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HubWonk

HubWonk is a weekly podcast from Pioneer Institute, a Boston based think tank.

HubWonk is a weekly podcast from Pioneer Institute, a Boston based think tank. In each episode, Joe Selvaggi, with the scholars at Pioneer Institute, connects you directly to the region’s leaders in health care, education, transportation, and industry to explore policy choices that promote liberty, free market dynamism, and human flourishing for everyone.

Innovation Reduction Act: Price Controls’ Prescription for New Therapies

January 31, 2023

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest William Smith

Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow Dr. Bill Smith about the changes to drug pricing laws included in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act. They discuss the legislation’s provisions, and who wins and loses as drug companies announce their response to the new law.

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Residents Rescuing Refugees: Welcoming Ukrainians Yearning To Breathe Free

January 24, 2023

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Ilya Somin

Joe Selvaggi talks with George Mason Law Professor, author, and immigration expert Ilya Somin about the newly announced Welcome Corps program which empowers Americans to sponsor and help relocate refugees from Ukraine and other places of war and persecution.

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Sinking U.S. Shipping: Ineffective Law Creates Waves for American Economy

January 17, 2023

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Colin Grabow

Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute research fellow Colin Grabow about the failure of the Jones Act, a law that sought to protect the U.S. shipbuilding and merchant marine capacity, and examine its downstream effects on inflation, supply chain fragility, and energy access that directly affect every American.

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Shopping Hospital Value: Price Transparency Mandate Brings Market Forces to Medicine

January 10, 2023

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Barbara Anthony

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s senior healthcare fellow Barbara Anthony about her recently released paper, Massachusetts Hospitals: Uneven Compliance with New Federal Price Transparency Law, and how price transparency can empower consumers to shop for better value and encourage hospitals to offer more competitive costs.

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Immigration Unbound: After Title 42 Comes the Deluge

December 27, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guests Title 42 & Todd Bensman

Joe Selvaggi talks with Todd Bensman, senior fellow at the Center For Immigration Studies, about the conditions for aspiring immigrants and border security officials at the U.S.-Mexico border and the likely effects of the expiration of Title 42, a policy that had denied asylum claims during Covid-19.

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Eight Billion Minds: Unsustainable Population Bomb or Infinite Resource?

December 20, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Marian Tupy

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Scholar and author Marian Tupy about his new book, Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet, focusing on the contrast in policy perspectives between those who see humans as consumers of finite resources and those who recognize the unlimited potential of human ingenuity.

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MBTA Safety Overhaul: Retooling Teams For Trustworthy Transit

December 13, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Chris Dempsey

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with transit advocate and expert Chris Dempsey about ways in which structural change in the MBTA’s safety oversight can be reformed to improve performance, engender greater trust amongst the region’s riders, and reduce transportation congestion in our growing economy.

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Christopher Dempsey is a transportation advocate and former co-founder of No Boston Olympics, which formed in opposition to Boston’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid. He was a Democratic candidate for Massachusetts State Auditor for the 2022 election. From 2017 to 2021, Dempsey was the Director of Transportation for Massachusetts, a statewide advocacy coalition fighting for safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation. As Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Governor Deval Patrick, he co-founded MassDOT’s Open Data program, which made the MBTA the first agency on the East Coast to share real-time data with third-party developers that created smartphone apps for bus and train arrivals. He currently serves an elected member of Brookline Town Meeting and chairs the Brookline Transportation Board. In 2014, Dempsey, along with Liam Kerr and Kelley Gossett, co-founded No Boston Olympics, which successfully led opposition to Boston’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid. Influenced by this work and collaboration with organizers in other cities fighting Olympic bids, he co-authored No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch with Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist.

Climate Death Toll: Will A Warming World Overwhelm Human Resiliency?

December 6, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Patrick Brown

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with climate scientist and Johns Hopkins lecturer Dr. Patrick Brown about his recent paper, Human Deaths from Hot and Cold Temperatures and Implications for Climate Change, on the factors that contribute to high climate-related mortality, and those that lead to better resiliency.

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Legal Property Theft: Legal Defense Against Town Taxman Taking Neediests’ Deeds

November 15, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Frank J. Bailey

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with President of PioneerLegal and retired federal judge, Hon. Frank J. Bailey, about PioneelLegal’s work to advocate for the U.S. constitutional prohibition against the practice of municipalities taking the entire value of a property to settle a relatively small tax debt, a procedure legal in Massachusetts and thirteen other states.

