Reasonably Optimistic

President Trump, under the cover of the culture war, is attempting to pull billions of dollars in funding from universities unless they agree to his ideological demands. After Harvard refused and sued the Trump administration, Trump tried banning all of its 27 percent of international students last week. Dana Milbank, Catherine Rampell and Jason Willick discuss why the president is so obsessed with attacking universities, and what the consequences might be for future students.   

Additional reading by our columnists:

Catherine Rampell: Trump is killing one of our strongest exports

Jason Willick: The Antisemitism Awareness Act shows the mire of identity politics

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“Sesame Street” recently announced it is coming to Netflix. The deal is a lifeline for the 56-year-old kids’ show, which has struggled after getting dropped from HBO and now has to deal with federal funding cuts for educational programming. With public media under attack once again, Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Monica Hesse talk about whether things like “Masterpiece Theater” or “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” or NPR are still important — and can still survive — in today’s political and cultural landscape. 

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Republicans are haggling over the details of how much to cut Medicaid and food stamps while also trying to give bigger tax breaks to the richest Americans. Meanwhile, the rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the United States’ perfect economic score for the first time, because of how much this bill could run up the national debt. Dana Milbank, James Hohmann and Natasha Sarin talk about whether the Republicans can get this legislation over the finish line and why America is suffering from “boy-who-called-wolf energy” when it comes to the federal debt.

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Additional reading by our columnists:

Natasha Sarin: The Trump administration’s tax math doesn’t add up

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The debate over how to use AI in schools, and what constitutes cheating, is not unlike other arguments about tech and learning in recent decades — be it students using graphing calculators to solve problems or Wikipedia to do research. But will AI be more disruptive than anything we’ve seen before? Columnists Molly Roberts, Megan McArdle and Monica Hesse discuss how they’re using AI in their work and personal lives, and how they think we can create a helpful — and hopeful— AI future. 

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Additional reading from our columnists:

Megan McArdle: Don’t be fooled. This is the calm before the AI storm.

Megan McArdle: If you haven’t been worrying about AI, it’s time to start preparing

Molly Roberts: AI is forcing teachers to confront an existential question

And here’s a link to an article mentioned in the episode:

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College (New York Magazine)

Since President Trump took office, people with money have been cozying up to him — from tech billionaires donating to his inauguration fund, to Qatari royals offering him a $400 million plane. And Trump’s newfound love of cryptocurrency is providing an easy vehicle to get money into his and his family’s coffers. Dana Milbank, Molly Roberts and James Hohmann discuss the return on investment people are getting (or not) for trying to curry favor with the president. 

Additional reading by our columnists:

Molly Roberts: With crypto, Democrats finally put up a fight

Dana Milbank: As the world goes to hell, Trump is living his best life

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There’s been a bit of an obsession with declining birth rates lately, particularly on the right. That has sparked conversations about policies that might entice people to have more children. But all the talk seems to ignore the social issues beneath the trend — which might be why policy interventions around the world haven’t been able to reverse it. Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Bina Venkataraman discuss some solutions to falling birth rates and whether it’s really the huge problem people are making it out to be.

Additional reading:

What Trump doesn’t know about the cost of raising kids

You can’t bribe and shame your way to more babies

President Trump is warning Americans that they might need to give up some new dolls and pencils as his tariff plans upend the world economic order. But as people brace for the trade wars to hit their pocketbooks, there’s still a question of whether Trump will back down. Dana Milbank, Catherine Rampell and Eduardo Porter discuss the broken calculations on both tariffs and the Republican budget bill. 

Additional reading by our columnists:

Eduardo Porter: As America goes rogue, China eyes an opening

Catherine Rampell: Trump demands wartime sacrifices — just not for himself

Dana Milbank: As wreckage piles up, Trump and his aides retreat to fantasyland

With tuition costs rising and student debt weighing many Americans down, how valuable is higher education in this day and age? The answer is complicated. On average, people with a college degree earn much more, and there’s social benefits, too. But it doesn’t pay off for everybody, and with AI encroaching on white-collar work, the decision becomes even trickier. Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Heather Long talk about college’s true value and which alternatives deserve more investment.

Additional reading:

Heather Long: How can more young people live the American dream? There’s a simple answer.

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Read more from our columnists:

Dana Milbank: For the Trump administration, it’s amateur hour

Philip Bump: The bubble that created Trump is the reason he’s stumbling

Monica Hesse: If Kilmar Abrego García is doomed, we all are

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Americans have been turning away from organized religion for decades — but recent research suggests that trend might be stalling out. And studies do show that people affiliated with a religion tend to be happier and healthier. So should more people be joining up? And are there ways to make some of the most ancient religions a little more modern, or at least more open to progressive ideas? If not, where else can people find community and a sense of belonging? Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Shadi Hamid discuss the usefulness, or not, of religion.

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