The American Compass Podcast

How did American life go off the rails?MIT professor and Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu joins Oren on the podcast to talk about the erosion in what he calls “working-class liberalism” and the consequences of its decline. He makes the case that America’s liberal democracy is most threatened not by external forces seeking to replace it but from a misunderstanding of liberalism as a prescriptive rule book rather than a guiding philosophy. He and Oren discuss how this thinking infected immigration policy in the Western world and why Acemoglu sees the error as a “kiss of death” for working-class communities before closing with ways to repair some of the damage done in liberal democracy’s descent.Further reading:What Happened to Liberal Democracy? by Daron Acemoglu.

For decades, the Right has written off issues related to climate and the environment. But as the Left’s climate alarmism increasingly falls on deaf ears, a new generation of conservatives is charting a course for a more productive approach to protecting our shared natural resources.Chris Barnard, president of the American Conservation Coalition, and Taylor Myers, attorney at Boyden Gray, join Oren and Chris to discuss their recent pieces for Commonplace‘s climate issue. They talk through why environmental issues are so salient, particularly to a younger generation, and why efforts to craft climate change policy absent a focus on human flourishing have caused so many people to tune the topic out. Finally, they discuss why environmental policy needs to also consider America’s growing energy demands, and the tradeoffs inherent in a better approach.Further reading:“Reclaiming Environmental Policy from the Left,” Chris Barnard, Commonplace“Against Climate Piety,” Taylor Myers, Commonplace“What Does the Science of Climate Change Tell Us?,” Joseph Majkut, Commonplace

Often lost in the broader conversation around solar power is how the technology can support American reindustrialization.Mark Widmar, CEO of First Solar, joins Oren on the podcast to explain solar's fit both into an all-of-the-above energy strategy and as a bulwark of U.S. manufacturing renewal. They discuss why solar power is such an American industrial success story, particularly against unfair competition from China, and what AI and automation could portend for the industry. Finally, they talk through how so much of conservative resistance to solar power isn't about the technology itself, and why First Solar's Made in America strategy sets it apart both in terms of energy output and in supporting local communities.

The youngest generation of Americans are increasingly without the kind of formation that shapes children into adults and allows them to develop the muscles of good citizenry, as the institutions and systems that once helped their elders fall short today. This not only sets young people up for failure, but erodes social cohesion and a democratic politics.Yuval Levin joins Oren and Chris to try to define what a better path of formation and true citizenship could look like. They discuss how replacing citizenship with consumerism has impoverished not just conservatism but the country more broadly. and wrestle with the temptations both toward nostalgia for older generations and nihilism for the younger ones, Finally, they talk through what this all means in the context of politics, and what today's deeply unpopular Democratic and Republican Parties could learn about renewing formative institutions from their predecessors in the late nineteenth century.

Stephen Miran, economist and former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, discusses tariffs, trade, public finance, and reserve-currency effects. He explains why his views challenge modern academic consensus. Short, sharp conversations cover tariffs as revenue tools, long-run incidence and installed capital, and how reserve status shapes persistent deficits.

In an apples-to-apples comparison of GDP per capita, eight of Canada's ten provinces are poorer than nearly all U.S. states. But how much can GDP really tell us? Is most of Canada really poorer in any meaningful sense than Kansas?Two writers, Jeff Reimer, a Kansan and senior editor at Comment, and Brian Dijkema, the Ontario-based president of Cardus, journeyed to both locations to find out. They join guest host Chris Griswold to recount their travels, discuss the quality-of-life context that GDP can’t measure, and make sense of the similarities, and key differences, on each side of the border.Further reading:“Is Kansas Really Richer than Canada?” Jeff Reimer, Commonplace“Is Canada Really Poorer than Kansas?” Brian Dijkema, Commonplace

Gregory Conti, associate professor at Princeton and Compact editor-at-large, discusses how advanced AI is reshaping academic life and cultural creation. He argues AI’s imitational power and opacity make it uniquely disruptive. They debate obstructive policies, classroom rules, age-gating, and whether local human roles can preserve meaning.

Few political issues have united Americans the way that a resistance to new data centers to support the development of AI has done in recent months. But is this anger and opposition toward them misplaced, and even a threat to American reindustrialization?Josh Zoffer, a venture capitalist and Biden administration alum, joins Oren on the podcast to discuss the ongoing fight on data centers. Zoffer explains the thinking from his recent Financial Times piece, "Data centres are a crucial test of US industrial resolve," and why he thinks their construction is vital to America's success in the AI race with China. And he and Oren discuss how data centers fit into the broader, bipartisan push to build up domestic industrial capacity more broadly.

There's a political realignment taking place when it comes to labor law. Republicans from the White House down to the local level are increasingly championing worker rights against corporate interests. But will this change take root in the GOP? And should it?Roger King, senior labor and employment counsel at the CHRO Association joins Oren on the podcast to make sense of the changes over the last decade, and debate the merits of some of the labor legislation on the table. They discuss the Faster Labor Contracts Act, a bill to speed up initial collective bargaining agreements that recently passed the House of Representatives and is under consideration in the Senate. And they talk bigger picture, about what today's workers really need, and where recent efforts could risk overcorrecting.

Curtailing public chaos and institutional corruption are vital objectives to reclaiming a healthy American citizenship. But what can ordinary people do to rein in corrupt elites? And why have elected officials failed to push back for generations?Dr. Matt Mehan, associate dean of Hillsdale College's Graduate School of Government, joins Oren and Chris to make sense of what went wrong. They discuss how a fixation on legal rights has crowded out a public commitment to the responsibilities and duties inherent in citizenship, and why that shift has done so much damage. Finally, they discuss Dr. Mehan's new book, The American Book of Fables, and why his work to adapt timeless lessons for the youngest generation is so important at a moment defined by declining educational quality and oversaturation of technology.Further Reading:The American Book of Fables by Matt Mehan