The Argument

Jaksot

• Andrew Tate, Dan Bilzerian, and the death of romance 18.06.2026 1t 4min

  Is online dating advice actually making it harder to find love? This week, Jerusalem Demsas and Matthew Yglesias wade into the world of online dating advice, from the manosphere influencers coaching men to treat women as opponents to the female-coded content teaching women to read every date as a minefield. Jerusalem and Matt find themselves split on what it's actually doing to us. Is this tactical advice a useful nudge for people who'd otherwise never take a risk, or a trap of stereoty...
• How environmentalists lost the plot 11.06.2026 1t 12min

  Is modern environmentalism anti-progress? This week, Jerusalem Demsas and Matthew Yglesias read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring – the book that launched the modern environmental movement. Jerusalem and Matt find themselves surprised by what's actually in it. Is it a visionary scientific critique or a romantic backlash against modernity? And did Carson's legacy help or hurt the cause she championed? Plus: new research on whether leaving the workforce accelerates cognitive decline and what that m...
• Do we need to build God to cure cancer? 04.06.2026 58min

  AI companies keep promising it will cure cancer. But what does that actually mean — and would an AI capable of doing it be one we'd want to live alongside? Jerusalem Demsas and Kelsey Piper debated the question live in San Francisco, in front of a crowd of researchers, investors, and skeptics who had plenty to say about it. One of them is going to be very wrong. Listen and judge for yourself. (0:00) Is the AI trade-off worth it? (3:54) Are small wins good enough? (10:27) What woul...
• Why is crime falling everywhere? 28.05.2026 53min

  America is on track for its lowest homicide year since 1900, but nobody seems to be celebrating. Matt Yglesias and Jerusalem Demsas debate why crime has dropped so dramatically and what caused the pandemic-era highs in the first place. Were the George Floyd and BLM protests to blame for the increase in crime? Were cops holding back because they felt disrespected? Or was it pandemic-era disruptions that caused the chaos? Together, they explore what it means for democratic accountability when o...
• Why Democrats and Republicans want you to pay $50,000 for a car 21.05.2026 57min

  This week on The Argument, Jerusalem Demsas and Matthew Yglesias debate the tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Jerusalem argues that Americans should have access to cheaper, climate-friendly cars, while Matt says industrial policy requires a more cautious approach. They dive into the failure of Trump’s tariffs, what serious industrial policy looks like, and how the climate activists are once again missing the mark. (0:00) The BYD car that can jump over potholes (4:07) Climate activists mis...
• Did Joe Biden really kill Spirit Airlines? 14.05.2026 1t 8min

  Spirit Airlines is dead and the right, true to form, is blaming Joe Biden. The immediate cause of Spirit's demise is pretty clear: the war with Iran spiked jet fuel costs, and the already-battered airline couldn't absorb the hit to its bottom line. Last we checked, Joe Biden didn't start any wars with Iran. In this episode, Matthew Yglesias and Jerusalem Demsas break down what really happened with Spirit Airlines, the weird history of aviation policy in the U.S., and the conspir...
• Boy moms and Nazi POWs: how "The Feminine Mystique" changed feminism 07.05.2026 1t 5min

  Betty Friedan thought Korean POWs were dying in captivity because their mothers were housewives. She thought boy moms were making their sons gay. She wrote a whole chapter comparing suburban kitchens to concentration camps — in 1963, while America was still processing what concentration camps actually were. "The Feminine Mystique" is one of those important books that everyone "knows" but no one has actually read. For today's episode of The Argument podcast, Matthew Yglesias and ...
• Should we end asylum? 30.04.2026 1t 12min

  Matthew Yglesias wants to end asylum. On a new episode of The Argument, Matt argues that the post-WWII asylum framework is not just politically untenable but practically unworkable. Jerusalem Demsas, true to form, disagrees. New episodes post every Thursday. For an ad-free version, show notes, and full transcript, subscribe at TheArgumentMag.com. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts Support the Show: Get a full transcript, show notes, and a...
• Can America still be a force for good? 23.04.2026 1t 2min

  For the past century, America's foreign interventions often carried the pretense of liberal idealism – to help bring peace and prosperity to people around the world. But it doesn't take a history scholar to know that positive outcomes weren't always the result. In the latest episode of the Argument, Jerusalem Demsas and Matthew Yglesias debate the merits of liberal hypocrisy, its benefits and drawbacks, and whether it's worth bringing it back. New episodes post every Th...
• Destroy the internet to save it? 16.04.2026 56min

  People tend to defend online anonymity by pointing to the long tradition of anonymous speech in American democracy. But modern anonymity is an entirely new beast. Should we ban anonymity on the internet? That's what The Argument's Jerusalem Demsas and Slow Boring's Matthew Yglesias debate in The Argument's latest episode. New episodes post every Thursday. You can find The Argument on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTu...
• Should Race Matter in College Admissions? 09.04.2026 1t 9min

