Grounded with Jon Tester & Maritsa Georgiou

A Beautiful Girlfriend in Canada

What does a secret, beautiful girlfriend in Canada have to do with the newly announced (and still unpublished) deal with Iran? Economist Justin Wolfers will tell you both stories smell off. He uses an "unraveling" argument from game theory and economic concepts to explain. “If I have an amazing deal, I would definitely run out and hold a press conference and show you the text right now. The fact that I’m not doing that tells you that I don’t have an amazing deal,” Wolfers explains. He breaks it down in even simpler terms. “If you’re on a dating app and the person doesn’t have their photo up what would you infer?” We cover the war in Iran’s economic ripple effects, including energy price spikes and the true cost of the conflict to people across the globe. We also tackle tariffs, the current impact on farmers, and what the AI revolution means for the future of work. Wolfers just launched the new Platypus Economics Substack [https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/] channel with a simple mission: teach the world economics in an accessible way that helps us all collectively. “So, look, we all have our own theories about what ails the world right now. Mine is I think the world would be a better place if we all knew a little bit more economics,” Wolfers said. "The radicalizing moment for me is actually look at another field, medicine, where they’ve discovered these incredible vaccines that can prevent enormous amounts of illness and injury and death. And there’s not enough trust, public trust, in what the doctors are doing and people won’t even take the vaccines. Now my field, economics, we don’t have literal vaccines but we have metaphorical vaccines. We have ways of understanding the world that we think can lead people better, richer, fuller lives.”

We Saw it Coming

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the country's oldest civil rights coalition, has put a lot of work into documenting the Trump administration’s efforts to turn back the clock on civil and human rights progress within the United States. The organization’s president and CEO Maya Wiley joined Grounded for a wide-ranging conversation to discuss several interconnected threats to civil rights. We discuss the Supreme Court's decision that led to the erosion of the Voting Rights Act, ICE detentions of people based on appearance and language rather than actual status, and threats to the nonprofit sector broadly. Wiley emphasizes that these attacks reach ordinary people, not just powerful figures — and that civil rights advocacy and voting are the tools citizens have to fight back.

Even Baddies Get Saddies

Let’s be honest. There’s a lot to feel sad about in the world. There’s also a lot to stay hopeful about. JT’s travel schedule prevented us from locking in a guest for today, but we wanted to hop on and go over some of the big headlines. President Trump is still claiming a deal with Iran is just “days away” while fighting between Israel and Iran continues. We dissect parts of this weekend’s Meet the Press interview with Trump, during which he continuously defended J6 rioters, boasted about the “pay day” he delivered to farmers through $28 billion in taxpayer subsidies, and his interview-ending meltdown over “rigged elections.” Again. We also spend some time talking about the emotional and impactful interview Scott Pelley had with the New York Times over the weekend about his firing from CBS News. We highly recommend watching or listening in its entirety. “I’ve never worn the uniform,” Pelley said when responding to criticism from President Trump. “But I’ve been in combat for this country, in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kuwait. I’ve been shot at, spent nights in foxholes filling up with water in the desert. I’m not aware that the president of the United States has ever done any of those things for his country. Please correct me if I’m wrong. You become a journalist because you love the First Amendment. You become a journalist because you love the country. And while all the other descriptions that the president used about me might be applicable, not that one. [Tears up] There is no democracy without journalism. It can’t be done. That is why I am a journalist.” We couldn’t have said it better, Scott.

Cognitive Offloading

At a time when all of us are drowning in tech, AFT President Randi Weingarten just rolled out an action plan to combat the use of screens in classrooms before third grade, which includes an emphasis on more hands-on learning. “We are at a crossroads that will define the future of work and society,” Weingarten said. “Without proper oversight and strong guardrails, there will be real dangers to our safety, privacy, climate and the very fabric of society.” Weingarten added that she is “not calling for a total ban on AI or a Chromebook bonfire,” but “what I am calling for,” she said, “is getting the balance right to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating the harms.” How do we help kids learn and prepare in a world of AI without depriving them of curiosity, persistence and critical thinking? Plus, the new lawsuits aimed at overturning new rules that limit financial aid access under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

This is Mission

We got an early start Tuesday dissecting all things legal with former federal prosecutor and national treasure Glenn Kirschner, who holds online community chats every night to discuss the pressing legal developments of the day. “When you’re fighting for democracy, it’s not really a job. This is mission. You know, I got a lot of kids and grandkids and what are we going to leave them?” Kirschner said. “I just try to figure out like what is the most important legal development for people to understand? And that’s what I try to tackle.” And there are so many to choose from. We hit on the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” the great seashell caper, and the U.S. military’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. “When we suspect somebody is in international waters with drugs on the boat heading toward the United States, that’s why we have a Coast Guard,” Kirschner said. “We interdict them. We seize the evidence. We bring them into a court of law in the United States and we try to hold them accountable for any crimes they may have committed. We don’t murder them.” We also discuss the war in Iran (which is deeply personal to Kirschner's family), the untapped power of contempt in the courts, and the accountability mission Kirschner calls a non-negotiable.