Chris Elmendorf on Aesthetics, Developers & Housing Politics
Why do so many Americans say housing costs are a top concern — but still oppose new housing in their neighborhoods? UC Davis law professor Chris Elmendorf shares surprising research revealing that aesthetics and feelings about developers may matter more than self-interest or NIMBYism. In this conversation, we cover: - Why just saying the word "developer" drops support for new housing by 4+ points - How Hollywood has generated an estimated 1 billion negative representations of developers - Wh...
23 Feb 2026
Biotech's Next Breakthrough? Clinical Trial Abundance w/ Ruxandra Tesloianu
Biology is booming, so why isn’t medicine keeping up? We sit down with Ruxandra Tesloianu to unpack the real constraints slowing drug development. From clinical trial inefficiencies and regulatory opacity to risk-averse biotech culture, we explore why breakthrough discoveries so often stall before reaching patients, and why increasing the availability of clinical trials might be the answer. We dig into: • Why pharma R&D productivity keeps falling (Eroom’s Law) • The cli...
11 Feb 2026
Farming: Our Biggest Climate Crisis? w/ Michael Grunwald
We dive into the hidden environmental cost of modern agriculture, from sprawling farmland covering 40% of the planet to the $300 billion global subsidy system that rewards scale over sustainability. Author Michael Grunwald unpacks why food production, not cities, is the biggest driver of deforestation, water use, and carbon emissions, and what technology, policy, and smarter incentives could do to change course. From lab-grown meat and AI-engineered crops to the surprising truth about “natur...
26 Jan 2026
Inside the Biden White House: What It Takes for Government to Actually Deliver w/ Neera Tanden
In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we are joined by Neera Tanden, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress and former Domestic Policy Advisor to President Joe Biden. Neera reflects candidly on her time in public service, the lessons of the Biden administration, and why Democrats must be ruthless about solving real problems, and especially on housing and affordability. We cover: • How housing location shapes life outcomes • The tension between inclusionary zon...
12 Jan 2026
Why Up-Zoning Isn’t Nearly Enough w/ CAP's Michael Negron
America is short 2 million homes. Zoning reform alone won’t fix it. In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we break down a new national plan to build 2 million homes in just five years, why housing costs keep rising even where we build more, and what it will actually take to make homes affordable again. We cover: • Why the median first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old • Why housing supply collapsed after 2008 and never recovered • Why zoning reform is necessary but...
30 Dec 2025
Should We Pay the NIMBYs w/ Adam Jentleson
Why do cities agree we need more housing and then fight every building that gets proposed? In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we talk with Adam Jentleson, founder of the Searchlight Institute, about a housing idea that sounds radical and might actually work. What if residents got paid when their city built more homes? Searchlight’s proposal would send direct checks to people living in cities that hit ambitious housing production targets. Not tax cuts. Not vague economic benefits. Real mon...
15 Dec 2025
From World Leader to Transit Failure: How the U.S. Lost Its Edge with Jake Burman
Why does public transit in the U.S. cost so much and still deliver so little? From New York’s notoriously expensive subway projects to Boston’s aging system, American cities struggle to build fast, reliable transit while peers abroad move faster and cheaper. In this episode, Jake Berman, author of The Lost Subways of North America, joins us to unpack how the U.S. fell behind cities like Madrid, Tokyo, and even Poland. We trace the history of American transit, the rise and collapse of private ...
1 Dec 2025
The Quiet Big Bill That Could Reshape Housing w/ Rep. Josh Harder
Congress has not passed a major housing supply bill in more than 50 years. Yet in one of the most polarized political moments in recent history, a bipartisan coalition is quietly pushing forward legislation that could help create more than a million new homes. In this episode, we talk with Representative Josh Harder about the Road to Housing Act, why it passed the Senate unanimously, and how it ended up attached to the annual defense bill. We dig into the incentives that could modernize zonin...
17 Nov 2025
How Jake Auchincloss Plans to Build New American Cities
What if America's housing crisis needs more than just rezoning existing cities? Congressman Jake Auchincloss (MA-04) joins us to make the case for building entirely new cities from scratch. We dive deep into the practical details: site selection, tax increment financing, transit connectivity, and the politics of making it happen. Plus, Jake explains why he prefers talking about "cost disease" over "abundance," discusses autonomous vehicles and walkable communities, and warns about the d...
3 Nov 2025
The $50M Plan to Flip States by 2032 w/ Amanda Litman
If you want better senators in 2032, start by electing better city councilors in 2026. Amanda Litman (Run for Something) joins Everybody Gets Pie to lay out a practical path to a deeper Democratic bench, why renters should run, and how local reforms can make elections more competitive. What we cover: • Why competitive districts have declined and incumbency has hardened • How proportional representation and ranked choice voting can improve representation • The $50M Battle Up plan to recruit G...
21 Oct 2025
From Hollywood to Housing: Rep. Laura Friedman’s Abundance Agenda
In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we sit down with Laura Friedman (D-CA-30), whose unique journey took her from producing Hollywood films to shaping housing, transit, and climate policy in Washington. We dive deep into her “abundance agenda,” exploring how streamlining federal approvals, cutting outdated red tape and rethinking land use can unlock affordable housing and smarter growth for communities. Highlights include: How Laura’s background in storytelling and architecture led her int...
6 Oct 2025
The War Over Building Clean Energy w/ Tom Steyer
Everyone agrees we need to build clean energy — fast. Solar, wind, transmission lines, geothermal. But when Congress tried to speed things up, even environmentalists split. The fight over permitting reform revealed something deeper: a clash between those who want to build faster and those who want to build perfectly. In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we dig into why speeding up clean energy has become so hard and why even people who agree on the goal can’t agree on how to get there. We t...
22 Sept 2025
Why Voters Don’t Trust Democrats on the Economy w/ Senator Ruben Gallego
Voters consistently rank inflation, cost of living, and the economy as their top concerns—and they trust Republicans more on every one of them. In this episode, Senator Ruben Gallego explains why Democrats are losing ground on economic trust and how they can win it back. We dive into housing costs, the childcare crunch, skyrocketing energy bills, and why permitting reform could be key to lowering prices. The conversation also covers manufactured housing, the federal role in unlocking supply, ...
8 Sept 2025
Why Democrats Lose & How Abundance Can Win with Matt Yglesias
Democrats aren’t just up against Republicans—they’re wrestling with their own identity. From climate activists protesting Matthew Yglesias over fracking, to internal fights about whether to go big on cultural issues or focus narrowly on economic growth, the left feels more fractured than ever. In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, Justine Underhill, Burhan Azeem, and Armand Domalewski sit down with Matt Yglesias—author of the Slow Boring newsletter and the “Common Sense Democrat Manifesto”—t...
26 Aug 2025
The Law That Stopped California with Sen Scott Wiener & Asm Buffy Wick
For decades, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was untouchable. Originally passed to protect the environment, CEQA evolved into a sprawling law that let almost anyone sue to block nearly any project, not just oil refineries, but also student housing, food banks, daycare centers, bike lanes, and even high-speed rail. Reform was considered politically impossible. Then, in the final hours of June 2025, that changed. Governor Gavin Newsom called it “the most consequential housing re...
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