What We Got Right — and Wrong — in ‘Abundance’
April 28, 2026 with Marc Dunkelman, Derek Thompson • Listen
- Derek Thompson co-wrote the forthcoming book 'Abundance' which discusses the politics of abundance in contrast to right-wing populism.
Recommended:
Abundance THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD: How We Build a Better Future
Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson
Why Nothing Works
Marc J. Dunkelman
The Power Elite
C. Wright Mills
The Power Broker
Robert A Caro
Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Robert D. Putnam
The Permanent Problem
Brink Lindsey
Making A New Deal
Lizabeth Cohen
Stuck
Yoni Appelbaum
Cadillac Desert
Marc Reisner
Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis
The Secret History
Donna Tartt
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
About this episode:
“Abundance” came out a little over a year ago. It’s been exciting — and a little disorienting — seeing how it’s rippled out into the world, and the ways it’s been embraced and debated and critiqued. So I wanted to take a moment to talk through what’s really happened in the last year – with Derek Thompson, my “Abundance” co-author, and Marc Dunkelman, whose book “Why Nothing Works” came out around the same time, and circles the same ideas.
What has the abundance movement actually achieved in the last year? Where has it fallen short? And what have the three of us learned from our critics?
Mentioned:
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Why Nothing Works by Marc J. Dunkelman
The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills
The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
“The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth” by Brian M. Rosenthal
“Why Are Palantir and OpenAI Scared of Alex Bores?” by The Ezra Klein Show
“The Anti-Social Century” by Derek Thompson
Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam
The Permanent Problem by Brink Lindsey
“Bernie Sanders: ‘There Ain’t Much of a Democratic Party” by Bernie Sanders and David Leonhardt
Book Recommendations:
Making a New Deal by Lizabeth Cohen
Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum
Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Narrated by Richard Poe
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Annika Robbins and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Our recording engineer is Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Lauren Reddy. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Brianna Johnson.
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