professor Joseph Blocher and historian Carol Anderson about the Second Amendment, the triumph of the NRA's vision for that amendment, and an upcoming Supreme Court case that endangers more than a century of American gun control laws.

References:

The Positive Second Amendment Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller, Joseph Blocher 

The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, Carol Anderson

Hosts:

Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser), senior correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial advisor

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Dylan, German, and Dara talk about the whopping 5.4 percent inflation rate the Consumer Price Index estimated last week, what it means, and if inflation is going to get worse. They dig into a paper out of the Federal Reserve arguing that we're thinking about inflation all wrong. And they close out with a fascinating new study on what the Great Migration meant for African Americans who moved northward.

References:

• Why looking at “trimmed” inflation measures can be useful

• Back when Dylan was less worried about inflation

• JW Mason explains why “America’s inflation debate is fundamentally confused”

• Jeremy Rudd, "Why Do We Think That Inflation Expectations Matter for Inflation? (And Should We?)"

• This week’s white paper: Ellora Derenoncourt, "Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration"

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Joe Biden has proposed a landmark $400 billion expansion of funding for home and community-based services (HCBS), the part of Medicaid that funds support services for older adults and people with disabilities living at home rather than in institutions. But with Congress fighting over which of Biden's priorities to cut to appease moderate Democrats, that proposal could be in peril.

Mia Ives-Rublee is a longtime disability rights activist who helped organize the Women's March in 2017 and now serves as director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. She spoke with Vox's Dylan Matthews about how HCBS works now, and how Democrats' plans for additional funding would change it.

References:

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter  

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Vox senior reporter Rebecca Leber (@rebleber) joins The Weeds to explain the problem of migration caused by climate change, such as that due to wildfires, rising seas, and crop failures. She explains how a warming planet is forcing people to move both in the US and internationally, and how policymakers are and aren’t adapting. Vox reporters Dylan Matthews and Jerusalem Demsas continue the conversation with ProPublica’s Dara Lind, discussing a new white paper arguing that social mobility in America rose in the 20th century.

References:

• How climate change is driving up flood insurance premiums in Canarsie, Brooklyn

• The case for “managed retreat” from coastal areas

• A New York Times feature on how climate migration will reshape America

• Why Greg Clark is pessimistic that social mobility even exists

• White Paper of the Week: Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error, Zachary Ward

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Dara Lind (@DLind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Vox Supreme Court correspondent Ian Millhiser talks with NYU professor Melissa Murray (@ProfMMurray) about the future of reproductive freedom. The Supreme Court started its new term this week, and with six conservative judges on the bench, Republicans are likely to win a generational victory overruling Roe v. Wade.

Resources:

Texas’s radical anti-abortion law explained

The staggering implications of the Supreme Court’s Texas anti-abortion ruling

“Race-ing Roe: Reproductive Justice, Racial Justice, and the Battle for Roe v. Wade

Hosts:

Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, Producer & Engineer

Libby Nelson, Editorial Advisor

Amber Hall, Deputy Editorial Director of Talk Podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Dylan, German, and Jerusalem talk about vaccine mandates. They discuss the evidence supporting vaccine requirements, the United States’ history with inoculation campaigns, and the patchwork nature of America’s many public health measures. Plus, a white paper about elite universities. 

References:

This is a good summary of the evidence supporting vaccine mandates

Here is the Homevoter Hypothesis Dylan mentioned

The NIMBY lawsuit against UC Berkeley and the NIMBY war against Georgetown’s expansion

German mentioned two vaccination studies: this one and this one

This week’s white paper about elite universities

Leopold Aschenbrenner on the case for smaller universities

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

 Dylan and Jerusalem are joined by Kathryn Paige Harden, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss her new book The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality. They talk about what geneticists have learned about the impact of genes on income and education inequality, the social implications of this research and its potential misuse, and why genetics should leave us humbled by the huge effect of luck in our lives.

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@JerusalemDemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser 

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director, talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dylan, German, and Dara discuss the debt ceiling: the current crisis, what the debt ceiling even is, and how the debt ceiling has become a politically polarized issue. They also talk about why the debt ceiling is bad for democracy. Plus, a white paper about Canadian bread cartels.

Resources:

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s estimate of when we’ll hit the debt ceiling

Congressional Research Service’s history of the debt ceiling

Janet Yellen on the costs of breaching the debt ceiling

Neil Buchanan and Michael Dorf on why breaching the debt ceiling is the “least illegal” option

The trillion dollar coin (and the Obama rejection of it) explained

Steven Schwarcz on using special investment tools to evade the debt ceiling

Matt Yglesias on the “Honduras scenario” for American democracy failing

"Hub and Spoke Cartels: Theory and Evidence from the Grocery Industry" by Robert Clark, Ignatius Horstmann, Jean-François Houde

Netflix documentary on the Canadian maple syrup cartel

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), Senior Correspondent, Vox

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), Senior Correspondent, Vox

Dara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublica

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, Producer & Engineer

Libby Nelson, Editor

Amber Hall, Deputy Editorial Director of Talk Podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

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Dylan, German, and Jerusalem sit down to answer listener questions. In our first AMA episode of the post-Matt-Yglesias Weeds era, the trio discusses constitutional amendments, climate change, how we could fix global poverty, influential books, and more.

Resources:

Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit

Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Ascendancy by Nina J. Easton

The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach by Alice Kaplan

Night by Elie Wiesel

The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World’s Most Troubled Drug Culture by Richard DeGrandpre

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Cochrane

The Journalist’s Resource, the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

Jim Tankersley, the New York Times (@jimtankersley)

Victoria Guida, Politico (@vtg2)

Eric Levitz, New York magazine (@ericlevitz)

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@JerusalemDemsas), policy reporter, Vox

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director, talk podcasts

Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter 

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices