Marshall here. Welcome back to The Realignment.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. I spent nearly the past year or so covering the

abundance agenda, so I'm excited to present today's interview with the New York Times' Ezra

Klein. Ezra and the Atlantics, Derek Thompson,

have a new book out today, fittingly titled Abundance. Abundance is about addressing some of the

21st century's biggest problems, our inability to build big, ambitious projects, a national

housing crisis, shortages and scarcities of essential goods and services, and the fact that

blue states like California failed to build the same level of clean energy infrastructure as red states

like Texas. If we are thinking about the Biden administration and all of the excitement that went into

the Chips Act or the Inflation Reduction Act, all these big projects

that are supposed to emerge out of it. There are a lot of lessons that could be taken from the

failure to translate big legislation into action on the ground that many in the administration

encountered on making a difference in the 2024 election. Having covered abundance for a while,

I was curious to get Ezra's thoughts on the ideas,

but also his perspective on early critiques that have emerged as the abundance agenda picks up

steam. Going back to what I said when I first was introduced to abundance last year, I've appreciated

how it gives us a perspective for looking at the problems that we're facing in the country right now.

And even if you may quibble with the specific policies recommended,

even if you don't think that the abundance framework perfectly applies to every single challenge you face as a country,

I think we should be looking for more ideas like this that are rooted in the 21st century

and not merely just repeating 20th century articulations and

understandings of our problems.

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