The Politics Guys

Former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan joins Mike to discuss why Congress has become less capable of governing—and whether it can still handle complex issues like cryptocurrency regulation. They talk about congressional dysfunction, concentrated leadership power, the decline of congressional expertise, earmarks, and the incentives that discourage lawmakers from taking political risks.

Then they turn to the CLARITY Act and the future of crypto regulation. Ryan makes the case for Congress setting clear rules for digital assets, while Mike presses him on an understaffed CFTC, Trump’s crypto interests, Democratic opposition in the Senate, industry campaign spending, community banks, and whether a lame-duck session may be the best chance to get legislation passed.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

On this midweek supporters-exclusive episode of The Politics Guys, Trey Orndorff (Oklahoma Christian University) and Justin Holmes (University of Northern Iowa) launch a brand-new miniseries examining key structural, legal, and constitutional turning points in contemporary American politics.

In Part 1 of a three-part retrospective on the 2000 Presidential Election, Trey and Justin bypass the immediate impulse to jump straight to the Florida recounts and Bush v. Gore. Instead, they analyze the campaign fundamentals, economic voting models, strategic messaging blunders, third-party dynamics, and election night anomalies that turned a booming 1990s economy into a dead-heat coin toss between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

On this week’s episode of The Politics Guys, Trey Orndorff (Oklahoma Christian University) is joined by Justin Holmes (University of Northern Iowa). The hosts open with a discussion on an impoundment or recession request to House Speaker Mike Johnson proposing budget cuts just days before the fiscal year ends. Trey and Justin explain how such recessions have happened before and how they clash with Article I spending power, before agreeing that despite the Government Accountability Office’s standing to sue, this creates a new precedent for power for all presidents. 

Next, the pair examine the viral oversight blunder during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Senate Judiciary Committee testimony where Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) accused Smith of perjury for allegedly attending an Atlanta Hawks NBA game to coordinate prosecutions with Fani Willis. The guys walk through the viral fallout, including Senator Katie Britt’s reaction, but even more importantly how modern media incentives encourage politicians to double down on false accusations and distract from the larger substantive issues that could be investigated. 

After that, Trey and Justin look at the fresh economic indicators, including Federal Reserve interest rates and below-average September job growth, as being headwinds to Republicans in the midterm. This includes a conversation on the deeply flawed campaigns of Democrats.

The pair closes the show by looking at a federal district judge blocking the White House from withholding counterterrorism and FEMA security grants from municipalities (including Nashville and Harris County) that refused to adopt new federal election rules requiring citizenship verification for voters and poll workers. This leads to an extended conversation on President Trump’s use of the judicial system.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Mike talks about the What Could Go Right podcast. For our listeners interested in global events, it offers a refreshing and more balanced view of what’s happening in the world. I hope that you'll enjoy it.

Mike talks with Lindsay Owens, president and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative and author of Gouged: The End of a Fair Price and What That Means for Your Wallet, about how new technologies are changing what companies know about consumers—and how much they can charge them.

They discuss an Instacart experiment that found shoppers being shown different prices for identical groceries, the RealPage controversy over algorithmic rent-setting, and the growing use of dynamic and surveillance pricing. Lindsay explains why the shift from posted prices toward individualized “willingness to pay” pricing could fundamentally change how markets work.

Mike and Lindsay also dig into junk fees and all-in pricing, right-to-repair restrictions, deliberately difficult subscription cancellations, and “algorithmic wages” that may allow companies to pay workers different amounts for essentially identical work.

They close with Lindsay’s proposed “shopper’s bill of rights,” the political prospects for stronger consumer protections, and why consumer backlash may be one of the most effective checks on increasingly sophisticated pricing technology.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Mike and Jay open this supporters’ exclusive midweek episode with California’s settlement of its antitrust lawsuit challenging Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. They debate whether California extracted meaningful concessions or folded under pressure, how the relevant media market should be defined, and whether concerns about David Ellison’s growing influence over CBS and CNN really belong in an antitrust case at all.

Next, they turn to the Protect College Sports Act and Congress’s attempt to bring order to the chaotic post-NIL world of college athletics. Mike and Jay discuss federal rules for NIL deals, transfers and eligibility, limited antitrust protection for the NCAA, athlete compensation, and whether big-time college football and basketball should finally acknowledge that their players function more like employees than traditional student-athletes.

Then it’s cryptocurrency and the stalled CLARITY Act. Why did Senate Democrats block debate on legislation that had strong bipartisan support in the House—and that several Democratic senators helped negotiate? Mike and Jay examine the fight over whether crypto should be regulated primarily as securities or commodities, concerns about the Trump family’s crypto interests, stablecoin interest payments, and the electoral politics complicating any deal before the midterms.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

With just over a month until the midterms, Mike and Jay look at the increasingly difficult electoral environment for Republicans. They discuss Democrats’ generic-ballot advantage, unexpectedly competitive Senate and gubernatorial races, the GOP’s major fundraising edge, Trump’s effect on Republican candidates, and why campaign spending may reveal more than the polls.

Next, they turn to Xi Jinping’s state visit and the striking contrast between the elaborate White House pageantry and the summit’s limited substantive results. The guys discuss the temporary tariff truce, Taiwan, Trump’s treatment of a $14 billion arms package as a negotiating chip, China’s purchases of Russian and Iranian oil, and the limits of personal diplomacy between great powers.
 
Then it’s Trump’s attempt to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. Mike and Jay examine the court ruling temporarily restoring reporters’ press passes, the due-process and First Amendment questions, the administration’s national-security justification, and how much power presidents have to decide who gets access to the White House.

Finally, diesel prices have hit record highs, prompting calls for a temporary ban on U.S. diesel exports. Mike and Jay consider whether Trump has the legal authority to impose a ban, whether it would actually lower prices, the logistical problems it could create, and what Trump’s growing willingness to intervene in markets—including government equity stakes in private companies—says about his economic policy.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Mike talks with Joan C. Williams and Jared Abbott, authors of The Left’s Coalition Crisis, about why Democrats have struggled with working-class voters and what they can do about it. Williams and Abbott argue that the familiar progressive-versus-moderate debate misses the point: successful candidates need “class competence”—an understanding of working-class values around hard work, security, family, and respect. They discuss striking survey findings on affordability, immigration, crime, abortion, childcare, expertise, and defending democracy; why anti-corruption may resonate more than warnings about authoritarianism; how progressive policies can gain support when framed around everyday concerns; and whether Democratic donors and activists are capable of building the cross-class coalition the party needs.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

On this midweek supporters-exclusive episode of The Politics Guys, Trey Orndorff (Oklahoma Christian University) and Justin Holmes (University of Northern Iowa) bring their year-long subseries on Contemporary Political Ideologies to a close.Shifting away from political philosophy and the formal content of political doctrines, Trey and Justin dive into the empirical, behavioral, and psychological research surrounding how average citizens actually hold, process, and express political beliefs.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

On this week’s episode of The Politics Guys, Trey Orndorff (Oklahoma Christian University) is joined by political scientist Justin Holmes (University of Northern Iowa), filling in while Ken Katkin takes a short hiatus. The hosts break down a bizarre Senate Judiciary oversight hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel, an explosive congressional report on executive pardon brokers, a House vote to end U.S. military operations in Iran alongside a parliamentary standoff that sent Congress home early, and the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in three years.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.