Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse and son of the late evangelical leader Billy Graham, joins Howard Husock to discuss his organization's response to the coronavirus pandemic, the volunteers behind these efforts, and how secular Americans can better understand faith-inspired philanthropic work. In New York City's Central Park, Graham's disaster-relief organization set up a field hospital to treat patients overflowing from nearby Mount Sinai Hospital. Since the facility ...
Apr 15, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Virologist and investor Peter Kolchinsky joins Brian Anderson to discuss a coronavirus vaccine, the critical genetic differences between Covid-19 and the flu, and his proposals to reform the pharmaceutical industry. As millions of Americans approach a month of living under stay-at-home orders, scientific teams across the globe are racing to find a vaccine for the coronavirus. According to Kolchinsky , several vaccines are already in development, and concerns that the virus will mutate and evade ...
Apr 08, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Seth Barron and Nicole Gelinas discuss the latest developments in New York City's fight against the coronavirus, the impact of the city's lockdown on future growth, and the response of state and local leaders. As New York continues under lockdown, the effects of the coronavirus outbreak are becoming evident: the city's death toll has passed 1,000, with more than 40,000 confirmed cases. In addition to health-care professionals, essential public employees like the city's transit workers and NYPD o...
Apr 01, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Steven Malanga and Brian Anderson discuss how the economic shock resulting from the coronavirus—the closing of large sections of the American economy, the plunge of stock markets—is likely to undermine state and local budgets around the country. Even as states are searching for extra funds to help battle Covid-19, the loss of tax revenue during the crisis will be devastating. "States that rely on meetings, conventions, and tourism, or that derive substantial economic growth from energy productio...
Mar 25, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Seth Barron and Nicole Gelinas discuss the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, the drastic measures being taken to control its spread, and the consequences of an economic slowdown for the city and state budget, the MTA, and New York residents. New York—particularly New York City—is moving toward a full shutdown. Over the past week, schools have cancelled classes for an extended period and restaurants, bars, and many other businesses have closed. The historic losses in revenue to the city's pu...
Mar 18, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Physician Joel Zinberg joins Brian Anderson to discuss the global coronavirus epidemic, public-health efforts to contain the virus's spread, America's medical supply-chain vulnerabilities, and more. Confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, have been identified in more than half of U.S. states. Globally, the number of coronavirus cases exceeds 100,000. "The New York experience to date suggests," writes Zinberg , "that the disruptions this new virus causes...
Mar 11, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rafael Mangual joins Kay Hymowitz to discuss evidence suggesting that children are often better off when criminal parents are imprisoned—the subject of Mangual's story, " Fathers, Families, and Incarceration ," from the Winter 2020 Issue of City Journal . A common criticism of incarceration in the United States, notes Mangual, is that it harms children by taking parents or siblings out of their homes. But recent studies show that children living with a parent who engages in high levels of antiso...
Mar 04, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast John Tierney joins Brian Anderson to discuss the campaign to ban the use of plastic products and the flawed logic behind the recycling movement—the subjects of Tierney’s story, " The Perverse Panic over Plastic ," from the Winter 2020 Issue of City Journal . Hundreds of cities and eight states have outlawed or regulated single-use plastic bags. But according to Tierney, the plastic panic doesn't make sense. Plastic bags are the best environmental choice at the supermarket, not the worst, and cit...
Feb 26, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Christopher Rufo joins Brian Anderson to discuss drug addiction and homelessness in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Skid Row, the subject of Rufo's story from the Winter 2020 Issue of City Journal , " The Moral Crisis of Skid Row ." "They call Los Angeles the City of Angels," writes Rufo, "but it seems that even here, within the five-by-ten-block area of Skid Row, the city contains an entire cosmology—angels and demons, sinners and saints, plagues and treatments." To address the growing public-h...
Feb 19, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Catesby Leigh joins Seth Barron to discuss President Trump's draft executive order to give priority to classical-style architecture in the design of federal courthouses, agency headquarters, and other federal office buildings. The classical style has inspired the most revered and popular buildings in the country—the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and the Supreme Court. But as Leigh reports , new federal rules after World War II enabled modernist styles of design, such as Brutalism and Deconstruc...
