Episode
Catching Up With Ro Khanna
- Podcast
- Paul Krugman Podcast
- Published
- Jun 27, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2881
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/catching-up-with-ro-khanna
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/episodes/catching-up-with-ro-khanna/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/catching-up-with-ro-khanna.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube . Ro Khanna represents a large part of Silicon Valley, and not surprisingly is a very smart guy. Perhaps more surprisingly, he’s also a very interesting progressive, who has drawn considerable ire from the tech lords, with Elon Musk most recently calling for his imprisonment. I caught up with him Friday: TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Congressman Ro Khanna (recorded 6/26/26) Paul Krugman : I’m talking again to Rep. Ro Khanna , the Representative for Cupertino, as it were, representing the heart of Silicon Valley in ways that don’t always please the tech oligarchs. I had planned to ask about AI, but there’s so much going on and Ro is right in the middle. So, welcome to this interview. Ro Khanna : Well, I’m honored to be back on. I usually just read you to learn, but I’m glad we’re going to get to have another conversation. Krugman : As it happens, tech-related politics is really central now. And you seem to be in the middle of at least three big issues: Elon Musk, AI generally, and the California Wealth Tax Initiative. I want to talk about all of those, but maybe let’s start with Elon Musk, who has called you evil, which is a great honor. Do you want to talk about that controversy and where you came in here? Because I think it’s very interesting. Khanna : Well, he’s called me evil, he’s threatened to sue me, and he’s threatened to jail me. I have this quaint idea, Paul, that in a democracy, Elon Musk should have one vote. He doesn’t seem to think that, and the reason he has been so triggered is that I not only cited a Lancet study —which said that his USAID cuts could potentially lead to the deaths of 4.5 million children and over 10 million adults—but I also cited an Atul Gawande/ Boston study showing…