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Australians are everywhere in the United States, but perhaps no one more so than Justin Wolfers. Turn on cable news and before long, you\u2019re sure to hear his familiar accent (undulled by nearly 30 years in the US) weighing in on Donald Trump\u2019s latest controversy.<\/p>\n
Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, is beloved by television networks \u2013 CNN and MS NOW anyway, not so much Fox News \u2013 for his digestible commentary, entertaining style and willingness to harshly criticise the president. In other words, he gives good quote.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople kept calling me back,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Australia thing has a very interesting resonance in the United States. People say I am more direct than others because that\u2019s Aussie directness, and maybe they\u2019re right. But a different answer is: I\u2019m at a point in my career where I don\u2019t give a shit, and I\u2019m not here to impress you. Or maybe both are true.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\u201cI](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/19b93bc6bcd3c041b105f0b404bd2d09d2e9cebd.jpeg\")
\u201cI do want to change the world,\u201d Australian professor Justin Wolfers says. \u201cThat\u2019s why anyone becomes an economist.\u201dRosem Morton\/The New York Times<\/p>\n
And so, the Harvard-educated professor is climbing down \u2013 or rather, jumping off \u2013 his ivory tower. Wolfers has started his own media company, Platypus Economics, that aims to bring economics to the masses, and reach them where they are: YouTube, Spotify, Instagram \u2013 anywhere but the stale old mainstream media.<\/p>\n
He knows how this might look to his colleagues in the academy. \u201cSaying as a 53-year-old full professor of economics, \u2018I\u2019m going to YouTube\u2019, is wildly populist, low status,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018What a wanker \u2013 not a real economist\u2019. But \u2026 I\u2019ve got a mission. I do want to change the world. That\u2019s why anyone becomes an economist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolfers is acutely aware of the changing economics of media. In the US \u2013 much more so than in Australia \u2013 he watched as podcasting ousted radio as the dominant audio medium. No longer do people need a radio tower and a broadcasting licence. Now, the most influential and important personalities have nothing to do with radio at all, and radio as a format is all but dead.<\/p>\n
Television, too, is \u201cgoing the way of the horse and buggy\u201d. Wolfers describes how, in the pre-pandemic days, he might fly to New York, be chauffeured from the airport to CNN\u2019s studio in Manhattan, record a five-minute segment and be put up in a nice hotel before flying home. That kind of largesse is becoming unthinkable as TV faces a reckoning over the streaming revolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith video, you can now get 90 per cent of the quality for 10 per cent of the price,\u201d Wolfers says. \u201cAnd either people have to really value that last thing that gets you from 90 to 100 per cent, or television as we currently understand it is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
He points to former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who left the \u201csnake pit\u201d of cable TV after clashing with Trump in the 2016 election campaign. Kelly later reinvented herself as a Trump-loving MAGA darling, amassing millions of subscribers and tens of millions of monthly views on YouTube and audio platforms. She now outperforms Fox itself.<\/p>\n
![\"Megyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7ea2e875630d8e499709f1c1b09187ce6edd0fd3.jpeg\")
Megyn Kelly commands a larger audience leveraging her own brand than when she was a host on Fox News.Bloomberg<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I read that, it blew my mind,\u201d Wolfers says. \u201cSo, Megyn Kelly doesn\u2019t need Fox. Now, Fox needs Megyn Kelly, but they can\u2019t get her. Right-wing pundits understood this, and ran into that space \u2026 Everyone from Megyn Kelly to Tucker Carlson to [Alex Jones\u2019] Infowars, to the full set of spivs and arseholes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of Wolfers\u2019 thinking in this new venture arose from a quandary about how to contribute to the public sphere in a world where Trump is back in the White House and the truth \u2013 including that of economics \u2013 seems to have less value than ever.<\/p>\n
It could have worked out differently. Wolfers\u2019 wife, Betsey Stevenson<\/a>, is herself a highly accomplished economist who served as chief economist at the Department of Labour under then-president Barack Obama and on his Council of Economic Advisers. A different election result on November 5, 2024, would have probably meant returning to Washington to work in a Democratic administration.<\/p>\n Instead, he is recording videos from his home in Ann Arbor, a short drive from Detroit, examining the impact of cuts to food stamps, or whether tariffs<\/a> are really bringing back manufacturing jobs (spoiler alert: no).<\/p>\n Related Article Other videos have Wolfers explain the economics of the Met Gala<\/a>, or engage in back-and-forth, pub-style chats with American economics journalist Stacey Vanek Smith.<\/p>\n One of the works he is most proud of is a video from May analysing the \u201ctrue\u201d cost of the war with Iran, based on oil price spikes, geopolitical risk and opportunity costs. He estimated the real price tag would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, at a point when the Pentagon said it had cost $US25 billion (that has since risen to $US37.5 billion).<\/p>\n Wolfers\u2019 videos are not yet doing Megyn Kelly numbers, but he has amassed 80,000 subscribers on YouTube and 26,000 on Substack since launching just over two months ago. On his video excitedly announcing the project, one subscriber commented: \u201cSteve Irwin has been reincarnated as an economist! It\u2019s a great idea, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolfers has also inked a partnership with Slate and signed a deal with the progressive new media company MeidasTouch.<\/p>\n![\"Wolfers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/03444cb8c8c697a4004400d08f5bf4c2a7be2475.jpeg\")
Wolfers and his economist wife Betsey Stevenson at the White House in 2023 for a state dinner with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and then-president Joe Biden.AP<\/p>\n![\"Justin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a18bebb6b39194bdb1eca3a0436b41ec2cb0b1c0.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Wolfers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cfbf5c4e706f10826c515c2a44001f75efbc5bed.jpeg\")
Wolfers at his home studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His new media company Platypus Economics launched in May.Rosem Morton\/The New York Times<\/p>\n
![\"EMBARGOED](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3757b79e7c0838d2f9682912a3793ff35404cf02.jpeg\")
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