In the new episode of our weekly podcast Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by New York Times global economics correspondent Peter S. Goodman to explore why President Biden and the Democrats chose to side with railroad barons by forcing rail workers to accept a contract they had already rejected. They also dig into why the rail workers’ demand for additional paid sick days became such a sticking point in negotiations, and what a potential rail strike could mean for the U.S. economy (6:24).

In addition, The Lever’s Julia Rock sits down with journalist and filmmaker Blake Zeff to discuss his new documentary Loan Wolves, which details the history of America’s student debt crisis, which politicians are to blame, and how student debt has impacted Americans across the country (30:24).

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Click here for a rough transcript of the episode.

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BONUS: On this week's Lever Time Premium, our extended weekly podcast for supporting subscribers, The Lever’s Joel Warner interviews journalist and author Joel Stein about his recent book In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book — a humorous and self-deprecating defense of intellectual elitism and why it might actually be worth preserving.

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