ABUNDANCE

With muckraking fervor, popular podcasters Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson ask a complicated question: What's wrong with how our government operates, and what needs to change? Both authors begin in an optimistic tone but shift into a world-weary tone when discussing how seminal institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) once encouraged and supported scientific invention and innovation but now seem tied in knots with budget-slashing from the Right and needless red tape from the Left. Operation Warp Speed's federal/private partnership to quickly create a COVID-19 vaccine is presented as a healthy example of how focus and efficiency can meet a nation's most dire needs. A thorough and intelligent discussion that sounds the alarm without sounding alarmist. B.P. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2025]