Feb 12, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Mills joins Brian Anderson to discuss the enormous energy demands of the world's modern information infrastructure—"the Cloud"—the subject of his new book, Digital Cathedrals . "Tech companies confront an inconvenient fact," writes Mills. "The global cloud uses more energy than is produced by all the planet's wind and solar farms combined." In fact, digital traffic has become the fastest-growing source of energy use. While nearly every tech company has pledged to transition to renewable ene...
Feb 05, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Karol Markowicz joins Kay Hymowitz to discuss raising young children in New York City. "Raising a family in the city is just too hard," concluded The Atlantic 's Derek Thompson last summer. But in Park Slope, one of New York's most desirable neighborhoods, thousands of families thrive. Still, parents must navigate a host of challenges unique to urban life, including pricey housing, complex schooling options, and sometimes-unfriendly public spaces....
Jan 29, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Allison Schrager joins Brian Anderson to discuss how risk propels economic growth and why government efforts that go too far to mitigate risk undermine America’s economic vitality. “Risk, for better and worse,” writes Schrager for City Journal , “is at the heart of economic growth, and successfully apportioning it—not avoiding it—is the key to prosperity.” While government has a role to play in managing risk, the U.S. economy has thrived by trusting markets to allocate it efficiently. Overly int...
Jan 22, 2020•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Steven Malanga joins Seth Barron to discuss efforts to restrict dollar stores in cities across the country—the subject of Malanga’s popular story for City Journal , “ Unjust Deserts .” For nearly 20 years, “food deserts”—neighborhoods without supermarkets—have captured the attention of public officials, activists, and the media, who often blame the situation on dollar-discount stores in these areas. These stores, it’s claimed, drive out supermarkets with their low prices and saturate poor neighb...
Jan 15, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Manhattan Institute's Michael Hendrix interviews Mayer Brown partner Andrew Pincus, the lead attorney in a lawsuit taking on New York State’s sweeping rent-regulation laws. In 2019, New York strengthened its already-strict rent regulations, while state legislatures in Oregon and California approved caps on rent increases. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders have even proposed national rent-control policies. Pincus explains what's wrong with rent control, from viola...
Jan 08, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Naomi Schaefer Riley joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss the state of the American child-welfare services, and describes and what some nonprofits are doing to improve foster care across the country. Nationally, Riley notes in City Journal, about 444,000 children are in foster-care. And in many states, "officials report a severe shortage of families to take in these children." On top of that, disturbing incidents like the death of Zymere Perkins in New York highlight the failure o...
Dec 31, 2019•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Merry Christmas from the editors of City Journal . In another special episode of 10 Blocks, editor Brian Anderson extends his best wishes to all our listeners during the holiday season, reflects on a year of terrific guests, and more. If you're interested in supporting the Manhattan Institute and City Journal , please visit our website .
Dec 23, 2019•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a special holiday edition of 10 Blocks, Timothy Goeglein joins City Journal assistant editor Charles McElwee to discuss how people of faith can help renew American society—themes explored in his new book, American Restoration: How Faith, Family, and Personal Sacrifice Can Heal Our Nation . Coauthored with Craig Osten, American Restoration calls for a revival of spiritual values in America and offers a roadmap for people of faith to engage with our modern culture—especially at the local level....
Dec 18, 2019•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amity Shlaes discusses the economic history of the 1960s and the efforts of Presidents Johnson and Nixon to eradicate poverty—the subjects of her just-published book, Great Society: A New History . The 1960s were a momentous period, from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War, but Shlaes's book focuses on the incredibly ambitious government programs of the era, which expanded the social safety net beyond anything contemplated before. Overall, the Great Society programs, Shlaes writes, came...
Dec 11, 2019•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Seth Barron talks with four City Journal contributors— Rafael Mangual , Eric Kober , Ray Domanico , and Steven Malanga —about former New York City mayor and now presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg's record on crime, education, economic development, and more. After years of teasing a presidential run, Bloomberg has entered the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination. Just a week before his official announcement, he made headlines by reversing his long-standing support of controversial policing...
