The Chuck ToddCast

Washington Monthly editor-in-chief Paul Glastris joins the Chuck ToddCast to make the case that the entire college rankings industry is measuring the wrong thing. U.S. News rewards wealth, prestige, and exclusivity — guaranteeing the same 20 or 30 schools top the list every year, institutions 95% of students can’t get into anyway. The Monthly ranks on what colleges actually do for the country, and this year debuted the first-ever Best Colleges for Rural America list. Number one is the University of West Alabama in Livingston, population 3,436, where students earn a median $64,122 four years out — roughly $26,500 more than a typical college would have produced. Glastris warns that rural nonprofit closures are creating genuine education deserts, that restrictions on foreign students have gutted school finances, and that fixing higher ed would fix a great deal of what ails the country.
Timeline:
00:00 Paul Glastris joins The Chuck ToddCast
02:00 Why the rankings always crown the same elite schools
05:30 What taxpayers spend, and what the rankings should measure
10:30 Endowments, foreign students, and schools in financial trouble
15:30 Education deserts and the first rural college ranking
20:30 The University of West Alabama and the returns nobody talks about
25:15 Higher ed as a political wedge issue
30:00 Advice for policymakers and the biggest obstacles to reform
36:00 What AI actually does to the value of a degree
41:15 How UT Rio Grande Valley outranks Yale
46:30 The standout state systems and what makes them work
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Chuck Todd maps a map that keeps getting worse for Republicans: they’re not defending Trump, and they’re trying to convince voters they aren’t Trump Republicans. Ohio is the firewall and the money is pouring in, while the GOP plays triage in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina and pulls funding from House incumbents. Chuck sees no sign of a blue mirage — consumer confidence is lower than at any point under Biden, a majority say they’re cutting back on spending, and no amount of Trump talking changes lived experience. He also hits Kimberly Guilfoyle’s forced resignation as ambassador to Greece, Katie Zacharia’s debut as press secretary, the federal search of Ilhan Omar’s home, and Elon Musk’s additional $276 million in political spending since July.

Then, Washington Monthly editor-in-chief Paul Glastris joins the Chuck ToddCast to make the case that the entire college rankings industry is measuring the wrong thing. U.S. News rewards wealth, prestige, and exclusivity — guaranteeing the same 20 or 30 schools top the list every year, institutions 95% of students can’t get into anyway. The Monthly ranks on what colleges actually do for the country, and this year debuted the first-ever Best Colleges for Rural America list. Number one is the University of West Alabama in Livingston, population 3,436, where students earn a median $64,122 four years out — roughly $26,500 more than a typical college would have produced. Glastris warns that rural nonprofit closures are creating genuine education deserts, that restrictions on foreign students have gutted school finances, and that fixing higher ed would fix a great deal of what ails the country.
Finally, Chuck presents his ToddCast Top 5 list… expanded to ten with the expanding map, of Governorships most likely to flip parties and answers listeners’ questions in the Ask Chuck segment.

Timeline:
00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction
06:45 Republicans running from the Trump label
10:00 Trump’s disappearing filter
13:00 Ohio as the firewall and whether rallies actually help
15:45 Triage in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina
18:15 How big can the House wave get?
21:15 The Latino vote shifts back and the districts in play
26:45 No signs of a blue mirage, and the consumer confidence problem
33:30 Guilfoyle out, and the consequences Trump never faces
37:15 Katie Zacharia’s debut and the sycophancy requirement
41:00 The search of Ilhan Omar’s home and the DOJ’s credibility
47:00 Musk’s $276 million and the problem of concentrated power
57:30 Paul Glastris joins The Chuck ToddCast
59:30 Why the rankings always crown the same elite schools
1:03:00 What taxpayers spend, and what the rankings should measure
1:08:00 Endowments, foreign students, and schools in financial trouble
1:13:00 Education deserts and the first rural college ranking
1:18:00 The University of West Alabama and the returns nobody talks about
1:22:45 Higher ed as a political wedge issue
1:27:30 Advice for policymakers and the biggest obstacles to reform
1:33:30 What AI actually does to the value of a degree
1:38:45 How UT Rio Grande Valley outranks Yale
1:44:00 The standout state systems and what makes them work
1:52:00 ToddCast Top 10 Most Likely Governor’s Seat Flips
1:55:30 #1 Iowa
1:56:45 #2 Kansas
1:58:15 #3 Ohio
1:59:00 #4 Alaska
1:59:45 #5 Texas
2:00:30 #6 Georgia
2:01:30 #7 Nevada
2:02:30 #8 Oregon
2:03:30 #9 Wisconsin
2:04:00 #10 Florida
2:06:30 Ask Chuck
2:06:45 Predictions for Missouri house race
2:09:00 If Trump doesn’t fire Hegseth, could impeachment succeed?
2:13:00 Why is US an outlier on third party success?
2:14:30 If election is a repudiation, reform on emergency presidential powers?
2:18:00 Can Annie Andrews overcome straight ticket voting in SC?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chuck Todd maps a map that keeps getting worse for Republicans: they’re not defending Trump, and they’re trying to convince voters they aren’t Trump Republicans. Ohio is the firewall and the money is pouring in, while the GOP plays triage in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina and pulls funding from House incumbents. Chuck sees no sign of a blue mirage — consumer confidence is lower than at any point under Biden, a majority say they’re cutting back on spending, and no amount of Trump talking changes lived experience. He also hits Kimberly Guilfoyle’s forced resignation as ambassador to Greece, Katie Zacharia’s debut as press secretary, the federal search of Ilhan Omar’s home, and Elon Musk’s additional $276 million in political spending since July.

