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Government

Optimist Economy

by Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi
Government

Today: #2 in Government on our combined chart.

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Chart positions today · United States

Government
#2 No change
#2#2#2 Pulse 94

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Ranking history · United States

Government

Latest daily rankings: Oct 21. New rankings will appear after the next update.

Position on the Government combined chart over the last 7 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.

#1#4#7#9#12Chart rankOct 15Oct 17Oct 19Oct 21#2
View as table
DateCombined RankApple PodcastsPocket CastsCastbox
Oct 21#2#2#2#2
Oct 20#2#2#2#2
Oct 19#1#1#1#1
Oct 18#1#1#1#1
Oct 17#1#1#1#1
Oct 16#1#1#1#1
Oct 15#1#1#1#1

Latest episodes

  • Americans Feel Awful About the Economy

    October 20, 2026 · 48 min

    The Consumer Sentiment Index has tracked how Americans experience the U.S. economy through bouts of runaway inflation, a mortgage crisis, stock market bubbles, and six recessions. And yet the scores right now are lower than at any of those…

  • The U.S. is in the Hole. Will We Stop Digging?

    September 1, 2026 · 52 min

    (Originally aired June 10, 2025) The national debt is $36 trillion. That could be a panic-inducing big number. So maybe it will help to understand how we ran up that debt. We've blown 37% of it on tax cuts, with precious little to show for…

  • Occupy! An Unfinished Uprising: The Invitation (Ep. 1)

    August 11, 2026 · 38 min

    Optimist Economy is on break this month, but we know that optimist listeners are interested in tales of economic history, issues of inequality and movements for change. So we thought some of you might enjoy "Occupy!" a six-part narrative…

  • Stop Donating Your Vacation Days to Your Boss

    August 4, 2026 · 50 min

    Nearly 90% of private-sector workers get paid vacation days from their job, but a Pew survey found 46% leave at least some of it on the table. Government survey data also show that the share of workers who are on vacation in any given week…

  • The Government is Already Paying for Your Health Insurance, Buddy

    July 28, 2026 · 48 min

    About 18% of U.S. GDP every year gets spent on health care. Half of that, 9%, is coming from the government, which is about the whole cost of  other countries’ public health programs. In other words, for what the U.S. spends on Medicare…

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  • Mr. Justin Time Sets a Cruel Work Schedule

    July 21, 2026 · 49 min

    Just-in-time scheduling lets an algorithm decide when — and whether — millions of people work. Surveys find 40% of shift workers (mostly in retail and food service) don’t know their schedule a week in advance. They can also get sent home…

  • Young Americans Should Be Raising Hell About Social Security

    July 14, 2026 · 44 min

    Nobody has more riding on any changes to Social Security than people under 40. The trust fund is currently projected to run dry in the fourth quarter of 2032, but it could be sooner. Every election, starting in November, selects the…

  • Simple Immigration Economics: Bigger is Better

    July 7, 2026 · 52 min

    (Originally aired 6/24/2025) One in five workers in the United States was born in another country. Without them, the country’s prime-age workforce would be shrinking, and thus so would our economy. So the calumny (Terms & Conditions)…

  • America at 250: Case for the Defense

    June 30, 2026 · 53 min

    It’s the United States’ semiquincentennial … and one of us is not feeling it. The other is literally carrying a flag in her bag — and that’s just her road flag. Kathryn Anne Edwards makes her case for optimism right now: The U.S. is…

  • Optimist Q&A: The AI Bubble, the Rapture, and Free Lunch

    June 23, 2026 · 52 min

    We can’t give financial advice. Or feedback on your 20-page tax proposal. But economist Kathryn Edwards did take a run at nearly 20 listener questions in under 60 minutes. Among them: Why care about birth rates if robots are taking all the…

  • Inflation Risk is the Wrong Recession Lesson

    June 16, 2026 · 50 min

    This might be the most dangerous economic assertion circulating today: the high inflation from 2021-2023 was caused by government stimulus. The talking point on the right goes: the third COVID-era stimulus checks landed in March 2021…

  • Make the Economy Work for Freelancers, Too (#askingforafriend)

    June 9, 2026 · 48 min

    Thirty million Americans, more or less, work for themselves. They freelance, do gig work, have solo LLCs, or — as a certain economist says — participate in “ non-employee employment.” The economics of their situation is harder than it…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Optimist Economy is the anti-doomscroll economics podcast. Work rules, tax fairness, healthcare, housing costs, retirement security — the economic forces shaping American life have real problems. But also real solutions. Each week, economist Kathryn Anne Edwards and editor Robin Rauzi break down one problem and solution with data, history, humor, and a belief that tools to build a better economy exist. We just haven't tried them. New episodes on Tuesdays. ✨ Support the podcast at: optimisteconomy.com ✨ Ask questions or share your economic worries with us at: optimist.economy@gmail.com