Derek Thompson

So we have, I think, an urgent need for institutional renewal at the National Institutes of Health, given how important their discoveries are to improving and extending human life. I don't think Elon Musk understands the first fucking thing about the NIH. I don't think he did any research.

I don't think he spoke to anybody about how exactly the NIH works, how it evolved, where it came from, what its habits are, which habits are good, and which habits are bad. What I see instead is I'm not inside of his head, but what it looks to me like is a pretty pure play of ideological punishment of universities that they think are woke. So they're going after Columbia.

I don't think he spoke to anybody about how exactly the NIH works, how it evolved, where it came from, what its habits are, which habits are good, and which habits are bad. What I see instead is I'm not inside of his head, but what it looks to me like is a pretty pure play of ideological punishment of universities that they think are woke. So they're going after Columbia.

They're going after Harvard because the indirect costs are 55, 65% there. They're attacking science to punish the cultural ideas of scientists and not going into the institution of science and renewing it to solve 21st century problems.

They're going after Harvard because the indirect costs are 55, 65% there. They're attacking science to punish the cultural ideas of scientists and not going into the institution of science and renewing it to solve 21st century problems.

So that would be the pretty clear cut that I would draw between our approach to understanding the NIH and fixing it and the Doge approach to slashing and burning the NIH because they have a cultural bugaboo about the ideas of scientists.

So that would be the pretty clear cut that I would draw between our approach to understanding the NIH and fixing it and the Doge approach to slashing and burning the NIH because they have a cultural bugaboo about the ideas of scientists.

I can pick up there, but there's also a... There's a couple questions about the book making contact with the world that I want to get to before we have a hard out. So... I don't think I'm violating some unspoken covenant with our editor, Ben, our wonderful editor, Ben, by saying that the original publication date of this book was actually last year.

I can pick up there, but there's also a... There's a couple questions about the book making contact with the world that I want to get to before we have a hard out. So... I don't think I'm violating some unspoken covenant with our editor, Ben, our wonderful editor, Ben, by saying that the original publication date of this book was actually last year.

The original plan is for Abundance to come out in the middle of the summer of 2024 to make contact with that presidential election. June 2024 and March 2025 are completely different worlds. From a political standpoint, they're practically different planets. And for the sake of putting together- Yeah, you have a kid now. The kid was born in 2023. So that's the same world.

The original plan is for Abundance to come out in the middle of the summer of 2024 to make contact with that presidential election. June 2024 and March 2025 are completely different worlds. From a political standpoint, they're practically different planets. And for the sake of putting together- Yeah, you have a kid now. The kid was born in 2023. So that's the same world.

But I guess 18 months is a different world from nine months, certainly on the sleeping front. But for the sake of putting together a readable and finished product, I think we absolutely needed to take those extra months. But every few days, I think to myself, just how differently this book would have existed inside the news cycle if it came out during, say, a Biden to Harris handoff period.

But I guess 18 months is a different world from nine months, certainly on the sleeping front. But for the sake of putting together a readable and finished product, I think we absolutely needed to take those extra months. But every few days, I think to myself, just how differently this book would have existed inside the news cycle if it came out during, say, a Biden to Harris handoff period.

versus today, which is an era of just lurid chaos in the Trump administration. How do you think the timing of this book's new publication date deepens its message or complicates it?

versus today, which is an era of just lurid chaos in the Trump administration. How do you think the timing of this book's new publication date deepens its message or complicates it?

It was going to be published in the summer of 2024. I don't remember exactly the date. I think it was supposed to come out just before. Just around that first debate, maybe. It was supposed to come out just before the DNC convention because we wanted the book to influence the DNC platform. Take it away.

It was going to be published in the summer of 2024. I don't remember exactly the date. I think it was supposed to come out just before. Just around that first debate, maybe. It was supposed to come out just before the DNC convention because we wanted the book to influence the DNC platform. Take it away.

Ezra, our friend Tyler Cowen has this term that I love called a Straussian read. And a Straussian read of a book is an interpretation of the book that is not explicitly inside of the book itself. It's a vibe of the book that you pick up off the page even if it's not articulated in the letters themselves.

Ezra, our friend Tyler Cowen has this term that I love called a Straussian read. And a Straussian read of a book is an interpretation of the book that is not explicitly inside of the book itself. It's a vibe of the book that you pick up off the page even if it's not articulated in the letters themselves.

And we were recently on a podcast the other day that made me wonder about a particular Straussian read of this book. The parties, as you know better than anybody, are polarized by education. I wonder what we think of this idea that they're also polarized by personality.