Ross Douthat

speaker

4,896 appearances 23 recordings 5 series first heard Jan 2026 last heard 27 Aug

Ross Douthat’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 23 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 6.

Appearances

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Interesting Times · How Older Americans Hoard the Future · 30 Jul 2026 podcast

But assuming that lots of these older CEOs are still, you know, capable, capable of doing the job, what is the structural problem that this creates for society? voice-verified

So the gerontocrats themselves are moral, philosophical, existential victims of the system in the sense that they are encouraged to remain with power instead of voice-verified

confronting themselves or spending time with their grandchildren or both? voice-verified

So what kinds of policy are you likely to get in a gerontocracy? voice-verified

And we should stipulate, as you said earlier, right, that... voice-verified

when we're talking about gerontocracy in politics, we aren't just talking about the power of Mitch McConnell, we're talking about older voters wielding power through older elected representatives. voice-verified

How does that, in your view, shape and warp public policy? voice-verified

Some are born to it. voice-verified

So these are ways in which essentially a gerontocracy skews right in its politics. voice-verified

So... voice-verified

On government spending, what do you think the net effect of an older skew is? voice-verified

Because it seems like you could say, well, it also skews conservative or Republican because old people have more resources. voice-verified

At the same time, voice-verified

The American welfare state built by your left wing forebears, right, is designed heavily around retirement protections, Medicare, Social Security. voice-verified

These are the third rails of American politics. voice-verified

What do gerontocrats want when it comes to taxes and spending? voice-verified

Let's go a little deeper on the material side, right? voice-verified

Because it's not just about Medicare and Social Security and taxes, right? voice-verified

It's also that whereas when the welfare state was first being constructed in the New Deal era and so on, old age poverty was sort of a central zone of poverty in the United States. voice-verified

Today, there's still senior poverty. voice-verified

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