The congressman who introduced the bill to implement President Trump’s 10% global tariff wasn’t a member of his own party, but a conservative Democrat from a Trump-won district in Maine.

Congressman Jared Golden (D-ME), the sponsor of the BUILT USA Act, which would set the 10% global rate, joined Oren to talk about why Congress needs to permanently codify the new trade policy. To spur long-term investment in American industry and lift its workers, Golden and Cass agree, requires a policy with more sticking power than an executive order. Congressman Golden also explains his path to championing this issue, why so many of his constituents in Northern Maine support Trump’s recent move, and whether it’s possible for tariffs to become a bipartisan issue once again.

For decades, American men have been in crisis. Globalization has caused millions of jobs to disappear, divorce rates have increased, life expectancy has decreased, and deaths of despair have skyrocketed in many working-class communities.

Amber Lapp, research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies and stay-at-home mom, began talking to her neighbors in her working-class community in southwestern Ohio over a decade ago to try to get to the bottom of it. She joins Oren to share the real stories of America’s missing men, and discuss why she felt called to leave Manhattan and move to Ohio to better understand working-class life in America. The two dive into the value of getting to know your neighbors in an atomized age and what can be done to begin to reverse this crisis.

Further reading:

• “America's Missing Men” by Amber Lapp

The “China Shock”—triggered by the country’s entry into the World Trade Organization—devastated America’s heartland, causing a sudden exodus of manufacturing jobs and disrupting the communities that depended on them. Promoters of globalization promised “better” jobs would take their place. Nearly 25 years later, has that happened?

David Autor, professor of economics at MIT and co-author of the famous “China Shock” paper, joins Oren to talk about the effects of free trade on America’s working class. They also examine Autor’s latest paper, which highlights that the new jobs in the hardest-hit communities often don’t provide the pay or stability that the jobs outsourced by globalization did—and, even worse, that many former workers lack access to these jobs altogether. Plus, they explore the rise of automation in manufacturing and the implications of AI for American workers.

Further reading:

• "Places versus People: The Ins and Outs of Labor Market Adjustment to Globalization" by David Autor, David Dorn, et al. 
• "The China Shock: Learning from Labor Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade" by David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson

The “abundance agenda” has taken the policy world by storm recently, led by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, who advocate for prioritizing the supply side and removing barriers to building our productive capacity.

This week, Ezra joins Oren to make the case for how the theory could be put into practice. In this wide-ranging conversation, the two explore the sclerosis that has held back blue cities like New York and San Francisco, potential political roadblocks to implementing the agenda, and where conservatives can find common cause with it. Plus, they debate whether the Democratic Party can be the flagship of abundance while prioritizing the climate change movement.

As outside groups continuously file lawsuits to slow down the Trump administration’s agenda, many Americans are wondering: how much power does the president rightfully have?

Jack Goldsmith, Harvard Law professor and co-author of the Executive Functions Substack, joins Oren to break down the judicial landscape less than two months into the second Trump administration. They discuss the modern presidency and constitutionalism, limits on executive authority, and everything from impoundment to more aggressive theories of the unitary executive.

America isn’t the only place where the political Right is beginning to move in a new direction.

On this episode, Michael Gove, the legendary former Conservative UK MP and cabinet secretary and current editor of the Spectator, joined for a discussion of trade, tariffs, and where conservatism is headed across the Atlantic.

They talked through the challenges faced by the British Right to combat the legacy of free trade, which mirror fights in the American Right today. Following Vice President Vance’s remarks in Munich about our European allies, the two discuss how a nation founded to “get away from continental entanglements” and “ancestral quarrels” should approach foreign policy.

For more, watch Gove and Cass’s dramatic victory in a debate at the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship’s conference in London about whether “protectionist policies make us poorer.” (Spoiler alert: they do not.)

Every app on your phone brags about being “AI-powered.” Policymakers and pundits predict that the technology will soon dominate every aspect of life. But what’s actually happening with AI, and what can America do to “win” the global race to activate the tech’s promise?

On this episode, Colin Kahl, Biden’s former undersecretary of defense for policy and now co-director of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, breaks down where things stand. He and Oren talk through what the AI debate gets wrong, whether “winning” the tech race with China is even a sensible goal, and the policy decisions that confront today’s leaders.

Further reading:

• “Is It Interesting to Say That AI Isn’t That Interesting?” by Oren Cass 
• “Here’s Why Oren Is Wrong About AI,” by Abigail Ball

Remember when the student loan market melted down during the George W. Bush administration? No? That’s because Karl Zinsmeister, Bush’s chief domestic policy advisor, kept it from happening. Every administration encounters this kind of near-calamity and relies on the steady hands of staff to address them.

On this episode, Zinsmeister joins to tell that story for the first time, and explains how the Trump-Vance administration should think about its popular mandate. He and Oren talk about the ascendant populist wing of the Republican Party, why Zinsmeister believes it isn’t as different from the spirit of Bush 43 as some might think, and what Trump’s return portends for the country and conservatism.

Further reading:

• Backbone: Maverick essays in praise of middle America—Why American Populism Should Be Welcomed, Not Feared by Karl Zinsmeister.

On a special, tax-focused episode of the Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, chief economist Oren Cass and policy director Chris Griswold join guest host Drew Holden to talk about the brewing fight on Capitol Hill about taxes.

The group makes sense of what we learned from the soon-expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the malign legacy of the anti-tax fundamentalism that has animated the Republican Party for decades, and what the American people actually want from the tax code. Finally, they dive into American Compass’s new collection of proposals for fiscally responsible conservative tax reform.

Further reading:

• No Tax Cut Is Free, American Compass
• “The Fringe Cause That Could Derail the Republican Agenda,” by Oren Cass, New York Times

Just in time for the Super Bowl, Jude Russo, managing editor at the American Conservative joins Oren to discuss the proliferation of online sports betting and the harm done by the technology.

The two discuss the damaging consequences—from increased bankruptcies to upticks in domestic violence and beyond—we've seen in states that have allowed the practice and why it shouldn't be treated as just an innocent pastime. Finally, they talk through what can be done to rein in the now-ubiquitous apps undermining fans' enjoyment as we approach sports' biggest night.

Further reading: "It's Not Too Late to Ban Online Sportsbook" by Jude Russo.