Americans are reading less than ever. Policymakers know this is a problem, but they rarely look to public libraries for solutions. Instead, libraries have embraced an agenda of redundancy, morphing into technology centers, daytime homeless shelters, and all-purpose community centers. It’s time for libraries to return to their traditional mission: offering Americans serious books and a place for quiet study.

Guest Stephen Eide joins us to discuss how refocusing public libraries could help reverse America’s reading decline.

Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He has visited more than 300 public libraries.

This podcast discusses themes from Stephen’s essay in the Spring 2026 issue of National Affairs: “The Mission of Public Libraries.”

In an era of accelerating digital technologies, the jurisprudence of free speech has been utterly transformed. Our ideas about what the right to speech amounts to, what counts as speech, and whether all forms of speech are equally protected are all in flux. The resulting inflation of free-speech law has made it impossible to hold tech companies accountable for obvious misconduct.

Guest John Ehrett joins us to discuss applying a truly originalist understanding of the First Amendment to caselaw and policymaking, returning tech regulation and other policy matters to the democratic process.

John Ehrett is an attorney and writer in Washington, D.C. All views are his own.

This podcast discusses themes from John’s essay, co-authored with Brad Littlejohn in the Winter 2026 issue of National Affairs: “The Post-human First Amendment.”

American society has become radically permissive of some serious vices in the past few years. Drugs, gambling, and pornography are easier to access legally than ever before. A backlash against this permissiveness has clearly begun, but it has yet to find its footing because it tends to be rooted in the language of material or physical harm. Such arguments are a crucial piece of the case for prohibiting vice, but they have to be paired with a more comprehensive and coherent account of why vice is incompatible with human freedom and flourishing.

Guest Charles Lehman joins us to discuss how opponents of vice can build a bipartisan coalition for banning the addictive products that threaten republican self-government.

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and senior editor of City Journal.

This podcast discusses themes from Charles’s essay in the Winter 2026 issue of National Affairs, “The Case for Prohibiting Vice”