President Biden made his first address to a joint session of Congress. It didn’t get big TV ratings, but the content reflected big changes to what he’d have the government do, with trillions of dollars in new spending on infrastructure and soci

Not now, but soon?

1 Mar 6th, 2021 57m 19s

Texas is done with Covid, but is Covid done with Texas? Some states are rushing to lift restrictions while others are being more deliberate, saying they’ll do so in late March or April. Is this return to normal coming too soon or not soon enoug

Left in the lurch

Aug 7th, 2020 50m 33s

It’s August, the enhanced unemployment air ran out in July, and lawmakers in Washington don’t seem much closer to extending that and other aspects of the coronavirus aid.How long will be left in the lurch? And what do we make of the report th

Will waves of protest bring waves of change?

1 Jun 5th, 2020 1h 4m

The killing of George Floyd by a white police officer who now faces murder charges set off a wave of peaceful protests nationwide. It also resulted in incidents of violence, with police officers blamed for using unnecessarily brutal methods to

George Floyd

1 1 May 29th, 2020 53m 54s

The death of George Floyd — who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for seven minutes in the process of arresting him — has reignited outrage over police treatment of black Americans. There have been protests in cit

The right and wrong responses to the coronavirus outbreak

Mar 7th, 2020 56m 21s

The coronavirus outbreak in the US is intensifying with hundreds of known cases and 14 deaths as of Friday afternoon. The stats on cases in China are a little better than a few weeks ago, but can we believe them? And beyond the $8.3 billion eme

The state of our union

Mar 4th, 2022 50m 30s

President Biden gave his first State of the Union address this week, and it was certainly a doozy amid the invasion of Ukraine, COVID, and rising inflation. So how’d it go? The answer: It depends on the symbolism you’re looking for. Right b

Close encounters of a truckish kind

1 Feb 18th, 2022 50m 29s

Canada’s having some close encounters of a truckish kind. For three weeks now, a convoy of truck drivers have occupied major cities north of the border and blocked trade in protest of vaccine mandates for truckers. They’ve gained support from m

Farewell, Justice Breyer. What now?

Jan 28th, 2022 50m 31s

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring after 27 years on the nation’s highest court, giving President Biden his first chance to nominate a justice to the bench. He’s expected to announce his pick by the end of February, and has vowed

Biden presidency turns 1 year old

1 Jan 21st, 2022 50m 31s

President Biden took questions from reporters on Wednesday for nearly two hours — ranging widely from voting rights to Ukraine and more — as senators from his own party threatened his top legislative goals.The president says he’s outperformed

January 6 Anniversary

Jan 7th, 2022 50m 31s

We kick off a new year of Left Right & Center as the country reflects on the one-year anniversary of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Guest host Jeremy Hobson talks with Jamelle Bouie, Alice Stewart and Amy Walter about how the battl

Symptoms

1 Nov 23rd, 2021 50m 28s

Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on all counts in a Kenosha courtroom this week, successfully asserting self-defense against two counts of murder. Whether Rittenhouse committed a crime and whether he acted in a morally acceptable manner are two s

The Chaos in Afghanistan

1 Aug 20th, 2021 50m 32s

Kabul has fallen. While this was expected to happen, the U.S. government has been surprised by how quickly the Taliban took over. At the start of this week, there were as many as 15,000 Americans in Afghanistan. Now, Americans, along with th

An improved jobs report but still a long road to economic recovery

1 Jun 4th, 2021 59m 21s

The jobs report for May was better than April but still left a lot of room for improvement. Workers are being more selective, which may not be a bad thing. With a tight labor market and a material shortage, is this the right time for a big infr

Where are all the jobs?

May 8th, 2021 53m 24s

The April jobs report number was disappointing. We expected a million new jobs and only got 260,000. There are a few factors that could be slowing job growth: a very specific reason why manufacturing jobs are down, enhanced unemployment benefit

Accountability

1 Apr 24th, 2021 55m 3s

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts for the death of George Floyd last summer. The prosecution’s case against him was strong and the jury deliberated for less than two days before reaching their unanim

Pause & Review

1 Apr 17th, 2021 50m 31s

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is on pause, out of an abundance of caution, federal officials say. Out of more than 7 million J&J doses administered so far, there have been six incidents of a rare and serious kind of blood clot. The idea for the

Carrots over sticks

Apr 10th, 2021 52m 16s

Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan has stretched the definition of infrastructure. One component is over $200 billion for housing. Home prices are rising around the country and affordability is a bigger issue than ever, but will incentivizing loca

Closer to $2 trillion

1 Feb 5th, 2021 54m 27s

Democrats are much closer to passing the nearly $2 trillion relief package President Joe Biden has proposed. A Republican pitch for a much smaller package doesn’t look to be going anywhere. The White House says doing too little is way riskier t

One Billion Americans

Sep 19th, 2020 1h 6m

***Hi Left, Right & Center listeners: this week’s episode was recorded Friday morning before news broke that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at 87 of pancreatic cancer.President Trump is fighting with his CDC director. Dr. Rober

Is triggering the libs a policy platform?

Aug 29th, 2020 50m 34s

President Trump accepted his party’s renomination to be president on the White House lawn, despite rules about not using government property for political purposes. He says he wants to unify the country and that Joe Biden is a Trojan horse for

Lagging behind

Jul 11th, 2020 50m 46s

The coronavirus pandemic crisis is stretching on and the United States is in dire straits. Infections are surging in the south and west and there's doubt about whether schools can open safely for the new school year. Megan McArdle says the la

Super Tuesday is days away

Feb 29th, 2020 50m 48s

The coronavirus is bearing down on the United States. Is President Trump saying the right things? He tapped Vice President Pence to lead coronavirus task force. What of then-Indiana Governor Pence’s record during an HIV outbreak there? And as s

Finally, a real debate

Feb 22nd, 2020 1h 10m

Now that’s what we call a debate. The candidates stopped being polite and started getting real, and all it took was getting Mike Bloomberg on the debate stage. Though, with all the fighting and several direct hits from Elizabeth Warren on his c

Trump’s criminal trial takes center stage

6 days ago 50m 37s

The embattled leadership of the Republican Party came together in a show of solidarity this week. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was joined by House Speaker Mike Johnson for a press conference at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago compound. Tru