In this episode, I talk to Forward Party’s founder Andrew Yang about the future of American democracy. Andrew shares the insights he’s learned from his presidential and mayoral campaigns. His major realization is that America’s two-party system is designed for polarization and dysfunction. With the media and the internet further inciting division, polarization may eventually escalate into violence. In order to shift towards a human-centered economy, Andrew believes we need to change our political dynamics and incentives. We also touch on the topics of tribalism, rationality, automation, education, leadership, and governance. 

Bio

Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur, attorney, and political candidate. He was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. His signature policy was a universal basic income of $1,000 a month as a response to job displacement by automation. After his campaigns ended, he left the Democratic Party and founded Forward Party, a political action committee that seeks to alleviate political polarization and reform the U.S. political and economic systems.

Andrew is also an author and has published several books including Smart People Should Build Things, The War on Normal People, and most recently, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy. 

Website: www.andrewyang.com

Twitter: @AndrewYang

Topics

01:34 Andrew’s childhood and early ventures 

09:04 Andrew’s desire to humanize the economy 

11:28 The presidential and mayoral candidacy experience

19:51 Society’s current incentive structures

22:57 “The duopoly is designed for polarization”

29:49 How do we reward grace and tolerance in politics?

33:18 Fact-based governance and a shared objective reality

39:59 New measures for well-being

46:26 Politics is tribal

51:44 United by universal human values

55:28 Fulfilling the need to matter

1:00:36 Human-centered education