Project Sphere Podcast

Housing policy plays a critical role in shaping poverty in America, influencing both the availability of affordable housing and the stability of low-income communities. With skyrocketing housing costs, inadequate affordable housing options, and policies that often fail to address the root causes of poverty, millions of Americans continue to struggle with housing instability. In this episode, Emily...

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Immigration in the United States has long been a contentious issue, marked by debates over border security, economic impact, and social integration. While some argue that immigration is the driving force behind the nation’s growth and cultural diversity, others have concerns over border security, undocumented immigration, and the strain placed on public services. But is immigration itself the prob...

The legitimacy of election results and integrity of our voting process have increasingly come into question, and while few claims of election fraud have been found to have substance, these claims have consequences. If American citizens don’t have faith in their election system, the peaceful transfer of power between political parties can become contentious. Some are calling for reforms to our voti...

The framers of the United States Constitution created three branches of government—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial—with powers distributed among the branches. To guard against tyranny, each branch was granted specific powers to check the powers of the other two branches. As James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper No. 51, “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” Yet the auth...

International commerce has created an interconnected world. Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman believed that unfettered free trade is always in people's best interests, as they have the freedom to buy and sell whatever they want, with whomever they want. Others argue that trade should be restricted and that we ought to prioritize domestic production and consumption. Between these two ex...

The United States is experiencing a housing crisis, with a scarcity of homes available and skyrocketing prices. Polls indicate that housing affordability is one of the top issues this election, especially among younger voters. In this episode, Nolan Gray, Research Director at California YIMBY and Howard Husock, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute discuss why we have a housing crisis...

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being used in classrooms across the country. But educators disagree about whether students should be allowed to use A.I. in their coursework. Some teachers feel that using A.I. tools such as ChatGPT amounts to cheating, while others think that students should be allowed to experiment with A.I. tools that they will likely use in their later careers. Is there...

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When it comes to the government’s budget, it seems clear that our approval and appropriation processes don’t work. As of May 2024, the U.S. Treasury reported that the current national debt is $34.58 trillion—and this staggering sum keeps growing. Is all this debt driving us toward a crisis or not? And what, if anything, should be done about it? In this episode, Romina Boccia, Director of Budget an...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The war on drugs is America’s longest war, and it continues to this day. Most agree the War on Drugs has been a failure and public sentiment is shifting. Today, state legislatures in the U.S. are passing laws legalizing and decriminalizing drugs. Regarding harm reduction, what public policy on drugs will help people the most? In this episode, John Hudak, senior fellow in governance studies at the...

Immigration policy has become something of a political football. Some are proposing more open pathways to citizenship. While others have been more concerned about protecting people, who are already in the United States. In this episode, Dany Bahar, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, at the Brookings Institution; Alex Nowrasteh, Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute; and...

What has the election revealed about the country? And what does this say about who Americans really are, what they want and where we are headed? In this episode, Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution; P. J. O’Rourke, bestselling author and H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute; and Ramesh Ponnuru, senior edit...

Police are supposed to preserve and protect, but problems in policing have begun to dominate the national debate. And what will the resulting policy changes look like? And will these reforms address what is going on? In this episode, Clark Neily, vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute; Arthur Rizer, director of criminal justice and civil liberties at R Street; and Rashawn Ray, D...

Some say in this election the very soul of the country is at stake. Others want to make law and order the primary issue. But what about debt, spending and war? Henry Olsen, Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Emily Ekins, research fellow and director of polling at the Cato Institute will...

How concerned should we be with wealth or income inequality in the United States? Are there other concerns (like burdensome regulations) that ought to take precedence? And how much of the economic inequality we see in the United States is driven by differences in opportunities? And, in all of these cases, what’s the proper response in the form of public policy? Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute...

The federal government already provides a great number of programs to help people attend college. Are the rising costs of higher education due, in part, to the federal government’s credit availability to students? Is affordability the leading barrier to college, or is it actually college completion? In this podcast, Neal McCluskey, the Director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Ins...

As families try to balance work and childcare, a popular answer is to have government mandate paid family leave. Will mandating paid leave help families or could a law hurt the very workers it is meant to help? Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and adjunct scholar at the Cato In...

War has long been the subject of vigorous debate. The United States Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and appoints the president as commander-in-chief of the military. When it comes to war, who holds the power to ultimately decide the actions of the United States? Gene Healy, vice president at the Cato Institute; David B. Ri...

America’s drug war has been a part of our lives for more than 100 years. With legalization and decriminalization of marijuana in an increasing number of states, conflicts have emerged on drug policy and power. To what extent can and should the states act independently of the federal government on an issue with national ramifications? Cato’s Trevor Burrus, Heritage’s Paul Larkin, and Brookings’s Jo...

In general, are most laws and regulations constitutional? Should the courts do more to enforce constitutional limits, or should they defer to the political branches unless there are blatant violations? Cato's Ilya Shapiro and the Constitutional Accountability Center’s Elizabeth Wydra are joined by participating moderator Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institution to explore the role of the Suprem...

What principles should guide the decisions to intervene militarily? What factors should weigh most heavily? Cato's Emma Ashford, CSIS’s Melanie Marlowe, and Brookings's Tamara Wittes discuss whether the U.S. is too quick to use force in other countries. Learn More: " New Voices in Grand Strategy: Power and Pragmatism: Reforming American Foreign Policy for the 21st Century ," by Emma Ashford " Unba...