Andrew Yang on UBI, coronavirus, and his next job in politics

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2020

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: voxmedia.com/podsurvey. Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. New to the show? Want to check out Ezra’s favorite episodes? Check out the Ezra Klein Show beginner’s guide (http://bit.ly/EKSbeginhere) Credits: Producer/Editor/Audio Wizard - Jeff Geld Researcher - Roge Karma Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:46.0	Ezra, this is my new mission in life, which is to try and fix the mechanics of our government so it can actually deliver to us.
0:58.0	Hello and welcome to this grand show on box media podcast network. I first had Andrea Yang on the podcast back in August of 2018, which feels like forever ago.
1:23.0	I know Andrea a lot longer. I knew him back when he ran something called venture for America, which was trying to build on the Teach for America model to push young graduates of top schools to go do startups and small businesses in communities that had not been part of the huge wealth inequality in America.
1:42.0	Go start things in the middle of the country.
1:45.0	That was a super fascinating guy then, and then when he ran for president, I thought it was interesting, did not expect all that much to come of it.
1:52.0	But he did a, I think, a really remarkable job. He pushed ideas out into the mainstream that weren't there.
1:57.0	And he modeled a kind of political decency. And oftentimes in the debate in a way, I appreciated a quizzicalness.
2:06.0	You could see I'm sitting there thinking like this is how we do it. This is what it looks like.
2:12.0	That I always thought was valuable and refreshing.
2:16.0	When Andrea was on the podcast last time, we debated a bunch about AI and what we do to the economy and whether or not a UBI would be the right solution.
2:24.0	A universal basic income would be the right solution, even if AI did up end the economy.
2:29.0	But a couple years later, we are living through a very different kind of economic upheaval.
2:34.0	Andrea Yang is no longer a presidential candidate, though he did speak at the DNC and made some interesting points there that we talk about.
2:40.0	He's now part of a group founded a group called Humanity Forward, which is trying to pilot universal basic income on a small scale as he reveals in this show.
2:48.0	He is thinking about or talking with the Biden folks about taking a role.
	...

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