Podcast appearances and mentions of matt yglesias

We were delighted to have the chance to speak with Adam Szetela about his new book, That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing. Adam shares what he learned from authors, agents, and editors about the effects of cancel culture in the publishing industry. His behind-the-scenes account is fascinating and sobering in equal measure.Show Notes* For more info on Adam Szetela, check out his website * Here is the official MIT Press link to Adam's book * The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie audio clips come from her 2022 Reith Lecture on Free Speech (listen here; read the transcript here)* Matt Yglesias coined the term “The Great Awokening” in this 2019 Vox essay* “a rapid change in discourse and norms around social justice issues”: That's a quote from Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, one of the nation's foremost chroniclers of “The Great Awokening”* see Musa's 2024 book We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite * here are two Banished episodes featuring Musa: You Can't Be an Egalitarian Social Climber & Who Speaks the Language of Social Justice?* The Harper's Letter* Michael Hobbes, “Don't Fall for the ‘Cancel Culture Scam,'” HuffPo, July 10, 2020* This 2019 Zadie Smith essay from the New York Review of Books is the definitive rejoinder to the cultural critics who insist that we “should write only about people who are fundamentally ‘like us': racially, sexually, genetically, nationally, politically, personally”* On the controversy surrounding Amélie Wen Zhao's Blood Heir, see Alexandra Alter, “She Pulled Her Debut Book When Critics Found It Racist. Now She Plans to Publish,” New York Times, April 29, 2019* On the cancelation of Kosoko Jackson's book, A Place for Wolves, see Jennifer Senior, “Teen Fiction and the Perils of Cancel Culture,” New York Times, March 8, 2019* On the cancelation of a romance novel based on “criticism from readers over dialogue that some found racist or that praised Elon Musk,” see Alexandra Alter, “A Publisher Pulled a Romance Novel After Criticism From Early Readers,” New York Times, March 5, 2025* On the demographics of the people who work in the publishing industry, with an emphasis on racial diversity, see this 2022 report from Pen America, “Reading Between the Lines”* For more on literature and the culture wars, see Deborah Appleman's incisive 2022 book, Literature and the New Culture Wars: Triggers, Cancel Culture, and the Teacher's Dilemma * On the perils of teaching literature from a narrow social justice lens, see “Poverty of the Imagination,” an essay we wrote a few years back in Arc Digital* On what we keep getting wrong about the cancel culture debate, see this September 26, 2025 Banished post This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit banished.substack.com/subscribe

The abundance agenda claims to offer a new path, one centered on housing, energy, and expanded state capacity. But are advocates of abundance offering a genuine political shift? Or are they just repackaging neoliberalism for the Trump era?At the Abundance 2025 Conference, Oren debated Matt Yglesias, editor of Slow Boring, in a session moderated by Marshall Kosloff, host of The Realignment. During the debate, Yglesias framed abundance as a renewal of liberalism, centered on rebuilding capacity in areas long neglected by former generations of liberals. Oren pushed back, arguing that adding a new gloss on a political agenda that can be reduced to mere consumption is no different than a return to the stale establishment consensus that Americans have rejected since 2016.

In this episode of Econ 102, we're republishing a conversation between Noah Smith and Derek Thompson. They explore Derek's shift from The Atlantic to Substack and unpack the “abundance agenda” — a vision for revitalizing American politics through better housing, energy, and innovation policy. Their wide-ranging conversation touches on economic reform, trendspotting, and the evolving media landscape. – SPONSORS: NetSuite More than 42,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://netsuite.com/102⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Shopify Shopify is the world's leading e-commerce platform, offering a market-leading checkout system Shoppay and exclusive AI apps. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial at ⁠⁠⁠https://shopify.com/momentofzen⁠⁠⁠. AdQuick The easiest way to book out-of-home ads (like billboards, vehicle wraps, and airport displays) the same way you would order an Uber. Ready to get your brand the attention it deserves? Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://adquick.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ today to start reaching your customers in the real world. – SEND US YOUR Q's FOR NOAH TO ANSWER ON AIR: Econ102@Turpentine.co – FOLLOW ON X: @noahpinion @DKThomp @eriktorenberg @turpentinemedia – RECOMMENDED IN THIS EPISODE: Derek Thompson Substack: https://www.derekthompson.org/ Abundance: https://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Progress-Takes-Ezra-Klein/dp/1668023482 Paul Krugman: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/ Noahpinion: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.noahpinion.blog/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ – TAKEAWAYS: Derek's Move to Substack: Derek left The Atlantic after 17 years to join Substack, driven by "party wanderlust" - seeing the vibrant community of writers like Noah, Matt Yglesias, and others. Art of Trend Spotting: Noah praises Derek's unique ability to identify major trends before others, noting he's "earlier to spot new and important trends than any other blogger or writer." Derek reveals his method involves paying attention to that inner voice asking "what the fuck is that?" about everyday observations - essentially being like "observational humor but not necessarily humorous." Abundance Agenda's Impact: The conversation reveals how the abundance movement has gained significant traction, with Derek noting that partnering with Ezra Klein was strategic since Klein has unique influence within Democratic circles. They discuss "Ezra Klein Derangement Syndrome" - how Klein's prominence makes him both influential and a target. Need to attack MAGA degrowth ideology: Abundance advocates should more aggressively counter Trump's "scarcity mindset" that responds to every shortage with deprivation rather than increased production. Federal housing incentives: Race-to-the-top style funding to reward localities for pro-housing policies.

President Trump's “big, beautiful bill” is a bad piece of legislation. It includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts that are very much tilted toward the rich, along with savage cuts to Medicaid, nutrition assistance and green energy.And on Tuesday, July 1, the Senate passed it in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance as the tiebreaker.But bad policy only matters if people know about it, and a lot of people don't — partly because there are an overwhelming number of provisions, and partly because the Trump administration is already flooding the zone with so many other major policy fights.So I asked Matt Yglesias, the author of the Slow Boring newsletter, back on the show to go through what is in this bill and why it has been so hard to build momentum for pushback. We spoke on Thursday, June 26.Mentioned:“A List of Nearly Everything in the Senate G.O.P. Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save” by Alicia Parlapiano, Margot Sanger-Katz, Aatish Bhatia and Josh KatzThe System by David S. Broder and Haynes JohnsonThe Ten Year War by Jonathan CohnBook recommendations:Proto by Laura SpinneyWuthering Heights by Emily BronteThe Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul StarrThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.htmlThis episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick and Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Kelsey Kudak. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Michelle Harris, Elias Isquith, Marina King, Jan Kobal, and Kristin Lin. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Economist Allison Schraeger and Slow Boring's Matt Yglesias join Mike to discuss the unrest in Los Angeles — and how to protest without giving Donald Trump a win. Then, the trio surveys the NYC mayoral mess — or, if not a mess, whatever government-run grocery stores are. Plus, the Big Beautiful Bill is only one of those things, and it's the worse one. Goat Grinders: summer smells, promiscuous earbuds, and that final month of school when they stop even pretending to educate the children. Produced by Corey WaraProduction Coordinator Ashley KhanEmail us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com⁠⁠⁠⁠To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠ad-sales@libsyn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Instagram Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠GIST INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow The Gist List at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Pesca⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Washington Governor Jay Inslee argues Democrats can win on climate—if they frame it as jobs, savings, and health, not just apocalypse. He points to his state's 62–38 vote preserving ambitious emissions policy, even in red counties, as proof voters can be persuaded. But national polls rank climate near the bottom of priorities, and skeptics like Matt Yglesias say the green agenda may be driving voters away. Plus: it has become ordinary to label events extraordinary—plus the Spiel sorts hype from heat in L.A.'s latest explosion of ICE raids, flash-bangs and freeway fires. Produced by Corey WaraProduction Coordinator Ashley KhanEmail us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com⁠⁠⁠⁠To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠ad-sales@libsyn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Instagram Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠GIST INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow The Gist List at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Pesca⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump's and Musk's very public breakup may be amusing, but don't lose sight of the fact that DOGE was a failure—despite what the manosphere says. Elon's ego trip found no fraud and cut only a minor amount of spending. But those cuts are meaningfully hurting the global poor as well as scientific research at home. And now, Republicans are trying the same kind of DOGE sleight of hand on their spending bill, largely under the radar. Meanwhile, Megan McCain is getting in on the snake-oil gravy train, and the Epstein conspiracists may have it backwards. Plus, a deep dive into how Dems can win red states, fight the culture wars, and show how they're looking out for the little guy.  Matt Yglesias joins Tim Miller. show notes Action for Andry: Protest at SCOTUS at 5pm Friday, followed by Free Andry live show Matt on the failure of DOGE Lauren on the Dems weighing a high-risk plan to win the Senate Matt's piece from April on the Dem plan to win the Senate Matt's Daddy blog piece

