Central Air

On this week's show: Cartoons Hate Her joins us to make her argument that Democrats need a presidential candidate who “fucks.” First we try to figure out what this figurative sense of “fuck” means exactly — “fucking is in your heart,” says CHH — and then we apply the analysis to the field of politics. Some calls are easy — John F. Kennedy fucked; Michael Dukakis did not fuck — but there are closer calls, like Margaret Thatcher, who may have fucked in some weird British psychosexual way, and there are candidates who fucked too much, like Gary Hart. We look at the elephant in the room — Gavin Newsom, who obviously fucks but obviously should not be the Democratic nominee — and we scour the rest of the field for potential fuckage. Perhaps Josh Shapiro would fuck if we got him some contact lenses and a leather jacket? We consider all possible angles. Plus: We have a very special surprise guest who helps us understand the bizarre phenomenon of “looksmaxxing,” recently covered in a 2,800-word New York Times profile of Braden Peters, a.k.a. Clavicular, the famous 20-year-old moron who improves his bone structure by hitting himself in the face with a hammer. (Peters, unsurprisingly, is a Newsom supporter.) And CHH gives her take on one of my favorite questions: are straight people okay? Sign up for updates at www.centralairpodcast.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

On this week's show: everyone loves to talk about affordability these days, or more specifically, they love to complain about unaffordability. But what are they actually complaining about? At least four things, we think: inflation, interest rates, real incomes, and income distribution — or, basically, the whole economy. We invited Natasha Sarin, a professor at Yale Law School who co-directs The Budget Lab there, and who previously served as an economic official at the Treasury Department under President Biden, to join us for this conversation. Plus: interest rates, and what might happen to them if President Trump gets his way on monetary policy, grading Fed Chair nominee Kevin Warsh on a curve, and “white people tacos." Sign up for updates from Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

On this week's show: we’re really excited to have Ross Douthat, columnist for The New York Times and host of the Times’s “Interesting Times” podcast, join us. We give the Epstein Files the Washington Read and make a sincere effort to learn something useful from this Epstein experience. Plus: how Ross got his job as the official explainer of Trumpism to liberal America, why he wants us to pay more attention to AI, and Peter Thiel and his “over-indexing” on his Greta Thunberg theory of the Antichrist. Sign up for updates from Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

On this week's show: we’re joined by Jerusalem Demsas, Editor-in-Chief of avowedly liberal publication The Argument. Jerusalem makes the case for immigration advocates to ride the thermostatic shift toward support for immigration without avoiding the political traps that befell Democrats under Joe Biden. Plus: we talk about what sort of bargain Democrats should try to drive about funding the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the abuses they’ve perpetrated in Minneapolis, and we look at one aspect of The Argument’s project: getting liberals to stop acting like they’re “temporarily-embarrassed communists” and take pride in their own coherent worldview. We consider Moderna’s announcement that the US policy environment has turned too anti-vaccine to support expensive research into certain mRNA applications for fighting infectious disease. And Ben makes a case for one of the ugliest vegetables around. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

Listeners: join Josh, Megan and Ben on Friday at 12:30 pm Eastern / 9:30 am Pacific for a video chat on Substack. Go to centralairpodcast.com for more details. This week: we discuss our exasperation at Greenlandpolitik and consider an endgame where Trump simply declares that he has Greenland without actually doing anything besides coloring in the map. Plus: the Shapiro-Harris feud, defining a woman (harder than you'd think!), and the already-backfiring California billionaire tax. Sign up for updates from Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

This week: the bombshell at the Federal Reserve — the bank was served with subpoenas related to a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony about renovation cost overruns, and Powell's direct-to-camera video pledging to resist this use of a pretextual criminal investigation to pressure him and the bank to lower interest rates. We also discuss the Minnesota ICE shooting. Plus: Steve Morris of The Long Run joins us to discuss the groveling apology that gay liberal comedians Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers had to offer for showing insufficient respect to our lord and savior Jasmine Crockett, and we discuss at the problems facing straight people — who these days seem to talk a lot about how awful the opposite sex is while having very little sex with the opposite sex. This is sad! Leave a comment on this episode at centralairpodcast.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

