You picked A Country That Works, which you wrote in 2006. It covers your own personal story, the story of many challenges America faces, including inequality, and it's also a policy book. What do you think it says about progressivism today?

What I think it says, about not just progressivism but about America, is that we are at a unique historical moment and this is not our fathers' and grandfathers' economy. In fact, we are in the midst of a significant transformation – what really is a third economic revolution in world history. The agricultural revolution took 3,000 years to transition, and the industrial revolution took 300. It's important to understand that we, in a single generation, are going to witness an entire revolutionary moment and that everything is changing. So the book is really about how people and policy and countries can think about a different way to make progress than our parents and grandparents thought about.

What are the solutions that you are most hopeful about?

When countries realise that they are teams, then they appreciate that the market in a global economy works differently to the market in a national economy alone. It forces America to really come together and think about how we're going to make sure that the American dream continues. It’s no longer the case that people have one job in their lifetime – employer-based healthcare and employer-based pensions aren't going to work when my son is going to have had nine to 12 jobs by the time he's 35. We need to think about job creation, not simply let the market make decisions but think about a partnership between the public sector and the private sector. The book is about how we invest, where the jobs of the future are going to be, and how we help accelerate those jobs. It's an effort to say that to make progress in the 21st century, we need to shed the 20th century market fundamentalism and move to a more shared sense of teamwork as a country.

Another theme in the book is reform of institutions. You spend a considerable amount of time talking about institutions that have formed the basis of progressive infrastructure, including unions themselves. Is there a broader political message there about reforming ourselves first?

I think every institution is in the middle of the biggest challenges they’ve ever faced. They’re facing the challenge of either changing, or being swallowed by change. I know the labour movement has a tremendous history, but that history won't make it successful in the future – it’s up to labour to change by looking at those factors within its own control. In SEIU [the Service Employees International Union], whether we spend our money on growth or on defending the members we have, is a very big choice. One was about history and the other was about the future. Institutions – and I think this relates to political parties, unions and many other people – are not going to drive into the future looking in the rear-view mirror. There are new realities, new technologies, new factors at play, and we need to build a 21st century plan for success – starting by taking a real good look in the mirror to make sure we're not just trying to continue the old ways. I think that will guarantee success in a new moment.

Future Shock, written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970, is quite an interesting choice. In some ways I read it as a manual on how to adapt to change. Why did you pick this book?

I think Future Shock actually did foretell the future, because it talks about how in essence we're building a new civilisation in front of our eyes. How no group of people have ever been so shocked by the ever-changing realities that have completely altered media, lifestyles, culture and work. In some ways they were the canary that was singing about a future that they saw well before anyone quite appreciated it. Interestingly, people like Newt Gingrich have taken that understanding of fundamental – in some ways radical – change, and adapted it to a new set of ideas that aren't the way that would necessarily serve the interests of people. But to his credit, he created a suite of ideas and institutions that are understanding the change. I think that's a lesson for progressives – that we also need to find the new way forward, which requires new thinking, new ideas and a willingness to be transformational as opposed to traditional.

Does the book describe how people will address change, and does that tell us something about the acceptance of change in our society? I am trying to delve into whether there's a message about change versus the status quo that says something deeper about progressivism, and has pushed for a change in the United States.

Future Shock says that when people are confronted with massive change, there's a tendency to hold on to the way things are. Institutions resist change. A leader’s job is to understand change and try to figure out a way to work with it that serves people's interests, as opposed to thinking that people's interests are served by resisting change. Traditional churches, unions or media who have tried to either forestall change or ignore it have paid a price.

Your third book is Cat's Cradle, a novel by Kurt Vonnegut.