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast This abundance panel -- which been weeks in the making -- is well-timed: A new poll shows that voters prefer populist messaging to "abundance" messaging by a significant margin, throwing advocates of Abundance, a new book by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson, into a tizzy. So what is "Abundance" anyway, & why has Left Twitter been so antagonistic to the ideology? Are pro-Abundance advocates like Klein, Thompson, and Matt Yglesias right when they say the left's critiques are only vibe-based, or is the left raising legitimate concerns about a corporate-backed, astro-turfed campaign intended to syphon off genuine populist anger? We've assembled the authors of three of the best abundance-critical op-eds to discuss: economist Isabella Weber, legal director at Open Markets Institute Sandeep Vaheesan, and former Rhode Island State Rep. Aaron Regunberg. It's the most comprehensive and specific explanation of why the left should reject the "abundance" framing you're likely to hear. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

This week, we're republishing a conversation Noah Smith and Matt Yglesias hosted live on Substack this past Monday. They revisit a wide-ranging conversation on the transformative role of electric motors, batteries, and industrial policy in a politically polarized era, touching on the history of energy, global economic competition, AI regulation, the Inflation Reduction Act, Democratic strategy, and the need to redefine America's identity amid demographic shifts. – SPONSORS: NetSuite More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://netsuite.com/102⁠⁠⁠⁠ AdQuick The easiest way to book out-of-home ads (like billboards, vehicle wraps, and airport displays) the same way you would order an Uber. Ready to get your brand the attention it deserves? Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://adquick.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ today to start reaching your customers in the real world. – SEND US YOUR Q's FOR NOAH TO ANSWER ON AIR: Econ102@Turpentine.co – FOLLOW ON X: @noahpinion @mattyglesias @eriktorenberg @turpentinemedia – RECOMMENDED IN THIS EPISODE: Noahpinion: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.noahpinion.blog/⁠⁠⁠⁠  Slow Boring: https://www.slowboring.com/podcast – TAKEAWAYS: America's Strategic Blindness: The US had momentum with the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which Noah calls "great industrial policy" that was working. However, because it was framed primarily as climate policy rather than technological/economic competition, Republicans killed it for culture war reasons, failing to understand its strategic importance. The Climate Framing Problem: Matt was prescient in warning that framing industrial policy purely through climate would create Republican backlash. Noah admits Matt was right - while climate messaging helped pass the IRA initially, it made the policies vulnerable to being seen as "just some climate thing" rather than crucial economic policy. The Obama Era Split: They trace how the 2000s gave their generation the "peace and love" progressive agenda (gay marriage, ending Iraq War), while the 2010s brought the "angry leftist" phase (riots, racial grievance politics) - unlike boomers who got both simultaneously. Missing the Bush Playbook: During Bush's cascading failures (Iraq, Katrina, financial crisis), Democrats effectively built a broad coalition and defined clear opposition. Today, despite Trump's obvious failures (tariffs, debt, vaccine skepticism), Democrats aren't capitalizing similarly. Narrow Target Strategy: Like successful campaigns in Australia, Democrats need to edit down their message to core critiques of Republican governance rather than trying to advance every progressive priority simultaneously. Big Tent Revival: The party succeeded in 2006-2008 by recruiting diverse candidates and standing behind pro-gun, even some pro-life Democrats to clarify what the core message was versus peripheral issues.

Dive into the chaotic world of right-wing media with Matt Lewis and Will Sommer, senior reporter at The Bulwark, author of the 'False Flag' newsletter, and author of the book, 'Trust the Plan.'In this explosive podcast, they unpack:-- Semaphore's exposé on secret right-wing Signal chats, revealing how tech billionaires like Mark Andreessen and media stars like Tucker Carlson shape online narratives.-- Tucker Carlson vs. Megyn Kelly: A heated clash over Pete Hegseth's Pentagon purge and competing MAGA narratives.-- Joe Rogan's controversial guests: From 9/11 truthers to WWII revisionists, why Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray are calling out Rogan's “reckless” platform.-- Trump's war on the press: The chilling resignation of 60 Minutes' executive producer amid CBS's capitulation to Trump's lawsuits.-- Elon Musk vs. Steve Bannon: Inside the ideological and personal battles defining the MAGA movement's future.-- Dan Bongino's 'Streisand Effect': How the deputy FBI director's tweets backfired, spotlighting his FBI sparring mishap.* Note: During the conversation, Will said Matt Yglesias was in the Marc Andressen group chat, While Matt's name is mentioned in the story, it doesn't say he was in the chats. #RightWingMedia #Maga #TuckerCarlson #MegynKelly #JoeRogan #Trump #WillSommer #MattLewis #TheBulwark #PoliticalPodcastSupport "Matt Lewis & The News" at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattlewisFollow Matt Lewis & Cut Through the Noise:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattLewisDCTwitter: https://twitter.com/mattklewisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattklewis/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVhSMpjOzydlnxm5TDcYn0A– Who is Matt Lewis? –Matt K. Lewis is a political commentator and the author of Filthy Rich Politicians.Buy Matt's book: https://www.amazon.com/Filthy-Rich-Politicians-Creatures-Ruling-Class/dp/1546004416Copyright © 2024, BBL & BWL, LLC

Interview with Matt Yglesias about reading classic novels, like Middlemarch, and some discussion of his favourite movies. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Screenwriter Josh Olson returns to Bad Faith with Champagne Sharks host Trevor Beaulieu to preview their new culture podcast The White Canon, in which they break down movies that are near-universally loved among white viewers but relatively unknown among Black ones. The duo then get into a deep dive into the latest press from Matt Yglesias and the Democratic machine rationalizing their failure to learn a single lesson about anything. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

We're back! And this time, we're starting a holy war. Duncan launched an amazing paper on solar (wow, total sleight of hand! Don't you mean GAS BACKUP?) microgrids for data centers with Stripe's climate team and other DERTF OGs like Kyle Baranko, and some big names on Twitter lost their s**t.Tune in to hear about the churches of Matt Yglesias, Mark Z Jacobson, and Alex Epstein, who our maud'dib is, how heat DERvos was, what ‘25 is all about, and so much more! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dertaskforce.com/subscribe

The origins of the Democratic party's current malaise include ineffective messaging on climate and economic policy, too rigid a tent on cultural issues, and Dem politicians just too scared to speak their mind. Like, Kamala could've turned the trans youth in sports convo into one about parents spending boatloads on sports camps so their kids can get into a good college. Plus, Christopher Wray chose the worst option. Matt Yglesias and Tyler Austin Harper join Tim Miller to hash it out. show notes: Tyler's new piece in The Atlantic Matt's "Common Sense Manifesto #4" from Slow Boring Ben Wittes piece in Lawfare on Chris Wray Book recommended by Tyler, "The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America"

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Current Affairs editor-in-chief and co-author with Noam Chomsky of new book The Myth of American Idealism Nathan J. Robinson returns to Bad Faith to discuss his latest takedown piece -- this time of Slow Boring centrist writer Matthew Yglesias. But first, Nathan addresses taking heat for his take on health insurance CEO Brian Thompson's assassination, & Brie makes Nathan do unpaid labor as her therapist. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Over the last four years, President Biden implemented the most ambitious climate agenda in U.S. history. President-elect Trump and his fellow Republicans have pledged to undo the Biden climate agenda when they take control of the House, Senate, and White House in January. This week, Joseph and Quill discuss what the 2024 election taught us about the politics of climate change and the future of climate policy with Matt Yglesias, author of the Slow Boring newsletter.

