Everybody Gets Pie's Podcast

Congressman Jake Auchincloss, who focuses on housing and technology policy, proposes an audacious idea: building entirely new cities in America. He discusses innovative site selection, financing options like tax increment financing, and minimizing sprawl through smart design. Jake emphasizes tackling 'cost disease' in infrastructure and advocates for regulatory changes to spur quick wins. He also warns about big tech's negative impact on society and suggests reforms. Expect to learn how America can creatively address its housing and infrastructure challenges!

If you want better senators in 2032, start by electing better city councilors in 2026. Amanda Litman (Run for Something) joins Everybody Gets Pie to lay out a practical path to a deeper Democratic bench, why renters should run, and how local reforms can make elections more competitive.What we cover:• Why competitive districts have declined and incumbency has hardened• How proportional representation and ranked choice voting can improve representation• The $50M Battle Up plan to recruit Gen Z and millennial candidates• Why renters in office change the housing debate• States to watch: Texas, Florida, Utah, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Iowa• Term limits, public financing, and paying local officials• Authentic messaging and winning where you liveFollow & Support Everybody Gets Pie X: @pie4everybody Bluesky: @everybodygetspie.bsky.socialYouTube: @EverybodyGetsPieInstagram: @everybodygetspieTikTok: @everybodygetspie 🎙️ Subscribe, share, and let us know who you’d like to hear on the next episode!

In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we sit down with Laura Friedman (D-CA-30), whose unique journey took her from producing Hollywood films to shaping housing, transit, and climate policy in Washington. We dive deep into her “abundance agenda,” exploring how streamlining federal approvals, cutting outdated red tape and rethinking land use can unlock affordable housing and smarter growth for communities.Highlights include:How Laura’s background in storytelling and architecture led her into public service and housing reform.The bipartisan Cut Red Tape for Housing Act she introduced, which seeks to exempt infill affordable-housing projects from the burdensome National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. Why parking minimums, transit access and housing supply are deeply connected — and how California’s reforms show the way.The federal role in housing: From leveraging transportation and community-development dollars to setting national definitions of infill development.How communities can break through “not in my backyard” resistance by showing how new housing improves local economies, mobility, and quality of life.Insights into how environmental policy, trade, and local development interlock with the ability to live affordably and in the right place.Whether you’re working on zoning, housing access, infrastructure, sustainability — or just trying to figure out how we build the spaces where we live — this episode shows how change at the local level connects to decisions made in D.C., and why giving everyone a slice of the pie starts with making the pie itself bigger.Tune in for a smart, actionable conversation about building more homes, smarter cities, and a more abundant future.Follow & Support Everybody Gets Pie X: @pie4everybody Bluesky: @everybodygetspie.bsky.socialYouTube: @EverybodyGetsPieInstagram: @everybodygetspieTikTok: @everybodygetspie 🎙️ Subscribe, share, and let us know who you’d like to hear on the next episode!

Everyone agrees we need to build clean energy — fast. Solar, wind, transmission lines, geothermal. But when Congress tried to speed things up, even environmentalists split. The fight over permitting reform revealed something deeper: a clash between those who want to build faster and those who want to build perfectly.In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we dig into why speeding up clean energy has become so hard and why even people who agree on the goal can’t agree on how to get there.We talk with investor and climate leader Tom Steyer about capitalism’s role in fighting climate change, how bad policy can stall good projects, and what it really takes to build fast and fair in America.Because if we can’t fix our systems to build clean energy quickly, we may never fix the climate at all.Follow & Support Everybody Gets Pie X: @pie4everybody Bluesky: @everybodygetspie.bsky.socialYouTube: @EverybodyGetsPieInstagram: @everybodygetspieTikTok: @everybodygetspie 🎙️ Subscribe, share, and let us know who you’d like to hear on the next episode!

Voters consistently rank inflation, cost of living, and the economy as their top concerns—and they trust Republicans more on every one of them. In this episode, Senator Ruben Gallego explains why Democrats are losing ground on economic trust and how they can win it back. We dive into housing costs, the childcare crunch, skyrocketing energy bills, and why permitting reform could be key to lowering prices. The conversation also covers manufactured housing, the federal role in unlocking supply, and what it would take for Democrats to credibly promise prosperity again.Follow & Support Everybody Gets Pie X: @pie4everybody Bluesky: @everybodygetspie.bsky.socialYouTube: @EverybodyGetsPieInstagram: @everybodygetspieTikTok: @everybodygetspie 🎙️ Subscribe, share, and let us know who you’d like to hear on the next episode!

Democrats aren’t just up against Republicans—they’re wrestling with their own identity. From climate activists protesting Matthew Yglesias over fracking, to internal fights about whether to go big on cultural issues or focus narrowly on economic growth, the left feels more fractured than ever.In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, Justine Underhill, Burhan Azeem, and Armand Domalewski sit down with Matt Yglesias—author of the Slow Boring newsletter and the “Common Sense Democrat Manifesto”—to ask: what’s next for Democrats?We dig into:Why climate activists confronted Yglesias and what it reveals about progressive tensionsThe case for a bigger Democratic tent on social and cultural issues“Big ass truck abundance” and how to make growth and prosperity resonate with swing votersLessons from housing reform, YIMBY victories, and the broader abundance agendaWhat Democrats need to prioritize heading into 2026 and beyondThis conversation isn’t about left vs. right—it’s about whether Democrats can deliver on abundance, build a coalition that lasts, and stay competitive in a changing America.Links & References:A Common Sense Democrat ManifestoBig Ass Truck AbundanceSlow Boring NewsletterFollow & Support Everybody Gets Pie X: @pie4everybody Bluesky: @everybodygetspie.bsky.socialYouTube: @EverybodyGetsPieInstagram: @everybodygetspieTikTok: @everybodygetspie 🎙️ Subscribe, share, and let us know who you’d like to hear on the next episode!

For decades, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was untouchable. Originally passed to protect the environment, CEQA evolved into a sprawling law that let almost anyone sue to block nearly any project, not just oil refineries, but also student housing, food banks, daycare centers, bike lanes, and even high-speed rail. Reform was considered politically impossible.Then, in the final hours of June 2025, that changed. Governor Gavin Newsom called it “the most consequential housing reform we’ve seen in modern history.” CEQA was dramatically scaled back and projects like urban apartments, child care centers, and climate infrastructure were suddenly freed from decades of red tape.In this episode, hosts Justine, Armand, and Burhan break down how it happened, why it felt impossible until it wasn’t, and what lessons this victory holds for solving other gridlocked challenges. We’re joined by the lawmakers who authored the reforms Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks for an inside look at how they overcame entrenched interests, shifting political alliances, and years of frustration to deliver a landmark win.This is a hopeful story about persuasion, persistence, and the power of building movements that make the impossible inevitable.Follow & Support Everybody Gets Pie X: @pie4everybody Bluesky: @everybodygetspie.bsky.socialYouTube: @EverybodyGetsPieInstagram: @everybodygetspieTikTok: @everybodygetspie 🎙️ Subscribe, share, and let us know who you’d like to hear on the next episode!