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The Ezra Klein Show

Is Climate Change a Reason to Avoid Having Children? and Other Listener Questions Answered

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.611K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2022

⏱️ 75 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s that time of year, when we invite listeners to send in questions, and I answer them on the air. And as usual, you delivered. I’m joined by my producer Annie Galvin, who asks me some of the most intriguing questions of the many we received: Is climate change a reason to forgo having kids? What would happen if Trump were allowed to return to Twitter, in the event of an Elon Musk acquisition? Should Biden run again in 2024? Is wokeness killing the Democratic Party? We also discuss the recent congressional hearing about U.F.O. sightings; whether it’s a good thing that so many talented young people are going to work in consulting, finance and corporate law; the worrisome anti-institutional direction of the Republican Party; why government is failing to deliver on liberals’ policies and promises — and how to start fixing that problem; whether Americans’ distrust in institutions is warranted; why I could use some recommendations for a good reading chair; and more. Mentioned: We're hiring a researcher! You can apply here or by visiting nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/News “Your Kids Are Not Doomed” by Ezra Klein “Empirically Grounded Technology Forecasts and the Energy Transition” by Rupert Way, Matthew Ives, Penny Mealy and J. Doyne Farmer “Ibram X. Kendi on What Conservatives — and Liberals — Get Wrong About Antiracism” by The Ezra Klein Show “A Different Way of Thinking About Cancel Culture” by Ezra Klein Public Citizens by Paul Sabin “This Is Why Your Holiday Travel Is Awful” by Marc J. Dunkelman “Are We More Polarized? Or Just Weirder?” by The Ezra Klein Show “Donald Trump Didn’t Hijack the G.O.P. He Understood It.” by The Ezra Klein Show “Robert Sapolsky on the Toxic Intersection of Poverty and Stress” by Vox Conversations Book Recommendations: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney Music Recommendations: “Spring 1” by Max Richter Christian Löffler Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. “The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rogé Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Ezra Klein.

0:07.0

This is the Ezra Conchell.

0:20.6

So we're here.

0:21.6

We're doing it.

0:22.6

The long awaited ask me anything episode.

0:25.1

And I'm joined for it to answer a bunch of questions that have been sent in by you and

0:28.8

curated by our team, by our great producer, Annie Galvin, who's going to both ask them

0:34.0

and hold my feet to the fire if I completely dodge them.

0:36.9

So Annie always a pleasure.

0:39.4

Thank you Ezra, happy to be here.

0:41.0

All right.

0:42.0

So let's start with a fun question and then we'll get to the deeper ones.

0:46.1

So Matt is not alone in wanting you to talk about the aliens, especially in light of

0:52.9

government UFO reports.

0:54.6

And just to give a little context, last month officials told Congress that the UAP unidentified

1:00.7

aerial phenomena database now contains about 400 reports.

1:05.0

And apparently there's been less stigma around reporting them.

1:08.3

So what is your read on aliens these days, Ezra?

1:11.4

So you called this a fun question.

1:12.9

I don't know that it is a fun question.

1:14.8

I think this is very weird on a couple of different levels.

1:18.2

So what I now understand to be the situation is that the US federal government has come out

...

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