Solving America's Problems
by Jerremy Alexander Newsome & Dave Conley
Latest episode
What Eight Episodes Taught Us About the Housing Crisis (Full)
What Eight Episodes Taught Us About the Housing Crisis (Full)
About this podcast
America's Opportunities: From Conversation to Candidacy.
Solving America's Problems is a weekly podcast that turns real conversations about America's toughest issues into a movement, so the best and brightest serve in government, not chase Wall Street or Silicon Valley. It's for anyone who wants a serious hour on the country's problems without a team jersey.
Hosted by Jerremy Alexander Newsome (co-host and candidate) and Dave Conley (co-host and producer). Guests include authors, academics, presidential advisors, activists, CEOs and everyday people with lived experience. Solving America's Problems is about everyone.
Topics: the economy and the Fed, housing and homelessness, education and school safety, immigration, AI and work, the national debt.
Jerremy is running for office. The movement comes first; the campaign follows. Party: undetermined. Self-funded. No sponsors. No party.
Start here: https://solvingamericasproblems.com
Episodes
The newest 50 of 295 episodes
- What Eight Episodes Taught Us About the Housing Crisis (Full) · 56 min · Episode 281Home prices have outrun paychecks for about two decades, and after eight episodes Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley still disagree on whether a regular earner can buy…
- Nobody Teaches You How Housing Works · 17 min · Episode 280Jerremy Alexander Newsome says the real barrier is that school teaches us to study, not to search. Dave Conley asks why people with the answer to anything in their pocket still…
- Wall Street Isn't Why Housing Costs So Much · 22 min · Episode 279The Wall Street villain fell apart in every interview: guests put Wall Street banks at around 3% of ownership, and the 50 largest owners combined hold under 11%. Jerremy…
- Can a Regular Paycheck Still Buy a Home? · 17 min · Episode 278Home prices have outrun income for about two decades, and Jerremy Alexander Newsome says nobody can dispute that prices left paychecks behind. Dave Conley still thinks a regular…
- Ben Allgeyer: What Families Facing Foreclosure Should Know (Full) · 52 min · Episode 277The typical first-time buyer is now 40 years old, and foreclosures are climbing again. Ben Allgeyer lost a million dollars in about 18 months and rebuilt by knocking on the doors…
- Most Real Estate Agents Don't Earn Their Commission · 15 min · Episode 276Institutional funds buy less than 5% of homes, but the belief that Wall Street buys everything still convinces young people they can't afford one. Ben Allgeyer says most real…
- Foreclosures Are Back, and Most Owners Have No Equity Left · 16 min · Episode 275People who bought in 2019 and 2020 are now in foreclosure with almost no equity, and many walk away with $5,000 to $20,000 at most. Ben Allgeyer explains the difference between a…
- He Lost $1 Million in 18 Months Flipping Houses · 21 min · Episode 274A real estate investor lost a million dollars in about 18 months, starting with a partner he brought on way too early. Ben Allgeyer tells Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave…
- Christopher Serkin: Why Zoning Reform Alone Won't Fix Housing (Full) · 1 h 8 min · Episode 273Nashville approved every one of roughly 200 rezoning requests over two years, added about 75,000 housing units in a decade, and is still net less dense than it was 25 years ago…
- Who Should Decide How Fast Your Neighborhood Changes? · 24 min · Episode 272For roughly the first 85 to 90 years of zoning, the left and right split on it. Now they agree it's the problem. Christopher Serkin says that convergence makes him nervous, and…
- Housing Can't Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment · 20 min · Episode 271Housing can't be both affordable and a good investment. Christopher Serkin says that tension is the lesson the country forgot after 2008, when so many recent buyers lost…
- Nashville Approved Every Rezoning Request. Prices Exploded Anyway · 26 min · Episode 270Nashville approved every one of roughly 200 rezoning requests over two years and added about 75,000 housing units in a decade, and it is still net less dense than it was 25 years…
- Gene Eidelman Is 3D-Printing America Out of a Housing Crisis (Full) · 1 h 10 min · Episode 269In 1976, homes under 1,400 square feet made up a third of new construction; by 2020, that number was 7%. Gene Eidelman sold $100 million in real estate within three years of…
- Houses Built After 2008 Survived Wildfires 80% of the Time · 27 min · Episode 268Homes built under California's 2008 fire code survived last year's wildfires 80% of the time; homes built before it were destroyed 80% of the time. Gene Eidelman breaks down the…
