Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

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Cato Podcast - The Purse and the Sword

This week, Congress returns to looming shutdowns and a “pocket-rescission” power grab. Abroad, President Trump pushes “America First” by rebranding the Pentagon as the Department of War—and launching an airstrike on a Venezuelan cartel boat. Our panel asks what all this says about America’s fiscal sanity and its foreign-policy compass.


Featuring Ryan Bourne, Gene Healy, Adam Michel, & Brandan Buck


Adam N. Michel and Dominik Lett, “Reconciliation 2.0: Fix or Fiasco?,” Cato at Liberty (September 3, 2025)

Romina Boccia and [co-author unspecified], “Coming Budget Debates and How Congress Should Navigate Them,” Cato at Liberty (September 2025)

Brandan P. Buck, “The Lost Liberalism of America First,” Free Society (June 30, 2025)

Brandan P. Buck, “The Cognitive Shift: How the Terrorist Label May Lead to Another Forever War,” Cato at Liberty (March 19, 2025)

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What A Day - Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Killed In Utah

On Wednesday, 31-year-old conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an on-campus event near Salt Lake City, Utah. He was there as part of his “American Comeback Tour,” an event series produced by Turning Point USA, the right-wing organization he founded when he was 18 years old. He was a force in the conservative movement who held real political capital. Local officials are calling his killing an act of political violence, and it's the latest in a string of disturbing incidents. For more on who Kirk was, we spoke with reporter Tess Owen, who covers political violence.

And in headlines, former Vice President Kamala Harris calls former President Biden's decision to seek re-election "recklessness," President Trump doubles down on his effort to fire a Federal Reserve official, and suspected Russian drones cross into Poland.

Show Notes:

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - How the Supreme Court Legalized Racial Profiling

How a Supreme Court decision from the shadow docket opens the door to racial profiling, creates a nightmare for millions of Latino Americans, and drains dwindling legitimacy from the court itself.

Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer covering courts and the law for Slate, and the co-host of Amicus.

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - We read your mail on AI-proof jobs and how to fix crime labs

We’ll never leave your messages unread. On today’s show, we open the inbox to hear from Indicator listeners about why seasoned software developers might have more AI-proof jobs, and an idea for how to improve accreditation for crime labs. 

Got a question, comment on a recent show or idea for an episode? Send us a message at indicator@npr.org. 

Related episodes:
Tech layoffs, recession pop and more listener questions answered 
Mail bag! Grad jobs, simplified branding and central bank independence 

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Are Afghan nationals more likely to be convicted of sexual offences?

Tim Harford looks at some of the numbers in the news. This week:

Is it true that interest payments on the UK’s national debt are equivalent to £240 per month for everyone in the country?

Reform UK claim that Afghan migrants are 22 times more likely to be convicted of sex offences. Is that number correct?

We try to make sense of a claim that one in 10 women are being driven to leave work by their menopause symptoms.

And we investigate a claim comparing the speed of a snail and the war in Ukraine.

If you’ve seen a number you think we should look at, email the team: moreorless@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Tim Harford Reporter: Lizzy McNeill Producer: Nicholas Barrett Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound mix: James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon

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What A Day - Chicago Teachers Fight To Keep ICE Out Of Schools

Millions of kids have started school over the past few weeks – that includes students in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C, and now Chicago, all cities targeted by the Trump administration for immigration enforcement and, of course, crime. It's worth saying that, like in other cities that Trump has mentioned as evil dens of criminal miscreants, violent crime has gone down in the city of Chicago over the last year. But the president, who posted an "Apocalypse Now" inspired meme over the weekend, implying he wants to go to "war" with Chicago, doesn't seem to care much about facts and figures. But teachers do. So to learn more about how teachers in Chicago are handling a new school year and the potential for more federal incursions on the city, we spoke to Stacy Davis Gates, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union. 

And in headlines: revised job numbers show a much weaker job market than previously thought, Israel strikes Qatar, dealing a major blow to ceasefire talks, and American high school students' test scores hit a historic low.

Show Notes:

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Trump Blew Up 11 People. Is That Legal?

Last week, Donald Trump announced the military had blown up what he said was a drug-smuggling boat. This week, we still don’t know why he believes the boat was full of smugglers.

But even if they were trafficking drugs, can the president  legally blow up 11 people in international waters? 

Guests: Shane Harris, staff writer covering national security and intelligence for The Atlantic. 

Ana Vanessa Herrero, journalist based in Caracas, Venezuela and reporting on South America for the Washington Post.  

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Can shareholders influence Elon Musk’s trillion dollar pay package?

Tesla’s board of directors recently proposed  a pay package for CEO Elon Musk that could pay him about a trillion dollars if he meets certain goals. It’s not a done deal yet—Tesla shareholders will vote on the proposal at the company’s annual meeting in November. But just how much of a say do shareholders actually have in that decision? Or any decision?

Today on the show, we look at what it takes for a shareholder to get their voice heard and how this may be changing under the Trump administration. Plus we talk to one Tesla investor agitating for changes at the company.

Related episodes: 

An epic proxy battle comes to Hasbro

Elon Musk and the fear of the activist investor

Impact investing, part 1: Money, meet morals

Impact investing, part 2: Can money meet morals?
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

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Cato Podcast - Cato Cage Match: Monetary vs. Fiscal Policy

Norbert Michel and Dominic Lett square off over whether fiscal or monetary policy is the bigger mess. Lett highlights how entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are driving unsustainable debt levels, while Michel explains how post-2008 Federal Reserve changes have created risks of “fiscal dominance,” where monetary policy is increasingly shaped by government borrowing needs. Both stress that without structural reforms and political restraint, the U.S. faces uncertain and potentially catastrophic economic consequences.


Show Notes:

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/comprehensive-evaluation-policy-rate-feedback-rules#

https://www.cato.org/books/crushing-capitalism

https://www.cato.org/blog/medicaid-driving-deficits-republicans-are-scarcely-tapping-brakes

https://www.cato.org/news-releases/senate-bill-could-increase-debt-6-trillion-cato-analysis#

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What A Day - Laura Loomer’s Rise To The Top

Say what you will about President Donald Trump’s first administration, but at least some of the people given top jobs had a morsel of experience doing those jobs. Now, the Trump administration is chock full of the weirdest people the MAGA world has to offer, united by their personal allegiance to one man – Donald J. Trump. From Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose qualifications are “co-hosted the weekend edition of Fox and Friends” to Paul Ingrassia, the former podcaster nominated to run the Office of Special Counsel, who thinks the descendents of slaves should pay the descendants of slave-OWNERS reparations….to Laura Loomer, a Jewish, white nationalist, 9/11 truther, who made headlines in 2018 when she chained herself to the doors of Twitter’s office to protest getting banned from the platform.It’s a cavalcade of the worst people ever to be given a high-speed internet connection. Especially when they now have real power. So we spoke to Will Sommer, senior reporter at The Bulwark, to help us understand how the craziest people in America rose to the very top of the federal government.

And in headlines: Trump goes to the Museum of the Bible to talk about how much he loves religion, Pete Hegseth hypes up the troops in Puerto Rico, and Democrats release a very NSFW birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein, allegedly signed by Trump himself.

Show Notes: