The Jackpod: We coulda been Denmark
On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
WBUR
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
On Point news analyst Jack Beatty on the opportunity cost of interventionist foreign policy on social betterment programs in the U.S.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for WBUR comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design. |
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| 0:16.3 | Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, A podcast from the Marotra Institute at Boston |
| 0:22.8 | University that explores questions |
| 0:24.9 | like, why is innovation and |
| 0:26.6 | healthcare so hard? Is ESG |
| 0:29.2 | just greenwashing? And, of course, |
| 0:31.5 | is business broken? Listen, |
| 0:33.6 | wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:36.6 | WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 0:39.3 | I'm Megna Chakra-Bardi, and this is the Jack Pod pod, where on-point news analyst Jack Beattie |
| 0:53.3 | helps us connect history, literature, |
| 0:55.0 | and politics in a way that brings his unique clarity to the world we live in now. |
| 1:00.4 | Hello there, Jack, and happy new year. |
| 1:02.8 | Well, happy new year to you, Magna. |
| 1:05.1 | And to all our jackpotters as well, old and new. |
| 1:08.9 | Now, this happens to be the first episode of 2026, and it is episode 102. What's |
| 1:14.7 | your headline? We could have been Denmark. Why, Jack? Well, you know, that's such an American |
| 1:23.7 | plaint. I mean, think of American cultural moments. Brando with, you know, |
| 1:29.4 | Rod Steiger, his brother in the back of the limo. Charlie, I could have been a contender. |
| 1:35.0 | I could have been somebody. There's a moment in Aaron Brokevich where the Julia Roberts character |
| 1:40.6 | said, I was Miss Wichita. I had the world at my feet. |
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