Explain It to Me

With Ezra in sunny California, Matt and Sarah gets weedsier than ever as she attempts to explain to Matt the mysteries of ACOs before they discuss a brewing controversy over economic journal citations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Health care innovation, did Dems rig the primary, and fetal stress: Sarah, Ezra, and Matt look at a specific case in America's great productivity slowdown, assess Bernie Sanders' complaints, and examine some exciting Swedish administrative data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ezra, Sarah, and Matt look back at whether Bill Clinton deserves credit for the booming economy of the 1990s, survey the ongoing legal challenges to Obamacare, and dissect new research revealing some surprising facts about abortion rates around the world.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sarah, Ezra, and Matt talk about which companies are succeeding and failure in the Affordable Care Act's new individual market and why, and delve deep into the weeds of some new research on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump is the last man standing in the Republican nominating contest — so Ezra, Matt, and Sarah spend this week's entire episode taking stock of what that means. How did the rise of Trump happen? What does it mean for the Republican party? And how much potential does this have to reshape America's political parties? This episode is brought to you by Texture, an app to help you binge-read your favor...

Max Fisher sits down with Defense Secretary Ash Carter to talk about the modern international environment, why Carter thinks great power rivalry is making a comeback, and for some deep weedsy talk about nuclear weapons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every policy nerd has their favorite tax proposal — and today on the Weeds, Sarah, Matt, and Ezra talk about a few of theirs. What would happen if we abolished all taxes and replaced them with a land tax? Is it a good idea to tax sugary sodas? And how did the carbon tax become the default option in the environmental debate? This episode is brought to you by Texture, an app to help you binge-read y...

With Sarah still on vacation Ezra and Matt ask what we want out of our presidential nominating system, explain a new regulatory initiative that could save the middle class billions, and look at some new research on media consumption and polarization. The Weeds is supported by Goldman Sachs. To learn about developments currently shaping markets, industries, and the global economy, subscribe to the...

The Obama administration's top economist talks to Vox's Dylan Matthews about the challenges facing the American economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Sarah on vacation, Matt and Ezra talk about the philosophical underpinnings of worries about inequality, take a look at Donald Trump's difficulty grappling with the delegate selection process, and discuss a blockbuster new paper that reveals huge city-to-city variation in how long poor people live. The Weeds is supported by Goldman Sachs. To learn about developments currently shaping markets,...

Ezra, Matt and Sarah use the Panama Papers to discuss how tax havens and shell corporations became such a big deal, and why America has done so little to stop them. Matt and Ezra argue a bit about the effectiveness of global governance. Economist Gabriel Zucman gets name-checked quite a bit. Sarah runs through some really surprising new Obamacare data (Medicaid fans — you know who you are — won't...

It would be really weird to walk into a bank and have the teller take down your information on pen and paper. But it happens all the time in medicine — and we try to explain why. Also in this episode: a new tax calculator reveals how the candidates want to change your taxes, and a political science paper from 2014 helps predict the rise of Trumpism. This episode is brought to you by Club W, offeri...

Special guest star Libby Nelson joins Sarah and Matt to explain the Every Student Succeeds Act, examine the strange history and economics behind the NCAA's non-payment of athletes, and break down some new research on why Uber works. Today’s episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus. Visit TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/Weeds to stream Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries and hundreds of ot...

Sarah, Ezra, and Matt discuss the results of the March 15 primaries and the state of the 2016 presidential election. Today’s episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus. Visit TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/Weeds to stream Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries and hundreds of other courses for free! This episode is also brought to you by Club W, offering The Weeds listeners fifty percent off...

Sarah, Ezra, and Matt talk about why Silicon Valley's technical marvels aren't visible in economic statistics, dive into the details of Donald Trump's surprisingly banal health plan, and tackle some new research on improving teaching by improving textbooks. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Start building your website today atSquarespace.com. Enter offer code WEEDS at checkout to get...

In this episode of the Weeds, Ezra, Matt and Sarah discuss the results of Super Tuesday. Everyone is tired, so it gets a bit weird. Topics include whether Donald Trump is actually a moderate, how the election shows American politics is either polarizing or de-polarizing, and whether Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton would be a stronger general-election candidate. Oh, and Bernie Sanders has finally...

By popular demand, Sarah, Matt, and Ezra finally address the Trans Pacific Partnership before contemplating the GOP's ongoing self-immolation, and the real consequences of the war on Planned Parenthood. Today’s episode is brought to you by Harry’s razors. Visit Harrys.com and enter WEEDS at checkout to receive $5 off your first order. Today’s episode is also brought to you by The Great Courses Plu...

Sarah, Ezra, and Matt consider the case for reforming America's current practice of granting life tenure to Supreme Court Justices, discuss the political fight over replacing the late Justice Scalia, and ponder a 25 year-old work of political science that implies the United States is heading for a coup. Today’s episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus. Go to TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/Weed...

Sarah, Ezra, and Matt use the New Hampshire primary results as a lens through which to discuss Jonathan Rauch's case for "political realism" as a governing philosophy. This episode of The Weeds is brought to you by Squarespace. Start Building your website today at Squarespace.com. Enter offer code WEEDS at checkout to get 10% off. This episode is also brought to you by Harry’s razors. Go to Harrys...

Who wins the 2016 election will hugely influence what type of policies Washington passes — and that's why Ezra, Sarah, and Matt devote this entire episode of The Weeds to dissecting the results of the Iowa caucus. We look at Bernie's surprising success, the declining strength of political parties, and how a Cruz administration would govern. For a limited time, The Great Courses Plus is offering Th...

It’s one of the most fundamental disputes in Washington: what effect do taxes have on the economy? On this week's episode of the Weeds, Ezra, Matt, and Sarah work through some of the top papers to explain. Also on this episode: why a third party won't save American politics, and a new working paper that shows a surprising way to encourage students to attend high school. This episode is brought to...

In this preview of Ezra's coming interview podcast, he interviews New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat. Douthat is the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save Themselves, and Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. He's also a fascinating political thinker with a skill that's rare in th...

On this episode of the Weeds, Ezra, Matt, and Sarah dive into one of Bernie Sanders' favorite campaign trail arguments: that money causes more Congressional dysfunction than partisanship. Also on this episode: why the lead poisoning crisis in Flint matters, and a discussion of a (not so great) paper of the week on global inequality. This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Just for a l...

Matt, Sarah, and Ezra reflect on Obama's successes and failures, take a look at Hillary Clinton's new attack on Bernie Sanders, and consider some research on the new health law's surprising lack of impact on the labor market. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Start building your website today atSquarespace.com. Enter offer code WEEDS at checkout to get 10% off. Squarespace—Build it Be...

America's immigration debate is peppered with terms like "path to citizenship" and "amnesty." Those catch phrases can mean vastly different things to different people — and on this week's episode of the Weeds, Vox's Dara Lind joins Sarah and Matt to explain. Also on this episode: understanding the family behind the armed stand-off in Oregon, and a new white paper that argues against increasing the...