The Ezra Klein Show

Alex Bores, a New York state assemblyman running for Congress, has become a central figure in the AI regulation debate. Despite his former work at Palantir, he's now championing policies that would increase AI transparency and create an AI dividend to redistribute profits to the public. His campaign has drawn millions in attack spending from a super PAC backed by founders of major AI companies, making his race a pivotal battleground over who controls the future of the AI industry.

Ray Madoff, author of "The Second Estate," discusses how ultra-wealthy Americans have essentially been written out of the tax system. Using ProPublica's investigation into leaked tax documents, she reveals that billionaires like Warren Buffett (0.1% effective tax rate), Jeff Bezos (0.98%), and Michael Bloomberg (1.3%) pay almost nothing in income tax relative to their wealth. The conversation explores the techniques the wealthy use to evade taxes, why they view salaries as beneath them, and what meaningful tax reform would require.

Political scientists Marc Lynch and Shibley Telhami discuss their book on Israel's "one-state reality" — the recognition that the two-state solution framework is dead and the facts on the ground now reflect a single, integrated state system spanning Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Since October 7, 2023, this reality has accelerated: record settlement construction, expanded Israeli occupation of Gaza, and military operations into Lebanon have cemented territorial control. The conversation examines what it means to see the actual situation rather than the diplomatic frames of the past.

For decades, most discussions of Israel and Palestine were framed around the eventual creation of a two-state solution. That effort has been dead for years.

When President Trump didn’t annihilate “a whole civilization” on Tuesday, as he had threatened to do, much of the world exhaled. But the damage of his statements — a U.S.

Fareed Zakaria on Trump's foreign policy, the decline of American global leadership, and whether the post-WWII international order can survive without American commitment.

In a prime time address on Wednesday, President Trump proclaimed that America was “on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat.” But he also kept open the option of boots on the ground.

Jack Clark — co-founder of Anthropic, author of the Import AI newsletter — on how AI is changing work, thought, and policy. Klein pushes on whether AI displacement requires new social contracts.

Nadia Schadlow — former deputy national security adviser, Hudson Institute fellow — presents the conservative case for military confrontation with Iran. Klein challenges the assumptions and costs.

Marc Lynch — GWU political scientist, author of America's Middle East — argues that American intervention has consistently made the Middle East worse, not better, across administrations of both parties.

Klein's annual AMA with executive producer Claire Gordon. He reflects on the Trump administration's second year, the Democratic Party's failures, AI's rapid development, and what changed his mind in 2025.

Klein makes the case for an 'abundance agenda' — that progressives should focus on building more (housing, clean energy, infrastructure) rather than just redistributing what exists. A manifesto for left-wing supply-side thinking.

Klein steelmans both the techno-optimist case (technology will solve humanity's greatest challenges) and the techno-pessimist case (technology is creating existential risks), arguing that the real question isn't whether technology is good or bad but who controls it.

Klein's semi-annual book discussion — the books that challenged his assumptions, changed his positions, or introduced ideas he couldn't stop thinking about. A masterclass in intellectual engagement with ideas that challenge your worldview.

Klein examines how American society makes parenthood unnecessarily difficult — no paid leave, expensive childcare, inadequate schools — and why this is a policy choice, not an inevitability.

Jonathan Haidt on his book The Anxious Generation — the argument that smartphone-based childhood is causing an epidemic of teen mental illness, and what policies could reverse it.

Tyler Cowen — economist, author of The Great Stagnation — on whether America is finally escaping its innovation slowdown. Klein and Cowen debate AI, fertility decline, geographic sorting, and the political economy of growth.

Klein examines the American health paradox: the most expensive healthcare system in the world produces some of the worst outcomes in the developed world. Obesity, chronic disease, and mental health crises coexist with cutting-edge medicine.

Klein debates whether social media platforms should face regulation similar to tobacco — product liability, advertising restrictions, age limits — given mounting evidence of harm to teen mental health.

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Klein examines why American institutions — Congress, the Supreme Court, regulatory agencies — are failing to govern effectively. The diagnosis: institutions designed for 18th-century compromise can't handle 21st-century polarization.

Klein interviews political scientist Pippa Norris on the global rise of authoritarian populism — from Orban to Bolsonaro to Trump. The argument: this isn't a temporary aberration but a structural feature of modernization.

Klein lays out his thesis for an abundance agenda: America's core problem is that it has become too difficult to build housing, infrastructure, and clean energy. The solution is removing regulatory barriers to production.

Klein interviews multiple scholars on democratic backsliding worldwide — Hungary, Turkey, India, the United States. The consensus: democracies don't die through coups anymore; they're slowly hollowed out from within.

Klein examines why K-12 education outcomes have stagnated despite decades of reform and dramatically increased spending. The diagnosis: education policy focuses on inputs (money, standards, tests) rather than the relationship between teacher and student.

Klein argues that both parties benefit from immigration dysfunction: Republicans campaign on border chaos, Democrats campaign on humanitarian crises. Neither has an incentive to solve a problem that serves their political interests.

Fareed Zakaria discusses his book Age of Revolutions, arguing that periods of rapid change produce both progress and backlash. Covers how technological, economic, and social revolutions create the conditions for populism.

Klein explores the 'meaning crisis' — rising rates of loneliness, purposelessness, and existential anxiety in wealthy societies. A conversation about why material abundance hasn't produced psychological flourishing.

Klein examines why America incarcerates more people than any country on earth — 2 million people, 5x the global average — and whether mass incarceration actually makes anyone safer.

Klein dives into the American housing crisis — why costs have skyrocketed, why building is so difficult, and what policies could actually increase supply. The case that housing is the most important policy issue most people ignore.

Klein examines the attention crisis — how technology companies have systematically captured and degraded human attention for profit, and what individuals and societies can do about it.

Klein explores the psychological and political barriers to climate action. The technology exists. The economics work. The science is settled. So why can't we act? The answer lies in psychology, politics, and temporal discounting.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness a public health epidemic. Klein explores the data: loneliness increases mortality risk as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and Americans are more isolated than ever.

Klein examines why Americans trust institutions less than at any point in polling history — and whether distrust is rational. The answer: institutions have often earned their distrust, but the alternative (trusting nothing) is worse.