The Realignment The Realignment

John Ganz, author of When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s, joins The Realignment. Marshall and John discuss 2020s nostalgia for the 1990s, the misplaced belief that the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War represented the "end of history," the early 1990s rise of outsider, third-party presidential candidates, and the role that con men and conspiracy theories played in cracking up the country.

Ruchir Sharma, author of What Went Wrong with Capitalism, joins The Realignment. In this episode, Ruchir argues that many of America's ills and the populace's rejection of the status quo stems from too little, as opposed to too much market-focused thought, offers a revisionist history of the post-1980s Neoliberal era, makes the case against the rising rate of government bailouts of private industry, and instead offers a vision focused on reducing debt, increasing productivity, and growth-focused deregulation.

Peter S. Goodman, Global Economics Correspondent for the New York Times and author of How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain, returns to The Realignment. Peter and Marshall discuss the innerworkings of the global supply chain and the factors that have led to its constant vulnerability, whether the issues that caused the 2021 pre-Christmas crunch have been addressed, and how we can finally build a reliable and resilient supply chain in the future.

In the latest edition of The Realignment's weekend Ask Me Anything and discussion series, Saagar and Marshall take a break from the daily news + current events grind and discuss the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, offer historical reading/viewing recommendations, and take audience questions.

Steven Teles, Johns Hopkins University Professor and Niskanen Center Senior Fellow, returns to The Realignment. Steven and Marshall discuss why political factions within the left and right will upend the last thirty years of party politics, the poor track record of moderate reform efforts, the importance of enhancing state-capacity, the abundance agenda's ability to confront economic stagnation, the need for a reform movement on the level of 19th century progressives, and the path to overcoming political polarization.

John Strausbaugh, author of The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Union Crashed and Burned, joins The Realignment. Marshall and John discuss the rise and fall of the USSR's space program, why the U.S. had the "Right Stuff" while the Soviet's had the "Wrong Stuff" needed for long-term success, how NASA lost its way after the Apollo Moon landings, and the implications for the second space race between the U.S., China, and the private companies like SpaceX caught in the middle.