Central Air

This week: the bombshell at the Federal Reserve — the bank was served with subpoenas related to a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony about renovation cost overruns, and Powell's direct-to-camera video pledging to resist this use of a pretextual criminal investigation to pressure him and the bank to lower interest rates. We also discuss the Minnesota ICE shooting. P...

On this week's show: the arrest of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela and President Trump’s statement that we’ll be “running” the country now. What does the US stand to gain? Plus: a fraud scandal brings down Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and why both parties love to hate a VP figure. Megan makes the case that arts professionals should be wary of boycotting the “Trump Kennedy Center" — while Ben and Josh...

Listeners: join Josh, Megan and Ben on Friday at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific for a video chat on Substack. Go to centralairpodcast.com for more details. This week: we discuss President Trump’s gross and remarkably self-centered response to the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner, and the strangely candid interview that Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles granted to Vanity Fair . We look at reporting from...

On this week's show: Warner Brothers Discovery is up for sale, and Netflix and Paramount are fighting over the opportunity to buy it. We discuss the fate of CNN, the future of moviemaking and theaters, the Trump administration’s apparent intent to interfere on Paramount’s behalf, and who's really competing with the streamers for our attention. Next we talk about Ezra Klein’s search for “the good”...

On this week’s show: is $140,000 a year the new poverty line? Is $400,000 a moderate income ? Is the softening in car buying an indication that middle-income Americans have grown more financially pressed in recent months? Plus: we revisit the “you must refuse illegal orders” video in light of news reports about an awfully illegal-sounding “double tap” strike on a suspected drug boat off Venezuela,...

In the spirit of Thanksgiving gatherings, Megan brought her husband to visit with us this week. Peter Suderman joins us to discuss holiday cocktails, an overly sympathetic story about an illegal immigrant who stole a man’s identity so he could work, the controversy over the “illegal orders” video from Democratic members of Congress (with reference to a useful op-ed by David French ), and your dad/...

We finally have word that the Epstein files will be made public, but is that a mistake? Ben and Megan offer their arguments for keeping the secrets secret, and Josh isn't sure about that — what is in there? And doesn't President Trump, who campaigned on releasing the files, deserve whatever happens once that happens? Also this week: the effort to rehabilitate the reputation of price controls (ew),...

Josh, Ben, Megan and special guest Nate Silver stress-test alternative ends to the government shutdown. What outcomes were actually available to Democrats? Then: Donald Trump’s poll numbers have materially deteriorated in the last month, and Democrats way outran their polls in elections last week. Are national polls understating Democrats’ national strength? Also in this episode: Nate’s take on th...

Josh, Ben and Megan take stock of the lessons for Democrats from Tuesday’s strong election result — and a look at how Republicans failed to speak to voters’ concerns about the cost of living. Also this week: hopes and fears for Zohran Mamdani, the ongoing meltdown at the Heritage Foundation, the ongoing meltdown on Nancy Mace’s Twitter feed over her treatment by TSA and airport staff at the Charle...

This week, we’re Deciding to Win, or at least talking about a new manifesto about how to improve and moderate the Democratic Party’s image . Liam Kerr, one of the report’s authors joins us to talk about it. Also this week: the demolition of the East Wing of the White House and those who are very offended by it (not us), Karine Jean-Pierre’s very weird interview with The New Yorker , some lessons f...

Matt Yglesias joins Josh, Megan and Ben to discuss immigration: why (and how) the Biden administration bungled the issue so badly and how the Democratic party could start to regain voters' trust on the issue. Also in this episode: the problem of “the algorithm” and how it's really a problem of the audience with its bias toward negativity; Helen Andrews’ essay for Compact , which alleges that key i...

This is the first episode of Central Air, a weekly politics podcast from and for the political center. Every other part of the political spectrum has a podcast — so, why not us? Josh Barro, Megan McArdle and Ben Dreyfuss talk about the state of the political center, and the exciting new initiatives that focus on what centrists are for, not just what we think is too extreme. Also this week: The odd...