Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap
Episode 77
Ben Westhoff has written some of Tyler's favorite books on everything from dive bars to the evolution of American rap music to how fentanyl is drivin…
6 years, 5 months ago
Alain Bertaud on Cities, Markets, and People
Episode 76
Markets, Alain Bertaud likes to say, are like gravity: they exist everywhere. But while urban planners are quite good at taking gravity into account,…
6 years, 6 months ago
Samantha Power on Learning How to Make a Difference
Episode 75
A former war correspondent and UN ambassador, Samantha Power has had her share of tough assignments. But writing a memoir about it all is also a daun…
6 years, 6 months ago
Hollis Robbins on 19th Century Life and Literature
Episode 74
As a graduate student, Hollis Robbins helped Henry Louis Gates, Jr. unravel a mystery about the provenance of a mid-19th century book. Robbins helped…
6 years, 6 months ago
M. Gessen on the Ins and Outs of Russia
Episode 73
What sort of country would compel you to flee it, draw you back ten years later, then force you away yet again after two decades? M. Gessen knows the…
6 years, 7 months ago
Kwame Anthony Appiah on Pictures of the World
Episode 72
Born to a Ghanaian father and British mother, Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up splitting time between both countries — and lecturing in many more — befor…
6 years, 7 months ago
Neal Stephenson on Depictions of Reality
Episode 71
If you want to speculate on the development of tech, no one has a better brain to pick than Neal Stephenson. Across more than a dozen books, he's cre…
6 years, 8 months ago
Eric Kaufmann on Immigration, Identity, and the Limits of Individualism
Episode 70
Going back and forth between Canada and Japan during his childhood sparked Eric Kaufmann's interest in the question of identity. As a foreigner in an…
6 years, 8 months ago
Hal Varian on Taking the Academic Approach to Business
Episode 69
Before he became the Adam Smith of Googlenomics, Hal Varian spent decades as an academic economist, writing influential papers, a popular book about…
6 years, 9 months ago
Russ Roberts on Life as an Economics Educator
Episode 68
What are the virtues of forgiveness? Are we subject to being manipulated by data? Why do people struggle with prayer? What really motivates us? How h…
6 years, 9 months ago