Finally, Chuck presents his ToddCast Top 5 list… expanded to ten with the expanding map, of Governorships most likely to flip parties and answers listeners’ questions in the Ask Chuck segment.
Timeline:
00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction
06:45 Republicans running from the Trump label
10:00 Trump’s disappearing filter
13:00 Ohio as the firewall and whether rallies actually help
15:45 Triage in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina
18:15 How big can the House wave get?
21:15 The Latino vote shifts back and the districts in play
26:45 No signs of a blue mirage, and the consumer confidence problem
33:30 Guilfoyle out, and the consequences Trump never faces
37:15 Katie Zacharia’s debut and the sycophancy requirement
41:00 The search of Ilhan Omar’s home and the DOJ’s credibility
47:00 Musk’s $276 million and the problem of concentrated power
55:00 ToddCast Top 10 Most Likely Governor’s Seat Flips
58:30 #1 Iowa
59:45 #2 Kansas
1:01:15 #3 Ohio
1:02:00 #4 Alaska
1:02:45 #5 Texas
1:03:30 #6 Georgia
1:04:30 #7 Nevada
1:05:30 #8 Oregon
1:06:30 #9 Wisconsin
1:07:00 #10 Florida
1:09:30 Ask Chuck
1:09:45 Predictions for Missouri house race
1:12:00 If Trump doesn’t fire Hegseth, could impeachment succeed?
1:16:00 Why is US an outlier on third party success?
1:17:30 If election is a repudiation, reform on emergency presidential powers?
1:21:00 Can Annie Andrews overcome straight ticket voting in SC?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three weeks out from the midterms, the richest man on earth spent a weekend laundering a fabricated story about a Senate candidate’s mental health into the mainstream — and Chuck Todd and Chris Cillizza argue the desperation of it is the tell. They open on the smear campaign against James Talarico in Texas (PolitiFact rated it Pants on Fire; the Ohio facility at the center of it publicly stated he was never a patient), then widen out to what it means that Elon Musk owns both the megaphone and the checkbook — $276 million into the midterms since July. From there: whether Republicans are underestimating the size of this wave, the four-to-seven-point scandal penalty and how it prices Kansas, and a Kalshi-driven walk down the Senate ladder — why 52 seats is the bull probability case, 54 the bull possibility case, and Annie Andrews the most mispriced bet on the board. Plus three stories of an administration behaving like it expects to lose: Kimberly Guilfoyle on the brink in Athens, Hegseth’s plan to livestream a firing-squad execution with eight articles of impeachment waiting for a House that isn’t back until November 9, and DHS agents at Ilhan Omar’s door 22 days before an election.
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Timeline:
00:00 The Talarico smear and how Musk mainstreamed it
06:00 Why Texas is the whole ballgame — and the GOP’s stages of grief
12:00 Musk’s $276 million, the Soros projection, and who should control a megaphone
18:00 Kalshi: Are we underestimating the size of this wave?
22:00 The scandal penalty, candidate quality, and pricing Kansas
30:00 Walking down the Senate ladder: 52, 54, and the most mispriced race
36:00 Kimberly Guilfoyle, Scott Bessent, and monkey see, monkey do
41:00 Hegseth: the man crush, the 2006 rerun, and eight articles waiting
46:00 The televised execution, and whose information ecosystem produces it
50:00 DHS at Ilhan Omar’s door, and a DOJ that changed the protocol
54:00 Brewers-Dodgers, a top-heavy West, and why Milwaukee keeps doing this
1:02:00 Commanders’ tie, Dan Quinn’s hot seat, and hire a clock guy
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AEI senior fellow James Pethokoukis — author of the Faster, Please! newsletter — joins the Chuck ToddCast to argue that America’s AI anxiety is the predictable product of two decades of shocks landing on an economy that’s been weak by historical standards. His central political point cuts against his own side of the argument: telling voters their fear is irrational is the worst possible strategy, and Silicon Valley is terrible at communicating with the public. He’s no more comfortable with Trump’s self-regulation approach, noting Congress has failed to pass even a privacy bill of rights and won’t touch AI in the next two years. His cautionary tale is nuclear power, where public aversion cost the country clean energy at scale while far more people died from fossil fuel pollution — and his warning is that AI companies shouldn’t be treated as weapons against China.
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Timeline:
00:00 James Pethokoukis joins The Chuck ToddCast
02:00 Why an economic growth guy got interested in AI
05:00 Shock after shock, and whether the information diet amplifies despair
07:30 Why focusing only on AI’s downside is destructive
12:00 Self-regulation, congressional failure, and the next two years
19:00 What risk level should we demand from AI companies?
20:15 The nuclear power cautionary tale
25:15 Rapid adoption, delayed productivity, and absurd forecasts
32:00 Silicon Valley’s communication problem
36:30 Accountability, visibility, and young companies
44:00 Where does a free-market conservative go now?
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