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Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding (with Osita Nwanevu)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

News, Business, Government, Politics

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Extreme inequality and democratic decline aren’t separate crises—they’re the same crisis. This week, Osita Nwanevu joins Paul and Goldy to explain how America’s constitutional design, corporate power, and decades of upward redistribution have eroded both political and economic freedom. He outlines what real democratic governance would mean inside government and at work, why the concentration of wealth threatens stability, and how a long-term movement for a more representative system could finally deliver the policies most Americans want. Osita Nwanevu is a journalist and political writer whose work focuses on democracy, governance, and the intersection of politics and power in America. His reporting and essays have appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times. He is the author of The Right of the People, a sweeping examination of why American democracy is faltering and what it would take to build a more just, inclusive, and genuinely democratic society. Further reading:  The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New  American Founding By the Workers, for the Workers: Building Economic Democracy https://www.ositanwanevu.com/ Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics 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?

0:16.2

Middle-out economics is the answer.

0:18.6

Because the middle class is the source of growth, not its consequence.

0:23.2

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.

0:41.8

Hey, Goldie. Guess what? Oh, it's Paul. You're not Nick. You're Paul. I am Paul. Yes. Sorry about that.

0:50.4

I have a little, I have a little gift for you, Goldie. It's the, it's, we're getting up on the, uh, the holiday time, holiday season.

0:57.3

And so I thought I would do something nice for you.

0:59.9

The war on Christmas season.

1:02.4

Uh-huh.

1:02.9

Uh-huh.

1:03.5

I am giving you, uh, the opportunity, you know, in the office, you are, you are commonly regarded

1:10.0

as the grump and the person who wallows in pessimism.

1:14.5

And I am giving you the opportunity to wallow for almost a full episode of this podcast.

1:21.9

Because we are getting into some subject matter that I think will appeal to your wallower self.

1:29.3

I like to think of myself as a cock-eyed pessimist, Paul.

1:33.9

I know.

1:34.9

So, you know, I think, I think, obviously, we cut you off sometimes when we talk about how bad politics are and the current state of the United States under Trump.

1:47.4

And so I think it's important to address that the world is on fire.

...

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