Joshua A. Barro (born July 17, 1984) is an American journalist and creator of the newsletter and podcast Very Serious.[1] He previously hosted the weekly radio program Left, Right, & Center based at KCRW Los Angeles and served as a senior editor and columnist at Business Insider.[2][3]
In early 2013, he was a prominent supporter of a potential trillion-dollar coin,[11] but by late 2013, he had changed his mind.[12]
Time named Barro's Twitter feed one of "The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013", one of ten in the Politics category.[13] In 2012, Forbes selected him as one of the "30 Under 30" media "brightest stars under the age of 30",[7] and David Brooks listed him as part of the "vibrant and increasingly influential center-right conversation."[14] A former aide to Barack Obama included Barro on a short list of Obama's favorite columnists.[15]
In 2014, Barro left Business Insider to join The New York Times' "The Upshot."[5][16] In 2016, Barro was rehired by Business Insider as a senior editor.[17] In 2018, he again left Business Insider to become a business columnist at New York magazine.[18] In 2020, he announced that he was rejoining Business Insider as a columnist covering politics, business, and the economy.[19][20]
In early 2022, Barro left Business Insider and stepped down as host of Left, Right & Center to pursue his newsletter and podcast Very Serious.[21] He is a co-podcaster with Los Angeles lawyer Kenneth White,[22] a/k/a Popehat, in a podcast about litigation, "Serious Trouble."[23]
Early in his career, Barro described himself as Republican but was critical of many of the party's policies.[24] He also identified as a neoliberal.[25] Barro has spoken out strongly against traditional Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality, stating that they "linger and oppress" and must be "stamped out ruthlessly".[26][27]
After the 2012 United States elections, Barro became increasingly critical of the Republican Party and wrote that "the party's economic agenda, as embodied in the latest Ryan budget, is simply terrible for the vast majority of Americans."[4] Barro called Congressional Republicans "crazy and awful".[6] Reactions by other conservatives in the media led The Atlantic to name Barro "the loneliest Republican".[6]Ezra Klein said that, based on Barro's views, "He doesn't come across as much of a Republican."[28]
On October 11, 2016, following the Republican Party's nomination of Donald Trump for president, Barro said he had left the Republican Party and registered as a Democrat.[29][30] Barro cited as reasons for his decision the "fact-free environment so many of its voters live in, and because of the anti-Democrat hysteria that had been willfully whipped up by so many of its politicians," which created a "vulnerability in our democracy."[29]
Barro argues that progressives in the United States have what he calls a hamburger problem, by which he means they sanctimoniously scold the public about a host of inconsequential personal choices, such as eating ground beef burgers (it is unhealthy, harms animals, and contributes to global warming, among others). They have become in his words a movement of "moralizing busybodies", which harms their political appeal. He said: "All this scolding—this messaging that you should feel guilty about aspects of your life that you didn't think were anyone else's business—leads to a weird outcome when you go to vote in November."[31][32][33][34]
