The National Affairs Podcast

The Federalist  was written more than two centuries ago with a particular purpose: persuading Americans to back the Constitution. Yet far from being a period piece, it initiated nothing less than a revolution in political thought — one that fundamentally redefined how we understand popular government. Grasping this point could help today’s Americans make better sense of our society’s contempo...

This spring, in the case of  Moore v. Harper , the Supreme Court will decide whether and when state judges can step in to draw congressional district maps. The case takes up the so-called “independent state legislature” theory. At issue is nothing less than the traditional model of American redistricting, in which the people’s representatives, not partisan activists and courts, craft district...

Neither free-speech absolutism nor censorship will solve the problems that surround political speech today. Instead, we need a renewed commitment to the citizen’s task of finding common ground, even and especially between factions that seem irreconcilable. We need to relearn how to rule and be ruled in turn. Guests Jenna and Ben Storey join us to discuss how political speech can overcome social di...

Pressuring families to keep both parents in the workforce while their children are young may be beneficial for GDP, but it often harms families. Both policymakers and employers should recognize that many families want one parent to stay home with the kids in their early years, and should find ways to make that possible. Guest Ivana Greco joins us to discuss policy reforms that would encourage and...

The question of the proper role of government once unified the right, but now it divides it. Some conservatives are increasingly open to an assertive role for the state, particularly in supporting family formation. But what rules and standards should define that role? The principle of subsidiarity can be of enormous help in tackling this question and in shaping conservative family policy. Guest An...

What does it mean to be a conservative in a time of profound upheaval, when it is no longer clear what can or even should be conserved? Few Americans have more to teach us on that front than John Jay — a man who modeled throughout his remarkable life and work the vocation of a conservative in a time of disruption. Guest Brad Littlejohn joins us to discuss Jay, the founding father whose brand of “c...

The information revolution has produced the most dramatic economic and social transformations since industrialization. Like that preceding revolution, it has yielded some great benefits but has also generated some unanticipated and unacceptable harms that are particularly acute among one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations: our children. To grapple with this issue successfully, policy...

Constitutionalist court watchers, judges, and scholars are now engaged in an intense debate over how to apply originalism and textualism in practice. The work of late legal scholar Alexander Bickel points toward a tradition-based originalism that could offer a path through that debate. His approach calls on our shared national memory to help us achieve what the conservative judicial critique sough...

The populist turn of the American right has created a policy affinity between nationalist conservatives and mainstream progressives. Both seem to agree that an emphasis on dynamism has undermined our economy’s ability to prioritize workers, families, and communities. But in fact, the trouble facing America’s heartland is more likely the result of a lack of dynamism than an excess of it. Guest Ryan...

How to balance state and national power was perhaps the single most important and challenging question confronting the early republic. The way the framers took up that question, and the approach they landed on for addressing it, can help us appreciate just how unlikely the emergence of the United States as we now know it really was. Guest Allen Guelzo joins us to discuss the framers’ approach to f...

Conservatives have been on the sidelines of climate-policy debates for several decades now. In recent years, however, a new force has appeared in climate politics: the Eco-right. Guests Alex Bozmoski and Nate Hochman join us to discuss the different factions within this movement of scrappy, conservative-leaning non-profits and think tanks, and explain how they can best work together to guide and e...

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have few fans in Washington, but thanks to increasing worries over the long-term stability of the dollar, they have piqued the interest of some major investors. In an era of rapid growth in deficits and debt and rising inflation, cryptocurrencies may be pointing us toward a new monetary order. Guest Avik Roy joins us to discuss why policymakers should take these curre...

The case of  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization  — which the Supreme Court will hear this term — offers the cleanest opportunity since 1973 for the Court to revisit its abortion jurisprudence. A review of that jurisprudence shows that, regardless of anyone’s views of abortion itself, basic fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law demands it be overturned. Guest Carter S...

Few would dispute the observation that Congress is now dysfunctional. But why has that happened? Considering the House of Representatives in particular suggests three ways in which Congress has gone off track: substantive, procedural, and structural. Each in turn points to a set of reforms that might help the House recover its central place in our constitutional system. Former congressman Keith Ro...

The idea that immigration is the solution to the aging of American society has become an article of faith among those arguing for ever-higher levels of new arrivals. It’s not a crazy argument; it just happens to be incorrect. In reality, the impact immigrants can have on population aging is small. Immigration certainly makes our population larger, but not younger. Guest Steven Camarota joins us to...

In recent years, some on the right have argued that the national interest requires policymakers to coordinate key sectors of the economy, and that this would mark a return to a proud American tradition. But the history of American economic policy provides as much a warning as a guide for these would-be planners, and should leave them wary of attempts to direct the economy from the top down. Guest...

Benjamin Franklin presents us with layers of confounding mystery. And that’s how he wanted it. From his earliest creation — a set of letters to the editor of the  New-England Courant  written under the pseudonym Silence Dogood — he hid himself behind masks that let him speak frankly yet always ambiguously. Both what he said and how are keys to his enduring appeal. Guest Ralph Lerner join...

When we discuss education in America, we almost invariably refer to schools. But Americans have always been ambivalent about whether parents or a formal teaching establishment should ultimately be responsible for the education of the rising generation. That ambivalence itself offers a key to understanding America’s endless education debates. Guest Rita Koganzon joins us to discuss the history of t...

The crisis in which our country found itself following the 2020 election was in many respects unprecedented. Yet it also built on a years-long pattern by which losing politicians have sown mistrust in our elections. We must now wonder if every candidate who loses a major election will refuse to concede and instead set out to raise money and build support on the back of unfounded claims of corrupti...

The 2019-2020 school year will be remembered as the year we all became home schoolers. But well before the pandemic, the popularity of home schooling exceeded its actual prevalence, as fiscal and logistical challenges often posed insurmountable obstacles for potential home-school families. Guest Michael McShane joins us to discuss the hybrid home-school model, and how it might offer a way to close...

“Cultural humility” has recently joined diversity, inclusion, equity, and intersectionality in the social-justice lexicon. An entire social movement is hidden in those two words — one that is far from innocuous. To prevent the concept from undermining our educational institutions, we need to see cultural humility for what it really is and understand the challenge it poses to traditional academic i...

What will be Donald Trump’s lasting effects on American politics? Three conventional wisdoms have arisen in response to that question. In one view, Trump was an aberration, and his imprint will fade as President Biden reverses his executive actions and his sad attempts to remain relevant in retirement prove futile. A second view sees Trump as transformative, insisting his unconventional campaignin...

The gains from trade and technological advance in recent decades have been enormous. But the transformation has had some downsides, too. These drawbacks have transformed our politics in recent decades, and the economic disaster accompanying the coronavirus pandemic has only magnified them. Defenders of markets have too often sought to dismiss the downsides, while populists point to them as reasons...

As America’s political parties have been increasingly captured by their ideological extremes in recent decades, the space for cross-party coalition building has shrunk. Some reformers argue that only third parties can help, but this solution has never been realistic in our system. A more practical way forward would require would-be coalition builders to participate more vigorously in party politic...

Elections in America and around the world in recent years have raised concerns about the reliability of opinion polling. But the challenges facing the industry go beyond simple reliability and predictive power, revealing a chasm between pollsters and the public they observe that poses a threat to the credibility and usefulness of opinion surveys in our democracy. After the shocking election result...