Radio Abundance

United States Congressman Scott Peters is a champion for Progressive Abundance. A member of both the Congressional YIMBY Caucus and the Congressional Build America Caucus, Representative Peters even had a hand in founding YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County. In this episode of Radio Abundance, we met up with Congressman Peters while he was visiting his home district and brought together YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County’s former President Angeli Hoyos and current President Manny Rodriguez for a special conversation on Building America from San Diego to the halls of Washington DC. Enjoy!Join YIMBY Democrats for America, Radio Abundance, Project Liberal, YIMBY Action, Dream for America, Abundant Housing Los Angeles, YIMBY Los Angeles, YIMBY Law, YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County, Los Angeles New Liberals, New York City New Liberals, and People First California at The Festival of Progressive Abundance, coming to the gorgeous Cinevita in Los Angeles from Friday, January 30th to Sunday, February 1st, 2026! Featuring United States Congresswoman Laura Friedman, California Forever Founder & CEO Jan Sramek, Niskanen Senior Fellow & Author of ‘Why Nothing Works’ Marc Dunkelman, Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom on Economic Mobility Michael Tubbs, and Monumental Labs Founder & CEO Micah Springut. Tickets are $275 for Early Adopters if you get yours before the end of the day on Tuesday, November 25th, and $315 for Early Birds who buy before December 22nd, 2025. Get yours today, and join us for a one-of-a-kind festival, summit, conference, rally, and party experience! Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

For 7 years until YIMBY Democrats for America launched in 2025, the only YIMBY Democratic organization in the United States was YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County. And what a success they’ve been! For this special episode of Radio Abundance, YIMBY Democrats for America Executive Director Steve Boyle swung over to San Diego for an in-person, in-studio conversation with 3 All-Stars of the San Diego YIMBY scene: YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County President Manny Rodriguez, YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County Communications Head Saad Asad, and the Global Policy Leadership Academy’s Manager of California Homelessness and Housing Curriculum Gabrielle Werve. Enjoy! Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

Congressman Jake Auchincloss helped launch YIMBY Democrats for America and Radio Abundance by joining us on our premiere episode alongside Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Secretary of Housing & Community Development Jake Day. Less than 6 months later, Congressman Auchincloss joined us at in Washington DC to explore his new op-ed on Charter Cities, in which he wrote:“Building new cities next to productive cities is the “have your cake and eat it too” of economic development. “Having your cake” is agglomeration. Adjacent hubs generate the interactions that drive innovation, which increases productivity, which boosts wages. “Eating it too” is affordability. A new city can build housing and infrastructure at the scale and speed necessary to produce enough supply to drive down costs. This benefits not just the denizens of the new city, but those of the existing one, too, since housing markets are as regional as labor markets. Over the long term, new cities can become links in a new economic geography, radiating economic opportunity inwards from the coasts and forging a more geographically inclusive nation.”Along the way, we also talked about one of Congressman Auchincloss’ most important issues: the attention-fracking of America’s children by social media companies by what Congressman Auchincloss calls “digital dopamine.”Read the op-ed here, and enjoy Congressman Auchincloss on Radio Abundance! Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

This month, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a new Executive Order to increase housing production and affordability in Maryland. Secretary of Housing & Community Development Jake Day joined Radio Abundance in Washington DC to answer your questions about the new Executive Order, from what it entails to how they plan to enforce it to what we can expect to see as results.Secretary Day joined us on the same day that we interviewed both him and Congressman Jake Auchincloss at the DNC in Washington DC — two of three guests from our premiere episode double-header. With only Governor Wes Moore missing from a reunion special, Secretary Day brought a special message from Maryland Governor Wes Moore for all YIMBY Democrats across America:“Hey, Jake, please give my best to the YIMBY Democrats! It’s crazy to think it’s been just 5 months since that first episode we did together. How funny that you’re getting the band back together with my man Jake Day and Congressman Auchincloss. I’d be there with you if I wasn’t literally launching my re-election bid today! You’re in great hands though, and together with Secretary Day, we’re making sure that Maryland leads in addressing our housing crisis, Building America, and championing Progressive Abundance. We got this.”Here’s that clip:The “Housing Starts Here” executive order:* Directs the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and the Maryland Department of Transportation, in conjunction with the Maryland Department of General Services, to identify specific state-owned properties for transit-oriented development, paving the way for more homes for Maryland families to be built through improving the use of state-owned land.* Promotes government efficiency by reducing state permitting timelines, bringing more homes to market faster while improving the transparency of jurisdictional housing production.* Creates a new state housing ombudsman to act as a liaison between the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and other state agencies, local governments, developers, local communities, and other stakeholders to assist in the permitting process—ensuring development projects continue without delay.* Directs the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to work with local jurisdictions to create housing production targets for the state, each county, and each municipality with planning/zoning authority. The production targets are to be published in January 2026 and updated every five years.* Establishes annual Maryland Housing Leadership Awards to recognize jurisdictions that make progress on their housing development goals. The awards give jurisdictions bonus points that increase their competitiveness when applying for funding programs through the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

