Cato Podcast - Capital Punishments

As President Trump’s “crime emergency” puts troops on D.C.’s streets, socialist Zohran Mamdani surges ahead in the New York mayoral race. On the panel, Cato scholars debate whether America’s capitals of politics and finance are becoming laboratories for failed ideas.


Featuring Ryan BourneGene HealyClark Neily, and Marian Tupy


Ryan Bourne, “Zohran Mamdani’s ‘War on Prices’,” Commentary (June 13, 2025) cato.org


Scott Lincicome, “State-Run Supermarkets: A (Bad) Statist Solution in Search of a Problem,” Commentary (July 10, 2025) cato.org


Marian L. Tupy, “Marian L. Tupy Discusses His Experiences Living Under Communism on Prager U’s Stories of Us Podcast,” Media Highlights TV (November 14, 2023)


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The Indicator from Planet Money - What happens when railroads get hitched

Two freight-rail giants could make history if their $85 billion merger gets approved. Union Pacific’s proposed marriage with Norfolk Southern would create the first coast-to-coast rail network. So why hasn’t it happened before now? Today on the show, the business of train mergers.  

Related episodes: 
How Yellow wound up in the red 

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Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova - Where the Puck Is Going: Why Maximum Gerrymandering May Be Inevitable

As Texas embarks on a rare round of mid-decade redistricting and California threatens to answer with its own, Nate and Maria analyze the history, politics, and game theory of gerrymandering.

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The Leap from Maria Konnikova

Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

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Consider This from NPR - What’s Trump doing in DC?

President Trump says the administration’s takeover of DC is making life safer. But many of the city’s residents and business owners are questioning the administration’s moves?  So what exactly is the goal of the federal takeover in DC?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Avery Keatley and Megan Lim, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane. It was edited by Courtney Dorning.


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The Indicator from Planet Money - Cobalt-free batteries reign in Chinese EVs. Why not the US?

There’s been an era-defining race underway between two types of batteries used in electric vehicles: lithium batteries that use cobalt, and ones that use iron phosphate. Cobalt, a metal with a checkered human rights record, has been in the lead. Until recently. 

Henry Sanderson’s book on the elements that build electric vehicles is Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green.

Related episodes: 
The race to produce lithium 
How batteries are already changing the grid 
How batteries are riding the free market rodeo in Texas 
How EV batteries tore apart Michigan (Update) 
Batteries are catching fire at sea 

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Consider This from NPR - How hundreds of babies and children ended up in a mass grave in Ireland

Anna Corrigan grew up in Dublin, Ireland. She thought she was an only child, until she was in her 50s and discovered a family secret. Corrigan found documents showing her mother had spent time in one of Ireland’s so-called mother and baby homes — places where single women went to give birth. And that she had given birth to two sons there. Two brothers that Corrigan never knew she had.

It's part of a sad history in Ireland that is now being unearthed, literally. Scientists believe that nearly 800 babies and children are buried in a mass grave behind one former mother and baby home in Tuam, Ireland.

NPR’s Lauren Frayer reports on the work that forensic scientists are now doing to bring those remains to light.

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This episode was produced by Emma Klein and Michael Levitt. It was edited by William Troop and Nick Spicer. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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