The last time Andrew Yang was on the podcast, he was just beginning his long shot campaign for the presidency. Now, he’s fresh off a speaking slot at the Democratic convention, and, as he reveals here, talking to Joe Biden about a very specific role in a Biden administration.
Which is all to say: A lot has changed for Andrew Yang in the past few years. And even more has changed in the world. So I asked Yang back on the show to talk through this new world, and his possible role in it. Among our topics:
- Could a universal basic income be the way we rebuild a fairer economy post-coronavirus?
- What’s changed in AI, and its likely effect on the economy, over the past five years?
- What’s the one mistake Yang wishes the Democratic Party would stop making?
- What did he learn from the surprising success of his own campaign?
- What job is he talking to Joe Biden about taking if Democrats win in November?
- Democrats think of themselves as the party of government. So why don’t they care more about making government work?
- How can Democrats get away with endlessly claiming to support ideas they have no actual intention of passing?
- Do progressives have an overly dystopic view of technology?
- Is there a way to pull presidential campaigns out of value statements, and into real plans for governing?
- The unusual power Joe Biden holds in American politics
And much more.
References:
Vox's Kelsey Piper's piece on GPT-3
My previous podcast with Andrew Yang
Ezra's piece on "Why we can't build"
Book recommendations:
Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe by Roger McNamee
They Don't Represent Us by Lawrence Lessig
Humankind by Rutger Bregman
This podcast is part of a larger Vox project called The Great Rebuild, which is made possible thanks to support from Omidyar Network, a social impact venture that works to reimagine critical systems and the ideas that govern them, and to build more inclusive and equitable societies. You can find out more at vox.com/the-great-rebuild
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