Building Excellent Schools ft. Jack Despain Zhou

Charlie Kirk was assassinated yesterday, and sadly that kind of political violence is no longer unusual in America. The last few years have seen a blitz of assassination attempts, bombings, shootings and more. Why is political violence rising in America? How should liberals respond? And is there anything we can do to stop it? To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

What is the Build America Caucus? Representative Josh Harder joins the podcast to discuss why he founded the Build America Caucus, why he still believes in bipartisanship, and how to implement the best ideas for building more housing, infrastructure and energy. To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

What are Democrats and Republicans doing in preparation for 2026? Dave Weigel is a political reporter at Semafor and he joins the podcast to discuss the 2026 midterms - What impact will gerrymandering have? What will the baseline partisan split be? What set of issues does each party want to focus on? To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

Social Security will be insolvent in seven years, and will face deep across-the-board cuts if no action is taken. Ben Ritz joins the program to discuss the new plan from the Center for Funding America's Future to save Social Security - how we can reduce benefits in a targeted way that doesn't cause much pain, how we can increase revenues in a smart way, and how we can transform the Social Security system to be sustainable for the future. Check out Ben's report here - https://www.progressivepolicy.org/reform-that-rewards-work-2025/ To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

Everyone knows that the US auto industry is in decline... or is it? Adam Ozimek joins the podcast to discuss the real state of America's auto manufacturers, how it responded to challenges from Japan and other countries, how labor unions changed the geography of making cars, and how Trump's tariffs might impact the industry. Read more from Adam and EIG's report - https://eig.org/myths-and-lessons-from-american-automaking/ To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

This episode is a joint episode with Andrew Heaton and The Political Orphanage podcast, where Andrew and I discuss the Federal Reserve. Why is it important to manage interest rates and the amount of money flowing through the economy? What would a different monetary system without the Fed look like? And why should the Fed remain independent? We discuss all this and more! To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

How are social media algorithms changing the way we communicate? Adam Aleksic is the author of the new book Algospeak, and he joins the podcast to discuss how social media users invent new words to get around algorithmic censorship, how social media changes our tone of voices, the rhythms of our speech, and ultimately changes how we understand one another. To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

What would it mean for America's schools to focus on excellence? Jack Despain Zhou is the founder of the Center for Educational Progress, a new think tank focused on promoting academic excellence. He joins the show to talk about whether we've gone too far in the pursuit of equity goals in education, how we can support and challenge students at every ability level, whether or not tracking is a good idea, and ultimately what a vision of a stronger education system could look like. To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

The big Republican bill to explode the deficit and cut healthcare has passed Congress and been signed by President Trump. But it's not just bad in the obvious ways - it's also terrible on energy policy. PPI's Director of Energy and Climate Policy Elan Sykes joins the podcast to discuss how Trump's bill will lead to more expensive and more polluting energy. Check out our previous discussion of the big GOP bill - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-down-the-big-beautiful-bill-ft-jason-furman/id1390384827?i=1000713418967 To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/

What's happening with Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill? Jason Furman and Ben Ritz join the podcast to discuss the long run impact the bill would have, why Republicans are so comfortable blowing up the deficit, and whether the Biden administration's mistakes are linked to the moment we're in now. To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at [email protected]. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/