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Words & Numbers — Education
Words & Numbers

Words & Numbers is one of the highest-rated economics podcasts in the world. Each episode, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan dig into economics, political science, and current events to explain what’s actually happening and why it matters.

Copyright: © Creative Commons

Latest Episodes:

Episode 292: When Are We Adults? Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

The “age of majority” is the age at which a person is considered, legally, an adult. Not only does the age of majority vary by state and over time, it also varies by activity. Someone who is considered an adult for the purpose of voting, may not be for the purpose of drinking. As only adults can exercise their freedoms fully, the question of what constitutes an adult goes to the heart of what it is to be a free person.

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Quick Hits

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/10/guns-credit-card-trackable

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/terence-p-jeffrey/americans-spent-more-taxes-2021-food-clothing-and-health-care

Topic of the Week

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/age-of-majority-by-state

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Episode 291: An Interview with Ant and James Sep 07, 2022

Show notes

This episode is an excerpt of an interview we gave with Dr. Anwar Dunbar for his YouTube channel, Big Discussions.

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Carson Collins’ Award-Winning Video on the Minimum Wage

https://www.viddler.com/v/5e4c1764

Quick Hits

https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm

https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2022/09/05/prevent-martian-plague-nasa-will/

Foolishness of the Week

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/contact-lenses-might-soon-replace-our-phone-screens-8131768/

Topic of the Week

https://bigwordsarepowerful.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/BigDiscussions76

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF2pol-wUtQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEkRHqbj0zU

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Episode 290: Loan Forgiveness and Lying to Pollsters Aug 31, 2022

Show notes

We discuss two topics in-depth this week: student loan forgiveness and lying to pollsters. There’s an interesting technique for distinguishing between what voters say they believe and what they actually believe, and there’s a recent poll that uses this technique in asking people about their attitudes toward controversial topics.

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Quick Hits

https://reason.com/2022/08/29/what-americans-think-about-marijuana-in-2022/

Foolishness of the Week

https://reason.com/2022/08/25/ben-shapiro-podcast-movement-harm-done-twitter/

Topic of the Week

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59153bc0e6f2e109b2a85cbc/t/62fd07b49271c657d243505d/1660749762686/

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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Episode 289: Woke-ism and Movies Aug 24, 2022

Show notes

Today’s woke-ism evolved from political correctness of the 1990s. While people have embraced many lessons about inclusion and empathy from the era of political correctness, people appear to be rejecting the woke-ism that tries to insinuate itself into popular culture. Post-covid movies provide a good example. Elite critics are applauding, and audiences are largely rejecting movies that use entertainment to teach woke-ism. Meanwhile, audiences are handing their dollars to movie makers (woke or otherwise) who entertain.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cato.org/blog/senate-bill-irs-funding-hypocrisy

https://nypost.com/2022/08/03/why-irs-80b-expansion-is-a-nightmare-for-small-business/

https://apnews.com/article/inflation-ap-fact-check-congress-government-and-politics-11eae023a3dc3a04584371843234cab7

https://deadline.com/2022/08/cnn-firings-brian-stelter-chris-licht-john-malone-warner-bros-discovery-1235096292/

https://www.thewrap.com/don-lemon-jim-acosta-expected-to-stay-cnn-neutral-direction-exclusive/ Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/nato-covid-health-finland-helsinki-bb9704d5663b68766fcd2376335a29c4

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Let Us Know What You Think

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https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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Episode 288: What's a Recession? Aug 17, 2022

Show notes

Maybe we’re in a recession, but maybe we’re not. This week, we talk about what a recession is and what it means, practically, for people.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/columbia-us-news-rankings.html https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/liz-cheney-s-political-life-is-likely-ending-and-just-beginning/ar-AA10FNr7 https://theweek.com/liz-cheney/1015866/inside-the-liz-cheney-presidential-run-speculation https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spaghetti-sauce-under-threat-water-124539175.html

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://reason.com/2022/08/14/spain-bans-a-c-below-80-degrees-during-record-setting-summer-heat/

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Let Us Know What You Think

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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Episode 287: Secession: Good for me but not for thee? Aug 10, 2022

Show notes

The Founders gave strong philosophical arguments for why secession from Great Britain was right and proper. Yet, when the Confederacy tried to secede from the Union, philosophical arguments against secession were few. Clearly, ending slavery was right and proper. And, the question of secession was, practically speaking, answered with the eradication of slavery. But the question of whether it is right and proper for states to secede remains, at least from a philosophical perspective, unaddressed.

