Europe promises a life many Americans envy: longer vacations, universal health care, beautiful cities and a slower pace. But those benefits come with trade-offs.Host Megan McArdle looks past the usual America versus Europe arguments to explore what economic indicators reveal about quality of life.

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Boys and men are struggling across some of the most important measures: education, employment, family life and mental health. But too often, attempts to talk seriously about these problems get pulled into a culture-war fight. So, what’s actually happening, who is struggling and how we can help them without the conversation being framed as men versus women?

Host Megan McArdle is joined by Richard Reeves, author of "Of Boys and Men," to break down the reality of the gender divide.

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Host Megan McArdle explores the rise of the celebrity candidate, from Ronald Reagan to Arnold Schwarzenegger to Trump himself. She explains how parasocial relationships shape modern elections, and why Trump’s success depended on a unique mix of media savviness, outsider status, timing and luck that may be impossible to replicate. And she argues that if America wants a more stable political future, it will need to return to a more normal kind of politics.

Prediction markets are having a moment. But what are they actually good for? Economist Robin Hanson has been thinking about this for decades. Long before betting markets went mainstream, he argued they could do more than forecast the future — they could help us make better decisions.

Host Megan McArdle talks with Hanson about how prediction markets work, why they often beat other forms of forecasting and how today’s versions could be improved.

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The hantavirus outbreak has reminded many about the mistakes of covid-19. In this episode, hosts Adam O'Neal, James Hohmann, Carine Hajjar and Kate Andrews discuss whether the confirmed cases on the Hondius cruise ship should cause concern — or if the media and public are overreacting.

Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor of New York on a platform of taxing the rich, proposing new levies targeting billionaires. Host Megan McArdle argues we’ve seen this kind of rapid shift before. 

In the 1970s, New York spiraled into crisis as rising spending, a shrinking tax base and economic change led to crime, population loss and near-bankruptcy. Those lessons still matter today, especially as remote work and mobile wealth make cities more vulnerable to decline. But these same forces also create opportunities for cities that adapt, grow and make themselves attractive places to live and work.

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Social media is designed to keep us scrolling. But is it also keeping us angry? Rage bait is rewarded and amplified. It’s easy to react and even easier to get pulled in. Over time, this has changed how we interact with the world — and with each other. But is this just bad behavior, or something closer to addiction?

Host Megan McArdle is joined by Keith Humphreys, a Stanford professor and psychologist, to break down the mechanics of addiction and how they might apply to life online. Together, they explore why rage is so compelling, how platforms keep us hooked and whether it’s possible to break the cycle.

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Scroll through enough retro photos or vintage ads, and it’s easy to convince yourself that life used to be simpler, even happier. But why does the past look better the farther away it gets?

Host Megan McArdle unpacks how nostalgia distorts our view of history — from the food people ate to the cost of everyday life — and why forgetting the hardships can shape how we think about the present.

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From politicians to Silicon Valley, a growing chorus is sounding the alarm and calling for more babies. But the story behind America’s declining birth rate is more complicated than headlines and political talking points suggest. Is this just a temporary trend, or something deeper — and what does it mean for the kind of society we’re building?

Host Megan McArdle is joined by economist and demographer Lyman Stone to discuss what’s really driving the decline in birth rates — from delayed marriage to cultural shifts and rising anxiety about the future.

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From overdone plastic surgery to open-concept floor plans, we’re designing our lives to look good on camera instead of optimizing for what we need. Influencer culture — and our constant exposure to curated, edited and optimized images — has reshaped the way we see the world and ourselves. But chasing the perfect image can leave real life feeling strangely hollow.

Host Megan McArdle unpacks how we got here — and how to start seeing past the screen.

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The Supreme Court is supposed to be above politics. But these days, it doesn’t feel that way. From high-stakes rulings to increasingly bitter confirmation hearings, the court has become one of the most divisive institutions in American government. So how did this happen?

Host Megan McArdle is joined by Supreme Court analyst Sarah Isgur to break down what the justices actually do, why the court's breakdown isn’t as simple as a 6-3 conservative-liberal split, and how Americans' expectations — and Congress’s failures — have pushed the high court into a role it was never meant to play.

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