Reason Podcasts

AEI's Yuval Levin discusses Trump's mandate (or lack thereof), building coalitions, and how the classic divide between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine remains relevant. Subscribe YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonJustAskingQuestions/featured Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcasts/just-asking-questions/ __________ Is Trumpism America's new governing ideology? Just asking questions. Trump won decisively by modern standards, meaning for the first time in several cycles nobody is seriously disputing the results, but did he really win bigly? Does he have a governing mandate? Today's guest says, not really. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of National Affairs. He co-authored a paper published just before the election called "Politics Without Winners" about the inability of either Democrats or the GOP to build a lasting governing coalition in the 21st century. He recently published some of his thoughts on the election in The Dispatch under the headline, What Trump's Win Doesn't Mean, writing "The 2024 election was very much of a piece with our 21st-century politics: It was a relatively narrow win owed almost entirely to negative polarization." We dig into that negative polarization, whether Trump was given a "mandate" by voters, and how Edmund Burke vs. Thomas Paine is still a relevant divide in contemporary politics. Chapters: 00:00 Coming up 00:20 Is Trumpism America's governing ideology? 00:33 Subscribe to the channel!!! 00:54 Introducing Yuval Levin 02:22 What is the significance of Trump winning a fairly slim majority? 04:04 Given the sweep of all swing states, and the wins in the House and Senate, are you SURE this isn't a mandate? 07:25 Do the parties retain any internal coherence? 09:01 Which faction in the GOP is ascendant? 13:14 Why did people who called Trump untrustworthy still vote for him? What does that mean? 16:38 Comparing Trump and Grover Cleveland 24:40 Are we now are we coming out of this electoral results legitimacy crisis? 26:09 The history of populism in the Democratic party 29:53 The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left 42:51 Is the left going to be insanely statist forever? 48:04 Why does America consistently produce two major parties? 52:16 Is Yuval bullish on Elon and Vivek's D.O.G.E.? 55:39 Would it take for the Democrats to build a lasting coalition? 58:40 The Final Question: What does our political system lack?

Today's guest is Amanda Knox, an activist, writer, and host of the podcast Labyrinths. In 2007, while studying abroad in Italy, Knox was accused of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in what the lead prosecutor claimed was a bizarre sex game gone wrong. Despite mishandled DNA, a coerced confession, and a lack of credible evidence, Knox was convicted and spent nearly four years in an Italian prison before being exonerated in 2015. Her case was a media spectacle that sensationalized every aspect of her life. Reason's Billy Binion talks with Knox about her views on true crime after her story became one of the biggest examples of the modern era. They also discuss the psychological impact of being imprisoned for something she didn't do; what Knox thinks the U.S. criminal justice system gets right and wrong; and how she reacts to people who still believe she's lying. What's more, she shares a fascinating tidbit about her relationship with the lead prosecutor on her case—something that will be featured more in her new book Free, which is available for preorder. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman assess the current shape of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks and policy priorities. 00:27 - New Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) 14:48 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz nominated for Trump cabinet positions 31:37 - Weekly listener question 41:46 - Trump's foreign policy cabinet picks 48:22 - This week's cultural recommendations Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name. Today's sponsors: In an election year, getting overwhelmed by the constant buzz of news and opinions is easy. Understanding the true impact of political events can be a challenge. Not Another Politics Podcast, from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, provides clear, research-driven perspectives on the biggest issues. Get the insights you need to truly understand the political landscape—no spin, just facts. Subscribe today at harris.uchicago.edu/napp or look for Not Another Politics Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audio production by Ian Keyser Assistant production by Hunt Beaty Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

