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Cato Podcast
Every Tuesday on The Cato Weekly Podcast, leading scholars and policy analysts from the Cato Institute delve into the big ideas shaping our world: individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Whether unpacking current events, debating civil liberties, exploring technological inno...
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Coming Soon: The Cato Weekly Podcast
Every Tuesday on The Cato Weekly Podcast, leading scholars and policymakers from the Cato Institute delve into the big ideas shaping our world: indivi...
How to Spot a Wrong Number
A number that's precise, dramatic, and politically convenient should raise your suspicion, not lower it. Aaron Brown, author of Wrong Number:
Ho...
Heller's Sequel Has a New Weapon
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Vermont versus Cook County, its biggest Second Amendment case since Heller. The Cato Institute's Clark Neily, who...
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Affordability?
Rep. Kevin Fitzpatrick (R) and Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D) lead one of Washington's only bipartisan caucuses, the Problem Solvers Caucus, and they've teame...
Can Government Run a Grocery Store?
New York City Mayor Mamdani wants five city owned grocery stores selling staples 30% below cost, at $70 million to build and $100 million a year to ru...
Bad Ways To Improve Housing Affordability
Nearly 60% of housing markets in the United States have been characterized as “unaffordable.” Cato's Ryan Bourne talks with Howard Husock of the Ameri...
The Eternal Quest for More Tariffs
Earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled that the president could not use the "International Emergency Economic Powers Act" (IEEPA) to impose tariffs...
Wealth Taxes Failed Abroad. Why Try Them Here?
Most rich countries that tried annual wealth taxes eventually scrapped them, but now California and Elizabeth Warren want to run the experiment in the...
Iran: Schrodinger's War
The conflict with Iran is simultaneously ending and escalating, and Justin Logan says that's no accident. He tells the Cato Institute's Laura Bondank-...
AI: Must We Act Now?
Artificial intelligence could transform productivity, employment, and living standards. But does that mean governments should “act now” to “steer” the...
Happy 60th Birthday, Now Pay the Bill
Medicare spent $1.2 trillion in 2025 and still can't show it's saving lives. The Cato Institute's Laura Bondank-Harmon is joined by Michael Cannon and...
The Wisdom of Crowds: An Intro to Prediction Markets
Prediction-market pioneer Robin Hanson joins Cato's Ryan Bourne to explain this new industry's promise, how betting can improve decision-making, and w...
The Fight Against Financial Surveillance
Financial surveillance in America is expanding.
In this episode, host Nicholas Anthony sits down with Representative Warren Davidson to discuss...
Why Is Childcare So Expensive?
Parents in many parts of the country face eye-watering childcare bills, yet providers often operate on thin margins and workers remain modestly paid....
The Amendment That Wouldn't Bend
Trump's executive order tested the limits of the 14th Amendment and lost, 6-3. Cato's Laura Bondank-Harmon is joined by David Bier and Tommy Berry to...
Injuries and Usurpations, 250 Years Later
Americans know the Declaration’s soaring opening case for natural rights and government by consent. Fewer remember its long list of “injuries and usur...
Data Centers Turn Electricity into Breakthroughs
Golf courses and factories use just as much water and electricity as data centers, yet only the latter draws local protests and construction bans. Cat...
Proud to Be American, Worried About What's Next
60% of Americans say their rights and freedoms are at risk. Yet nearly two thirds still call America the land of opportunity and three quarters believ...
The Dangerous Push to Tax AI
Republicans and Democrats are finding rare common ground: taxing AI. But should they? Cato's Adam Michel and Daniel Bunn of the Tax Foundation dismant...
The Abundance Alliance?
Abundance liberals want a politics focused on delivering more homes, energy projects, infrastructure, and innovation, and will even countenance deregu...
What the Declaration Still Has to Say in 2026
Before 1776, the world was largely run by monarchies and despots. The Declaration changed that. Cato's Paul Meany and Tommy Berry explore why its prin...
The Degrowth Temptation
A new Global Justice Report associated with Thomas Piketty urges near-zero growth for rich countries, sweeping redistribution, global wealth taxes, sh...
The Retirement System That Works Against You
Social Security crowds out private savings, the tax code penalizes investment, and Trump accounts can leave families worse off than a plain brokerage...
Economics In One World Cup
Ticket prices, scalpers, tourists, visas, turf, trade, and politics: the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a rich case study for economists. Cato’s Ryan Bourne t...
When the President Sues the Government He Controls
The Anti-Weaponization Fund started as a $10 billion lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS in his personal capacity and ended as a $1.776 billion slush...
The Markets We Love to Ban
Kidneys, surrogacy, prostitution, gambling, price gouging, assisted dying: some transactions make people recoil, even when all parties consent. Cato's...
What "All Men Are Created Equal" Actually Meant
Most Americans can recite the Declaration's second paragraph. Far fewer understand what it really means. Paul Meany sits down with Timothy Sandefur to...
Get a Warrant!
The third party doctrine has gutted the Fourth Amendment in the digital age, letting the government collect your data without ever getting a warrant....
Out to Lunch: California’s $20 Fast-Food Wage
California’s $20 fast-food minimum wage cut employment by roughly 18,000 jobs and pushed up restaurant prices. Cato’s Ryan Bourne talks to UC San Dieg...
Kicking the Can to Xi's September Visit
The US-China summit produced few deliverables and no breakthroughs on Taiwan, Iran, or trade. Cato's Clark Packard and Evan Sankey break down what was...
The Immigration Crackdown You’re Not Hearing About
Asylum entries are down 99.9%. Student visas, family visas, and H-1B applications have all cratered. Ryan Bourne is joined by Cato's David Bier to exa...
Washington's Tariff Whack-a-Mole
Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 sat dormant for 50 years for good reason. Cato's Clark Packard and Alfredo Carrillo Obregon break down why courts...
The Growing Farm Subsidy Boondoggle
Federal farm subsidies have kept growing from occasional disaster relief into a sprawling system of commodity supports, crop insurance, sugar protecti...
The Cure for the WHO
The United States has left the World Health Organization, but infectious diseases remain one of the clearest cases for cross-border cooperation. Cato’...
Subsidize a Diagnosis, Get More Diagnoses
Medicaid spending on autism therapy jumped from $300 million to $2 billion in just eight states over seven years. Cato's Ryan Bourne, Jeff Singer, and...
How to Fix Washington's Affordability Crisis
Consumer prices are up 28% in six years and inflation is accelerating again. Cato's Ryan Bourne, Jai Kedia, Colin Grabow, and Stephen Slivinski unpack...
Who Actually Pays Federal Taxes?
The top 10% pays 60% of all federal taxes, the bottom 20% pays effectively nothing, and last year's tax cuts added new complexity. Cato's Chris Edward...
Orbán's Hungary: Model or Cautionary Tale?
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Hungary this week to campaign for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, hailing him as a defender of Western civilization....
Birthright Citizenship on Trial
Trump's executive order challenges 150 years of birthright citizenship law, hinging on four words in the 14th Amendment. The Cato Institute's Tommy Be...
The Great Political Realignment
Steve Davies’s new book, The Great Realignment, argues that the key political divide of the past century — markets versus state control — is being dis...