- Zoning Still Blocks the Affordable Homes America Needs · 18 min · Episode 267One Ohio city's zoning code outright bans manufactured homes in a low-income neighborhood — even for a project explicitly meant to be affordable. Gene Eidelman calls it a…
- Gene Eidelman Sold $100M in Real Estate, Then 3D-Printed Homes · 26 min · Episode 266In 1976, homes under 1,400 square feet made up a third of new construction; by 2020, that number had fallen to 7%. Gene Eidelman arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from the former…
- Austin Built 3x More Housing. Families Left Anyway. (Full) · 1 h 5 min · Episode 265Austin added new housing three times faster than the rest of the country for a decade — rents dropped below the national average, and young families left anyway, in numbers big…
- The City Quietly Beating San Francisco at Homelessness · 21 min · Episode 264Houston cut its homeless population by 60 to 70 percent over the past decade — while San Francisco spends roughly five times more per person for worse results. Ryan Puzycki says…
- The Housing Type America Banned — Then Got a Homelessness Crisis · 25 min · Episode 263America once had millions of single-room-occupancy units — the cheapest legal housing in the country — and cities spent decades tearing them down. Ryan Puzycki calls this lost…
- Austin Slashed Rents to Record Lows. Families Left Anyway. · 21 min · Episode 262Austin added new housing three times faster than the rest of the country for a decade, and rents fell below the national average. Young families left anyway — enough that…
- Inside the Housing Standoff Freezing 1.7 Million Sales (Full) · 1 h 5 min · Episode 261More than half of homeowners are locked into a rate under 4%, and an estimated 1.7 million home sales never happened because of it. Daniel Sosa has worked mortgages since 2007…
- The Exact Playbook For Turning a No Into a Yes · 23 min · Episode 260Dave Conley presses Daniel Sosa on exactly who gets rejected versus approved. Daniel says anybody can eventually qualify for a home — the real question is credit profile and…
- The 65% of Homeowners Who Will Never Sell · 21 min · Episode 259Jerremy Alexander Newsome challenges Daniel Sosa to steelman the case against his own industry: don't easier loans just inflate prices further? Daniel doesn't dodge it — he says…
- For the First Time Ever, Renting Beats Buying Here · 22 min · Episode 258More than half of homeowners are locked into a rate under 4%, and an estimated 1.7 million home sales never happened because of it. Daniel Sosa, a mortgage broker who started in…
- The House Always Wins: Inside America's Mortgage Machine (Full) · 1 h 2 min · Episode 257More than half of Americans with a mortgage are locked in under 4%, freezing nearly two million home sales. JD Cobb has spent two decades closing loans in Texas, and his advice…
- The 20% Down Myth That Keeps Renters Renting · 24 min · Episode 256There are twelve down payment assistance programs in Austin and Travis County alone, and JD Cobb says almost nobody asks. He names TSAC and TDHCA, which cover three to five…
- Starter Homes Vanished. Here's What Replaced Them · 22 min · Episode 255The average American buyer is now 38 years old — Dave Conley bought his first home in his twenties and had to borrow the down payment from friends. Dave and Jerremy Alexander…
- Why 2 Million Home Sales Are Frozen in Rate Lock-In · 18 min · Episode 254More than half of Americans with a mortgage are locked in under 4%, and that lock-in alone has frozen out nearly two million home sales. JD Cobb's answer sounds backwards: don't…
- Rethinking Rent: Ownership Through Community Care (Full) · 1 h 3 min · Episode 25322.6 million U.S. households now pay more for housing than they can afford, and the average home costs five times the average salary. Sam Froerer, who co-owns thousands of…
- Owning What You Rent — Policy, Tax, and the Lightning Round · 20 min · Episode 252A $100,000 investment can show $60,000 of paper losses in year one — a tax benefit ordinary renters never get access to. Sam Froerer tells Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave…
- Value-Add, Screening, and the Wealth Gap · 23 min · Episode 251Landlords call it "value-add," and raising rent $100 to $200 a month after new cabinets and a dog park is the same move the industry has run for decades. Sam Froerer calls his…
- Why Renting in America Is Broken · 22 min · Episode 25022.6 million U.S. households now pay more for housing than they can afford, and the average home costs five times what the average family makes. Sam Froerer co-owns thousands of…
