The Politics of Everything

Latest Episodes:

The Cops Who Touched Fentanyl Sep 29, 2021

Show notes

Can you overdose on fentanyl just from being near it? Over the past few years, a number of police officers have said just that. In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration even issued a warning to cops about the dangers of such encounters. The stories have made national news, but they’ve also invited skepticism. On Episode 35 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene discuss the phenomenon of cop overdoses with Dan McQuade, who wrote about it for Defector; Timothy McMahan King, the author of Addiction Nation, a book about the opioid crisis; and Patrick Blanchfield, who’s written about cop psychology and cop culture.

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The Lyme Vaccine That Got Away Sep 16, 2021

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How does a vaccine get developed, studied, approved, distributed, and administered, and then just … disappear? On Episode 34 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene explore what happened to LYMErix, a vaccine for Lyme disease that has been called the only safe and effective vaccine ever to have been voluntarily withdrawn from the market in the United States. What does the story of LYMErix tell us about vaccine hesitancy, liability, and how pharmaceutical companies decide what to sell? And can we expect another Lyme vaccine anytime soon? Guests include Rebecca Onion, who wrote about LYMErix for Slate, and Andrew Zaleski, who wrote about new prophylactic treatments for Lyme for Outside magazine.

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Libertarian vs. Bear (Rerun) Sep 01, 2021

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In the early 2000s, a group of libertarians moved to a small town in New Hampshire, where they set about slashing the municipal budget. The newcomers wanted to be free from taxes and government regulation, and they envisioned an experiment that would show the world the virtues of their political philosophy while allowing them to live as they liked. But before long, they found themselves fighting off packs of black bears. On Episode 19 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk to Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, the author of A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears), about the ensuing chaos, and the political lessons to be drawn from it.

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Monopoly is Tyranny (Rerun) Aug 18, 2021

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The economy as we know it is populated by gigantic corporations, behemoths that have bought up not only their competition but also the businesses supplying or otherwise supporting them. Such monopolies act as a “rival form of government,” explains Zephyr Teachout, the author of Break ’Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom From Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money. On Episode 12 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with Teachout about the dangers of allowing these outsize companies to grow unchecked, and what should be done about them. This episode originally aired July 29, 2020.

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The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship (Rerun) Aug 04, 2021

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Joe Biden ran for president promising to revive the spirit of bipartisanship and bring Americans together after an era of painful division. But when facing an intransigent, extremist Republican Party that has little to gain from compromise, such a vision of politics can seem quaint at best. On Episode 26 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene examine the history of bipartisanship as an ideal. The show features Paul Blest, a co-founder of Discourse Blog; Ed Burmila, the author of a forthcoming book on the mistakes of the Democratic Party; Osita Nwanevu, a TNR contributing editor; and Julian Zelizer, a professor of history at Princeton University. Does bipartisanship have a future in American politics? And, more to the point, should it?

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More Reasons to Hate the Dentist Jul 21, 2021

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Nobody enjoys going to the dentist. But, generally speaking, we don’t question what’s done to us when we’re there. On Episode 33 of The Politics of Everything, Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene speak with Ferris Jabr and Daryl Austin, two journalists who have investigated dental over-treatment and fraud, about whether we should. It’s impossible to say exactly how widespread gratuitous treatment is—and it can even be difficult to know what constitutes necessary treatment. Because of a lack of reliable research into dentistry practices, because the field operates with minimal oversight and regulation, and because of high costs and dwindling insurance reimbursements, there may be a real incentive to “creatively diagnose,” as Jeffrey Camm memorably put it in an article for ADANews, the newspaper of the American Dental Association. In other words: Get a second opinion. Then get a third.

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Against Remote Work (Rerun) Jul 07, 2021

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As its boosters have long argued, remote work offers a slew of obvious benefits. Companies save money on rent; employees don’t have to commute; and everyone, without the distractions of the office, can be more efficient. But for decades, telecommuting simply failed to take hold. On Episode 23 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with the writer Richard Cooke about why that is. And now that the pandemic has changed our habits so drastically, what does our historical reluctance to work from home augur for the post-pandemic future? Later in the show, Katie McDonough, a deputy editor at The New Republic, investigates the fantasy of escaping from work altogether, with a look at the politics of early-retirement advice.

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An Herbal Viagra Scam and the Hard Truth About the Dietary Supplement Industry Jun 23, 2021

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In the early 2000s, a man named Erb Avore started selling a male sexual enhancement supplement he called Stiff Nights. The pills were amazingly effective—but the list of ingredients failed to mention a key component, and soon the FDA came calling. On Episode 32 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk to the journalist Matt Hongoltz-Hetling about the poorly regulated world of dietary supplements, Avore’s long quest to find an all-natural alternative to Viagra, and how the internet huckster tangled with the law. Hongoltz-Hetling’s article about Stiff Nights, “The Rise and Fall of an Herbal Viagra Scammer,” appeared in the July-August issue of The New Republic.

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The Case of the Sick Spies (Rerun) Jun 10, 2021

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In late 2016, staff at the American Embassy in Havana began hearing strange noises and experiencing odd symptoms: headaches, nausea, dizziness. Had they been targeted by a secret weapon, perhaps deployed by Russia? Or was there some other explanation for the ailments? Hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk to four people who have closely followed Havana syndrome, as it came to be known: Jack Hitt, who covered the story for Vanity Fair in 2019; Tim Weiner, author of The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020; Adam Gaffney, a physician; and Natalie Shure, a columnist for TNR who covers health policy. What was the diplomatic context in which Havana syndrome appeared? Why is the secret weapon theory so attractive? And is there a likelier explanation for the mysterious illness?

The show, which originally aired in February 2021, has been updated to account for more recent developments.

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Music for Nothing May 27, 2021

Show notes

It’s easier than ever to listen to practically the entirety of recorded music. But for musicians, it’s harder than ever to make money. On Episode 31 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk about the economics of the industry with David Turner, who writes the newsletter Penny Fractions, and the English musician Tom Gray, who founded the #BrokenRecord campaign. Did streaming save music, or is it killing it? Should we blame Spotify or the record labels? And what should be done to make the music business more equitable?

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