Dec 04, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Howard Husock interviews four remarkable leaders of nonprofit groups who were recently honored as part of Manhattan Institute's Civil Society Awards and Civil Society Fellows Program . Manhattan Institute and City Journal have long sought to support and encourage civil-society organizations and leaders who, with the help of volunteers and private philanthropy, do so much to help communities address serious social problems. In this edition of the 10 Blocks podcast, Husock speaks with: Luma Mufleh...
Nov 27, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Charles Marohn joins Michael Hendrix to discuss why the current approach to suburban development isn't working—the subject of his new book, Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity . "Strong Towns," notes Aaron Renn in his review of the book for City Journal , "resulted from [Marohn's] discovery that the highway projects he designed showed a negative return on investment." Marohn has dedicated his career to helping the country's older suburbs avoid such costly mistakes...
Nov 18, 2019•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kay S. Hymowitz joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss Pennsylvania’s Williamson College of the Trades, a three-year school for young men offering a debt-free path to high-paying work—and the life skills to help them get there. “Trade schools” have long had a stigma in American culture, but Williamson is no ordinary trade school: students wake up early to the sound of reveille and attend academic classes in coats and ties. As Hymowitz writes in City Journal ’s autumn issue , “With i...
Nov 13, 2019•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Music critic and historian Ted Gioia joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss the 4,000-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval—topics explored in his new book, Music: A Subversive History . The music business is a $10 billion industry today. But according to Gioia , innovative songs have always come from outsiders—the poor, the unruly, and the marginalized. The culmination of his decades of writing about music, Gioia's new book is a celebration of the ...
Nov 06, 2019•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Stian Westlake joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss the future of productivity and how institutions and policymakers can adapt to the new "intangible" economy. Throughout history, as documented in the book Capitalism Without Capital by Westlake and coauthor Jonathan Haskel, firms have invested in physical goods like machines and computers. As society has grown richer, companies have invested increasingly in "intangible" assets: research and development, branding, organizational de...
Oct 30, 2019•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rafael A. Mangual joins Seth Barron to discuss New York City's plan to replace the jail complex on Rikers Island with four borough-based jails and what it could mean for public order in the city. New York City jails currently house a daily average of about 8,000 people, in a city of 8 million residents. Under the new plan, the borough-based jails (once constructed) will be able to house 3,300 people—less than half the city's average daily jail population today. As Barron writes , the new target ...
Oct 23, 2019•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Beth Osborne , director of Transportation for America, joins City Journal contributing editor Nicole Gelinas to discuss the state of U.S. infrastructure and how federal spending could be used more effectively to improve safety and reduce fiscal waste. The federal government spends between $40 billion and $60 billion on transportation infrastructure annually. In recent years, congressional leaders and the White House have pushed a $2 trillion plan to upgrade roads, bridges, and more. But such pro...
Oct 16, 2019•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Heather Mac Donald joins Seth Barron to discuss homelessness on the streets of San Francisco and the city’s wrongheaded attempts to solve the problem. "San Francisco has conducted a real-life experiment in what happens when a society stops enforcing bourgeois norms of behavior," writes Mac Donald in City Journal . For nearly three decades, the Bay Area has been a magnet for the homeless. Now the situation is growing dire, as residents and visitors experience near-daily contact with mentally dist...
Oct 09, 2019•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Howard Husock joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss Husock's new book, Who Killed Civil Society? The Rise of Big Government and Decline of Bourgeois Norms . Government-run social programs funded with tax dollars are thought to be the "solution" to America's social ills. But in his new book, Who Killed Civil Society? , Husock shows that historically, it was voluntary organizations and civic society, operating independently from government and its mandates, that best promoted the hab...
Oct 02, 2019•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast John Tierney joins City Journal assistant editor Charles McElwee to discuss Pittsburgh's recent resurgence. "If you want to see how to revive a city—and how not to," John Tierney writes, "go to Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh has transformed itself from the Steel City to central Pennsylvania's hub of "eds" and "meds." But before that could happen, the city nearly destroyed itself under various misguided urban plans dating back to the 1950s. Tierney's essay, "A Renaissance Runs Through It," appears in Ci...
Sep 24, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
