Artwork for podcast Solving America's Problems
What If We Just Gave Everyone Money? (Full)
Episode 23718th June 2026 • Solving America's Problems • Jerremy Alexander Newsome & Dave Conley
00:00:00 01:08:56

Share Episode

Shownotes

The 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 DNA level, but cash alone can't undo it. The 1960s negative income tax kept people unemployed longer and increased divorce. AI leaders dropped the jobs apocalypse once it scared people. Alaska's Permanent Fund is the closest thing America has to UBI — bigger checks mean more dentist visits. Conley's lab now uses epigenetic age clocks to measure whether any of this actually moves the needle.

  • (00:00) One missed paycheck – one in three Americans can't survive it
  • (01:11) The 1950s dream – only worked because WWII destroyed the competition
  • (06:11) The biggest cash study – years of brain scans returned zero results
  • (09:28) 1960s UBI test – more unemployment, more divorce than before
  • (11:48) AI leaders pushed UBI – then quietly walked the jobs apocalypse back
  • (12:51) Kennedy's 1963 commission – what do we do when work disappears?
  • (15:38) Why UBI can't pass – eleven percent controls the Senate
  • (22:52) Nobody trusts the system – who actually runs the check?
  • (28:31) Alaska's Permanent Fund – the closest thing America has to UBI
  • (28:54) Bigger checks, more dentist visits – the data nobody's using
  • (31:53) Same house, opposite outcomes – inequality lives inside families
  • (41:58) Ten thousand school boards – zero national health standards
  • (44:35) Would you take the check? – a Princeton professor says yes
  • (49:27) Social Security is untouchable – UBI needs that same armor to survive
  • (54:16) Lightning round – they don't get lazy, they get free

🌍 Connect with us: Instagram | YouTube | X

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube