Explain It to Me

Vox's Dylan Matthews joins Matt and Dara for another step into Weeds Time Machine: a visit to the past to review some now-forgotten chapter in policy history. This week, it's a return to the late 1970s and a reexamination of "Volcker shock": an attempt by Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to cope with rising inflation, and the myriad consequences of his efforts. Our hosts discuss the oil crisis, stagflation, the curious relationship between central banking and fiscal policy, and give some much-needed reanalysis to this crucial and topsy-turvy time in American history.We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes about five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: vox.com/surveyResources:Charts: Unemployment in the 1970s & Inflation in the 1970s"America's Peacetime Inflation: The 1970s" by J. Bradford De Long in Reducing Inflation: Motivation and Strategy, eds. Christina D. Romer and David H. Romer (U. Chicago; 1997)"Commentary" [on 1970s inflation] by Christina D. Romer (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review; 2005)Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government by Paul Volcker (Public Affairs; 2018)"Other People's Blood" by Tim Barker (n+1; 2019)"Paul Volcker Was a Hero of the Ruling Class" by Doug Henwood (Jacobin; 2019)The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society by Binyamin Appelbaum (Little, Brown; 2019)"What really drives inflation" [on "Regulation Q"] by Itamar Drechsler, Alexi Savov, Philipp Schnabl (Sept. 11, 2019)"Paul Volcker's Complicated Latin American Legacy" by Tyler Cowen (Bloomberg; Dec. 10, 2019)"The Rise of Finance" by Jonathan Levy (Public Books; Nov. 22, 2011)Hosts:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comDara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublicaDylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), Senior Correspondent, VoxCredits:Erikk Geannikis (@erikk38), ProducerNess Smith-Savedoff, EngineerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, author of the new book The Cruelty Is the Point. They discuss the racial politics of the Trump-era, how these tactics persist in the GOP today, and how the dynamics of the present moment have led us to relitigate Reconstruction-era problems that go against the fundamental understanding of American equity. They also have a few things to say in there about Die Hard and Indiana Jones.Resources:"The Cruelty Is the Point" by Adam Serwer (The Atlantic; Oct. 3, 2018)The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America by Adam Serwer (Penguin Random House, June 2021)"The Flight 93 Election" by Michael Anton (Claremont Review of Books; Sept. 5, 2016)"The Great Awokening" by Matthew Yglesias (Vox; Apr. 1, 2019)"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic; June 2014)Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior by Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird (Princeton' Oct. 2021)Schoolbook Nation: Conflicts over American History Textbooks from the Civil War to the Present by Joseph Moreau (U. Michigan; 2004)Guest:Adam Serwer (@AdamSerwer), staff writer, The Atlantic; author, The Cruelty Is the PointHost:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comCredits:Erikk Geannikis, ProducerNess Smith-Savedoff, EngineerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vox's Libby Nelson joins Matt and Dara on the first episode of the Weeds Time Machine: a visit to the past to review some now-forgotten chapter in policy history. This week, it's No Child Left Behind. Our hosts discuss the bipartisan consensus that existed at the outset of this policy, how everyone eventually turned on it, and the legacy it still leaves behind in our school systems today.Resources:"The GOP's Plan to Take Education Policy Back to the Early 1990s" by Kevin Carey (Oct. 5, 2011; The New Republic)"The scariest lesson of No Child Left Behind" by Libby Nelson (July 27, 2015; Vox)Hosts:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comDara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublicaLibby Nelson (@libbyanelson), Deputy Policy Editor, VoxCredits:Erikk Geannikis, ProducerNess Smith-Savedoff, EngineerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vox film critic and culture reporter Alissa Wilkinson joins Matt and Dara to take a break from politics (sort of) to talk about movies. They discuss the state of the streaming wars, the fate of the post-Covid movie theater, and rehearse some Hollywood history to discover that vertical integration might be... good? Plus, some research is examined that deals with spectator inattention and umpire performance in Major League Baseball.Resources:"On going back to the movies" by Alissa Wilkinson (Vox; June 23)The Paramount Decrees (Dept. of Justice)"Judge Agrees to End Paramount Consent Decrees" by Eriq Gardner (Hollywood Reporter; Aug. 7, 2020)White paper: "The Dynamics of Inattention in the (Baseball) Field" by James E. Archsmith, Anthony Heyes, Matthew J. Neidell & Bhaven N. Sampat (NBER; June 2021)Hosts:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comDara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublicaAlissa Wilkinson (@alissamarie), Film Critic and Culture Reporter, VoxCredits:Erikk Geannikis, ProducerNess Smith-Savedoff, EngineerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by deputy editor of New York magazine and author David Wallace-Wells to talk about the new evidence for the so-called "Lab-Leak hypothesis," and about the possible origins of Covid-19. Wallace-Wells introduces the new research done by Jesse D. Bloom on possible missing tranches of genetic sequencing data from Chinese servers, and the discussion turns to what we know, don't know, can't know, and might know about the origins of Covid . . . and where that leaves us for the next pandemic.Resources:"Understanding the Origins of SARS-CoV-2" (June 14; Fred Hutch News Service)"Recovery of deleted deep sequencing data sheds more light on the early Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 pandemic" by Jesse D. Bloom (June 22)"Scientist Opens Up About His Early Email to Fauci on Virus Origins" by James Gorman and Carl Zimmer (June 14, New York Times)"The Lab-Leak Hypothesis" by Nicholson Baker (Jan. 4, New York magazine)"Could COVID-19 Have Escaped from a Lab?" by Rowan Jacobsen (Sept. 9, 2020, Boston Magazine)"We Had the Vaccine the Whole Time" by David Wallace-Wells (Dec. 7, 2020, New York magazine)"The Implications of the Lab-Leak Hypothesis" by David Wallace-Wells (June 12, New York magazine)Guest:David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells), Deputy