Location: New York Date: Friday 29th October Project: Forward Party Role: Leader

Nearly two-thirds of Americans want to vote for someone outside of the current two main parties. The current duopoly is limiting competition in the space for ideas, and worse, it’s actively promoting the polarisation of society. Yet, voting for a third-party candidate isn’t a choice most voters get, and even when they do, it risks being deemed a wasted vote by a media that frames election results as an existential risk to the nation. 

The underlying concern is that the current political system is getting in the way of solving the biggest problems at a time when the economy and society is changing in fundamental ways. But whilst most people can see that our politics and media are dysfunctional, they also feel impotent. 

Andrew Yang is one of those rare individuals who has decided to actively try and change the system, despite the odds being stacked against change being driven by an outsider. However, he’s already shown he can do the heavy lifting: he made a meaningful mark on the 2020 Presidential election despite not being part of the political establishment or having had a celebrity platform. 

In this interview, I talk to Andrew, author of ‘The War on Normal People’ (2018), ‘Forward’ (2021),  and leader of the Forward Party, about his 2020 Presidential run and his current mission to bring about genuine political competition. We then discuss what such competition would enable: reasoned debate about big ideas such as Universal Basic Income, health reform, and Bitcoin.