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Despite its reputation among many on the political left, the United States has welcomed more immigrants than any other nation in history. Today, the U.S. is home to more immigrants than any other country in the world. Even amid a heated political battle over the future of immigration, it's undeniable that a core part of America's national identity is its image as “a nation of immigrants.” Many Americans proudly trace their ancestry to those who migrated to the U.S. in pursuit of the American Dream. Most take pride in knowing that people around the world dream of building a life in the USA. But immigration in the U.S. has always been complicated. Today, the country is also home to the largest population of unlawful migrants on Earth. In recent years, the U.S. southern border with Mexico has been cited as one of the most porous and chaotic in the world. Additionally, the U.S. has the most backlogged immigration courts globally. Our episode today examines how the U.S. immigration system became so stubbornly, frustratingly, and dangerously chaotic—from legal loopholes exploited by cartels to the failed legislation of the 1990s aimed at curbing illegal migration, and from the enduring challenges of enforcement to the growing calls for building a wall and mass deportations. Our guests are David Leonhardt, Senior Writer for The New York Times and author of Ours Was a Shining Future, and John Sandweg, former head of ICE under President Barack Obama. As always, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email at hello@reflector.show. Thank you to our sponsor Ground News. You can visit them here to learn more: GROUND.NEWS
A few months ago, I interviewed David Leonhardt, author of Ours Was the Shining Future, about the death of the American dream which, he argued, can be dated from on 5 June 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. And it's on that infamous date that I begun my conversation with Jonathan Taplin about the rebirth of the American dream. According to the Los Angeles based Taplin, who is now working on a book about an upcoming renaissance of American culture, the vehicle for a revitalized United States will come from a Sixties style explosion of cultural vitality. Bright new music, film and books will create a bright new America, Taplin predicts. I hope he's right.Jonathan Taplin is a writer, film producer and scholar. He is the Director Emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California and was a Professor at the USC Annenberg School from 2003-2016 in the field of international communication management and digital media entertainment. Taplin began his entertainment career in 1969 as Tour Manager for Bob Dylan and The Band. In 1973 he produced Martin Scorsese's first feature film, Mean Streets, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Between 1974 and 1996, Taplin produced 26 hours of television documentaries (including The Prize and Cadillac Desert for PBS) and 12 feature films including The Last Waltz, Until The End of the World, Under Fire and To Die For. His films were nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe awards and chosen for The Cannes Film Festival five times. In 1984 Taplin acted as the investment advisor to the Bass Brothers in their successful attempt to save Walt Disney Studios from a corporate raid. This experience brought him to Merrill Lynch, where he served as vice president of media mergers and acquisitions. In this role, he helped re-engineer the media landscape on transactions such as the leveraged buyout of Viacom. Taplin was a founder of Intertainer and has served as its Chairman and CEO since June 1996. Intertainer was the pioneer video-on-demand company for both cable and broadband Internet markets. Taplin holds two patents for video on demand technologies. Professor Taplin has provided consulting services on Broadband technology to the President of Portugal and the Parliament of the Spanish state of Catalonia and the Government of Singapore. Mr. Taplin graduated from Princeton University. He is a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and sits on the Author's Guild Council and the Board of the American Music Association. Mr. Taplin was appointed to the California Broadband Task Force and the City of Los Angles Technology and Innovation Council. He was named one of the 50 most social media savvy professors in America by Online College and one of the 100 American Digerati by Deloitte's Edge Institute.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
The American Dream – the idea that anyone can achieve success in the U.S. through hard work and determination – is under scrutiny, and some worry it's no longer achievable for the broader population. Those who agree say increasing healthcare, education, and housing costs create difficulty in having financial stability. Those who disagree argue that the U.S. still offers more opportunities for personal and financial growth than elsewhere. Now we debate: Is the American Dream in Decline? Arguing Yes: David Leonhardt, Pulitzer Prize-winning Senior Writer for The New York Times and The Morning; Author of “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream” Arguing No: Michael Strain, Political Economy Scholar and Director of Economic Policy Studies at American Enterprise Institute; Author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It)” Nayeema Raza, Journalist at New York Magazine and Vox, is the guest moderator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The American dream is the most important of our national myths. It's the idea that, with hard work and determination, anyone in this country can achieve middle-class security, own a home, start a family, and provide the children they raise with a better life than they had. Is that still true? On the one hand, our economy is the envy of the world. We are the richest country, leading the pack when it comes to innovation. And more people choose to move here for economic opportunity than to any other nation. And yet, everywhere you look in this country, there is a growing sense of pessimism. A sense that you can work hard, play by the rules, even go to college, and still end up saddled with debt and unable to afford the basics, like a home. Americans were told that higher education would be their ticket to the good life. Now, there's more than $1.7 trillion dollars in student loan debt hanging over a generation. Americans were told that free trade would make everyone prosper. But try telling that to the 4.5 million people who lost their manufacturing