News, events, advocacy opportunities, and commentary from the Center for New Liberalism

With our fourth annual New Liberal Action Summit just 10 weeks away, we’re excited to announce our venue and our first speakers for this year’s summit. 

Our main day of programming on Tuesday, October 21st, will take place at the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. It’s right in Downtown D.C., and just a short walk from every metro line in DC. 

In addition to being our most transit accessible venue yet, we will also have more space than ever before. That means more programming, new breakout sessions this year, and more opportunities to connect and network with your fellow abundance-minded advocates, thinkers, and leaders from around the world. 

We’re also offering a limited number of need-based travel and accommodation scholarships, with priority consideration for dues-paying members of CNL and our chapter leads. Scholarship applications are open until September 1st, and notifications will be going out on a rolling basis. 

This year’s summit will feature panels and discussions on everything from the ideological debates about the future of the Democratic Party and the global center-left to trade policy after Trump, to bold new visions for space and innovation in the 21st century.

We are thrilled to announce our first speakers for the summit:

Daily News | CEQA submitting to the abundance agenda will help the environment
By Tyler Laferriere Holloway, LA New Liberals Chapter Lead | July 14

“Organizations like YIMBY Action and YIMBY LA will continue to be actors on the stage of reform until legal changes translate to into more permits, more homes, more infrastructure, and more opportunities to live, work, learn, create, and enjoy a California where progress and freedom are synonymous with doing, not obstructing.”

Daily News | Two housing bills could save California's chance for climate action
By Thomas Irwin and Chris Tokita, LA New Liberals Members | July 15 

“This time has come for environmentalists not simply to add regulations to prevent harm, but also to embrace removing barriers to doing good.”

Chapelboro.com/WHNL | Viewpoints: To Break Trump, Democrats Need To Break The Housing Status Quo
By Matt Hughes, RDU New Liberals and CNL Steering Committee Member | July 31

“Nowhere is the disconnect between voters and government more tangible than in housing – one of the most urgent, visible, and local issues facing families nationwide. Across the country, families are struggling to afford homes, and rents are skyrocketing in cities of all sizes and in all regions. For Democrats, the housing crisis is a policy problem and a political one.”

San Francisco Chronicle | Who are the most powerful NIMBYS in California? Realtors
By Thomas Irwin, LA New Liberals Member | August 8

“One of the most impactful reforms to unlock homeownership is to make zoning more flexible, increasing the potential supply of homes in existing neighborhoods.”

Los Angeles Times | It's no wonder Angelenos are painting crosswalks themselves
By Thomas Irwin, LA New Liberals Member | August 9

“Moderates must stop pretending the status quo works, and progressives should stop promising ambitious moonshots without first making existing services functional.”

The Dispatch | The Myth of the Cracked Coder
By Jeremiah Johnson, Co-founder of CNL | August 11

“You fix those systems with people who understand the stakes, who listen to experts, who make decisions with care, caution, and humanity. The tech world has been captured by the delusion that those softer skills are fake and that cracked coders are all that’s needed to solve any institutional problem.”

Trump's Big Bill and your Energy Bill Ft. Elan Sykes

The big Republican bill to explode the deficit and cut healthcare has passed Congress and been signed by President Trump. But it's not just bad in the obvious ways - it's also terrible on energy policy. PPI's Director of Energy and Climate Policy Elan Sykes joins the podcast to discuss how Trump's bill will lead to more expensive and more polluting energy.

Check out our previous discussion of the big GOP bill - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-down-the-big-beautiful-bill-ft-jason-furman/id1390384827?i=1000713418967

Building Excellent Schools Ft. Jack Despain Zhou 

What would it mean for America's schools to focus on excellence? Jack Despain Zhou is the founder of the Center for Educational Progress, a new think tank focused on promoting academic excellence. He joins the show to talk about whether we've gone too far in the pursuit of equity goals in education, how we can support and challenge students at every ability level, whether or not tracking is a good idea, and ultimately what a vision of a stronger education system could look like.

Is Algospeak Inevitable? Ft. Adam Aleksic

How are social media algorithms changing the way we communicate? Adam Aleksic is the author of the new book Algospeak, and he joins the podcast to discuss how social media users invent new words to get around algorithmic censorship, how social media changes our tone of voices, the rhythms of our speech, and ultimately changes how we understand one another.

Why Do We Need an Independent Fed? 

This episode is a joint episode with Andrew Heaton and The Political Orphanage podcast, where Andrew and I discuss the Federal Reserve. Why is it important to manage interest rates and the amount of money flowing through the economy? What would a different monetary system without the Fed look like? And why should the Fed remain independent? We discuss all this and more!

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