Cato Podcast

Updated: 11 Sep 2025 • 4758 episodes
www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast

Each week on Cato Podcast, leading scholars and policymakers from the Cato Institute delve into the big ideas shaping our world: individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Whether unpacking current events, debating civil liberties, exploring technological innovation, or tracing the history of classical liberal thought, we promise insightful analysis grounded in rigorous research and Cato’s signature libertarian perspective. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show episodes

11 Sep 2025 • EN

The Purse and the Sword

This week, Congress returns to looming shutdowns and a “pocket-rescission” power grab. Abroad, President Trump pushes “America First” by rebranding the Pentagon as the Department of War—and launching an airstrike on a Venezuelan cartel boat. Our panel asks what all this says about America’s fiscal sanity and its foreig

47 min
00:00
47:17
No file found

Norbert Michel and Dominic Lett square off over whether fiscal or monetary policy is the bigger mess. Lett highlights how entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are driving unsustainable debt levels, while Michel explains how post-2008 Federal Reserve changes have created risks of “fiscal dominance,” wh

30 min
00:00
30:30
No file found
04 Sep 2025 • EN

First, Do No Harm

What should “public health in a free society” look like, and what limits should courts impose on executive trade powers? This week’s panel covers the shakeup at the CDC, asks whether America really needs a Surgeon General, and unpacks a blockbuster ruling from the Federal Circuit declaring most of President Trump’s glo

44 min
00:00
44:55
No file found

Join Cato's Alex Nowrasteh and Travis Fisher as they unpack a pivotal moment in climate policy reform. The duo explores Fisher's tenure at the Department of Energy and the groundbreaking report that could reshape the discourse on greenhouse gases. Travis Fisher, “Why I Helped Organize the Department of Energy’s Climate

23 min
00:00
23:32
No file found
28 Aug 2025 • EN

High-Stakes Intel

"Golden shares” at home, grand bargains abroad. In this episode, Cato scholars weigh Trump’s push for equity stakes in U.S. firms under the CHIPS Act and his effort to strike a quick deal with Putin on Ukraine. What does state capitalism at home mean for American liberty—and can deal-making diplomacy abroad actually en

41 min
00:00
41:53
No file found

Cato’s Jennifer Huddleston and Tommy Berry examine the 2024 TikTok divest-or-ban law and what it means for Americans. They explain how the law could reshape the app market, restrict free speech, and expand government power far beyond TikTok itself. Jennifer Huddleston, “Could the Latest TikTok ‘Ban’ Pass Constitutional

33 min
00:00
33:56
No file found