jobs in the last 30 years. Perhaps all of this is why a July Wall Street Journal poll found that only 9 percent of Americans say they believe that financial security is a realistic goal. And only 8 percent believe that a comfortable retirement is possible for them. Now, do those numbers reflect reality? Or just negative vibes? Last week, we convened four expert debaters in Washington, D.C., to hash out the question: Is the American dream alive and well? Arguing that yes, the American dream is alive and well, is economist Tyler Cowen. Tyler is a professor of economics at George Mason University and faculty director of the Mercatus Center. He also writes the essential blog Marginal Revolution. Joining Tyler is Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor in chief of the libertarian Reason magazine and co-host of The Reason Roundtable podcast. Arguing that no, the American dream is not flourishing, is David Leonhardt, senior writer at The New York Times and the author of Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream. David has won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Joining David is Bhaskar Sunkara, the president of The Nation magazine and the founding editor of Jacobin. He is the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality. Before the debate, 71 percent of our audience said that yes, the American Dream is alive and well, and 29 percent voted no. At the end of the night, we polled them again—and you'll see for yourself which side won. This debate was made possible by the generosity of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. If you care about free speech, FIRE is an organization that should be on your radar. If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Is the famed American Dream still attainable for the immigrants and working class of today? What made America the land of opportunity — and if it isn't the same anymore, what happened to it?Joining co-hosts Bethany and Luigi to discuss these questions is David Leonhardt, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "Ours Was the Shining Future." In his book, Leonhardt describes what he calls today's "rough-and-tumble" capitalism and distinguishes its laissez-faire characteristics from a more bygone, democratic version. Charting shifts in manufacturing, labor power, and the perennial tension between immigration and wages, Leonhardt and our hosts deliberate over the ramifications of this story for progressive and populist movements in a tumultuous election year and offer potential pathways to rekindle the promise of prosperity and upward mobility.
This week, Nick and Goldy are joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist David Leonhardt to discuss his latest book, Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream. They discuss the relationship between academic economics and the forces that sought to dismantle the mid-century consensus that promoted shared economic growth in the post-World War II era. Leonhardt shares anecdotes from his extensive research, highlighting what lessons from the past could guide us toward a more equitable future. David Leonhardt is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist for The New York Times, where he writes its flagship newsletter, “The Morning.” He has also been the newspaper's Washington bureau chief, an op-ed columnist, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, and the founding editor of “The Upshot.” Twitter: @DLeonhardt Further reading: Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream New York Times: Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy? The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick's twitter: @NickHanauer
The news media is very good at focusing on points of disagreement in our politics. Wherever Democrats and Republicans are butting heads, that's where we reliably find news coverage. When right and left disagree about trans rights, or the immigration border bill, or abortion, or January 6, or the indictments over January 6, you can bet that news coverage will be ample. But journalists like me sometimes have a harder time seeing through the lurid partisanship to focus on where both sides agree. It's these places, these subtle areas of agreements, these points of quiet fusion, where policy is actually made, where things actually happen. I'm offering you that wind up because I think something extraordinary is happening in American economics today. Something deeper than the headlines about lingering inflation. High grocery prices. Prohibitive interest rates. Stalled out housing markets. Quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, a new consensus is building in Washington concerning technology, and trade, and growth. It has three main parts: first, there is a newly aggressive approach to subsidizing the construction of new infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced computer chips that are integral to AI and military; second, there are new tariffs, or new taxes on certain imports, especially from China to protect US companies in these industries; and third, there are restrictions on Chinese technologies in the U.S., like Huawei and TikTok. Subsidies, tariffs, and restrictions are the new rage in Washington. Today's guest is David Leonhardt, a longtime writer, columnist, and editor at The New York Times who currently runs their morning newsletter, The Morning. he is the author of the book Ours Was the Shining Future. We talk about the history of the old economic consensus, the death of Reaganism, the demise of the free trade standard, the strengths and weaknesses of the new economic consensus, what could go right in this new paradigm, and what could go horribly wrong. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: David Leonhardt Producer: Devon Baroldi Links: David Leonhardt on neopopulism: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/briefing/centrism-washington-neopopulism.html Greg Ip on the three-legged stool of new industrial policy: https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-u-s-finally-has-a-strategy-to-compete-with-china-will-it-work-ce4ea6cf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On today's episode, New York Times senior writer David Leonhardt joins Oren Cass for a discussion of “neopopulism,” the realignment of American politics, and a bit of the history that got us here.For more, read David's recent NYT piece discussing this push for a more responsive politics.And check out his recent book, Ours Was a Shining Future, about the decisions and missteps that created the modern American economy.
