On this episode, Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow Patrick T. Brown joins guest host and American Compass managing editor Drew Holden to discuss how COVID's remote-work baptism-by-fire led to a surprising boom in babies born during the pandemic.

The two talk through the lessons that companies should take away from the experience in order to support working parents as well as why these companies, and society more broadly, should be expected to help share the burdens placed on new parents. And as President Trump returns to the White House, they take stock of the GOP's realignment on how best to support families.

Further reading:

• "Remote Work Created a Baby Boom. Can We Keep It Up?" by Patrick T. Brown

Why would any sane parent subject themselves to the high costs and grueling hours of travel sports teams for their kids?

In this episode, Michael Brendan Dougherty, senior writer at National Review, joins to discuss his feature essay on the subject for our just-launched magazine, Commonplace. As a dance and travel baseball dad himself, he explains that these teams are often the only ways kids and parents today can form high-trust communities in an atomized world much different from the one Dougherty grew up in.

He and Oren also talk about the conservative media universe more broadly, and how Commonplace can offer an alternative to the legacy publications resistant to the changing interests and priorities of ordinary Americans on the new right-of-center.

Further Reading:

• "In Defense of Travel Teams" by Michael Brendan Dougherty.

President-elect Trump campaigned on a fresh economic platform prioritizing ordinary Americans, departing considerably from the Old Guard Republican Party that came before him. But how much of that innovative thinking will actually become policy in his second term?

Oren Cass appeared at the American Economic Association’s annual meeting on a panel alongside former Council of Economic Advisors Jason Furman (Obama admin) and Richard Burkhauser (Trump admin) as well as economist Kimberly Clausing, to make sense of what will come next, and the forces that could try to slow down the president-elect’s changes.

This is the second in a two-part series from the discussion, focused on immigration and financial policy. To listen to part one, about trade and industrial policy, click here. And you can read the New York Times story about the panel here: "Economists Are in the Wilderness. Can They Find a Way Back to Influence?"

President-elect Trump campaigned on a fresh economic platform prioritizing ordinary Americans, departing considerably from the Old Guard Republican Party that came before him. But how much of that innovative thinking will actually become policy in his second term?

Oren Cass appeared at the American Economic Association's annual meeting on a panel alongside former Council of Economic Advisors Jason Furman (Obama admin) and Richard Burkhauser (Trump admin) as well as economist Kimberly Clausing, to make sense of what will come next, and the forces that could try to slow down the president-elect's changes. 

This is the first in a two-part series from the discussion, focused on trade and industrial policy. Stay tuned for more soon.

Every political movement needs a home for its ideas. Commonplace is the answer for today’s right-of-center.

On this episode, Helen Andrews, our new features editor, joins Oren to discuss the forthcoming launch of Commonplace—a new magazine from American Compass, making sense of the political, economic, and cultural concerns that shape America today.

Helen unpacks how a conservative media universe dedicated to replaying the hits of the 1980s created the need for a new intellectual home. Looking ahead, she previews some of the pieces readers can look forward to reading later this month and explains how Commonplace will work to get to the heart of what matters in America.

If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to Commonplace for updates, and follow the magazine on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Has the devotion to unbridled free markets in recent decades benefited or harmed the United States? Earlier this month, Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Oren Cass sat down for a live, wide-ranging discussion of the unintended consequences of America’s approach to manufacturing, and whether free trade is to blame for changes in our domestic industrial base. They explore how conservatives should think about trade and one potential policy response that’s getting lots of air time lately: tariffs.

Plus: To be the first to hear about the launch of our new magazine in January, subscribe here: commonplace.org.

On this episode, Oren is joined by FTC Chair Lina Khan for a wide-ranging conversation about competition, antitrust, and why the lack of strong enforcement hurts American consumers, small businesses, and our politics.

The two talk through the decline in competition in the U.S. economy and how it has created fragile markets prone to shortages and undermined our economic wellbeing. They explore opportunities for bipartisan cooperation on antitrust enforcement, and what principles should guide competition policy.

Plus: Khan explains what chicken farmers taught her about corporate power and the role of fear in our economy.

On this episode, Institute for Progress senior editor Santi Ruiz joins Oren to talk about government efficiency, state capacity, and what President-elect Trump's focus on revitalizing the way government works could hope to accomplish in the swamp.

The two discuss Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and how the effort can avoid the pitfalls of previous blue-ribbon commissions and other ineffective efforts to rein in the administrative state. And they walk through why optimizing government requires new investment, not just cutting red-tape.

For more, read Ruiz's recent piece on the subject at Statecraft: "How to Fix Defense Procurement."

On this episode, physician, psychologist, and best-selling author Dr. Leonard Sax joins Oren to talk about the disastrous state of modern parenting, and how to pull a generation of young people back from the brink.

The two walk through the how parents have abandoned teaching their kids about right and wrong, the rise of "gentle parenting" in place of traditional ideas of parental authority, and how these strategies set kids up for failure.

And they two discuss how it all intersects with the rise of social media and caustic cultural changes.

For more, check out Dr. Sax's recently re-released book on the subject, The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups.

On this episode, coalition director Duncan Braid joins Oren to discuss American Compass's Back to Work agenda, which provides a comprehensive set of executive actions that the Trump-Vance administration should take to prioritize working families, domestic industry, and national economic strength when they take office.

The two discuss how the president can deliver meaningful, rapid change on issues from the border and immigration to the economy and inflation. And the two talk through one of the most contentious battles on the Right today—the issue of tariffs—and how they can be used to put the wellbeing of the American people at the center of trade policy.

For more, read Duncan's recent essay on The Commons, about where and how the administration can direct their electoral mandate, "'Great Again' is a Promise."