California Update: The World’s 4th-Largest Economy – and the Home of “Shaq State”?
New data points to California as the world’s fourth-largest economy, supplanting Japan (with India likely soon surpassing the Golden State). What does that say about California as an economic powerhouse and a nation-state plagued by a dark economic underside (inflation, high cost of living, middle-class squeeze)?
Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s California on Your Mind web channel, join Hoover’s assistant director of content development Jonathan Movroydis to discuss California’s new global standing, the impact of looming Trump tariffs, the reemergence of former vice president Kamala Harris as she ponders whether to run for governor in 2026, political intrigue past, present, and future in Los Angeles, the ongoing struggles of California’s high-speed rail project, plus basketball great Shaquille O’Neal becoming the general manager of Sacramento State’s men’s basketball team – and whether state government likewise could benefit from a star athlete’s intervention.
Recorded on May 1, 2025.
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53:09
Tariff-ic Or Tariff-ied? What Polling Says About Trump 2.0
Donald Trump’s first 100 days since returning to office have been prolific – the most executive orders issued in the early days of a presidency – and seemingly in a constant state of political turbulence.
What do the polls indicate about Trump’s performance to date? David Brady and Douglas Rivers, Hoover Institution senior fellows, and Stanford University political scientists, discuss how various policy choices – tariffs, immigration enforcement, legal imbroglios – have affected Trump’s approval, plus where a struggling Democrat Party stands as both parties ponder a midterm election still 550 days ahead.
Recorded on April 30, 2025.
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55:02
Elective Surgery: Obamacare’s 15th Anniversary, Federal Healthcare Reform, and California’s Medi-Cal Woes
Once a policy lightning rod that ended political careers, the Affordable Care Act (aka, “Obamacare”) has proven to be remarkably resilient with last month marking the 15th anniversary of its being signed into law. Lanhee Chen, the Hoover Institution’s David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies and co-chair of Hoover’s Healthcare Policy Working Group, explains how the ACA managed to survive despite power shifts in Washington, what areas of healthcare Congress should address in 2025, and California’s inability to cover the cost of its Medi-Cal program (the state equivalent of Medicaid) due to rising demand among seniors and undocumented residents.
Recorded on April 3, 2025.
RELATED SOURCES
Fifteen Years Later: The ACA Has an HSA Problem by Lanhee J. Chen Tom Church Daniel L. Heil
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32:35
California Update: Open Season on the Governor’s Open Mic
The good news for California governor Gavin Newsom is that his new podcast has the left and the right buzzing. The bad news is that neither side likes what is covered in his podcasts, as the governor makes nice with conservative and liberal provocateurs and thought leaders.
Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s California on Your Mind web channel, discuss where Newsom’s latest foray into podcasting comes up short; how a shortfall in the state’s health budget may tie into his political re-branding (or is podcasting more about Newsom becoming a media kingpin?); plus differences in state and city approaches to California’s homelessness issues. After that, with the NCAA’s “March Madness” in high gear, the fellows discuss the altered state of Golden State collegiate athletics – Stanford, UCLA, and USC’s changing fortunes and conferences.
Recorded on March 27, 2025.
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53:59
Michael Hartney on the Federal Role in Education, Outcomes v. Totems, and Union Clout
President Trump’s signing of an executive order calling for the downsizing of the US Department of Education (DOE) raises concerns related to the federal versus state balance in K-12 policy. Michael Hartney, the Hoover Institution’s Bruni Family fellow, discusses the book he is currently writing on the 2020 pandemic’s lasting impact on schools, and then he examines Trump’s executive order on downsizing the DOE. Hartney talks about the lessons learned five years after COVID-19 temporary halted in-classroom instruction, and then Hartney discusses the potency of cultural issues in the greater education debate, plus whether teachers’ unions have the same political clout they enjoyed pre-COVID.
Recorded on March 20, 2025.
Matters of Policy & Politics is a Hoover Institution podcast devoted to matters of governance and balance of power at home and abroad. It is hosted by Hoover fellow Bill Whalen.
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