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Quick Hitshttps://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-why-producing-thousand-gallons-of-jp-7-fuel-used-in-the-sr-71-blackbird-mach-3-spy-plane-caused-a-nationwide-shortage-of-flit-insecticide/

https://www.fastcompany.com/90775427/amazon-grandma-alexa-evolution-text-to-speech

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/inside-the-war-between-trump-and-his-generals

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/602142/tax-on-mega-millions-jackpot

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Let Us Know What You Think

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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Episode 286: Balance in Discussing Guns Aug 03, 2022

Show notes

Part of the reason we make little progress on this topic of guns in this country is that the pro- and anti-gun camps talk past each other. This is fueled by a media that tends to show only one side of the story, causing both sides in the debate to become paranoid - one side comes to think that half the country is looking to disarm them, and the other side comes to think that half the country is blind to gun violence. A recent shooting gives us the opportunity to think about the topic from a more balanced perspective.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Weekhttps://abcnews.go.com/US/video/biden-tests-positive-covid-19-paxlovid-87762070

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/beyonce-offensive-lyric-ableist-slur-spaz-170000669.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/indiana-passer-by-hailed-after-shooting-mall-gunman-2022-07-18/

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Episode 285: What’s News in the Economy? Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

Oddly, there’s not a lot in the news this week. Given what we’ve all been through the past couple of years, that’s likely a good thing. This week, we sit back and take a casual look at inflation, economic growth, entrepreneurs, standardization, and the gig economy.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Weekhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGW

https://gasprices.aaa.com

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-cream-trucks-are-the-latest-target-of-inflation/ar-AAZYTxK

Foolishness of the Week

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Bruce#Death_and_posthumous_pardon

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1112722821/dave-chappelle-minneapolis-show-canceled

Topic of the Week

https://www.usacarry.com/40-yards-elisjsha-dicken-landed-shots-mall-shooter/

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/us/eli-dicken-indiana-mall-shooting-bystander/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/us/armed-bystander-indiana-mall-shooting.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indiana-mall-shooting-elisjsha-dicken-neutralized-gunman-15-seconds/

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%201-m&geo=US&gprop=news&q=shooting

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Episode 284: Phasing Out Social Security Jul 20, 2022

Show notes

Social Security has become a trillion dollar weight dragging down our economics and politics. On the one hand, according to the Social Security administration itself, the program will be insolvent within a decade. On the other, we can’t shut it down without condemning many elderly to destitution. This week, we talk about a plan that would phase out Social Security, do it without cutting benefits to current retirees, leave future retirees better off, and save the government money. The catch is that the phase-out requires many decades.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/snaiohx-hampton-suites-irvine-orange-county-airport/

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-new-york-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-queens-congress-7e1d71dec55714872f60a4f34d02b7d7

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/aoc-laments-insane-cost-of-being-congresswoman

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11022021/Jill-Biden-voices-frustration-Joes-lack-progress-White-House.html

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20407226/bidens-dissertation.pdf

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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Episode 283: Americans Don’t Trust the Media Jul 13, 2022

Show notes

Recently, we talked about polls showing a serious erosion of trust in the branches of government. This week, we focus on the media. It turns out that Americans trust the media about as much as they trust Congress - and it’s amazing how little they trust Congress. Interestingly, there’s a sharp division among party lines.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.amazon.com/Alone/dp/B07RYP2QSW

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/outrage-erupts-white-house-calls-013222807.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pregnant-woman-given-hov-ticket-argues-fetus-is-passenger-post-roe/ar-AAZoI2r

Topic of the Week

https://www.axios.com/2022/07/08/news-republicans-democrats-trust-partisanship

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Let Us Know What You Think

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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