Independent journalist Lee Fang discusses why the Democrats lost so badly and whether or not the party has the ability to course correct anytime soon. Subscribe YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonJustAskingQuestions/featured Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcasts/just-asking-questions/ Donald Trump won the presidential election decisively, taking every single battleground state, and as we discussed last week with Patrick Ruffini, winning over new voters across all sorts of racial, age, and gender demographics. He's, once again, remade the electoral map, with Republicans capturing the Senate and the House. What should Democrats learn from this loss? Lee Fang is an independent journalist and political commentator who runs a Substack at leefang.com. One of his most recent posts comments on the complete lack of self-reflection coming from many of the highly-paid Democratic consultants who seem to have whiffed so badly with the Harris campaign messaging. Chapters: 00:00 Coming up… 00:27 Intro Theme 00:53 Subscribe to the new channel 02:41 What should Democrats learn from this loss? 03:18 Democratic consultants lash out at voters as racist and sexist 06:34 White progressives vs pretty much everyone else? 10:06 Party insiders are burying their heads in the sand 12:28 Will a reckoning come? 19:36 What issues on the left are most ripe for rethinking? 21:16 Border security 25:40 Bernie Sanders' post-election criticism of the Democrats 30:00 Jared Polis Democrats? 33:28 Elon Musk's Republicanism 36:04 The MeToo Culture and rightwing young men 50:07 Even California is shifting red 01:06:41 Is there any Democrat out there who you're bullish on? 01:09:33 This could all backfire on the GOP 01:13:43 Is censorship behind us? 01:17:19 What's one question that you think more people should be asking?

In the wake of massive victories by Donald Trump and Republicans, here's a question worth asking: What does today's GOP really stand for? Longstanding support for free trade and overseas wars seems to have been replaced with tariffs and non-interventionism. Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis are the authors of The Myth of Left and Right. They argue that the way we talk about the political spectrum misleads and confuses us because it reduces complex special-interest coalitions to one or two issues that really aren't representative of what the parties actually stand for. As a result, they say that the next four years will be as fractious within the GOP (and the Democratic Party too) as the last four. Today's Sponsor: ZBiotics. ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by Ph.D. scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Make ZBiotics your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Get 15 percent off by going to ZBiotics/TRI and using the code TRI at checkout. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman react to last week's presidential election and forecast what might come next. 01:55—"Big picture" election reaction 27:02—"Little picture" election reaction 38:27—Weekly listener question 48:58—Trump's ideas on anti-censorship 52:59—This week's cultural recommendations Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name. Today's sponsors: From Greek philosophers, who are the wellspring of democratic ideals, to America's founding fathers to contemporary critics who question everything: each is welcome at St. John's College—where students encounter Adam Smith and Karl Marx; St. Augustine and Friedrich Nietzsche; James Baldwin and Virginia Woolf. Here, there are no secondary sources, no experts, and no one telling you what to believe. Rather, there are original sources and a community devoted to collaborative inquiry, intellectual humility, and the discomfort that comes from diverse opinions. Explore 3,000 years of human thought on campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Annapolis, Maryland. For Master's degree candidates, we also offer studies in the great texts of the East, in-person or online. Learn more at SJC.edu/reason. In an election year, getting overwhelmed by the constant buzz of news and opinions is easy. Understanding the true impact of political events can be a challenge. Not Another Politics Podcast, from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, provides clear, research-driven perspectives on the biggest issues. Get the insights you need to truly understand the political landscape—no spin, just facts. Subscribe today at harris.uchicago.edu/napp or look for Not Another Politics Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audio production by Ian Keyser Assistant production by Hunt Beaty Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

Why did Donald Trump win? Trump is back. Back again. He's secured the Electoral College majority needed to become America's 47th president and looks on track for a popular vote majority—the first Republican to pull that off in more than 20 years.  A New York Times breakdown shows that across just about every type of county—urban, suburban, older population, younger, white, black, Latino—Trump improved his numbers.  Surprising to many was Trump's large improvement among Latinos of all kinds, despite—or maybe in some cases because of—his hardline immigration stances and insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" at his Madison Square Garden rally shortly before the election. Yet seven percent more Puerto Rican Americans appear to have voted for Trump this year than in 2020. One person who is less surprised than many is today's guest, Patrick Ruffini, who wrote a book predicting much of this called Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP. He's a Republican Party strategist, a pollster for Echelon Insights, and writes at The Intersection.

Will history be made? Will it end? Joining Gillespie are The Fifth Column's Kmele Foster, Bloomberg economics columnist Allison Schrager, and many more special guests, who will break down the weirdest—and possibly the most consequential—election season in any of our lifetimes. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

Will Election 2024 result in an orderly transfer of power—or will the results unleash controversy and chaos that threatens the foundations of our democracy? Before America goes to the polls on November 5, you're invited to join the four hosts of The Reason Roundtable—Reason Magazine's own Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch—live from New York City for a no-holds-barred discussion of what this election means for the future of America. The Reason Roundtable is a rollicking contretemps between these four opinionated journalists as they put their personal "free minds and free markets" filter on the biggest stories of today. During this hour-long live taping of the popular weekly podcast, expect lively roasting and incisive analysis. This was filmed live in front of a live audience in New York City.

Dave Smith is for Trump. Jacob Grier is for Harris. David Stockman says we're screwed either way. Subscribe YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcast/2024-10/31/dave-smith-david-stockman-and-jacob-grier-who-should-win-the-election Is this the most important election ever? And who should win? Just asking questions. Next week, America decides: elect the 78-year-old criminally indicted, twice-impeached ex-president who's pledged to impose a universal tariff of 20 percent and embark on the largest mass deportation in American history; or his opponent, the vice president, swapped in for a malfunctioning Joe Biden, whose first major policy proposal was to cap grocery store prices to fight inflation, and who has trouble explaining how she'd govern any differently than her increasingly unpopular predecessor. It's a close race. Independents, including libertarians, will likely decide it. So we've invited three of them on today with three different perspectives to explain their votes. The first is David Stockman. He's the former director of the Office of Budget Management under Ronald Reagan. He served as a U.S. representative, and he says whoever wins we're basically screwed because neither candidate is addressing the most important policy issues facing America today. Then we'll talk to Dave Smith, a repeat guest on the show, host of the popular Part of the Problem podcast. He says he's reluctantly and probably voting for Trump because of the threat that Kamala Harris—and the political machine that she represents—poses to liberty in America. And lastly, we'll talk with Jacob Grier, a writer and Reason contributor who says that from a libertarian and small government perspective, the choice is obvious. Donald Trump is an authoritarian threat and Kamala Harris is a far superior choice. Let's just ask each of them some questions. Sources Referenced: David Stockman at The Soho Forum: Are the Two Parties Any Different? https://reason.com/podcast/2024/09/20/are-the-two-parties-any-different/ Dave Smith: I'm Voting For Trump | Part Of The Problem https://youtu.be/yyUsJnbUlxQ Just Asking Questions with Ford Fischer: What's the Untold Story Behind 'Stop the Steal'? https://youtu.be/ynq-EHI2Nds Just Asking Questions with Vivek Ramaswamy: Is There a Libertarian-Nationalist Alliance? https://youtu.be/NonvV2Hc7h0 Jacob Grier: To My Fellow Libertarians: It's Time to Embrace the Harris-Walz Ticket https://www.liberalcurrents.com/to-my-fellow-libertarians-its-time-to-embrace-the-harris-walz-ticket/ How Are Reason Staffers Voting in 2024? https://reason.com/2024/10/17/how-are-reason-staffers-voting-in-2024/ Chapters: 00:00 Coming up… 00:39 Introduction 02:50 David Stockman: Harris and Trump are both intolerable 35:15 Dave Smith: Voting against Harris 01:19:28 Jacob Grier: Voting against Trump

Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist at Stony Brook University and the author of the new book We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Al-Gharbi argues that academics, journalists, and other elite professionals that he calls "symbolic capitalists" are disconnected from the marginalized and disadvantaged communities they claim to speak for—and that, by using the rhetoric of class solidarity drawn from the Occupy movement (which pitted the "99 percent versus the 1 percent"), progressive symbolic capitalists actually exploit those communities to maintain a relatively lush lifestyle. Born and raised in a mixed-race military family in Arizona, al-Gharbi spoke with Reason's Nick Gillespie about wokeness transforming the college experience, his conversion from Catholicism to atheism to Islam, why black and Latino voters appear to be embracing former President Donald Trump in record numbers, and his highly public cancellation in 2014 after he was attacked by Fox News for criticizing U.S. foreign policy. Today's sponsor: The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy that doubles as a taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. The next one takes place on November 18 and features Mercatus Center visiting fellow and former CIA analyst Martin Gurri, whose decade-old The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium remains one of the most important guides to the 21st century. Go to reason.com/events for information and tickets. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman convene one week ahead of the election to highlight a few issues where the major-party presidential candidates have significant differences. 01:53—The presidential candidates on tariffs, debt, foreign policy, and education 35:01—Weekly listener question 43:38—Election integrity ahead of next week's election 52:43—This week's cultural recommendations Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name. Today's sponsors: From Greek philosophers, who are the wellspring of democratic ideals, to America's founding fathers to contemporary critics who question everything: each is welcome at St. John's College—where students encounter Adam Smith and Karl Marx; St. Augustine and Friedrich Nietzsche; James Baldwin and Virginia Woolf. Here, there are no secondary sources, no experts, and no one telling you what to believe. Rather, there are original sources and a community devoted to collaborative inquiry, intellectual humility, and the discomfort that comes from diverse opinions. Explore 3,000 years of human thought on campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Annapolis, Maryland. For Master's degree candidates, we also offer studies in the great texts of the East, in-person or online. Learn more at SJC.edu/reason. In an election year, getting overwhelmed by the constant buzz of news and opinions is easy. Understanding the true impact of political events can be a challenge. Not Another Politics Podcast, from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, provides clear, research-driven perspectives on the biggest issues. Get the insights you need to truly understand the political landscape—no spin, just facts. Subscribe today at harris.uchicago.edu/napp or look for Not Another Politics Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audio production by Ian Keyser Assistant production by Hunt Beaty Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

Klaus Schwab's co-author Thierry Malleret discusses stakeholder capitalism, libertarianism, and his new book satirizing the World Economic Forum. Subscribe YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcasts/just-asking-questions/ What's the agenda of the World Economic Forum? And what was The Great Reset? Just asking questions. Every year, there's a big gathering of global elites in Davos, Switzerland: world leaders, titans of industry, Hollywood celebrities. It all started in 1971, thanks to Klaus Schwab—a German economist and business professor who launched what was then called the European Economic Forum as a place to discuss best business practices and promote a theory he'd developed called "stakeholder capitalism," the tenets of which Schwab laid out in the original "The Davos Manifesto." It insists that a company's CEO must serve not only shareholders but entire "societies" and "assume the role of a trustee of the material universe for future generations." While critics have for years lampooned Davos for its brigade of private jets dropping billionaires in an idyllic Swiss mountain town to lecture us about climate change, the WEF and Schwab himself attracted unprecedented attention amid the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic following the July 2020 publication of his ominously titled book The Great Reset. Countless articles, podcasts, and videos theorizing on the real meaning of the Great Reset followed, including one produced by the co-host of this podcast. But you might notice there's another name underneath Schwab's. Thierry Malleret was his co-author on The Great Reset, and again on the follow-up The Great Narrative, and he joins us on the show today. Malleret is an economist who's worked as an adviser for major investment banks and governments. He conceived of—and planned—the program at Davos for several years before parting ways with Klaus Schwab. And he's also an author, most recently of a very interesting book we're going to discuss at length called Deaths at Davos, a dark satire of what's going on within the WEF. Sources referenced: Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcasts/just-asking-questions/ Zach's video on the Great Reset: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd0OeC6Syd4 Just Asking Questions w/ Johan Norberg: https://youtu.be/wC5AG7JDUfY?list=PLBuns9Evn1w9K02WT8x-gzSI-UdeeXFG9 Chapters: 00:00 "coming up…" 00:58 Introduction 03:27 The point of Deaths at Davos 04:50 What did Klaus Schwab think? 05:40 Others are meant to continue the story 07:46 What's the future of WEF-like organizations? 12:10 Is the WEF vision of the West dying? 13:51 Debating "Stakeholder Capitalism" 30:16 Malleret's critique of libertarianism 45:40 Will stakeholder capitalism lead to corporatism? 51:26 A disagreement about Sweden and COVID 54:16 Reacting to "Great Reset" conspiracies 01:01:26 The final question

Today's guest is Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, the co-founder of Ideas Beyond Borders (IBB), a nonprofit that translates books and articles about limited government, freedom of thought, and market economics into Arabic and other languages, and distributes them for free in the Middle East and other parts of the world. (Full disclosure: Reason's Nick Gillespie is on the board of IBB.) Gillespie talked with Al Mutar about IBB's new book, Untold Stories of the Middle East, which celebrates entrepreneurs in Kurdistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere whom IBB has given startup grants; how the October 7 attacks on Israel and fighting in Gaza and Lebanon will affect the region for decades; and what it was like to grow up in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein, various Islamic terrorist groups, and the U.S. occupation. This conversation was taped in front of a live audience in New York. Today's sponsor: The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy that doubles as a taping of The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie. Go to reason.com/events for information and tickets to the next one. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman welcome back special guest Stephanie Slade to chat about the latest in polling results and the shape of the electorate two weeks ahead of the presidential election. 02:16—Latest in polling data two weeks out from the presidential election 33:04—Weekly listener question 44:15—Takeaways from Vice President Kamala Harris' interview with Fox News' Bret Baier. 51:23—This week's cultural recommendations Today's sponsors: Qualia Senolytic: Have you heard about senolytics yet? It's a class of ingredients discovered less than 10 years ago, and it's being called the biggest discovery of our time for promoting healthy aging and enhancing your physical prime. Your goals in your career and beyond require productivity. But let's be honest: The aging process is not our friend when it comes to endless energy and productivity. As we age, everyone accumulates "senescent" cells in their body. Senescent cells cause symptoms of aging, such as aches and discomfort, slow workout recoveries, and sluggish mental and physical energy associated with that "middle age" feeling. Also known as "Zombie Cells," they are old and worn out and not serving a useful function for our health anymore, but they are taking up space and nutrients from our healthy cells. Much like pruning the yellowing and dead leaves off a plant, Qualia Senolytic removes those worn-out senescent cells to allow for the rest of your cells to thrive in the body. Take it just two days a month. The formula is non-GMO, vegan, and gluten-free, and the ingredients are meant to complement one another, factoring in the combined effect of all ingredients together. Resist aging at the cellular level and try Qualia Senolytic. Go to Qualialife.com/ROUNDTABLE for up to 50 percent off and use code ROUNDTABLE at checkout for an additional 15 percent off. For your convenience, Qualia Senolytic is also available at select GNC locations near you. ZBiotics. ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by Ph.D. scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Make ZBiotics your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Go to zbiotics.com/ROUNDTABLE to get 15 percent off your first order when you use ROUNDTABLE at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with a 100 percent money-back guarantee so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Audio production by Ian Keyser Assistant production by Hunt Beaty Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

The Vice President of the United Cajun Navy, Brian Trascher, discusses effective disaster response and the problems with FEMA. Subscribe YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-asking-questions/id1719355507 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SpySKAH3LuVyxXk0MF7tl Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcasts/just-asking-questions/ What should the federal government do in a disaster? Two major hurricanes made landfall within two weeks, devastating the southeast. Hurricane Helene has killed more than 200 people, and more than 90 are still missing in North Carolina, where overflowing rivers and tributaries flooded the western part of the state. More than 9,000 remain without power. Hurricane Milton grew to Category 5 status in the Gulf before hitting Florida's west coast just south of Tampa Bay as a Category 3. It caused at least 23 deaths, and both storms are likely to cause over $100 billion in economic damage. Today's guest is part of an organization that's been on the ground in both places helping with disaster relief. Brian Trascher is the vice president of the United Cajun Navy, a volunteer organization that started in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Trascher discusses the origins of the Cajun Navy after Hurricane Katrina, conditions on the ground in North Carolina and Florida, the federal government's response, growing distrust of FEMA, and how to better prepare for disaster. Chapters 00:00 Coming up… 00:10 Introduction 01:28 Documentary clip about the United Cajun Navy 02:25 What's the status of North Carolina? 05:29 United Cajun Navy's origin story 10:36 Comparing Hurricanes Helene and Milton 15:12 How are resources allocated properly? 18:25 When to evacuate and why some people don't 23:08 What's it like to deal with FEMA on the ground? 29:23 Did a national guard helicopter purposefully sabotage volunteer efforts? 38:23 Do government workers get defensive about volunteer help? 43:04 Why do people distrust FEMA? 57:38 FEMA's budgeting problems 1:02:42 The Stafford Act 1:08:26 How should people prepare for disaster? 1:10:24 What question should people be asking? Photo credit: Travis Long/TNS/Newscom

