By: Vicki McKenna
On: The Vicki McKenna Show at iHeart radio
Joel Kotkin talks with Vicki about his recent piece entitled Blue Today, Bluer Tomorrow — how the “blue” left needs to reset toward addressing pragmatic issues. Joel and Vicki discuss how “blue” policies are failing the very minorities and working class people they purport to serve.
By: Dan Proft
On: The Dan Proft Show on Omny Studio
Joel Kotkin talks with Dan Proft about his recent piece entitled Blue Today, Bluer Tomorrow — how the pandemic is highlighting the failures of big urban — and typically “blue” metros to develop policies that actually benefit workers and minorities. Joel and Dan discuss how white progressives and the political class fail to address the pragmatic challenges with policies that minorities and workers need to pursue the “American dream”, and how minorites and workers are voting with their feet towards smaller metropolitan areas in order to realize homeownership and upward mobility.
By: Thomas B. Edsall
On: New York Times
Joel Kotkin, presidential fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and executive director of the Houston-based Urban Reform Institute, argues that in other circumstances, the Trump themes might be effective. Referring to densification — a strategy to create affordable housing — Kotkin argues that people of all races and ethnicities generally “do not like density” and oppose what the gentry wants — that is to take the poor out of the cities and impose them on the middle class. Many minority communities see this as well, and they were critical in defeating forced densification here in California.
A strategy designed to capitalize on these views, Kotkin continued, “would work better if the president was not Trump.” To many people, “he is an offensive character with a déclassé base.”
Even though “Trump is better organized” than he was last time “and the riots and the strident B.L.M. rhetoric rubs even many old liberals the wrong way,” Kotkin concluded, “my sense is that the Dems hold their suburban edge, but perhaps not by as much as 2018.”
Why the 2020 Election Will Be Decided in the Suburbs
By: Lars Larson
On: SoundCloud
Joel Kotkin talks with Lars Larson about how progressive policies haven’t been helping blue-collar workers and minorities. The progressive movement has shifted from upholding the value of work, towards what Marx called the “proletarian alms-bag.”
Progressive politics is no longer about getting a job, moving up, buying a house, raising a family…
— Joel Kotkin
By: Madeleine Brand
On: KCRW
People have been fleeing cities for months, reports show. A new NPR and Harvard poll out today shows the pandemic’s financial toll on America’s four largest cities: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Houston. In LA, more than half of all households report serious financial problems. Black and Latino communities are disproportionately affected nationwide.
KCRW talks about the future of cities with Joel Kotkin, a professor and fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, and author of “The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class.” Also in the conversation is Annalee Newitz, a science writer and the author of the forthcoming book “Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age.”
The important thing is to understand that these trends existed before the pandemic. Over the last three-four years, LA, Chicago, New York all lost population. Migration has been moving a) to suburbs, b) to some smaller, more affordable cities. So I think we had a trend that was already developing that is now accelerating.
— Joel Kotkin
The Twilight of Great American Cities — how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting outmigration from large cities to smaller communities
By: Brian C. Anderson
On: City Journal’s 10 Blocks podcast
Joel Kotkin joins Brian Anderson to discuss California’s “increasingly feudal” political and economic order, the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the state’s lower- and middle-class residents, what Joe Biden’s selection of Senator Kamala Harris means for the Democratic ticket and U.S. politics, and Kotkin’s new book—The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. Read more
By: Dan Proft
On: Omny
Joel Kotkin joined the Dan Proft to talk about his essay — How Race Politics Burns Out. They cover today’s racial identity politics, and how they have failed to improve the conditions on the ground for the vast majority of historically disadvantaged groups like African-Americans.
Joel and Dan also discuss his other recent pieces — Kamala’s America and The Heartland’s Revival Read more
By: John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou
On: John and Ken on Demand
Joel Kotkin joined the John and Ken Show Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. to talk more about what he calls California’s ‘woke revolution,’ and just how much it’s changing the state.
Joel Kotkin talks with John and Ken about his recent piece — California’s Woke Hypocrisy, about how the state’s policies are driving out working and middle class people. Read more
By: Adrian Wooldridge
In: The Economist, with an excerpt below
The more intriguing question is whether America needs Britain any longer. It still has an appetite for British talent, and not just of the floppy-haired ersatz-upper-class Hugh Grant-style variety: it has taken to comedians with non-u accents such as James Corden and John Oliver, as well as writers who chronicle the experience of minorities such as Zadie Smith. It will also have much more use for the old Atlantic alliance if Mr Trump loses the election, as looks increasingly likely. Joe Biden’s America will be in the business of rebuilding relationships across the board; and despite leaving the eu, Britain, with its deep military, diplomatic and security relations with the United States, will be an important part of that process.
Americans may also discover that they can profit from advice in an area the British know all too well—decline and stagnation. America bears more than a passing resemblance to early-20th-century Britain, which saw itself overtaken in one area after another by a rising and much more disciplined Germany.
“The Coming Neo-Feudalism”, a new book by Joel Kotkin of Chapman University, describes a world quite familiar to the British, in which a hereditary ruling elite lords it over a compliant intelligentsia and an impoverished middle class.
By: Carl M. Cannon
On: RealClearPolitics
Let’s start at the beginning, Joel. In talking about your new book, “The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class,” do you literally fear that liberal capitalism is losing out to economic “feudalism”? And please put that word feudalism in a modern context for our readers.
The parallels are striking. In the long centuries after the feudal era — let’s say starting around 1200 ACE — there was a slow, but gradual rise of upward mobility and growing power to the middle class. In the 20th century this progress was extended to the working class. Despite its many crises, liberal capitalism provided a better way of life and higher expectations not only for Americans, but also Europeans, Japanese, east Asians, including China, Canada, Australia and even some developing countries. Read more
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