- House Always Wins: How the American Dream Got Rigged (Full) · 58 min · Episode 249The top 400 richest families in America pay about 2% in taxes while everyone else pays 20 to 26%. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley kick off a new series on housing…
- The Investor Who Says Never Buy a House · 17 min · Episode 248Real estate investor Grant Cardone says never buy a home — rent instead, and put your money in the market. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley debate the case for renting…
- The Tax Code Is Secretly a Welfare Program — For Homeowners · 24 min · Episode 247The top 400 richest families in America pay about 2% in taxes — while everyone else pays 20 to 26%. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley dig into what surprised them most in…
- Boomers Own 70% of US Homes — Here's How That Happened · 18 min · Episode 246Baby boomers now own roughly 70% of American homes and property — and politicians are too scared to touch it. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley lay out the thesis for a…
- What Five UBI Episodes Actually Found (Full) · 55 min · Episode 245The best U.S. cash experiments still can't prove money durably improves health or child outcomes. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley spend five episodes chasing why…
- Dave Says the AI Bomb Already Went Off · 20 min · Episode 244Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley close the series on the loudest disagreement yet: has the AI revolution already hit, or is it still coming? Dave says he now runs this…
- UBI Got a Rebrand. The Data Still Said No. · 17 min · Episode 243The best U.S. cash experiments still can't prove giving people money durably improves health or child outcomes. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley pick up their UBI…
- Free Cash Isn't a Check. It's a Chain. · 19 min · Episode 242Free cash isn't a check — it's a chain, according to Ron Lynch, who argues handouts push society toward technocratic feudalism. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley open…
- Cash, Trust, and a New Social Contract (Full) · 59 min · Episode 241Recipients were two percentage points less likely to work — and critics called that proof people quit when you pay them. Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes ran the longest unconditional cash…
- If the Jobs Don't Come Back, Her Data Is All We've Got · 24 min · Episode 240Rhodes admits her study was never designed for a world where income decouples from labor — but it's the closest data anyone has for what's coming. People are stitching together…
- $1,000 a Month Won't Fix What's Actually Broken · 20 min · Episode 239People spent the money on housing, food, and their kids — every global cash study shows this, yet the stereotype persists. The financial wellbeing boost was strong in year one…
- What a Social Worker Sees That Economists Walk Past · 16 min · Episode 238Recipients were two percentage points less likely to work — and critics called that the whole story. Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes ran the longest three-year unconditional cash experiment…
- What If We Just Gave Everyone Money? (Full) · 1 h 8 min · Episode 237The biggest US cash experiment returned a big fat zero on measurable child outcomes. Dalton Conley tells Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave that poverty rewires the body at the…
- Would You Take the Check? The Answer Is Complicated · 25 min · Episode 236Dalton Conley tells Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave: yes, he'd take the UBI check — because you don't have a choice. A thousand dollars a month transforms life in rural…
- Why Dental Care Might Be the UBI Linchpin Nobody Sees · 22 min · Episode 235Nobody trusts the institutions that would run the check. Dalton Conley tells Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave a sovereign wealth fund modeled on Alaska's Permanent Fund —…
- The Biggest US Cash Study Came Back With Nothing · 23 min · Episode 234The largest US cash experiment returned a big fat zero on measurable child outcomes. Dalton Conley tells Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave the American dream only worked because…
- Robots, Free Housing, and the Death of Money — with Chris Remboldt (Full) · 1 h 10 min · Episode 233Forty percent of Americans are one paycheck from crisis — and Chris Remboldt says that's shareholder capitalism deliberately optimizing stock price over human welfare. Post-money…
- Superintelligence Is Already Here. The Robot Fleet Lands in Four Years. · 24 min · Episode 232Chris Remboldt says superintelligence is already here and a self-replicating Von Neumann robot fleet arrives in four years. He predicts AI companies will quietly replace broken…
