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Hello, Current Affairs listeners. This is Eli Massey. I sat down with Philip K. Howard to discuss his book Try Common Sense. I hope you enjoy it.

Well, Philip K. Howard, thank you so much for joining me to talk about your new book, Try Common Sense.

Let's start, pretty basic. Why don you tell me why did you write this book?

And what would you say is the kind of thesis or the elevator pitch?

I wrote the book because no one realizes that you can't actually make government work without rebooting it.

You know, I'm down there working on Trump's CEO council

and testifying before Congress in 2017.

At the end of the year, not only did I realize that nobody changed how they were doing business,

nobody was really trying to rebuild infrastructure or anything.

But I also realized that they didn't comprehend how the accretion of bureaucracy over the prior 50 years

really made any sensible choices illegal.

...