Here's a depressing fact: it takes longer to travel from Boston to Los Angeles today than it did 50 years ago. Getting to the airport, getting through the airport, the flight itself — just about every part of the process takes longer than it once did. According to New York Times senior writer David Leonhardt, this is just one example of the stagnation defining so many aspects of America's society and economy today. From life expectancy to education outcomes to rates of income inequality, by so many measures, American society simply isn't improving for as many Americans as rapidly as it once did. By some measures, it's not improving at all.In other words: the American dream is increasingly out of reach. Leonhardt's newest book, “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream,” explores the data and the history behind this dimming of the American dream. This spring, he came to the Watson Institute to discuss the book with Jeff Colgan, director of the Watson Institute's Climate Solutions Lab. In this episode of Trending Globally, Colgan talks with Leonhardt about the cultural and political shifts that have contributed to this change, and about what needs to be done to make widespread prosperity attainable in the decades to come. Learn more about and purchase “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream”Subscribe to “The Morning”, a newsletter from The New York TimesLearn more about the Watson Institute's other podcastsTranscript coming soon to our website
The U.S. immigration system is a massively complicated machine, with a lot of worn-out parts. How to fix it? Step one: Get hold of some actual facts and evidence. (We did this step for you.) (Part two of a three-part series.) SOURCES:Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.David Leonhardt, senior writer at the New York Times.Sindhu Mahadevan, creator of This Immigrant Life newsletter. RESOURCES:The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, by Zeke Hernandez (2024, available for pre-order)."Illegal Immigration Is a Bigger Problem Than Ever. These Five Charts Explain Why," by Andrew Mollica, Alicia A. Caldwell, Michelle Hackman, and Santiago Pérez (The Wall Street Journal, 2023).Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream, by David Leonhardt (2023).The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017). EXTRAS:“The True Story of America's Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."And the New Six-Word Motto for the U.S. Is …," by Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics blog, 2008).
Writer of “The Morning” newsletter for The New York Times and author of Ours Was the Shining Future, he admires A. Philip Randolph, who championed this idea: “Collective action around labor and workers is the most powerful vehicle for changing this country.” The echoes and implications of social class.
David Leonhardt, a senior writer at The New York Times, where he writes “The Morning” newsletter, joins Scott to discuss themes from his book, “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream.” We hear about the state of the US economy, investments that could fuel economic growth, and how the political parties have contributed to a decline in American prosperity. Scott opens with his thoughts on his stock pick for 2024. Algebra of Happiness: create a time machine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
David Leonhardt, Pulitzer-prize winning essayist for the New York Times, discusses his new book, Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream.
The American Dream – the idea that anyone can achieve success in the U.S. through hard work and determination – is under scrutiny, and some worry it's no longer achievable for the broader population. Those who agree say increasing healthcare, education, and housing costs create difficulty in having financial stability. Those who disagree argue that the U.S. still offers more opportunities for personal and financial growth than elsewhere. Now we debate: Is the American Dream in Decline? Arguing Yes: David Leonhardt, Pulitzer Prize-winning Senior Writer for The New York Times and The Morning; Author of “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream” Arguing No: Michael Strain, Political Economy Scholar and Director of Economic Policy Studies at American Enterprise Institute; Author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It)” Nayeema Raza, Journalist at New York Magazine and Vox, is the guest moderator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
You may know David Leonhardt from his wildly popular New York Times newsletter, "The Morning." What you may not know is that David is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has spent years trying to understand why the standard of living for many Americans seems to be eroding. His findings are the subject of a new book, "Ours Was the Shining Future," which The Atlantic named one of the best of the year. He joins us today to talk about it.
