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...

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 F...

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 d...

The traditional four-year college degree is dramatically falling out of favor with parents and would-be students. One clear problem is that today's educational offerings don't help students build the skills they really need, both for the jobs of the future and for a meaningful life after graduation. Dr. Jacob Imam, president of The College of St. Joseph the Worker, joins Oren and policy director Chris Griswold to describe what makes his college so different: a classroom experience matched wi...

Many men without college degrees have nearly nonexistent social support, and are often one point of failure away from living in isolation, according to a new research report, Nobody to Call. Their lives are perilous: moving to a new town, losing a job, or the death of a friend could leave them fully divorced from their communities. Sam Pressler, lead author of the paper and a practitioner fellow at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, joins Oren and Chris to unpack the ...

Political conversations around tech tend to gravitate toward AI, chips, and advanced robotics, but these topics are far removed from what most Americans think of as the types of technology that power their daily lives. For most, tech is about cable, or streaming, and how they connect to the internet. Former U.S. senator Cory Gardner, now president and CEO of NCTA, the Internet & Television Association, joins Oren to walk through the political dynamics tied to these issues. They discuss w...

At the 2026 New World Gala, American Compass introduced Reclaiming American Citizenship, a new "project for the people" to confront the existential task of revitalizing what it means to be an American citizen, not merely as a matter of who gets to be here, but about the responsibilities inherent in that privilege. Compass policy advisor Chris Griswold joins Oren to make sense of what doing so means in practice on the eve of America's 250th anniversary. They discuss how a fuller understanding...

After decades of sacrificing economic security for the sake of the free market, American policymakers are returning to the wisdom that economic security and national security are inextricably linked. At American Compass’s 2026 New World Gala, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined Oren to explain why this shift is vital for the national interest. They talk through how COVID didn’t create but revealed our supply chain crisis for vital resources, and what the Trump administration is doing, fr...

Pope Leo XIV’s highly anticipated encyclical marks a significant milestone in the debate around artificial intelligence and what it means for the future of humanity. To analyze the document and its many implications, Oren speaks with American Compass policy director Chris Griswold, Foundation for American Innovation executive vice president Max Bodach, and Leah Sargeant, editorial director at the Institute for Progress and author of Other Feminisms and The Dignity of Dependence. The group dis...

Foreign policy debates have taken center stage in the second Trump administration, from U.S.-China relations to the ongoing war in Iran. To assess the situation, Oren speaks with A. Wess Mitchell, who co-founded The Marathon Initiative along with Elbridge Colby and served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs during the first Trump administration. Cass and Mitchell discuss the renewed intensity of foreign policy debates, particularly on the Right-of-center, t...