All Episodes

Conversations with Tyler 2025 Retrospective

Tyler’s never had a belly laugh, and he’s not sorry about it

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Alison Gopnik on Childhood Learning, AI as a Cultural Technology, and Rethinking Nature vs. Nurture (Ep. 265)

Are two-year-olds better Bayesians than scientists?

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Gaurav Kapadia on New York City, Investing, and Contemporary Art (Ep. 264)

What a childhood spent collecting rent in Queens teaches you about judgment

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Dan Wang on What China and America Can Learn from Each Other (Ep. 263)

Are suburbs the best or most boring part of America?

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Cass Sunstein on Liberalism and Rights in the Age of AI (Ep. 262)

Toasters don’t have free speech rights—but co-authored AI outputs might

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Blake Scholl on Supersonic Flight and Fixing Broken Infrastructure - Live at the Progress Conference (Ep. 261)

The shower-time solutions to traffic, airports, and aerospace dysfunction

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Donald S. Lopez Jr. on Buddhism (Ep. 260)

Why the West imagines Buddhism as pacifist—and what history records instead

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Sam Altman on Trust, Persuasion, and the Future of Intelligence - Live at the Progress Conference (Ep. 259)

How hard is it to change someone’s mind, and could AI do it accidentally?

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Jonny Steinberg on South African Crime and Punishment, the Mandelas' Marriage, and the Post-Apartheid Era (Ep. 258)

The writer of one of Tyler’s favorite books of the last decade on cops who won’t police, a marriage that shaped a nation, and the optimistic case for South Africa

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George Selgin on the New Deal, Regime Uncertainty, and What Really Ended the Great Depression (Ep. 257)

Why the New Deal wasn’t what either its champions or critics think it was

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John Amaechi on Leadership, the NBA, and Being Gay in Professional Sports (Ep. 256)

A Jedi-obsessed former NBA center on why leadership isn’t bestowed by the Force

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Steven Pinker on Coordination, Common Knowledge, and the Retreat of Liberal Enlightenment (Ep. 255)

What if the internet’s gift of transparency is actually a curse?

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David Commins on Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, and the Future of the Gulf States (Ep. 254)

Why the least cosmopolitan parts of Arabia built a nation, and what happens when the oil runs out.

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Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures (Ep. 253)

Why the Irish see Russia in America, and other insights from three decades behind the lens

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David Brooks on Audacity, AI, and the American Psyche (Live at 92NY)

Why the most rejected generation is also the most productive—and what that means for America’s future.

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Nate Silver on Life’s Mixed Strategies (Ep. 251)

From Pascal’s wager to poker bluffs—when should you play the odds?

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Annie Jacobsen on Nuclear War, Intelligence Operations, and Conspiracy Realities (Ep. 250)

Are 12,000 nukes safer than zero?

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Helen Castor on Medieval Power and Personalities (Ep. 249)

How science fiction illuminates the alien world of medieval England

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David Robertson on Conducting, Pierre Boulez, and Musical Interpretation (Ep.248)

Why musical leadership demands a tolerance for looking ridiculous

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Austan Goolsbee on Central Banking as a Data Dog

The data-driven Fed President on why human judgment still matters in monetary policy

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Chris Arnade on Walking Cities (Ep. 246)

Forget the museums—try a McDonald’s instead

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Any Austin on the Hermeneutics of Video Games (Ep. 245)

YouTube’s most unique gaming commentator can teach us a lot about the beauty of everyday infrastructure

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John Arnold on Trading, Energy, and Evidence-Based Philanthropy (Ep. 244)

Why natural gas markets were easier to master than human nature

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Theodore Schwartz on Neurosurgery, Consciousness, and Brain-Computer Interfaces (Ep. 243)

What a life spent inside other people’s heads reveals about free will

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Jack Clark on AI's Uneven Impact (Ep. 242)

And the inevitable future of AI-enhanced parenting

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Kenneth Rogoff on Monetary Moves, Fiscal Gambits, and Classical Chess (Ep. 241)

Is AI our only escape from America’s fiscal checkmate?

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Chris Dixon on Blockchains, AI, and the Future of the Internet (Ep. 240)

Can blockchain restore the internet’s original promise, or will AI-driven centralization prevail?

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Ian Leslie on McCartney, Lennon, and the Greatest Creative Partnership of All Time (Ep. 239)

On the rare phenomenon of intense male creative partnerships that change the world

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Jennifer Pahlka on Reforming Government (Ep. 238)

Is chaos necessary for bureaucratic renewal?

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Sheilagh Ogilvie on Epidemics, Guilds, and the Persistence of Bad Institutions (Ep. 237)

What 700 years of pandemic responses reveal about institutional effectiveness

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Ezra Klein on the Abundance Agenda (Ep. 236)

Politics Got Weird—Can Abundance Make It Normal Again?

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Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe (Ep. 235)

From the mysteries of airborne disease to the search for extraterrestrial life, what are we missing about the unseen world around us?

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Gregory Clark on Social Mobility, Migration, and Assortative Mating (Ep. 234 - Live at Mercatus)

How much does your surname predict your economic fate?

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Ross Douthat on Why Religion Makes More Sense Than You Think (Ep. 233)

And what UFOs might tell us about supernatural reality

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Joe Boyd on the Birth of Rock, World Music, and Being There for Everything (Ep. 232)

When your synthesizer breaks the phone system (and other tales from a life in music)

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Scott Sumner on Monetary Rules, Blooming Late, and the Death of Cinema (Ep. 231)

Monetary policy is like watching Ozu films: it rewards patience

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Conversations with Tyler 2024 Retrospective (Ep. 230)

Should our fanbase be known as “The Overrated”?

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Paula Byrne on Thomas Hardy’s Women, Jane Austen’s Humor, and Evelyn Waugh’s Warmth (Ep. 229)

And does Paul McCartney still sound Scouse?

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Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography (Ep. 228)

Is power made in palaces or kitchens?

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Russ Roberts on Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate (Ep. 227- BONUS)

In this crossover episode with EconTalk, Tyler joins Russ Roberts to discuss Grossman’s 20th-century epic on war, freedom, and humanity

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Neal Stephenson on History, Spycraft, and American-Soviet Parallels (Ep. 226)

Could an AI novel ever truly engage us?

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Christopher Kirchhoff on Military Innovation and the Future of War (Ep. 225)

Does the rise of autonomous weapons make the world safer or more dangerous?

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Musa al-Gharbi on Elite Wokeness, Islam, and Social Movements (Ep. 224)

How do past social justice waves help explain wokeness today?

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Tom Tugendhat on Modernizing the UK and Political Reform (Ep. 223 - BONUS)

To do: build houses, fix trains, and don’t rush to abolish the House of Lords

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Kyla Scanlon on Communicating Economic Ideas through Social Media (Ep. 222)

For economics beginners, she walks the walk and talks the Tok

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Tobi Lütke on Creating Shopify for Americans as a German in Canada (Ep. 221)

The German word for “started the online shopping revolution” is Tobi Lütke.

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Philip Ball on the Interplay of Science, Society, and the Quest for Understanding (Ep. 220)

A science writer so prolific he can’t even name all his books

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Nate Silver on Risk-takers, Politicians, and Poker Players (Ep. 219)

Poker and politics? Not that different.

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Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust (Ep. 218)

It’s 2024. Do you know where your children are at? Psychologically?

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Alan Taylor on Revolutionary Ironies and the Continental Civil War (Ep. 217)

One of America’s best living historians spills the tea on the early American Republic.

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Brian Winter on Brazil, Argentina, and the Future of Latin America (Ep. 216)

Come for the churrasco. Stay for the economic deep dives across Latin America.

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Joseph Stiglitz on Pioneering Economic Theories, Policy Challenges, and His Intellectual Legacy (Ep. 215)

What’s a bigger honor, a Nobel Prize or being immortalized on a mural with the Jackson 5?

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Velina Tchakarova on China, Russia, and the Future of Geopolitics (Ep.214)

Don’t call her an oracle. She prefers foreseer.

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Michael Nielsen on Collaboration, Quantum Computing, and Civilization's Fragility (Ep. 213)

Is the status of linear algebra rising?

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Benjamin Moser on the Dutch Masters, Brazil, and Cultural Icons (Ep. 212)

What can Canadian sex toys teach us about art appreciation?

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Coleman Hughes on Colorblindness, Jazz, and Identity (Ep. 211)

Are there other traits besides race we should be blind to?

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Peter Thiel on Political Theology (Ep. 210)

Unveiling the dangers of just trying to muddle through

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Jonathan Haidt on Adjusting to Smartphones and Social Media (Ep. 209)

Are we in for a decades-long dip in teen mental health?

