Cato Event Podcast

America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in controversy over what if any role is appropriate for religious and other agencies that decline to work with gay parents or that give preference to cobelievers. The rate of international adoption, once hailed as a success, has plunged in recent years. Meanwhile, the domestic foster care system has long been beset by policy challenges.How can government policy best avoid placing obstacles in the way of finding permanent homes for children? Are there ways to respond to legitimate concerns about international adoption, such as official corruption, that do not simply close down that process? What is the role of pluralism, a

America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in controversy over what if any role is appropriate for religious and other agencies that decline to work with gay parents or that give preference to cobelievers. The rate of international adoption, once hailed as a success, has plunged in recent years. Meanwhile, the domestic foster care system has long been beset by policy challenges.How can government policy best avoid placing obstacles in the way of finding permanent homes for children? Are there ways to respond to legitimate concerns about international adoption, such as official corruption, that do not simply close down that process? What is the role of pluralism, a

America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in controversy over what if any role is appropriate for religious and other agencies that decline to work with gay parents or that give preference to cobelievers. The rate of international adoption, once hailed as a success, has plunged in recent years. Meanwhile, the domestic foster care system has long been beset by policy challenges.How can government policy best avoid placing obstacles in the way of finding permanent homes for children? Are there ways to respond to legitimate concerns about international adoption, such as official corruption, that do not simply close down that process? What is the role of pluralism, a

Today, more than 95 percent of criminal convictions in the United States are obtained through plea bargains. As the Supreme Court observed in 2012, “criminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials.” Compared with jury trials, plea bargains are efficient and inexpensive, and they free up resources that might otherwise be devoted to securing convictions in cases where the defendant’s guilt is not seriously in doubt.But plea bargaining has a dark side as well. Given the imbalance of resources between prosecutors and most defendants, together with the array of tools that prosecutors can bring to bear in any given case, such as mandatory minimum sentences, charge-stacking, and witness inducements, it is fair to ask how many guilty pleas are truly voluntary. A growing body of evidence suggests that false confessions may not be nearly as rare as we would hope, and indeed the specter of coercion casts a shadow over the entire plea-bargaining process. Finally, th

To Err Is Human is an in-depth documentary about medical mistakes and those working behind the scenes to create a new age of patient safety. Through interviews with leaders in health care, footage of real-world efforts leading to safer care, and one individual's compelling journey from victim to empowered patient advocate, the film provides a unique look at our health care system's ongoing fight against preventable harm. Join us for a special private screening of the documentary. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sixty years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case of NAACP v. Alabama. In 1956, as part of the civil rights struggle, the state of Alabama sought the membership lists of the NAACP chapter in that state. The Court ruled against the state and discerned a “vital relationship between freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations.” The decision remains a high point from the civil rights era. However, many now deny the Court’s assertion that a broad right to privacy offers a vital protection for the freedom to associate and to speak.Since the decision, the Court has placed few limits on government’s power to mandate disclosure of political activities and associations. As the new online era of speech dawns, the principles at stake in NAACP v. Alabama remain at the center of public debates. Is the right to associational privacy recognized in NAACP v. Alabama still good law? Or should the Court reconsider the tie between privacy and association? Please join us for a vigorous debate th

Since World War II, the United States has maintained an active foreign policy agenda, deeply engaged in both the economic and military domains. Many observers over the past few years, however, have voiced doubts about public support for the critical pillars of American internationalism. Many have worried, in particular, about whether younger Americans will believe it worthwhile to take up the mantle of global leadership. A new report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Charles Koch Institute, and Cato scholars Trevor Thrall and Erik Goepner analyzes a wide range of survey data collected by the Chicago Council since 1974. The report finds that each generation from the silent generation onward entered adulthood less supportive of expansive American internationalism. More recent generations also express lower support for militarized approaches to achieve foreign policy goals. In this special Cato policy forum, the authors will present their findings and will participate in a lively discussion on the

Our 27th president, William Howard Taft, has been relegated to a historical afterthought, if not a punchline. If he’s remembered at all, it’s for his enormous girth and periodic difficulties with bathtubs. Yet in this slim volume on our largest president, Jeffrey Rosen argues that Taft has much to teach us today. Our “most judicial president,” who later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, shared the Framers’ conception of the presidency as a constitutional rather than a popular office. In his single presidential term and his failed bid for reelection in the pivotal 1912 race, Taft staunchly opposed Teddy Roosevelt’s “stewardship” theory of the office, which empowered the president “to do anything that the needs of the nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or the laws.” The president’s authority, Taft countered, is limited to what the Constitution and the laws specifically grant, and to hold otherwise would lead to an imperial presidency.In his reluctance to rule by exe

