‘Book Club Live’ is a book club with an audience, where we get clever people together to talk about the titles that are making a splash - and few books have made a bigger splash in 2025 than ‘Abundance’ by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Setting out an agenda for ‘a liberalism that builds’, the book argues that in their efforts to prevent harm and curb the excesses of both business and government, progressives have relied too much on regulation and redistribution, which has now made it too hard to build the things we need to solve today’s problems (particularly housing and clean energy).

The authors are American but the book has been a hit in Australia, especially among the political class - Canberra bookstores sold out, the book was passed around in the halls of parliament, and our treasurer Jim Chalmers called it “a ripper” in a press interview. But what are the dangers of the ‘abundance agenda’? Is regulation really the problem, and is removing barriers and building more stuff really the solution? We’re not so sure, so we’ve invited a few friends to dive deeper with us.

To take a critical look, we’ll be joined by Dr Millie Rooney (Executive Director at Australia reMADE), Dan Hill (Director at Melbourne School of Design), and Sisonke Msimang (Author and Program Lead at the Centre for Stories).

Listen in as we chat about what we liked and what worried us about ‘Abundance’, and chime in with your hot takes and critical questions when we open up for a Q&A later on. See you at book club!

Contact the host of Book Club Live: Abundance