Optimist Economy
Optimist Economy
Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi
Show overview
Optimist Economy launched in 2025 and has put out 67 episodes, alongside 4 trailers or bonus episodes in the time since. That works out to roughly 55 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence, with the show now in its 2nd season.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 45 min and 53 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. Roughly 42% of episodes carry an explicit flag from the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Government show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 2 weeks ago, with 30 episodes already out so far this year. Published by Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi.
From the publisher
Economist Kathryn Anne Edwards and co-host editor Robin Rauzi talk about the fundamentals of the U.S. economy and how to build a better future one problem and solution at a time. Our premise is that the United States has remarkable economy — and yet for tens of millions of Americans it is not performing up to its potential. It could be more open to aspiring workers, less hostile to change, safer for workers, less risky for retirees, and so on.✨ Support the podcast at: optimisteconomy.com ✨Ask questions or share your economic worries with us at: [email protected]
Latest Episodes
View all 67 episodesOccupy! An Unfinished Uprising: The Invitation (Ep. 1)
Stop Donating Your Vacation Days to Your Boss
The Government is Already Paying for Your Health Insurance, Buddy
Mr. Justin Time Sets a Cruel Work Schedule
Young Americans Should Be Raising Hell About Social Security
Simple Immigration Economics: Bigger is Better
America at 250: Case for the Defense
Optimist Q&A: The AI Bubble, the Rapture, and Free Lunch
Inflation Risk is the Wrong Recession Lesson
Make the Economy Work for Freelancers, Too (#askingforafriend)
About That College Grad Who Can’t Find a Job…
Should We Cherish the Ultra-Wealthy? (a.k.a. ‘The Cornfield’)
No Overtime for the Supervisor of Sandwiches
Can the U.S. Go ‘Cashless?’
The 2026 Economy: Make it Make Sense
Progress is a Long Game
The Great Wage Stagnation
Tax Reform Gone Wild
S2 Ep 11Nobody's Pulling Up Stakes Anymore
Americans used to move a lot in search of opportunity. But in 2024, the share of Americans who moved at all hit a 76-year low. Barely 2% of us moved across state lines. Some of that is by choice: people are more rooted, and that's not nothing. But when workers stop moving, rich cities pull further away from poor ones, wages stagnate, and the gaps between thriving labor markets and struggling ones get harder to close. And when there’s a shock to a local labor market, moving is an important release valve. Fixing a fraction of this worker mobility breakdown could improve the labor market for everyone.Chapters:00:00:33 Opening00:01:45 Retcon: Trump Accounts & Career Pivots00:07:27 Terms & Conditions: Spatial Equilibrium00:09:55 Big Pilcrow: Does it Matter to the U.S. Economy if We Don’t Move from Place to Place?00:39:10 Executive Orders: Frances Perkins miniseries; Sleep Shaming; Election Day Weekend00:43:07 Spiritual Sponsors: The National Consumers League motto ("Investigate, Agitate, Legislate"); ACFC’s winning startREAD MORE:The increasingly mobile US is a myth that needs to move on | Aeon EssaysWho Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home? | Pew Research CenterJob Changing and the Decline in Long-Distance Migration in the United States | Demography | Duke University PressThe Economics of Internal Migration: Advances and Policy QuestionsPopulation & Migration | Economic Research ServiceStranded! How Rising Inequality Suppressed US Migration and Hurt Those Left Behind Invest in Optimist Economy: https://optimisteconomy.com Faces visible on the Optimist Economy YouTube channel. We’re also on Instagram at @optimist_economy or TikTok at @optimist_economy. Where’s the party? On our Substack chat. Represent your optimist side: https://merch.ambientinks.com/collections/optimisteconomy Email your economic questions, concerns, or executive orders to [email protected]
S2 Ep 10The Optimists Have Questions…
Fourteen questions. Zero softballs. Listeners from Tacoma to Montreal wrote in to ask about retirement savings, taxing capital gains, home-buyer assistance programs, corporate profits in the tariffs era, what one state employee can or cannot accomplish, and whether meaningful economic reform will arrive before Millennials drop dead. And more. The inbox did not disappoint. 00:00 Announcements01:59 Is a retirement savings crisis brewing? 04:32 Tax credits for first-time home buyers… good idea?08:10 What if tax breaks for capital gains only applied to new investments?13:39 Explain the $1,700 tax credit scholarship program in OBBA?16:23 Are institutional investors wrecking the housing market?21:37 What quick policy moves could reverse worsening inequality?27:32 Will meaningful reform arrive before Millennials retire?30:56 Is a hotel tax the right way to fund a stadium?33:05 Can I move the needle on labor policy from inside the system?35:08 Why has the responsibility and risk for employment shifted onto workers?37:50 Is fixing the care economy easier than we think?40:47 Do rent caps work?44:50 Can we prevent price gouging by companies?47:53 If states roll out good policies, does the federal government need to do it too? Still have questions, concerns, or worries? Send them to [email protected] Keep Optimist Economy podcasting: https://optimisteconomy.com See our faces on the Optimist Economy YouTube channel. Commune with fellow Optimists on our Substack chat. We’re on Instagram at @optimist_economy or TikTok at @optimist_economy. There’s a t-shirt in your size here.https://merch.ambientinks.com/collections/optimisteconomy