Yoni Appelbaum — historian and deputy executive editor at The Atlantic — joins us to talk about his latest book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. This is a classic Vanessa & Adaam convo…not only do we cover housing, NIMBYs, and the lunacies of Progressive governance, we also touch on America’s can-move spirit, the Abundance movement, what left-leaning cities get right (yes, there are some things), and what Mayor Mamdani means for New York.

On the agenda:

-What happened since we recorded this episode [00:00-03:59]

-Defining mobility and explaining its decline [4:00-14:30]

-A theory of mind for the NIMBY [14:31-27:41]

-What happens when we empower communities [27:42-33:02]

-The right to stay [33:03-47:39]

-Why the math of mobility no longer works [47:40-52:28]

-Why aren’t Red states winning? [52:29-1:03:58]

-Social safety nets and Mayor Mamdani [01:03:59-1:26:30]

Further listening:

• How Progressives Ruin Cities (Vishaan Chakrabarti on Uncertain Things)

• Progressives are Silly (Nellie Bowles on Uncertain Things)

• The Agony of Abundance (Nick Gillespie on Uncertain Things)

• The City and the Citadel (Michael Kimmelman on Uncertain Things)

• Our Temples of Tragedy (Justin Davidson on Uncertain Things)

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.

Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe