Megapod: The Crisis in American Science
Today, we are witnessing an unprecedented assault on American science. Thousands of workers have been dismissed from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Billions of ...
2 Maj 20252h 4min
Is This the Chinese Century?
In the last few weeks, for the first time in my life, I’ve seriously thought about the 21st century not being another American century. A recent essay in the journal Foreign Affairs by Rush Doshi and...
29 Apr 20251h 8min
What Americans Get Wrong About ADHD
In 1937, a Rhode Island psychiatrist named Charles Bradley ran an experiment on 30 child patients who had complained of headaches. He gave them an amphetamine, that is a stimulant, called Benzedrine, ...
25 Apr 20251h 7min
An Astrophysicist Explains the "Strongest Evidence Yet" of Alien Life
Last week, a team of astrophysicists from the University of Cambridge announced that they had discovered the “strongest indication” ever of extraterrestrial life. The source did not come from Mars or ...
22 Apr 20251h 4min
A Toy Manufacturer Explains How Trump’s Tariffs Could Crush His Industry
In the past three weeks, we've spoken to economists about the tariffs. We’ve spoken to a historian about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act and the 100-year legacy of American protectionism. We've spoken to ...
17 Apr 202533min
Why America Will Lose Its Trade War With China
The U.S. is in the opening innings of a full-blown trade war with China. What does that actually mean? What do we sell to China? What does China sell to us? How is each country dependent on the other ...
16 Apr 202543min
Plain History: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff and the Great Depression
The 1920s and the 2020s share a special kinship. One hundred years ago, the U.S. was grappling with a mix of growth, technological splendor, and generational anxiety—a familiar cocktail (albeit, from ...
11 Apr 202550min
Trump’s Trade War Is Like Nothing America’s Ever Seen
Donald Trump's tariff plan has set global markets on fire. What are they for? What are they trying to accomplish? Fresh off his black-out-rage session on CNBC, Derek talks to Matthew Klein, the autho...
8 Apr 202557min
