The Realignment

Last week, Marshall interviewed Abundance co-author Derek Thompson and Representative Jake Auchincloss at WelcomeFest 2025. Marshall, Derek, and Jake's panel focused on the abundance agenda's place in debates about the future of the Democratic Party, the center-left's lack of a defining vision in contrast to the populist left and right's clarity, their reaction to polls indicating populism polls stronger than abundance, the importance of "telling stories" vs. articulating plans for the country, and the need to expand the abundance agenda debate beyond housing to the role of technology and progress in America.

Transcribed - Published: 12 June 2025

Steve Teles, Niskanen Center Senior Fellow and Johns Hopkins University professor, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Steve discuss Ezra Klein's shout-out to The Realignment in the New York Times, Marshall's experiences debating the abundance agenda on Breaking Points and interviewing The Atlantic's Derek Thompson and Rep. Jake Auchincloss at Welcome Fest, whether factional fights vs. friendly conciliation is the best way to advance abundance arguments, and more...

Transcribed - Published: 10 June 2025

Steve Teles, Johns Hopkins University Professor and Niskanen Center Senior Fellow, returns to The Realignment. Steve and Marshall discuss new polling that that indicates voters, especially Democrats, prepare populist economic messaging to the "bottlenecks"-focused abundance agenda, why abundance and populism are complimentary, not oppositional, the dangers of over-focusing on polls (whether you're pro or anti abundance), and how the abundance agenda could address higher education challenges.

Transcribed - Published: 3 June 2025

Historians Gary Gerstle and Noam Maggor, organizers of the Beyond Neoliberalism conference, join The Realignment. Marshall, Noam, and Gary discuss the origins and aims of their conference, why conversations about post-neoliberalism aren't just about wonky, academic jargon, the rise and fall of the New Deal and Neoliberal political orders, why 1990s neoliberal thinking no longer helps us think through today's challenges, the false starts and stops of the post-2016 realignment era, and what a post-neoliberal political order could look like.

Transcribed - Published: 29 May 2025

Ian Fletcher, co-author of Industrial Policy for the United States: Winning the Competition for Good Jobs and High-Value Industries, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Ian discuss what industrial policy actually means and why it includes trade policy, the rise and fall of free trade orthodoxy, what went right and wrong with Trump and Biden's industrial policy strategies, why "Liberation Day" isn't enough to reindustrialize America, and which industries and technologies the U.S. should focus its attention on.

Transcribed - Published: 27 May 2025

Steve Teles, Niskanen Center Senior Fellow and Johns Hopkins University professor, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Steve discuss the abundance agenda's future prospects, takeaways from the book tour, the left populist response to abundance, the differences between Steve's "captured economy" thesis and left concerns that abundance is too disinterested in corporate power and big money, and the prospects for right-wing, "dark abundance," during and after the Trump administration.

Transcribed - Published: 22 May 2025

Mark K. Updegrove, President and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, former Director of the LBJ Library and Museum, and author of Make Your Mark: Lessons in Character from Seven Presidents, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Mark discuss the relationship between character, leadership, and greatness in the American presidency, the case for not approaching politicians cynically, the personal stories behind Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and other late 20th century presidents, any why even flawed leaders leave behind admirable traits worth learning from.

Transcribed - Published: 20 May 2025

John Cassidy, New Yorker Staff Writer and author of Capitalism and Its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI, joins The Realignment. Marshall and John discuss the rise of anti-capitalist sentiment on the left and right, from President Trump's economic nationalism to the democratic socialism of Senator Bernie Sanders, the missed opportunities of the globalization era, the failures of trade policy, the coming AI disruption, and tensions between tech and democracy.

Transcribed - Published: 15 May 2025

Elizabeth Wilkins, President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute and alumn of the White House and Lina Khan's Federal Trade Commission, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Elizabeth discuss why the left has reacted critically to the abundance agenda, her agreement with Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's emphasis on enhancing state capacity, and how to restore faith in government. They explore the tension between technocratic fixes and populist demands, the need for effective political storytelling, and why "small," tangible wins like banning junk fees and non-competes matter as much as big legislative wins.

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025

John B. King, former Secretary of Education and author of Teacher By Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives, joins The Realignment. Marshall and John discuss President Trump's plan to abolish the Department of Education, balancing the role of states and the federal government's role in K-12 schooling, why the education debates of the 2000s and 2010s (charters, reform, NCLB) stalled, the case for and against accountability, and the post-COVID education cultural wars.

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025

Chris Hughes, Co-Founder of Facebook, Chairman of the Economic Security Project, and author of Marketcrafters: The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Chris discuss the false dichotomy of the "market" vs. "government" when it comes to developing America's economy and critical industries, the need for government to "marketcraft" the economy to achieve the country's social and political goals, the history of marketcrafting from the New Deal and World War II to the auto industry in the 1980s and semiconductors + clean energy in the 2020s,

Transcribed - Published: 24 April 2025

Rush Doshi, C.V. Starr senior fellow for Asia studies and director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations joins for the first episode of the Endless Frontiers podcast. Rush and Endless Frontiers Executive Producer Marshall Kosloff discuss the decade-long goals of Endless Frontiers, America's advantages and disadvantages relative to China in the mid-2020s, the degree to which the national competitiveness conversation can be reduced to our position relative to China, and the need for reindustrialization, defense reform, resilience, and national cohesion in the face of current and emerging challenges.

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Krish discuss Global Refuge's work with American refugee resettlement, the roots of the global backlash against immigration and refugee resettlement, the case for immigration, how pro-immigration groups should respond to the 2024 election, the role of scarcity in immigration scarcity, and why the post-war consensus around immigration and refugee resettlement broke down.

Transcribed - Published: 18 April 2025

Rotimi Adeoye, columnist and MSNBC contributor, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Rotimi discuss the takeaways from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance book tour as the abundance agenda picks up steam, the impact of Bernie Sanders and AOC's anti-oligarchy tour, the strengths and weaknesses of the very online attempts to build a Democratic Party equivalent of the GOP's 2010s Tea Party movement, and the difficulties of navigating immigration politics during an era of anti-establishment backlash.

Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025

Richard D. Kahlenberg, author of Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges and Director of the American Identity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, returns to The Realignment. Richard and Marshall discuss the future of higher education after the Supreme Court ended race-based affirmative action, why America's "river of power" runs through the Ivy League, tensions between class-based affirmative action and differing visions of "merit," higher education's response to the Trump administration's attacks, and the role of public, non-elite institutions in promoting economic opportunity.

Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2025

Mallory McMorrow, Michigan State Senator and author of Hate Won't Win: Find Your Power and Leave This Place Better Than You Found It, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Mallory discuss Michigan's role in American politics in 2024 and beyond, the Abundance Agenda and the centrality of the affordability crisis and government failure for voters, her viral 2022 speech, the end of traditional and 2010s digital media's ability to gatekeep, the differing experiences of Millennials and Gen Z, the rising gender gap between young men and women, and how Democrats should respond to culture war issues.

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

Congressman Jake Auchincloss, Representative of Massachusetts's 4th congressional district, returns to The Realignment. Jake and Marshall discuss the abundance agenda and the need to merge populist energy with actual results, why a focus on enhancing state capacity and defending programs like Social Security is compatible with abundance, and the need to reform America's higher education system, the endgame in the war in Ukraine, and the need to rebuild America's foreign policy after the end of the post-war order.

Transcribed - Published: 27 March 2025

Edward Fishman, author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, joins The Realignment. Edward and Marshall discuss the rise of economic warfare, from the War on Terror to the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, economic warfare track record when it comes to accomplishing desired political outcomes, the impact of American sanctions on Russia and whether their effects were overstated at the war's outset, the potential deterring effects of economic warfare, their potential use in a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan, and the greater meaning of the end of the globalization era of the 1990s and 2000s.

Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2025

Ezra Klein, host of the Ezra Klein Show and co-author of Abundance, joins The Realignment. Ezra and Marshall discuss the Abundance Agenda, the housing crisis, the failure to build infrastructure and clean energy in Blue States, why 21st century liberalism needs an update, abundance's place in the Democratic Party's coalition, and whether wonky ideas can translate into winning political agendas.

Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2025

Felicia Wong, Principal at the Roosevelt Institute, and Steve Teles, Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and Johns Hopkins University Professor, return to The Realignment. Felicia, Steve, and Marshall debate and discuss the tensions between the rising "Abundance Agenda" faction and left populists, the role of unions, whether one can focus on increasing the supply of scarce goods and lowering prices while also addressing inequality, how to increase the effectiveness of government, and what a synthesis of different parts of the center to left spectrum could look like in 2028 and beyond.

Transcribed - Published: 11 March 2025

George P. Bush, former Texas Land Commissioner, joins The Realignment for the first of a multi-month series on Texas and the future of American politics. Marshall and George discuss the lace and role of Texas in America's political realignment, the rise and fall of Blue Texas from the 2010s-2024, the impact of minorities moving to the right, the complexities of Latino identity, how politicians will respond to the rise of podcasts, his interest in AI's impact on elections, and preview upcoming coverage and interviews on Texas politics and policy.

Transcribed - Published: 10 March 2025

Didi Kuo, author of The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don't, joins the Niskanen Center's Steve Teles and Marshall on The Realignment. Didi, Steve, and Marshall discuss why political parties have reached record levels of unpopularity in the United States, what "good" political parties could look like, the history of party reform organizations like the Democratic Leadership Council of the 1980s and 1990s, the positive case for political parties as a way of organizing the will of the people, and the differences between the American party system and alternatives across the democratic world.

Transcribed - Published: 28 February 2025

Yoni Appelbaum, author of Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity and Deputy Executive Director of The Atlantic, joins The Realignment. Yoni and Marshall discuss the state of the American Dream, the country's sliding reputation as the "land of opportunity" since the 1970s, why Americans are increasingly immobile, the 19th century heyday of moving, the role of zoning laws and new construction restriction in rising housing prices and immobility, and how to help Americans who don't want to leave their communities.

Transcribed - Published: 25 February 2025

Pankaj Mishra, author of The World After Gaza: A History, joins The Realignment. Pankaj and Marshall discuss the origins of October 7th, the possibility of the U.S. "owning" Gaza after the conflict ends, why the Biden administration's approach to the conflict failed, and the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Transcribed - Published: 20 February 2025

Marc J. Dunkelman, author of Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back and a Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, joins The Realignment. Marc and Marshall discuss the central causes of government's inability to accomplish big projects, why America and the progressive movement swing between "Hamiltonian" and "Jeffersonian" moments, why the Hamiltonian nature of ambitious eras like the New Deal, New Frontier, and Great Society lead to Jeffersonian backlash, the limited impact and political failure of the Biden administration's EV charging station policy, and how to balance our need to protect the rights of individuals and local communities with the need to accomplish big goals.

Transcribed - Published: 18 February 2025

Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist and author of Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Ross discuss the case for serious religious belief in a secularized America, the rise of the post-Christian right, why America could swing in an increasingly religious direction over the next few decades, Ross's recent interview with Steve Bannon on tech's relationship to the right.

Transcribed - Published: 11 February 2025

Jon Askonas, FAI Senior Fellow & Assistant Professor, joins The Realignment. Jon and Marshall discuss the right's new technology agenda, the relationship between the family and technology, President Trump's MAGA, MAHA, Tech Right, and conservative coalition, DOGE vs. USAID, and the impact of Silicon Valley's rightward turn on the conservative movement.

Transcribed - Published: 4 February 2025

The Realignment is back from Marshall's parental leave! Today, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, author of It Takes Chutzpah: How to Fight Fearlessly for Progressive Change, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Senator Wyden discuss why American politics could you more "Chutzpah," lessons from his career in activism and politics, what it means to be a progressive, generational change, and the path forward on healthcare.

Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2025

Juan Williams, Fox News Policy Analyst and author of New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Juan discuss how a second civil rights movement centered on policing, incarceration, and inequality rose during the Obama 2010s, demographic change in America since the 1960s, why the second movement didn't produce leadership on the level of Martin Luther King, Jr., where movements succeeded and where it failed, BLM's struggles, the cost of overreaching slogans like "defund the police," and what the Trump backlash means for racial issues in America.

Transcribed - Published: 23 January 2025

Saagar Enjeti, Co-Host of Breaking Points, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Saagar discuss the ways that President Trump's second term could differ from his first, where a second Trump presidency could go right or wrong, and what longstanding political questions were settled in the 2024 election.

Transcribed - Published: 21 January 2025

Felicia Wong, the outgoing president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Felicia discuss what the Biden presidency means for the left, where the conversation on "post-neoliberalism" stands after Donald Trump's 2024 victory, the need for new communication strategies in the emerging policy environment, how left and right populism will compete for working class voters, and the new politics of immigration.

Transcribed - Published: 16 January 2025

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy joins The Realignment. Marshall and Senator Murphy discuss why the 2028 election could come down to which party presents the stronger economic populist case, why the Republican shift towards populism could be undermined by the contradictions of governance, the need for Democrats to speak to voters who disagree on social issues, and the broader crisis of meaning, spirituality, and loneliness in America and its roots in the neoliberal consensus.

Transcribed - Published: 14 January 2025

Jennifer Pahlka and Andrew Greenway, co-authors of the Niskanen Center's The How We Need Now: A Capacity Agenda for 2025, join The Realignment. Marshall, Jennifer, and Andrew discuss why state capacity is one of the most important ideas of 2025, the roots of America's inability to build U.S. navy ships on time, 17-year approval processes for "fast-tracked" power projects, and the lack of delivery of the Biden administration's legislative agenda in state capacity failure, and the reforms that left, right, and center should implements moving forward.

Transcribed - Published: 9 January 2025

Julius Krein, Founder and Editor of American Affairs and Chairman of the New American Industrial Alliance, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Julius discuss the founding of NAIA and its mission to spur a techno-industrial revolution, manufacturing's dominance of American politics since 2016, the pros and cons of Biden-era policies like the IRA and CHIPS Act legislation, Trump's focus on deregulation, trade, and capital deployment, the results of China's decade of industrial policy, and the broader state of American politics after the 2024 election.

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025

In the latest edition of Marshall and Steve Teles of the Niskanen Center and Johns Hopkins University discussion series, they wrap the series for 2024, revisit The New Republic's tradition of offering annual recriminations during the holiday season, and discuss the new series of articles critiquing the abundance agenda.

Transcribed - Published: 12 December 2024

Noah Smith, author of the Noahpinion Substack, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Noah offer The Realignment's last words on the 2024 election, the political trends that will shape 2025, and the the future of the right and left in a realigning America.

Transcribed - Published: 10 December 2024

Jason Willick, opinion columnist at The Washington Post, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Jason discuss California's past and future as the chief opposition state to Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom's futures, why the legal approach to opposing Trump failed, and where the Resistance to Trump goes from here.

Transcribed - Published: 3 December 2024

Misha Chellam, Co-Founder of the Abundance Network, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Misha discuss the state of the Abundance movement, Abundance Network's efforts to organize in states like California, the need to move Abundance conversations beyond coastal blue states towards red states that actually build, and how Realignment listeners can get involved at the local and state level.

Transcribed - Published: 26 November 2024

Congressman Jake Auchincloss joins The Realignment. Marshall and Jake discuss the dangers of offering "Diet Coke" populism when voters are clearly ordering "Coke," how politicians should approach independent media and podcasts as cable news declines, what a building and growth centric agenda looks like, the need to address the debt/deficit, and the debate over "wokeness."