Today's guest is Meghan McCain, political commentator, former co-host of ABC's The View, and host of the podcast Citizen McCain. Reason's Billy Binion talks with her about the changing GOP, bias in corporate media, the 2024 election, and what it's like to be a non-MAGA, nonpopulist member of today's Republican Party. Today's sponsors: St. John's College. Explore 3,000 years of human thought on campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in Annapolis, Maryland. From the Greek philosophers who are the wellspring of democratic ideals to America's Founding Fathers to contemporary critics who question everything: Each is welcome at St. John's College. In-person and online master's degree courses are offered, too. The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted discussion in midtown New York City that doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. The next one is on Thursday, October 24, and features the Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, whose new book is We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Tickets are $15 and include beer, wine, soft drinks, and light food. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman parse the presidential candidates' latest batch of confounding ideas on tax policy before lamenting their various cringe media appearances over the past week. 05:21—Tax policy proposals 31:44—Weekly listener question 43:38—Candidate cringe media hits 54:18—This week's cultural recommendations Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name. Today's sponsors: From Greek philosophers, who are the wellspring of democratic ideals, to America's founding fathers to contemporary critics who question everything: each is welcome at St. John's College—where students encounter Adam Smith and Karl Marx; St. Augustine and Friedrich Nietzsche; James Baldwin and Virginia Woolf. Here, there are no secondary sources, no experts, and no one telling you what to believe. Rather, there are original sources and a community devoted to collaborative inquiry, intellectual humility, and the discomfort that comes from diverse opinions. Explore 3,000 years of human thought on campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Annapolis, Maryland. For Master's degree candidates, we also offer studies in the great texts of the East, in-person or online. Learn more at SJC.edu/reason. In an election year, getting overwhelmed by the constant buzz of news and opinions is easy. Understanding the true impact of political events can be a challenge. Not Another Politics Podcast, from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, provides clear, research-driven perspectives on the biggest issues. Get the insights you need to truly understand the political landscape—no spin, just facts. Subscribe today at harris.uchicago.edu/napp or look for Not Another Politics Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audio production by Ian Keyser Assistant production by Hunt Beaty Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast

How do immigrants change American culture? Just asking questions. While the economy ranks as voters' top concern as of a Wednesday Gallup poll, immigration remains "extremely" or "very" important to 72 percent of registered U.S. voters. As with most issues, there's a large partisan divide, with 63 percent of Republicans responding that immigration is an "extremely" important election year issue, and only 23 percent of Democrats answering the same.  Gallup found this summer that more than 55 percent of Americans believed immigration should be decreased, a number higher than it's been for more than 20 years. Although there, too, there's a large partisan divide. In the long view, Gallup finds a fairly stable consensus that immigration is a good thing for the country today, with 68 percent of respondents answering as such in the summer of 2023. This is all in the context of Border Patrol reporting 2.7 million border encounters so far in fiscal year 2024. So what we see is a picture of an American electorate that likes immigration in theory but is increasingly concerned about it in practice. Today's guest predicted that immigration would become the "defining issue of the 21st century" in an article published in an August 2015 opinion piece for The Week, where he wrote that, "just as the building of trade routes and maintenance of empires defined the mercantile age, then the construction of a political economy (capitalist or socialist) became the major problem of the industrial age, the mass movement of people may be the defining issue of whatever we're calling the information age." Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer for National Review, the William F. Buckley Senior Scholar at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and a critic of the kind of libertarian unfettered movement of peaceful people across borders that I favor. We begin by asking why the digital world has brought the issue of immigration to the fore. Chapters: 00:00 Coming up… 00:32 Introduction 03:06 How the information age makes immigration more a pressing issue 07:19 What's Dougherty's preferred system? 15:56 Immigration's effects on native political power 21:20 The history of American nativism is largely Anti-Catholic 31:59 The doctrine of first effective settlement 39:55 Assimilating into a toxic education environment 47:44 Debating "the new economic case against immigration" 56:31 A low-trust society? 59:31 Immigrants upward mobility 01:12:02 Does immigration create a caste system? 01:19:00 Zach's ideal system 01:27:18 What is a question more people should be asking? Photo credit: Qian Weizhong/VCG/Newscom

Today's guests are Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini, author of Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP, and American Enterprise Institute fellow Ruy Teixeira, coauthor most recently of Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes. Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with them about the presidential election, how the working class has become the most important—yet most neglected—part of the electorate, and whether libertarians have anyone to root for in national politics. Today's sponsors: St. John's College. Explore 3,000 years of human thought on campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in Annapolis, Maryland. From the Greek philosophers who are the wellspring of democratic ideals to America's founding fathers to contemporary critics who question everything: Each is welcome at St. John's College. In-person and online Master's degree courses are offered, too. ZBiotics. ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by Ph.D. scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Make ZBiotics your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Get 15 percent off by going to ZBiotics/TRI and using the code TRI at checkout. The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted discussion in midtown New York City that doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie. The next one is on Thursday, October 24, and features the Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, whose new book is We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Tickets are $15 and include beer, wine, soft drinks, and light food. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast