The Overton Window - podcast cover

The Overton Window

Mackinac Center for Public Policy•www.mackinac.org

Have you noticed that politicians struggle to enact the things they run on? They find themselves bound by what is popular, or at least their sense of it. The narrow range of policies that they can enact is called the Overton Window. The Overton Window podcast looks at issues around the country and the people changing what is politically possible.

Last refreshed: July 29th, 2025 at 10:48 AM ⓘ

Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.

Follow on

Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app

Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

‘If we got to Mach 3, 4, 5…then trillions of dollars could get unlocked’

Eli Dourado on the hard problems facing hard technology

May 24, 2024

‘There’s so much we can learn from polls’

Erin Norman on measuring progress and setting strategy through polling

May 10, 2024

‘There’s a wide-open Overton Window, and a lot of people have ideas’

Jason Hayes on how federal and state forests are managed

Apr 26, 2024

‘If you can make them laugh, they’ll remember things’

Shoshana Weissmann on policy advocacy on social media

Apr 12, 2024

‘The only way you’re going to get involved is by being involved’

Luke Derheim on volunteering on political campaigns

Mar 29, 2024

‘Basically it was a free market wish list’

Kendall Cotton on major policy wins in Montana

Mar 15, 2024

‘It’s a policy shift but also a cultural shift’

M. Nolan Gray on the battles for less restrictive housing regulation

Mar 01, 2024

‘This is the unholy intersection of Hollywood and politics’

Jacob Whiton and Greg LeRoy on state film subsidies

Feb 09, 2024

‘The dealers are protecting themselves, not protecting consumers’

Dan Crane on the fight for direct sales of vehicles

Jan 26, 2024

‘There’s no good outcome here’

Brian Riedl on what it will take to avoid catastrophic federal debt

Jan 12, 2024

‘I just think that’s a success, right?’

Sarah Curry on letting voters know what debts they’re being asked to approve

Dec 15, 2023

‘They can embrace radical policies with no repercussions’

Paul Gessing on the fight to keep gasoline-powered vehicle sales legal in New Mexico

Dec 01, 2023

‘Our civilization, our democracy, our society depend on that’

Alexandra Hudson on the Soul of Civility

Nov 17, 2023

‘That is what makes health care so different from every other sector of the economy’

Brian Blase on putting the customer back in the health care system

Nov 03, 2023

‘The moral argument is what wins’

Jimmy Walker on raising funds by making a better case for free-market ideas

Oct 20, 2023

‘We have to protect the parents who trust their kids with some independence’

Lenore Skenazy on the Let Grow Project

Oct 06, 2023

‘Thirty to forty years ago, this was actually a debatable question. Now that we have the data in hand it’s much less debatable’

Robert Lawson on the Economic Freedom of the World Index and improvements in economic liberty

Sep 22, 2023

‘If that sounds outrageous and corrupt, it’s because it is’

Pat Garofalo works to prevent lawmakers from signing nondisclosure agreements about business subsidy negotiations

Sep 08, 2023

‘Now it’s simply referred to as the Overton Window, as if everyone knows what it is’

Larry Reed and Joe Lehman on the Overton Window and Joe Overton

Aug 25, 2023

‘The power of these policies is to individualize education for children’

Jon England on supporting the changes in the education marketplace

Aug 11, 2023

‘This is my home and I’m going to fight for this thing’

Matt Paprocki on making a difference in Illinois policy

Jul 28, 2023

‘They say it adds up to real money’

Sheng Li on reinvigorating the separation of powers through lawsuits

Jul 14, 2023

‘Sometimes cynical explanations are the correct ones’

Chris Douglas on stadium subsidies

Jun 30, 2023

‘Argument is the great source of political power’

George Will on changing minds over 50 years of column-writing and how the Overton Window shifted in baseball

Jun 16, 2023

‘The federal government has stepped in and broken the market’

Preston Cooper on his plan to change federal college aid

Jun 02, 2023

‘The Great Depression pushed relegalization into the Overton Window’

Jason Taylor on the social changes that led to Prohibition and its repeal

May 19, 2023

‘It’s focused on destroying credibility instead of dealing with facts’

Jarrett Skorup on persuasion in the political debate

May 05, 2023

‘I think that’s a little bit of political cowardice’

Jon Sanders on putting bounds on the administrative state

Apr 21, 2023

‘A conservationist is an environmentalist with a chainsaw’

Rich Bowman on Practical Environmentalism

Apr 07, 2023

‘I didn’t think courts had that ability, and I still don’t’

Alisha, friend of the Overton Window Podcast, wants to know about the state Supreme Court

Mar 24, 2023

← Prev Next →

For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android