On this week's show: the arrest of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela and President Trump’s statement that we’ll be “running” the country now. What does the US stand to gain? Plus: a fraud scandal brings down Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and why both parties love to hate a VP figure. Megan makes the case that arts professionals should be wary of boycotting the “Trump Kennedy Center" — while Ben and Josh argue that this is exactly the sort of low-stakes issue where symbolic anti-Trump politics are healthy and welcome — and Josh's on-the-ground dispatch from communist-occupied New York, one week into the Mamdani administration. Sign up for updates from Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

Listeners: join Josh, Megan and Ben on Friday at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific for a video chat on Substack. Go to centralairpodcast.com for more details. This week: we discuss President Trump’s gross and remarkably self-centered response to the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner, and the strangely candid interview that Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles granted to Vanity Fair. We look at reporting from The New York Times on how Jeffrey Epstein rose to prominence and success on Wall Street, despite very early signs that he shouldn’t be trusted, and we consider an essay in Compact arguing that diversity mandates at academic, arts and media institutions have been designed by older generations to fall solely on the backs of white men who are millennial and younger, producing institutions staffed by old white guys and very few young white guys. Plus: bad ideas about backyard gardening, and our predictions for 2026. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

On this week's show: Warner Brothers Discovery is up for sale, and Netflix and Paramount are fighting over the opportunity to buy it. We discuss the fate of CNN, the future of moviemaking and theaters, the Trump administration’s apparent intent to interfere on Paramount’s behalf, and who's really competing with the streamers for our attention. Next we talk about Ezra Klein’s search for “the good”: a framework that will allow liberals to say — without reference to charts and statistics — that building a community is better than staring at your phone all day or, replacing your spouse and your therapist with an AI chatbot, or, God help us, living in the “goon cave.” Is it better to more freely pass moral judgement on each other, or should we trust individuals to figure out what’s good for them? Finally, we discuss a report that almost 40% of undergraduates at Stanford are officially “disabled." Join our comments section and sign up for updates about the show at centralairpodcast.com. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

On this week’s show: is $140,000 a year the new poverty line? Is $400,000 a moderate income? Is the softening in car buying an indication that middle-income Americans have grown more financially pressed in recent months? Plus: we revisit the “you must refuse illegal orders” video in light of news reports about an awfully illegal-sounding “double tap” strike on a suspected drug boat off Venezuela, and we discuss the Trump administration’s crackdown on Afghan migrants. We also talk about casinos in New York City and two environments that bring Americans together: the craps table, and the Benihana table. Finally: Josh angers people on the internet. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

In the spirit of Thanksgiving gatherings, Megan brought her husband to visit with us this week. Peter Suderman joins us to discuss holiday cocktails, an overly sympathetic story about an illegal immigrant who stole a man’s identity so he could work, the controversy over the “illegal orders” video from Democratic members of Congress (with reference to a useful op-ed by David French), and your dad/Sean Duffy’s campaign to get air travelers to behave themselves. About those holiday cocktails: go to centralairpodcast.com for a special Christmas-y mai tai recipe Peter helped Josh develop, and other links to holiday libations (and you can sign up for our newsletter there too). Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

We finally have word that the Epstein files will be made public, but is that a mistake? Ben and Megan offer their arguments for keeping the secrets secret, and Josh isn't sure about that — what is in there? And doesn't President Trump, who campaigned on releasing the files, deserve whatever happens once that happens? Also this week: the effort to rehabilitate the reputation of price controls (ew), a celebration of the end of the penny, and the TikTok proposition that “the new American dream is to leave.” Sign up for updates from us (and support the show) and www.centralairpodcast.com Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

Josh, Ben, Megan and special guest Nate Silver stress-test alternative ends to the government shutdown. What outcomes were actually available to Democrats? Then: Donald Trump’s poll numbers have materially deteriorated in the last month, and Democrats way outran their polls in elections last week. Are national polls understating Democrats’ national strength? Also in this episode: Nate’s take on the strange debate over whether moderate candidates win more elections, and yet another pro-sports betting scandal. Is gambling undermining sports as a civic institution? And finally: Teen Vogue. Feedback? Questions? Leave a comment at centralairpodcast.com or email us at centralair@substack.com. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

