Newt's World

Millions of Americans are voting based on a picture of reality that someone else painted for them. Matt Towery calls it the mirage machine: a combination of legacy media, partisan fact-checkers, and compliant pollsters that has convinced a large swath of the public that President Donald Trump is ignorant, racist, a fascist, and a warmonger. Towery, one of the most accurate pollsters in the country and a longtime friend of Newt’s who chaired his political organization in the 1990s, joins Newt to discuss his new book, The Honoring of Ignorance: The 7 Mirages Destroying America. Drawing on four decades of watching American media transform, Towery breaks down how the mirage machine works, why most Americans never see positive news about Republican governance, and what conservatives must do to break through.

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Two-thirds of Americans now say they support Medicare for All, the highest level ever recorded. But Dr. Joel Zinberg warns that Medicare for All is not Medicare as we know it. It would ban the private insurance that covers more than half of Americans, eliminate Medicare Advantage and Part D drug plans, and replace the entire system with a single government program. Dr. Zinberg, Director of the Public Health and American Well-Being Initiative at Paragon Health Institute and a former White House health policy advisor to President Trump, joins Newt to explain what the Sanders bill would actually do, why countries like Britain and Canada offer a cautionary tale, how Medicaid reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill address sustainability, and what it will take to root out the fraud draining billions from America’s health programs.

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What will it take to open America's next frontier? Newt looks to the stars, beginning with Abraham Lincoln's Pacific Railway Act of 1862 as a model for unleashing private investment in space. From reusable rockets and nuclear propulsion that could shorten the trip to Mars, to a permanent American presence on the moon, the first American child born there, and hotels orbiting Earth, Newt describes how a new space economy could create jobs, inspire a generation, and see America's 300th birthday celebrated across the solar system.

Inspired by Newt's new book, America's Golden Age, available now, this episode explores the coming golden age of space—and the policies that will help America get there first.

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Could artificial intelligence be the most important development in human history? Newt explains why he believes AI will define the next 50 years, how it differs from the computing we've known for decades, and why its real power comes from combining with medicine, robotics, and space. He shares three predictions he's willing to defend, from robotic gardeners in the 2030s to self-driving trucks and a boom in cruises, and takes on the hard questions: how free nations keep AI from becoming a tool of control, and why keeping the lead over China must be a national security priority.

Inspired by Newt's new book, America's Golden Age, available now, this episode explores the promise and the risks of artificial intelligence—and how America can lead the way.

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What can 50-year stretches of American history teach us about 2076? Newt travels through America 50 years at a time, from the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1826, to a young Abraham Lincoln campaigning for railroads he had never seen, to the age of Edison, Ford, and the Wright brothers. He then turns to the 50 years most listeners have lived through, from the gas lines and pessimism of the 1970s to the Reagan comeback and the young founders who built modern America, and explains why the biggest changes are always the ones nobody predicts.

Inspired by Newt's new book, America's Golden Age, available now, this episode explores how America constantly reinvents itself—and what that pattern tells us about the next 50 years.

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Why should Americans be optimistic about the next 50 years? On the day his new book is released, Newt explains the big idea behind America's Golden Age: science, technology, culture, and entrepreneurship are coming together to create an explosion of growth, opportunity, and choice. From the Wright brothers outpacing a government-funded rival to the telegraph, the railroad, and the aircraft carrier, Newt shows how breakthroughs build on one another—and why America, built on freedom, free enterprise, and the rule of law, is the nation where a golden age will happen.

Inspired by Newt's new book, America's Golden Age, available now, this episode explores why optimism has consistently beaten pessimism in America—and why our best days are still ahead.

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What will America look like when it celebrates its 300th birthday in 2076? Newt takes listeners on an imaginative journey 50 years into the future, exploring how artificial intelligence, medical breakthroughs, household robotics, and space exploration could transform everyday life. From personalized healthcare and virtual reality classrooms to lunar settlements and hotels orbiting Earth, Newt shares his vision of America's next great era of innovation and opportunity. Drawing from his new book, America's Golden Age, he explains why the choices we make today will determine whether America's brightest days are still ahead.

Inspired by Newt's new book, America's Golden Age, available October 20, this episode explores the possibilities ahead—and why creating a better future starts with the decisions we make today.

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More than a trillion chips are made every year, roughly 150 for every person on earth. They power our phones, our cars, our missiles, and the artificial intelligence revolution. And more than 90% of the most advanced ones come from a single company in Taiwan, built with machines that only one company in the world can make. Rakesh Kumar, professor of computer engineering at the University of Illinois and author of The Chip Age: How Semiconductors Became the World’s Most Powerful Resource, joins Newt to explain how a sliver of silicon became the world’s most consequential resource. Drawing on six decades of innovation, espionage, and geopolitical rivalry, Kumar breaks down how the chip industry works, how fragile its supply chain really is, and what the race for chip sovereignty means for America’s competition with China.

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The Houthis’ slogan is ‘Death to America, Death to Israel.’ They seized Yemen’s capital in 2014. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Israel have all bombed them. They have been sanctioned and designated a terrorist organization. And they are still standing, still expanding, and more capable than ever. On October 10th, a Houthi strike on Riyadh’s international airport killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300. So how does a militia from Yemen’s northern mountains keep surviving? Nadwa Al-Dawsari, associate fellow at the Middle East Institute and a Yemeni American with more than 20 years of field experience in Yemen, joins Newt to explain who the Houthis really are, how Iran shaped them, why military campaigns have failed to stop them, and where they are expanding next.

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For 150 years, the price tag was a promise: one price, the same for everyone. That promise is gone. Today, algorithms help landlords set your rent, software tracks your clicks to figure out the most you will pay, and two shoppers can buy the same carton of eggs in the same store on the same day for different prices. Lindsay Owens, president and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative and author of Gouged: The End of a Fair Price and What That Means for Your Wallet, joins Newt to explain how pricing became a weaponized science. From grocery stores and airline tickets to concert seats and apartment rents, Owens breaks down who changed the rules, how artificial intelligence supercharged the shift, and what her Shopper’s Bill of Rights would do to restore a fair price.

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