{"podcast":{"title":"Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer","slug":"pitchfork-economics-with-nick-hanauer-653707","podcast_index_feed_id":653707,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/PPY5667678674","website_url":"http://www.pitchforkeconomics.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/c5ce4202-f4f7-11e8-8f50-a71b647a9c02/image/Pitchfork_Branding_Final_2023.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Civic Ventures","episode_count":445,"summary":"We are living through a paradigm shift from trickle-down neoliberalism to middle-out economics — a new understanding of who gets what and why. Join zillionaire class-traitor Nick Hanauer and some of the world’s leading economic and political thinkers as they explore the latest thinking on how the economy actually works.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-28T20:20:54.030078+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pitchfork-economics-with-nick-hanauer-653707"},"episode":{"title":"AI Job Loss Is Real. The Catastrophe Is Optional (with Kathryn Edwards)","slug":"ai-job-loss-is-real-the-catastrophe-is-optional-with-kathryn-edwards","published_at":"2026-06-16T16:35:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pitchfork-economics-with-nick-hanauer-653707/ai-job-loss-is-real-the-catastrophe-is-optional-with-kathryn-edwards","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pitchfork-economics-with-nick-hanauer-653707","url":"https://chrt.fm/track/28EG51/traffic.megaphone.fm/PCHEC7546207273.mp3","audio_url":"https://chrt.fm/track/28EG51/traffic.megaphone.fm/PCHEC7546207273.mp3","summary":"AI doomsdayers want us to believe mass job loss would be unprecedented. But Kathryn Anne Edwards has a sharp reminder: In the first five weeks of the pandemic, the U.S. economy shed 22.5 million jobs—larger than any single AI job-loss estimate she has seen. The difference was policy. Unemployment support, direct cash to families, and a strong public response helped workers survive the shock and helped the labor market recover. This week, Nick and Paul talk with Edwards about what the pandemic recovery can teach us about AI, automation, unemployment, and the future of work. Why do AI debates so often treat workers as passive victims and government as irrelevant? What would a serious policy response to technological disruption look like? And why should we be skeptical of billionaires and tech leaders who insist that this time, unlike every other economic transition, they are uniquely important and special? Kathryn Anne Edwards is a labor economist, independent policy consultant, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, economics influencer, and co-host of the Optimist Economy podcast. Social Media: Instagram Threads TikTok Bluesky Twitter Further reading: Optimist Economy Podcast Bloomberg Opinion - AI Can Lead to a Fix of This Broken Government Program Bloomberg Opinion - Is AI Coming for Your Job? A Bigger Government Can Help Bloomberg Opinion - AI Anxiety Won’t Be Eased by Universal Basic Income Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch","meta_description":"AI doomsdayers want us to believe mass job loss would be unprecedented. But Kathryn Anne Edwards has a sharp reminder: In the first five weeks of the pand…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2316,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pitchfork-economics-with-nick-hanauer-653707/episodes/ai-job-loss-is-real-the-catastrophe-is-optional-with-kathryn-edwards/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/pitchfork-economics-with-nick-hanauer-653707/ai-job-loss-is-real-the-catastrophe-is-optional-with-kathryn-edwards.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}