The Cato Weekly Podcast

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The Cato Weekly Podcast episodes

July 21 The Fight Against Financial Surveillance
Financial surveillance in America is expanding.

In this episode, host Nicholas Anthony sits down with Representative Warren Davidson to discuss the growing reach of the Bank Secrecy Act, and why it’s time to scale back the surveillance of law-abiding Americans.
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30 min
July 16 Why Is Childcare So Expensive?
Parents in many parts of the country face eye-watering childcare bills, yet providers often operate on thin margins and workers remain modestly paid. Cato's Chelsea Follett joins Ryan Bourne to discuss the economics behind America’s childcare crunch, the regressive regulations that make care scarcer, and the supply-side reforms that could give families more affordable options.
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41 min
July 14 The Amendment That Wouldn't Bend
Trump's executive order tested the limits of the 14th Amendment and lost, 6-3. Cato's Laura Bondank-Harmon is joined by David Bier and Tommy Berry to understand why, and how the ruling fits into an immigration agenda that's closing legal pathways even as it loses in court.
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31 min
July 09 Injuries and Usurpations, 250 Years Later
Americans know the Declaration’s soaring opening case for natural rights and government by consent. Fewer remember its long list of “injuries and usurpations” against King George III. Cato’s Tommy Berry joins Ryan Bourne to discuss Cato's new book - A History of Repeated Injuries—and whether modern governments have revived threats to liberty that the Declaration denounces, from taxes and juries to immigration and executive power.
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39 min
July 07 Data Centers Turn Electricity into Breakthroughs
Golf courses and factories use just as much water and electricity as data centers, yet only the latter draws local protests and construction bans. Cato's Rikki Schlott sits down with Travis Fisher and Jennifer Huddleston to make the case for energy abundance and technological advancement over fearmongering and warn that moratoriums could hand China the AI edge.
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36 min
July 02 Proud to Be American, Worried About What's Next
60% of Americans say their rights and freedoms are at risk. Yet nearly two thirds still call America the land of opportunity and three quarters believe the American dream is personally achievable. Cato's Stephen Rowe and Emily Ekins dig into Cato's new survey on what Americans really think at 250 years.
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28 min
June 30 The Dangerous Push to Tax AI
Republicans and Democrats are finding rare common ground: taxing AI. But should they? Cato's Adam Michel and Daniel Bunn of the Tax Foundation dismantle the three biggest arguments around the idea: showing why the data doesn't support the claims that AI is replacing workers, labor is losing out to capital, or the tax code unfairly favors automation.
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33 min
June 25The Abundance Alliance?
Abundance liberals want a politics focused on delivering more homes, energy projects, infrastructure, and innovation, and will even countenance deregulation to achieve it. Cato’s Ryan Bourne talks to Ilya Somin and Jeremiah Johnson about whether libertarians should ally with this movement—or whether shared ground on housing, permitting, trade, and immigration masks irreconcilable disagreements over the role and size of government.

Ilya Somin, "Two Cheers for Abundance Liberalism," The Volokh Conspiracy, April 23, 2026.
Matt Yglesias, "What Libertarians Get Wrong About Freedom," The Argument, May 20, 2026.
Ilya Somin, "Matt Yglesias on Libertarianism, Abundance Liberalism, and a Possible Alliance Between the Two," The Volokh Conspiracy, May 20, 2026.
David Friedman, "Libertarians and Abundance Liberals," David Friedman’s Substack, May 28, 2026.
Ryan Bourne, "One and a Half Cheers for Supply-Side Progressivism," The War on Prices, September 16, 2022.
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46 min
June 23 What the Declaration Still Has to Say in 2026
Before 1776, the world was largely run by monarchies and despots. The Declaration changed that. Cato's Paul Meany and Tommy Berry explore why its principles remain relevant, why 53% of Americans can't explain it, and why it’s still the best tool we have for checking concentrated power
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29 min
June 18 The Degrowth Temptation
A new Global Justice Report associated with Thomas Piketty urges near-zero growth for rich countries, sweeping redistribution, global wealth taxes, shorter working hours, and rapid decarbonization. Cato’s Ryan Bourne talks to Marian Tupy about what degrowth gets wrong—and why its promise of justice masks a dangerous agenda of government control.
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48 min

About The Cato Weekly Podcast

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Every Tuesday on The Cato Weekly Podcast, leading scholars and policy analysts from the Cato Institute delve into the big ideas shaping our world: individual liberty, limited government, free…