The American Compass Podcast
Our mission is to restore an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity. The American Compass Podcast features conversations on a wide variety of policy issues aimed at helping policymakers and the broader public navigate the most pressing issues that will define the future of the conservative movement in America.
Episodes
148 episodes
Policing Monopolies with Gail Slater
For decades, antitrust policy rested on the assumption that markets would correct themselves and that consolidation posed little risk to consumers and workers. But across the economy, from housing and healthcare to Big Tech and labor markets, c...
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36:49
A New Global Trade Order with Mark DiPlacido
The assumptions that once defined global trade are cracking. The United States can no longer absorb the world’s trade surpluses, China has become a near-peer adversary, and allies are facing hard choices about their own dependence on Beijing. T...
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42:39
Reassessing Globalization with Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo
Globalization was once viewed as economic destiny: it would spread prosperity worldwide, destroy authoritarian regimes, and counterbalance industrial decline with innovation and growth. The reality has been far more negative, with communities h...
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50:25
The Tech Revolution in America's Schools with Brad Littlejohn
Heading into the holidays, the hottest gifts on the shelf are AI-powered smart toys, leading parents to confront a troubling question: what happens when machines start reading to our kids, teaching them, and becoming their companions? At the sa...
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39:19
America's Squid Game Economy with John Carney
For decades, America told its young strivers that the path to economic security ran through degrees, credentials, and a foothold in the professional class. But as housing costs climb and career ladders shrink, even the “successful” are finding ...
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41:30
Is AI Really Going to Kill Us All? with Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares
Artificial intelligence has leapt from speculative theory to everyday tool with astonishing speed, promising breakthroughs in science, medicine, and the ways we learn, live, and work. But to some of its earliest researchers, the race toward sup...
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49:10
Somewheres and Anywheres with David Goodhart
Western politics has increasingly been shaped by a widening divide between the “Somewheres” and the “Anywheres”—those rooted in place and community versus those defined by education, mobility, and openness to change. This clash has fueled popul...
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49:32
Enforcing America's Labor Laws with Seema Nanda
America’s labor laws promise fairness for workers and a level playing field for businesses, but promises mean little without enforcement. Underfunded agencies and administrative failures have allowed bad corporate actors to exploit employees un...
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46:37
Sharpie's American Comeback with Chris Griswold
A favorite libertarian parable, I, Pencil, portrays the market as a mystical force beyond human control, an “invisible hand” that government must never try to steer. This conversation tells a different story: how Sharpie manufacturing ...
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38:24
The Geography of Political Belonging with Salena Zito
While the nation’s cultural curators cluster in a few wealthy zip codes, the voters who decide its elections remain rooted in towns where family, church, and work still bind community together. The result is a political and media class increasi...
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31:35
Trump's Media Pushback with Emily Jashinsky and Haisten Willis
President Trump's second term has brought with it a more combative approach to the American press. Supporters have cheered it as overdue payback for the media's bias, but have the president's recent actions—from threatening broadcast licenses t...
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50:16
Labor's Realignment in the AI Age with Sean M. O'Brien
Efforts to modernize labor law have stalled in Washington for decades, leaving workers vulnerable to delayed contracts, retaliation, and corporate maneuvers. Meanwhile, a new challenge looms for workers: rapid advances in automation and artific...
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41:17
Is Abundance Just Neoliberalism? with Matt Yglesias
The abundance agenda claims to offer a new path, one centered on housing, energy, and expanded state capacity. But are advocates of abundance offering a genuine political shift? Or are they just repackaging neoliberalism for the Trump era?<...
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46:45
Are the Tariffs Constitutional? with Chad Squitieri and Peter Harrell
Last Friday, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that President Trump did not have the authority to issue emergency tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), setting up a pivotal Supreme Court battle...
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45:27
An American Sovereign Wealth Fund with Julius Krein
America’s political elite assumed Wall Street would finance its future. Instead, private capital chased software and speculation, leaving the nation dependent on foreign supply chains for most manufactured goods. The result is a hollowed-out in...
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39:27
Still Hooked on Beijing with Geoffrey Cain
In the 1990s, Silicon Valley thought access to China would help open their markets and liberalize the nation. Instead, their engagement ended up empowering the CCP and helped build the Chinese surveillance state.Geoffrey Cain, an ...
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43:33
Rebuilding Strategic Depth with Nadia Schadlow
America once relied on oceans, industrial might, and large stockpiles to give her strategic depth—the ability to maneuver economically, militarily, and technologically during conflict. But those buffers have eroded in the age of drones, cyberat...
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36:05
A Tariff Reality Check with Bloomberg’s Anna Wong
Economists and politicians told us that President Trump’s tariffs would spark foreign retaliation and drive up domestic prices. But current economic data are beginning to tell a different story. Anna Wong, chief U.S. econo...
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46:24
Fighting for the Working Class with Rep. Riley Moore
From working as a welder to taking on BlackRock as West Virginia’s first Republican-elected state treasurer in decades, Riley Moore’s trajectory has been anything but conventional. Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) joins Oren to discuss wh...
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37:28
Fixing Scientific Research Funding with Simon Johnson
As the Trump administration reshapes how federal dollars flow to universities, reform-minded academics are rethinking how to fix the systemic problems on campus without jeopardizing important research.Simon Johnson, professor of e...
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41:21
China Shock 2.0 with Brad Setser
Even as the U.S. begins decoupling from our Asian rival, the threat of a second “China shock”—one where the country’s economy dominates key resources and minerals—is rapidly emerging.Brad Setser, senior fellow at the Council on Fo...
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50:38
What Comes After Post-Liberalism with Patrick Deneen
Are we all post-liberals now? The leading voice in the debate about what comes after liberalism, Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen, joins the podcast to discuss where American politics is headed now that the push for a glob...
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49:27
The Critical Minerals Crisis with Robert Bryce
The United States remains wholly dependent upon China for 95% of rare earth elements, 100% reliant on imports for 15 critical minerals, and over 80% reliant for eleven more. These minerals enable everything from batteries to semiconductors—and ...
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42:44
Sohrab Ahmari vs. Josh Hammer: Iran, Israel, and the New Right
Over the last two weeks, an online battle has broken out among the New Right over the Israel-Iran conflict and the Trump administration's bombing of an Iranian nuclear facility. Regardless of whether the recent ceasefire between Iran and Israel...
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57:53