Reasonably Optimistic

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Trump 2.0 is changing the meaning — and feeling — of Pride Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

In the background of the parades, festivals and protests going off for Pride Month, there are executive orders targeting trans Americans and diminished support of certain rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Many corporate sponsors, happy to wave rainbow flags and sell Pride-themed merch in years past, are pulling back funds, too. Writer John Paul Brammer joins Drew Goins and Molly Roberts to discuss how the political atmosphere is affecting Pride this year.

Find John Paul Brammer on Substack. Here’s his latest on Pride: Shelter

Additional reading:

Pride Month is over. Welcome to LGBTQ Wrath Month.

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Is Trump chickening out on foreign policy? Jun 03, 2025

Show notes

Some investors on Wall Street are starting to call President Trump’s bluffs on tariffs — coining the acronym TACO, for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” But will Trump make good on his promises to end the conflict in Ukraine, strike a deal with Iran and make nice with China? Or is his strongman approach just making things worse? Columnists Dana Milbank, Catherine Rampell and Jim Geraghty discuss how difficult it is to strike deals when Trump’s actual policy objectives are so muddled.

Additional reading by our columnists:

Dana Milbank: The bully gets punched in the nose

Jim Geraghty: Trump belatedly wakes up to Putin’s brutality

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Movies in 2025: reduce, reuse, recycle May 30, 2025

Show notes

Over Memorial Day weekend, Americans went to the movies in record numbers. They were drawn by a live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” the ninth Mission Impossible movie, and perhaps some good air-conditioning. Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Will Leitch talk about why Hollywood continues to cash in on remakes, and what makes a film worth getting off your couch and going to the theater for.

Additional reading:

Will Leitch: ‘Sinners’ is leading the movies out of the streaming desert

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Can universities survive this? May 27, 2025

Show notes

President Trump, under the cover of the culture war, is attempting to pull billions of dollars in funding from universities unless they agree to his ideological demands. After Harvard refused and sued the Trump administration, Trump tried banning all of its 27 percent of international students last week. Dana Milbank, Catherine Rampell and Jason Willick discuss why the president is so obsessed with attacking universities, and what the consequences might be for future students.

Additional reading by our columnists:

Catherine Rampell: Trump is killing one of our strongest exports

Jason Willick: The Antisemitism Awareness Act shows the mire of identity politics

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We’ll defend Sesame Street with our life May 23, 2025

Show notes

“Sesame Street” recently announced it is coming to Netflix. The deal is a lifeline for the 56-year-old kids’ show, which has struggled after getting dropped from HBO and now has to deal with federal funding cuts for educational programming. With public media under attack once again, Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Monica Hesse talk about whether things like “Masterpiece Theater” or “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” or NPR are still important — and can still survive — in today’s political and cultural landscape.

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There’s nothing beautiful about this big bill May 20, 2025

Show notes

Republicans are haggling over the details of how much to cut Medicaid and food stamps while also trying to give bigger tax breaks to the richest Americans. Meanwhile, the rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the United States’ perfect economic score for the first time, because of how much this bill could run up the national debt. Dana Milbank, James Hohmann and Natasha Sarin talk about whether the Republicans can get this legislation over the finish line and why America is suffering from “boy-who-called-wolf energy” when it comes to the federal debt.

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Additional reading by our columnists:

Natasha Sarin: The Trump administration’s tax math doesn’t add up

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AI is getting smarter. But are we? May 16, 2025

Show notes

The debate over how to use AI in schools, and what constitutes cheating, is not unlike other arguments about tech and learning in recent decades — be it students using graphing calculators to solve problems or Wikipedia to do research. But will AI be more disruptive than anything we’ve seen before? Columnists Molly Roberts, Megan McArdle and Monica Hesse discuss how they’re using AI in their work and personal lives, and how they think we can create a helpful — and hopeful— AI future.

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Additional reading from our columnists:

Megan McArdle: Don’t be fooled. This is the calm before the AI storm.

Megan McArdle: If you haven’t been worrying about AI, it’s time to start preparing

Molly Roberts: AI is forcing teachers to confront an existential question

And here’s a link to an article mentioned in the episode:

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College (New York Magazine)

The Art of the Grift May 13, 2025

Show notes

Since President Trump took office, people with money have been cozying up to him — from tech billionaires donating to his inauguration fund, to Qatari royals offering him a $400 million plane. And Trump’s newfound love of cryptocurrency is providing an easy vehicle to get money into his and his family’s coffers. Dana Milbank, Molly Roberts and James Hohmann discuss the return on investment people are getting (or not) for trying to curry favor with the president.

Additional reading by our columnists:

Molly Roberts: With crypto, Democrats finally put up a fight

Dana Milbank: As the world goes to hell, Trump is living his best life

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Birth rates are falling. So what? May 09, 2025

Show notes

There’s been a bit of an obsession with declining birth rates lately, particularly on the right. That has sparked conversations about policies that might entice people to have more children. But all the talk seems to ignore the social issues beneath the trend — which might be why policy interventions around the world haven’t been able to reverse it. Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Bina Venkataraman discuss some solutions to falling birth rates and whether it’s really the huge problem people are making it out to be.

Additional reading:

What Trump doesn’t know about the cost of raising kids

You can’t bribe and shame your way to more babies

Trump’s math is just … no May 06, 2025

Show notes

President Trump is warning Americans that they might need to give up some new dolls and pencils as his tariff plans upend the world economic order. But as people brace for the trade wars to hit their pocketbooks, there’s still a question of whether Trump will back down. Dana Milbank, Catherine Rampell and Eduardo Porter discuss the broken calculations on both tariffs and the Republican budget bill.

Additional reading by our columnists:

Eduardo Porter: As America goes rogue, China eyes an opening

Catherine Rampell: Trump demands wartime sacrifices — just not for himself

Dana Milbank: As wreckage piles up, Trump and his aides retreat to fantasyland

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