The National Affairs Podcast

Democracy is a central feature of Democrats’ 2024 electoral campaign. The party has worked to present its proposals on that front as designed to reject Donald Trump’s authoritarian narcissism and make government more responsive and accountable. But what the Democrats have in mind when they refer to “democracy” is a lengthy manifesto designed to transform American life should they take real control of the policy process. Guest Andy Taylor joins us to discuss the history of the modern Democratic Party, and why Democrats are now blurring the line between “saving” democracy and implementing their own policy goals.

Andrew J. Taylor is professor of political science at North Carolina State University.

This podcast discusses themes from Andy’s essay in the Fall 2024 issue of National Affairs, “The Democrats and Democracy.”

In a disturbing development, assisted suicide and euthanasia have become more prevalent across the West in recent decades. Government and health authorities are encouraging voluntary death, even for patients who do not suffer from a terminal illness but are afflicted by disabilities, poverty, or loneliness. Guest Aaron Rothstein joins us to discuss the radical assumptions about life, death, and human nature that underlie the practice of euthanasia. He also advocates a more humane approach to helping the dying and thinking about death.

Dr. Aaron Rothstein is a neurologist and a fellow in bioethics and American democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He also hosts the podcast Searching for Medicine’s Soul.

This podcast discusses themes from Aaron’s essay in the Fall 2024 issue of National Affairs, “Origins of the Modern Euthanasia Movement.”

The chaos at the border in recent years has cast into stark relief one of the central issues surrounding illegal immigration: its fiscal costs. Unfortunately, most discussions on the subject tend to be filled with misconceptions, half-truths, and even outright falsehoods. The evidence indicates that illegal immigrants are almost certainly a net drain on our public fisc — but not for the reasons many activists put forth. Guest Steven Camarota joins us to discuss the current economic and fiscal realities of immigration, and how our policies might better reflect them.

Steven A. Camarota is the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.

This podcast discusses themes from Steven’s essay in the Summer 2024 issue of National Affairs, “The Cost of Illegal Immigration.”

Politics requires building coalitions in order to win elections. For those on the right, this means there is no alternative but to pursue some kind of fusionism among its competing elements. A revitalized fusionism would not look quite like the right’s prior successful coalitions, however: It would need to account for 21st-century realities, which means it will need to put family policy at the forefront of its agenda. Guest John Shelton joins us to discuss how conservatives might unite around pro-family rulemaking.

John Shelton is the policy director for Advancing American Freedom, an advocacy organization founded by former vice president Mike Pence. 

This podcast discusses themes from John’s essay in the Summer 2024 issue of National Affairs, “A Family-focused Fusionism.”

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence in the last few years has drawn a growing chorus of advocates offering proposals for how to regulate this new technology. Many of them want to treat AI as an entirely new kind of challenge that calls for entirely new regulatory tools. But starting from scratch is unlikely to lead us to effective regulation. Instead, regulators should begin from our existing tools and take the time to see what new modes of regulation might be needed.

Guest Dean Ball joins us to discuss how to strike a balance between hopeful optimism and candid recognition of the stark challenges posed by AI.

Dean Ball is a research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, where he focuses on AI. He also writes a Substack called Hyperdimensional. 

This podcast discusses themes from Dean’s essay in the Spring 2024 issue of National Affairs, “How to Regulate Artificial Intelligence.”

The textbooks most commonly used in high-school history classes are badly deficient. These books, which shape the rising generation’s perception of the country they are inheriting, often leave out the core ideas that defined the American founding and the nation’s ideals. To recover America’s sense of itself, it’s crucial to teach high-school students the connection between ideas and events.

Guest Dan Currell joins us to discuss the erasure of the founding from high-school history and how we might restore it.

Dan Currell is CEO of the Digital Commerce Alliance and a senior fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Scalia Law School. He has served as a senior advisor at the Department of Education and as a fellow in the office of former senator Ben Sasse.

This podcast discusses themes from Dan’s essay in the Winter 2024 issue of National Affairs, “The Invisible American Founding.”

Voting should be straightforward: Figure out which candidate or party best fits one’s political views or interests, and vote accordingly. But the last few elections have shown many Americans that it’s not nearly that simple. We could benefit from a new framework for thinking about voting, and not just for elections in which we find ourselves especially bewildered.

Guest Bryan McGraw joins us to discuss a new philosophy of voting and how to apply it in this year’s elections.

Bryan McGraw is an associate professor of politics and dean of social sciences at Wheaton College. His main areas of research are in contemporary political thought and especially how those traditions intersect with religious belief and practice.

This podcast discusses themes from Bryan and Timothy Taylor’s essay in the Winter 2024 issue of National Affairs, “How to Think about Voting.”

Classical schools are distinctly American. Just as our country was founded both as a modern engineering project and as a recollection of ancient political philosophy and the traditional rights of Englishmen, the contemporary classical-education movement is an act of construction — one might say an invented tradition — seeking to revivify and participate in something that once lived, and perhaps could again.

Guest Micah Meadowcroft joins us to discuss how classical schools teach to a higher goal of human excellence.

Micah Meadowcroft is research director for the Center for Renewing America and a contributing editor of The American Conservative. He was a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies in 2021-2022. 

This podcast discusses themes from Micah’s essay in the Fall 2023 issue of National Affairs, “Classical Education’s Aristocracy of Anyone.”

What type of party system best suits the American regime? What can we do to cultivate such a party system? Amid the current tumult and polarization of our politics, much of it the result of the degradation of our parties, it behooves us to seek answers to these questions, and to learn from past efforts to give shape to the American party system.

Guest Daniel Stid joins us to discuss reforms to the party system that could restore coalition building and union to American politics.

Daniel Stid is the executive director of Lyceum Labs, a project of the Defending Democracy Together Institute that seeks to “reimagine political leadership and parties and the contributions they could make to U.S. democracy by rallying a coalition of like-minded charitable organizations dedicated to these goals.” He previously served as the founding director of the Hewlett Foundation’s U.S. Democracy Program, and he writes a blog called “The Art of Association.” 

This podcast discusses themes from Daniel’s essay in the Fall 2023 issue of National Affairs, “A Madisonian Party System.”

Almost nobody is taking America's drug crisis seriously. We talk about it plenty, but that talk rarely acknowledges what distinguishes today's drug epidemic from past ones: Those earlier crises inflicted many more or less equally weighty harms — to users' health, to families, to communities. In this crisis, one problem dwarfs all others: death. Drugs have changed, probably for good. They now kill their users. A haphazard public response was more tolerable when the harms of drug use were more spread out and took time to accumulate. But with tens of thousands poisoned to death every year, bolder action is required.

Guest Charles Fain Lehman joins us to discuss how policymakers can help flatten the cycle of drug use and death.

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.

This podcast discusses themes from Charles's essay in the Summer 2023 issue of National Affairs, "How to Think about the Drug Crisis."