This interview is our most harrowing and disturbing interview on Radio Abundance yet. It was chilling to edit. Two days before Charlie Kirk was assassination in broad daylight and President Trump announced that anyone who had ever called him a Fascist was “directly responsible for terrorism,” Congresswoman Laura Friedman sat down with Radio Abundance host Steve Boyle to lay out the case for why Trump was pursuing a march to Fascism and how she faced the ever-present threat of political violence. This interview from September 8th, 2025, serves as an important historical artifact of the mood and stakes in this nation even before Kirk’s murder, untainted by the ferocious and dangerous discourse that has followed. It is worth your time. Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

This July, Radio Abundance host Steve M. Boyle returned to London to commemorate the 20th anniversary of surviving Al Qaeda’s 7/7 London Underground Attacks by visiting Parliament at the invitation of Chris Curtis MP and Labour YIMBY organizers.On July 10th, Chris Curtis sat down with Radio Abundance to tell our American audience how he and the UK’s Labour Party are pursuing Abundance across the pond. Take a listen! Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

New York City has 3 major pro-housing initiatives on the ballot that NYC New Liberals Political Director Tibita Kaneene thinks might be bigger than City of Yes. As we speak, however, NIMBY elected officials are mobilizing with dirty tricks to protect their own “member deference” vetocracy-of-one, a practice that Congressman Ritchie Torres called “municipal feudalism” on his own episode of Radio Abundance.We’re in the midst of a few high-intensity weeks, so we’re shipping episodes right away and backfilling transcripts later. We wanted to give you the auto-generated transcript, but there’s too much “Chiyose” and “Zellnir Meiri” to be legible. If you’d like to help us clean up and ship transcripts faster, reach out to us at Team@YIMBYDemocrats.org! Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

