Show-me Institute Podcast

David Stokes, Abigail Wagner and Quin Rizer Join Zach Lawhorn. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

David Stokes, Elias Taspelas, and SMI Intern Quin Rizer join Zach Lawhorn. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

David Stokes, Susan Pendergrass and Abigail Wagner join Zach Lawhorn. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

Howard Wall, Ph.D., directs the Hammond Institute for Free Enterprise and is a Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Economics and the Environment. He is also a Professor of Economics in Plaster School of Business & Entrepreneurship at Lindenwood University. Prior to joining Lindenwood in 2011, Wall was a vice president and regional economics adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

Susan Pendergrass is joined by David Stokes and Patrick Tuohey Patrick Tuohey is co-founder and policy director of the Better Cities Project. He works with taxpayers, media, and policymakers to foster understanding of the consequences — sometimes unintended — of policies regarding economic development, taxation, education, and transportation. He previously served as the senior fellow of municipal policy at the Show-Me Institute. David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. Read Patrick's

Neal McCluskey is the director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom. He is the author of the book Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education and is coeditor of several volumes, including School Choice Myths: Setting the Record Straight on Education Freedom and Unprofitable Schooling: Examining Causes of, and Fixes for, America’s Broken Ivory Tower. McCluskey also maintains Cato’s Public Schooling Battle Map, an interactive database of values and identity‐​based conflicts in public schools, and oversees Cato’s Private Schooling Status Tracker.

David Stokes, Patrick Ishmael, and Susan Pendergrass join Zach Lawhorn to recap the 2022 legislative session, a new bill in St. Louis, and the return of The Loop Trolley. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

On May 10, 2022, Aaron Hedlund, chief economist at the Show-Me Institute, and Tyler Goodspeed, Kleinheinz Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, discussed the impact of decades-high inflation on the economy, workers, and consumers, as well as the role of the Federal Reserve in solving the problem and the risk of the next recession. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

David Stokes, Susan Pendergrass and Elias Tsapelas join Zach Lawhorn to discuss Disney bringing special taxing districts into the headlines, the latest on a tax credit bill, and everything education legislation.

Susan speaks with Senior Director of Government Relations at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Ron Rice. Ron C. Rice has over 15 years of public policy experience in the fields of education, urban development, and community empowerment initiatives as an executive state government appointee and two-term local elected official. Prior to joining the National Alliance, Ron served as the Special Assistant/Chief Policy Analyst for the Chief of Staff to the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education, and as a city councilman for two terms in Newark under Mayor Cory Booker where he created his ward’s Education Support Committee and consistently supported charter school facility needs and their growth and advancement throughout the city, specifically working with KIPP (TEAM Rise and SPARK Academies), Uncommon Schools (North Star Academy), and community charters such as Marion P. Thomas Charter School, Lady Liberty Academy, and Adelaide Sanford Charter School.

Over the past decade, the revenue for hospitals generated by the federal 340B drug discount program, initially intended to serve low-income, uninsured populations, has exploded even while a number of important Massachusetts hospitals have reduced the level of charity care they provide, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute. The Pioneer Institute study, “340B Drug Discounts: An Increasingly Dysfunctional Program,” notes that nationwide, 340B drug sales rose from $9 billion in 2014 to $38 billion in 2020. William S. Smith is Senior Fellow and Director of the Life Sciences Initiative at Pioneer Institute. He has 25 years of experience in government and in corporate roles, including as vice president of public affairs and policy at Pfizer, and as a consultant to major pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He held senior staff positions for the Republican House leadership on Capitol Hill, the White House, and in the Massachusetts Governor’s office. He earned his PhD with di

Raises for Teachers, Billions for Meta, and a New Stadium for The Chiefs by Show-Me Institute

Jakob Puckett, Corianna Baier and David Stokes join Zach Lawhorn to discuss changes to a St. Louis EV charging station law, the upcoming April 5 elections and the idea of a gas tax holiday in Missouri. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

On March 17, 2022 Senator Jim Talent and Heritage Foundation’s James Jay Carafano joined us for a virtual event to discuss the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the United States. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

Mark P. Mills is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also a strategic partner with Montrose Lane (an energy-tech venture fund). Previously, Mills cofounded Digital Power Capital, a boutique venture fund, and was chairman and CTO of ICx Technologies, helping take it public in 2007. Mills is author of the book The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and a Roaring 2020s (Encounter Books, 2021), and host of the new podcast The Last Optimist. He is also author of Digital Cathedrals (2020), and Work in the Age of Robots (2018). Mills earlier coauthored (with Peter Huber) The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy (Basic Books, 2005). His articles have been published widely, including in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, and Real Clear. Mills has appeared as a guest on CNN,

Jay P. Greene is a senior research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. At Heritage, Jay conducts and disseminates research on the key issues facing education today, including the cultural, civic, and economic implications of how education systems are designed and implemented. He is one of the country’s leading experts on education policy, with highly influential research on a broad range of topics—from the effects of expanding school choice and how education shapes character and values to the misuse of social science research in policy debates. In addition to authoring dozens of publications in peer-reviewed journals and writing or editing four books, including the best-selling Education Myths, Greene’s research on school choice was also cited four times in the Supreme Court’s landmark case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

Jakob Puckett, Elias Tsapelas, and David Stokes join Zach Lawhorn to discuss a new plan to spend millions on capital improvements in St. Louis, rumors of a federal gas tax holiday and the latest on Missouri expanding Medicaid.

David Stokes, Elias Tsapelas and Susan Pendergrass join Zach Lawhorn to discuss the first month of the legislative session.

Michael Q. McShane, Director of National Research at EdChoice, Susan Pendergrass, Director of Research and Education Policy at Show-Me Institute, and Patricia Levesque, Chief Executive Officer of ExcelinEd discuss the state of accountability in education, why state leadership is critical, and how Missouri and other states can reform their accountability systems. Visit: MoSchoolRankings.org.

Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus. As Vice President for Washington Operations, he also oversees the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship and the academic and educational programs of Hillsdale in the nation’s capital. He is the best-selling author of We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future, which details America’s core principles, shows how they have come under assault by modern progressive-liberalism, and lays out a strategy to recover them. Spalding is also executive editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, a line-by-line analysis of each clause of the U.S. Constitution. His other books include A Sacred Union of Citizens: Washington’s Farewell Address and the American Character; Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition; and The Founders’