With fewer than 50 days until Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump spent the long holiday weekend inviting more people to join his administration. But for Democrats, the conversation is still very much backward looking, as the party litigates why it lost the 2024 election despite delivering on a lot of its promises from four years ago. Matt Yglesias, who writes the Substack newsletter ‘Slow Boring,' explains why ‘deliverism' didn't deliver for Democrats in 2024.And in headlines: President Biden pardoned his son Hunter, a new drug to seek authorization to fight the AIDS epidemic, and The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees suspended deliveries into Gaza through a key crossing.Show Notes:Check out Matt's Substack – https://www.slowboring.com/Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

My favorite sort of social phenomenon is something that seems normal to modern eyes that is actually incredibly unusual. We take it for granted that every presidential election is a nail-biter these days. But this era of close elections is deeply strange. We used to have blowouts all the time. In 1964, 1972, and 1984, LBJ, Nixon, and Reagan, respectively, won by more than 15 points. This never happens anymore. Since the hanging-ballot mess of 2000, we've had historically close contests again and again: in 2004, 2012, 2016, and 2020. This year seems almost certain to continue the trend. National polls have almost never been this tight in the closing days of a presidential contest. In an era of shifting coalitions and weak parties, why is every modern presidential election so close? Today's guest is Matt Yglesias, the author of the ‘Slow Boring' newsletter, and a return guest on this show. We talk about how the era of close elections has, importantly, coincided with an era of racial realignment. We propose several theories for why every election is a nail-biter in the 21st century. And we explain why “it's the internet, stupid” doesn't work to explain this particular trend. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Matthew Yglesias Producer: Devon Baroldi LINKS: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-era-of-close-elections https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-electorate-is-becoming-less-racially Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last week, climate activists disrupted a climate event because one of the speakers, Matt Yglesias, is supportive of fracking for natural gas. Matt joins the New Liberal podcast to discuss why he thinks fracking is a necessary part of our energy policy, what climate protestors get wrong in their approach to politics, and what a more effective form of climate activism would look like.  Read more: https://www.slowboring.com/p/harris-is-right-on-the-merits-about https://www.infinitescroll.us/p/activism-is-not-a-social-club To get bonus episodes, support us at patreon.com/newliberalpodcast or https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member Got questions? Send us a note at mailbag@cnliberalism.org. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/CNLiberalism https://cnliberalism.org/   Join a local chapter at https://cnliberalism.org/become-a-member/  

Subscribe to The Realignment to access our exclusive Q&A episodes and support the show: https://realignment.supercast.com/REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/PURCHASE BOOKS AT OUR BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail Us: realignmentpod@gmail.comThis episode's focus on the (lack of) effectiveness of radical climate activism was perfectly timed. Right after Marshall recorded the intro, activists from Climate Defiance stormed the stage of the Abundance 2024 conference he's MCing in DC. They interrupted Matt Yglesias's interview with The Atlantic's Derek Thompson on the "Abundance Agenda" because of Matt's support for fracking. Today's guest is Foreign Policy's Cameron Abadi, author of Climate Radicals: Why Our Environmental Politics Isn't Working. Marshall and Cameron discuss why doom-centric radical activism isn't advancing the environmental policy agenda in Europe, the state of climate politics in the U.S., and the broader debate over whether it is best to work outside or within the system to enact change.

"Calls for Transforming Police Run Into Realities of Governing in Minnesota," cautioned The New York Times in 2020. "Democrats Face Pressure on Crime From a New Front: Their Base," claimed the paper of record again, in 2022. "How Biden's recent actions on immigration could address a major issue voters have with him," announced PBS NewsHour, republishing the Associated Press, in 2024. There's a common ethos in Democratic politics: Do what's popular. In recent years, a certain class of political pundits and consultants have been championing so-called “popularism,” the principle that political candidates should emphasize the issues that poll well, in everything from healthcare to labor, policing to foreign policy––and deemphasize, or sometimes outright ignore, the ones that don't. It seems reasonable and democratic for elected officials to pay close attention to the will of the public–and, in many cases, it is. But it's not always this simple. Far too often, the leading proponents of popularism, chief among them Matt Yglesias and David Shor, only apply the concept when it suits a conservative agenda, ignoring, for example, that 74% of American voters suppor​t “increasing funding for child care,” 72% of Americans want to expand Social Security 71% of Americans support government funded universal pre-K. 69% of Americans support Medicare for All and so on and so on. More often than not, leftwing agenda items that poll very well are never mentioned meanwhile that which polls well AND aligns with the interests of Wall Street and other monied interests, we are told is of utmost urgent priority. It's a phenomenon we're calling on this show Selective Popularism, the selective use of polling and generic notions of popularity to push already existing rightwing and centrist agendas without needing to do the messy work of ideologically defending them. On this episode, we look at the development and implementation of Selective Popularism, exploring how this convenient political pseudo-analysis launders the advocacy and enactment of reactionary policy as a mere reflection of what the "people" demand. Our guest is journalist, writer and host of Jacobin's The Dig podcast, Daniel Denvir.

Episode 162: Hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada explore the importance of self-awareness and how to strike a balance between adapting to external circumstances and staying true to one's core values.  Kyte emphasizes the challenge of developing an accurate self-identity, noting the powerful influence of self-deception. He suggests that being part of a community with honest, caring friends can help recalibrate one's self-perception.  The discussion delves into the potential negative impact of social media on self-identity, particularly for younger people, and the need to filter out random online opinions in favor of feedback from trusted individuals. The conversation also examines the role of introspection and self-knowledge, drawing on Sigmund Freud's metaphor of the iceberg to illustrate the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind.  Generational differences in the workplace are also explored, with Kyte explaining how cultural phenomena within certain professions can lead to harsh treatment of newcomers. The experts discuss the sensitivity of younger generations, which they attribute to the decline in robust interpersonal relationships and the impact of social media.  Links to stories discussed during the podcast How to reinvent your self-Identity and live your best life, by Nida Leardprasopsuk, Forbes In defense of soft, weak Zoomers, by Matt Yglesias, Slow Boring About the hosts Scott Rada is a digital strategist with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He is also the author of "Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way)."  

Freddie deBoer has a post on what he calls “the temporal Copernican principle.” He argues we shouldn't expect a singularity, apocalypse, or any other crazy event in our lifetimes. Discussing celebrity transhumanist Yuval Harari, he writes: What I want to say to people like Yuval Harari is this. The modern human species is about 250,000 years old, give or take 50,000 years depending on who you ask. Let's hope that it keeps going for awhile - we'll be conservative and say 50,000 more years of human life. So let's just throw out 300,000 years as the span of human existence, even though it could easily be 500,000 or a million or more. Harari's lifespan, if he's lucky, will probably top out at about 100 years. So: what are the odds that Harari's lifespan overlaps with the most important period in human history, as he believes, given those numbers? That it overlaps with a particularly important period of human history at all? Even if we take the conservative estimate for the length of human existence of 300,000 years, that means Harari's likely lifespan is only about .33% of the entirety of human existence. Isn't assuming that this .33% is somehow particularly special a very bad assumption, just from the basis of probability? And shouldn't we be even more skeptical given that our basic psychology gives us every reason to overestimate the importance of our own time? (I think there might be a math error here - 100 years out of 300,000 is 0.033%, not 0.33% - but this isn't my main objection.) He then condemns a wide range of people, including me, for failing to understand this: Some people who routinely violate the Temporal Copernican Principle include Harari, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Sam Altman, Francis Fukuyama, Elon Musk, Clay Shirky, Tyler Cowen, Matt Yglesias, Tom Friedman, Scott Alexander, every tech company CEO, Ray Kurzweil, Robin Hanson, and many many more. I think they should ask themselves how much of their understanding of the future ultimately stems from a deep-seated need to believe that their times are important because they think they themselves are important, or want to be. I deny misunderstanding this. Freddie is wrong. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/contra-deboer-on-temporal-copernicanism 

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThe Harris-Walz campaign is having a moment. It is polling well. Harris made a good speech at the Democratic National Convention. The Democratic Convention as a whole got better TV ratings than the Republican one. Harris's campaign is all about joy. Even Shadi's parents are feeling the vibes (and using the word, “vibes,” probably for the first time).But Shadi and Damir aren't feeling it. No joy. No vibes. No excitement about the current moment in American politics. What's going on is at best groupthink, at worst, the manufacturing of consent. Our podcast hosts are skeptical about the fact that the media made an abrupt 180-degree turn on Harris: someone who was once considered a political dud is now seen as “the second coming of Barack Obama.”But soon Shadi and Damir start interrogating their assumptions. Is it necessarily a bad thing that large numbers of people are feeling positive emotions? Could large trends and coalitions develop organically, through common affinity, rather than through the machinations of politicians and propagandists? Could a campaign based on good vibes actually be more efficient at creating a Democratic Party platform that appeals to the median American voter? Maybe the Harris-Walz campaign is forcing us, as Damir puts it, to “update our priors on what democratic politics is.”In the bonus concluding section for our paid subscribers, our hosts make a 180-degree turn of their own. They explore learning to love Harris and embracing the vibes. “No one is talking about threats of civil war anymore,” Shadi observes. This is a good thing. “People want to feel good about their country.” Maybe Harris is making that possible for millions of voters.Required Reading:* “Harris has upended years of Democratic dogma. That's good,” by Shadi Hamid (Washington Post).* “The Peculiar Moderation of Donald Trump,” by Shadi Hamid (Washington Post). * Full text of Kamala Harris' speech at the Democratic National Convention (PBS). * Our CrowdSource about “vibes” (WoC).* Noam Chomsky on “manufacturing consent” (YouTube). * Matt Yglesias on “popularism” (Slow Boring).* Matt Yglesias on the “unhinged moderation” of the Republicans (Slow Boring).Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

