Next Round

Our guest this week is Heather Mac Donald, bestselling author and Thomas W. Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute. This is a recording of a luncheon discussion on her new book "When Race Trumps Merit." Heather argues that racial disparities at universities, executive suites, the medical and legal professions and other fields are due to the academic skills gap that causes the current lack of proportional representation. She believes that so long as alleged racism remains the main explanation for these racial disparities, we will tear down excellence and put lives, as well as civilizational achievement, at risk.

Our guest this week is Paul Atkins, CEO of Potomak Partners, a financial services consulting firm in Washington, DC. Paul was also a commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2002 to 2008. We discuss with Paul ESG – environmental, social, and governance – investing and its negative impact on shareholders, retirement investors, and the investing public, as well as government's overreach in advancing the ESG agenda.

On this week's episode, we talk with Bob Spano and Carl Olson, whose beloved family members were tragically murdered decades ago, and who have recently been forced to relive these traumatic memories when the individuals who murdered their family members were granted parole. PRI senior fellow Steve Smith discusses how misguided policy changes and executive actions are contributing to the state's broken parole system, and what lawmakers and Gov. Newsom should do to fix the problem.

Our guest this week is Kerry Jackson, PRI senior fellow at our Center for California Reform. He and senior fellow in business and economics Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D. co-authored PRI's new study "Enriching Lawyers and Not Helping Victims: Why tort reform will help grow the economy and address injustice. The study found that Americans pay a "tort tax" of $1,300 per person thanks to lawsuit abuse. Reforming the legal system could boost the U.S. economy by 2 percent over time. Kerry discusses the findings of the study and offers recommendations on we can mitigate this drag on the economy.

This week, we're joined by Bill Meehan, editor of the new book on William F. Buckley's travel writings, Getting About. He discusses Buckley's passion for travel writing, some of the most entertaining moments from his global journeys, and what advice today's travelers can take away from Buckley's years of travel adventures.

On this Independence Day week our guest is Ken Pope, CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. It's been nearly 35 years since the Berlin Wall has fallen, but communism continues to thrive in many areas around the world. Ken discusses the continuing threat of communism, why it's important for our young people to know its history of devastation and suffering, and the work of the Foundation in educating all Americans on the importance of protecting our freedoms.

Stephen Soukup joins us this week to discuss the newly released paperback edition of his book The Dictatorship of Woke Capital, which explores how Wall Street and corporate investing has gone woke on issues like ESG. We discuss the evolution of American business and the economic philosophies that shaped the push for woke capitalism, the players advocating for investing based on social issues, and proposed regulations and legislation that could undermine investments in politically incorrect companies and industries.

Transportation expert Marc Joffe of the Cato Institute joins Steven Greenhut of PRI's Free Cities Center for a discussion of how to transform transportation policy in California to better serve customers and focus on transportation engineering rather than social engineering. They also discuss the current state budget debate over a bailout for state transit.

In September 2020, Gov. Newsom signed an executive order requiring all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in California to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Wayne Winegarden, PhD and co-author of PRI's new study "Sapping California's Energy Future" discusses why this and other policies from Sacramento are jeopardizing California's energy security and could lead to future energy shortages. The study finds that California will fall 21.1 percent short of the electricity required to meet the state's 100 percent electric vehicle mandates. Wayne advocates repealing California's green mandates, and instead promote market-based climate change policies and embrace technologies that secure a low-emission energy system.

Erik Jaffe, PRI adjunct fellow in legal studies and one of America's top constitutional lawyers, joins us for his annual preview of the hot Supreme Court cases that will be handed down before the end of the term. They discuss cases involving private property rights, tech, college admissions policies, legislative gerrymandering, and more. They also explore the controversy over Supreme Court ethics and the mystery of why we still haven't found the Supreme Court "leaker."