Lytt til The Ezra Klein Show

The president of the United States is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists: a prison built for disappearance, a prison where there is no education or remediation or recreation, a prison where the only way out, according to El Salvador’s justice minister, is in a coffin. The president says he wants to send “homegrown” Americans there next. This is the emergency. Like it or not, it’s here. Asha Rangappa is a former F.B.I. special agent and now an assistant dean and senior lecturer at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, as well as a member of the board of editors for Just Security and the author of The Freedom Academy [https://asharangappa.substack.com/] on Substack. Mentioned: “Abrego Garcia and MS-13: What Do We Know? [https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/abrego-garcia-and-ms-13--what-do-we-know]” by Roger Parloff Book Recommendations: The Burning [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250800725/theburning/] by Tim Madigan Breaking Twitter [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ben-mezrich/breaking-twitter/9781538707623/?lens=grand-central-publishing] by Ben Mezrich Erasing History [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Erasing-History/Jason-Stanley/9781668056912] by Jason Stanley Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast [https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast]. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html [https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html] This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Elias Isquith. Fact-checking by Rollin Hu, Jack McCordick, Kristin Lin and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

My colleague Tom Friedman thinks we’re screwed. That’s the first thing he told me when recounting his recent trip to China. It’s not just because of the trade war that President Trump is escalating right now. Friedman believes the whole Washington consensus on China — that the country is a hostile adversary — is dangerous and based on an outdated understanding of what China now is. He saw how China’s manufacturing and technology have advanced so far that in many ways it now surpasses the United States’. In this conversation, Friedman walks me through the advancements he saw in some of the most critical fields of the coming decades — including A.I., E.V.s and clean energy. We discuss why he sees the current consensus as dangerous, what a different path might look like and what the United States should do to develop its domestic manufacturing so that we don’t “get steamrolled.” This episode contains strong language. Mentioned: “I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/opinion/trump-tariffs-china.html]” by Thomas L. Friedman “China's overlapping tech-industrial ecosystems [https://www.high-capacity.com/p/chinas-overlapping-tech-industrial]” by Kyle Chan Genesis [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/henry-a-kissinger/genesis/9780316581295/] by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Craig Mundie  Book Recommendations: The works of Yuval Noah Harari [https://www.ynharari.com/] Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast [https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast]. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs [https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html]. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Isaac Jones, with Aman Sahota and Efim Shapiro. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Elias Isquith, Marina King, Jan Kobal, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Zoe Zongyuan Liu, Kyle Chan and Matt Sheehan. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

After a week of market chaos, President Trump pulled back from the brink. But he didn’t pull that far back. He left a 10 percent tariff on most of the world and launched a trade war with China. It’s unclear what he will do after this 90-day pause or what countries need to do to satisfy him. But one thing that is very clear now is that our economy is subject to one man’s whims. How are businesses supposed to adapt to this new reality? What is this new reality? Peter R. Orszag is the chief executive and chairman of Lazard, one of the world’s largest asset management and global financial advisory firms. He also served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama, so was a policymaker during a financial crisis. And over the past few months, he’s been talking to lots of C.E.O.s and corporate board members as they try to process these changing policies. I wanted to ask him what he’s been hearing and how he sees the volatility of this moment. Mentioned: “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System [https://www.hudsonbaycapital.com/documents/FG/hudsonbay/research/638199_A_Users_Guide_to_Restructuring_the_Global_Trading_System.pdf]” by Stephen Miran “Paul Krugman on the ‘Biggest Trade Shock in History’ [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-paul-krugman.html]” by The Ezra Klein Show Trade Wars Are Class Wars [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300261448/trade-wars-are-class-wars/] by Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis Book Recommendations: Underground Empire [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250840554/undergroundempire/] by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman Chokepoints [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726149/chokepoints-by-edward-fishman/] by Edward Fishman Smart Money [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/smart-money-9781526678515/] by Brunello Rosa and Casey Larsen The Catalyst [https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324050681] by Thomas R. Cech Kaput [https://swiftpress.com/book/kaput/] by Wolfgang Münchau Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast [https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast]. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs [https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html]. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Isaac Jones, with Aman Sahota and Efim Shapiro. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith, Marina King, Jan Kobal and Kristin Lin. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Matt Klein. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The tariffs President Trump unveiled this week were both bigger than most people expected and a lot more confusing. These aren’t the flat tariffs he proposed during the campaign. And they aren’t reciprocal tariffs, as he claimed in his Rose Garden speech. So what is Trump actually doing here? I knew my former colleague Paul Krugman would have some thoughts. Krugman is a Nobel laureate trade economist who was a New York Times Opinion columnist for 25 years. He now writes an excellent newsletter on Substack [https://paulkrugman.substack.com/], where he’s been trying to make sense of the theories behind Trump’s tariff policies and, now, their strange reality. Mentioned: “Stop Looking for Methods in the Madness [https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/stop-looking-for-methods-in-the-madness]” by Paul Krugman Book Recommendations: The Price of Peace [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563378/the-price-of-peace-by-zachary-d-carter/] by Zachary D. Carter How Not to Invest [https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/barry-ritholtz/how-not-to-invest/9781804091340] by Barry Ritholtz War and Power [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/phillips-payson-obrien/war-and-power/9781541606975/?lens=publicaffairs] by Phillips Payson O’Brien Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast [https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast]. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs [https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html]. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Mixing by Efim Shapiro and Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Elias Isquith, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

There’s something of a policy revolution afoot: As of March, more than a dozen states — including California, Florida and Ohio — have passed bills or adopted policies [https://ballotpedia.org/State_policies_on_cellphone_use_in_K-12_public_schools] that aim to limit cellphone usage at school. More are expected to follow. Jonathan Haidt is the leader of this particular insurgency. “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/729231/the-anxious-generation-by-jonathan-haidt/],” his book exploring the decline of the “play-based childhood” and the rise of the “phone-based childhood,” has been on the New York Times best-seller list for a year. It feels, to me, like we’re finally figuring out a reasonable approach to smartphones and social media and kids … just in time for that approach to be deranged by the question of A.I. and kids, which no one is really prepared for. So I wanted to have Haidt on the show to talk through both of those topics, and the questions we often ignore beneath them: What is childhood for? What are parents for? What do human beings need in order to flourish? You know, the small stuff. Haidt is a professor at New York University Stern School of Business and the author of “The Righteous Mind [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/73535/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt/]” and “The Coddling of the American Mind [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557315/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind-by-greg-lukianoff-and-jonathan-haidt/]” (with Greg Lukianoff). His newsletter is called After Babel [https://www.afterbabel.com/]. This episode contains strong language. Mentioned: “She Fell in Love With ChatGPT. Like, Actual Love. With Sex. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/podcasts/the-daily/ai-chatgpt-boyfriend-relationship.html]” by The Daily The Age of Addiction [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674248229] by David T. Courtwright “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/]” By Jean Twenge Stolen Focus [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634289/stolen-focus-by-johann-hari/] by Johann Hari Book Recommendations: The Stoic Challenge [https://wwnorton.com/books/the-stoic-challenge] by William B. Irvine Deep Work [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/cal-newport/deep-work/9781455586691/?lens=grand-central-publishing] by Cal Newport How to Win Friends and Influence People [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-to-Win-Friends-and-Influence-People/Dale-Carnegie/9781982171452] by Dale Carnegie Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast [https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast]. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs [https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html]. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Isaac Jones, with Efim Shapiro and Aman Sahota. Our executive editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Michelle Harris, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.