Explain It to Me

Latest Episodes:

Why hasn’t student debt been canceled? Jan 04, 2022

Show notes

Dylan and Dara are joined by Vox’s Libby Nelson to talk about the policy merits and political implications of plans to cancel some or all student loans. They also discuss whether President Joe Biden has the power to cancel student debt unilaterally. And, Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas joins Dylan and Dara for a white paper about prisoners of war and genetics.

References:

Brookings Institution’s Andre Perry on why student loan forgiveness isn't regressive
How canceling student debt helps beneficiaries get out of other debt
The racial justice case for student loan cancellation
Luke Herrine arguing that the Department of Education can erase debt unilaterally
Is there a secret memo saying Biden can erase the debt?
David Leonhardt’s case against debt cancellation
White Paper of the Week: “Health Shocks of the Father and Longevity of the Children's Children”

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox
Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox
Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter
Libby Nelson (@libbyanelson) policy editor, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer
Libby Nelson, editorial adviser
Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Best Of: The coming climate exodus Dec 28, 2021

Show notes

Vox senior reporter Rebecca Leber (@rbleber) joins The Weeds to explain the problem of migration caused by climate change, such as that due to wildfires, rising seas, and crop failures. She explains how a warming planet is forcing people to move both in the US and internationally, and how policymakers are and aren’t adapting. Vox reporters Dylan Matthews and Jerusalem Demsas continue the conversation with ProPublica’s Dara Lind, discussing a new white paper arguing that social mobility in America rose in the 20th century.

References:

ProPublica’s feature on climate migration in Central America

How climate change is driving up flood insurance premiums in Canarsie, Brooklyn

NPR’s investigation into the federal government selling flood-prone houses to low-income families

California is encouraging rebuilding in fire-prone regions

The case for “managed retreat” from coastal areas

A New York Times feature on how climate migration will reshape America

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

Why Greg Clark is pessimistic that social mobility even exists

White Paper of the Week: Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error, Zachary Ward

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Dara Lind (@DLind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America’s Public Health Experiment: Federal failures Dec 21, 2021

Show notes

In the final episode of our series, America’s Public Health Experiment, Dylan, Dara, and Jerusalem discuss how the CDC and the FDA failed the American public in the early months of the pandemic. Plus, a white paper about excess deaths in the first year of Covid-19.

References:

How the experts botched masking advice

Zeynep Tufekci on the case for masks (in March 2020)

Inside the Fall of the CDC

Can the CDC be fixed?

How the CDC failed to detect Covid early

Scott Gottlieb on CDC versus FDA turf wars

The Government Asked Us Not To Release Records From The CDC’s First Failed COVID Test. Here They Are.

Zeynep Tufekci in the Atlantic: The CDC Is Still Repeating Its Mistakes

Dylan Scott on FDA approval of controversial Alzheimer's drug

White paper: Excess Deaths in the United States During the First Year of COVID-19

What happened to drug deaths in 2020

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America's Public Health Experiment: More checks, less politics Dec 17, 2021

Show notes

In the penultimate episode of our series America’s Public Health Experiment, Vox policy reporter Jerusalem Demsas talks to Arnab Datta, senior counsel at Employ America, about automatic stabilizers: what they are and how they could help during a crisis that affects the economy, such as a global pandemic.

References:

Vox's Emily Stewart on Democrats abandoning automatic stabilizers

Recession Ready: Fiscal Policies to Stabilize the American Economy

Structuring Federal Aid To States As An Automatic (And Autonomous) Stabilizer

A Historic Decrease in Poverty

GOP Governors Reject Extra Federal Unemployment Payments

Host:

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can school be normal again? Dec 14, 2021

Show notes

Dylan and Jerusalem are joined by Vox Policy Editor Libby Nelson to talk about the current state of Covid-19 and schools. They discuss vaccine mandates, rapid testing – or a lack thereof – and teacher burnout. Plus, a white paper about college majors and GPA requirements.

