E7: E7: Matthew Yglesias on One Billion Americans

Right Now with Stephen Kent

Are 1 billion Americans needed to keep America prosperous and competitive on the world stage?
This week, Stephen Kent is joined by Matt Yglesias, co-founder of Vox, founder of the "Slow Boring" Substack, and author of One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger. Watch as Stephen, Matt, and Wadi Gaitan of The LIBRE Initiative, discuss the misframed immigration debate, the case for a much larger US population, the buzzy new book from John Boehner, and what is necessary to keep America great.
---- Content of This Episode ----
00:00​​ Episode Start
00:07 Coming up in Episode 7
02:15 Meet new co-host Wadi Gaitan
03:35 Pick your partners, economically speaking
09:45 Immigration is a tool, not a virtue
16:32 No, it’s not too crowded – just ask Texas
18:58 Reviving small towns
22:26 Bringing down the cost of kids
28:57 Population pumping policies
31:15 Infrastructure for 1 billion people
35:08 “The Jetsons” had an optimistic view of the future
36:40 Washington has trouble with that vision thing
44:24 Raise a glass to John Boehner’s new book
51:11 We’ve got some good news
---- Reading List ----
One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/636499/one-billion-americans-by-matthew-yglesias/
"Slow Boring" ​by Matthew Yglesias
https://www.slowboring.com/
On the House: A Washington Memoir ​by John Boehner https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250277183
Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates, and the Birth of GOP Paranoia (Politico) https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/02/john-boehner-book-memoir-excerpt-478506
Biden calls for massive climate and transit package (Axios) https://www.axios.com/biden-climate-transit-package-d9c8ffad-4486-4e61-a7bb-3d421fa0546d.html
---- Plugs for our guest ----
Follow Matthew Yglesias on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias