Molly McKew (writer and lecturer on Russian influence and information warfare) joins Host Ron Steslow to take stock of the war shifting beneath the surface. They begin with the state of the fighting: Putin’s nuclear theater around Victory Day and the quiet vibe shift on the battlefield as Ukrainian resilience compounds. From there, they turn to Ukraine as a laboratory for the future of war: unmanned systems, data hubs, and the battlefield coordination American defense companies are scrambling to...
May 16, 2026•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 579
Not yet a Politicology+ member? Don’t miss all the extra episodes on the private, ad-free version of this podcast. Upgrade now at politicology.com/plus . Ron Steslow and Mike Madrid discuss the redistricting wars, the Supreme Court case that could upend a central part of the Voting Rights Act, how Latinos becoming the largest minority group will make us rethink what being a “minority” even means, and how partisanship is becoming our primary identity. Contribute to Politicology at politicolog...
May 13, 2026•38 min•Season 2Ep. 578
Nicholas Anthony (Research Fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives) joins Host Ron Steslow to examine how the stablecoin legislation moving through Congress is quietly remaking the financial system and expanding the surveillance state in the process. They dig into the Bank Secrecy Act and the third-party doctrine, the legal architecture that lets the government access Americans' financial records without a warrant. Next, they examine how AI is turning mass f...
May 09, 2026•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 577
Mike Madrid and Susan Del Percio dig into why housing affordability has become the central economic and political problem heading into the midterms. They discuss how housing and cost of living concerns are driving the anxiety voters are feeling. Then, they look at populism on both sides of the aisle, from Trump’s embrace of “no tax on tips” and credit card caps to Mamdani’s promises to freeze the rent, and why neither party is being honest about the long-term supply problem at the heart of the h...
May 06, 2026•28 min•Season 2Ep. 576
Ron Steslow continues his discussion with Izabella Kaminska to unpack one of the biggest assumptions behind the AI boom: that it will generate enough growth to justify the enormous capital being poured into it. Also, how much does America’s enormous national debt really matter? And, what’s really going on with gold and the new efforts—by China and private corporations—to remonetize it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Apr 30, 2026•45 min•Season 2Ep. 575
Mike Madrid (Author of The Latino Century) joins Host Ron Steslow to examine America’s growing crisis of purpose and how that crisis is showing up across politics, technology, corruption, religion, and war They begin with Justice Clarence Thomas’s recent speech on the Declaration of Independence, natural rights, progressivism, and the proper role of government. From there, they turn to Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s vision of a “technological republic,” Silicon Valley’s moral obligations to national d...
Apr 24, 2026•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 574
You may know him from his dazzling dishes showcased on the hit Netflix TV series, “Chef’s Table,” but three-Star Michelin Chef Dan Barber (Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Blue Hill NYC) has a relationship with ingredients far deeper and more complex than pretty plates of food. In this episode, Chef Dan joins Ron Steslow to discuss the politics and future of food and the consequences of how America feeds itself. To unlock exclusive content, visit: https://politicology.com/plus (02:32) The current state...
Apr 22, 2026•58 min•Season 2Ep. 572
Hagar Chemali (Fmr. spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN) is back in studio with Host Ron Steslow for a conversation about how artificial intelligence is reshaping power, conflict, and accountability in real time. They discuss Ukraine’s first successful capture of a Russian position using only unmanned ground robotic systems and aerial drones and the rapid integration of AI into warfare and national security. They also examine the growing clash between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon afte...
Apr 18, 2026•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 571
In the second episode of this two part series, Øptimus co-founder and Data Science Director for Decision Desk HQ Scott Tranter joins Ron Steslow to talk about data science, polling, and modeling To unlock more episodes, visit: https://politicology.com/plus (00:59) The non-response bias and how data scientists must deal with it (02:55) The decrease in response rates over time (10:47) Likely vs eligible voters in polls and how to predict who’s likely to vote (15:55) Finding respondents to fill coh...
Apr 15, 2026•46 min•Season 2Ep. 573
Journalist Izabella Kaminska (The Blind Spot, Financial Times, POLITICO Europe) joins Host Ron Steslow for a wide-ranging discussion about what the war with Iran will mean for the global economy, especially America, long after the shooting slows down. They begin with the immediate shockwaves of the temporary ceasefire and the partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping chokepoint that remains politically controlled even if technically “open.” Then, Izabella unpacks the end of t...
Apr 10, 2026•1 hr 30 min•Season 2Ep. 569
In this two part series, Øptimus co-founder and Data Science Director for Decision Desk HQ Scott Tranter joins Ron Steslow to talk about data science, polling, and modeling To unlock more episodes, visit: https://politicology.com/plus (01:00) The role of a data scientist on a campaign (04:20) What message testing is and how it’s used (11:15) Understanding voters you need to persuade and voters you need to turn out (15:16) Explaining sampling (34:36) Polling vs modeling (37:15) Why pollsters choo...
Apr 08, 2026•52 min•Season 2Ep. 568
Susan Del Percio (Crisis Communications Expert) joins Host Ron Steslow for a wide-ranging conversation about one of the most fundamental questions in American life: who gets to be an American, and who gets to decide? They begin with the Supreme Court oral arguments over Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and some temporary legal residents. They then turn to the controversial SAVE Act, a proposed voter registration a...
Apr 03, 2026•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 567
Host Ron Steslow welcomes Mike Brock, CEO of TBD, a subsidiary of Block Inc. (formerly Square), the financial technology firm led by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The Internet is dominated by massive, corporate walled gardens like Google, Facebook, and Twitter (now X), where centralized control makes their users (us!) vulnerable to censorship and manipulation. In this episode, we explore how the movement to decentralize technology empowers individuals, protects against corporate and government ab...
Mar 25, 2026•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 566
Why are essays resonating again in this moment? And what does it mean when writers, not just journalists or politicians, start helping people make sense of America in real time? Guest Host Mike Madrid sits down with Robert Arnold (writer, speaker, and activist) for a wide-ranging conversation about the resurgence of the essay, the responsibility of artists and writers in a fractured political age, and why long-form thinking still matters in an era shaped by algorithms, cable-news conflict, and s...
Mar 20, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 565
James Kirchick joins Ron Steslow to discuss his book Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington (01:55) Why he wrote the book (06:43) The interwoven political history and gay history in Washington (14:33) The melting pot of the gay community and why it was seen as a threat (19:55) The trope that whatever is bad must be gay (31:51) The Lavender Scare (35:53) The tension between the gay loyal foot soldiers of Ronald Reagan and courting the religious right (49:00) What was challenging about ...
Mar 18, 2026•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 564
Ron Steslow is joined by Hagar Chemali (Fmr. spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN) for a wide-ranging conversation on the war in Iran, the confusion surrounding the Trump administration’s goals, and its vision for the United States in the world. Then, in Politicology+, Marc Polymeropoulos joins to discuss the explosive new reporting about the CIA’s coverup of Anomalous Health Incidents—also known as Havana Syndrome—and the dangerous classified weapon that causes them. POLITICOLOGY+ Not ye...
Mar 13, 2026•1 hr 23 min•Season 2Ep. 563
Hagar Chemali and Marc Polymeropoulos join Ron Steslow to discuss the explosive new reporting about the CIA’s coverup of Anomalous Health Incidents—also known as Havana Syndrome—and the dangerous classified weapon that causes them. They break down what the latest investigations reveal: evidence that there's a device that could cause these symptoms, growing questions about whether the government tried to discredit victims, and why these revelations could force a broader reckoning inside the intel...
Mar 13, 2026•35 min
Even after historic civil rights progress over the last sixty years, there’s no denying that certain groups of people still face real, serious, and even systemic discrimination. In pursuit of justice, many well-meaning activists have made identity central to their cause—arguing, for example, that in order to right wrongs, rules and laws must treat people differently, not equally, depending on the groups to which they belong. Whatever you think of the term “wokeness,” this new ideology has spread...
Mar 11, 2026•57 min•Season 2Ep. 562
Even after historic civil rights progress over the last sixty years, there’s no denying that certain groups of people still face real, serious, and even systemic discrimination. In pursuit of justice, many well-meaning activists have made identity central to their cause—arguing, for example, that in order to right wrongs, rules and laws must treat people differently, not equally, depending on the groups to which they belong. Whatever you think of the term “wokeness,” this new ideology has spread...
Mar 04, 2026•48 min•Season 2Ep. 560
Alua Arthur (Death Doula) joins host Ron Steslow to discuss the importance of embracing mortality, talking about death, and her new book, Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life and Getting Real About the End. Segments to look forward to: (02:31) What is a death doula? (05:39) Alua’s journey and embracing mortality (07:28) The impact of avoiding conversations about death (10:33) Practical ways to approach contemplating death (26:00) Having conversations about death with your loved ones...
