I'm Michelle Goldberg. I'm Ross Douthit. I'm David Lee and Hart and this is the argument.

This week Ross sits down with Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

I think there's a huge hunger in America for non-ideological solutions to the problems that people are experiencing every day.

Then Ross Michelle and I talk about why Yang's candidacy matters.

He exemplifies this, you know, spiritual crisis of the meritocracy.

And finally, a recommendation.

It is one of the things that I recommend to people all the time in real life.

Andrew Yang has spent his career working in technology startups, not politics, but now he's running for president.

And he has attracted enough donors more than 100,000 of them to qualify for the first Democratic debate.

Why does so many people like Yang?

Largely because he has released such a detailed policy agenda.

It includes a crackdown on big tech companies and a universal basic income, a thousand dollars a month guaranteed for all American adults.

First, you're going to hear Ross's interview with Yang.

And then Michelle and I will come back with Ross to talk about the broader issues that his candidacy is raising and why it matters to the race, even if he is not the nominee.

Here are Ross and Andrew Yang.

So I thought that we would just start with a kind of getting to know you discussion.

Can you just tell our audience a little bit about your background?

Sure. The son of immigrants was born in Sconnected in New York.

My father was a physicist for GE and IBM who generated 69 US patents over his career.

Went to college at Brown University, studied economics and political science didn't know what to do.

So I went to law school, became an unhappy corporate attorney for five months.

Thought it was a crummy job.

...