I. Bentham's Bulldog Blogger “Bentham's Bulldog” recently wrote Shut Up About Slave Morality. Nietzsche's concept of “slave morality” (he writes) is just a dysphemism for the usual morality where you're not bad and cruel. Right-wing edgelords use “rejection of slave morality” as a justification for badness and cruelty: When people object to slave morality, they are just objecting to morality. They are objecting to the notion that you should care about others and doing the right thing, even when doing so doesn't materially benefit you. Now, one can consistently object to those things, but it doesn't make them any sort of Nostradamus. It makes them morally deficient, and also generally philosophically confused. The tedious whinging about slave morality is just a way to pass off not caring about morality or taking moral arguments seriously as some sort of sophisticated and cynical myth-busting. But it's not that in the slightest. No one is duped by slave morality, no one buys into it because of some sort of deep-seated ignorance. Those who follow it do so because of a combination of social pressure and a genuine desire to help out others. That is, in fact, not in any way weak but a noble impulse from which all good actions spring. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/matt-yglesias-considered-as-the-nietzschean 

Is there such a thing as “balancing the ticket”? How much can a vice-presidential nominee influence the election? Host Jerusalem Demsas talks with political commentator and journalist Matt Yglesias about Kamala Harris's recent pick of Tim Walz as her running mate and whether that choice could sway undecided voters. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You'll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: How I Learned To Stop Trusting Prediction Markets and Love the Arbitrage, published by orthonormal on August 6, 2024 on LessWrong. This is a story about a flawed Manifold market, about how easy it is to buy significant objective-sounding publicity for your preferred politics, and about why I've downgraded my respect for all but the largest prediction markets. I've had a Manifold account for a while, but I didn't use it much until I saw and became irked by this market on the conditional probabilities of a Harris victory, split by VP pick. The market quickly got cited by rat-adjacent folks on Twitter like Matt Yglesias, because the question it purports to answer is enormously important. But as you can infer from the above, it has a major issue that makes it nigh-useless: for a candidate whom you know won't be chosen, there is literally no way to come out ahead on mana (Manifold keeps its share of the fees when a market resolves N/A), so all but a very few markets are pure popularity contests, dominated by those who don't mind locking up their mana for a month for a guaranteed 1% loss. Even for the candidates with a shot of being chosen, the incentives in a conditional market are weaker than those in a non-conditional market because the fees are lost when the market resolves N/A. (Nate Silver wrote a good analysis of why it would be implausible for e.g. Shapiro vs Walz to affect Harris' odds by 13 percentage points.) So the sharps would have no reason to get involved if even one of the contenders has numbers that are off by a couple points from a sane prior. You'll notice that I bet in this market. Out of epistemic cooperativeness as well as annoyance, I spent small amounts of mana on the markets where it was cheap to reset implausible odds closer to Harris' overall odds of victory. (After larger amounts were poured into some of those markets, I let them ride because taking them out would double the fees I have to pay vs waiting for the N/A.) A while ago, someone had dumped Gretchen Whitmer down to 38%, but nobody had put much mana into that market, so I spent 140 mana (which can be bought for 14-20 cents if you want to pay for extra play money) to reset her to Harris' overall odds (44%). When the market resolves N/A, I'll get all but around 3 mana (less than half a penny) back. And that half-penny bought Whitmer four paragraphs in the Manifold Politics Substack, citing the market as evidence that she should be considered a viable candidate. (At the time of publication, it was still my 140 mana propping her number up; if I sold them, she'd be back under 40%.) Is this the biggest deal in the world? No. But wow, that's a cheap price for objective-sounding publicity viewed by some major columnists (including some who've heard that prediction markets are good, but aren't aware of caveats). And it underscores for me that conditional prediction markets should almost never be taken seriously, and indicates that only the most liquid markets in general should ever be cited. The main effect on me, though, is that I've been addicted to Manifold since then, not as an oracle, but as a game. The sheer amount of silly arbitrage (aside from veepstakes, there's a liquid market on whether Trump will be president on 1/1/26 that people had forgotten about, and it was 10 points higher than current markets on whether Trump will win the election) has kept the mana flowing and has kept me unserious about the prices. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org

Donald Trump has made inflation a central part of his campaign message. At his rallies, he rails against “the Biden inflation tax” and “crooked Joe's inflation nightmare,” and promises that in a second Trump term, “inflation will be in full retreat.”But if you look at Trump's actual policies, that wouldn't be the case at all. Trump has a bold, ambitious agenda to make prices much, much higher. He's proposing a 10 percent tariff on imported goods, and a 60 percent tariff on products from China. He wants to deport huge numbers of immigrants. And he's made it clear that he'd like to replace the Federal Reserve chair with someone more willing to take orders from him. It's almost unimaginable to me that you would run on this agenda at a time when Americans are so mad about high prices. But I don't think people really know that's what Trump is vowing to do.So to drill into the weeds of Trump's plans, I decided to call up an old friend. Matt Yglesias is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and the author of the Slow Boring newsletter, where he's been writing a lot about Trump's proposals. We also used to host a policy podcast together, “The Weeds.”In this conversation, we discuss what would happen to the economy, especially in terms of inflation, if Trump actually did what he says he wants to do; what we can learn from how Trump managed the economy in his first term; and why more people aren't sounding the alarm.Mentioned:“Trump's new economic plan is terrible” by Matthew Yglesias“Never mind: Wall Street titans shake off qualms and embrace Trump” by Sam Sutton“How Far Trump Would Go” by Eric CortellessaBook Recommendations:Take Back the Game by Linda Flanagan1177 B.C. by Eric H. ClineThe Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941 by Paul DicksonThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Mixing by Isaac Jones, with Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Annie Galvin, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero, Adam Posen and Michael Strain.

In this episode Jason discusses the psychological traits and pathways by which the rightwing has shed its principles on its descent into fascism. The Scientific American piece on conspiracy thinking is here, the Matt Yglesias piece on how to help Democrats win in November is here, the Democratic Senate Committee is here, and the DZA website is here.

Do Arab Americans support pro-Palestine protests because of identity politics? What about American Jewish support for Israel? Are both groups being “tribal” or are they fighting for universal values — as they understand them?Recently, policy guru and Ur-Blogger Matt Yglesias pointed out that some of the political thinkers who, just a couple years ago, were aligned in opposition to identity politics today find themselves on opposite sides over Palestine. One of the names Matt mentioned was our own Shadi Hamid. What happened?Matt joins Damir, and Shadi to figure it out. In their conversation, they discuss the demands of pro-Palestine protestors, whether conditioning aid to Israel would be effective, whether global justice claims are “nonsense,” and of course the nature of identity. Why do we believe what we believe, and how do come to hold the positions that we hold? Towards the end of the episode, the conversation gets more personal, when both Shadi and Matt go deeper on how their own religious identities have been affected by the Gaza war. Matt, a liberal Jew who supports a two-state solution, says: “Playing dice with the existence of Israel is dangerous, it's a lot for my heart.” NOTE: We felt the final 20 minutes of the conversation with Matt were fascinating and surprising in the best way possible, capturing something important about this American moment — so we are dropping the paywall and making the full episode available for all subscribers. We hope you enjoy it. Required Reading:* Slow Boring, Matthew Yglesias' Substack. * “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate,” AKA “The Harper's Letter” (Harper's).* Martin Luther King, Jr. and Israel (Washington Post).* “Israel's Two Wars” by Matthew Yglesias (Slow Boring).* Shadi's tweet, drawing on his book The Problem of Democracy, on how U.S. support for Israel undermines Arab democracy: “Our relationship with Israel distorts U.S. policy in the Middle East. We support Arab dictators in part because they are more likely to accept Israel's dominant position in the region. Democracy, however, would elevate anti-Israel parties to power.”* Matt Yglesias on X: “It's interesting that a bunch of people who I read who four years ago were in agreement about the perils of identity politics now sharply disagree about Israel/Palestine and the disagreements exactly track Jewish vs Arab or Muslim backgrounds.”* The Mexican-American War. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Childhood and Education Roundup #5, published by Zvi on April 18, 2024 on LessWrong. For this iteration I will exclude discussions involving college or college admissions. There has been a lot of that since the last time I did one of these, along with much that I need to be careful with lest I go out of my intended scope. It makes sense to do that as its own treatment another day. Bullying Why do those who defend themselves against bullies so often get in more trouble than bullies? This is also true in other contexts but especially true in school. Thread is extensive, these are the highlights translated into my perspective. A lot of it is that a bully has experience and practice, they know how to work the system, they know what will cause a response, and they are picking the time and place to do something. The victim has to respond in the moment, and by responding causes conflict and trouble that no one wants. Also we are far more willing to punish generally rule-following people who break a rule, than we are to keep punishing someone who keeps breaking the rules all time, where it seems pointless. Study finds bullying has lifelong negative effects. Abstract: Most studies examining the impact of bullying on wellbeing in adulthood rely on retrospective measures of bullying and concentrate primarily on psychological outcomes. Instead, we examine the effects of bullying at ages 7 and 11, collected prospectively by the child's mother, on subjective wellbeing, labour market prospects, and physical wellbeing over the life-course. We exploit 12 sweeps of interview data through to age 62 for a cohort born in a single week in Britain in 1958. Bullying negatively impacts subjective well-being between ages 16 and 62 and raises the probability of mortality before age 55. It also lowers the probability of having a job in adulthood. These effects are independent of other adverse childhood experiences. My worry, as usual, is that the controls are inadequate. Yes, there are some attempts here, but bullying is largely a function of how one responds to it, and one's social status within the school, in ways that outside base factors will not account for properly. Bullying sucks and should not be tolerated, but also bullies target 'losers' in various senses, so them having worse overall outcomes is not obviously due to the bullying. Causation is both common and cuts both ways. Truancy Ever since Covid, schools have had to deal with lots of absenteeism and truancy. What to do? Matt Yglesias gives the obviously correct answer. If the norm is endangered, you must either give up the norm or enforce it. Should we accept high absentee rates from schools? What we should not do is accept a new norm of non-enforcement purely because we are against enforcing rules. The pathological recent attachment to not enforcing rules needs to stop, across the board. The past version, however, had quite the obsession with attendance, escalating quickly to 'threaten to ruin your life' even if nothing was actually wrong. That does not make sense either. Then in college everyone thinks skipping class is mostly no big deal, except for the few places they explicitly check and it is a huge deal. Weird. I think the correct solution is that attendance is insurance. If you attend most of the classes and are non-disruptive, and are plausibly trying during that time, then we cut you a lot of slack and make it very hard to fail. If you do not attend most of the classes, then nothing bad happens to you automatically, but you are doing that At Your Own Risk. We will no longer save you if you do not pass the tests. If it is summer school for you, then so be it. Against Active Shooter Drills New York State is set to pass S6537, a long overdue bill summarized as follows: Decreases the frequency of lock-down drills in schools;...

