On Friday, I moderated a forum with the top Democratic candidates for California governor, focusing on the state’s housing crisis.

California’s current governor, Gavin Newsom, came into office in 2019 promising to build millions of homes. And in the years since, dozens of pro-housing laws have passed, designed to cut red tape and spur more construction. And yet the number of homes being built in California is basically the same as when he took office, and the state’s housing crisis remains, arguably, the worst in the country. So I wanted to know what the next governor would do about it.

We taped this at the Calvin Simmons Theater in Oakland, Calif. The candidates on the stage were Xavier Becerra, a former attorney general of California and health and human services secretary under President Joe Biden; Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose and a tech entrepreneur; Katie Porter, a former U.S. representative; Tom Steyer, a former San Francisco hedge fund manager, a climate activist and a philanthropist; and Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles and speaker of the California State Assembly. This panel was recorded live. The Times did not fact-check candidates’ remarks.

Mentioned:

“Cost to Build Multifamily Housing in California More Than Twice as High as in Texas” by RAND

“What Worries Me Most About ‘Abundance’” with Derek Thompson and Marc Dunkelman, The Ezra Klein Show

Book Recommendations:

The Hour of the Predator by Giuliano da Empoli

Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Why Nothing Works by Marc J. Dunkelman

Ours Was the Shining Future by David Leonhardt

Did listen to the Abundance recap podcast and felt like Derek was not willing to entertain what I take as a fairly serious issue about the optics of abundance.

I don't even think it's debatable that there is a lot of contempt for some of the key designs of new construction housing, whether it is called 'ikea' or 'cookie cutter' or that it's not historic enough for the neighorhood.

Ezra has probably talked about this elsewhere, but even the brownstones in Brooklyn etc I understand were held in contempt at the time, so there's always going to be something of a lag between what new construction looks like versus a more traditional/historic housing format.

The other thing I have read recently is that builders take out most of the mature trees when they are building in the suburbs. So it takes a decade or longer for that kind of landscaping to recover.

In the DC area, you see new neighborhoods with no trees and they just look a bit barren.

Here’s a shocking number: One out of eight American adults is taking a GLP-1, like Ozempic or Zepbound, according to a KFF poll.

GLP-1s are the biggest pharmaceutical story since antidepressants. But there’s still so much we don’t know.

“We’re only at the beginning of what’s been called this Ozempic era,” the journalist Julia Belluz told me. “I think we’re really just at the beginning of discovering the benefits and the harms of these drugs.” These discoveries begin in the research but are also expanding into how we think about our punishing beauty standards and the blurry lines between illness and wellness.

Belluz is a contributing Opinion writer and the author, with Kevin Hall, of “Food Intelligence.” She’s one of the best health and science reporters I know and has been reporting on GLP-1s for years.

In this conversation, Belluz takes me through what we know — and don’t know — about GLP-1s, their unexpected uses, how they are clashing with a culture obsessed with thinness and looksmaxxing, and whether everyone should be on them.

Mentioned:

“The obesity pay gap is worse than previously thought” by The Economist

“The Great Ozempic Experiment” by Julia Belluz

Book Recommendations:

Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky

The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

Housing is the single biggest issue facing California. What will the state’s next governor do about it? On Friday, May 8, Ezra Klein will moderate a forum with top Democratic candidates for governor, giving them a chance to explain how they would actually solve, or at least make progress on, the issue.

Tune into our YouTube livestream on Friday, May 8, at 4:15 p.m. P.T. / 7:15 p.m. E.T.

A little bit tongue in cheek but the way he opines about the failures of liberal policy I think he secretly wishes he were a conservative, something that was pointed out by David sacks on the all in podcast when Ezra was on there. What do you think? It’s kind of funny.

For the record, Ezra Klein is not involved in this. He founded Vox.com in 2014, which is different to the parent company, Vox Media, which existed beforehand. Klein left the company in 2020.

Certainly seems relevant though, not just for his project ending up part of this but for the broader implications around journalism which Klein covers.

Title kinda says it all. American Prestige Pod has several great episodes on a bunch of aspects of liberalism that Ezra Klein fans would appreciate. Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I do.

Both men will often encourage Democrats to moderate their social views and be open to more conversations and candidates with heterodox beliefs that aren't strictly in line with party orthodoxy. They're not shy about it either, they're willing to stand on these convictions and ruffle some feathers with such controversial pieces as "Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way" or "Bigots in the Tent". They'll plea with donors to be more sensible about their contributions and prioritize electable pragmatism over special interest maximalism. I'm not here to critique the merit of these ideas. It's sound strategy as far as I'm concerned.

But I can't help but notice that neither expresses the same urgency or appetite for drastic measures when it comes to reevaluating the party's media strategy. I won't bury the lede any further; my opinion is that if you bribed key influencers to trash Republicans, exploited far right conspiracies against the party mainstream, and used bot accounts to signal-boost anti-Republican sentiments it would probably work. You could leverage LLMs to rapidly gauge response sentiment and A/B test new messaging. Just totally flood the conservative media ecosystem with bad faith concern trolling about Republicans and Republican policies. It would be ugly and degrade the political discourse even further, but it would work.

Now if Ezra and Matt tackled this head on by plainly stating "No, we will not stoop to propaganda and subterfuge. The principle of honest and fair conversation is the cornerstone of our political culture," that would be more than suitable, it would be admirable. But instead what they've consistently and explicitly reiterated is that threat posed by Trump and MAGA is so terrible, we cannot allow our principles to hinder our response to this crisis. But then they just never engage with the idea that media manipulation can be a political asset. Even more bizarrely, Ezra will go out of his way to defend the honor of political commentators like Charlie Kirk and Hasan Piker seemingly oblivious to the fact that they engage in these sorts of underhanded tactics all the damn time.

And this is what gives me pause whenever Ezra and Matt urge everyone else to slaughter their sacred cows. I'm not impressed when they advertise their willingness to compromise on their stated policy preferences. I know how professional opinion-havers (especially liberal opinion-havers) think, and there's nothing they love more than to signal how pragmatic and open-minded they are by humoring an opposing viewpoint. That's not a real sacrifice. If they truly think defeating Trump/MAGA is a goal worth sacrificing personal principles, are they willing to compromise on something personally meaningful to them? Would they be willing to trade respectable journalism for crass conspiratorial bullshit if it meant Dems winning 60 Senate seats?