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Fareed Zakaria on the Age of Revolutions, the Power of Ideas, and the Rewards of Intellectual Curiosity (Ep. 208)

For Fareed Zakaria, his books—and not his columns or CNN show—are most important avenue for introducing new ideas to the world.

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Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Interpretation, Calvinist Thought, and Religion in America (Ep. 207)

For famed writer Marilynne Robinson, Genesis is the book that never stops giving.

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Marc Andreessen on AI and Dynamism (Ep. 206- BONUS)

Might the kids be alright?

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Marc Rowan on Financial Market Evolution and University Governance (Ep. 205)

Why new blueprints are needed from asset management to academic excellence.

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Masaaki Suzuki on Interpreting Bach (Ep. 204)

Might Suzuki occupy more space in Tyler’s CD collection than any other musician?

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Ami Vitale on Photojournalism and Wildlife Conservation (Ep. 203)

From war zones to wildlife, Ami Vitale has captured vital stories across a hundred countries and counting

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Rebecca F. Kuang on National Literatures, Book Publishing, and History in Fiction (Ep. 202)

How has Rebecca F. Kuang published 5 novels by age 27? An overwhelming compulsion to write, with a dash of Cal Newport.

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Patrick McKenzie on Navigating Complex Systems (Ep. 201)

Few can measure the impact of a blog post they wrote in the millions of dollars a year, but Patrick McKenzie has the receipts

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Conversations with Tyler 2023 Retrospective (Ep. 200)

Are sociopaths underrated?

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Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food (Ep. 199)

In her third appearance, Fuchsia, Tyler, and a group of special guests gather over a banquet meal at Mama Chang

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John Gray on Pessimism, Liberalism, and Theism (Ep. 198)

Is pessimism a way to minimize disappointment or the key to an adventurous life?

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Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand (Ep. 197)

The indelible influence of two public intellectuals

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Brian Koppelman on TV, Movies, and Appreciating Art (Ep. 196)

What is it about film that some smart people just don’t seem to get?

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Githae Githinji on Life in Kenya (Ep. 195 - BONUS)

A Kikuyu elder’s perspective on changing times

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Harriet Karimi Muriithi on Life in Kenya (Ep. 194 - BONUS)

An aspiring entrepreneur’s outlook on the country’s future

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Stephen Jennings on Building New Cities (Ep. 193)

The keys to managing a 40-year asset class

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Jacob Mikanowski on Eastern Europe (Ep. 192)

Could Stanisław Lem be the most underrated sage of the AI age?

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Ada Palmer on Viking Metaphysics, Contingent Moments, and Censorship (Ep. 191)

Could one tiny decision have changed The Enlightenment forever?

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Lazarus Lake on Endurance, Uncertainty, and Reaching One’s Potential (Ep. 190)

Lessons from the Barkley Marathons creator

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Jerusalem Demsas on The Dispossessed, Gulliver's Travels, and Of Boys and Men (Ep. 189)

It’s time for a CWT book club!

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Vishy Anand on Staying in the Game (Ep. 188)

At 53, the chess legend is still one of the best in the world. What keeps him playing?

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Celebrating Marginal Revolution's 20th Anniversary (Ep. 187 - BONUS)

MR co-founders Tyler and Alex Tabarrok reflect on the blog’s legacy with long-time readers Vitalik Buterin, Ben Casnocha, and Jeff Holmes.

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Paul Graham on Ambition, Art, and Evaluating Talent (Ep. 186)

Plus, his bizarre strategy for getting over a fear of flying.

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Noam Dworman on Stand-Up Comedy and Staying Open-Minded (Ep. 185)

The owner of the Comedy Cellar shares his views on the evolving comedy scene.

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David Bentley Hart on Reason, Faith, and Diversity in Religious Thought (Ep. 184)

Is he the best-read guest in the history of the show?

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Reid Hoffman on the Possibilities of AI (Ep. 183)

From creating a thousand games to talking to dolphins, Reid is pumped about what AI will allow him to do.

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Noam Chomsky on Language, Left Libertarianism, and Progress (Ep. 182)

At 94, why does Noam Chomsky still answer every email?

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Peter Singer on Utilitarianism, Influence, and Controversial Ideas (Ep. 181 - BONUS)

Tyler’s two-thirds utilitarian, and Peter’s full on. Do either of them have the proportions right?

