It's budget season in state legislatures, and we sat down with two experts on state budgets to discuss the key steps in the budgeting process, revenue estimates and the overall state of state budgets going into the new fiscal year.

Two legislators join the podcast to discuss why they sponsored legislation to abolish fees and fines for juveniles in the court system, and why those changes were needed.

Two experts on the nation’s drug overdose crisis join the podcast to discuss how state and federal governments are tackling the problem that has led to more than 110,000 deaths in the 12-month period that ended last September. The vast majority of those deaths, near 80%, involved fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

State legislatures in blue and red states are taking up measures to protect children on social media, especially because Congress has been unable to agree on solutions and the evidence of harm to young users continues to mount. It's a complicated problem and most of the states' laws are being challenged in court by a trade association and other groups who believe they are unconstitutional.

Part of modernizing the nation’s electric grid involves adding long-distance transmission lines. On this episode, we talk with Melissa Birchard, a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Energy, who explained the need for new transmission lines to bring renewable energy from remote areas of the country to the cities and towns where it’s needed.

Don Kettl, an expert on federalism, joined the podcast to discuss the current state of power sharing between the state and federal governments, why he sees states increasingly at the center of domestic policymaking, and how he expects the balance of federalism to shift in the coming decades.

Texas Senator Judith Zaffirini has broken state records by a long shot. She has cast more than 72-thousand consecutive votes. She has had a perfect attendance record—except that one time she skipped on purpose to make a point. She has passed 1,388 bills—more than any other legislator in Texas history. All with bipartisan support—no matter who was in the majority. After becoming the first Hispanic woman elected to the Senate in 1986, the Democrat will become Dean of the Senate as the most senior member this session.

Our two guests on this episode—Ethan Pollack of Jobs for the Future and Andrew Smalley of NCSL—discuss how a set of innovative financial tools are helping students pay for college and other post-secondary education, and the role legislatures can play in facilitating those efforts.

Tim Storey, NCSL’s CEO, joined the podcast to discuss the year ahead in legislatures and what we can expect in policy and politics in 2024. He noted that budgets remain in good shape and he expects technology, especially artificial intelligence, to be high on the priority list for legislatures. Other key issues will be housing, the workforce and the fentanyl overdose crisis.

NCSL elections expert Ben Williams joins the podcast to discuss primaries just in time for the start of the 2024 contests. Williams explained the different approaches states take to the primary system and some of the election history that brought us to this system we now use.