America's Human Arithmetic.
A conversation with Nick Eberstadt.
Nick Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he researches and writes extensively on international security in the Korean Peninsula and Asia, demographics, and economic development. Domestically, he focuses on poverty and social well-being. Dr. Eberstadt is also a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research.
His many books and monographs include Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition (2022); Russia’s Peacetime Demographic Crisis: Dimensions, Causes, Implications (2010); The Poverty of “the Poverty Rate” (2008); The End of North Korea (1999); The Tyranny of Numbers (1995); and Poverty in China (1979). His latest is Lessons for an Unserious Superpower: The “Scoop” Jackson Legacy and US Foreign Policy (2024).
Joe Klein and I caught up with Nick on Wednesday (29 April) to talk with him about his latest book, ‘America’s Human Arithmetic’, a collection of 15 essays that examine the state of the nation through the eyes of its leading demographer.
The essays grapple with a fundamental disconnect: why are Americans increasingly dissatisfied and less confident in their institutions at the very same time the US has achieved unparalleled wealth and unmatched global power? Prosperity and flourishing, Nick observes, have become decoupled.
Nick explains some of the reasons why in this episode of ‘Night Owls’. You can listen to it by clicking on the forward arrow below.
(‘Night Owls’ interview with Nick Eberstadt. Recorded 29 April 2026. Produced by Dale Eisinger. Hosts: Joe Klein and yours truly.)
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