This episode will explore mental health and behavioral health in the workplace. Our guests include Julie Hocker, assistant secretary for Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, and Michigan Representative Curtis VanderWall.

As the nation prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, NCSL gathered a trio of experts to discuss the origin stories of their states. We discussed the status of each state at the time of the American Revolution, how the state's constitutions were written, and some other unusual historic notes.

Dr. Erica Groshen, former commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Paul Famolari with the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce join the podcast to discuss enhanced wage records and the role they can play in helping states better understand their workforce and evaluate job training and bachelor's degree programs.

Jonathan Morrison, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, joins the podcast to discuss the importance of prehospital blood programs that allow emergency responders to administer blood at the scene to trauma victims. He’s joined by a former military trauma nurse with deep experience in the field and a policy expert from NCSL.

On this episode we dive into the remarkable progress in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and get perspective from a neurologist, two legislators and a policy expert from the Alzheimer’s Association.

The U.S. health care system is massive. It's a $5 trillion behemoth, nearly 20% of the U.S. economy or more than $15,000 per person per year. The cost of health care for consumers, including the cost of health insurance continues to increase. On this episode, we sat down with two people who pay close attention to the health care market and to how state legislatures are responding to rising costs.

In one fashion or another, all state legislatures exercise oversight of state agencies and programs. They do this in a variety of ways using standing committees, rules review, auditing offices, sunset provisions, and more. On this episode of the podcast, we dive into the topic of oversight with three guests who all have different vantage points to observe the process.

Two policy experts on Medicaid--Kathryn Costanza from NCSL and Neda Jasemi from the National Association of Medicaid Directors—joined the podcast to talk about the significant changes in Medicaid that were included in the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Act.

Two guests join the podcast to discuss the increasing focus by state lawmakers on data centers, and concerns about how their massive consumption of electricity may affect the rates paid by consumers.

As a new year and a new state legislative session gets underway, we sat down with Tim Storey, the CEO of NCSL, to discuss the coming legislative session and where he expects legislators to focus their efforts when it comes to budgets, education, Medicaid and more.