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Right To Save: Paying Healthcare Consumers To Shop for Value

November 8, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Josh Archambault

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with healthcare policy expert Josh Archambault about the findings from his Cicero Institute report, The Right to Save: The Next Generation of Price Transparency. He outlines how to incentivize healthcare consumers to utilize price information to reduce out-of-pocket costs, and lower healthcare costs for everyone.

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Grading State Governors: Do Higher Taxes Equate To Higher Value?

November 1, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Chris Edwards

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards about the new report he co-authored entitled, “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors 2022.” They discuss how Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s fiscal stewardship compares with other states, and explore whether higher tax rates and spending correlate with better state performance and resident satisfaction.

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The Causes and Potential Cures for Inflation

October 25, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Larry Summers

Inflation is here. After a 40-year hiatus, we’re now in the midst of the phenomena characterized by rising prices and declining purchasing power. Many had warned about it, but it became inevitable in the wake of the pandemic with the passage of the $2 trillion American Rescue Plan. Did policymakers and economists anticipate the danger of inflation from massive fiscal stimulus, only to have their advice ignored? Or were they complacent? To answer these questions and more, Harvard economist and Pioneer Institute board member Ed Glaeser recently interviewed Larry Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and former President of Harvard University, for a special episode of Hubwonk.

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Republicans at a Crossroads: Weighing the Boost and Baggage of the Trump Train

October 18, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest William Mayer

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with political scientist and author, Northeastern University Professor William Mayer, about the new book he has edited, The Elephant in the Room: Donald Trump and the Future of the Republican Party. They discuss how former president Trump has changed, and has been changed, by the GOP, and which path the Republican party is likely to take in the future.

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Supreme Judicial Preview: Court Poised To Face Controversy

October 11, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Thomas Berry

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with constitutional scholar Thomas Berry about the important questions being decided in the more high profile cases facing the newly opened session of the Supreme Court. They discuss how the addition of newly appointed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson could add a fresh perspective on the concept of originalism.

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Income Inequality Explored: Wage Gap Overlooks Government Intervention

October 4, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest John F. Early

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with John F. Early, economist and author of the newly released book, The Myth of American Inequality, about the history of income inequality, its true size, and trends. They also discuss how census data used in policy decision-making misses nearly all the effects of government intervention and distorts the truth about the income American families actually have to spend.

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Collegiate Kangaroo Courts: Title IX Rewrite Expels Free Expression and Due Process

September 27, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Alison Somin

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pacific Legal Foundation Senior Fellow Alison Somin about the Biden Administration’s proposed modifications to Title IX fair treatment guidelines, challenging principles of free speech and due process, and potentially chilling the culture of free debate in American universities.

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Train Wreck Averted: Labor Ties American Economy to the Tracks

September 20, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Dominic Pino

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Dominic Pino, Thomas L. Rhodes Fellow at the National Review Institute, about his research and writing on the recently averted rail strike, including how the rail industry is organized, what labor’s demands were, and how the prospect of a nationwide rail strike exposed vulnerabilities within the American economy.

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Gargantuan Graduation Gift: Biden Writes Check From Taxpayers To College Grads

September 13, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Beth Akers

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Dr. Beth Akers, AEI Senior Fellow, about the recent presidential executive order to cancel an estimated $500 billion in outstanding student debt. They explore who benefits, who pays, and the likely effects on tuition and the borrowing habits of future students.

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MBTA’s Runaway Crisis: Legacy of Neglect Demands Comprehensive Reform

August 30, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Andrew Bagley

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Andrew Bagley, Vice President for Policy and Research at Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, about their recent report entitled, The MBTA Crisis is Complicated – Fixing It Will Be Too, diving into the details on why the T is in crisis and what the public must demand of policy makers to get it back on track.

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The Taxman Cometh: Who Will Pay When the Newly Funded IRS Knocks?

August 23, 2022

Hosted by Joe Selvaggi

With guest Rachel Greszler

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Rachel Greszler about the $80 billion investment in the Internal Revenue Service, focusing on the promise to limit enhanced enforcement to high earners and whether the IRS will likely need to expand its net.

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