Legislation
134 episodes · Page 4 of 6
#3153: Law as Fallback vs Minimalist Codes
How Japan and the US take opposite approaches to legal codes — and what AI regulation reveals about the tradeoffs.
#3152: When Law Didn't Need God
Did the first secular law code permit dismembering debtors? Tracing law's 4,000-year shift from divine command to human reason.
#3151: When Courts Need a Conscience: Equity vs Law Explained
Why England built a second court system—and what Israel does instead.
#3145: Where Indoor Smoking Is Still Legal in 2026
Indonesia, Germany, Japan, Egypt, and Russia — the surprising places where lighting up indoors is still allowed.
#3136: 5000 Years of Prisons: From Debt to Mass Incarceration
From Mesopotamia to El Salvador — how prisons evolved from debt collection to the modern punishment system.
#3128: The Real Job of a Policy Wonk
What does a policy wonk actually do? It's not just a put-down — it's a real, high-impact job.
#2984: The Toaster Tax: How Israeli Standards Drive Up Prices
Why a toaster costs $30 more in Tel Aviv than Berlin — and how 3,000 unique standards affect every household purchase.
#2983: The Night-Watchman State: Theory vs Reality
Which democracies come closest to the libertarian minimum state? And which lean hardest into state control?
#2909: The Reassurance Mirage: When Moderation Fails
How the EU Digital Services Act exposes a 30-to-1 gap in appeal success rates between platforms.
#2853: What the Nordics Actually Struggle With
Beyond bike lanes and pastries—what Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have genuinely figured out, and where their model cracks.
#2848: Can 100 Volunteers Let AI Govern Them for a Month?
An AI council of multiple models, a hundred volunteers, and a month of real municipal decisions. Here’s how you’d run the experiment.
#2847: How AI Could Transform Comparative Policy Analysis
Can AI agents do the work of a distributed think tank for cross-country policy learning?
#2805: The Subprocessor Notification Nobody Reads
Why do companies send subprocessor update emails nobody reads? It's transparency theater — with a hidden purpose.
#2785: Why Israeli Renters Pay for a Landlord's Broker
Why Israeli tenants pay brokers hired by landlords—and what other countries do differently.
#2680: The 200-Year Loophole That Shaped UK Tax
How a 1799 tax carve-out let billionaires avoid UK taxes for centuries — until Akshata Murty broke it.
#2615: Dual Citizenship: Loyalty, Law & Living in Two Countries
Two hundred million people hold multiple passports. How did dual citizenship go from taboo to normal?
#2580: When Laws Regulate Appearances
Why do open container laws exist, and do they actually reduce antisocial behavior?
#2335: Staking Out the Middle: UK's Post-Brexit AI Strategy
The UK’s £500M Sovereign AI Fund is a bold move to boost domestic AI startups with compute access, visas, and strategic partnerships. How does it s...
#2155: Public Affairs vs. Lobbying: Shaping the Battlefield
Lobbying is just one tool. Public affairs shapes the entire regulatory battlefield—from AI laws to supply chains.
#2153: How Lobbying Actually Works in DC
Federal lobbying hit $6B in 2025. Here’s what a lobbyist actually does all day—and why the system regulates itself.
#2087: Why Refill Stations Haven't Gone Mainstream
We explore the technical and economic friction preventing refill-on-the-go from replacing single-use packaging in Western supermarkets.
#2086: The Gravity of Power: Why We Split It
Why do we separate government powers? We trace the idea from Aristotle to Montesquieu and the US founders.
#2082: When Justice Becomes a Formula
Israel's proposed mandatory death penalty for terrorists has deep historical roots, from Hammurabi's Code to the Bloody Code.
#2015: The Think Tanks Writing AI's Rulebook
As the EU AI Act takes hold, we spotlight the key think tanks shaping global AI policy, safety, and ethics.