Building the Dream

With the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill passing in the house, it's being heralded as true structural change, we argue that the bill doesn't just NOT go far enough, it's another piece of legislation that is poised to be a massive payday for the consultant class and private industry.  It pales in comparison to the what Progressives are wanting as part of the original Build Back Better plan. With that piece of legislation looking DOA, we break down the pitfalls of the current infrastructure bill. 

What if a political movement won a governing majority for an entire state? That is exactly what the Rhode Island Political Cooperative is working to do.We had the chance to sit down with the two candidates at the top of the ticket former RI Sec of State Matt Brown and Senator Cynthia Mendes. They are running for Gov and Lt Gov and are joined by 50 other down-ballot candidates running for state House and Senate. If successful they will have a governing majority capable of passing their bold agenda. The slate is running on a platform that includes the following policies: Healthcare for AllAffordable Housing for AllQuality Education for AllGreen New Deal for AllFair Economy for AllEqual Justice for AllPandemic Protection for All

It's been a while y'all. Our guest today is Jerusalem Demsas, policy reporter at Vox and co-host of The Weeds. At Building the Dream, we are really into, well, building. We want to build houses, factories, hospitals, rail, roads, and everything else that's needed to create a thriving life for everyone. But we keep hearing about one big catch with this idea-- America is notoriously difficult to build in. It costs more and takes longer to build anything in this country. Why is that? We dive into it today with Jerusalem.

Yesterday our famously divided Senate passed a bill. Not just a bill to rename a post office but a bill that aims to help the US compete with China for world domination. We had the chance to sit down with Samuel Hammond of the Niskanen Center to discuss what exactly is in "The Endless Frontiers Act". We talk about where it hits the mark and where it misses. Spoiler alert, it mostly misses the mark. 

Saikat and I discuss recent inflation fears with New Consensus' Bob Hockett. 

The US Mask industry is struggling and some manufacturers are on the verge of going out of business. We talk about how the the Biden admin could prevent this and why they should. 

Zack and Corbin shoot the sh*t for a while. 

With the Covid-19 outbreak slowing down here at home our instincts may be to slow down.  But we aren't out of the woods yet. The virus rages on across much of the planet.  On this episode we talk about what a slowdown in  vaccine production would mean  to the US and the rest of the world We talk about the costs in lives, quality of life, and economic output. We make the case for not slowing down and instead going bigger. Zack gets specific when talking about people on the Biden team that could make the difference and how we might be able to encourage them to do so. Hope the audio isn't too bad....

We are back from a little break with a great interview. We had the chance to interview author, Kim Stanley Robinson about his new book "The Ministry for the Future". Robinson, discuss his process, how sci-fi has changed impacted our society and how he sees his own role in using fiction to impact our future. I hope you enjoy the episode. 

Should the Biden admin send masks to every American household? Are we getting ready for the next pandemic? We talk about this and more. 

Folks, this here is a fun and light hearted episode where I talk with Saikat and Zack about restarting America's economic engines and rebuilding our manufacturing capacity as a way to compete with China for global position. We also have a little fun looking deep into Thomas Friedman's soul vis-à-vis an editorial he recently published where he examines US/China relations. And as a bonus we also get a Friedman story from Zack (spoiler alert Friedman was mean). But wait there’s more, in the midst of it all we discuss ways that the Biden admin could use the upcoming infrastructure bill as a downpayment on a newAmerican century. Is a manufacturing renaissance a path to peace over the decades to come?

On this episode we chatted with Tommy Vietor, co-host of Pod Save America and former spokesperson for President Obama and the US National Security Council. We talked about building a stronger Democratic Party, how to best message our successes, foreign policy, and other lessons we've learned along the way. 

Corbin and Saikat give credit where credit is due. They talk about the wins in the Covid relief bill and what the Democrats are doing right.  There is a critique or two about the way the Democrats are communicating the package and their hesitancy to do the hard sale to the American people. 

We discuss, among other things, an idea for a reality show. It's kinda like AGT meets Nathan for You but instead of looking for entertainers we are looking for Senate candidates. Corbin is excited. Others (Saikat) are skeptical. Zack is just cynical.  Good ep. Enjoy?

How long must Missouri tolerate its oat milk latte-drinking, yoga pants-wearing, Ivy League elitist Senator, Josh Hawley? An announcement is made. Stories are told. Good episode.

We did an episode talking a bit about how Biden can lead right now. Today, Corbin and Zack delve a bit deeper and talk about how, exactly, Biden could be leading and why it's so incredibly important. Plus, we discuss a few ideas for what we can do to get the message across better. Subscribe to the newsletter at buildingthedream.substack.com.

We had to speak up. This is an emergency episode. We could no longer sit and watch the train wreck that is near continuous wasted messaging opportunities. From the rapidly declining covid cases and radically ramped up vaccinations numbers to the crisis in Texas Biden keeps missing moments for leadership. Moments to show the American people that electing Democrats is a good thing.  We get into the weeds about how they could do things a little differently and heap praise in the things they are doing great at. We also hock some cashew butter and rope sandals. Enjoy!

Zack and I talked about where we are now. How likely is it that Biden will make the most of hist first week post-impeachment?Will he take credit for Democrat’s early successes in fighting Covid? Will he offer a plan to move our economy forward? Zack and I talk about how Biden could capture this moment and lead the country away from Trumpism.

I spoke to award winning journalist Idrees Kahloon about how Covid has impacted the communities he covers.  We talk housing, food, and jobs and how Americans are handling the crisis. Idrees is the US policy correspondent at The Economist covering domestic politics and policy. Prior to that, he worked on The Economist‘s data journalism team. Enjoy the show. 

Our friends over at New Consensus recently released an op-ed in CNN with some ideas for how Biden can fix the vaccine bottlenecks now and ramp up vaccine manufacturing to inoculate everyone in America--and even the world. We spoke with Isaac Larkin, Demond Drummer, Robert Hockett, Amy Ramirez and Zack Exley (this time speaking on behalf of New Consensus) about how we can speed up vaccination, and why it could mean the difference between COVID-19 being history a year from now, and COVID-19 being something we deal with every year forever.Subscribe to the newsletter at buildingthedream.substack.com.