This week, Nick and Goldy are joined by journalist and historian Yoni Appelbaum to discuss his forthcoming book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. They explore how decades of failed economic policies and zoning regulations have restricted mobility, stifled economic growth, and worsened inequality—revealing ... Show More
Yesterday
Chains of Command: How Franchising Turned Control Without Responsibility Into a Business Model (with Brian Callaci)
When you walk into a McDonald’s, it looks like one company. But legally, the person making your fries probably doesn’t work for McDonald’s at all. Brian Callaci, Chief Economist at the Open Markets Institute and author of Chains of Command, joins Nick and Goldy to explain how fra ... Show More
42m 44s
Aug 18
The Joy of Money (with Carrie Joy Grimes)
Most personal finance advice starts with the same basic premise: you’re doing money wrong. But Carrie Joy Grimes, founder of WorkMoney and author of The Joy of Money, says that misses half the story. Yes, people need real tools to budget, save, pay down debt, and plan for the fut ... Show More
41m 23s
Jun 2025
Confronting the affordable-housing crisis
The US housing crunch is bad—and it’s getting worse. Wider access to safe, affordable homes is vital to enabling economic mobility for all Americans—and to harnessing what McKinsey Partner JP Julien, a leader of the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, calls a “massive” unta ... Show More
25m 28s
Mar 2022
Why it’s so hard to move in America
Dylan Matthews and Jerusalem Demsas are joined by Nick Buttrick (@NickButtrick), a psychologist at Princeton, to talk about interstate mobility in the US (or the lack thereof). They talk about why it is so hard to move; why some of those reasons, Jerusalem argues, are arbitrary; ... Show More
43m 49s
May 2025
Kleptocracy, Inc. — with Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Scott to discuss the rise of kleptocracy in America, the global playbook of autocrats, and solutions to our democratic slide. Follow Anne, @anneapplebaum. Algebra of Happiness: greatness is ... Show More
1h 10m
Feb 2024
Conversation with David Leonhardt — The State of the US Economy
David Leonhardt, a senior writer at The New York Times, where he writes “The Morning” newsletter, joins Scott to discuss themes from his book, “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream.” We hear about the state of the US economy, investments that could fuel ec ... Show More
50m 16s
Sep 2025
The Fragile State of the AI Economy | Kyla Scanlon
Is America running on three economies at once? Zaid Admani sits down with Kyla Scanlon (economist, creator, and New York Times bestselling author) to break down the speculative economy, the real economy, and the meme economy.We dive into whether AI is a bubble and why its trillio ... Show More
26m 36s
Nov 2020
“You Can’t Have Capitalism Without Capital"
In a country where policies blocking Black people from obtaining mortgages, land, and capital have created an immense wealth gap between Black and white Americans that persists to this day, inequality is a threat to our democracy, says Mehrsa Baradaran, professor of law and assoc ... Show More
33m 4s