The American Compass Podcast

Curtailing public chaos and institutional corruption are vital objectives to reclaiming a healthy American citizenship. But what can ordinary people do to rein in corrupt elites? And why have elected officials failed to push back for generations? Dr. Matt Mehan, associate dean of Hillsdale College's Graduate School of Government, joins Oren and Chris to make sense of what went wrong. They dis...

The traditional four-year college degree is dramatically falling out of favor with parents and would-be students. One clear problem is that today's educational offerings don't help students build the skills they really need, both for the jobs of the future and for a meaningful life after graduation. Dr. Jacob Imam , president of The College of St. Joseph the Worker, joins Oren and policy...

Many men without college degrees have nearly nonexistent social support, and are often one point of failure away from living in isolation, according to a new research report, Nobody to Call . Their lives are perilous: moving to a new town, losing a job, or the death of a friend could leave them fully divorced from their communities. Sam Pressler , lead author of the paper and a practitioner fellow...

Political conversations around tech tend to gravitate toward AI, chips, and advanced robotics, but these topics are far removed from what most Americans think of as the types of technology that power their daily lives. For most, tech is about cable, or streaming, and how they connect to the internet. Former U.S. senator Cory Gardner, now president and CEO of NCTA, the Internet & Television Ass...

At the 2026 New World Gala, American Compass introduced Reclaiming American Citizenship , a new "project for the people" to confront the existential task of revitalizing what it means to be an American citizen, not merely as a matter of who gets to be here, but about the responsibilities inherent in that privilege. Compass policy advisor Chris Griswold joins Oren to make sense of what do...

After decades of sacrificing economic security for the sake of the free market, American policymakers are returning to the wisdom that economic security and national security are inextricably linked. At American Compass’s 2026 New World Gala, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined Oren to explain why this shift is vital for the national interest. They talk through how COVID didn’t create but reve...

Pope Leo XIV’s highly anticipated encyclical marks a significant milestone in the debate around artificial intelligence and what it means for the future of humanity. To analyze the document and its many implications, Oren speaks with American Compass policy director Chris Griswold , Foundation for American Innovation executive vice president Max Bodach , and Leah Sargeant, editorial director at th...

Foreign policy debates have taken center stage in the second Trump administration, from U.S.-China relations to the ongoing war in Iran.  To assess the situation, Oren speaks with A. Wess Mitchell , who co-founded The Marathon Initiative along with Elbridge Colby and served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs during the first Trump administration. Cass and Mitchell di...

The Democratic Party continues to reel from its 2024 electoral defeat and struggles to connect with the American people. But the party remains captured by special interests and sacred cows that its leaders refuse to confront. Few understand this dynamic better than Ruy Teixeira, author and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and founder of The Liberal Patriot , a now-defunct newsle...

What’s going on in Iran? Who controls the Strait of Hormuz? And why did America get involved in the first place? Bradley Devlin , politics editor at the Daily Signa l, joins Oren to try to make sense of the current state of the U.S. military operation in Iran. They discuss why President Trump deployed troops in the first place, the various ways a peace deal could shake out, and what path forward i...

The affordability crisis has become Washington’s favorite talking point, but the solutions proposed so far won’t solve it. From capital gains tax cuts pitched as relief to renewed enthusiasm for Chinese investment as a growth strategy, many policymakers are circling the problem without addressing its core drivers: stagnant wages, distorted incentives in trade and industrial policy, and an economy...

The fight over net neutrality was supposed to determine the future of the internet. Advocates of net neutrality warned that repealing it would lead to censorship, higher costs, and the collapse of an open web. But nearly a decade later, those predictions never materialized, and the debate has taken on new significance as broadband, 5G, and AI become central to economic growth and national power. W...

Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly, but our ability to measure what these systems can actually do—and the risks they may pose—has lagged behind. Headline benchmarks and viral demos offer snapshots of a system's performance, but they say little about how AI behaves in complex real-world settings or how much autonomy models can sustain over time. As these systems take on more conseque...

“Girlboss” feminism promised a world in which women could seamlessly balance ambitious careers and flourishing family lives. But in practice, that vision has proven far more brittle, often demanding total commitment to work while sidelining marriage, children, and the realities of time and tradeoffs. While many women are moving away from that all-consuming focus on a career, they're looking f...

The financial industry is supposed to be our economy’s plumbing, quietly channeling capital to investments where it’s needed most. But in today’s system, that plumbing is leaking. From rising credit card rates and opaque lending products to the decline of local banking and the growth of speculative activity, the financial sector is increasingly disconnected from the real economy it was built to se...

Immigration enforcement has long been framed as a question of border security, but the Trump administration's success at stopping illegal crossings has turned the public's attention toward removing illegal aliens who have become enmeshed in communities across America. Now, the administration's challenge will be enforcing immigration law in our labor market. Daniel Kishi , senior pol...

For decades, Americans were told that success was simple: graduate high school, enroll in a four-year college, and launch a career from there. But as college enrollment has expanded and costs have skyrocketed, the results have become increasingly difficult to justify. Many students never complete a degree, others graduate without meaningful skills, all while the system continues to push young peop...

Artificial intelligence continues to advance, but the debate over its economic consequences takes place mostly in two separate spheres: amongst the technologists developing the technology and the workers whose jobs may be transformed by it. As technology gets deployed, the question is no longer whether it will reshape the labor market, but who will benefit and who will bear the costs. American Com...

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to limit the president’s use of emergency tariff authority set off a wave of commentary declaring the end of Trump’s trade agenda. But one week later, the reality looks far more complicated than what the chattering class might lead you to think. If IEEPA is off the table, what tools remain? What happens to the deals already struck? And does this ruling mark a re...

For decades, economists, armed with elegant models, powerful data, and firm conclusions about how markets should work, have claimed to be practitioners of a hard science. Yet in an era of financialization, political backlash, and rising skepticism of any “expert” consensus, many Americans are wondering whether the profession has grown too insular, too ideological, or simply too detached from reali...

Capitalism has undergone a profound shift, as our financial system has moved away from its primary role of channeling capital into productive investments. Corporate priorities have instead turned toward maximizing short-term shareholder returns and deploying complex financial engineering that boosts firms’ bottom lines. In the process, American communities and long-term economic growth have paid t...

America’s housing shortage is often framed as a simple supply problem, but building the kinds of homes families actually need has proven far more complicated. While capital continues to flow into large suburban developments and luxury apartment buildings, the market has stopped producing the modest, family-friendly housing that once anchored stable communities and enabled young families to remain...

America’s welfare programs have long operated on the assumption that states and nonprofits could responsibly steward federal dollars with minimal oversight. But a series of explosive fraud cases—from California to Mississippi to Minnesota—have exposed just how broken that system has become, with lax oversight and minimal accountability leading to billions of dollars stolen from taxpayers. Shad Whi...

The annual gathering of the world’s leadership class at the World Economic Forum in Davos bills itself as high-minded forum for increased global cooperation in the now-struggling old international order. But, in practice, it’s more of a concentrated mass of industry titans flexing with their various status badges, “bilaterals,” and AI slogans all while anxiously refreshing their phones for the lat...

Inflation may have cooled, but Americans still feel squeezed. Groceries are still expensive, housing and health care costs continue to outpace wages, and consumer credit debt continues to balloon, leaving a gap between encouraging economic data and the daily experience of the average American. Voters continue to express concern, and the Trump administration has responded with a flurry of proposals...