To mark the release of our new book “Abundance,” my co-author Derek Thompson had me on his podcast, “Plain English,” to talk about it. We’re on book tour right now, so we’re doing a lot of talking about this book. But this conversation is different. It’s just Derek and me, and we get into the story of how the book came together, and all the people and ideas that influenced us – a kind of intellectual history of the abundance agenda. And I thought the audience of this show might find this interesting too. This episode of “Plain English” was recorded on March 11.Mentioned:“Abundance” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson“Abundance” book tour“The Political Fight of the Century” by Derek Thompson“The Economic Mistake the Left Is Finally Confronting” by Ezra KleinThis episode contains strong language. 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.
What inspired the creation of the book 'Abundance'?
From New York Times Opinion, this is The Ezra Klein Show. So this week on Tuesday, March 18th, my book, Abundance, came out. I am excited about it. You've heard parts of it on the show. And I've been trying to restrain myself from completely overloading this feed with content about the book or its ideas.
But I did do this show with my co-author, Derek Thompson, on his great podcast, Plain English.
And Derek took us through something that I really enjoyed and hadn't expected to do, which is an intellectual genealogy of the book, how this came to be, both in terms of he and I working together, he and I coming to these ideas, and all of the other different writers and forces and movements and researchers who helped inform it. I thought it was worth sharing with all of you, too. Thank you.
Ezra Klein, hello and welcome. I am thrilled to be on Plain English. What a wonderful and rare opportunity to talk to you about abundance. This is exciting. We're going to answer somewhere between 10,000 and 11 billion questions about this book in the next few weeks. So I wanted to hold this conversation to the relatively high bar of
What can we talk about together here that other interviewers probably won't even think to ask us? And the first thing that I thought of is that nobody else knows the story of why this book exists in the first place. So in my personal chronology, the story of this book starts in the fall of 2021.
I am rolling off of book leave for a related but distinct project on the history of technological progress in America. I haven't had a very easy time with book leave because, as it turns out, writing a book is, among other things, a total pain in the ass. But one of the themes of this progress book that I was writing was the distinction between invention and implementation.
Just because somebody comes up with a good idea does not mean that it's going to change the world. ideas are cheap, building is hard. And I'm rolling off of book leave with this idea sort of swimming in my head. And in September 2021, I see that you have published an essay in the New York Times that's called, quote, the economic mistake the left is finally confronting.
And you use this essay to introduce a term that you call supply side progressivism. What was this essay about? Why did you read it?
2021 um you know even when i go back to that essay you can you have moments as a writer i know you do and where a bunch of things that have been bothering you for a long time coherent to one thing you realize you've been thinking about one thing and not many and And so there are a couple of things floating in my head over the 30 years before that.
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