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Seth Godin on Marketing, Meaning, and the Bibs We Wear (Ep. 180)

On good days, Seth Godin thinks about the progress we’re making on climate change. On bad days, he thinks about the problem of racing bibs.

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Simon Johnson on Banking, Technology, and Prosperity (Ep. 179)

What’s more intense than leading the IMF during a financial crisis? For Simon Johnson, it was co-authoring a book with Daron Acemoglu.

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Kevin Kelly on Advice, Travel, and Tech (Ep. 178)

His latest book offers advice about things he wished he had learned in life earlier—but what topics was he afraid to include?

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Anna Keay on Historic Architecture, Monarchy, and 17th Century Britain (Ep. 177)

Plus: Tips for keeping warm in an 800-year-old home.

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Jess Wade on Chiral Materials, Open Knowledge, and Representation in STEM (Ep. 176)

Physicist by day, Wikipedia warrior by night.

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Jonathan GPT Swift on Jonathan Swift (Ep. 175 - BONUS)

How well does GPT4 do pretending to be the 18th century satirist?

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Tom Holland on History, Christianity, and the Value of the Countryside (Ep. 174)

And why Herodotus is underrated.

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Yasheng Huang on the Development of the Chinese State (Ep. 173)

How China’s imperial exam system stymied civil society.

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Brad DeLong on Intellectual and Technical Progress (Ep. 172)

Why 1870-2010 were such extraordinary years.

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Glenn Loury on the Cover Story and the Real Story (Ep. 171)

The real reason he “jumped ship” from the Harvard Economics Department.

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Paul Salopek on Walking the World (Ep. 170)

Lessons learned from taking it one step at a time.

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Rick Rubin on Listening, Taste, and the Act of Noticing (Ep. 169 - BONUS)

The acclaimed music producer lays out his approach to creative collaboration.

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Katherine Rundell on the Art of Words (Ep. 168)

Why you should pick up more children’s books.

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Conversations with Tyler 2022 Retrospective (Ep. 167)

Why won’t Paul McCartney come on the show?

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John Adams on Composing and Creative Freedom (Ep. 166)

Constructing cathedrals in musical space.

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Jeremy Grantham on Investing in Green Tech (Ep. 165)

VC is an underrated weapon in the fight against climate change.

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Ken Burns on the Complications of History (Ep. 164)

And how to listen to a photograph.

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Mary Gaitskill on Subjects That Are Vexing Everybody (Ep. 163)

Are we better off just accepting that people are horrible?

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Reza Aslan on Martyrdom, Islam, and Revolution (Ep. 162)

Was Howard Baskerville’s martyrdom in Persia not Christian enough for the West to remember?

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Walter Russell Mead on the Past and Future of American Foreign Policy (Ep. 161)

Why the American academy is a terrible place for understanding world politics.

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Byron Auguste on Rewiring the U.S. Labor Market (Ep. 160)

Why do so many employers rely on shallow signals of applicant quality?

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Vaughn Smith on Life as a Hyperpolyglot (Ep. 159)

He dreams in 10 languages—how about you?

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Shruti Rajagopalan Talks Talent with Daniel Gross and Tyler (Ep. 158 — BONUS)

What characteristics indicate human creativity and capacity?

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Cynthia L. Haven on René Girard, Czeslaw Milosz, and Joseph Brodsky (Ep. 157)

Her biography of Girard drew critical praise—why did it have to be written outside academia?

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William MacAskill on Effective Altruism, Moral Progress, and Cultural Innovation (Ep. 156)

If moral philosophy is a train to crazy town, at what stop should we disembark?

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Leopoldo López on Activism Under Autocratic Regimes (Ep. 155)

What Venezuela teaches us about democratic collapse.

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Matthew Ball on the Metaverse and Gaming (Ep. 154)

Why reintroducing the third dimension is crucial to building out technology.

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Barkha Dutt on the Nuances of Indian Life (Ep. 153)

Why a more peaceful India requires its people to become more like khichri than a thali.

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Marc Andreessen on Learning to Love the Humanities (Ep. 152)

The real challenge to building on the frontier? Figuring out human behavior.

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Jamal Greene on Reconceiving Rights (Ep. 151)

Negotiating liberty, justice, and obligation in the context of pluralism.

