The Reason Roundtable

Established in 2003, Theranos promised to save people from pain and disease through early detection and lead the way into an era of cheaper, more consumer-driven health care. Holmes' big idea was to replace traditional venous blood draws in a doctor's office, hospital, or lab with simple finger pricks. One day, she said, patients would be able to do the tests at home and upload the results for their doctors.

Holmes stacked her board of directors with heavyweights such as former and future cabinet members George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, and Gen. James Mattis. She held fundraisers for Hillary Clinton and cadged hundreds of millions of dollars from investors such as the Walmart heirs, Rupert Murdoch, and Betsy DeVos. For a time, her company was worth more than Spotify or Uber.

Today, Theranos is on the verge of liquidation and its backers have seen their investments wiped out. Holmes may face charges.

The gay wedding cake saga was one of several culture-war conflicts discussed on today's editor-roundtable edition of the Reason Podcast, featuring Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch. Others included: Bill Clinton's #MeToo moment, the Roseanne Barr/Bill Maher/Samantha Bee cycle of outrage, Kim Kardashian's bizarrely derided White House visit, and the desultory trade-war apologia from Larry "I should totally know better" Kudlow.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

'Rebel Blues' by Sul Rebel is licensed under CC BY NC 4.0

After oral arguments last year, Stephanie Slade correctly observed that "justices might have found a sort of get-out-of-jail-free card." Also on the Reason Podcast: Bill Clinton, Roseanne, Samantha Bee, Kim Kardashian, and maybe the worst celebrity of the week, Larry Kudlow.

Across the country, overdoses and crimes attributed to drugs such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, codeine, and fentanyl are up. Heroin, once an exotic and expensive drug, is now widely available and reportedly as cheap as $5 a pop. Politicians, law enforcement, and the medical community are scrambling to respond. Media coverage abounds.

What is the reality of the opioid "epidemic," what are its causes, and what are its effects on chronic pain patients, whose demand for prescription drugs is often (and incorrectly) blamed for causing the problem? In this Reason Podcast, I talk with Reason's Zach Weismueller, whose latest documentary follows a pain doctor who is retiring rather than put up with increasing government hassles and surveillance, and Jacob Sullum, a finalist for a National Magazine Award for his article "No Relief in Sight: Torture, despair, agony, and death are the symptoms of 'opiophobia,' a well-documented medical syndrome fed by fear, superstition, and the war on drugs. Doctors suffer the syndrome. Patients suffer the consequences." That story was published way back in 1997, a striking indication of just how long—and how ineffective—the war on pain drugs has been.

The 2016 presidential election was among the closest in U.S. history. If Hillary Clinton had won just 78,000 more votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, she would be president right now. How did Donald Trump squeak out his victory, and what does it mean for the future of politics in America?

Salena Zito, co-author with Brad Todd of The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping America Politics, has strong opinions on the matter. The Great Revolt is based on a poll of Trump backers in Midwestern swing states and hundreds of interviews with voters in the Rust Belt. Zito, a veteran, Pittsburgh-based journalist who writes for The New York Post and is a contributor at CNN, believes that Trump benefited from a rising tide of anger at elites and "bigness" in politics and business. The people who voted for Trump in 2016 (and, in many cases, for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012) aren't going anywhere, Zito says, and they have the potential to shape national politics for years to come. In a conversation with Nick Gillespie, Zito talks about the different sorts of Trump voters and their core values.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

From @realDonaldTrump to Jeff Sessions to their detractors, people can't seem to talk about immigration without getting all kinds of facts heinously wrong in an attempt to whip up outrage. Alas and alack, say Reason editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch in their latest podcast.

The president and his detractors both bungle scare stories in the outrage-politics contest that passes for our immigration policy debate.

Reason reporter Mike Riggs talks with Nick Gillespie about his story "A Nation of Narcs," which argues that Americans have developed "a nasty habit of inviting the state into people's lives for tiny offenses." Riggs discusses how class, race, and ethnicity often play out when it comes to the "hassle factor" imposed on individuals who are just trying to get on with their lives. And he lays out some ways to turn back the tide.

Riggs and Gillespie also talk about the legacy of Tom Wolfe, the journalist who more than any other went out and explored the real lives of Americans and all the crazy, wonderful things they were up to.

Should all government funding of higher education should be abolished?

That provocative question was debated by economists Edward Glaeser and Bryan Caplan, author of the new book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money. Two arguments dominated the discussion. First, was the humanistic question: Is government support needed to foster new ideas and cultural expression? Second, the economics of the matter: Does the hundreds of billions in annual government funding to American universities and colleges benefit the country by boosting the earnings and productivity of its citizens?

Few politicians have made more of an impact on their times than Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is battling brain cancer.

His new book, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, has just been published and is already making news. In it, the 81-year-old former prisoner of war and torture survivor talks frankly about Donald Trump, the mainstream media, and his congressional colleagues. Throughout his career, McCain positioned himself as a centrist and a "straight talker"; his pushes for campaign finance laws and military interventions put him at odds with libertarians even as he was friendly toward immigration and trade.

In the latest Reason Podcast, Nick Gillespie talks with Matt Welch about McCain's life and legacy. In 2008, when the senator was the Republican nominee for president, Matt published McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, a tough-but-fair assessment that had its origins as a 2007 Reason cover story called "Be Afraid of President McCain: The frightening mind of an authoritarian maverick." No one is more qualified to talk about John McCain's life and legacy than his biographer, Matt Welch.