Everybody Gets Pie's Podcast

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...

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...

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...

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: •⁠...

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...

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 citie...

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, T...

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 en...

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 di...

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 represent...

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 co...

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...

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...

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 w...

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 hou...