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Daniel Gross and Tyler Talk Talent (Ep. 150)

Plus, the user guide to working with Tyler.

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Chris Blattman on War and Centralized Power (Ep. 149)

The underrated threats that lurk in institutions, rather than psychology.

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Thomas Piketty on the Politics of Equality (Ep. 148)

“The history of equality or inequality cannot just be an economic history. It has to be a political history.”

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Roy Foster on Ireland’s Many Unmade Futures (Ep. 147)

History is the story of those striving towards a future that never came to pass.

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Lydia Davis on Language and Literature (Ep. 146)

The renowned writer and translator describes life as a passionate polyglot.

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Sam Bankman-Fried on Arbitrage and Altruism (Ep. 145)

Coordinators are that which is scarce.

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Chuck Klosterman on Writing the Past and Relishing the Present (Ep. 144)

Plus, the slow cancellation of the future.

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Sebastian Mallaby on Venture Capital (Ep. 143)

Venture capital powered the tech revolution, but what powers venture capital?

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Stewart Brand on Starting Things and Staying Curious (Ep. 142)

At 83, Stewart Brand has been first in a multitude of movements—and he’s not slowing down.

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Russ Roberts on Israel and Life as an Immigrant (Ep. 141 — BONUS)

Tyler asks Russ all the easy questions about Israeli life.

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Ana Vidović on Prodigies, Performance, and Perseverance (Ep. 140)

A child prodigy explains why natural talent is overrated.

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Conversations with Tyler 2021 Retrospective (Ep. 139)

After being featured on Ancient Aliens, where does the show go from here?

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Ray Dalio on Investing, Management, and the Changing World Order (Ep. 138)

Plus, the value of disagreeableness.

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Ruth Scurr on the Art of Biography (Ep. 137)

How do you find the form to tell a life?

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David Rubenstein on Private Equity, Public Art, and Philanthropy (Ep. 136)

And why lawyers are usually lousy entrepreneurs.

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David Salle on the Experience of Art (Ep. 135)

Why, the artist wonders, can’t we just have more fun with it?

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Stanley McChrystal on the Military, Leadership, and Risk (Ep. 134)

Why it’s crucial to take a long view of history.

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Claudia Goldin on the Economics of Inequality (Ep. 133)

How to model social progress.

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Amia Srinivasan on Utopian Feminism (Ep. 132)

Does anyone have a right to sex?

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Edward Glaeser and David Cutler on the Health and Wealth of Cities (Ep. 131)

Doing battle with the demons that come with density.

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Zeynep Tufekci on the Sociology of The Moment (Ep. 130 - Live)

The problems COVID-19 revealed in our institutions—and how to fix them.

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Andrew Sullivan on Braving New Intellectual Journeys (Ep. 129)

Why are so few intellectuals comfortable with life out on a limb?

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Niall Ferguson on Why We Study History (Ep. 128)

We don’t study the past for its own sake.

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Alexander the Grate on Life as an NFA (Ep. 127)

Why none of us can escape shelter insecurity.

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Richard Prum on Birds, Beauty, and Finding Your Own Way (Ep. 126)

How ecology and selection drive avian evolution.

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Elijah Millgram on the Philosophical Life (Ep. 125)

Why personal experience is underrated.

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David Deutsch on Multiple Worlds and Our Place in Them (Ep. 124)

Plus, the defining human attribute visible from galaxies far, far away.

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Mark Carney on Central Banking and Shared Values (Ep. 123 — BONUS)

How shared objectives can flip risks into value creation.

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Pierpaolo Barbieri on Latin American FinTech (Ep. 122)

Meet the startup founder disrupting the banking industry in Argentina and Mexico.

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Daniel Carpenter on Smart Regulation (Ep. 121)

The leading expert on the FDA discusses policy in the time of COVID-19.

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Shadi Bartsch on the Classics and China (Ep. 120)

Art, politics, and the enduring lessons of the ancient world.

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Dana Gioia on Becoming an Information Billionaire (Ep. 119)

How the internationally acclaimed poet became the only guest who can answer all of Tyler’s questions.

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Sarah Parcak on Archaeology from Space (Ep. 118)

What can new technology tell us about our ancient past?

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John Cochrane on Economic Puzzles and Habits of Mind (Ep. 117)

What unites John Cochrane the econ blogger with John Cochrane the accomplished glider pilot?

