The Rational Middle

Mark Erlich, former union leader for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and now a Wertheim Fellow of Research on Misclassification and the Underground Economy at the Harvard Law School, d…

Ken Janda, Adjunct Professor in Healthcare Management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, discusses the challenges that we face as a country regarding uninsured Americans, th…

Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, assistant dean for civic engagement and a lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, shares the history of the undocumented and thei…

Iliana Perez, Director of Research & Entrepreneurship at Immigrants Rising, shares her thoughts on the DACA Supreme Court decision, her personal story as a Dreamer, and how that has driven her work i…

Tom Jawetz, Vice President of Immigration Policy at Center for American Progress, speaks on his experience with getting legislation across the finish line and what it takes to build bipartisan bills …

This special edition of the Rational Middle podcast was recorded this morning as the decision on DACA was handed down by the Supreme Court. Charles Foster is Chairman at Foster, LLP, one of the large…

Steven Scarborough, Strategic Initiatives Manager at Center for Houston’s Future, discusses the latest research on the impact on immigrants working on all levels of healthcare to fight against the co…

Tony Payan & Pamela Lizette Cruz of the James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University discuss ways to solve the challenges associated with the undocumented population through the…

Pat Kiley, a founding principal of Kiley Advisors LLC, a consulting firm that advises CEO’s and Senior Executives on matters of Leadership and Strategy, talks with host Loren Steffy about the history…

Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, explains the challenges of attaining bipartisan change in Washington, D.C. on issues, includin…

Jorge Lima, Senior VP of Policy at Americans for Prosperity shares a vision for immigration in America which turns the narrative of the conservative approach to immigration reform on its head.

Daniel Okrent, the first public editor of The New York Times newspaper and an writer, discusses the inspiration for and resulting research of his book "The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law…

National Immigration Forum executive director Ali Noorani sits down with host Chris Lyon to discuss how the administration has changed the implementation of the asylum system to make it harder to mak…

Wendy Cervantes is director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy where she works to develop and advocate for policies that support low-income immigrants and t…

Andrew Lim, Director of Quantitative Research at New American Economy, shares data with host Loren Steffy about how immigrant workers — both documented and undocumented — are on the front lines of th…

Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics at George Mason University and New York Times Bestselling author of the book Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration speaks with host Loren Steffy abo…

Jim Baron is a 25-year veteran of the restaurant industry and CEO of Mesa SW Restaurants based in Dallas. He is a member of the Texans for Economic Growth Coalition which is committed to promoting co…

Chelsie is an organizer and coalition builder for New American Economy, which mobilizes and engages business leaders and community leaders on immigration issues through the lens of the positive econo…

Host Loren Steffy and Stephen Klineberg, founding director of The Kinder Institute for Urban Research, explore the changing demographic trends in Houston and what America can learn from the challenge…

Chief Acevedo is well known for being outspoken about his opinions on a number of topics. Today, Rational Middle host Loren Steffy sits down with him to discuss his opinions on how undocumented immig…