Red Tape
From good-paying jobs to TikTok and electric vehicles, Americans often find themselves in need of a real solution that fits the real world. But more often than not, bureaucratic red tape gets in their way. The problems might be more absurd and the answers far simpler than you’d think. Join co-hosts Kelli Pierce and Shoshana Weissmann as they speak with experts and dive deep into some of the biggest policy challenges facing Americans and learn how getting government out of the way is often the answer.
Red Tape is a new podcast from the R Street Institute and Pod People. Subscribe to Red Tape today on your favorite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeart or via RSS feed.
MEDIA Contact
For general media inquiries and to book our experts, please contact [email protected].
SPONSOR AN EPISODE
To sponsor an episode of this podcast, please contact William Gray, Communications Director at [email protected].
About the Hosts
Kelli Pierce is an award-winning journalist who manages R Street’s website as part of the communications team. When she’s not relaxing in Utah, she can be found chasing her toddler son and helping address the U.S. infant formula crisis. Follow Kelli on Twitter.
Shoshana Weissmann is R Street’s digital director. When she’s not tweeting memes at elected officials, she can be found researching and writing technology and occupational licensing policy as a fellow or hiking around the world for weeks at a time. Follow Shoshana on Twitter.
About the R Street Institute
The R Street Institute is a think tank for the modern age. We focus on deep scholarship and pragmatic policy solutions that many groups tend to neglect. Our goal is to publish timely, relevant research and analysis that advances a market-oriented society and limited, effective government. To that end, our motto is: “Free Markets. Real Solutions.” Learn more about R Street.
About Pod People
Pod People is a content and marketing studio for award-winning podcasts and social creative products. Red Tape is produced by the R Street Institute, in partnership with Pod People. Special thanks to the production teams at Pod People (producer Chris Jacobs and senior production manager Bryan Rivers) and R Street (executive producer Ann Phelan, with support from Alexa Cunniff and Addyson Garner). Album art by Ashley Blackwell. Learn more about Pod People.
Season 1
Episode 1 – “You’re not as free as you think”
Episode description: How free are we really? In the first episode of Red Tape from R Street, hosts Kelli Pierce and Shoshana Weissmann pull back the curtain on some of the ways that the government is getting in the way of your day-to-day freedom. Host Kelli Pierce first speaks with Jill Snider, a retired New York City Police Officer and R Street’s Policy Director for Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties, who talks about the consequences of cash bail and the punishment it inflicts on those unable to pay. Kelli also speaks with R Street’s Courtney Joslin about pharmacist-prescribed birth control as a way to improve access and reduce barriers to care. They discuss the significant ramifications birth control access can have on the lives and freedom of women across the country. (Full transcript here.)
Episode 2 – It Ain’t Easy Being Green
Episode description: Why is the government getting in the way of green energy initiatives? Join hosts Kelli Pierce and Shoshana Weissmann as they navigate some of the red tape that is slowing down clean energy projects. R Street’s Josiah Neeley speaks with host Kelli Pierce about the crucial role of our nation’s power grid in our pursuit of green energy goals. He talks about how wind and solar have become the cheaper options, why utilities are monopolies, the challenges this creates for our clean energy future, and finally why there aren’t more clean energy projects connected to the grid. Next up, R Street’s Philip Rossetti shares his thoughts on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and how it can delay clean energy projects by years-even decades. He also talks about the hard choices we have to make as we pursue a greener future. (Full transcript here.)