# #499 - Why Nothing Works: A Dialogue with Marc Dunkelman

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/converging-dialogues-1498806/499-why-nothing-works-a-dialogue-with-marc-dunkelman
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/converging-dialogues-1498806/499-why-nothing-works-a-dialogue-with-marc-dunkelman.md
Podcast: [Converging Dialogues](https://stenobird.com/podcast/converging-dialogues-1498806)
Published: 2026-07-05T22:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://convergingdialogues.substack.com/p/499-why-nothing-works-a-dialogue
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/202461824/f4aba0ca71297537f7d90583c4184e91.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/converging-dialogues-1498806/episodes/499-why-nothing-works-a-dialogue-with-marc-dunkelman
Duration seconds: 4375

## Resource

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Marc Dunkelman about progressives and policy ideas for growth. They discuss shared interests of collective and individual interests, progressives on big ideas, Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian progressive styles, pragmatic institutionalism, new ideas in the 21st century, elites, visionary leadership, and many more topics. Marc J. Dunkelman is a resident scholar at the Searchlight Institute and a fellow at Brown University’s Watson School for International and Public Affairs. During more than a decade working in politics, he worked for Democratic members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The author of The Vanishing Neighbor , Dunkelman’s work has appeared in The New York Times , The Atlantic , The Wall Street Journal , The Washington Post , The Financial Times , The Boston Globe , and Politico . He is the author of the latest book, Why Nothing Works: Who killed progress and how to bring it back . Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

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## Transcript

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