CORE Econ: Rewriting Econ 101 for the Real World (with Suresh Naidu and Wendy Carlin)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Econ 101 shapes how millions of people understand the economy—but what if the textbooks are teaching a worldview that’s outdated, oversimplified, and in some cases flat-out wrong? This week, Nick and Goldy talk with economists Wendy Carlin and Suresh Naidu, leaders of CORE Econ, the global project rewriting introductory economics to reflect the real world. They explain why the old curriculum failed during the 2008 financial crisis, how CORE foregrounds issues students actually care about—inequality, climate change, and the future of work—and why teaching economics without talking about innovation or power is like teaching physics without gravity. If you’ve ever walked out of an Econ 101 class thinking, “That can’t be how the economy really works,” this episode is your vindication—and your alternative. Suresh Naidu is a professor of economics and international and public affairs at Columbia University, known for his work on labor markets, political economy, and power in the economy. He is a key contributor to CORE Econ, helping shape its emphasis on real-world data, inequality, and institutions. Wendy Carlin is a professor of economics at University College London and one of the world’s leading experts in economic education and the future of macroeconomic policy. She is the co-founder and director of CORE Econ, the global curriculum reform project now used in universities across more than 60 countries. Social Media: @coreeconteam @columbia_econ Further reading: CORE - Economics for a changing world About Core Econ CORE (Curriculum Open-access Resources in Economics) Econ CORE Econ’s vision is that a radically transformed economics education can contribute to a more just, sustainable, and democratic world in which future citizens are empowered by a new economics to understand and debate how best to address pressing societal problems. Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: ⁠⁠The Pitch⁠⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory.
0:10.6	The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked.
0:14.8	But what's the alternative?
0:16.3	Middle-out economics is the answer.
0:18.6	Because the middle class is the source of growth, not its consequence.
0:23.1	That's right.
0:28.7	This is pitchfork economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.
0:36.9	Welcome to the show.
0:41.7	I think it's fair to say, Nick, that you and I have been pretty critical about the way
0:48.3	economics is taught, especially at the introductory level. Yes, that's absolutely true. Yeah, in fact, you and I,
0:57.3	if I remember correctly, we had similar college experiences. Yes. I actually tended to look at
1:04.8	textbooks. And I didn't take a lot of general survey courses, like big lectures. When I did,
1:10.1	I would look at the textbook before I
1:11.8	would sign up for the class. And I looked at that Econ 101 textbook, and I thought, no way.
1:19.9	I am not to, this is, this is garbage. There's no way I'm spending an entire semester, quote, learning this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And me,
1:31.3	I got one quarter of the way through my Econ 101 course and dropped it. I was just like,
1:35.9	this is nonsense. This is just not true. So I had the advantage that I actually looked at the
1:43.9	book first.
1:45.2	Yeah.
1:46.0	No.
1:46.8	That's because you were a good student.
1:48.4	I was a lazy student.
	...

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