Coming Soon: Ones and Tooze, with Adam Tooze

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: This transcript is a launch promo for Foreign Policy’s new weekly economics podcast, Ones and Twos, hosted by Cameron Abatti with Adam Tooze. It positions the show as accessible, broad-ranging, and highly contextual, promising to explain major economic issues through data points, from climate policy and global trade to pandemic poverty and U.S. life expectancy trends.

Main Topics: Podcast launch and format (Priority: 5/5): Introduction of Ones and Twos as Foreign Policy’s weekly economic show, built around unpacking a few data points each episode with context and accessibility. Adam Tooze’s expertise (Priority: 5/5): Tooze is presented as an economic historian and broad thinker who can connect industry, climate policy, and social outcomes to economic data. Economics beyond headlines (Priority: 4/5): The show will cover both current news numbers and long-term structural trends, suggesting a wide lens on economics and society. Climate economics and policy (Priority: 4/5): The transcript references cap-and-trade and the need to make emissions costly, using the European system as an example of a failed first iteration. COVID-era poverty and shutdown effects (Priority: 4/5): A specific statistic on increased poverty during the 2020 COVID crisis is cited as an example of the show’s data-driven approach. U.S. life expectancy decline relative to peers (Priority: 4/5): The host highlights stagnation in U.S. life expectancy versus Japan to underscore a broader social and public health scandal.

Key Arguments: Economics podcasts can be engaging when they connect numbers to lived reality and major policy questions. Adam Tooze’s expertise spans industrial operations, trade, climate policy, and pandemic-era economics, making him well suited for cross-cutting analysis. Carbon emissions must be priced or penalized for cap-and-trade to work effectively. The European cap-and-trade system initially failed in practice, showing that policy design matters as much as policy intent. COVID produced a historically unprecedented rise in U.S. poverty, illustrating the crisis’s economic severity. U.S. life expectancy has lagged badly behind peer countries, signaling deeper structural problems in American society. The show aims to make listeners “smarter around your friends” by translating data into clear context.

Data Points: U.S. poverty increase during COVID crisis: 2.4% - Cited as a historically unprecedented increase in poverty in the United States in 2020. U.S. life expectancy in 1965: about 70 years - Used as a baseline for comparing long-run health outcomes. Japan life expectancy in 1965: similar to the U.S. - Shows the two countries were roughly aligned at that point. U.S. life expectancy by 2018: 78.5 years - Presented as the U.S. level in the more recent period. Japan life expectancy by 2018: 84 years - Illustrates the widening gap between Japan and the U.S.

Pivotal Quotes: "“That is the historically unprecedented increase in poverty in the United States over the course of the COVID crisis in 2020.”" — Adam Toos: Explaining the meaning of the 2.4% poverty figure during the pandemic. "“The story of American life expectancy in the last decades is a scandal, frankly.”" — Cameron Abatti: Introducing a long-term social indicator to illustrate deeper U.S. problems. "“You do have to cause people to pay for emissions.”" — Adam Toos: Summarizing the rationale behind carbon pricing and cap-and-trade policy.

Implications: Listeners can expect an economics show that is accessible but substantive, using data to clarify policy, inequality, climate, and long-term social trends. It signals a broad, explanatory approach to understanding current events and structural change.