Reasonably Optimistic

A viral debate over bringing iced coffee to a job interview may seem trivial. But it points to a bigger divide over what employers are looking for when college degrees, cover letters and résumés reveal less than they used to.

Host Megan McArdle explains why workplace norms still matter, why an interview can be one of the few ways applicants can stand out and what Gen Z workers miss when they begin their careers remotely. She also makes the case for giving young people a little grace.

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Artificial intelligence feels different from previous technological innovations because it can write, reason, analyze and generate ideas. In other words, it can do at least some of the things many white-collar workers thought made them irreplaceable. So, is AI going to eliminate jobs or transform them? And what will it do to the culture of the workplace — and to the way younger workers develop the judgment and expertise they need to build a career?

Fabien Curto Millet, Google’s chief economist, joins host Megan McArdle to discuss. Google recently examined 15 million interactions with its AI tools to understand how people are actually using this tech at work and in their everyday lives. Millet breaks down what Google's findings could mean for the future of work.

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What do you do when your research leads to a conclusion that challenges conventional wisdom? You can publish it and risk the backlash — or quietly bury the findings and move on to safer work. The Carob Trust Prize, a new $1 million award, aims to change that calculation by rewarding academics whose research challenges prevailing orthodoxies and withstands scrutiny. But can money really make telling the truth less costly?

Harvard professor Roland Fryer co-founded the prize after facing that choice himself. He joins host Megan McArdle to discuss the experiences that shaped his work and the pressures that discourage scholars from pursuing unpopular findings. They also examine his research on racial achievement gaps and failing schools, as well as Nikole Hannah-Jones’s recent New York Times essay about sending her daughter to a high-poverty, segregated public school.

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In the decades following World War II, the American right coalesced around fusionism — the idea that individual liberty and limited government could coexist with religious faith and traditional morality. Today, that coalition is divided. After a decade of Trump-era politics, can fusionism bring it back together?

Host Megan McArdle is joined by Stephanie Slade, senior editor at Reason magazine and author of “Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right.” They explore how fusionism came to shape modern conservatism, why that consensus faded and how President Donald Trump’s rise reveals the coalition’s deepest fault lines. They also ask whether fusionism’s core values of liberty and virtue can still provide common ground in a very different political era.

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No one likes the idea of being surveilled. That concern is fueling a nationwide backlash against Flock cameras, the automated license plate readers police use to find stolen vehicles, track suspects and locate missing people. Critics see their rapid spread as the beginnings of a mass surveillance network. Supporters say they reduce crime and save lives. So can communities keep the benefits without sacrificing privacy?

Host Megan McArdle is joined by Charles Fain Lehman, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and senior editor at City Journal. They examine what Flock cameras actually see, the data behind the headlines and whether safeguards can prevent a useful tool from becoming a threat to civil liberties.

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