This episode was filmed on Tuesday, September 2nd. With Radio Abundance Host Steve M. Boyle on a flight to DC, Radio Abundance Los Angeles Host and newly-christened Executive Director of People First California Zennon Ulyate-Crow pinch hits to lead a special conversation with Jon Lovett, the co-host of Pod Save America, host of Lovett or Leave It, Cofounder of Crooked Media, and former speechwriter for President Barack Obama.Pod Save America were gracious enough to welcome us into their studio for this special episode of Radio Abundance, where Zennon got to ask the question that’s been on everyone’s mind: Jon, how did your brain not break listening to that? And how much longer can we have a Democratic party if our “Progressive champions” are intent on minimizing affordable housing and flipping the House and the Electoral College to MAGA for a generation?Get the answers to these questions and more on this episode of Radio Abundance!Thank you, Pod Save America, for letting us film this special episode of Radio Abundance at your studios!We’re shipping this timely video right before we leap into the Abundance 2025 Conference in Washington DC. We will backfill the transcript in the coming weeks! Enjoy the discussion, and make sure to catch the original! Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:Hey, everybody. Welcome to Radio Abundance. My name is Steve Boyle. I'm the Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America, and we are live on location in London today with Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North. Chris, thanks for joining us on Radio Abundance!Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:Thank you very much for having me! It's great to be here. Well, it's great for you to be here, I suppose, is probably the better way of putting it? Thank you for coming to this great city and chatting to us!Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:I mean, it is a tremendous honor. As I mentioned the other day at the Labour YIMBY Summer Party, it genuinely is the honor of a lifetime, no matter what happens from here on out, because I'm not in London to hang out with you — that's very fortunate for me — I'm here because, 20 years ago, I survived the July 7th terrorist attacks, and it felt very important for reasons I could hardly begin to explain to be back here for the anniversary. And it turns out to have been because, a couple days before coming, the Labour YIMBY folks reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to do a podcast with them. I said, "You're never gonna believe it: I'm coming to London!" They said, "You're never gonna believe it. We have, like, 10 things booked that week. Do you want to do all of them?" And so we have gotten to meet each other, and here we are sitting down together.Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:Yeah, it's very good to have met you, and very good to form these Trans-Atlantic partnerships to beat the scourge of NIMBYism and hopefully get both of our great countries building again, because it's the only way we can start to solve the problems that both our nations face.Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:I mean, it is incredibly exciting, right? Our nations are family members. And, you know, families bicker from time to time. But that's a family, right? You have a kid. You raise the kid. The kid gets older and says, "I want more agency." You say, "I don't think so." Kid says, "I think so."Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:Who's the kid in this?Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:We're the kid! You're the parents. And, eventually, we've got to leave the nest. And then, after a little time of tension, we become quite close again. And have been ever since.Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:Yeah, I mean, if you follow the analogy to its end, eventually you are going to be caring for us. I'm not sure how I feel about that!Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:I think we've done a lot together as nations, from supporting each other in democracy to defeating fascism, and if we can help each other to build, that's fantastic.And what I mean by help each other really is to learn from each other. Because I think the best way to go about this — the best way to help each other — is to share information and also case studies. So, I'm excited that we get to do that today, because even for our very wonkish and worldly audience, there's things you know about the UK and there's things you don't.I think most people will be able to name your Prime Minister and the last few as well. They will have knowledge of certain UK scandals and historical developments. I'd be surprised, though, if a lot of people know what Milton Keynes North is. Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:A massive shame that is.Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:Well, tell us about it!Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:So, Milton Keynes is probably one of the places in the UK that would feel most familiar and at home to an American visiting.We have these things that are incredibly rare in the UK, actually, which is roads that run straight. We have a grid system like you have in DC and lots of other places. And that is basically because it is a New Town. A New City.I'm the first Member of Parliament -- it's the same age as my mum -- I'm the first Member of Parliament that was born and grew up in the New Town, now City, of Milton Keynes. It's got a population of about 300,000. It was built and designed by the 1960s Labour government, who saw the massive housing shortage that the country faced and realized, particularly here in London, that we needed to start building new places and new settlements to live in.AMilton Keynes was the biggest and most successful of those places and has consistently grown ever since. Over the past decade, we've been building between 2,000 and 3,000 homes every single year. We are on a trajectory to become a city of about 500,000 over the next 15 or 20 years.I think what's most exciting is: we built this new settlement, now this new city, where so many people have made their home, but we've also built a massive economic success story.It's halfway between London and Birmingham, two of our biggest cities here. It's also halfway between Oxford and Cambridge, which are big university cities which I'm sure many of your audience have heard of. It's slap bang in the middle of all four of those. So, it's got really good connections to all of those places. And, partly because of that, it's got a real thriving economy.We've got a massive growing tech sector. Robotics. Loads of other exciting stuff going on. More startups than almost anywhere else in the country. So, anyone that's coming over or looking to invest in the UK, please do consider it, because it is a really exciting, vibrant place and somewhere that I'm determined to continue building and ensuring that kids growing up there today can have the same fantastic start in life that I had growing up there a few decades ago.Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:Let's just double stamp something you said. Before we even get to your role in Parliament, how UK housing law works, and how you're trying to change that: you mentioned that Milton Keynes is a New Town. Which is to say, in the thousand year history of your nation — you can correct that; I know there's several pieces to the United Kingdom and maybe you have different ideas of where they begin. I'm going Battle of Hastings; we can refine that — Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:We're getting the Bayeux Tapestry coming over! That was announced this week.Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:Ooh.Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:We've already gone off on a tangent! The French are sending us over the Bayeux Tapestry for a little bit next year. Come back and see it!Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:It's a dangerous precedent for you if we're starting to return artifacts to different places…Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:I refuse to comment!Steve M. Boyle, Executive Director of YIMBY Democrats for America:But in this long history, not so long ago, your people in government said, "Hey, you know this place where there is nothing? There should be a town here. We will build it." And you're not the only one!So, I'm very curious: you started to allude to this, but, man, I think an American audience would be interested in why that decision was made in and how it was executed, right? Was it just the government building things? Was it a public private partnership? How did this work?Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North:It was a big government decision, and it was far more government-led and executed. It was a Development Corporation, as we call them, that was set up, which is a publicly-owned organization. It had compulsory purchase powers.My great, great grandparents were farmers on the land. They had their farm compulsorily purchased off them by the government in order to build it. So, it was a level of forcefulness and government control. A lot of it was private money still. There was a lot of private capital that was invested in it, but it was a lot more government-centered and government-focused than you would necessarily do today.It was just because there was such a determination at the time to break through the housing crisis that the country faced. I think what was also interesting about it — obviously, kind of having a quite well planned city was quite interesting, and you talk about the grid system and everything else — but it was also being able to start from scratch. Picking what was effectively a lot of farms and going, "Let's build something here" really allowed for innovation.So, they built entire housing estates to look at how, if you build in slightly different ways, it can lead to homes that use less energy, because there was a fuel crisis at the time. Thinking about how to build far more efficiently, so that you can get more bang for your buck with building.We learned so much through the process of building as well. Actually, we — the government in the UK — is now thinking about repeating this process with a series of more modern New Towns. And what's interesting as part of that process that we're going through is looking back to the New Towns of the past, particularly Milton Keynes, and thinking, "What did we get right? What did we get wrong? What can we learn from them to ensure that the places that we build in the future can be even better?"And that's quite exciting.!Like, actually, we talk about building and development and the things that it achieves in new homes, whatever. But actually, this idea of building somewhere new — and the innovation and what you can learn from it — I think is also really exciting.Stay tuned for the next chapter of our Radio Abundance interview with Chris Curtis, Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North in the United Kingdom, filmed in London. Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe

Zennon Ulyate-Crow, Host of Radio Abundance LA: Hello! My name is Zennon Ulyate-Crow. I'm here with Radio Abundance, live in Los Angeles. Sitting right next to me is Jon Rawlings, running for Council District 3 in Los Angeles.Jon, want to tell me a little bit more about why you're here today?Jon Rawlings, Los Angeles City Council Candidate:Yeah, so we're here at the Sepulveda Stop of the Orange Line. We're reacting to City Council yesterday voting to oppose SB 79 to build more housing near transit. We thought this would be the perfect place to do it because behind us we've got what I think is a Chevron gas refinery and an empty parking lot on the other side. And this seems like the perfect place that we should be building housing.Zennon Ulyate-Crow, Host of Radio Abundance LA: Can you tell me your first reactions to the Council opposing SB 79 and what you would want to do as a Council Member to support building more housing near transit?Jon Rawlings, Los Angeles City Council Candidate:Yeah, I mean, my first reaction is obviously disappointment. We certainly need bills like SB 79 to build more housing around transit.But my second reaction was: I expected it. This is a City Council that has traditionally always said "no" to more housing, no matter what that looked like, whether it's a state bill or something on the local level.So, as a City Council Member, I want to get to a City Council that says "yes" to more housing, especially around transit. That feels like probably the most obvious place we should start with building housing.This station right here is actually the site of where they're planning to build the new Sepulveda Pass transit corridor, which is a train line that's going to connect the Valley to the West Side. You're going to be able to get from here to UCLA in 9 minutes.Zennon Ulyate-Crow, Host of Radio Abundance LA: Why is the LA City Council opposing building more housing in places like this?Jon Rawlings, Los Angeles City Council Candidate:Well, we've seen City Council tends to listen to the loudest voices, even though that might not be indicative of the population of their districts. And those tend to be the NIMBY, wealthy, single family homeowners. And you'll hear standard terms like, "oh, we want to maintain control of our city and the way that we do things, and we also don't want to change the character of our neighborhood."But, for those of us in this space, we know that that's just BS and that just means they don't want to do anything. They want to maintain their control, and that means not building anything.Zennon Ulyate-Crow, Host of Radio Abundance LA: As a Council Member in CD 3, what would you do differently for your district and for the City of Los Angeles as a whole when it comes to housing and transportation policy?Jon Rawlings, Los Angeles City Council Candidate:Yeah, for me and my district in CD 3, we definitely could use some more building around transit and commercial corridors as well. There's definitely some opportunities along the Orange line and even along Ventura Boulevard to build more housing, bring in more density, and create more walkable cities.In terms of transit, I would very much be an advocate for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor and building heavy rail down there, as well as other, you know, bus lanes and bike lanes and other transit-oriented development and just transit means of getting around the city.Zennon Ulyate-Crow, Host of Radio Abundance LA: If there's any way that people can help out with your campaign, what could they do the most to help?Jon Rawlings, Los Angeles City Council Candidate:Right now, it's getting the word out. So, follow the socials for sure. Just look up Jon Rawlings (J-O-N & Rawlings like the baseball company) to follow me on social media.If you're interested in volunteering, you can go to the website JonRawlings.com to reach out. Or even DM me on Instagram!I'm available, and we're looking for volunteers and people that want to get the word out about good candidates that support transit and housing! Get full access to Radio Abundance by YIMBY Democrats for America at radioabundance.substack.com/subscribe