The Heartland Institute

Economist Jonathan Williams joins us to discuss the new edition of the Rich States, Poor States book, which evaluates each of the 50 states on taxes and other policies that shape their economies and add to or subtract from the financial well-being of their citizens. ...

Benjamin Domenech talks with Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center regarding his recent conversation with Don Berwick and the benefits of premium support. ...

Guest Mike Wendy, director, Media Freedom.org, discusses the National Taxpayers Union policy paper on municipal broadband. ...

C-FIRE Deputy Director R.J. Lehmann talks with Dan Siemann, senior environmental policy analyst with the National Wildlife Federation, about a NWF legal battle seeking to get FEMA to halt issuing flood insurance policies to new development in certain areas of the Puget Sound until the federal government undertakes a set of ...

A new review of research suggests a free-market approach to higher education instruction works better than command-and-control teaching. Analysis author and University of Pennsylvania professor J. Scott Armstrong joins the School Reform News podcast to discuss what's wrong with higher education and how applying free-market principles ...

John Stephenson, director of the Communications and Technology Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, discusses his InfoTech & Telecom News commentary, "Existing Laws, Technology Can Protect Our Privacy." ...

C-FIRE Deputy Director R.J. Lehmann talks with Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon about efforts to depopulate the state's wind pool, the Louisiana Property Insurance Corp., as well as the decision to issue a catastrophe bond to shore up the pool's finances. ...

Talmedge Heflin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation explains why a coalition of public policy groups has come together to recommend ways Texas legislators can cut billions of dollars of spending while keeping the state economically strong. Many of the recommendations could be applied in other states as well. ...

Eric M. Fraser discusses his extensive research and writing on municipal wi-fi systems, finding them to be more expensive and less effective than promised by governments willing to put taxpayers on the hook to pay for them. Fraser also addresses the technical and regulatory limitations of municipal wi-fi systems. ...

International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) executive director Tom Harris explains how ICSC is turning Earth Hour into Energy Hour. ...

While education reformers focus on big schemes like Common Core standards and teacher evaluations, little over the several past decades has seemed to change about American education. Author Beverlee Jobrack, a long-time textbook editor for SRA-McGraw Hill, explains in Tyranny of the Textbook that some of the reason why is ...

Benjamin Domenech reacts to the first day of arguments at the Supreme Court ...

Dr. Willie Soon explains why the sun is driving global climate. ...

North Carolina is ground zero on the municipal wi-fi debate. A conversation with Michael Sanera, research director and local government analyst at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. ...

Cook County, Illinois, is the second most-populous county in the nation. Property taxes there have climbed more than twice as fast as price inflation since 2000, with the biggest increases in the suburbs. Even bigger tax increases or municipal bankruptcies are likely unless major changes to local government occur, says John ...

C-FIRE Deputy Director R.J. Lehmann talks with Randy Binner, an equity analyst with FBR Capital Markets, about MetLife's failing grade in the Federal Reserve Board's recent stress tests, and why the Fed apparently doesn't understand the insurance business. ...

Benjamin Domenech is joined by Robert Alt of the Heritage Foundation to discuss the Supreme Court’s consideration of Obamacare, how Congressional consideration of a severability clause may play an important role, and how he thinks the court will rule. ...

Ben Domenech talks to Congresswoman Ann Marke Buerkle about the conscience overruns of the Obama administration and her plans for a replacement for Obamacare. ...

Detroit record store owner Warren Westfall discusses how he uses the Internet to supplement his bricks-and-mortar retail operation, and how online sales now represent 20 percent of his business. ...

Is the American Educational Research Association is advancing a political agenda over actual social science? The American Enterprise Institute's Rick Hess thinks so, and joins the podcast to explain why the nation's largest professional education research organization should stop playing politics or stop receiving public funds ...