James Pethokoukis, senior fellow and DeWitt Wallace Chair at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), speaks with Troy Mix, associate director at the University of Delaware's Institute for Public Administration, about his 2023 book, The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised (https://www.aei.org/research-products/book/the-conservative-futurist/). In this book, Mr. Pethokoukis advocates for embracing an \u201cupwing\u201d mindset to public policy that spurs innovation while ensuring economic security and broad quality of life improvements. This interview explores the importance of technological progress, the perils of downwing thinking, and the possibilities for public policy reform to chart a more upwing future.\n\nAs a Senior Fellow at AEI (https://www.aei.org/), Mr. Pethokoukis analyzes US economic policy, writes and edits the AEIdeas blog (https://www.aei.org/aeideas/), and hosts AEI\u2019s Political Economy podcast (https://www.aei.org/tag/political-economy-podcast/). He is also a contributor to CNBC and writes the Faster, Please! ( https://fasterplease.substack.com/) newsletter on Substack.\n\nThis episode was recorded on November 6, 2023, for First State Insights, a podcast presented by the Institute for Public Administration (IPA). For more First State Insights episodes, visit https://soundcloud.com/first-state-insights or search for "First State Insights" wherever you listen to podcasts.\n\nIPA is a research and public service center within the University of Delaware's Biden School of Public Policy & Administration. For more on IPA, visit https://www.bidenschool.udel.edu/ipa.\n\nOpening and closing music: "I Dunno" by Grapes, used under Creative Commons 3.0 License.