What counts as progress?

We’ve never had more wealth, more data, or more ways to be entertained. So why doesn’t it feel like progress?

Sean’s guest today is Brad DeLong, an economic historian at UC Berkeley and author of Slouching Towards Utopia. They talk about the difference between getting richer and living well, and why the real hinge of the 21st century might be attention rather than growth. DeLong explains how AI could make life easier or simply make us more distracted, why the world’s progress continues even as American politics falters, and what smart policy could do for the people left behind by technological change.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: J. Bradford DeLong, economic historian and author of Slouching Towards Utopia

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