This week, we celebrated Presidents Day, which makes it a fitting time to recognize one of America’s most underrated presidents. Herbert Hoover presided over the onset of the Great Depression and is widely viewed as the inferior predecessor to Franklin D. Roosevelt. But, as host Megan McArdle explains, that judgment is unfair to Hoover. It also reflects a larger problem: the assumption that a president can singlehandedly fix or wreck the economy.

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Want to win the dating game? Turns out business school has the playbook. Host Megan McArdle breaks down romance through Econ 101: addressable market, signaling, specialty products and sunk costs.

Whether you’re single, swiping or settled down, this episode will reshape how you think about love and commitment. Because in relationships, the fundamentals still matter — and sometimes it pays to think like a market participant.

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Artificial intelligence is moving fast, with new tools changing how people work, create and compete. Whether you’re an AI doomer or AI boomer, it’s hard to ignore what’s coming. Economist and professor Tyler Cowen has spent years analyzing how these developments could reshape the economy and everyday life. He joins host Megan McArdle to talk through how AI could transform talent, human capital and competition — and how to make sure you don’t get left behind.

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Walkable neighborhoods, vibrant nightlife, the sheer bounty of it all. City living isn't for everyone, but it's amazing for the people who want it. Unless, that is, they also want a family.

Today's cities are designed for demographic churn — as a rest stop en route to the suburbs, rather than a place you can live a full life. That's bad for families and for America. Bobby Fijan is one of the people trying to fix that. He is the co-founder of The American Housing Corporation, a real estate development company building affordable, family-sized rowhomes in cities across America.

Fijan joins host Megan McArdle to explain how urban housing pushed families out of cities and how his company plans to bring them back.

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This month marks the 10-year anniversary of Jason Rezaian’s release from imprisonment in Iran. In 2014, Rezaian — then The Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief — was arrested with his wife at their home and detained in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. He joins host Megan McArdle to discuss his time in captivity, Iran’s trajectory since his release, and what his experience reveals about press freedom — and its fragility — around the world. Read more in Rezaian’s book, “Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison.”

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When Renée Good was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, it reignited a familiar debate. Was this another case of police brutality, or an act of self-defense? Protests followed. Politicians and public figures weighed in. But why does this keep happening—and how do we make policing better and safer for everyone?

Host Megan McArdle speaks with former New York City police commissioner William Bratton and former NYPD chief Kenneth E. Corey. They join Megan to discuss their work at University of Chicago’s Policing Leadership Academy, and advocate that the program, and more like it, can reduce violence and improve fairness in policing.

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Journalist Katie Herzog was 12 years old when she first drank alcohol. It wasn’t until her 30s that she decided to quit. She tried everything — Alcoholics Anonymous, cleanses, therapy, yoga — but nothing stuck. Eventually, she turned to an unorthodox approach: the Sinclair Method.

Katie joins host Megan McArdle to explain this science-based path to sobriety and how it inspired her book, "Drink Your Way Sober."

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Early on Jan 3, news broke that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been captured by U.S. troops and was being flown to New York to stand trial. Later that day, President Donald Trump said the United States would take control of Venezuela’s massive oil reserves. Protests erupted almost immediately, reviving the Iraq War–era slogan, “no blood for oil.”

Host Megan McArdle breaks down the long, troubled history of Venezuelan oil and explains why the U.S. has a responsibility to help rebuild the country's economy.

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Matthew Yglesias has been a disrupter his entire career. He started as an early adapter to the web, running a blog before blogs were a thing. He went on to co-found the media company Vox and has written all over the internet. He joins host Megan McArdle to discuss their career trajectories and how the internet has changed both media and politics. 

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After Charlie Kirk’s death on her campus, Utah Valley University president Astrid Tuminez found herself in an impossible position. She was at the helm of Utah’s largest public university and had to find a way to lead her campus after the tragedy. Now, at the end of the fall semester, she joins host Megan McArdle to discuss how her faith, upbringing and love for her community gave her the strength and wisdom to get through. Plus, she shares the lessons she learned through the process to help other leaders — including the president of Brown University — who may find themselves in a similar position.

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