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Sometime in the last few weeks, or months, or years, you may have heard about this idea called \\u201cuniversal basic income.\\u201d It\\u2019s the idea that maybe governments should give a monthly stipend\\u2014no questions asked\\u2014to everyone who lives there.

It\\u2019s an idea we\\u2019ve covered quite a bit over the years, and it\\u2019s one that\\u2019s increasingly gaining steam among people on both sides of the political spectrum. Conservatives and libertarians say that it can simplify the bureaucracy associated with things like welfare and food stamps, and liberals like it because it would strengthen the social safety net.

Why do we need a basic income now? Well maybe you\\u2019ve noticed, but automation is slowly but surely replacing a lot of jobs that humans used to do with ones that robots, drones, software, and artificial intelligence can do. We\\u2019re looking at a future where it\\u2019s possible that there simply won\\u2019t be enough jobs for everyone. Maybe that\\u2019s a good thing\\u2014in a post scarcity society, do humans really need to do menial jobs?

And so basic income has been floated as both a cure to automation and potentially a better way to redistribute wealth. The movement is gaining steam around the world: Switzerland voted this last weekend on whether the country should \\u201cguarantee the introduction of an unconditional basic income.\\u201d The measure failed, but the fact that it was even on the ballot speaks to its increasing relevancy. In the United States, the startup incubator Y Combinator is doing an experiment that will give 100 people in Oakland between $1,000 and $2,000 per month to see how the \\u201cmechanics\\u201d of a basic income would work and to see what people do with the money.

That project is controversial for reasons we get into the podcast. I called up Matt Krisiloff, who is head of the basic income project at Y Combinator, and Elizabeth Rhodes, the research lead of the project, to talk about how it\\u2019ll work and why a Silicon Valley startup accelerator is interested in this idea. Then, we talk to Natalie Foster, who is a cofounder of the Universal Income Project, about why she finds the idea so compelling. Finally, we look at the history of basic income around the world and deconstruct the policy itself. Could it ever work?

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