Special announcement! This Friday at 12 PM EST I’ll be doing a Substack live with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas! We’ll be talking about Kansas City’s approach to crime reduction, how it can be replicated elsewhere, and my lingering saltiness over the Chiefs jumping over the Saints to draft Patrick Mahomes. Tune in for a great conversation!
And on today’s edition of the Jeff-alytics podcast…Most debates about crime policy are framed as a choice. You’re either tough on crime or you’re not. You focus on enforcement or prevention. And the answers tend to sound simple.
But once you move from talking about crime to actually trying to reduce it, things get more complicated, requiring nuanced solutions to complex problems.
My guest today is Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and a longtime policy advisor who has worked across multiple administrations, including serving as domestic policy advisor in the Biden White House.
In this episode, we talk about what crime policy looks like from inside that system, what we’ve learned from the last few years, and why approaches focused on accountability and prevention don’t have to be in conflict.
Neera Tanden is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and the CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Before leading American Progress, Tanden was the Domestic Policy Advisor to President Joe Biden and director of the Domestic Policy Council, overseeing some of the administration’s signature achievements, including its efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health insurance coverage. Previously, she was Senior Advisor and Staff Secretary in the White House.
Tanden helped found American Progress, first working as senior vice president for domestic policy and later as chief operating officer. She ran the organization from 2011 to 2021, adding 10 policy teams and growing the budget by two-thirds. Previously, she has served as senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, policy director for Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign, legislative director in then-Sen. Clinton’s (D-NY) office, and a senior policy adviser to the first lady in President Bill Clinton’s White House. Tanden received her Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her law degree from Yale Law School.
You can also catch it on the Jeff-alytics YouTube page where I’ll be posting episodes and video clips, so be sure to like and subscribe there if you’re so obliged!
And while you’re here, be sure to check out these other recent great episodes:
Senator Chris Murphy
Manhattan Institute Senior Editor Charles Fein Lehman
Civil rights attorney Jill Collin Jefferson
Law professor Rachel Harmon
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