The Worker Power Missing From the Abundance Debate (with Kate Andrias and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez)
About this episode
The episode discusses the importance of including worker power and community voice in the abundance debate with guests Kate Andrias and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez.
Everyone wants more housing, more clean energy, more transit, more care infrastructure, and more of the things people need to live good lives. But too much of the “abundance” debate treats workers, unions, environmental review, and community voice as obstacles to building — instead of asking who has power, who benefits, and who gets left out. This week, Goldy and Paul talk with Columbia professors Kate Andrias and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez about their Roosevelt Institute report, Democratic Abundance: An Abundance That Works for Workers. They argue that the problem isn’t too much democracy — it’s too little. If we want to build at the scale this moment demands, we need an abundance agenda that puts workers, communities, and democratic power at the center from the start. Kate Andrias is the Patricia D. and R. Paul Yetter Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and serves as co-director of both the Columbia Law School Center for Constitutional Governance and the Columbia Labor Lab. Previously, she served as associate counsel and special assistant to President Barack Obama and as chief of staff in the White House Counsel’s Office. Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is an associate…
People in this episode
Hosts: Goldy, Paul
Guests: Kate Andrias, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez
Topics covered
- worker power
- abundance debate
- democracy
- housing
- clean energy
- community voice
- infrastructure
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Columbia Law School, Roosevelt Institute, Department of Labor, White House, Columbia University, Columbia Labor Lab
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