  When the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at colleges and universities in 2023, finding that Harvard and the University of North Carolina practiced race-based discrimination against Asian American students, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, "eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it." The case, decided along ideological lines, caused a stir among progressives. But was this discrimination the inevitable consequence of affirmative action policies? Or did it si...
• Matthew Yglesias vs. Jerusalem Demsas: The Trailer 02.04.2026 1min

  Watch the official trailer for The Argument — a new podcast cohosted by Jerusalem Demsas and Matthew Yglesias. Has affirmative action gone too far? Should we abolish internet anonymity? Is liberal hypocrisy worth defending? Welcome to The Argument, a weekly podcast from Jerusalem Demsas and Matthew Yglesias, where two friends argue about politics, policy, and whatever else is on their minds. This is a debate show for people who want the nitty-gritty without the typical screaming matches or so...
• Stop Letting Instagram Explain Your Love Life -- The Science of Attraction 23.02.2026 1t

  Are men naturally promiscuous and drawn to younger women? Are women obsessed with tall, older, rich men? Dating discourse is littered with pop evolutionary psychology that makes broad claims about how men and women are under a thin veneer of scientific credibility. But how much of it is backed by real science? In this episode of The Argument, host Jerusalem Demsas interviews UC Davis psychology professor Paul Eastwick about his new book, Bonded by Evolution: The New Science of Love and Connec...
• The Scientific Method Comes for Criminal Justice 17.02.2026 1t 9min

  Economists love to say there are no free lunches. Jennifer Doleac thinks criminal justice is one of the rare places where that’s wrong. In this episode, host and Editor of The Argument, Jerusalem Demsas talks with Doleac—economist and author of The Science of Second Chances—about what happens when you treat crime policy like an empirical problem instead of a morality play. Rejecting the false choice of being "tough on crime" or "soft on crime," Doleac surfaces a surprising number of ref...
• Ross Douthat on the End of Conservatism 09.02.2026 1t 7min

  Trump didn’t just reshape the GOP—he may have ended what we used to call “the conservative movement.” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat joins host Jerusalem Demsas to map the new right: the collapse of fusionism, the rise of nationalism, and a media ecosystem where influencers matter more than institutions. Then they argue about what liberalism can and can’t solve. Can abundance and faster growth stabilize democracy, or are the deeper crises cultural, spiritual, and demographic in w...
• Did the Opioid Epidemic Help Republicans Win? 02.02.2026 1t 6min

  Over less than 25 years, the opioid epidemic killed over 800,000 Americans. These deaths and the resulting economic and political ramifications were unequally distributed across the country. Some places were ravaged, others barely noticed what was happening. In this episode, host Jerusalem Demsas is joined by economist Carolina Arteaga to unpack new research linking the opioid crisis to increasing vote share for the Republican party. They dig into how a public-health catastrophe came to...
• Are Children People? 26.01.2026 1t 13min

  Children are a problem for liberalism -- and it’s one you can see in everything from school-board wars to fights over “indoctrination.” If all individuals are free and equal, endowed with rights by their Creator, then does that include children? Kids are fully human, yes, but they’re also dependent, impulsive, and not yet capable of adult autonomy. So when do rights actually kick in? Rita Koganzon, a political theory professor at UNC Chapel Hill, has a blunt answer: adult-style rights have to...
• Why NIMBYs Oppose Housing (with Chris Elmendorf) 19.01.2026 1t 7min

  NIMBYism is usually explained as selfishness: homeowners protecting property values, or neighbors who just hate change. But a growing body of research suggests something simpler and harder to argue with: aesthetics. What if people oppose new housing not only because of who might move in or what it might do to traffic, but because the building just looks “wrong”? In this episode, Jerusalem Demsas talks with UC Davis law professor Chris Elmendorf about new experiments that test what actually mo...
• Matthew Yglesias on What Went Wrong with Modern Liberalism? 12.01.2026 1t 23min

  If we want to address racism, should we talk more about race – or less? Matthew Yglesias argues liberals undermined their own principles when politics shifted from judging people as individuals to sorting them into moral categories based on group identity. We debate “the fox in liberalism’s henhouse,” collective blame, and why “accurate” generalizations can still poison a pluralistic society. The Argument is a podcast dedicated to honest, unflinching debate about the biggest questions f...
• We're Getting Frog-Boiled by AI (with Kelsey Piper) 06.01.2026 1t 8min

  A lot of Americans are uneasy about AI, and so are many of the people building it. Yet we keep scaling and deploying these systems faster than we’re building rules to govern them. Why? The Argument's Kelsey Piper has a few explanations, from foreign competition to a sense of inevitability to a conservative party terrified of regulation. Even if the incentives are clear, our collective complacency is not, especially given AI models have already attempted blackmail and in one case a...