Thomas Mann, Co-Author, “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks” and Brookings Institution Governance Studies Senior Fellow and Norman Ornstein, Co-Author, “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks” and American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar
Topic: The guests’ book -- “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism.” The book examines how policy-making in Washington has become dysfunctional because of adversarial partisan behavior; a system that makes it difficult for majorities to act; and a brand of ideological extremism in the Republican Party.
Chris Chocola, Club for Growth President
Topic: After the 2010 election, 87 freshmen Republicans affiliated with the Tea Party movement were elected to the House. A recent study from the Club for Growth’s Congressional Scorecard evaluates these representatives based on their votes and Tea Party principles (did they vote to cut spending, reduce the size of government, etc?)
Timothy Ferris, National Geographic Contributor
Topic: As part of our Spotlight on Magazine series, National Geographic’s Timothy Ferris joins us on Wednesday, May 23rd to discuss his story for National Geographic about the patterns and activity of the sun, whose behavior we “cannot predict…more than a few days ahead of time.” The article examines what the sun is made of and “the impact of space weather on the electrical grid”, including scenarios in which the entire grid could be wiped out, “sending hundreds of millions of people back to a pre-electric way of life for weeks or perhaps months on end.”