Transcribed - Published: 21 November 2024

Dr. Kevin D. Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation and author of Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Kevin discuss why Heritage's Project 2025 plan proved so controversial during the 2024 campaign, the case for radically transforming Washington, the exact nature of Donald Trump electoral mandate, the case against the Department of Education, and the state of the conservative movement during and after Trump.

Transcribed - Published: 19 November 2024

Reihan Salam, President of the Manhattan Institute, joins The Realignment. Reihan and Marshall discuss the GOP's transformation from the 200s George W. Bush presidency to Trump's 2024 victory, the party's gains with working-class voters, racial minorities, and men, how his and Ross Douthat's writing about the "Party of Sam's Club" presaged the 20-year transformation of conservatism, and the fractured politics of America's urban regions.

Transcribed - Published: 14 November 2024

Representative Ro Khanna returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Ro discuss his vision for the post-Biden Democratic Party, how his plans to rebuild America's manufacturing base can actually move voters, what the government can learn from the public sector when it comes to building ambitious projects, podcasting, and the realignment of Latino voters and young men away from Democrats.

Transcribed - Published: 12 November 2024

In the latest edition of Saagar Enjeti and Marshall Kosloffs discussion and AMA series, they discuss the implications of Donald Trump's victory over Kamala Harris, whether Trump will misinterpret his mandate, immigration policy and the mass-deportation plan, why the left can't build a Joe Rogan equivalent, and more...

Transcribed - Published: 10 November 2024

In the latest edition of Marshall and Steve Teles of the Niskanen Center and Johns Hopkins University discussion series, they discuss reasons behind Kamala Harris's loss to Donald Trump, the debate over whether Kamala should have gone on the Joe Rogan Experience, whether 2010s-2022 "wokeness" fatally wounded Democrats, what a successful 2028 nominee needs to learn from 2024, and of course, a shoutout to the Abundance Agenda.

Transcribed - Published: 8 November 2024

In today's episode, Marshall reacts to Donald Trump's 2024 election victory over Kamala Harris. He discusses the arrival of the long-forecasted racial realignment, Joe Rogan's impact on the race, how Joe Biden and previous presidents misread their post-election mandates, why abortion wasn't the 2024 election's decisive issues, the future of America's foreign policy, and more...

Transcribed - Published: 7 November 2024

In a cross-over with Marshall's UT-Austin Clements Center for National Security/Texas National Security Review podcast, Horns of a Dilemma, AEI's Danielle Pletka and Marshall discuss the impact of the 2024 election on America's foreign policy. They discuss the evolution of America's foreign policy on the right and left since the Obama presidency, the state of the Middle East, the War in Ukraine, and what medium-term opportunities the U.S. can seize in the 2020s.

Transcribed - Published: 5 November 2024

In a special edition of The Realignment podcast, Marshall and Saagar discuss today's ongoing presidential election. They discuss whether the issue of "character" should determine one's vote, what the realignment's framework got right (and wrong), and the prospects for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on election night.

Transcribed - Published: 5 November 2024

Timothy Shenk, GWU Professor and author of Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Timothy discuss how culture has replaced economics as the electorate's dividing line, the multiple paths forward for Democrats after they began to lose working-class voters in the 1980s, why political consultants are more important than one would think, and whether the left or right will come out ahead as the American political system realigns.

Transcribed - Published: 29 October 2024

Steve Teles, John Hopkins University Professor and Niskanen Center Senior Fellow, returns to The Realignment. On the latest edition of Marshall and Steve's monthly one-on-one, they discuss the policy landscape after the November election (regardless of who wins), their theories of political change, the country's ongoing mood shift from the 2000s and 2010s, and more...

Transcribed - Published: 24 October 2024

Alex Trembath, Deputy Director of the Breakthrough Institute, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Alex discuss the takeaways from Abundance 2024, the case for Ecomodernism, the rise and fall (and rise) of climate policy from An Inconvenient Truth to the Inflation Reduction Act, lessons from the clean energy space for other parts of the Abundance Agenda, and why blue states like California aren’t able to build clean energy, housing, and infrastructure as much as red states like Texas.

Transcribed - Published: 22 October 2024