The American Compass Podcast

For decades, the Right has written off issues related to climate and the environment. But as the Left’s climate alarmism increasingly falls on deaf ears, a new generation of conservatives is charting a course for a more productive approach to protecting our shared natural resources.

Chris Barnard, president of the American Conservation Coalition, and Taylor Myers, attorney at Boyden Gray, join Oren and Chris to discuss their recent pieces for Commonplace‘s climate issue. They talk through why environmental issues are so salient, particularly to a younger generation, and why efforts to craft climate change policy absent a focus on human flourishing have caused so many people to tune the topic out. Finally, they discuss why environmental policy needs to also consider America’s growing energy demands, and the tradeoffs inherent in a better approach.
Further reading:
“Reclaiming Environmental Policy from the Left,” Chris Barnard, Commonplace
“Against Climate Piety,” Taylor Myers, Commonplace
“What Does the Science of Climate Change Tell Us?,” Joseph Majkut, Commonplace

Often lost in the broader conversation around solar power is how the technology can support American reindustrialization.

Mark Widmar, CEO of First Solar, joins Oren on the podcast to explain solar's fit both into an all-of-the-above energy strategy and as a bulwark of U.S. manufacturing renewal. They discuss why solar power is such an American industrial success story, particularly against unfair competition from China, and what AI and automation could portend for the industry. Finally, they talk through how so much of conservative resistance to solar power isn't about the technology itself, and why First Solar's Made in America strategy sets it apart both in terms of energy output and in supporting local communities.

The youngest generation of Americans are increasingly without the kind of formation that shapes children into adults and allows them to develop the muscles of good citizenry, as the institutions and systems that once helped their elders fall short today. This not only sets young people up for failure, but erodes social cohesion and a democratic politics.

Yuval Levin joins Oren and Chris to try to define what a better path of formation and true citizenship could look like. They discuss how replacing citizenship with consumerism has impoverished not just conservatism but the country more broadly. and wrestle with the temptations both toward nostalgia for older generations and nihilism for the younger ones, Finally, they talk through what this all means in the context of politics, and what today's deeply unpopular Democratic and Republican Parties could learn about renewing formative institutions from their predecessors in the late nineteenth century.

Why have so many economists gotten it so wrong about the impact of Trump's economic policies, from trade to immigration and beyond?

Stephen Miran, former chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisors, joins Oren on the podcast to unpack the president's economic realignment. The two discuss the change in thinking Trump has delivered and why economists can neither understand its value nor accurately predict what its implications will look like. Finally, they discuss tariffs, and why the revenues they raise are so vital for paying for what America needs today.

In an apples-to-apples comparison of GDP per capita, eight of Canada's ten provinces are poorer than nearly all U.S. states. But how much can GDP really tell us? Is most of Canada really poorer in any meaningful sense than Kansas?

Two writers, Jeff Reimer, a Kansan and senior editor at Comment, and Brian Dijkema, the Ontario-based president of Cardus, journeyed to both locations to find out. They join guest host Chris Griswold to recount their travels, discuss the quality-of-life context that GDP can’t measure, and make sense of the similarities, and key differences, on each side of the border.

Further reading:
“Is Kansas Really Richer than Canada?” Jeff Reimer, Commonplace
“Is Canada Really Poorer than Kansas?” Brian Dijkema, Commonplace