How to Avoid the Partisan Trap Even at The Washington Post w/ Megan McArdle

Conversations With Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You might think you know what a Washington Post columnist sounds like, but Megan McArdle is not your typical liberal media voice. She’s spent years inside the most established outlets in journalism: The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Economist and yet she’s managed to surprise and infuriate readers on the left with sharp critiques that don’t always toe the party line. Today on Conversations we talk about why progressives often get economic policy wrong and the real mess behind America’s broken healthcare system. Megan makes a solid pitch for why Americans should continue to have a private system. Megan and I get into it about insurance companies, pharmaceutical giants, and where the incentives in healthcare are completely backwards . . . and, believe it or not, where they actually work. Go to groundnews.com/Coleman to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on today’s biggest news stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Megan McCartle.
0:06.4	Megan is a columnist at the Washington Post where she covers economics, finance, and government policy.
0:12.6	She originally gained prominence through her early 2000s blog, Asymmetrical Information,
0:18.1	later writing for outlets like The Atlantic, Bloomberg, and Newsweek. She's also the
0:22.9	author of The Upside of Down, Why Failing Well is the Key to Success. In this episode, we talk about what
0:29.6	Megan's Washington Post readers get wrong about her. We talk about what exactly is wrong with the
0:34.9	American health care system, touching on insurance, pharmaceutical companies,
0:38.9	and the role of bad incentives. We also talk about the legacy of Obamacare. Next, we talk about
0:45.0	the influence of AI on education, including how to use AI in the classroom. So without further
0:51.2	ado, Megan McArdle.
0:53.0	Thank you. So without further ado, Megan McArdle.
1:03.6	Why are podcasts like this one at all popular?
1:07.0	We can't compete with the resources of a place like CNN.
1:12.2	I can't give you the sheer volume of analysis that the New York Times can, but there's one thing I have that those organizations lack. Trust. I think my audience listens to me because they
1:18.6	found my judgment to be trustworthy in the past, but have found mainstream media organizations
1:23.8	to be the exact opposite. That's why I love ground news. They're an app and website
1:30.2	designed to help you escape ideological echo chambers by pulling in the world's perspective on today's
1:36.2	most emotionally and politically charged issues. Ground news breaks down the political bent,
1:43.0	reliability, ownership, and location of each reporting source,
1:47.0	so you understand that news isn't simply reported. Often, narratives are crafted. For example,
1:53.3	consider a recent story about the Department of Education informing my alma mater,
1:57.2	Columbia University, that they broke federal anti-discrimination laws and failed to comply
	...

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