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Power Plays

Power Plays

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Uncover the fascinating stories behind the political decisions that shape our world. Each episode takes you inside the rooms where power is wielded, revealing the human drama and strategic calculations that drive government action. Politique et gouvernement Sciences politiques Sciences sociales Tous les jours
Épisodes
  • The Actuary's Veto: How the Federal Flood Maps Quietly Decide What America Gets to Build

    The Actuary's Veto: How the Federal Flood Maps Quietly Decide What America Gets to Build
    Jun 20 2026
    FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program was designed to save homeowners from disaster — instead it became a $20 billion debt-ridden mechanism that subsidizes the wrong development in the wrong places while blocking the right kind everywhere else. The flood maps that determine what you can build, where you can insure it, and whether your mortgage gets approved are often decades out of date, methodologically contested, and quietly negotiated between local governments and federal bureaucrats in ways that have nothing to do with actual water. This week: the single least-glamorous program in Washington that shapes more of the American built environment than any zoning board or city council ever has. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    30 min
  • The Permit That Swallowed the Grid: How Environmental Review Became America's Infrastructure Veto

    The Permit That Swallowed the Grid: How Environmental Review Became America's Infrastructure Veto
    Jun 19 2026
    The United States has spent decades drafting plans to modernize its electrical grid, yet transmission lines that engineers say could be built in three years routinely die in decade-long regulatory purgatory — not because of corrupt politicians or corporate sabotage, but because of a 1970 environmental law that nobody in power will touch. This week, we trace how the National Environmental Policy Act quietly transformed from a disclosure requirement into a de facto veto pen wielded by lawyers, local governments, and well-organized interest groups who all claim to want clean energy, just never here, never now. If last episode was about the math governments choose to ignore, this one is about the process they built to make sure nothing inconvenient ever gets built. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    29 min
  • The Actuary in the Room: How a Single Federal Formula Bankrupted America's Pension Promises

    The Actuary in the Room: How a Single Federal Formula Bankrupted America's Pension Promises
    Jun 18 2026
    Buried inside a 1974 federal law is a discount rate calculation that most elected officials have never read — and it's quietly determining whether millions of public workers will retire with what they were promised. This episode traces how actuarial assumptions became a mechanism of deferred political reckoning, who had the authority to fix the math and chose not to, and what happens when a government's most credible promise turns out to be arithmetic held together with optimism. Last episode we watched a federal judge take the wheel from a police superintendent; this time, the power belongs to someone you've never heard of and can't vote out. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    27 min
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