Why do so many Americans say housing costs are a top concern — but still oppose new housing in their neighborhoods? UC Davis law professor Chris Elmendorf shares surprising research revealing that aesthetics and feelings about developers may matter more than self-interest or NIMBYism.
In this conversation, we cover:

- Why just saying the word "developer" drops support for new housing by 4+ points
- How Hollywood has generated an estimated 1 billion negative representations of developers
- Why "small local homebuilder" gets a dramatically different reaction than "big real estate developer"
- What a video of a developer rescuing dogs has to do with housing policy
- Why ugly buildings hurt housing support even among renters who would benefit from lower rents
- The vacancy chain concept — and why it's one of the most persuasive arguments for building more housing
- The story of how a Twitter thread helped revive California's "builder's remedy" law
- What the pro-housing movement should actually focus on to win long-term

This is the Season 1 finale of Everybody Gets Pie. Tune in for another season soon!

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Biology is booming, so why isn’t medicine keeping up?

We sit down with Ruxandra Tesloianu to unpack the real constraints slowing drug development. From clinical trial inefficiencies and regulatory opacity to risk-averse biotech culture, we explore why breakthrough discoveries so often stall before reaching patients, and why increasing the availability of clinical trials might be the answer.

We dig into:

•⁠ ⁠Why pharma R&D productivity keeps falling (Eroom’s Law)
•⁠ ⁠The clinical trial bottleneck and late human feedback loops
•⁠ ⁠How regulatory uncertainty quietly inflates costs
•⁠ ⁠Why investors avoid high-risk areas like aging
•⁠ ⁠The overlooked role of surrogate endpoints and biomarkers
•⁠ ⁠What China and Australia reveal about regulatory arbitrage
•⁠ ⁠Whether AI can actually fix the pipeline
•⁠ ⁠The expanding role of IRBs and procedural friction

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We dive into the hidden environmental cost of modern agriculture, from sprawling farmland covering 40% of the planet to the $300 billion global subsidy system that rewards scale over sustainability.

Author Michael Grunwald unpacks why food production, not cities, is the biggest driver of deforestation, water use, and carbon emissions, and what technology, policy, and smarter incentives could do to change course. From lab-grown meat and AI-engineered crops to the surprising truth about “natural” farming, he challenges how we think about food, land, and climate.

Key topics:
•⁠ ⁠Why agricultural sprawl dwarfs urban sprawl
•⁠ ⁠The real impact of meat production
•⁠ ⁠Subsidies and the politics of farming
•⁠ ⁠Tech solutions: alternative proteins, gene editing, AI agriculture
•⁠ ⁠Policy vs. innovation — what actually moves the needle?
•⁠ ⁠How consumers can make a difference without perfection
•⁠ ⁠If we need 50% more food by 2050, how do we grow more without destroying more?

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In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we are joined by Neera Tanden, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress and former Domestic Policy Advisor to President Joe Biden. Neera reflects candidly on her time in public service, the lessons of the Biden administration, and why Democrats must be ruthless about solving real problems, and especially on housing and affordability.

We cover:
•⁠ ⁠How housing location shapes life outcomes
•⁠ ⁠The tension between inclusionary zoning and housing supply
•⁠ ⁠Why renters didn’t feel relief fast enough
•⁠ ⁠Lessons from serving inside the Biden White House
•⁠ ⁠Why permitting reform stalled for housing and clean energy
•⁠ ⁠Supply vs. intervention—and why both matter
•⁠ ⁠Why “bad answers” often beat “no answers” in politics

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America is short 2 million homes. Zoning reform alone won’t fix it.

In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we break down a new national plan to build 2 million homes in just five years, why housing costs keep rising even where we build more, and what it will actually take to make homes affordable again.

We cover:
•⁠ ⁠Why the median first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old
•⁠ ⁠Why housing supply collapsed after 2008 and never recovered
•⁠ ⁠Why zoning reform is necessary but not sufficient
•⁠ ⁠How federal incentives, rent relief, and factory-built housing could speed construction
•⁠ ⁠Why demand-side fixes like 50-year mortgages miss the point
•⁠ ⁠What renters, homeowners, and policymakers are getting wrong about falling prices

Featuring an in-depth conversation with Michael Negrone (Center for American Progress) on the Build, Baby, Build housing plan and what real abundance would require.

Housing affordability is now a top concern across the political spectrum. Can we fix it in time, or is the American dream slipping away?

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Why do cities agree we need more housing and then fight every building that gets proposed?

In this episode of Everybody Gets Pie, we talk with Adam Jentleson, founder of the Searchlight Institute, about a housing idea that sounds radical and might actually work. What if residents got paid when their city built more homes?

Searchlight’s proposal would send direct checks to people living in cities that hit ambitious housing production targets. Not tax cuts. Not vague economic benefits. Real money in your pocket, explicitly tied to new housing getting built.

We dig into:

• Why people support affordable housing in theory but oppose it in their own neighborhood
• The fears driving NIMBY politics, including traffic, crime, and neighborhood change
• Why public education and messaging usually fail on housing
• How a “growth dividend” could reduce opposition without turning everyone into a housing activist
• Why policy design matters more than better slogans
• What Social Security and stimulus checks teach us about durable policy
• The real risks, including gaming the system and inflation

If you have ever wondered why housing fights feel impossible or what it would actually take to make building homes politically popular, this conversation is for you.

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Why does public transit in the U.S. cost so much and still deliver so little? From New York’s notoriously expensive subway projects to Boston’s aging system, American cities struggle to build fast, reliable transit while peers abroad move faster and cheaper.

In this episode, Jake Berman, author of The Lost Subways of North America, joins us to unpack how the U.S. fell behind cities like Madrid, Tokyo, and even Poland. We trace the history of American transit, the rise and collapse of private operators, key government missteps, and how land use and planning decisions shape whether transit succeeds or fails.

We also get concrete about solutions: building near density, learning from global best practices, improving bus networks, and cutting through bureaucratic and political roadblocks. From Houston vs. Dallas to subway expansion in New York and Los Angeles, this conversation breaks down what it would actually take to fix U.S. transit—and why it matters now more than ever.

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Congress has not passed a major housing supply bill in more than 50 years. Yet in one of the most polarized political moments in recent history, a bipartisan coalition is quietly pushing forward legislation that could help create more than a million new homes.

In this episode, we talk with Representative Josh Harder about the Road to Housing Act, why it passed the Senate unanimously, and how it ended up attached to the annual defense bill. We dig into the incentives that could modernize zoning codes, the outdated federal rules that hold back manufactured housing, and why local permitting still shapes so much of what actually gets built.

We also explore the surprisingly cross party politics behind pro housing reforms, whether this cooperation can last, and how housing, energy permitting, and infrastructure fit into the larger abundance agenda.

If you have ever wondered why it is so hard to build homes in America or why this might finally be starting to change, this episode is for you.

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