Josh, Ben and Megan take stock of the lessons for Democrats from Tuesday’s strong election result — and a look at how Republicans failed to speak to voters’ concerns about the cost of living. Also this week: hopes and fears for Zohran Mamdani, the ongoing meltdown at the Heritage Foundation, the ongoing meltdown on Nancy Mace’s Twitter feed over her treatment by TSA and airport staff at the Charleston airport, and a couple of stories about Ben and Josh's less-than-finest hours at the airport. Feedback? Questions? Leave a comment at centralairpodcast.com or email us at centralair@substack.com. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

This week, we’re Deciding to Win, or at least talking about a new manifesto about how to improve and moderate the Democratic Party’s image. Liam Kerr, one of the report’s authors joins us to talk about it. Also this week: the demolition of the East Wing of the White House and those who are very offended by it (not us), Karine Jean-Pierre’s very weird interview with The New Yorker, some lessons from an election in Argentina, and signs that the president’s trade war is starting to do significant economic damage in at least some parts of the country. Feedback? Questions? Leave a comment at centralairpodcast.com or email us at centralair@substack.com. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

Matt Yglesias joins Josh, Megan and Ben to discuss immigration: why (and how) the Biden administration bungled the issue so badly and how the Democratic party could start to regain voters' trust on the issue. Also in this episode: the problem of “the algorithm” and how it's really a problem of the audience with its bias toward negativity; Helen Andrews’ essay for Compact, which alleges that key institutions are suffering from an epidemic of “feminization”; the efficacy of the “No Kings” protests; and ...does Italy have too many restaurants? Sign up for updates from Central Air here. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

This is the first episode of Central Air, a weekly politics podcast from and for the political center. Every other part of the political spectrum has a podcast — so, why not us? Josh Barro, Megan McArdle and Ben Dreyfuss talk about the state of the political center, and the exciting new initiatives that focus on what centrists are for, not just what we think is too extreme. Also this week: The oddly low-key government shutdown, and Democrats’ uphill fight to use the shutdown to get voters to focus on expiring Obamacare subsidies, naked cyclists in Oregon and the political trap of fighting Donald Trump over immigration, the overwrought freakout over Bari Weiss’s installation at CBS, and finally, did it make any sense that the Nakatomi Corporation would have had $640 million worth of bearer bonds in a vault in its new Los Angeles skyscraper? Learn more about Central Air — leave comments, sign up to support the show and receive updates on this new podcast — at www.centralairpodcast.com. Get full access to Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

Megan, Ben and I react to Donald Trump’s very long address to Congress, the topic he did not want to talk about for very long (inflation), the tariffs he seems to realize people are skeptical about, and his emerging feud with the Premier of Ontario. Megan also discusses what she hated most about the speech (it had to do with RFK Jr.) and Ben identifies an emerging vibe shift — Trump, he says, is no longer riding high upon the vibes like he was a few weeks ago. Sign up to receive updates on our podcast episodes at www.joshbarro.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joshbarro.com/subscribe

I'm back again with another talkative podcast for the political center with Mike Pesca, Ben Dreyfuss and Megan McArdle. This week we’re (unsurprisingly) focused on the ongoing actions of DOGE: the firings and freezes that Megan correctly identifies as less a cost-cutting effort than a strategy to punish and diminish institutions that Republicans see as dominated by the left. We also discuss Elon Musk’s family drama, the imminent return of Andrew Cuomo to New York politics, and the imminent release of the woke Snow White movie. Feedback? Questions? Get in touch at www.joshbarro.com or email mayo@joshbarro.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joshbarro.com/subscribe

We’re back again with another podcast with views from (and disagreements within) the center about Elon Musk, who has been the prime mover behind a lot of the news this week— efforts to cull the federal workforce, the (illegal?) pause on grants foreign and domestic, and the apparent shutdown of USAID. Plus: Trump’s sudden announcement (and sudden pause) of big tariffs on Mexico and Canada; venting about the DNC Chair election and about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s apparent glide path to overseeing our health policy apparatus, and we talk about the DCA plane crash — and the apparently irresistible urge the president feels to speculate about why it happened. If you have feedback, we continue to encourage you to email mayo@joshbarro.com. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joshbarro.com/subscribe