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Patricia Fara on Newton, Scientific Progress, and the Benefits of Unhistoric Acts (Ep. 116)

Is scientific progress best characterized by discrete leaps or incremental improvement?

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Brian Armstrong on the Crypto Economy (Ep. 115)

The CEO of Coinbase on how he manages the dual arts of innovating in technology and regulation

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Benjamin Friedman on the Origins of Economic Belief (Ep. 114)

How religion explains where economic ideas came from

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Noubar Afeyan on the Permission to Leap (Ep. 113)

How Moderna’s overnight vaccine success was 33 years in the making

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Conversations with Tyler 2020 Retrospective (Ep. 112)

Tyler looks back on a new year of conversations

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John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA (Ep. 111)

What working in intelligence has taught him about human nature.

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Zach Carter on the Life and Legacy of John Maynard Keynes (Ep. 110)

How Keynes became so influential—despite being so hard to pin down.

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Jimmy Wales on Systems and Incentives (Ep. 109)

The Wikipedia founder explains how the online encyclopedia will maintain objectivity in polarizing times.

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Edwidge Danticat on Haitian Art and Literature (Ep. 108)

Plus, the enduring wisdom of Haitian proverbs.

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Michael Kremer on Economists as Founders (Ep. 107)

Why economists should build more than a body of research.

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Audrey Tang on the Technology of Democracy (Ep. 106)

How lessons from programming can improve our politics.

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Alex Ross on Music, Culture, and Criticism (Ep. 105)

Plus, the occult power of conductors.

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Matt Yglesias on Why the Population is Too Damn Low (Ep. 104)

How more people would solve (some of) America’s problems.

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Jason Furman on Productivity, Competition, and Growth (Ep. 103)

How do we balance human rights with technological and economic progress?

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Nicholas Bloom on Management, Productivity, and Scientific Progress (Ep. 102)

And why periodicals and podcasts trump books.

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Nathan Nunn on the Paths to Development (Ep. 101)

What historical factors predict future wealth?

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Melissa Dell on the Significance of Persistence (Ep. 100)

The surprising ways historical events and institutions still shape our modern world.

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Annie Duke on Poker, Probabilities, and How We Make Decisions (Ep. 99)

How do gamblers stay rational and happy?

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Rachel Harmon on Policing (Ep. 98)

While there’s no silver bullet, real reforms are possible.

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Ashley Mears on Status and Beauty (Ep. 97)

How many academics can claim to have modeled on the side?

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Paul Romer on a Culture of Science and Working Hard (Ep. 96)

From charter cities to mass testing for COVID-19, Paul Romer doesn’t always think his ideas are good—they’re just better than the alternatives.

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Adam Tooze on our Financial Past and Future (Ep. 95)

What economic history can tell us about navigating the current crisis.

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Glen Weyl on Fighting COVID-19 and the Role of the Academic Expert (Ep. 94 - BONUS)

His ambitious strategy to return to (something like) normal.

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Philip E. Tetlock on Forecasting and Foraging as a Fox (Ep. 93)

Is accuracy really what we want from forecasters?

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Emily St. John Mandel on Fact, Fiction, and the Familiar (Ep. 92)

How film and literature can help us navigate reality.

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Ross Douthat on Decadence and Dynamism (Ep. 91)

What social forces are trending toward stagnation—and how can we stop them?

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Russ Roberts and Tyler on COVID-19 (Ep. 90 - BONUS)

Tyler and Russ Roberts joined forces for a special livestreamed conversation on COVID-19. How are they both adjusting to social isolation?

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John McWhorter on Linguistics, Music, and Race (Ep. 89 - Live at Mason)

Who can you ask about the Great American Songbook, the finer Jell-O flavors, and peculiar languages like Saramaccan all while expecting the same kind of fast, thoughtful, and energetic response? Listeners of Lexicon Valley might hazard a guess.

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Garett Jones on Democracy (More or Less) (Ep. 88)

And, as always, what can we learn from Singapore?

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Tim Harford on Persuasion and Popular Economics (Ep. 87)

Why storytelling is still underrated.

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Ezra Klein on Why We’re Polarized (Ep. 86)

In his second appearance, Ezra talks about what we get wrong when we talk about politics.

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Reid Hoffman on Systems, Levers, and Quixotic Quests (Ep. 85)

Have someone named “Quixotic” on your network? It might be Reid Hoffman.