Buying has almost always been favored over renting when it comes to housing. For generations, the prevailing wisdom has been that renting is a waste of money. But what about now, with a tough real estate market characterized by elevated listing prices and interest rates? Geoff Bennett discussed that with David Leonhardt, author of, "Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream." PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
The 1950's and 60's were an age of widely shared prosperity in the U.S. — across class and economic lines — that have never quite returned. Things were improving for all parts of society during the post-war period, and for all groups including Black Americans, despite the real presence of racial bias and discrimination against them. And things have not improved equally in recent decades. Things have improved since then. But the rate of steady and ongoing improvement and progress has slowed in many ways, and stalled in some.All this is the subject of today's episode, an interview with journalist David Leonhardt of the New York Times. You may know David from the daily newsletter for the Times that he writes, which is the Times' flagship newsletter, The Morning. David's new book is called "Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream." It was recently named one of the year's top 10 books by The Atlantic magazine. "The economy has grown more slowly than it did in the postwar decades," Leonhardt writes, "producing less bounty for the population to share." And, he adds, "the economy has become more unequal, with a declining share of that bounty available to most Americans, because it is flowing to a relatively small percentage of affluent households" (xxiii).This is a problem for democracy, Leonhardt writes. His book is one of several recently that are, together, sending a loud signal to Democrats that they have become too strident and purist in ways that alienate large numbers of voters who they need to win elections. These books are imploring Democrats to focus on helping working class voters economically and to cast a wider and more tolerant tent on social and cultural issues.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comDavid is a journalist and columnist. He writes the NYT's flagship daily newsletter, “The Morning,” contributes to the paper's Sunday Review section, and co-hosts “The Argument,” a weekly opinion podcast with Ross Douthat and Michelle Goldberg. In 2011 he won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary on economic questions. His new book is Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream.The episode was taped on November 8th. For two clips of our convo — on African-American lefties against mass immigration, and black voters moving to the GOP over crime — pop over to our YouTube page. Other topics: David's upbringing in NYC and Boston; “creating dorky fake newspapers in elementary school”; his mom was a copyeditor and his dad a high-school teacher; the debt that print journalists owed to the sports page; America's economic golden age of the mid-20th century; how we used to have trust in institutions with more social cohesion; communism “just doesn't work”; how the union movement was strong; how Eisenhower's R&D was unprecedented but also had balanced budgets; how JFK was a “massively overrated president”; RFK's conservatism and his deep popularity with black Americans; LBJ's view that crime was just poverty; the immigration restrictions until the 1965 act; low crime before the 1960s; the much higher marriage rate before the 1960s, especially among blacks; the stagflation of the 1970s; OPEC after the Yom Kippur War; Milton Friedman; how the government created the computer industry; how the female workforce has been kicking ass; the anti-patriotism of the left; Obama's love for America; how today's government doesn't invest as much in the future; IRA and CHIPS; the newfound bipartisan interest in unions; Covid relief; crime and disorder after the summer of 2020; effective altruism; the low price of clothing today; how our lower life expectancy is a sign of plenty; and how Millennials are not as far behind their parents as much as we're told.Browse the Dishcast archive for another convo you might enjoy (the first 102 episodes are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Carole Hooven returns to talk about her tribulations at Harvard, McKay Coppins discusses Romney and the GOP, my old friend Joe Klein and I do a 2023 review, Jennifer Burns on her new biography of Milton Friedman, and Alexandra Hudson on civility. Please send any guest recs, dissent and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.
In this episode of Capital for Good we speak with David Leonhardt, senior writer at the New York Times where he writes its flagship newsletter, “The Morning,” and author of the important new book, Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream. At the Times Leonhardt has been Washington bureau chief, op-ed columnist, staff writer for the Magazine, and founding editor of “The Upshot.” Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2011, Leonhardt is one of the country's most insightful thinkers and analysts. We begin the conversation with some of Leonhardt's own origin story: his family's experience with the American Dream, including that of his grandfather who fled the antisemitic persecution of wartime Europe for the United States, married, and started life in the US in 1940 on the cusp of a long period of prosperity and opportunity — one, too, of terrible discrimination, racism, sexism — but a society that, for most Americans, would deliver on the promise of the American Dream “that life gets better over time.” “I feel a real gratitude for this country, not by any means blind to its great faults,” Leonhardt says, and expresses deep concern that our collective sense of optimism about the future has faded for so many as progress — on earnings, health and wellbeing, life expectancy – has slowed “to a crawl for most Americans,” while income and wealth inequality have soared. We discuss Leonhardt's belief that capitalism “works better than any alternative we've found… but only a certain type of capitalism”: one that acknowledges that the market is a good and strong force “with consistent shortcomings” that, unchecked by government interventions, can produce significant inequality, or global challenges like climate change. Leonhardt describes how a positive “democratic capitalism” thrived in the post war period for a number of reasons, among them the rise of organized labor that significantly reduced inequality and increased material living standards for lower- and middle-income Americans, and a culture of business leadership championed by executives who believed they were “trustees of the common welfare,” stewards of a kind of high wage, low inequality capitalism that shared the goal with government and labor of creating “a more prosperous America to lead the world.” Leonhardt notes that this era also saw significant government investment in public goods — basic science and technology research (that was then taken up by the private sector), physical infrastructure (i.e., roads and railways), social infrastructure (i.e., education) — with the foresight and political will to use “some of today's resources to make life better tomorrow.” Today, Leonhardt laments, we have reverted to a kind of “rough and tumble” capitalism with massive declines in union membership and power, a more self-interested corporate culture, and a stagnation that comes from decades of underinvestment. We end our discussion on a note of optimism, “not that we are going to fix our problems,” Leonhardt says, “but that we can fix our problems.” He believes that the decline of the American Dream over the past half century can be reversed, and that the dream can restored by a strong and diverse grassroots political movement dedicated “to protecting that dream” and improving living standards of most Americans. Leonhardt cites any number of unlikely successes in our history of social progress — on the political left and labor – that have been achieved through grassroots organizing and coalition building. He is confident, or at least hopeful, “the future can be different from the past.” Thanks for listening! Subscribe to Capital for Good on Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Drop us a line at socialenterprise@gsb.columbia.edu. Mentioned in this Episode Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America, (The New York Times, 2023) The Hard Truth About Immigration, (The Atlantic, 2023)
