Cato Podcast

AI policy discussions increasingly hinge on control: who sets the terms for how AI can be used, what it can say, and who gets access. Cato's Ryan Bourne hosts Jennifer Huddleston, Senior Fellow in Technology Policy, to discuss the federal government’s escalating dispute with Anthropic, New York’s proposal to police chatbot advice, and the public fears making restrictive AI policy more politically attractive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beyond the immediate crisis, the conversation explores the unintended consequences of military escalation in the Middle East and the limits of U.S. policy responses once global energy flows are disrupted. Cato's Evan Sankey and Colin Grabow examine how great-power politics, alliance commitments, and domestic economic pressures will shape the administration’s next moves as the conflict unfolds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The push for new federal databases and legislation like the SAVE Act is often justified as necessary to stop widespread unlawful voting. But according to election administrators and investigators, confirmed cases are vanishingly rare. Cato's Walter Olson and Stephen Richer explore how voter roll audits actually work, why database matching can produce misleading headlines, and what the evidence reveals about the scale of the problem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the White House signals openness to escalation and murky and conflicting objectives, uncertainty clouds both the legal basis and strategic endgame of U.S. involvement in Iran. The Cato Institute's Justin Logan, Thomas Berry, and Brandan P. Buck examine the constitutional and political questions surrounding the U.S. war on Iran. They explore whether the president has legal authority to initiate hostilities without congressional approval, why President Trump launched the war and how it might end, and why Congress struggles to reclaim its war-making authority. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday was a full-throated victory lap: America is supposedly “bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever.” Cato’s Ryan Bourne, Clark Neily, and Evan Sankey separate truth from exaggeration—testing the economic claims, unpacking the legal fight over tariff power, and decoding the foreign-policy moves behind the applause lines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.