Episode 478 – The Abundance Conspiracy (w/ Sandeep Vaheesan, Isabella Weber, & Aaron Regunberg)

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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.

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Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).