Mark 1:1-8Big Idea: The Good news comes in the unlikeliest places.Good NewsHebrew:Bisser [bi-sair]. Verb—good newsBesorah. Noun—the good news givenGreek:Euangelion— Eu (good) and angelion (news)Luke 2:8-141. Anticipation: The good news was predictedMalachi 3:1Challenges without hope lead to despair. Challenges with anticipation lead to joy.Isaiah 40:9-112. Desperation: The good news was needed.Isaiah 61:1-3“At no point since 2005 have a majority of Americans said the country was on the right track, according to Gallup. Whether the economy is growing or shrinking, whether the president is a Democrat or Republican, most Americans believe that we have lost our way.” Ours Was the Shining Future, David Leonhardt 3. Deliverance: the Good News brought freedom.Isaiah 52:7-9Mark 1:14-15“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis4. Personification: the Good News comes as a person-JesusLuke 4:14-21Response:• Look: Attentively seek to see God's love all around you.• Open: Receive His peace and grace as it is poured into your life.• Share: Be the bearers of good news this Christmas season
Mark 1:1-8Big Idea: The Good news comes in the unlikeliest places.Good NewsHebrew:Bisser [bi-sair]. Verb—good newsBesorah. Noun—the good news givenGreek:Euangelion— Eu (good) and angelion (news)Luke 2:8-141. Anticipation: The good news was predictedMalachi 3:1Challenges without hope lead to despair. Challenges with anticipation lead to joy.Isaiah 40:9-112. Desperation: The good news was needed.Isaiah 61:1-3“At no point since 2005 have a majority of Americans said the country was on the right track, according to Gallup. Whether the economy is growing or shrinking, whether the president is a Democrat or Republican, most Americans believe that we have lost our way.” Ours Was the Shining Future, David Leonhardt 3. Deliverance: the Good News brought freedom.Isaiah 52:7-9Mark 1:14-15“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis4. Personification: the Good News comes as a person-JesusLuke 4:14-21Response:• Look: Attentively seek to see God's love all around you.• Open: Receive His peace and grace as it is poured into your life.• Share: Be the bearers of good news this Christmas season
For many millennials, buying a home has become almost entirely out of reach. Average 30-year mortgage rates are hovering around 7 percent — the highest they've been since 2007 — largely because of the Federal Reserve's efforts to tame inflation.David Leonhardt, a senior writer for The New York Times, discusses whether it is time to change how we think about buying vs. renting.Guest: David Leonhardt, a senior writer for The New York Times. He writes The Morning, The Times's flagship daily newsletter, and also writes for Sunday Review.Background reading: Are you ready to buy a home? Should you rent? Take our quiz.From Opinion: Millennials are hitting middle age — and it doesn't look like what we were promised.The New York Times' review of David Leonhardt's book “Ours Was the Shining Future.”For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
On this day after Thanksgiving, enjoy some of our favorite recent conversations: With the "dream" of an ever-brighter economic future now stymied, David Leonhardt, senior writer for The New York Times who writes The Morning, The Times's flagship daily newsletter and author of Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream (Random House, 2023), traces its history and offers a path to reclaiming it for future generations. Through the story of three North Philadelphia children and drawing on his research, Nikhil Goyal, sociologist and policymaker who served as senior policy advisor on education and children for Chairman Senator Bernie Sanders on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Committee on the Budget and the author of Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty (Metropolitan Books, 2023), shows how poverty limits the lives of U.S. children and offers policy solutions. Jessica Gould, education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, recounts one family's year-long battle with New York City's Department of Education to help their child receive the specialized instruction required while growing up with dyslexia. Naomi Klein, activist, professor of climate justice at the University of British Columbia, and the author of Shock Doctrine, No Logo, and her latest Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2023), writes about her identity being confused with Naomi Wolf's and how that reflects larger societal trends. Mo Rocca, host of the podcast Mobituaries, a CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and a frequent panelist on NPR's hit weekly quiz show Wait, Wait…Don't Tell Me!, talks about the new season of Mobituaries, the "death" of the mid-Atlantic accent, and things he wishes would go away. These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity; the original web versions are available here: What Happened to the American Dream? (Oct 24, 2023) Child Poverty and How to End It (Sept 26, 2023) The Struggle to Get Proper Instruction for Students with Dyslexia in New York City (Oct 23, 2023) Navigating the 'Mirror World' (Sept 12, 2023) Mo Rocca's "Mobituaries" (Oct 27, 2023)
Have you achieved the American Dream? Actually–how do you even define the American Dream? Sometimes it can feel like that phrase is meaningless and politicized but that idea is such a cornerstone of what makes us the United States. It's foundational, but it can sometimes feel like it's falling apart. Enter David Leonhardt's new book–he's a columnist at the New York Times and heads their The Morning newsletter. In the book, Ours Was the Shining Future, he sets out to quantify the American Dream and tell a story of how it's changed over the last few decades. And for those who might feel intimidated by economics, Leonhardt's book might just be the perfect entry point: the personal narratives of the people who shaped our history bring this book from the theoretical to the concrete. This insightful, comprehensive, human book provides a perfect jumping off point to examine the long, imperfect story of our ongoing project as Americans, striving to realize the promises of democracy and capitalism–and all the successes and failures along the way so far. We can learn from the past, and David, armed with data but also with compassion and optimism, is an excellent guide.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How is it that we can travel anywhere in the world faster than ever before, but actual travel times have become slower? David Leonhardt writes The Morning, the flagship daily newsletter for The New York Times. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how a lack of investment in infrastructure has put the U.S. behind peer countries in nearly every category from education to transportation to even life expectancy. His book is “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream.”
