Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Carter Price, Senior Mathematician at RAND and policy analysis professor, walks through where nearly $79 trillion that might have reached the bottom 90% went. He breaks down the methods behind the estimate and what income components were counted. The conversation covers new open-source budget and tax tools, links between inequality and deficits, and why long-term modeling matters.

Misty Heggeness, an economist and author of Swiftynomics, uses Taylor Swift and pop culture to reveal how women's unpaid care and cultural power are invisible in standard economic models. She discusses why culture should count, how models exclude women, and policy ideas like measuring care and expanding childcare. Short, provocative, and focused on rethinking what economics actually counts.

Lindsay Owens, Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative and author of Gouged, explains how companies use AI and massive data to run pricing experiments on shoppers. She discusses the Instacart investigation, wide price variation across identical carts, and how algorithmic, surveillance-driven pricing challenges traditional market assumptions. Policy fixes and one-fair-price proposals are also explored.

Ingrid Robeyns, professor of Ethics of Institutions and author of Limitarianism, argues for moral limits on extreme wealth. She discusses how concentrated riches affect democracy, wages, and sustainability. The conversation explores setting context‑dependent caps, inheritance limits, and policy priorities to reshape economic norms.

David Autor, MIT labor economist who studies how technology reshapes work, explains how AI differs from past tools. He explores where AI excels and fails. He discusses AI as a complement to human judgment, how it could expand expertise for non-elite workers, and who might capture the gains. He outlines policy levers—training, wage supports, IP rules—to shape outcomes.

Rapid-fire policy pitches aimed at improving life for working people. Proposals include restoring time agency with predictable schedules and paid leave. Ideas to modernize Social Security funding and boost wages through payroll changes. Plans for employer-funded retirement accounts and stronger enforcement of labor rights in supply chains. Tactics to speed first-contracts and strengthen bargaining power are debated.

Sandeep Vaheesan, antitrust legal director focused on corporate power. Mike Konczal, policy lead on inequality and industrial strategy. Jerusalem Demsas, housing and affordability reporter. Baillee Brown, pro-building policy advocate. They debate how to scale housing, clean energy, and public goods while preserving democratic power. Conversation touches on permitting, market control, zoning, NEPA, and political tradeoffs.

Hannah Garden-Monheit, former Biden-Harris senior official and Roosevelt Institute/AEGP fellow, discusses why government often fails to deliver for working people. She explores procedural hurdles that delay action, how corporations weaponize process, and which visible enforcement fights and policy designs can rebuild public trust. The conversation examines rebuilding state capacity and practical steps to make government more effective.

Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School professor and author focused on how business can build a more just, sustainable economy. She discusses why capitalism needs reimagining, how purpose-driven firms can thrive, the limits of shareholder-only goals, and the policy, cultural, and institutional changes required to align markets with public goods.

Historian Gary Gerstle, author of The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, delves into the captivating journey of neoliberalism, revealing its seductive promise of freedom that reshaped American society. He critiques how this ideology led to economic inequality and hollowed communities. Gerstle discusses the 1970s economic crises that opened doors for new ideas, and analyzes the current fractures in the neoliberal order, pondering what a post-neoliberal economy could look like. His insights offer a thought-provoking glimpse into America's evolving economic narrative.