This week on The Nick Halaris Show we are featuring Erin Hughes, the co-founder and Executive Director of Solidarity Engineering, an organization dedicated to using engineering to protect the public health of communities in crisis. They got their start back in 2020 by providing clean water and sanitation facilities at asylum-seeker camps that formed as a result of the controversial Remain in Mexico policy. Now, they are providing humanitarian support at camps across the US-Mexico border and around the region. Their primary focus is on water, sanitation, and hygiene programs, but they also build playgrounds, provide STEAM education, and engage in data-driven advocacy.

I wanted to have Erin on the show to highlight her incredibly courageous story and get the perspective of someone who has actual on-the-ground experience at the border. The news coverage of the border situation seems so rife with hyperbole and untrustworthy information, I really wanted to talk to someone who is actually there and see what’s happening firsthand. I had high hopes for this conversation and it did not disappoint. Please tune in to this important episode to learn:

• How an award-winning This American Life podcast episode inspired Erin to drop everything, quit her job, and head down to Mexico to try to make a difference
• Why she spent the pandemic building water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure for some of the most vulnerable people in the world
• How the asylum system used to work, what’s happening now, why it’s so broken, and what we should do about it
• The surprising demographics of asylum seekers
• The terrible role that drug cartels play in the migration ecosystem and how they are using dangerous conditions along the way, like in the Darian Gap, to their advantage
• & Much, much more

Stay tuned to the end to hear why Erin believes that pressure from climate change, failed States, drug trafficking, and global conflict means that large-scale migration is here to stay.

As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode. Thanks for tuning in!

Love this episode? Please rate, subscribe, and review on your favorite podcast platform to help more users find our show. 🙏 Thank you

This week on The Nick Halaris Show we are featuring Robin Hanson, an economics professor at George Mason University, the author of several fascinating books and the popular “Overcoming Bias” newsletter, and a true maverick, polymath thinker. He has an incredible body of work and has studied and written about everything from AI and aliens to the psychology of bias and decision-making to how we can use betting markets to improve our society. As you’ll hear in the episode, he’s even envisioned provocative ideas on how we might reimagine the idea of money itself and has proposed alternative ways to conduct democracy in light of all that we’ve learned about human psychology.

I wanted to have Robin on the show to get some unique perspectives on how we can improve our complex, messy world. As I’ve gotten more into big political and policy issues this year on the show, I’ve become more convinced that we are in desperate need of some new ideas and maybe even some radical ones. As you’ll see in this episode, Robin is the perfect person for this. Not only is he a wide-ranging and very critical thinker, but also, he’s not afraid to upset the status quo, even if it means challenging the very core of our existing power structures. Tune in to this fascinating episode to learn:

• The fascinating relationship between the idea of the sacred, society, culture, and our institutions of power
• Robin’s provocative idea of Sacred Money and how it could work to improve the way we pursue endeavors that have meaning beyond the profit-motive of capitalism
• How we can use betting markets to improve both our ability to aggregate information and to make decisions
• Robin’s fascinating idea of Futarchy and why Robin thinks we might even be able to fix democracy itself by using voting on matters on values and betting markets to help us make the best decisions
• Why the rise of a global culture is potentially problematic for humanity
• & Much, much more

Stay tuned to the end to hear Robin’s thoughts on the foundational premise of this show and learn how he would use small-scale experimentation to fix America if given the power to do so.

As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode. Thanks for tuning in!

Love this episode? Please rate, subscribe, and review on your favorite podcast platform to help more users find our show. 🙏 Thank you

This week on The Nick Halaris Show we are featuring Katherine Schweit, a former FBI agent and one of the most influential gun violence advocates in the country. She conducted the first mass shooter study while at the FBI, is the founder and co-host of the Stop the Killing Podcast, and is the author of two really important books—“Stop the Killing” and “How to Talk About Guns With Anyone.” And she’s just getting started. With a Ted Talk coming soon and a forthcoming book aimed at helping parents navigate this difficult-to-discuss issue, Katherine is determined to make a difference. I walked away from this discussion feeling not only more knowledgeable about the issue but also more optimistic that this is something we can actually solve.

I wanted to have Katherine on the show to put a big spotlight on all the important work she’s doing and to get her take on what practical steps we might take to start solving this frightening, intractable crisis. As a father of two young boys, I’ve thought way more about gun violence than I care to admit. My heart shatters every time one of these incidents occurs and I find myself increasingly angry at our collective inaction on the issue. This is a policy area where we just have to do something. Please tune in to this critically important episode to learn:

• Why it’s so important to really understand the facts when discussing the gun violence problem in America
• Why, in a country like America where there are 400M guns in circulation and a long history of Constitutionally protected gun ownership, it’s better to focus on other solutions
• How a profound lack of funding in law enforcement and education is making the crisis worse
• How investments in things like mental health and anonymous reporting systems can make a big impact in preventing mass violence
• What the “run, hide, fight” framework is and why you should care about it
• & Much, much more

Stay tuned to the end to learn why Katherine believes it’s so important for you to speak up when you observe any disturbing behavior (in almost every case, shooters make mistakes and reveal their plans) and to learn what you should do to prepare yourself and your family for the potential of mass violence.

As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode. Thanks for tuning in!

Love this episode? Please rate, subscribe, and review on your favorite podcast platform to help more users find our show. 🙏 Thank you