{"podcast":{"title":"Paul Krugman Podcast","slug":"paul-krugman-podcast-7703924","podcast_index_feed_id":7703924,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/277517.rss","website_url":"https://paulkrugman.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/277517/97debc08d318fda1d382063e54848600.jpg","author":"Paul Krugman","episode_count":81,"summary":"Notes on economics and more","last_synced_at":"2026-07-26T10:17:51.645609+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924"},"episode":{"title":"Catching Up With Ro Khanna","slug":"catching-up-with-ro-khanna","published_at":"2026-06-27T10:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/catching-up-with-ro-khanna","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924","url":"https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/catching-up-with-ro-khanna","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/203770623/565bc17c762620367ba696d54af0ce40.mp3","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…","meta_description":"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. Perh…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2881,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/episodes/catching-up-with-ro-khanna/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/catching-up-with-ro-khanna.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}