Editor, New York magazine; author, The Uninhabitable EarthHost:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comCredits:Erikk Geannikis, Editor and ProducerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt and Dara are joined by Vox's German Lopez to talk through some of the lessons we seem not to have learned from the way the Covid pandemic unfolded — or, is still unfolding. Our hosts discuss the abandonment of the Obama-era pandemic playbook, the politicized messaging and idiosyncratic inattention of former President Trump, and what it would mean to develop a truly harm-reducing strategy for the America we actually have. Plus, some research is discussed that evaluates the relationship between access to treatment facilities and morbidity due to substance abuse.Resources:"America still needs to learn from its biggest pandemic failure" by German Lopez (June 4; Vox)"The US doesn't just need to flatten the curve. It needs to 'raise the line'" by Eliza Barclay, Dylan Scott, and Christina Animashaun (Apr. 7, 2020; Vox)"The fundamental question of the pandemic is shifting" by Ed Yong (June 9; The Atlantic)White paper: "Tackling the Substance Abuse Crisis: The Role of Access to Treatment Facilities" by Adriana Corredor-Waldron and Janet Currie (NBER; May 2021)Hosts:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comDara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublicaGerman Lopez (@germanrlopez), Senior Correspondent, VoxCredits:Erikk Geannikis, ProducerPaul Robert Mounsey, EngineerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt and Dara are joined by Vox's Dylan Scott to learn about aducanumab, the new drug that was recently approved by the FDA for treating Alzheimer's disease despite a lack of evidence of its effectiveness, possibly serious side effects, and a jaw-droppingly high price tag. Matt, Dara, and Dylan discuss the situation in light of lessons learned, or not quite learned, from the global pandemic. Then, some research is discussed that evaluates the effects of work requirements on supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) participation and the workforce.Resources:"The new Alzheimer's drug that could break Medicare" by Dylan Scott (June 10; Vox)"FDA's Decision to Approve New Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease" by Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, Director, FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (June 7)"The maddening saga of how an Alzheimer's 'cabal' thwarted progress toward a cure for decades" by Sharon Begley (June 25, 2019; STAT News)"What the Rich Don't Want to Admit About the Poor" by Ezra Klein (June 13; New York Times)White paper: "Employed in a SNAP? The Impact of Work Requirements on Program Participation and Labor Supply" by Colin Grey, et al. (Sept. 2019)Hosts:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comDara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublicaDylan Scott (@dylanlscott), Policy Reporter, VoxCredits:Erikk Geannikis, Editor and ProducerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Emily Hamilton of the Mercatus Center to talk about the way that zoning and land use policy affects property value, housing availability, and affordability. They discuss some example statutes from those laboratories of democracy, the several states, tackle the most divisive issue in all of housing Twitter, and Matt just lets totally loose about how he's not allowed to replace his home's windows.Resources:H.R. 4307, the Build More Housing Near Transit Act2006 Arizona Proposition 207Kelo v. New London (545 US 269, 2005)"How policymakers can improve housing affordability" by James Pethokoukis and Emily Hamilton (May 4, American Enterprise Institute)Guest:Emily Hamilton (@ebwhamilton), Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Urbanity Project, Mercatus Center at George Mason UniversityHost:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comCredits:Erikk Geannikis, Editor and ProducerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt and Dara are joined by Vox's Emily Stewart to talk about the state of the economy right now. They take on the jobs numbers, some of the markets that were hit with unforeseen interruptions and shortages, and get pretty philosophical amidst a detailed discussion about the supply chain for chicken wings. Then, some research is discussed that suggests that maybe your tweets really do matter... or, at least when you tweet through U.S. elections where Donald Trump is on the ballot.Resources:"May's solidly meh jobs report" by Emily Stewart (June 4, Vox)"Lumber mania is sweeping North America" by Emily Stewart (May 3, Vox)White paper: "The Effect of Social Media on Elections: Evidence from the United States" by Thomas Fujiwara, Karsten Müller, and Carlo Schwarz (October 27, 2020)Hosts:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comDara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublicaEmily Stewart (@EmilyStewartM), Senior Reporter, VoxCredits:Erikk Geannikis, Editor and ProducerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt sits down with John Pfaff, professor and author of Locked In, an influential and important 2017 book about mass incarceration in America. The two discuss some common misconceptions about America's prison population, three different meanings of the term "broken windows," and what might be the true cause of the current trending rise in violent crime across the nation.Resources:Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John Pfaff (2017; Basic Books)Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Levoy (2015; One World)"Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach" by Gary S. Becker (Journal of Political Economy v. 76 no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 1968)Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence by Patrick Sharkey (2019; W.W. Norton)The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (1961)"Broken Windows: The police and neighborhood safety" by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson (March 1982; The Atlantic)Guest:John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff), author; professor, Fordham Law SchoolHost:Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.comCredits:Erikk Geannikis, Editor and ProducerAs the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter.The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production.Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcastsAbout VoxVox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Follow Us: Vox.comFacebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices