New York Times to Bow Podcast About Trump Administration's ‘Ideas and Personalities,' the ‘New World Order' and More Hosted by Opinion Columnist Ross Douthat
The show will 'explore a future that feels more open and uncertain than ever, mapping both the New Right and the new world order,' according to the paper.
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On the podcast, Douthat will interview 'leading thinkers and newsmakers.' His show will explore 'the potency of right-wing populism, examine the realignment of the parties and forecast the big shifts in technology and culture to make sense of where society is headed.' Topics will include 'the ideas and personalities defining the Trump presidency' as well as the effects of AI on jobs and relationships and religious shifts in American society.
'Interesting Times With Ross Douthat' is slated to premiere April 10, with new episodes dropping weekly on Thursdays, available on all major podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
'I think there's remarkable variation right now in possible futures for humanity,' Douthat said in a statement provided by the Times. 'You have populism in power. You have a multipolar world, with trade wars and arms races. You have an entire frontier industry, the AI business, filled with people who hope they're building utopia and fear they're hastening an apocalypse. You have big, internet-driven shifts in sex and relationships and family, as well as religious and political beliefs. You have a leap toward Mars, a renewed fascination with the paranormal, a crisis for liberalism.'
Douthat joined the Times as an opinion columnist in April 2009. He is the author of several books, including 'The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery' and most recently 'Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.'
Douthat's new podcast joins the New York Times Opinion's lineup of other shows, including 'The Ezra Klein Show' and 'The Opinions.' The newspaper's most popular podcast is 'The Daily,' hosted by Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise.
Listen to the trailer for 'Interesting Times With Ross Douthat':
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The Hill
31 minutes ago
- The Hill
US manufacturers are stuck in a rut despite subsidies from Biden and protection from Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much, but they share a conviction that the government should help American manufacturers, one way or another. Democratic President Joe Biden handed out subsidies to chipmakers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Republican President Donald Trump is building a wall of import taxes — tariffs — around the U.S. economy to protect domestic industry from foreign competition. Yet American manufacturing has been stuck in a rut for nearly three years. And it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse itself. The U.S. Labor Department reports that American factories shed 7,000 jobs in June for the second month in a row. Manufacturing employment is on track to drop for the third straight year. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, reported that manufacturing activity in the United States shrank in June for the fourth straight month. In fact, U.S. factories have been in decline for 30 of the 32 months since October 2022, according to ISM. 'The past three years have been a real slog for manufacturing,'' said Eric Hagopian, CEO of Pilot Precision Products, a maker of industrial cutting tools in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. 'We didn't get destroyed like we did in the recession of 2008. But we've been in this stagnant, sort of stationary environment.'' Big economic factors contributed to the slowdown: A surge in inflation, arising from the unexpectedly strong economic recovery from COVID-19, raised factory expenses and prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. The higher borrowing costs added to the strain. Government policy was meant to help. Biden's tax incentives for semiconductor and clean energy production triggered a factory-building boom – investment in manufacturing facilities more than tripled from April 2021 through October 2024 – that seemed to herald a coming surge in factory production and hiring. Eventually anyway. But the factory investment spree has faded as the incoming Trump administration launched trade wars and, working with Congress, ended Biden's subsidies for green energy. Now, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, 'manufacturing production will continue to flatline.' 'If production is flat, that suggests manufacturing employment will continue to slide,' Zandi said. 'Manufacturing is likely to suffer a recession in the coming year.'' Meanwhile, Trump is attempting to protect U.S. manufacturers — and to coax factories to relocate and produce in America — by imposing tariffs on goods made overseas. He slapped 50% taxes on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and auto parts, 10% on many other imports. In some ways, Trump's tariffs can give U.S. factories an edge. Chris Zuzick, vice president at Waukesha Metal Products, said the Sussex, Wisconsin-based manufacturer is facing stiff competition for a big contract in Texas. A foreign company offers much lower prices. But 'when you throw the tariff on, it gets us closer,'' Zuzick said. 'So that's definitely a situation where it's beneficial.'' But American factories import and use foreign products, too – machinery, chemicals, raw materials like steel and aluminum. Taxing those inputs can drive up costs and make U.S producers less competitive in world markets. Consider steel. Trump's tariffs don't just make imported steel more expensive. By putting the foreign competition at a disadvantage, the tariffs allow U.S. steelmakers to raise prices – and they have. U.S.-made steel was priced at $960 per metric ton as of June 23, more than double the world export price of $440 per ton, according to industry monitor SteelBenchmarker. In fact, U.S. steel prices are so high that Pilot Precision Products has continued to buy the steel it needs from suppliers in Austria and France — and pay Trump's tariff. Trump has also created considerable uncertainty by repeatedly tweaking and rescheduling his tariffs. Just before new import taxes were set to take effect on dozens of countries on July 9, for example, the president pushed the deadline back to Aug. 1 to allow more time for negotiation with U.S. trading partners. The flipflops have left factories, suppliers and customers bewildered about where things stand. Manufacturers voiced their complaints in the ISM survey: 'Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,'' a fabricated metal products company said. 'Tariffs continue to cause confusion and uncertainty for long-term procurement decisions,'' added a computer and electronics firm. 'The situation remains too volatile to firmly put such plans into place.'' Some may argue that things aren't necessarily bad for U.S. manufacturing; they've just returned to normal after a pandemic-related bust and boom. Factories slashed nearly 1.4 million jobs in March and April 2020 when COVID-19 forced many businesses to shut down and Americans to stay home. Then a funny thing happened: American consumers, cooped up and flush with COVID relief checks from the government, went on a spending spree, snapping up manufactured goods like air fryers, patio furniture and exercise machines. Suddenly, factories were scrambling to keep up. They brought back the workers they laid off – and then some. Factories added 379,000 jobs in 2021 — the most since 1994 — and then tacked on another 357,000 in 2022. But in 2023, factory hiring stopped growing and began backtracking as the economy returned to something closer to the pre-pandemic normal. In the end, it was a wash. Factory payrolls last month came to 12.75 million, almost exactly where they stood in February 2020 (12.74 million) just before COVID slammed the economy. 'It's a long, strange trip to get back to where we started,'' said Jared Bernstein, chair of Biden's White House Council of Economic Advisers. Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products said that it will take time to see if Trump's tariffs succeed in bringing factories back to America. 'The fact is that manufacturing doesn't turn on a dime,'' he said. 'It takes time to switch gears.'' Hagopian at Pilot Precision is hopeful that tax breaks in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill will help American manufacturing regain momentum. 'There may be light at the end of the tunnel that may not be a locomotive bearing down,'' he said. For now, manufacturers are likely to delay big decisions on investing or bringing on new workers until they see where Trump's tariffs settle and what impact they have on the economy, said Ned Hill, professor emeritus in economic development at Ohio State University. 'With all this uncertainty about what the rest of the year is going to look like,'' he said, 'there's a hesitancy to hire people just to lay them off in the near future.'' 'Everyone,' said Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products, 'is kind of just waiting for the new normal.''
San Francisco Chronicle
36 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
US manufacturers are stuck in a rut despite subsidies from Biden and protection from Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much, but they share a conviction that the government should help American manufacturers, one way or another. Democratic President Joe Biden handed out subsidies to chipmakers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Republican President Donald Trump is building a wall of import taxes — tariffs — around the U.S. economy to protect domestic industry from foreign competition. Yet American manufacturing has been stuck in a rut for nearly three years. And it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse itself. The U.S. Labor Department reports that American factories shed 7,000 jobs in June for the second month in a row. Manufacturing employment is on track to drop for the third straight year. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, reported that manufacturing activity in the United States shrank in June for the fourth straight month. In fact, U.S. factories have been in decline for 30 of the 32 months since October 2022, according to ISM. 'The past three years have been a real slog for manufacturing,'' said Eric Hagopian, CEO of Pilot Precision Products, a maker of industrial cutting tools in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. 'We didn't get destroyed like we did in the recession of 2008. But we've been in this stagnant, sort of stationary environment.'' Big economic factors contributed to the slowdown: A surge in inflation, arising from the unexpectedly strong economic recovery from COVID-19, raised factory expenses and prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. The higher borrowing costs added to the strain. Government policy was meant to help. Biden's tax incentives for semiconductor and clean energy production triggered a factory-building boom – investment in manufacturing facilities more than tripled from April 2021 through October 2024 – that seemed to herald a coming surge in factory production and hiring. Eventually anyway. But the factory investment spree has faded as the incoming Trump administration launched trade wars and, working with Congress, ended Biden's subsidies for green energy. Now, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, 'manufacturing production will continue to flatline.' 'If production is flat, that suggests manufacturing employment will continue to slide,' Zandi said. 'Manufacturing is likely to suffer a recession in the coming year.'' Meanwhile, Trump is attempting to protect U.S. manufacturers — and to coax factories to relocate and produce in America — by imposing tariffs on goods made overseas. He slapped 50% taxes on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and auto parts, 10% on many other imports. In some ways, Trump's tariffs can give U.S. factories an edge. Chris Zuzick, vice president at Waukesha Metal Products, said the Sussex, Wisconsin-based manufacturer is facing stiff competition for a big contract in Texas. A foreign company offers much lower prices. But 'when you throw the tariff on, it gets us closer,'' Zuzick said. 'So that's definitely a situation where it's beneficial.'' But American factories import and use foreign products, too – machinery, chemicals, raw materials like steel and aluminum. Taxing those inputs can drive up costs and make U.S producers less competitive in world markets. Consider steel. Trump's tariffs don't just make imported steel more expensive. By putting the foreign competition at a disadvantage, the tariffs allow U.S. steelmakers to raise prices – and they have. U.S.-made steel was priced at $960 per metric ton as of June 23, more than double the world export price of $440 per ton, according to industry monitor SteelBenchmarker. In fact, U.S. steel prices are so high that Pilot Precision Products has continued to buy the steel it needs from suppliers in Austria and France — and pay Trump's tariff. Trump has also created considerable uncertainty by repeatedly tweaking and rescheduling his tariffs. Just before new import taxes were set to take effect on dozens of countries on July 9, for example, the president pushed the deadline back to Aug. 1 to allow more time for negotiation with U.S. trading partners. The flipflops have left factories, suppliers and customers bewildered about where things stand. Manufacturers voiced their complaints in the ISM survey: 'Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,'' a fabricated metal products company said. 'Tariffs continue to cause confusion and uncertainty for long-term procurement decisions,'' added a computer and electronics firm. 'The situation remains too volatile to firmly put such plans into place.'' Some may argue that things aren't necessarily bad for U.S. manufacturing; they've just returned to normal after a pandemic-related bust and boom. Factories slashed nearly 1.4 million jobs in March and April 2020 when COVID-19 forced many businesses to shut down and Americans to stay home. Then a funny thing happened: American consumers, cooped up and flush with COVID relief checks from the government, went on a spending spree, snapping up manufactured goods like air fryers, patio furniture and exercise machines. Suddenly, factories were scrambling to keep up. They brought back the workers they laid off – and then some. Factories added 379,000 jobs in 2021 — the most since 1994 — and then tacked on another 357,000 in 2022. But in 2023, factory hiring stopped growing and began backtracking as the economy returned to something closer to the pre-pandemic normal. In the end, it was a wash. Factory payrolls last month came to 12.75 million, almost exactly where they stood in February 2020 (12.74 million) just before COVID slammed the economy. 'It's a long, strange trip to get back to where we started,'' said Jared Bernstein, chair of Biden's White House Council of Economic Advisers. Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products said that it will take time to see if Trump's tariffs succeed in bringing factories back to America. 'The fact is that manufacturing doesn't turn on a dime,'' he said. 'It takes time to switch gears.'' Hagopian at Pilot Precision is hopeful that tax breaks in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill will help American manufacturing regain momentum. 'There may be light at the end of the tunnel that may not be a locomotive bearing down,'' he said. For now, manufacturers are likely to delay big decisions on investing or bringing on new workers until they see where Trump's tariffs settle and what impact they have on the economy, said Ned Hill, professor emeritus in economic development at Ohio State University. 'With all this uncertainty about what the rest of the year is going to look like,'' he said, 'there's a hesitancy to hire people just to lay them off in the near future.'' 'Everyone,'' said Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products, 'is kind of just waiting for the new normal.''
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Today's basic science is tomorrow's game-changing invention. Trump's cuts threaten both.
In fact, 30 years is often how long science takes to mature from a cool discovery to something that's life-changing, says the MIT professor. But he worries those discoveries are about to come to a screeching halt. 'If the administration and Congress follow through with what they said they were going to do,' says Bawendi, 'it's going to be the destruction of the scientific enterprise in this country. And that's really scary. Not for science, but for the economy. For national security. And the leadership of the US in the world.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Within the next few months, Congress will vote on whether to approve the White House's proposed Advertisement Still, President Trump can only hold office for three-and-a-half more years. Can't science pick right back up in 2029? Advertisement Don't bet on it, Bawendi told me. 'Compare this to COVID,' he says. 'We were locked out [of my lab] for six months in COVID... It took me two years to go back to where I was.' During those six months, equipment broke or degraded. Older students graduated without spending time with younger students, who needed to learn from them. 'So,' he says, 'it's not something you can just shut off and then turn it back on.' The administration's attacks on immigration and immigrants aren't helping, either. Bawendi says that about half of his PhD students are from other countries. 'They're ambitious, incredibly smart, and they work with native-born students.' Moungi Bawendi's once-obscure chemistry is in flatscreen TVs, where it enhances the quality of the display. The discovery won the MIT professor the Nobel Prize in 2023. Craig F. Walker One of the enormous strengths of American science is its ability to attract the best minds from around the world to help solve hard problems, Bawendi says. Foreign PhD students are key parts of the research labor force, taking on the repetitive tasks and data analysis that can lead to breakthroughs. 'Certainly my foreign students are all going to leave,' he says. 'Because they're scared. And they don't feel like there are any opportunities here.' But if international students don't attend graduate school here, won't there be more space for aspiring PhD students from the US? 'The number of American students who want to do PhDs is not big,' says Bawendi. 'It's hard work. The pay is not great. Being a graduate student for five, six years at low wage? There are other things they could do that are much easier with better pay.' Bawendi worries that it all adds up to 'a potential generation of young students that [will be] destroyed.' Elementary and high schools have seen Advertisement And funding for doctoral and postdoctoral students is likely to be decimated: the administration Government support remains critical to basic science – research aimed at understanding rather than commercializing. That makes it unlikely that corporations will step in to fill the gap created by research funding cuts. And that's a problem. The beauty of basic research comes from serendipity – the 'aha' moments when the research path takes a surprising turn, or when applications emerge that had never been imagined. Thirty years ago, Bawendi says, he had no idea the work he was doing would enhance flatscreen TVs. The cuts happening now 'freeze out the innovative discoveries' that will 'provide the tools of the future,' he argues. If there's a kernel of good news here, it's not for the US, says Jeremy Berg, the former director of National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH. Other nations 'are just ecstatic,' he says. And then there's China, which has plowed huge sums into challenging US leadership in science and technology, seeking to dominate the clean energy sector and rapidly shrink the US lead in artificial intelligence. Advertisement Jeremy Berg, the former director of National Institute of General Medical Sciences at then NIH, says research funding cuts under the Trump administration are gifts to competitors, such as China, which is challenging the US for leadership in artificial intelligence and other technologies. Andy Wong/Associated Press 'If you're China and you're interested in being the world leader in research or in biomedical research,' Berg says of the Trump administration's funding cuts, 'this is a gift beyond your wildest dreams.' Berg believes that the repercussions for science — and for consumers — are coming more quickly than we might think. NIH-funded researchers frequently test new treatments through clinical trials, which are conducted in collaboration with academic medical centers, such as Children's Hospital and Mass General. Hospitals, in turn, recruit patients and assign staff to organize trials. They may pay for extra MRIs or blood tests for the trials. But if researchers can't afford to pay hospitals, the system for validating science will fall apart. Already, according to Berg, hospitals are hesitating to do business with NIH-funded researchers. Once, those grants were basically a sure thing. Now, collaborators aren't sure they'll get paid back. Berg knows of several academic medical centers refusing to work with researchers who have multi-year NIH grants, unless the researchers can produce new letters each year confirming that the money is still coming. 'Scientists used to trust NIH as being a good faith partner. Patients used to trust doctors who were doing NIH-funded research,' says Berg. 'Participants — when asked to participate in a clinical trial [by a doctor or scientist] — were confident that you weren't just going to say in the middle of the trial: 'Oops, nevermind.'' In addition to NIH grants being cancelled outright, Berg says that lots of other grants have been 'shadow terminated.' Even though the grant hasn't been canceled, the money has stopped flowing, leaving scientists without ways to pay the bills. Berg estimates that the Trump administration has withheld nearly $3 billion in approved grant money. Advertisement Berg hopes that Congress will ultimately refuse to rubber stamp the Trump administration's proposed An aerial view of Kendall Square. Basic science underpins the world's premier biotech cluster. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Still, even if research funds escape the proposed cuts, that doesn't mean they're safe. It's unclear how much latitude the NIH and NSF have to terminate grants, but that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from withholding or canceling funding. The effects of research cuts are unlikely to be felt immediately, says Myron Kassaraba, Vice President of Investment at MassVentures – a quasi-public venture capital agency. 'But,' he adds, 'it's certainly going to result in fewer inventions.' Those inventions range from medicines to communications technology, says Kassaraba. And they give rise to lots of companies – as the biotech cluster in Kendall Square can attest. 'The impact here [in Massachusetts] is as significant as in any region in the US,' Kassaraba says. Still Kassaraba believes the state can find a way through the lean times. 'The inventiveness and resourcefulness' that got Massachusetts to where it is, he says, will 'hopefully serve us well going forward. I think we'll find a way to keep the innovation engine running.' Follow Kara Miller
