Dear listeners,
Welcome back for episode two of Central Air! This week we’re excited to have Matt Yglesias join us to discuss immigration. Matt and I have both been writing on this recently, trying to understand exactly why the Biden administration bungled the issue so badly and why some Biden alums (who are happy to acknowledge the bungling) won’t name names about who screwed up.
We also talk with Matt about the problem of “the algorithm” and how it’s really a problem of the audience, with its bias toward negativity. All four of us are trying to push back on undue negativity — Ben’s Substack is literally called “Calm Down” — and we discuss how to frankly acknowledge real problems without unduly freaking people out.
We also look at Helen Andrews’ essay for Compact, which alleges that key institutions are suffering from an epidemic of “feminization”; we debate the efficacy of the “No Kings” protests; and we consider the allegation from The New York Times that Italy has too many restaurants (which Megan sometimes feels is true of Washington as well).
We hope you enjoy the episode! Make sure to subscribe so you get us in your inbox every week — we have a lot more to say to you.
Airily,
Josh
