Welcome back to the Rational Policy Podcast! Somehow, we’ve been doing this for a whole 50 episodes (!), so we wanted to thank you for listening in and supporting the show; it means a lot. So, in honor of our milestone 50th episode we……did nothing different. As always, your steady hosts Mike Coté and Art Vandelay break down the (light) week in news, this time hitting a grab bag of topics ranging from British academia to Korean military exercises.
We start off with the former, detailing the most incredible academic scandal in recent memory: the downfall of former Cambridge sociologist Jason Arday. We discuss the scandal’s most ridiculous aspects, the left-wing blame-game firestorm after Arday’s tragic suicide, and how this controversy indicts the whole of progressive academia. Next, we shift to a nigh-inscrutable decision by President Trump to cancel joint military exercises with South Korea, largely in a fit of pique. We explain the nuances around how to deal with the dovish leadership in Seoul, the usefulness of these exercises, and how Trump’s personalist foreign policy is less disconcerting than the ideological isolationism of some in his movement, led by his vice president. Then, we switch gears entirely and go big picture, talking about the significant similarities between the 2020s and the 1970s and what that may portend for our politics over the coming years. Finally, we answer one of your questions from Twitter!
Check it out, follow us on Twitter/X (Mike / Art), and share the podcast with anyone you think might appreciate it. Thanks for listening. We’ll be on vacation until just after Labor Day. Enjoy the dog days of summer, take a break from the doomscrolling, and head on outside - it would do us all good. Catch you on the flip side!
