Government by Deal: What Happens When Everything Becomes Negotiable? (#291)

The government feels louder and faster than ever: executive actions, constant disruption, everything happening at once. But Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute argues that all this motion may be masking something deeper. He explains why durable change comes from laws passed by Congress - not one-off deals- and why the shift from rule-making to deal-making could shape the future in unexpected ways.

The rules of quantum physics aren’t just strange - they’re usable. Particles can exist in multiple states at once. Observation can reshape reality. Now, scientists are turning those quirks into machines that could solve problems today’s computers simply can’t touch.Princeton Engineering Dean Andrew Houck breaks down what quantum computing really is, what it can (and can’t yet) do, and why it could transform fields from drug discovery to energy.A clear-eyed look at the weirdest laws of the universe and the revolutionary technology they may soon power.

The Constitution isn’t just a statement of ideals. It’s a framework for power - built to divide authority so that no single institution can fully control the law.But that design has a consequence: it slows decisions and complicates action. Is that inefficiency a weakness - or the very mechanism that protects liberty?Drawing on his experience at the center of federal rule-making, Harvard Law School’s Cass Sunstein explores how these constitutional guardrails actually work, why they were designed to restrain concentrated authority, and what we risk losing when they begin to erode.This isn’t abstract theory. It’s about the quiet architecture that shapes who can act, and how a system of divided power ultimately protects self-government.

We all love the thrill of winning - the house, the promotion, the deal. But as Nobel laureate Richard Thaler explains, some of our biggest “wins” are actually the moments we set ourselves up to lose. Thaler breaks down why we overbid, overpay, and talk ourselves into choices we regret. And he shares simple tricks to help you catch yourself before you make a mistake you can’t undo.

The American Dream promises that hard work leads to a better life. But for many children today, that promise depends less on effort and more on where they grow up.Raj Chetty, a Harvard professor and the founder of Opportunity Insights, has spent years following millions of lives to understand what truly drives economic mobility. His findings challenge long-held assumptions about opportunity in America.If the American Dream has started to feel like a coin flip, what’s quietly shaping the odds? And what would it take to give more children a real chance to get ahead?In this conversation, we explore why neighborhoods matter more than we think and how expanding opportunity could strengthen not just individual lives, but the country as a whole.See his new paper Creating High Opportunity Neighborhoods. 

Federal Judge Jed Rakoff has spent decades inside the justice system - as a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and now a judge. In this conversation, he challenges how we think justice works and explains why outcomes often have little to do with guilt or innocence.

We think laughter is a response to something funny.A joke. A punchline. A light moment.But listen closely to real conversations, and laughter shows up in places that are far more important than we realize - and often when nothing is funny at all.Neuroscientist Sophie Scott CBE reveals what laughter really signals, how it works, and why it quietly shapes our relationships, our hierarchies, and our sense of belonging.Sophie Scott is a professor at University College London and one of the world’s leading researchers on the science of laughter.

Elon Musk and Geoffrey Hinton warn of an AI-driven job apocalypse.MIT’s David Autor, one of the world’s leading thinkers on how technology reshapes work, says the real danger lies somewhere else.The biggest risk of AI isn’t mass unemployment - it’s whether human skills and expertise will still matter.David explains how AI could expand middle-class opportunity by lowering barriers to high-value work, why past technologies created more new jobs than they destroyed, and what we need to get right to make this moment a hopeful one.

Jack Goldsmith, who once ran the Justice Department office that advises presidents on what they can and can’t legally do, takes on some of the hardest questions about the limits of the president’s power — from changing the government to the use of military force abroad, including the invasion of Venezuela.Drawing on his experience inside the executive branch, he looks at why the limits on presidential power are more fragile than they appear, how precedent quietly expands executive authority, and what that means for the future of the presidency. 

Most people quit their New Year's resolutions by March. The reason why might surprise you.University of Chicago professor Ayelet Fishbach has spent decades studying why we fail at goals. Her finding: willpower is overrated. What matters is something entirely different.In this episode, Fishbach reveals what actually separates those who succeed from those who quit and the strategies that make goals stick.