The American Compass Podcast

This week, the GOP suffered the worst election defeat in five decades. Policy director Chris Griswold joins Oren to make sense of what happened in the midterms and what it means for both the Right and Left. 

They discuss how central the issue of political corruption has become for frustrated voters—the top motivator in exit polls—and how it intersects with and amplifies other concerns, like the Iran War and affordability. Then they discuss what the election outcome portends for what both parties will look like now that President Trump is a lame duck, and what we should be watching heading into 2028.

America's "college for all" approach has failed students and eroded the workforce needed for reindustrialization and other national priorities.

Chris Griswold, American Compass policy director, joins the podcast to present a different vision, focused on making vocational and trade-based education a core component for high-school graduation. He and Oren discuss what students lose when they aren't taught physical skills, the benefits and political salience of "vocational education for all," and why such a program is critical for American renewal.

Further reading:
"Vocational Education for All," American Compass, by Chris Griswold

Without a ready workforce, the project of rebuilding American industry is dead in the water.

Ashwin Lalendran and Brent Parton, cofounders of IndustriousAF, join Oren on the podcast to discuss the workforce challenge of reindustrialization. Lalendran, who is based in San Francisco but retains a midwestern mindset on how capital and manufacturing should operate, and Parton, a D.C.-based former assistant secretary of labor, discuss the challenges and opportunities of taking big manufacturing projects from the promise stage to the production stage.
Further reading:
“The Gen Z Blue-Collar Jobs Boom,” Skylar Adleta, Commonplace
“An Industrious Workforce for the AI Decade,” Ashwin Lalendran & Brent Parton, American Compass

Election Day is only weeks away, and as we’ve come to expect in recent years, it has inevitably brought with it allegations from both parties that the other side is cheating.
Ben Ginsberg, Hoover Institution visiting fellow and former national counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns, joins Oren to unpack what he calls the “fraud-suppression industrial complex,” where both parties tell their voters that the other side is trying to steal the election. He and Oren talk through why this is so damaging to faith in our elections, and undercuts turn out across the political spectrum. Finally, they discuss ways to rebuild confidence in our election system.
Further reading:
“Confidence, Not Faith, in the Ballot Box,“ Trey Trainor, Commonplace
“Calling Elections Rigged Is Bad Politics and Worse Civics,” Alex Tarascio and David Kochel, Commonplace

Financial firms exist to raise capital and find ways to deploy it productively. But are they still doing that today? Or merely profiting from the appearance of doing so?
Oren joined William Gruver, a former Goldman Sachs COO and professor emeritus at Bucknell University for an Open Discourse Coalition program debating the question “Is the financial industry broken?” They discuss how to evaluate the merits of the industry, the role of rent-seeking, and the broader trend toward destructive financialization. Finally, they turn to the cultural problem of a profession that pulls in so many bright and promising young people to do work that’s unproductive and ethically questionable.
Further reading:
“The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way.“ Oren Cass, New York Times.