How to Argue in 2025
Plus, chatting with Andrew Yang, Alex Wagner, and Adam Conover about how we got here
Dear Friends,
Welcome back to The Crunchwrap!
In this issue, I’m sharing a few good things I’ve read lately, arguing against rage posting, and dropping in some updates from the past month.
But first, if you’re a new subscriber (hello!), here’s a little bit about me and this newsletter:
I am a journalist based in New York. I’m also the author of two books, including 99% Perspiration which, in spite of some really bad Ben Franklin jokes, came out last month to wide acclaim. (You might also know me from my unwieldy hand-talking across four seasons of The History Channel’s The Food That Built America.)
In this newsletter, I write about Critical National Issues like work, waning social cohesion in America, Taco Bell’s collaboration with Cheez-It, and the relative grossness of Trader Joe’s product recalls. The Crunchwrap’s subject matter varies just about as much as the publishing schedule, which is to say, a lot.
Nevertheless, I welcome your responses and notes and might publish them if they’re funny, insightful, or not mean.
First Crunch
Since the last Crunchwrap, I’ve been out on the road for events…and out of my mind talking about the book.
For the Factually! podcast, the comedian and writer Adam Conover and I talked about life, work in a creative field, and the historic low union density in America.​
I appeared on Andrew Yang’s podcast Forward to talk about opportunity, AI, and guaranteed income.
And here’s a clip of a chat I had with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner about how Democrats failed to renew, adapt, or make permanent some of the social safeguards that saved or stabilized the lives of millions during the pandemic.1
I’m eager to post this Alex Wagner clip in particular because (1) it makes me seem way more legit than I really am, but also, (2) it gets at something I’ve been thinking about as the second Trump administration completely disregulates us. Over the next few years, we’ll no doubt be engaging with news, events, and calamities that inspired people to rage-post about how dumb, terrible, cruel, and hypocritical the administration and its supporters are during his first administration.
To be clear, I love a good rage post. It scratches a psychic itch. I recently felt righteous glee in sharing this tweet about Elon Musk and never looked back:
Unfortunately though, I don’t think this actually works, y’know, assuming that the goal is to make things better for all of us.
In my work…and perhaps this comes from growing up left-of-center in Texas..I’ve tried – not enough and not always successfully – to make arguments that people who disagree with me might hear out. Oftentimes, on their terms. This isn’t ground-breaking or noble, but to the extent that it could be effective, I’m finding it to be the best way to channel my energy right now.
Talking to Andrew Yang last month (here’s a clip), I wanted to echo a point I make in the book about how U.S. businesses lose over a TRILLION dollars every year to worker turnover – in many instances, people leaving jobs that don’t pay enough or offer benefits like paid leave, sick leave, or steady hours, scheduling, and income.
Last month, for the Los Angeles Times, I placed that attrition in the context of worker strikes at Starbucks and Amazon, which make clear just how costly it is to treat your workers as meaningless and disposable:
According to internal company documents made public in 2022, Amazon suffers from a 150% worker-attrition rate annually, roughly double the industry average. In simpler terms, only one out of every three workers hired by Amazon in 2021 managed to stay with the company for more than three months. This level of workforce bleed cost the e-commerce giant a mind-boggling $8 billion in profits. In addition to showing that twice as many workers were leaving voluntarily as would be expected, the documents also highlighted worries that the company might run out of potential hires in certain markets because it had cycled through so much of the workforce.
All of this is to say, if basic dignity for working Americans doesn’t convince someone to support better policies, maybe framing it in terms of the bottomline will. (If I were an existentially agnostic Amazon shareholder, for example, these losses would make me furious.)
In the spirit of making other arguments that might stick with folks you might be at-odds with, here are a few recent pieces I found useful:
A brief primer on how suspending USAID will cost the U.S. more in future crises and conflicts. Or strengthen our rivals and enemies.
Rogé Karma on how dismissing civil servants and career experts makes us less safe and less prepared for countless possible disasters. (gift link)
Friend of the Crunch Lizzie O’Leary on how deleting or obscuring critical economic data from public view hurts American businesses.
Now you may be asking….OH GOD, WHY BOTHER, ADAM?
Well, listen, it’s a great question. There are people who cannot be swayed. Recently, in TIME, when I off-handedly mentioned that Trump had won the 2024 election by the thinnest popular vote margin in over 50 years (~1.5% of the popular vote and less than 50% of the total popular vote), it got me several emails like this one, sent at 2:54 AM from a guy in rural Illinois2:
BUT the point is that with margins this thin, the hope is that we can make reasonable policies and ideas an attractive and visible alternative to whatever the hell else is currently going on. If that means trying to pry people on the right back toward the center, that’ll help too.
Finally, I (Still) Have a Small Ask
The weird world of book promotion is full of mildly demeaning moments and, in that spirit, I would be so grateful if you’d consider:
Buying the book. (Reviews have been stellar and AudioFile recently raved about my performance reading the audiobook.)
Requesting the book from your local library.
LEAVING A REVIEW ON AMAZON. I know I just ripped on them, but Amazon reviews help get the book into more hands. (You don’t even have to write anything, just hit the five-stars and either move on with your life or price out a new showerhead or something.)
That’s it for now! I have some fun events coming up and other great conversations with people I admire on the horizon, so please stay tuned.
Thanks for reading and I’m grateful (as always) for your support.
With love,
Adam
Or failed to blame Republican lawmakers for obstructing their renewal, passage, etc.
By the way, I wrote about Trump’s margin of victory in the same graf where I noted that the U.S. now has a lower life-expectancy than all of our peer nations and no one bats an eye at that!