References:

Why schools weren’t “back to normal” this year

The pandemic caused huge levels of learning loss, especially in districts with less in-person schooling, and especially in poor countries

Can pandemics affect educational attainment? Evidence from the polio epidemic of 1916

Some schools are going remote on Fridays to address “burnout”

Schools cre closing classrooms on Fridays. Parents are furious.

Do school closures and school reopenings affect community transmission of COVID-19? A systematic review of observational studies

Quarantines are driving down attendance

The “test to stay” alternative to quarantines

How school districts have used their Covid relief funds

White Paper: “College Major Restrictions and Social Stratification”

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Libby Nelson (@libbyanelson), policy editor, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America’s Public Health Experiment: The agencies Covid broke Dec 10, 2021

Show notes

In the second episode of our series, America’s Public Health Experiment, Weeds co-host Dara Lind looks at two government agencies that went from quietly to loudly broken during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dara is joined by the Washington Post’s Jacob Bogage (@jacobbogage) and Jeremy McKinney (@McKJeremy) from the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Host:

Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learning to love rent control Dec 07, 2021

Show notes

Dara and Dylan talk to Jerusalem about her new article defending rent control laws. The three discuss the policy impacts of rent limits and the politics driving their adoption in large American cities. Finally, they discuss a new paper on declining fertility in 18th-century France.

References:

Jerusalem’s case for rent control

A poll of leading economists, who almost all oppose rent control

Economist Rebecca Diamond on the effects of rent control

Manhattan Institute fellow Michael Hendrix’s case against rent control

Time for revisionism on rent control?

The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn by Suleiman Osman

Review of the literature by the Urban Institute

White paper: “The Cultural Origins of the Demographic Transition in France” by Guillaume Blanc

Blanc’s Twitter summary of his paper

The demographic transition for beginners

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America’s Public Health Experiment: The testing failure Dec 03, 2021

Show notes

German talks with Dr. Neeraj Sood, director of the Covid Initiative at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, about the US’s many failures on Covid-19 testing. They dive into the country’s original mistakes, then go into how lack of testing continues to plague America’s pandemic response. They conclude with what this means not just for the current pandemic but for future public health crises, too.

Host:

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Defund the police? Dec 01, 2021

Show notes

German, Jerusalem, and Dylan talk about an idea that has come to dominate national discussions of policing: defunding the police. They walk through the pros and cons of the idea as a policy proposal, then discuss how it’s affecting the politics of criminal justice. Finally, they discuss new research on discrimination against Black and Latinx renters.

References:

German’s article on police research

German’s article on guns and policing

Austin’s defunding journey

Study finding more police mean fewer homicides

Study finding London police closures led to more violent crime

Expert survey finding most say more police funding would mean public safety improvements

2020's protests led to state policing reforms, but not defunding

Pew on public opinion toward defunding the police

Rogé Karma interviews Patrick Sharkey on The Ezra Klein Show

White paper: “Racial Discrimination and Housing Outcomes in the United States Rental Market”

Jerusalem's article on discrimination against housing voucher recipients

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biden’s $3.40 a gallon problem Nov 24, 2021

Show notes

Dylan, Jerusalem, and Dara talk about the specific kind of inflation that’s roiling American politics: the heightened price of gas. They discuss how and why gas prices have shot up in recent months, and what it means for Joe Biden’s popularity and presidency. Plus, a white paper about the most important labor market of all: the global market for soccer (excuse me, football) players.

References:

Biden’s strongly worded letter on gas prices

Biden is tapping the strategic petroleum reserve

Reuters on why gas prices are high

Why OPEC isn’t lowering gas prices

Eric Levitz on what Biden should do to combat inflation

The correlation between Biden’s popularity and gas prices

Lasting Impacts of a Gas Price Shock during Teenage Driving Years

Voters who drive a lot are likelier to vote based on gas prices

Presidential approval is historically strongly affected by gas and food prices (and not due to media coverage)

The collapse of New England’s Transportation and Climate Initiative

White paper: “Does Employing Skilled Immigrants Enhance Competitive Performance? Evidence from European Football Clubs”