Ezra Klein

Have you ever constructed a utopia, even just for yourself, that you find convincing?

Have you ever constructed a utopia, even just for yourself, that you find convincing?

And it also seemed to me there, before we got into the planning for how it might be different, that a principle you were at least implying is that we're likely in a better society trying to avoid dystopias than create utopias. Maybe utopias create too much potential for moral blackmail or something.

And it also seemed to me there, before we got into the planning for how it might be different, that a principle you were at least implying is that we're likely in a better society trying to avoid dystopias than create utopias. Maybe utopias create too much potential for moral blackmail or something.

I figure what stories do in utopia is realize there's never such thing as utopia.

I figure what stories do in utopia is realize there's never such thing as utopia.

One reason I ask this is that something that I worry about sometimes is that what the right has for its side is an inspiring vision of the past, and the left has lost an inspiring vision of the future. And I know some, I should say, I know there are sci-fi writers working with Utopias now. I know Becky Chambers just wrote a book, which I just read actually on that theme.

One reason I ask this is that something that I worry about sometimes is that what the right has for its side is an inspiring vision of the past, and the left has lost an inspiring vision of the future. And I know some, I should say, I know there are sci-fi writers working with Utopias now. I know Becky Chambers just wrote a book, which I just read actually on that theme.

But I think there's something to that nevertheless. Sometimes I worry that the left has become about preventing disaster but doesn't quite have a vision of what it is trying to create.

But I think there's something to that nevertheless. Sometimes I worry that the left has become about preventing disaster but doesn't quite have a vision of what it is trying to create.

Plus it'll be fun is, I think, an often missed piece.

Plus it'll be fun is, I think, an often missed piece.

One of the questions I always wonder about for myself, as somebody who works in news in a particular period of human history, Is what are the things that when this era is looked back on, the question would be, why did people not take that more seriously?

One of the questions I always wonder about for myself, as somebody who works in news in a particular period of human history, Is what are the things that when this era is looked back on, the question would be, why did people not take that more seriously?

And I'll ask a sort of fun version of this, but then I want to ask a general version of this, which is, what was your view of the spate of UFO news coming out of particularly the US government over the last year that got a ton of attention? Then everybody just sort of moved on after a report came out saying, we don't know what to make of any of this.

And I'll ask a sort of fun version of this, but then I want to ask a general version of this, which is, what was your view of the spate of UFO news coming out of particularly the US government over the last year that got a ton of attention? Then everybody just sort of moved on after a report came out saying, we don't know what to make of any of this.

Perhaps that's the disadvantage of being a creature that thinks stories.

Perhaps that's the disadvantage of being a creature that thinks stories.

What do you think are the stories that are obviously there that will be things that shape our coming decades and that we're not paying attention to? And I want to put out here things that maybe we're not doing enough on, like climate crisis, but we are paying more attention to, or authoritarianism.

What do you think are the stories that are obviously there that will be things that shape our coming decades and that we're not paying attention to? And I want to put out here things that maybe we're not doing enough on, like climate crisis, but we are paying more attention to, or authoritarianism.