The Overton Window: Recent Episodes

Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Have you noticed that politicians struggle to enact the things they run on? They find themselves bound by what is popular, or at least their sense of it. The narrow range of policies that they can enact is called the Overton Window. The Overton Window podcast looks at issues around the country and the people changing what is politically possible.

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Badger Institute’s Patrick McIlheran discusses citizen-led referenda

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Scott Tillman discusses putting term limits on U.S. Congress

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Jon Riches investigates government violations of gift clauses

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Layal Bou Harfouch on bringing empathy into drug policy

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Bob Ewing on mastering the art of public speaking

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Dave Bondy breaks down the ever-shifting landscape of political journalism

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Jon Sanders discusses the feasibility of renewable energy in North Carolina

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Michigan Rising Action’s Abby Mitch on holding elected officials accountable

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American Culture Project’s John Tillman on winning through upstream engagement

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Angela Erickson on project management’s role in ending home equity theft

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Josh Bandoch on persuading the left and the right to help America’s poor

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Bryan Caplan on using graphic novels to change housing policy

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Elizabeth Stelle on winning more school choice in a purple state

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Alisdair Whitney on the battles to remove barriers to entry for healthcare providers

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Basanta Adhikari on moving the Overton Window in Nepal

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Mike Reitz on political strategy and public policy

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Matt Mitchell on switching economic systems from socialism to capitalism

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Corey DeAngelis on The Parent Revolution

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Eli Dourado on the hard problems facing hard technology

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Erin Norman on measuring progress and setting strategy through polling

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Jason Hayes on how federal and state forests are managed

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Shoshana Weissmann on policy advocacy on social media

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Luke Derheim on volunteering on political campaigns

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Kendall Cotton on major policy wins in Montana

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M. Nolan Gray on the battles for less restrictive housing regulation

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Jacob Whiton and Greg LeRoy on state film subsidies

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Dan Crane on the fight for direct sales of vehicles

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Brian Riedl on what it will take to avoid catastrophic federal debt

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Sarah Curry on letting voters know what debts they’re being asked to approve

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Paul Gessing on the fight to keep gasoline-powered vehicle sales legal in New Mexico

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Alexandra Hudson on the Soul of Civility

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Brian Blase on putting the customer back in the health care system

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Jimmy Walker on raising funds by making a better case for free-market ideas

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Lenore Skenazy on the Let Grow Project

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Robert Lawson on the Economic Freedom of the World Index and improvements in economic liberty

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Pat Garofalo works to prevent lawmakers from signing nondisclosure agreements about business subsidy negotiations

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Larry Reed and Joe Lehman on the Overton Window and Joe Overton

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Jon England on supporting the changes in the education marketplace

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Matt Paprocki on making a difference in Illinois policy

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Sheng Li on reinvigorating the separation of powers through lawsuits

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Chris Douglas on stadium subsidies

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George Will on changing minds over 50 years of column-writing and how the Overton Window shifted in baseball

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Preston Cooper on his plan to change federal college aid

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Jason Taylor on the social changes that led to Prohibition and its repeal

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Jarrett Skorup on persuasion in the political debate

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Jon Sanders on putting bounds on the administrative state

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Rich Bowman on Practical Environmentalism

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Alisha, friend of the Overton Window Podcast, wants to know about the state Supreme Court

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John Hendrickson on the big changes made in Iowa

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Tucker Carlson on daily political commentary

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Jason Hayes on the Overton Window for electricity regulation

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Beth DeShone on issue lobbying

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Dawson Bell on changes to Michigan’s political landscape

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Bob Poole on the steps taken toward his goal of a better transportation system

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Henry Payne on editorial cartoons

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Todd Myers on his book, Time to Think Small

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Adrian Hemond on campaigning and what it means for next year’s policy

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Matt Beienburg on scholarship accounts for all students and the future of education in Arizona

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Jarrett Skorup on the move to put strings on civil asset forfeiture

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Jonathan Williams on political benchmarking and the rush to flat income taxes

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Greg LeRoy lays out the Overton Window on selective business subsidies

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Ryan Green and Austin Berg on persuading people to reject progressive income taxes

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Ingrid Jacques on winning people over through columns and editorials

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Rich Samp on a Supreme Court case that reigned in the administrative state

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John Kay on the Right to Earn a Living

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Claire Kittle Dixon on where to find good people to work in free market organizations

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Richard Vedder on his career as a policy advocate professor

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Jeremy Baker on changing policy through candidate recruitment

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Heather Lauer on getting lawmakers to pass donor privacy laws

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Daniel Dew and Michael Van Beek on gubernatorial authority in emergencies

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Russ Latino on the legislative battle for tax cuts in Mississippi

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Corey DeAngelis on the rush the fund students and tweeting for school choice

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Randy Hicks on taking a bottom-up strategy to state policy reform

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Jason Hayes on how states manage their parks and forests

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Grover Norquist on the Politics of Tax Reductions

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Michelle Minton on the nicotine policy debate

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Tori Aultman on campus engagement during COVID

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Byron Schlomach on the power of research in public policy

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Matthew D. Mitchell and Jonathan Riches on outlawing favoritism

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Jenna Ashley Robinson on how to keep tuition down and improve higher education

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How to amend the Michigan Constitution, with Leon Drolet

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Alisha wants to know about American shipping regulations

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Leonard Gilroy on reforming pension systems across the country

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Jennifer Butler on federal rule making on a union dues skim operation

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Ben DeGrow on how the COVID-19 pandemic might change education policy

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Steve Delie and Vinnie Vernuccio on the future of unionism

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Vance Ginn of his plan to limit Texas spending

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Alexa Kramer on member-directed lobbying

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Jonathan Wood on how to better manage federal forests to prevent large wildfires

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Dan Johnson of Progressive Political Affairs on an Interstate Compact to Eliminate Business Subsidies

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Bob McNamara from the Institute for Justice on the Power of Persistence

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How drones are changing the Overton Window for low-altitude airspace

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Garrett Ballengee of the Cardinal Institute on the Nation’s Largest School Choice Program

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A Conversation About How To Use the Overton Window

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The ACLU’s Kim Buddin on How Litigation Changes Policy

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Jay Schweikert on Qualified Immunity

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Alisha wants to know about mosquito control

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Elizabeth Stelle on Reforming Pennsylvania’s Alcohol Monopoly in the Face of Union Opposition

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Brett Kittredge on how good communications work kept Mississippi lawmakers from outlawing goat milk

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David Stevenson on policy change in the arcane world of regulation

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Jason Mercier on why the state of Washington doesn't have an income tax.

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How one legislator built enough trust with her colleagues to win a nation-leading reform