Ok, so there is a thing I am genuinely confused about. I read the book a while ago and have been following the broader “Yimby” discourse for a long time. And I thought it was thing but it seems like there are actually sort of two different ideas here that may support a lot of the same reforms on paper but are actually kind of diametrically opposed.  

So the whole thing as it was pitched to me, as I understood it, was that Abundance was not just a sort of growth for growth sakes pursuit. That it was a pursuit of some specific higher ideal. That it was a return to the sort of utopian ambition of the mid century modernism of the past. On a practical level the idea was that the modern sort of controlled artificially constrained zoning regime was a problem. On the other side was something like a beautiful garden of density and mixed use urban life.  

But it seems like there is also this other thing that is also antagonistic to the current regulation regime. But it doesn’t like hate the mcmansion strip mall ideal, it venerates it . It wants to supercharge it, spreading vast suburban sprawl as far as the eye can see. In this model the liberated organic built world isn't a garden but rather a jungle. They seem to view the other ideal as sentimental and even an impediment to the project. 

So which is it? 

Ezra's Sept. 20 column argued that "pacing the frontier isn't enough" and that labs should be stopped from having AI build the next generation of AI. Whatever you think of that, the politics around it don't sort neatly into left and right. Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon both back pausing new AI data centers but want opposite things on China, and some of the sharpest AI skeptics want the companies reined in as hard as the people most worried about extinction do.

So I made a quiz that tries to map it. It scores you on how big a deal AI is, how hard to rein in the companies, and whether to race China or make a deal (plus a few other scales), gives you one of eight types, and shows which of 22 public figures you're closest to.

Ezra is on the map. I placed him near the corner the quiz calls "Hit the Brakes" and right next to "Global Rulebook," since he frames loss of control as something the US and China should be able to agree to prevent. I'm curious whether people here think that's the right read, and where you land relative to him.

The public figure placements are best guesses from what people have said publicly, so corrections are welcome. Hope this is fun/helpful for folks!

The Argument podcast joins in on the AI discourse. Relevant to EK due to it being a big topic of his

Here is a [list] (https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Careers/careers-largest-employment.aspx) of the most common jobs in the US today. Most of the top 10 occupations are low paying fields like home health aides, retail clerks, stockers, laborers, etc. However, if you listened to the portion of today’s episode with Huang focused on AI’s impact on jobs and the labor market, you’d think that the most common job in America was software developer, and that most Americans had to do things like learning differential equations in college. This has been a common theme with almost every episode featuring someone from the AI industry.

I’m rarely an “Ezra needs to push the guests harder” advocate. But I would really like to hear him press these guys on how they think AI will impact the jobs that most Americans actually do, instead of yet another discussion about how computer science students have to learn to review AI code now, instead of writing it themselves. Occasionally you’ll get a brief discussion about white collar work like customer service (number 8 on the list), but that’s about it. Clearly you’d have to have your head in the sand to deny that AI is now capable enough to massively impact programming, science, and other knowledge work. But when it comes to the idea that AI can automate vast swathes of low skilled service work, you’ll get the same asides Huang deployed today about how new technology always creates more jobs than it destroys, before pivoting back to AI’s impact on coding.* What impact will AI have on an overnight stocker at Walmart, for example?

*as a side note, every single one of these AI industry figures seems to assume that regular Americans are all itching to build a bunch of custom apps for themselves.

Matt Yglesias writes on the recent Nikole Hannah-Jones article (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.ClE.KPoY.AiZ5r0aDhYUU&smid=nytcore-ios-share)

Matt comments about how he sends his son to a similar school but I think the thing that Matt misses is Hannah-Jones did not send her daughter to her local school she chose PS307 which was outside her neighborhood.

Matt is sending his son to a school in a community he actively lives in.

Matt doesn’t really dive into the details or join the pile on of Hannah Jones but more to point out that not all schools are the same and its important to engage with specifics of local situations.

I am pretty behind on the show, but so much has happened in the last few months (and even more in the last few days!) regarding the despicable treatment of Canada by the US regime. Has Ezra commented on this in any real capacity?

Education outcomes have been getting worse across much of the world, with reading and math scores falling to historic lows. The U.S. has seen some of the steepest declines in decades.

But, why does Mississippi look so different?

Mississippi education reformer Rachel Canter has been at the forefront of the state’s dramatic improvement in reading and math over the past few decades. Today, Derek is joined by Rachel to discuss the so-called “Mississippi miracle” (a name she says misses the mark!). Together they break down how years of policy changes and implementation transformed the state’s schools and how other states can replicate their success.

YouTube link

A good overview in addition to Ezra’s show today

Hiya, I am a long time listener trying to chase down two tidbits/quotes that are frequently mentioned on the show, and for the life of me I can't find them (or remember specific episodes). I found them persuasive and useful and would like to be able to cite them a bit more specifically than 'One time I heard Ezra Klein say...' (which is a sentence I already utter quite enough as is). If anyone can point me towards their source I would be very grateful.

1. A quote that I've heard deployed I want to say at least three times in the context of an inclusive politics, something like "Politics will never work until you treat your fellow citizens as full people, not objects of your charity or puppets in your morality plays". I'm way off on the specifics, but I hope that's enough to get the gist.

2. A poll that tested impressions of the Democrat and Republican party brands and found Republicans percieved as angry/crazy/aggressive and Democrats as preachy/condescending/controlling or similar adjectives. Again I think it comes up with some frequency but can't remember where.

Thanks and all the best,

EH