On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal “net neutrality,” a set of Obama-era regulations that had only been enacted in 2015.The outcry was oversized. Racist memes featuring FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who spearheaded the repeal effort, flooded the internet, while grassroots activists invaded Pai’s neighborhood, placing pamphlets with his face on his neighbors’ doorsteps, peering through the windows of his house, and taking photos of his young children inside. Faced with death threats, Pai had to cancel speaking engagements in the months following the vote for fear of his safety.Minutes after the vote, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his intent to lead a multistate lawsuit against the FCC to “stop illegal rollback of net neutrality.” Net neutrality supporters in more than 20 states quickly joined the suit. Powerful tech companies like Netflix, Reddit, Amazon, and Kickstarter called for the immediate restoration of net neutrality. Executive orders in Ne

The planned meeting between leaders of North Korea and the United States may help the Hermit Kingdom engage positively with a broader part of the world. After the meeting concludes, how should the US work to continue to lower tensions with North Korea? Join us for a live online discussion and ask your questions using #CatoConnects. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The private sector is stepping up to help young immigrant Dreamers while Congress continues to debate their future. Few Americans have done more than Donald Graham, the chairman of the board of Graham Holdings Company and former publisher of the Washington Post. Mr. Graham cofounded TheDream.US to fund college scholarships for hundreds of Dreamers, and he recently received significant donations to expand the program to thousands more. Graham will discuss the success of his initiative, his future plans, and his views on immigration policy and philanthropy. Marisela Tobar and Sadhana Singh, two Dreamers who graduated from Trinity Washington University this year after receiving scholarships from his foundation, will share their perspectives on how his program changed their lives, their hopes for the future, and what barriers they still face to attaining the American dream. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show

Many critics think social media poses a novel threat to liberal democracy. Seeking to divide Americans, agents of the Russian government bought ads on Facebook. Extreme speech also finds a home on the internet, fostering conflicts that appear to generate more heat than light. Governments and consumers worry about “fake news” designed to misinform readers for fun, profit, and power. And yet social media has made more information more widely available at less cost than any technology since the printing press. Less reliant on gatekeepers than traditional media, the new purveyors of news arguably better satisfy the diverse preferences of the American electorate. Following up on the Project on Political Reform at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, we will consider the troubles and triumphs of the social media platforms that promise to host American political debate for generations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Congress’s most solemn constitutional duty is to determine whether, where, and against whom the United States will engage in war. Yet for far too long, legislators have ceded that responsibility to the executive branch, allowing multiple administrations to use the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) as a blank check to wage war whenever and wherever the president decides.As Congress determines how to respond to growing demands for a new AUMF, it should beware of proposals that would institutionalize mission creep by surrendering more authority to the executive branch. Instead, Congress should repeal—and not replace—the 2001 AUMF. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With a doctorate from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought and decades of work in the world of international human rights institutions behind him, Aaron Rhodes has written a devastating account of that world’s intellectual confusions and moral corruption. In exquisite detail, and as none before it has, his new book explains how the 20th century’s push to treat economic and social “rights” as human rights has undermined the very idea of human or natural rights. That has led in turn to restrictions on the rights that alone have secured the liberty of countless millions around the world. Please join us for a discussion of the foundations, course, and prospects of the Enlightenment project that has given us the modern world of individual liberty. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Congress is considering a major farm bill this year to extend the current multi-billion-dollar array of subsidies. The last farm bill—in 2014—created two new crop subsidy programs that have cost more than promised. Meanwhile, the crop insurance program has soared in cost and provides handouts to millionaire farm households. There is also concern that crop subsidies harm the environment and undermine America’s international trade relationships.In the wake of the bloated omnibus bill and rising deficits, will Republicans support more giveaways to well-off farmers? And will the Trump administration defend its proposed agricultural reforms and push back against subsidy advocates in Congress? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marijuana is big business in the 29 states that have legalized medical cannabis and in several more that have legalized recreational use. However, the federal prohibition on marijuana prevents banks from serving legitimate marijuana clients—resulting in billions of dollars of marijuana-related profits being handled almost exclusively in cash. A new Federalist Society short documentary, “Medical Marijuana and Money Laundering,” tells the story. Join us May 10 for a screening followed by a roundtable discussion. We will explain the laws that create this peculiar situation, explore the problems it causes, and hash out some potential solutions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

America’s Founders placed freedom of speech at the head of the Bill of Rights, yet we still struggle to protect it. In fact, it was not until the 20th century that our courts began to develop a systematic jurisprudence against attacks on speech. In recent years, however, ill-defined “hate speech” has been a particular target—especially on the nation’s campuses, where one would expect speech to enjoy the greatest protection. In her closely argued new book, Nadine Strossen has given us a powerful and incisive defense of even the speech that most offends, carefully distinguishing what should and should not be protected. Her mission, she writes, is to refute the argument that the United States should follow the lead of many other nations and adopt a broad concept of illegal hate speech. In the process, she demonstrates not only that doing so would violate our fundamental principles, but also that it would do more harm than good. Please join us for point and counterpoint on one of the most pressing free speech iss