NCSL Podcasts

Recent polls find that many Americans have declining confidence in higher education, in large part because of the levels of student debt, the cost of college and concerns about uneven student outcomes.  To better understand these challenges, NCSL formed a Task Force on Higher Education Affordability and Student Outcomes in 2022. The group has now issued its report. The co-chairs of the task force...

On this episode, we sat down with two election experts from NCSL to discuss the state legislative races and statewide ballot measures in the Nov. 5 election.  Ben Williams, NCSL’s associate director of Elections and Redistricting, discussed the 5,508 legislative seats on ballots in 44 states, more than 78% of all legislative seats nationwide. He also explained how the outcomes could affect legisla...

This is one of the series of shows this year and next reflecting on the 50th anniversary of NCSL. For this episode, our focus is the legislative institution and how today’s legislatures evolved over the last 400 years. Guests include historian Pev Squire, who sketches out how legislatures developed both from the colonial assemblies and from the territorial legislatures. We also spoke with three pe...

Artificial intelligence, most broadly thought of as the use of computer systems to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, is being employed in a wide array of ways, from self-driving cars to health care. But concerns about the potential misuse and unintended consequences of AI is prompting legislatures around the country to study the issue and in many cases, pass legislation. In 2...

A class of drugs that are used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity are becoming increasingly popular as a weight-loss drug. However, the high cost of these GLP-1 drugs—the annual list price is around $12,000—has posed a dilemma for states as they decide whether to cover the drugs in their own state health plans, Medicaid and possibly require private insurers to cover the drugs.  On thi...

Americans of all ages do not score well on surveys of civic knowledge. One recent survey found a large majority of respondents could not pass a basic civics literacy test and another indicated a third of respondents could not name all three branches of government. And testing of eighth graders in the U.S. and other industrialized countries also reported a decline in civics proficiency. The vast ma...

This podcast is the first of several to observe the 50th anniversary of NCSL. The organization has been an integral part of the change in state legislations over the last half century. NCSL provides research to the states on myriad public policy topics, offers a unified voice in Washington where it lobbies on behalf of the states, and serves as a convener of scores of meetings every year in person...

After a tsunami of campaign spending on the 2022 governor’s race in Oregon – a record-breaking $70 million – a broad coalition and lawmakers worked together to pass the state’s first campaign finance reform this spring. Legislators scrambled during a short 5-week session to keep everyone at the table. Otherwise, it was shaping up to be a costly and confusing fight over campaign finance reform at t...

Data centers, the increasing use of AI and reindustrialization in some parts of the country are driving a big increase in energy demand that concerns officials at all levels of government. State legislators in particular, are concerned about the ability of their state utilities to meet that growing demand and the effect on the price residential and business customers pay for energy. We sat down wi...

This is the third of a three-episode series exploring the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in legislatures and how it affected state legislative staff.  We sat down with Jill Reinmuth, staff director for the Office of Program Research in the Washington House; Eric Nauman, principal fiscal analyst for the Minnesota Senate; and Sabrina Lewellen, assistant Secretary of the Arkansas Senate and the c...

Housing historically has been a local issue that was handled by cities and counties. The rising crisis of housing cost and availability, however, has brought more attention from state governments. States have enacted more than 700 laws in 2022 and 2023 related to housing. The focus of this podcast is the nexus of housing and transportation, and particularly transit-oriented development. We sat dow...

Enrollment in higher education has been on the decline for a decade, and research indicates a growing skepticism about the value of higher education. In response, many state legislatures have enacted laws aimed at creating greater accountability in higher education. To explore the issue, we sat down with Brian Bridges, the secretary of higher education in New Jersey, to discuss legislation passed...

Melissa Furman is a trainer, coach, and consultant to professionals and businesses who's worked with legislative staff. Furman was a college professor and Dean before founding her firm Career potential. Her expertise includes generational diversity, emotional intelligence and leadership. She's the guest on the podcast, the second in a series focused on legislative staff, the aftermath of the COVID...

The Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990, but who and what it covers has evolved over the decades. Behavioral health issues, long COVID or other conditions that substantially limit one or more major life activities can fall under the ADA.  Joining the podcast are Eve Hill, one of the nation’s top disability rights lawyers and the policy and legislative counsel for the U.S. D...

This podcast kicks off Legislative Staff Week, an annual NCSL effort to focus on legislative staff. This episode is part of three-podcast services focused on legislative staff that will roll out over the next couple of months. Our guests include Sabrina Lewellen, assistant secretary of the Arkansas Senate and the current NCSL staff chair; Anne Sappenfield, director of the Wisconsin Legislative Cou...

College enrollment among young people has been in a steady decline, according to research from Pew. Some indicators show young people increasingly turning toward apprenticeships and other work-based learning and credential programs that help them get a good job. Indiana and Maryland have been leaders in the field and on this podcast, we sat down with two legislators intimately involved in the issu...

Public health officials and lawmakers in Kentucky had been trying to address the complex issue of maternal mortality for years. Rep. Kimberly Moser had long been a neonatal and intensive care nurse, and knew the struggles around maternal health in the state. Lawmakers had taken steps in past sessions, but last year when the latest numbers came out, Moser decided it was time to bring the best minds...

It's budget season and in the 46 states that start the new fiscal year on July 1, people are hard at work getting their budgets ready. Those state operating budgets amount to more than a trillion dollars a year.  But what exactly does getting the budget ready entail? To discuss that, we sat down with Krista Lee Carsner, the executive director of the Fiscal Review Committee for the Tennessee Genera...

Cities, states, courts and district attorneys’ offices levy fines and fees on defendants at nearly every stage of the criminal justice system. Fines and fees are often used to finance essential functions of the court and as a deterrent for people from committing future offenses.  In recent years, critics have argued that fines and fees used to fund the judiciary create a perverse incentive for jud...

Overdose deaths from all drugs, including opioids, have risen to more than 110,000 in the 12-month period that ended last September. The vast majority of those deaths near 80% involved fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. State legislatures have been active in passing legislation to address the crisis and enacting more than 180 bills in 2022 and 2023, most of them focusing on harm reduction strat...

State legislatures in blue and red states are taking up measures to protect children on social media, especially because Congress has been unable to agree on solutions and the evidence of harm to young users continues to mount. It's a complicated problem and most of the states' laws are being challenged in court by a trade association and other groups who believe they are unconstitutional.

A key part of modernizing the nation’s electric grid involves adding long-distance transmission lines, the power lines that carry electricity over hundreds of miles.  To better understand this critical part of the electrical infrastructure, we sat down with Melissa Birchard, a senior adviser in the Grid Deployment Office of the U.S. Department of Energy. The office was created in 2022 to work on a...

Federalism is the foundational structure of our nation’s government. The dynamic sharing of power among federal, state and local governments is the key to understanding American governance in the view our guest on this podcast, Don Kettl, professor emeritus and the former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an expert on federalism. Kettl, who is the...

Texas Senator Judith Zaffirini has broken state records by a long shot. She has cast more than 72-thousand consecutive votes. She has had a perfect attendance record—except that one time she skipped on purpose to make a point. She has passed 1,388 bills—more than any other legislator in Texas history. All with bipartisan support—no matter who was in the majority. After becoming the first Hispanic...

Paying for college and other post-secondary education continues to be a challenge for many. Already, 44 million Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan balances. At the same time, there's strong evidence that lifetime earnings increase for those who attend and complete college or other post-secondary education.  The guests for this podcast are Ethan Pollack , a senior director at Job...