The Politics of Everything

Fires and overheating accidents attributed to lithium-ion batteries killed 19 people in the United States in 2022, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In New York City alone, six people were killed in these uniquely fast-burning infernos. Experts say poorly made batteries, like those often found on cheaper e-bike models, are the primary culprit. So why is it still so easy to...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is known as the plan-wielding policy wonk of the progressive movement. But underlying those plans is a simple idea: We are the government. “Government is the vehicle for letting us do together what none of us can do alone,” Sen. Warren tells Felicia and Michael. “We all contribute and it expands opportunity for all of us, and I feel like that's what's really been missing as w...

In the past decade, the number of original, scripted television shows being produced each year has more than doubled. Meanwhile, subscriptions to streaming services have surpassed one billion worldwide. We have the shows; we have the access. Why does it feel next to impossible to find anything good to see? On episode 38 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene discuss how...

For a few days in early November, it seemed like Twitter might go down in flames. That hasn’t happened—yet—but the prospect of the platform’s end has forced a reckoning. What would its loss mean for the countless journalists, academics, and politicians who rely on it? Would we be better or worse off? And could a diminished Twitter augur the death of social media in general? On episode 58 of The Po...

Earlier this summer, TikTok users started describing strange symptoms after eating French Lentil + Leek Crumbles, a new product from the vegan food company Daily Harvest. The company received hundreds of reports of illness, and in June, it recalled the product. The Daily Harvest fiasco got special attention because people were reporting their problems on social media, but foodborne illness is far...

San Francisco was in meltdown, and the district attorney had lost control. That was the story that ousted Chesa Boudin, the city’s progressive prosecutor: Get rid of Boudin and San Franciscans will be safer. Now, a few months out from a successful recall, how is the city faring? What was behind the campaign to demolish the former district attorney—and, crucially, who was bankrolling it? On episode...

We’re sharing a preview from another podcast, The Last Archive. The Last Archive is a show about the history of truth -- or the lack thereof. It's about how we've arrived at the current "fake news" moment. And it's about how we know what we know, and why it seems, these days, as if we can't agree on anything at all. Harvard historian Jill Lepore uncovers the secrets of the past the way a detective...

Are we headed back to the 1970s? Politicians and commentators from across the political spectrum insist we are. They also make clear that nothing could be worse. Why is the decade so feared? What kinds of policy to the grim warnings justify? On episode 56 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene speak with the writer Aaron Timms about “nostophobia,” a term he coined to des...

Are evil-minded strangers trying to hook your kids on candy-colored fentanyl? As Halloween approaches, a dire story is making the rounds about the threat to children of so-called rainbow fentanyl. Is there anything to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s warnings? When it comes to synthetic opioids, where do the real dangers lie? On episode 55 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and...

Who will win this year’s Nobel Prize in literature? And what—beyond literary excellence—does the award stand for? On episode 54 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with Alex Shephard, a staff writer at The New Republic and an inveterate Nobel watcher, about the enigmatic politics of the oldest and most distinguished literary prize in the world. Will the Nobel Com...

Once upon a time, all politics was local. These days, it seems, all local politics is national. And as the states grow further and further apart on policy, and the Republican Party’s opposition to democratic institutions grows more extreme, the downsides of federalism become ever more apparent. On episode 53 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene speak with Jacob Grumbac...

Earlier this summer, TikTok users started describing strange symptoms after eating French Lentil + Leek Crumbles, a new product from the vegan food company Daily Harvest. The company received hundreds of reports of illness, and in June, it recalled the product. The Daily Harvest fiasco got special attention because people were reporting their problems on social media, but foodborne illness is far...

Over the past few years, deaths from car accidents in the United States have spiked dramatically. Journalists and commentators have been quick to point to pandemic-induced stress and anxiety to explain the increase. But is that account too pat? On episode 44 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with three guests about road design, automobile regulation, and what’s...

Romania is home to one of the largest and most important old-growth forests in the world—but its trees are disappearing at an astonishing rate. Meanwhile, a spate of attacks has shaken environmentalists and activists in the country. On episode 43 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with the reporter Alexander Sammon, who recently traveled to Romania to investigat...

Today’s youth are overwhelmingly left-wing. So who are the young conservatives? On Episode 40 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk to Sam Adler-Bell, a writer and the host of the podcast Know Your Enemy, about an energetic cohort who call themselves the New Right. They differ in many ways from the median right-wing voter. They hate the Republican establishment. Th...

Inflation hurts consumers. But the traditional solution to inflation—raising interest rates—also hurts consumers. Is it possible to fight rising prices without making people poorer? Why do politicians and the press alike treat the Federal Reserve as the only game in town? On episode 51 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene speak with the macroeconomist Claudia Sahm, the...

Can you overdose on fentanyl just from being near it? Over the past few years, a number of police officers have said just that. In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration even issued a warning to cops about the dangers of such encounters. The stories have made national news, but they’ve also invited skepticism. On Episode 35 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene discu...

Since the 1990s, student loan debt in the United States has ballooned to the point that the numbers sound like a mean joke: As of May 2022, the outstanding balance of federal education loans topped $1.6 trillion. But as huge as that figure is, we’re not powerless in the face of it. In his campaign for president, Joe Biden supported the immediate cancellation of a minimum of $10,000 of student debt...

New Yorkers may especially love telling horror stories about their housing travails, but high rents are no longer the exclusive purview of the coastal cities. Across the country, tenants are feeling the pain of low vacancy rates and astronomic prices. On episode 49 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene look into what’s driving the increase in costs, what we can expect w...

When you’re in Disney World, lost in the eerily self-contained universe of its vast theme parks, it can be hard to see that you’re also in the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special governance zone that gives the Walt Disney Company powers very like those of a county government. In April, Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature passed a bill that would do away with Reedy Creek. But...

In the 1940s, the pesticide DDT exploded in popularity. Ignoring warnings that it might poison the environment and endanger human health, corporations and governments sprayed the chemical for decades—until countries finally began outlawing its use, for precisely those reasons. On episode 47 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with Elena Conis, the author of How t...

Few people enjoy going to the dentist. But generally speaking, we don’t question what’s done to us when we’re there. On episode 33 of The Politics of Everything, Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene speak with Ferris Jabr and Daryl Austin, two journalists who have investigated dental overtreatment and fraud. It’s impossible to say exactly how widespread gratuitous treatment is—and it can even be difficult...

When the Sunshine Protection Act sailed through the Senate this March, everyone was shocked. In a deadlocked Congress that has passed almost nothing, how did a bill about daylight saving time, of all things, make it through? On episode 46 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene explore what exactly happened in the upper chamber and look into America’s chaotic history of c...

It was easy to make fun of RT America. Funded by the Russian government, the English-language news channel seemed to worry little about journalistic standards and often engaged in bald propaganda. Now that it’s gone, it’s hard to mourn it. But the closure of RT America also signals the end of an era of more open communication between Russia and the United States. On episode 45 of The Politics of E...

Last weekend, new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a powerful speech announcing major changes in German policy in light of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.  “With the invasion of Ukraine, we are in a new era,” Scholz said. He announced that Germany would take a strong role in checking Russia’s aggression through funding its military and increasing defense spending. He also...