Podcast Summary: Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Episode: From Abundance to Enshittification: 2025’s Must-Read Economics Books
Date: December 9, 2025
Host: Civic Ventures (Nick Hanauer, Paul, "Goldie" Goldstein)

Episode Overview

This episode offers a lively, critical, and often humorous conversation about 2025’s most talked-about economics books. The hosts, Paul and Goldie, share their picks for the year’s most influential, controversial, and thought-provoking reads. From mainstream breakthroughs like Abundance to philosophical critiques of GDP, and historical studies fueling optimism, the episode provides listeners with both an essential book list and pointed debates about underlying economic theories. True to Pitchfork Economics' “middle-out” philosophy, there's a strong focus on books that challenge neoliberal orthodoxy and explore more equitable, realistic visions for economic progress.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Abundance by Ezra Klein and David Thompson

[02:28-06:24]

• Main Idea: Dominant book this year, arguing America no longer builds and suggesting fewer regulations could unlock prosperity.
• Debate: Paul says the book is shaping political conversations, especially for 2026’s midterms. Goldie calls it “a collection of lazily argued essays,” and criticizes it for lacking an actual economic argument.
  • Goldie: “Our housing has become unaffordable, not just because we’re not building enough, but because our economy has grown so unequal… if you want a more abundant economy, you need a more fair economy.” [05:07]
• Takeaway: The hosts agree on the importance of growth, but stress that distribution and inequality can’t be sidelined in pro-growth policies.

2. Why Nothing Works (“Enshittification”) by Cory Doctorow

[10:04-12:17]

• Main Idea: Chronicling how the Internet and major platforms have gotten markedly worse as monopolists maximize profits. “Enshittification” frames the steady decline of digital experiences.
• Memorable Commentary:
  • Goldie: “I gave up Facebook… the only social media I had left was Twitter... even before Elon Musk took it over, they started to insertify it through its algorithms… and then, of course, once Musk buys it, it’s Nazi shit.” [11:12]
• Insight: The book resonates because it validates the frustration so many feel about digital decline—and places blame squarely on corporate consolidation.

3. Mark Dunkelman’s Why Nothing Works

[06:37-09:25]

• Main Idea: Companion to Abundance, exploring how regulation swung from too lax to too restrictive, now hindering beneficial development.
• Host Perspective: Goldie prefers Dunkelman’s more data-driven approach but pushes back on the claim that this is solely a progressive failing.
  • Goldie: “He has a politics of abundance, but he doesn’t have an economics of abundance.” [08:22]
• Historical Anecdote: NYC ice rink rebuilt by Donald Trump after city failures, but “probably knowing Donald Trump, he was able to do it so cheap because he didn't pay any of his contractors.” [08:16]

4. The Thomas Piketty Triple-Release (2025)

[13:07-17:28]

a. Equality is a Struggle – Collection of Piketty’s essays (2021-2025).

b. Nature, Culture and Inequality – Short, accessible lecture adaptation covering education, inheritance, climate change, wealth taxes, and gender.

c. Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters – Dialogue with Michael Sandel; focuses on global inequality, areas of agreement and disagreement on solutions.

• Paul: “All three of these books... are coming at the problem of inequality from three very different ways.” [15:47]
• Goldie: “He kind of took the rage of the Occupy Wall Street movement and gave it an intellectual heft and sort of direction.” [16:37]

5. Diane Coyle’s The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters

[17:36-20:07]

• Main Idea: A fresh critique of GDP, arguing that what we choose to measure—like GDP—shapes our worldview, and measuring "growth" is not the same as measuring true progress.
  • Goldie: “The very idea of fabricating this thing called GDP and giving it importance... is powerful in it of itself and needs to be examined.” [18:40]
• Insight: Reminds listeners that “the economy” is a manufactured concept; GDP prioritizes what is measurable, not what matters.

6. Historical Optimism: The Radical by John Fabian Witt

[20:07-21:59]

• Story of the Garland Fund:
  • In 1922, Charles Garland refused his inheritance and redirected it to progressive causes, laying the groundwork for policies that birthed the New Deal and reshaped American society for decades.
  • Paul: “At times like these I’m really desperate for sort of a blueprint of what to do next—and I think as we’re going…” [21:44]

7. Honorable Mentions, Rereads, and Personal Picks

[22:26-29:40]

Book Recommendations (with brief comments):

• How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray by Nat Dyer
  • Goldie: “It hit a sweet spot for me because it’s really a book about economic history... comparative advantage... was based on like a treaty from 100 years, 150 years before between England and Portugal that actually did this. … It had these horrible real world consequences that involved the international slave trade and centuries of impoverishment for Portugal…” [25:09-25:45]
• Gardens of Democracy by Nick Hanauer and Eric Liu
  • Goldie: “A lot of it still holds up… and the core insights were there way back, what, in 2012, when they wrote that book.” [26:18]
• The Communist Manifesto (reread)
  • Goldie: “It’s fascinating to see how much of what is happening now they predict it. There’s some clear insight into the future of capitalism.” [27:00]
• Why Information Grows by Cesar Hidalgo
  • Goldie: “Endlessly fascinating... one of the most important economic books I’ve ever read...” [27:28]

Other Picks:

• Coming Up Short by Robert Reich – Memoir, ideal for listeners interested in economic policy from a practitioner’s view.
• Mood Machine by Liz Pelly – A critical corporate biography of Spotify, illustrating platform economics at the expense of labor.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You want a more abundant economy, you need a more fair economy.” —Goldie, [05:07]
• “He has a politics of abundance, but he doesn’t have an economics of abundance.” —Goldie, [08:22]
• “The very idea of fabricating this thing called GDP and giving it importance... is powerful in it of itself and needs to be examined.” —Goldie, [18:40]
• “If only we knew a really rich person who could invest in [the next New Deal].” —Goldie, [21:49] (teasing Nick Hanauer)
• “Audiobooks count as reading books… it’s regressive to say otherwise.” —Paul, [29:48]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Abundance/Regulation Debate: [02:28–06:24]
• Enshittification and Digital Decline: [10:04–12:17]
• Piketty’s Latest on Equality: [13:07–17:28]
• GDP Critique (Diane Coyle): [17:36–20:07]
• Blueprint for Reform – The Radical: [20:07–21:59]
• Economic History and Honorable Mentions: [22:26–29:40]

Tone and Takeaways

The tone is playful, irreverent, and distinctly skeptical of neat economic narratives without historical or distributive context. The hosts push for nuanced, reality-grounded perspectives on economic growth, fairness, and the perverse impact of platform monopolies. Listeners get both a crash course in the latest “must-read” economics books and a sense of the ongoing, passionate debates at the heart of economics today.

(Refer to the episode transcript for in-depth discussions, more book recommendations, and the full exchange between Paul and Goldie.)