Most Americans today would agree that the dream of supporting a family and living a good life on one full time salary is not available to vast numbers of people. Wages have not risen at the pace of profits over the last several decades, and work with benefits is far from guaranteed for many. In his 2023 book, “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream,” New York Times writer David Leonhardt explains how we got here. He points out that corporate culture moved from a communitarian mindset to an individual one, government policies deprioritized workers, and labor unions weakened, all contributing to where we are today. Businessman, economics advisor and co-founder and co-chair of The Carlyle Group investment firm, David Rubenstein, talks with Leonhardt about his book on stage at the festival. The two discuss the drivers of economic progress and consider what would bring the American Dream back.
David Leonhardt, a senior writer for the New York Times, has tracked the U.S. economy for decades. Starting in the late 2000s, he began to notice that the statistical evidence was telling him a disheartening story about the decline of the American dream. Whether it was stagnating wages for most workers, the decreasing likelihood of children born into each generation to economically outperform their parents, technological slowdowns, or the life expectancy of Americans relative to other high-income countries — by every indicator, the United States as a whole seemed to be losing the sense of inevitable progress that had long defined it. In his magnificent new history, Ours Was the Shining Future, Leonhardt examines how America succeeded in delivering "the most prosperous mass economy in recorded history" starting in the 1940s and how the American Dream receded for most citizens in the 1980s and beyond. Using both economic analysis and deep historical research, Leonhardt uncovers the critical ways in which "democratic capitalism" characterized the U.S. during the presidencies from the 1940s through the 1970s, a period that spanned the terms of Democratic presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson but also Republican presidents like Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. A combination of circumstances, policies, and attitudes brought about what historian James Truslow Adams (who coined the term "the American Dream" in the 1930s) envisioned as "a better, richer, and happier life for Americans of every rank." In this podcast episode, Leonhardt discusses how the critical factors of political power, enlightened corporate culture, and government investment operated in a virtuous cycle during the four decades after the end of World War II to bring about widespread prosperity. But after 1980, a reversion to what Leonhardt calls "rough-and-tumble capitalism" meant that these critical factors moved the country into a vicious cycle instead. Leonhardt emphasizes that "the Great Stagnation" of the past four decades — as the working class and lower middle class have experienced it, at any rate — can be overcome. But failure to do so will mean that "every problem we have in our society becomes much harder to solve if we don't solve that."
