The Rational Nationalist

With Trump's push to redistrict everything under the sun controlled by Republicans - and Newsom's attempt to establish himself as the Democratic frontrunner by outdoing him - gerrymandering is more relevant in 2026 than ever before. Here's a look at how the process leads directly to our hyper-partisan political environment.

How do you know your boss is having an affair with his secretary? We talk about how we use our senses to form the reality we live in, which ultimately is nothing more than a mental construction of our minds, and the impact that communications with others have on this reality.

Facts may be facts, but they can be interpreted very differently. These differences account for the fact that Republicans and Democrats often seem to live in different worlds. Also, I'll take half an hour to discuss a single question and spend a lot of time insulting someone who probably doesn't deserve it.

What would happen in a world with no racism and no sexism? For one thing, a lot of people (activists, NGOs, academics, pundits, etc.) would be out of work. This episode looks at an industry of individuals making their living off fighting social injustice and the perverse incentives this creates.

We look at how Americans have divided political discourse into right- and left-wing silos, and how this makes it more convenient to hate one another with optimal efficiency.

We examine the importance of making decisions based on how things are, rather than how we think they should be, using the Russia-Ukraine peace plan as a case study.

On this episode, we'll consider whether it matters what other countries think of the US (it does), whether we should care (we should), and how much we should care (not THAT much).

We'll take a look at how President Trump has expanded executive authority, how his expansion of executive power compares with similar expansions under previous presidents, and the long-term implications for our country of ever-expanding executive power.

We'll examine how Trump has shifted the paradigm on trade, and the pluses and minuses of his tariff gambit

We'll examine how a bipartisan consensus on trade led to the rise of Donald Trump, focusing specifically on how the political class ignored the impacts globalization had on the working class.