NCSL Podcasts

The 2026 elections will see 6,139 of the nation’s 7,386 legislative seats on the ballot. There will be 146 measures on the November ballot, and including measures voted on earlier in 2026 the total for the year is 165 measures. Voters also will cast ballots for governor in 36 states. We sat down with two NCSL elections experts -- Katy Owens Hubler, director of NCSL’s Elections and Redistricting Pr...

Our focus on this podcast is cybersecurity at utilities. Electric, gas, and water utilities face billions of automated probes every year. While only a fraction of probes is successful, the cost of such attacks runs into the billions and systems are vulnerable because of aging infrastructure, a large number of small systems without large IT staffs, and sometimes poor cybersecurity culture. To discu...

The focus of this podcast is how to use criminal justice data to better understand how a range of programs affect people in the justice system and how policymakers can use such data to decide which programs to support.   Criminal justice data in the U.S. is fragmented. Traditionally, there's been no structure to collect and integrate data in a consistent fashion that would allow policymakers to se...

This is the second part of a two-part podcast on energy affordability. In our previous episode, we talked with Representative Craig Williams of Pennsylvania and Janine Benner, director of the Oregon Department of Energy.  For this episode, we’re joined by Katherine Jereza, an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy who directs the Office of Electricity, and Joseph Pereira, the directo...

The focus of the podcast is how states are working toward connecting education and training systems with the workforce. State policymakers are keenly interested in measuring the return on investment or ROI that they can see from state investment in education and training programs of all kinds.  Our guests are Mary Alice McCarthy, founder and senior director of the Center on Education and Labor at...

Our topic on this episode is energy affordability. In the worlds of both politics and policy, energy affordability is a hot topic. The U.S. saw largely flat electricity demand from the late ’90s until just a couple of years ago. Increasing demand from both homes and businesses, electrification of cars and trucks, the growth of data centers and other factors has strained the nation's ability to mee...

The last year has seen an unusual spate of mid-decade redistricting. It was initiated by President Trump in 2025 when he urged the Texas legislature to redraw maps to favor Republicans in hopes of helping the GOP hold the House and the 2026 midterms.  State legislatures are at the center of these efforts in blue and red states. To offer some perspective, we sat down with Erin Covey, who leads cove...

This episode explored mental health and behavioral health in the workplace, including the role of employers and legislators in helping people facing mental health conditions.  Our guests included Julie Hocker, assistant secretary for Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, and Michigan Representative Curtis VanderWall. This discussion came during Mental Health Awareness Month...

As the nation prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, NCSL gathered a trio of experts to discuss the origin stories of their states.  Our group included Tim Powers, chief technology and outreach officer in the Alaska State Legislature; Paul Smith, clerk of the House of Representatives in New Hampshire; and Pev Squire, a professor of political...

Our focus on this podcast is enhanced wage records and the role they can play in helping states better understand their workforce, evaluate job training programs and show the return on investment for various educational programs.  Collecting enhanced employment data involves asking employers for additional information when they file regular reports with their state unemployment office, such as inf...

Prehospital blood programs that allow emergency responders to administer blood at the scene to trauma victims are drawing increased attention from state lawmakers. A technique with origins on the battlefield, these military methods have made their way to civilian EMS programs. Research suggests a significant number of lives can be saved with this approach, especially in car crashes.  On the podcas...

Alzheimer’s disease affects a significant number of Americans over 65—more than 7 million—and is the sixth leading cause of death in that age group. It’s expected that more than 13 million people will be diagnosed by 2060. Beyond Alzheimer's, roughly 10% of U.S. adults over 65 have dementia.  On this podcast we talked with Dr. Ronald Petersen, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic and an expert in Alzh...

The U.S. health care system is massive. It's a $5 trillion behemoth, nearly 20% of the U.S. economy or more than $15,000 per person per year. The cost of health care for consumers, including the cost of health insurance continues to increase.  On this episode, we sat down with two people who pay close attention to the health care market and to how state legislatures are responding to rising costs....

In one fashion or another, all state legislatures exercise oversight of state agencies and programs. They do this in a variety of ways using standing committees, rules review, auditing offices, sunset provisions, and more.  On this episode of the podcast, we dive into the topic of oversight with three guests who all have different vantage points to observe the process. They include Kade Minchey, a...

SUMMARY Medicaid is the joint state -federal program created in 1965 that provides free or low -cost health care to about 70 million Americans, including low-income elderly people and those living with disabilities. The changes in the 2025 legislation, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill or H.R. 1, affect eligibility standards for the program and changes in the way states can finance their po...

There are more than 5,000 data centers in the U.S. and thousands more on the drawing board. The centers are big consumers of energy to power the racks of servers and big consumers of water to cool those systems. Data centers consume more than 4% of electricity in the U.S. with some studies estimating they may consume as much as 12% by 2030. On this episode, we discuss data centers and their effect...

As a new year and a new state legislative session gets underway, we sat down with Tim Storey, the CEO of NCSL, to discuss the coming legislative session and where he expects legislators to focus their efforts.  Storey sees a mixed picture on budgets, with most states sitting on substantial rainy day funds but cautious about the revenue picture in the new year. Issues around Medicaid will loom larg...

Institutional knowledge among legislative staff is a core element to maintaining continuity in legislatures around the country. But passing on that knowledge has become challenging as baby boomers retire and younger staff take on those roles. On this episode, our two guests discussed how they used a mentor-mentee relationship to prepare for a job transition. Bernadette “Bernie” McNulty is the reti...

On this episode we sat down with Curt Stedron, director of NCSL’s Legislative Training Institute, to discuss a presentation he made at this year’s Legislative Summit in Boston on how game theory can help legislative leaders better understand the notion of leading in an infinite game.  Stedron draws on the work of game theorist James Carse and author Simon Sinek, who popularized Carse’s theories. S...

Distributed energy resources or DERs, things such as rooftop solar panels on homes and small businesses, home or business batteries and electric vehicles are an important option in managing demand for electricity. When these resources are combined through the use of software, they can create what’s called a virtual power plant. On this podcast, we talk with two experts in the field: Rebekah de la...

On this episode, we talk with Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience programming at AARP. She joined the podcast on the sidelines of NCSL's Legislative Summit in Boston in August where she was appearing on a panel called “Unretirement: Rethinking Work in the Age of Longevity.” She explained how demographic trends mean the lion's share of the workforce growth is among the over-50...

Private equity investment in health care facilities has grown substantially in the past decade. There have been hundreds of such acquisitions of health care facilities in the past decade, including physician practices, nursing home facilities, and hospitals involving hundreds of billions of dollars. At its most basic, private equity investors take over a health care company with the intention of i...

Tribal households in this country pay more than the average for electricity, and members of tribes often face a higher energy burden--the percentage of household income spent on energy—than many people. Also, there also are about 17,000 homes on tribal land have no electricity, according to a 2023 U.S. Department of Energy report to Congress. The report also noted the critical need for electricity...

There are more than 38 million people in the U.S. under 65 who have completed some college courses but did not receive a degree or certificate. Dozens of states have set ambitious post-secondary goals and part of reaching those goals includes bringing those back into the educational system.  On this episode, we get the perspective from two people about how to bring those learners back into the sys...

On this episode, we’re joined by Pev Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri and an expert on state legislatures.  He's the author of several books on legislatures and government, and he joined the podcast to discuss his latest book, “Reforming Legislatures: American Voters and State Ballot Measures 1792- 2020.” The deep dive into about 1,500 ballot measures related to...