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Nikki Haley's progress and Ron DeSantis's stagnation in Iowa, Donald Trump's testimony in New York, and Dean Phillips's campaign in New Hampshire; the first social-media cases of the term at the Supreme Court; and Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream with author David Leonhardt. And you can be a part of the show: submit your Conundrum at slate.com/conundrum. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Brianne Pfannenstiel for the Des Moines Register: “Donald Trump builds on big lead as Nikki Haley pulls even with Ron DeSantis in Iowa Poll” Jennifer Rubin for The Washington Post: “Nikki Haley has a shot. But a really, really long one.” Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess for The New York Times: “Trump Civil Fraud Trial: Donald Trump Jr. Resumes Testifying in Fraud Case Aimed at His Father” Geoffrey Skelley for 538: The curious case of Dean Phillips's last-minute primary challenge 538: “How popular is Joe Biden?” Jeff Neal for Harvard Law Today: “The Supreme Court takes on (anti)social media” Adam Liptak for The New York Times: “Supreme Court Lifts Limits for Now on Biden Officials' Contacts With Tech Platforms” Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: “Justices take major Florida and Texas social media cases” Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream by David Leonhardt Emily Bazelon for The New York Times's The Morning newsletter, November 2, 2023 David Leonhardt for The Atlantic: “The Hard Truth About Immigration” Peter Dizikes for MIT News: “Q&A: David Autor on the long afterlife of the “China shock”” History.com: “A. Philip Randolph” Natasha Singer for The New York Times: “This Florida School District Banned Cellphones. Here's What Happened.” and “New Laws on Kids and Social Media Are Stymied by Industry Lawsuits” Cristiano Lima and Naomi Nix for The Washington Post: “41 states sue Meta, claiming Instagram, Facebook are addictive, harm kids” Here are this week's chatters: Emily: The New Yorker's Poetry Podcast with Kevin Young: “Toi Derricotte Reads Tracy K. Smith” John: The Graham Norton Show: “Dame Judi Dench Masterfully Does A Shakespeare Sonnet”; BBC Radio 4's Cabin Pressure; Endeavour on PBS Masterpiece; John Dickerson for CBS News Prime Time: “Grammy-winning artist Jason Isbell talks about the craft of songwriting and his latest music”; and Ray Bradbury in the Los Angeles Times: “'Ice Cream Suit'--Touchstone for the Past and Present” David: Sarah Zhang for The Atlantic: “Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong” Listener chatter from Albert Fox Cahn: N'dea Yancey-Bragg for USA Today: “Advocates say excited delirium provides cover for police violence. They want it banned” and John Dickerson for CBS News 60 Minutes: “How a questionable syndrome, “Excited Delirium,” could be protecting police officers from misconduct charges” For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about classroom cellphone bans. In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kristi Coulter about her book, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth Research by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week's episode of Deep Dive, Pulitzer Prize winner David Leonhardt joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to talk about his new book and what it says about how Democrats can save their relationship with working class voters. Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO. David Leonhardt is a senior writer for the New York Times and the author of "Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream." Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio. Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio.
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Nikki Haley's progress and Ron DeSantis's stagnation in Iowa, Donald Trump's testimony in New York, and Dean Phillips's campaign in New Hampshire; the first social-media cases of the term at the Supreme Court; and Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream with author David Leonhardt. And you can be a part of the show: submit your Conundrum at slate.com/conundrum. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Brianne Pfannenstiel for the Des Moines Register: “Donald Trump builds on big lead as Nikki Haley pulls even with Ron DeSantis in Iowa Poll” Jennifer Rubin for The Washington Post: “Nikki Haley has a shot. But a really, really long one.” Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess for The New York Times: “Trump Civil Fraud Trial: Donald Trump Jr. Resumes Testifying in Fraud Case Aimed at His Father” Geoffrey Skelley for 538: The curious case of Dean Phillips's last-minute primary challenge 538: “How popular is Joe Biden?” Jeff Neal for Harvard Law Today: “The Supreme Court takes on (anti)social media” Adam Liptak for The New York Times: “Supreme Court Lifts Limits for Now on Biden Officials' Contacts With Tech Platforms” Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: “Justices take major Florida and Texas social media cases” Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream by David Leonhardt Emily Bazelon for The New York Times's The Morning newsletter, November 2, 2023 David Leonhardt for The Atlantic: “The Hard Truth About Immigration” Peter Dizikes for MIT News: “Q&A: David Autor on the long afterlife of the “China shock”” History.com: “A. Philip Randolph” Natasha Singer for The New York Times: “This Florida School District Banned Cellphones. Here's What Happened.” and “New Laws on Kids and Social Media Are Stymied by Industry Lawsuits” Cristiano Lima and Naomi Nix for The Washington Post: “41 states sue Meta, claiming Instagram, Facebook are addictive, harm kids” Here are this week's chatters: Emily: The New Yorker's Poetry Podcast with Kevin Young: “Toi Derricotte Reads Tracy K. Smith” John: The Graham Norton Show: “Dame Judi Dench Masterfully Does A Shakespeare Sonnet”; BBC Radio 4's Cabin Pressure; Endeavour on PBS Masterpiece; John Dickerson for CBS News Prime Time: “Grammy-winning artist Jason Isbell talks about the craft of songwriting and his latest music”; and Ray Bradbury in the Los Angeles Times: “'Ice Cream Suit'--Touchstone for the Past and Present” David: Sarah Zhang for The Atlantic: “Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong” Listener chatter from Albert Fox Cahn: N'dea Yancey-Bragg for USA Today: “Advocates say excited delirium provides cover for police violence. They want it banned” and John Dickerson for CBS News 60 Minutes: “How a questionable syndrome, “Excited Delirium,” could be protecting police officers from misconduct charges” For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about classroom cellphone bans. In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kristi Coulter about her book, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth Research by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Nikki Haley's progress and Ron DeSantis's stagnation in Iowa, Donald Trump's testimony in New York, and Dean Phillips's campaign in New Hampshire; the first social-media cases of the term at the Supreme Court; and Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream with author David Leonhardt. And you can be a part of the show: submit your Conundrum at slate.com/conundrum. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Brianne Pfannenstiel for the Des Moines Register: “Donald Trump builds on big lead as Nikki Haley pulls even with Ron DeSantis in Iowa Poll” Jennifer Rubin for The Washington Post: “Nikki Haley has a shot. But a really, really long one.” Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess for The New York Times: “Trump Civil Fraud Trial: Donald Trump Jr. Resumes Testifying in Fraud Case Aimed at His Father” Geoffrey Skelley for 538: The curious case of Dean Phillips's last-minute primary challenge 538: “How popular is Joe Biden?” Jeff Neal for Harvard Law Today: “The Supreme Court takes on (anti)social media” Adam Liptak for The New York Times: “Supreme Court Lifts Limits for Now on Biden Officials' Contacts With Tech Platforms” Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: “Justices take major Florida and Texas social media cases” Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream by David Leonhardt Emily Bazelon for The New York Times's The Morning newsletter, November 2, 2023 David Leonhardt for The Atlantic: “The Hard Truth About Immigration” Peter Dizikes for MIT News: “Q&A: David Autor on the long afterlife of the “China shock”” History.com: “A. Philip Randolph” Natasha Singer for The New York Times: “This Florida School District Banned Cellphones. Here's What Happened.” and “New Laws on Kids and Social Media Are Stymied by Industry Lawsuits” Cristiano Lima and Naomi Nix for The Washington Post: “41 states sue Meta, claiming Instagram, Facebook are addictive, harm kids” Here are this week's chatters: Emily: The New Yorker's Poetry Podcast with Kevin Young: “Toi Derricotte Reads Tracy K. Smith” John: The Graham Norton Show: “Dame Judi Dench Masterfully Does A Shakespeare Sonnet”; BBC Radio 4's Cabin Pressure; Endeavour on PBS Masterpiece; John Dickerson for CBS News Prime Time: “Grammy-winning artist Jason Isbell talks about the craft of songwriting and his latest music”; and Ray Bradbury in the Los Angeles Times: “'Ice Cream Suit'--Touchstone for the Past and Present” David: Sarah Zhang for The Atlantic: “Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong” Listener chatter from Albert Fox Cahn: N'dea Yancey-Bragg for USA Today: “Advocates say excited delirium provides cover for police violence. They want it banned” and John Dickerson for CBS News 60 Minutes: “How a questionable syndrome, “Excited Delirium,” could be protecting police officers from misconduct charges” For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about classroom cellphone bans. In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kristi Coulter about her book, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth Research by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Supporters of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act pledged it wouldn't radically change immigration. David Leonhardt, author of Ours Was the Shining Future, explains how it instead led to what might be the largest wave of immigration in in human history. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by David Herman, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
With the "dream" of an ever-brighter economic future now stymied, David Leonhardt, senior writer for The New York Times who writes The Morning, The Times's flagship daily newsletter and author of Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream (Random House, 2023), traces its history and offers a path to reclaiming it for future generations.
What made people believe the "American Dream" when the mythos around it came about, and where is that sentiment left in 2023 and beyond?' On Today's Show:With the "dream" of an ever-brighter economic future now stymied, David Leonhardt, senior writer for The New York Times who writes The Morning, The Times's flagship daily newsletter and author of Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream (Random House, 2023), traces its history and offers a path to reclaiming it for future generations.
What made people believe the "American Dream" when the mythos around it came about, and where is that sentiment left in 2023 and beyond?' On Today's Show:With the "dream" of an ever-brighter economic future now stymied, David Leonhardt, senior writer for The New York Times who writes The Morning, The Times's flagship daily newsletter and author of Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream (Random House, 2023), traces its history and offers a path to reclaiming it for future generations.
Town Square with Ernie Manouse airs at 3 p.m. CT. Tune in on 88.7FM, listen online or subscribe to the podcast. Join the discussion at 888-486-9677, questions@townsquaretalk.org or @townsquaretalk. The “American Dream” is the national ethos of the United States, and is usually equated with success, money, and prosperous living. However, these days it seems this dream is becoming more and more unattainable as 60% of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck according to recent reports. For the full hour, we talk with The New York Times Senior Writer David Leonhardt, and Alissa Quart, author of the book Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream to discuss their thoughts on the quality of living for Americans today and how it relates to the current state of the “American Dream”. Both guests discuss the concept of the “American Dream” and what it means today compared to previous generations, the myriad of economic hardships faced by many Americans, particularly for millennials and Gen Z, their thoughts on whether the idealized “American Dream” can still be achievable in the future, and more. Guests: David Leonhardt Senior Writer, The New York Times Writer of the NYT flagship daily newsletter The Morning Author of the forthcoming book, Ours Was the Shining Future Alissa Quart Author of Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream Town Square with Ernie Manouse is a gathering space for the community to come together and discuss the day's most important and pressing issues. We also offer a free podcast here, on iTunes, and other apps