Why Nothing Works and What to Do About It

The Mona Charen Show

The Bulwark

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Author Marc Dunkelman discusses his new book Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back.Dunkelman contrasts past centralized efficiency with today’s slow, decentralized system full of procedural roadblocks. They close with a hopeful look at reform efforts, like Josh Shapiro’s in Pennsylvania, as one potential model.
The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political and cultural topics. New shows drop Mondays. Find this show wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Add the show to your player of choice, here.

This episode of The Mona Charen Show is sponsored by Putting Families First.
They won’t forget that certain legislators betrayed families by cutting Medicaid and public school funding. Putting Families First is trying to put a stop cuts to Medicaid and public education, and are working to elect leaders who agree. Learn what’s at stake at PutFamilies1st.org.
References:

Why Nothing Works– by Marc Dunkelman
Stuck– by Yoni Appelbaum
Abundance– by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
The Power Broker– by Robert Caro
The Power Elite– by C. Wright Mills
The House of Truth – by Brad Snyder

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you know that if you are 20 years old now, there's a chance your great grandparents might have met thanks to computer dating?
0:08.0	Did you know that under their main tongue, lemurs have another tongue?
0:13.0	I did know that because you and I, Andy, and I'm James, are host of the podcast No Such Thing as a Fish a British podcast
0:21.0	all about facts
0:22.1	That's right
0:22.9	We have two other co-hosts
0:24.3	Dan and Anna
0:25.1	Every week we tell you a selection
0:26.9	of the most amazing
0:27.7	hilarious, bizarre, wonderful information
0:29.7	that you've never heard before
0:31.0	It happens every week
0:32.2	and it's called
0:32.8	No Such Thing as a Fish
0:34.7	Find it wherever you get your podcasts
0:36.4	Now what's all this about computer dating?
0:43.9	Welcome to the Mona Charrin Show.
0:46.4	So glad you could join me.
0:48.2	I'm delighted to welcome today, Mark Dunkelman, who is a fellow at the Brown University Watson Institute for International
0:59.2	and Public Affairs, formerly with the Clinton Foundation, worked on Capitol Hill for many years,
1:07.4	and is the author of a new book, Why Nothing Works.
1:13.1	So Mark Dunkelman, thanks so much for joining me.
	...

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