Feb 25, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 558
The Epstein files were supposed to bring clarity—what happened, who knew, and who was protected. Instead, the slow drip of disclosures, redactions, and missing records has deepened a broader crisis: collapsing trust in institutions in the U.S. and beyond. Guest Host Hagar Chemali and Mike Madrid (Author of The Latino Century) unpack what the files reveal (and what they still don’t), why the rollout feels like a coverup even to Trump’s base, and why the fallout is landing harder overseas than at ...
Feb 21, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 557
For the ad-free version of this episode, subscribe to Politicology+ at https://politicology.com/plus In part two of this series, Ron talks to Rebecca Roiphe (Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professor of Law at New York Law School) about critical legal studies, the attacks on our understanding of what the law is and how it should function from across the political spectrum. They focus on how the chilling actions of the Trump Administration stem from a belief that law is merely an instrument of power...
Feb 18, 2026•53 min•Season 2Ep. 556
What if the “next big thing” out of Silicon Valley isn’t an app—it’s a political project engineered to bypass democracy? In this episode, Guest Host Mike Madrid sits down with Gil Durán (journalist and author of “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and The War on Democracy”) who’s been tracking an increasingly explicit ideology emerging from venture capital and tech power circles that treats democratic governance as a constraint to be engineered around. Gil explains how what started as odd lo...
Feb 13, 2026•58 min•Season 2Ep. 555
For the ad-free version of this episode, subscribe to Politicology+ at https://politicology.com/plus In this two-part episode, Ron talks to Rebecca Roiphe (Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professor of Law at New York Law School) about critical legal studies, the attacks on our understanding of what the law is and how it should function from across the political spectrum. They discuss: (04:57) The challenges the rule of law is facing (07:31) Understanding Critical Legal Studies (10:16) Intersectiona...
Feb 11, 2026•46 min•Season 2Ep. 554
Americans largely agree on two immigration goals: securing the border and deporting people here illegally who have committed violent crimes. But inside the United States, enforcement has become a political flashpoint. Guest Host Susan Del Percio is joined by Jeh Johnson (Former Secretary of Homeland Security) to discuss why border crossings can fall quickly based on deterrence and perception and why interior enforcement works very differently. Then, they break down how quota-driven, “numbers-fir...
Feb 06, 2026•53 min•Season 2Ep. 553
Are there tendencies within Christian tradition that put some versions of the faith in tension with core principles of democracy? What is “Authoritarian Reactionary Christianity?” How can a pluralistic society guard against the rise of political figures—including Donald Trump—aiming to weaponize this phenomenon? In this two-part conversation, we dive into these provocative questions with the Rev. Prof. David Gushee (Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University) and...
Feb 05, 2026•52 min•Season 2Ep. 552
Guest Host Lucy Caldwell and Dmitri Mehlhorn (Founder, The Atoll Society) have a conversation about political risk, institutional blind spots, and what scenario-based thinking reveals that conventional analysis often misses. They discuss the Atoll Society’s simulation salons, which use scenario-based exercises to test assumptions about power, institutions, and the rule of law. Rather than predict outcomes, the goal is to surface blind spots: where existing frameworks for understanding democracy,...
Jan 30, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 551
Are there tendencies within Christian tradition that put some versions of the faith in tension with core principles of democracy? What is “Authoritarian Reactionary Christianity?” How can a pluralistic society guard against the rise of political figures—including Donald Trump—aiming to weaponize this phenomenon? In this two-part conversation, Ron Steslow and Rev. Prof. David Gushee (Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University) discuss these provocative questions a...
Jan 29, 2026•51 min•Season 2Ep. 550
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Guest Host Mike Madrid and Susan Del Percio (MS NOW political analyst and crisis communications expert) grapple with a central question: when Americans say “this isn’t who we are,” are we describing an aspiration—or denying a reality? They confront the collision between ideals and reality, examining government overreach, due process, and what it means when executive power stretches beyond long-standing constitutional limits. The conversation...
Jan 24, 2026•53 min•Season 2Ep. 549
Iran is erupting in protests—and the regime is cracking down with extraordinary violence. Guest Host Hagar Chemali sits down with Jay Solomon (investigative reporter at The Free Press) to unpack why protests are surging nationwide, what the regime’s economic rot reveals about its fragility, and what (if anything) the U.S. and Israel might do next. They dig into a bank-collapse story that helped ignite the unrest, the regime’s deteriorating proxy network after October 7, and the strategic debate ...
Jan 17, 2026•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 548