It's every blogger's curse to return to the same arguments again and again. Matt Yglesias has to keep writing “maybe we should do popular things instead of unpopular ones”, Freddie de Boer has to keep writing “the way culture depicts mental illness is bad”, and for whatever reason, I keep getting in fights about whether you can have probabilities for non-repeating, hard-to-model events. For example: What is the probability that Joe Biden will win the 2024 election? What is the probability that people will land on Mars before 2050? What is the probability that AI will destroy humanity this century? The argument against: usually we use probability to represent an outcome from some well-behaved distribution. For example, if there are 400 white balls and 600 black balls in an urn, the probability of pulling out a white ball is 40%. If you pulled out 100 balls, close to 40 of them would be white. You can literally pull out the balls and do the experiment. In contrast, saying “there's a 45% probability people will land on Mars before 2050” seems to come out of nowhere. How do you know? If you were to say “the probability humans will land on Mars is exactly 45.11782%”, you would sound like a loon. But how is saying that it's 45% any better? With balls in an urn, the probability might very well be 45.11782%, and you can prove it. But with humanity landing on Mars, aren't you just making this number up? Since people on social media have been talking about this again, let's go over it one more depressing, fruitless time. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/in-continued-defense-of-non-frequentist

Reading List:* “When Liberalism Was at Its Best,” Parts 1 (Isaiah Berlin), 2 (Lionel Trilling), and 3 (Reinhold Niebuhr), by Damon Linker.* “Philosophy and the Far Right”—Part 1 and Part 2* “Conservatism and Skepticism”—Part 1 and Part 2My guest on the show today is Damon Linker, perhaps the nation's most enthusiastic, unapologetic center leftist (he and Matt Yglesias occasionally punch it out for the title in an underground fight club built in the tunnels under the charred timbers of the former headquarters of the New Republic). Damon is a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, writes the Notes from the Middle Ground newsletters on Substack, is a senior fellow with the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center, and is the author of two books, The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege and The Religious Test: Why We Must Question the Beliefs of Our Leaders.I asked Damon on the show to discuss his recent series of essays on three of the seminal thinkers of post-war liberalism, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, the literary critic Lionel Trilling, and the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. We also got into his conflicted feelings about the philosopher Leo Strauss and the movement—Straussianism—that he birthed.Eminent Americans is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Eminent Americans at danieloppenheimer.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Housing Roundup #7, published by Zvi on March 5, 2024 on LessWrong. Legalize housing. It is both a good slogan and also a good idea. The struggle is real, ongoing and ever-present. Do not sleep on it. The Housing Theory of Everything applies broadly, even to the issue of AI. If we built enough housing that life vastly improved and people could envision a positive future, they would be far more inclined to think well about AI. In Brief What will AI do to housing? If we consider what the author here calls a 'reasonably optimistic' scenario and what I'd call a 'maximally disappointingly useless' scenario, all AI does is replace some amount of some forms of labor. Given current AI capabilities, it won't replace construction, so some other sectors get cheaper, making housing relatively more expensive. Housing costs rise, the crisis gets more acute. Chris Arnade says we live in a high-regulation low-trust society in America, and this is why our cities have squalor and cannot have nice things. I do not buy it. I think America remains a high-trust society in the central sense. We trust individuals, and we are right to do so. We do not trust our government to be competent, and are right not to do so, but the problem there is not the lack of trust. Reading the details of Arnade's complaints pointed to the Housing Theory of Everything and general government regulatory issues. Why are so many of the things not nice, or not there at all? Homelessness, which is caused by lack of housing. The other half, that we spend tons of money for public works that are terrible, is because such government functions are broken. So none of this is terribly complicated. Matt Yglesias makes the case against subsidizing home ownership. Among other things, it creates NIMBYs that oppose building housing, it results in inefficient allocation of the housing stock, it encourages people to invest in a highly concentrated way we otherwise notice is highly unwise and so on. He does not give proper attention to the positives, particularly the ability to invest in and customize a place of one's own, and does not address the 'community buy-in' argument except to notice that one main impact of that, going NIMBY, is an active negative. Also he does not mention that the subsidies involved increase inequality, and the whole thing makes everyone who needs to rent much worse off. I agree that our subsidies for homeownership are highly inefficient and dumb. A neutral approach would be best. Zoning does not only ruin housing. Taylor Swift's Eras Tour skipped New Zealand because there were not sufficient resource consent permits available to let her perform at Eden Park. They only get six concerts a year, you see. With Pink's two shows on March 8 and March 9 and Coldplay's three shows on November 13, 15 and 16, it leaves Eden Park with only one concert slot this year. Considering the Grammy winner is playing seven shows across two Australian venues this February, Sautner says: "Clearly, this wasn't sufficient to host Taylor Swift." … The venue also needs to consider the duration of concerts in any conversations - as the parameters of Eden Park's resource consent means shows need a scheduled finishing time of 10.30pm, something that may have been too difficult for Swift to commit to. A short video making the basic and obviously correct case that we should focus on creating dense walkable areas in major cities. There is huge demand for this, supplying it makes people vastly more productive and happier, it is better for the planet, it is a pure win all around. Jonathan Berk: "Only 1% of the land in America's 35 largest cities is walkable. But those areas generate a whopping 20% of the US GDP." Legalize Housing Wait, is that, yeah, I think it is, well I'll be. Let's go. Elizabeth Warren: 40 years ago, a typical single-fam...

Episode 131: Two popular columnists recently wrote about travel, and they had dramatically different views. Agnes Collard wrote for The New Yorker that travel turns us into the worst version of ourselves, while Matt Yglesias wrote about the many benefits of tourism, especially on the economies of the places that are most-often visited. Hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada discuss the benefits of travel, what behaviors good tourists exhibit and why it’s in fact good to live in a place where people like to visit. About the hosts: Scott Rada is social media manager with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis. His forthcoming book, "Finding Your Third Place," will be published by Fulcrum Books.

In our first crossover pod, Tim queries Yglesias and Beutler about Biden's Gaza response, and why Dems aren't holding Kushner hearings—or raising hell about the GOP's promotion of fake oppo from a Russian spy. Then catch the tables getting turned on Tim on the Politix pod Wednesday. show notes: https://www.politix.fm/podcast

Dr. Paul Springs joins Alan again to talk about journalism, Matt Yglesias and the Gell-Mann effect.  Matt Yglesias wrote an article called "Dentists are bad" on his Substack. Instead of talking about some real "bad" things in our profession, he went straight to the lowest common denominator. Paul and Al talk about how journalism typically talks about dentistry and maybe how they could be more interesting and ask better questions. Matt thinks oral health is important Matt has a very limited understanding about dental disease in our population Matt thinks that regulation that allows dental hygienists to practice independently would fix the high costs of dentistry. Never read the comments. NEVER READ THE COMMENTS. Mead's law: journalism about dentists will inevitably devolve into comments about anecdotes featuring horrible experiences with dentists Health care that's not really health care (Stretch Center/monthly air polish/blow out bar) Primary and secondary health care  The overhead of an independent hygiene office Is there a way to screen for disease before seeing a hygienist or dentist? Gell-Mann amnesia What is informed consent? Al's podcast on communication and trust The informed consent Al got for his surgery The difference between "predatory dentistry" and hindsight The transparency of talking about money They hate us because we give them shots, talk about money and we do surgery on people who are awake "Dentists are rich and often shady" Fibromas R' Us and the regulatory state of dentistry Where do midlevel providers fit? Some links from the show: Matt Yglesias' Substack "Slow Boring" Do we need to take out wisdom teeth so often? How about tongue ties? Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy," "Papa Randy" or "Lipscomb!" The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you'd like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us! -- Crazy Dental has everything you need from cotton rolls to equipment and everything in between and the best prices you'll find anywhere! If you head over to verydentalpodcast.com/crazy and use coupon code “VERYDENTAL10” you'll get another 10% off your order! Go save yourself some money and support the show all at the same time! -- The Wonderist Agency is basically a one stop shop for marketing your practice and your brand. From logo redesign to a full service marketing plan, the folks at Wonderist have you covered! Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/wonderist! -- Enova Illumination makes the very best in loupes and headlights, including their new ergonomic angled prism loupes! They also distribute loupe mounted cameras and even the amazing line of Zumax microscopes! If you want to help out the podcast while upping your magnification and headlight game, you need to head over to verydentalpodcast.com/enova to see their whole line of products! -- CAD-Ray offers the best service on a wide variety of digital scanners, printers, mills and even  their very own browser based design software, Clinux! CAD-Ray has been a huge supporter of the Very Dental Podcast Network and I can tell you that you'll get no better service on everything digital dentistry than the folks from CAD-Ray. Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/CADRay!

Host Andrew Xu sits down once again with Jessica Grose, an opinion writer for The New York Times. They discuss the negative effects of pandemic-induced school closures, the increased prominence of grade inflation in schools, and other contributors to teacher demoralization in the United States.   References "The Rise and Fall of the Teaching Profession" from The Annenberg Institute "Has School Become Optional?" by Alec MacGillis, The New Yorker "People Don't Want to Be Teachers Anymore. Can You Blame Them?" by Jessica Grose, The New York Times "The pandemic's lesson on teacher licensure" by Matt Yglesias, Slow Boring "Don't Ditch Standardized Tests. Fix Them." by Jessica Grose, The New York Times "Congress Isn't a Schoolyard. Time to Deal With Toxic Immaturity." by Jessica Grose, The New York Times

Everyone seems to have decided that it's the phones. That is, they've decided that heavy smartphone and social-media use is to blame for the current wave of mental illness, despair, and depression that's affecting young people - teenage girls in particular.Except… we need to ask how strong the evidence is. What do the studies actually show about what's causing the mental health crisis? And, wait - is there actually a mental health crisis to begin with? In this extra-long episode of The Studies Show (it's a big topic after all), Tom and Stuart attempt to find out.The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. Do you like reading about science and technology? Do you like learning about the drivers of human progress? Then this is the magazine for you. You can find all their beautifully written and illustrated articles for free on their main website, along with some excellent shorter pieces on their Substack.Show Notes* UK MP calls for a ban on social media “and perhaps even smartphones” for under-16s; Prime Minister is considering it* Jonathan Haidt's upcoming book The Anxious Generation* His November 2023 interview with The Spectator on the “rewiring of childhood”* His big Google Doc of all the relevant studies in this area* Jean Twenge's famous Atlantic article, “Have smartphones destroyed a generation?”* Her book iGen* One of Twenge's studies, which the book is based on: n = 500,000 analysis of depression traits and “new media screen time”* Amy Orben's critique* Flurry of articles by well-respected writers in 2023 expressing some degree of confidence that “it's the phones”: John Burn-Murdoch; Noah Smith; Matt Yglesias (though he's more interested in other reasons)* Haidt's 2023 article arguing we can now say it's a cause, not just a correlation - and “a major cause” at that* Evidence that the US suicide rate is increasing* Evidence that the suicide rate in other countries is not increasing: Norway, Sweden, Denmark; the UK - see below for the heatmap of age-group vs. year and suicide rate for the UK:* 2023 NBER paper cautioning that some of the rise in the US suicide rate might be due to measurement differences* Chris Ferguson et al.'s 2021 meta-analysis that concludes there's a lack of evidence to suggest that screen time affects mental health* Przybylski & Vuorre's 2023 paper - across 168 countries, internet connectivity is correlated with better wellbeing* Orben & Przybylski's 2019 “specfication curve” paper (the “potatoes” one) * Twenge & Haidt's own specification curve paper suggesting social media use is a stronger predictor of poor wellbeing than is hard drug use* Stuart's article for the i going into detail on some of the causal studies of phones/social media and mental health* Dean Eckles criticising the “Facebook arrives at universities” studyCredits & AcknowledgementsThe Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. We're grateful to Chris Ferguson and Andy Przybylski for talking to us about their research. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/96560443/ Bea, Artie, and Phil offer their critique of "We've Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care", a recent book from two economists—and blurbed by the likes of Emily Oster and Matt Yglesias—that promises a bold new vision for US health policy: what if we did universal healthcare, but we intentionally made it really bad? Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism Runtime 1:22:26, 15 January 2024

Al recently read an article by Matt Yglesias called "Dentists are bad." (sic) Even worse...he read the comments.  As these things tend to do, it devolved into a bunch of horrible anecdotes about terrible things that dentists have done to innocent patients.  So, why do they hate us? And more importantly, what are dentists doing wrong to make them hate us?  Al has thoughts. Some links from the show: "Dentists are bad" (sic) by Matt Yglesias (it's probably behind a paywall the Gell-Mann effect Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy," "Papa Randy" or "Lipscomb!" The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you'd like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us! -- Crazy Dental has everything you need from cotton rolls to equipment and everything in between and the best prices you'll find anywhere! If you head over to verydentalpodcast.com/crazy and use coupon code “VERYDENTAL10” you'll get another 10% off your order! Go save yourself some money and support the show all at the same time! -- The Wonderist Agency is basically a one stop shop for marketing your practice and your brand. From logo redesign to a full service marketing plan, the folks at Wonderist have you covered! Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/wonderist! -- Enova Illumination makes the very best in loupes and headlights, including their new ergonomic angled prism loupes! They also distribute loupe mounted cameras and even the amazing line of Zumax microscopes! If you want to help out the podcast while upping your magnification and headlight game, you need to head over to verydentalpodcast.com/enova to see their whole line of products! -- CAD-Ray offers the best service on a wide variety of digital scanners, printers, mills and even  their very own browser based design software, Clinux! CAD-Ray has been a huge supporter of the Very Dental Podcast Network and I can tell you that you'll get no better service on everything digital dentistry than the folks from CAD-Ray. Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/CADRay!  

A GAY SHAME podcast. Emmanuel Yekutiel is a marketing associate for conservative causes and Israel who in 2018, opened a gentrification cafe in the Mission that he named after himself. Since then, Manny's has been a safe space for neoliberal figures to gather, including Dr. Jill Biden, Matt Yglesias, Nancy Pelosi, Sam Bankman-Fried, SFPD chief Bill Scott, and the trio of local politicians Manny dubbed the "Power Gays."  Deeg from Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) speaks on the boycott of Manny's, and the tradition of queers organizing against Israel's genocide of Palestinians. Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) BDS Movement "Alive in Limbo" documentary "Pinkwashing Exposed" documentary  Queer Cinema for Palestine "Progressive Coalition boycotts 'woke-washing' of San Francisco event space" "Mark Zuckerberg's Immigration Hustle"

The SubStackLand community gains another valuable member. We welcome him to the NFL SubStackLand:Key Insights:* Bing-AI says “Brian Beutler” is pronounced “Bryan Bootler”—that is, rhymes with “lion shooter”, which shows how far political incorrectness has penetrated Silicon Valley…* Noah has figured out a solution to his problem of losing the screws to his microphone stand: duct tape…* This started with Brad poking Brian on his belief there was a golden age of comity, common purpose, and energy in the left-of-center political sphere back in 2005 to 2008—saying that this misconceived as all mourning for a lost golden age is misconceived…* Noah and Brad today welcome Brian to SubStackLand, he having just created a substack and done 16 substantive posts in two weeks, which is a trult amazing rate of production…* Brian's key insight is that since the start of 2019 Democrats have been amazingly, alarmingly, disappointingly timid in not aggressively going after every corner of TrumpWorld for its corruption, and doing so again and again and again…* Brian is, in a sense, the quantum-mechanical antiparticle to some combination of Matt Yglesias and David Schor…* Brian believes he coined the term “popularism”…* Back in 2005-2008 nobody said that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were sabotaging their own party by encouraging Barack Obama to run in the primaries…* Judging by results, the current strategy of the Democratic Establishment is doing rather well: a plus three standard-deviation outcome in the 2022 midterms, for example…* That midterm result may be because, by our count no fewer than seven of the nine justices had assured senators that Roe v. Wade was “settled law”. And four of those seven then voted to overturn it in Dobbs…* Biden really cares about safeguarding democracy, and his actions should all be viewed with that in mind…* Hexapodia!References:* Brian Beutler: Off Message SubStack * Scattered Thoughts On Israel, Hamas, Gaza, And Related Matters: A possibly ill-advised post* VIDEO: How Trump Normalization Really Works: Why the political media slept on Trump's call for Mark Milley's death and other baffling decisions* Charts To A Gun Fight: How the Fighting Democrats of 2007 became the timid, focus-grouped party of today.* Trump Reaches A Fateful Crossroads: We should welcome it, but acknowledge the peril* Thursday Thread And AMA: Kind of a lot's happened since the last one* "The Most Important Issue In Our Politics": A Q&A with John Harwood on his interview with Joe Biden about threats to democracy* Five Thoughts On Karmic McCarthy: For now, we schadenfreude* VIDEO: How Profit Motive Distorts The News: And why liberals and Democrats should talk about it* The Era Of Hostage Taking And Small Ransoms: Republicans made Ukraine aid the price of avoiding a shutdown. Where does it end?* The Democrats' Lost September: You guys awake?* Breaking Down The GOP Debate: Reaction chats with Matthew Yglesias and Crooked Media's What A Day podcast* Wednesday Debate Thread: Let's watch Republicans be weird and scary together!* Baggage Check: Life disclosures, so readers can know me, and where I come from, a little better* VIDEO: Why The News Struggles To Say Republicans Are Responsible For The Government Shutdown: And why the public is likely to catch on anyhow* Biden Should Work The Media Refs On Impeachment: Everyone knows the impeachment is b.s., so he should say that* Welcome to Off Message: Refuge from a world gone mad* Thomas Babington Macaulay: Horatius at the Bridge * Plutarch: Life of Tiberius Gracchus +, of course:* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep Lost Past Golden Ages:Thomas Babington Macaulay: Horatius at the Bridge: ‘[Then] Romans in Rome's quarrel Spared neither land nor gold, Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, In the brave days of old.Then none was for a party; Then all were for the state;Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great:Then lands were fairly portioned; Then spoils were fairly sold:The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old.Now Roman is to Roman More hateful than a foe,And the Tribunes beard the high, And the Fathers grind the low.As we wax hot in faction, In battle we wax cold:Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave days of old…Plutarch: Life of Tiberius Gracchus: ‘Formerly the senate itself, out of goodwill, conceded many things to the people, and referred many things to them for deliberation; and the magistrates themselves, even when they had no need of the people, summoned them to assemblies, and communicated with them on public affairs, not wishing them to feel that they were excluded from anything or insulted. But after the people had made the authority of the tribunes too great, and through them had tasted arbitrary power, then indeed there was no longer any room for deference or concession on the part of the senate; but they were forced to fight for everything as for a prize... Get full access to Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality at braddelong.substack.com/subscribe

Liberals vs. leftists once again, with the principal conclusion being that trying to find and join your tribe by shouting online—Schmittian picking-an-enemy as the core of your identity—is no way to go through life, son. Nor is artfully screenshotting in order to make sure your readers do not see the sentence just below the ones you quote.In which we discuss the positions of “Brianna”, Matt”, and “Ezra”—who are SubTuring concepts in our minds with whom we have parasocial relationships, and are not real persons named Brianna Wu, Matt Yglesias, and Ezra Klein—on where the boundary is between the decent, realistic, progress left on the one hand, and people who need to get a clue and stop making own-goals on the other.Background:Key Insights:* No Schmittposting— trying to find and join your tribe by shouting online—Schmittian picking-an-enemy as the core of your identity—is no way to go through life, son. * Nor is artfully screenshotting in order to make sure your readers do not see the sentence just below the ones you quote.* Don't pick bad and stupid ends to advocate for—anarcho-pastoralism, the elimination of the United States or America, abolishing police, abolishing prisons, degrowth, destroying statues of Ulysses S. Grant, calling for the cancellation of Abraham Lincoln.* Do think, always: will this post advance humanity's collective smartness as an anthology intelligence?* Don't call for throwing public money at nonprofits in urban America.* Advocate for a political focus on social issues only when they are ripe—when the pro-freedom and pro-flourishing position is genuinely popular.* But the Democratic Party and the left can and should focus on both economic and social issues—and should be smart about doing so.* Blue-state politicians should be willing to press the envelope on social issues—witness Gavin Newsom as mayor of San Francisco on gay marriage.* Purple-state politicians should stress that this is a free country for free people, which means:* economic opportunity…* social freedom—you should be able to live your life without the government harassing you, and without neighbors and merchants harassing you by refusing service when their job is to serve the public…* collective wealth…* collective concern—global warming may not be so bad for you in the medium-run, but it is a serious medium-run problem for those SOBs in Florida and Louisiana, and for rural communities at the wildfire edge…* Red-state politicians need our thoughts and prayers.* Policy analysts and legislative tacticians should design and implement policies that are:* successes…* visible, perceived successes…* that build coalitions by the wide of visible distribution of their benefits…* but that do not allow individual coalition partners to become veto point owners: seats at the table, yes; dogs in the manger, no…* Left-wing think-tanks should not take money from “leftists” who want to use procedural obstacles to block green investments in their backyards.* Hexapodia!References:* Preliminary Food for Thought for Þe “Hexapodia” Taping:* Brianna Wu: ‘There's a huge schism… Policy Leftists and Infinite Leftists…* Matt Yglesias: The two kinds of progressives: ‘Moralists vs. pragmatists…* Ezra Klein: The Problem With Everything-Bagel Liberalism: ‘Cost, not just productivity, is a core problem for the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry…* Brad DeLong: Pass the Baton…* Noah Smith: Our climate change debates are out of date…* Noah Smith: Degrowth: We can't let it happen here!…* Noah Smith: ‘Once you realize that the animating drive of all NIMBYism on both the left and the right is to be able to live in perpetually-appreciating single-family homes with no poor people nearby, everything they say becomes instantly comprehensible and intensely boring.* Rocket Podcast +, of course:* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep  Get full access to Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality at braddelong.substack.com/subscribe

Matt Yglesias' five-year old son asks: why do we send the top students to the best colleges? Why not send the weakest students to the best colleges, since they need the most help? This is one of those questions that's so naive it loops back and becomes interesting again. https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/why-match-school-and-student-rank  

Journalist and author Liza Featherstone is on the show this week to talk about electing union members to political positions. Show Notes: https://jacobin.com/2023/04/brandon-johnson-chicago-electing-union-members-ctu-mayor-working-class Kate and Mohanad can be found on Twitter at @KateWillett and @MohanadElshieky Subscribe to the Patreon here: www.patreon.com/replyguys Hosts: Kate Willett and Mohanad Elshieky Producer: Genevieve Gearity Theme Song: Emily Frembgen and Kate Willett Artwork: Adrienne Lobl

In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki discuss the Supreme Court's deliberation over the cancellation of student loan debt. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week's show:   ·         The Supreme Court seems poised to strike down President Biden's student loan forgiveness policy. Natalia referred to this CNBC timeline of the recent history of the student-loan cancellation movement and drew on this Washington Post essay about the devaluation of education as a public good. Neil drew on this Slate history about the culture of debt in the United States, and Niki used this explainer to elaborate the “major questions doctrine.”     In our regular closing feature, What's Making History: ·         Natalia recommended Matt Yglesias' post, “Why Are Young Liberals So Depressed?” on his Substack, Slow Boring. ·         Neil shared about a new podcast, Recollecting Carter. ·         Niki discussed Maura Judkis' Washington Post article, “American Girl says the ‘90s are Ancient History. American Girls Agree.”

In this week's depressing episode… Sigh…* A journalist is spat on in a high-profile case. Is it time to tone down the rhetoric? It's probably too late to de-escalate…* The disappearance of Apu. He's probably never coming back.* Matt Yglesias won't come on the podcast. Should Kanye come on instead? He'll probably say no too. Sigh…* Why are young liberals so depressed? Matt Yglesias' new article sparks discussion, but we probably can't fix this. We should just give up…* Katie's shocking stance on solar power. We'll never be able to transition to renewables, will we?* Journalists really messed up with the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch story… Kiwi Farms did the media's job better than the media did… Not again…* 28 TERFS PULLING UP IN BLACK FORD RAPTOR TRUCKS. HELICOPTERS LANDED. UNICORN RANCH IS UNDER SIEGE! UNDER LOCKDOWN!DepressionYglesias' article on why everyone is suddenly so depressedhttps://www.slowboring.com/p/why-are-young-liberals-so-depressedUh… here's the study: “The politics of depression: Diverging trends in internalizing symptoms among US adolescents by political beliefs”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666560321000438The Tenacious Unicorn RanchThe Advocate: Trans Anarchists, Alpacas, and the Beauty of Tenacious Unicorn Ranchhttps://www.advocate.com/exclusives/2021/9/23/trans-anarchists-alpacas-and-beauty-tenacious-unicorn-ranchThe Governor Whitmer kidnapping plot glows harder than Chernobyl in 1986https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/whitmer-kidnapping-trial.htmlBusiness Insider: How the trans alpaca ranchers of Custer County, Colorado, are forging a new frontierhttps://www.businessinsider.com/custer-county-trans-alpaca-ranchers-are-forging-a-new-frontier-2022-8UNICORN RANCH IS UNDER ATTACK. UNDER SIEGE.https://twitter.com/TenaciousRanch/status/1368996977959047168?s=20Unicorn Ranch is “nothing more than a glorified cult”, a 17-part epichttps://twitter.com/EntrancingStars/status/1607478562378088448?s=20The remaining Ranchers respondhttps://twitter.com/TenaciousRanch/status/1608176135187365888/photo/2The "journey of recontextualization"https://twitter.com/EntrancingStars/status/1608270263287939073Kiwi Farms is accused of sending police to the ranchhttps://twitter.com/TenaciousRanch/status/1608907406452588544The current Wikipedia page on the ranchhttps://web.archive.org/web/20230304174335/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenacious_Unicorn_RanchAlpacas and goats are relocatedhttps://twitter.com/EntrancingStars/status/1617697699633192961#mThe Ranch is... scuffed to say the leasthttps://twitter.com/EntrancingStars/status/1630804146227142661?s=20Bonnie's "IRS Report"https://docs.google.com/document/d/19tS4uxqpwOoIf8-PkDTVUvhUsYyoQ4NzT9FLXlG-XJ4/editKindness's statementhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1gBdNSPs0vhV1Qw3eCSb5INrBaOhdwvMF/editFurther ReadingDenver Post: How an anarchist commune for queer people grew a haven in conservative rural Coloradohttps://www.denverpost.com/2021/04/18/tenacious-unicorn-ranch-queer-haven-rural-colorado/High Country News: Meet the gun-toting ‘Tenacious Unicorns' in rural Coloradohttps://www.hcn.org/issues/53.2/south-communities-meet-the-gun-toting-tenacious-unicorns-in-rural-coloradoNPR: A Would-Be Trans And Queer Haven In Rural Colorado Just Wants To Be Left Alonehttps://www.npr.org/2021/06/01/999929259/a-would-be-trans-and-queer-haven-in-rural-colorado-just-wants-to-be-left-alonePBS: Southern Colorado alpaca ranch a safe haven for LGBTQ+ communityhttps://archive.li/PpGIO#selection-689.13-689.77Pink News: Meet the brilliant trans folk who built a community of armed, anti-fascist alpaca farmershttps://www.thepinknews.com/2021/01/17/tenacious-unicorn-ranch-trans-anti-fascism-alpaca-farm-penny-logue/“human behavior is basically a meme” ~ Katie Herzog This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.blockedandreported.org/subscribe

Sam and Emma host Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer at Slate, to discuss the recent opening arguments that have come in front of the Supreme Court. First, they run through updates on today's Georgia runoff, Ukraine's offensive in Russia, another Fed interest hike, the continuing railway labor fight, and more, before diving into Kevin McCarthy exercising his beautifully weak leadership with Laura Ingraham. Mark Joseph Stern then joins as he dives right into 303 Creative v. Elenis, aka Gay Wedding Cake 2.0, exploring how Alliance Defending Freedom back Lorie Smith and 303's fight to refuse even the possibility of making a website for a same-sex wedding, changing the entire spin of her business to center her argument that allowing the use of one of her templates (not even a personalized website) is the same as a personal endorsement of the marriage. He also dives into the recent debates on the Supreme Court floor, as Alito embarrasses himself attempting to draw a parallel between being queer and being a KKK member. Next, Mark, Sam, and Emma dive into the upcoming Moore v. Harper North Carolina gerrymandering case, outlining who the actors are, how it centers on the radical “Independent State Legislature” theory, and why the GOP is even pretending to think that a state legislature can fully ignore its constitution, courts, and governor when assessing a fair election, before wrapping up with the heartwarming note of why our democracy might come down to a single vote by Amy Coney-Barrett. And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma talk with John from San Antonio as he previews today's Georgia Runoff and reflects on the Democrats' shortcomings in the Midterms, also tackling Matt Yglesias becoming the millionth person to ask the same “just asking questions” question about trans healthcare, and talking with Marcus on military vaccinations. Hutt from Manhattan parses through the Squad largely voting against freight rail labor, Sean Row from Chicago discusses the platforming of the right, and Candace Owens responds to the Daily Wire infighting. They also briefly discuss Elon trying to keep up the spark from the Twitter files, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out Mark's work at Slate here: https://slate.com/author/mark-joseph-stern Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today's sponsors: ExpressVPN: We all take risks every day when we go online, whether we think about it or not. And using the internet without ExpressVPN? That's like driving without car insurance! ExpressVPN acts as online insurance. It creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet so hackers can't steal your personal data. It'd take a hacker with a supercomputer over a billion years to get past ExpressVPN's encryption. And ExpressVPN is simple to use on all your devices! Just fire up the app and click one button to get protected. Secure your online data TODAY by visiting https://www.expressvpn.com/majority That's https://www.expressvpn.com/majority and you can get an extra three months FREE. Shopify: Scaling your business is a journey of endless possibility. Shopify is here to help, with tools and resources that make it easy for any business to succeed from down the street to around the globe. Go to https://shopify.com/majority for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify's entire suite of features! Givewell: Many of us open our hearts and make donations during the holiday season. But when you donate, how can you feel confident that your donations are really making a big impact? GiveWell spends over 30,000 hours each year researching charitable organizations and only directs funding to a few of the HIGHEST-IMPACT, EVIDENCE-BACKED opportunities they've found.If you've never donated to GiveWell's recommended charities before, you can have your donation matched up to ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim your match, go to https://givewell.org/ and pick PODCAST and enter The Majority Report with Sam Seder at checkout. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

According to the conventional rules of politics, Democrats should be on track for electoral disaster this November. Joe Biden's approval rating is stuck around 42 percent, inflation is still sky-high and midterms usually swing against the incumbent president's party — a recipe for the kind of political wipeouts we saw in 2018, 2010 and 1994.But that's not what the polls show. Currently, Democrats are on track to hold the Senate and lose narrowly in the House, which raises all kinds of questions: Why are Republicans failing to capitalize on such a favorable set of circumstances? How did Democrats get themselves into this situation — and can they get out of it? And should we even trust the polls giving us this information in the first place?Matt Yglesias is a veteran journalist who writes the newsletter “Slow Boring” and co-hosts the podcast “Bad Takes.” And in recent years he's become an outspoken critic of the Democratic Party's political strategy: how Democrats communicate with the public, what they choose as their governing priorities and whom they ultimately listen to. In Yglesias's view, Democrats have lost touch with the very voters they need to win close elections like this one, and should embrace a very different approach to politics if they want to defeat an increasingly anti-democratic G.O.P.We discuss why Yglesias thinks the 2022 polls are likely biased toward Democrats, how Republicans' bizarre nominee choices are giving Democrats a fighting chance of winning the Senate, why Biden's popular legislative agenda hasn't translated into greater public support, the Biden administration's “grab bag” approach to policymaking, why Yglesias thinks there's been a “regime change” in how Democrats think about elections, how social media has transformed both parties' political incentives, what the Democratic agenda should look like if the party retains both houses of Congress and more.Book recommendations:Famine: A Short History by Cormac Ó GrádaSlouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLongStrangers to Ourselves by Rachel AvivThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rogé Karma. Our researcher is Emefa Agawu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Jeff Geld, Sonia Herrero and Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.