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Slavoj Žižek on His Stubborn Attachment to Communism (Ep. 84 - BONUS)

Why not leave the label behind and join Tyler at a Singapore food stall?

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Abhijit Banerjee on Theory, Practice, and India (Ep. 83)

Tyler’s former grad school classmate has made quite a name for himself.

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Tyler Looks Back on 2019 (BONUS)

Take a peek behind the scenes of #cowenconvos

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Esther Duflo on Management, Growth, and Research in Action (Ep. 82)

How Duflo found her calling in the midst of revolution.

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Daron Acemoglu on the Struggle Between State and Society (Ep. 81)

How institutions shape the fate of nations.

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Mark Zuckerberg Interviews Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen on the Nature and Causes of Progress (BONUS)

Patrick and Tyler are obsessed with progress — and they think you should be too.

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Shaka Senghor on Incarceration, Identity, and the Gift of Literacy (Ep. 80)

How do you survive seven years in solitary? Escape into books.

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Fuchsia Dunlop on Homestyle Chinese Cooking (BONUS)

Three years after her first appearance, Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop joins Tyler for a delicious homestyle Chinese meal.

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Ted Gioia on Music as Cultural Cloud Storage (Ep. 79)

Tyler and Ted discuss the history and evolution of music, the role of music in political protests, new incentives in the music industry, how to cultivate excellent taste in music, and more.

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Henry Farrell on Weaponized Interdependence, Big Tech, and Playing with Ideas (Ep. 78)

The one concept most valuable for understanding the news today might be Henry Farrell’s theory of weaponized interdependence.

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Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap (Ep. 77)

Does it matter that Hasbro owns Death Row Records?

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Alain Bertaud on Cities, Markets, and People (Ep. 76 - Live in NYC)

Alain Bertaud and Tyler Cowen talk urban planning, NIMBYism and YIMBYism, messy cities, Shenzhen, charter cities, Robert Moses, NYC planning reforms, and more.

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Samantha Power on Learning How to Make a Difference (Ep. 75)

Power’s chronicled genocide, but the memoir may have been the hardest thing she’s had to write.

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Hollis Robbins on 19th Century Life and Literature (Ep. 74)

And why aren’t there more operas about tech founders?

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Masha Gessen on the Ins and Outs of Russia (Ep. 73)

What did The Americans get right that Chernobyl missed?

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Kwame Anthony Appiah on Pictures of the World (Ep. 72)

What can one learn from farming sheep in New Jersey?

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Neal Stephenson on Depictions of Reality (Ep. 71)

If you want to speculate on the development of tech, no one has a better brain to pick than Neal Stephenson.

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Eric Kaufmann on Immigration, Identity, and the Limits of Individualism (Ep. 70)

Is now a good time to buy property in Northern Ireland?

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Hal Varian on Taking the Academic Approach to Business (Ep. 69)

And why kale is the key to understanding Google’s inner workings.

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Russ Roberts on Life as an Economics Educator (Ep. 68)

The OG econ podcaster takes a turn in the guest chair.

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Ezekiel Emanuel on the Practice of Medicine, Policy, and Life (Ep. 67)

He’s worked at the highest levels of medicine, policy and academia. But the intense interest in jam and chocolate might be most impressive.

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Karl Ove Knausgård on Literary Freedom (Ep. 66)

Knausgård’s real struggle is answering all of Tyler’s questions.

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Margaret Atwood on Canada, Writing, and Invention (Ep. 65 - Live at Mason)

Turns out, Canada is really big.

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Ed Boyden on Minding your Brain (Ep. 64)

Ed Boyden builds the tools and technologies that help us think about the brain, an organ we still know surprisingly little about.

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Emily Wilson on Translations and Language (Ep. 63)

The literary translator’s toolkit must include pen, paper, various dictionaries, a big desk, and a huge orange cat.

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Raghuram Rajan on Understanding Community (Ep. 62)

Would online education work better if teachers could text insults to students?

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Sam Altman on Loving Community, Hating Coworking, and the Hunt for Talent (Ep. 61 - Live in SF)

He’s renowned for assessing talent — so would he fund Peter Parker? How about Bruce Wayne?

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Jordan Peterson on Mythology, Fame, and Reading People (Ep. 60 - Live)

And what the Intellectual Dark Web gets wrong.

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Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama on Persecution and Toleration (Ep. 59)

How did religious freedom emerge — and why did it arrive so late?

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Larissa MacFarquhar on Getting Inside Someone's Head (Ep. 58)

One of the best profile writers working today shares what motivates her work.

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Rebecca Kukla on Moving Through and Responding to the World (Ep. 57)

And what philosophy has in common with stand-up comedy.

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Daniel Kahneman on Cutting Through the Noise (Ep. 56 - Live at Mason)

You might be surprised by what occupies Daniel Kahneman’s thoughts these days.

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Paul Romer on the Unrivaled Joy of Scholarship (Ep. 55)

Warning: there are 185 “ands” present in this transcript.

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John Nye on Revisionist Economic History and Having Too Many Hobbies (Ep. 54)

Is John Nye the finest polymath in the George Mason economics department?

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Eric Schmidt on the Life-Changing Magic of Systematizing, Scaling, and Saying “Thanks” (Ep. 53 - Live)

“There’s no simple formula for success. But it is well understood that if you yell at people enough, they will quit.”

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Ben Thompson on Business and Tech (Ep. 52)

And why Taiwanese breakfast is the best breakfast.

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Rob Wiblin interviews Tyler on Stubborn Attachments (BONUS)

Finally we find out what Tyler - and Tyrone - really believes.

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Paul Krugman on Politics, Inequality, and Following Your Curiosity (Ep. 51)

“Be interested in a lot of things, but when you find something that really grabs your attention, work at it seriously. Figure stuff out.”

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Bruno Maçães on the Spirit of Adventure (Ep. 50)

He’s built a career teaching, advising, writing, and talking to people across the globe. Just don’t ask him about Canada.

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Michele Gelfand on Tight and Loose Cultures (Ep. 49)

Where is Tyler most at risk of getting shot at a bar?

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Claire Lehmann on Speaking Freely (Ep. 48)

This Aussie thinks Americans are too afraid to speak their mind.

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Michael Pollan on the Science and Sublimity of Psychedelics (Ep. 47)

Plus, his latest thoughts of food production, GMOs, and writing well.

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Michelle Dawson on Autism and Atypicality (Ep. 46)

No one in the world more appreciates the challenges facing a better understanding of autism than Michelle Dawson.

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Vitalik Buterin on Cryptoeconomics and Markets in Everything (Ep. 45)

Is he secretly the best young economist today?

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Juan Pablo Villarino on Travel and Trust (Ep. 44)

The world’s best hitchhiker shares the tricks of the trade.

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Elisa New on Poetry in America and Beyond (Ep. 43)

Anyone can have a blast reading a poem. Even you!

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David Brooks on Youth, Morality, and Loneliness (Ep. 42 - Live at Mason)

“This is the most intimidating interview I’ve ever sat down for because (a) you know me, and (b) you actually read my stuff.”

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Self-Education and Doing the Math (Ep. 41 - Live at Mercatus)

The best thing to do on an airplane? Twitter fight!

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Bryan Caplan on What’s Missing in Education (BONUS)

Do either of them know how to get their car out of the snow, for instance?

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Bryan Caplan on Learning Across Disciplines (Ep. 40)

”For me, the main value of a colleague is lunch.”

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Balaji Srinivasan on the Power and Promise of the Blockchain (Ep. 39)

The new CTO of Coinbase shares his excitement for a world where finding financing is as easy as sending a tweet.

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Agnes Callard on the Theory of Everything (Ep. 38)

Is parenting undertheorized? Should we fear death? And if granted immortality, would we bore of bodily pleasures? Tyler wants to know.

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Martina Navratilova on Shaping Herself (Ep. 37 - Live at Mason)

“Tyler, you need to drink more water. You’re not hydrating at all.”

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Chris Blattman on Development, Conflict, and Doing What’s Interesting (Ep. 36)

Chris Blattman’s made his career as a development economist by finding a place he likes and finding a reason to live there.

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Robin Hanson on Signaling and Self-Deception (Ep. 35)

Clicking this link says a lot about you.

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Matt Levine Live at Bloomberg HQ (Ep. 34)

Weird is just a synonym for interesting.

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Charles C. Mann on Shaping Tomorrow’s World and the Limits to Growth (Ep. 33)

And he doesn’t do meetings.

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Ross Douthat on Narrative and Religion (Ep. 32 - Live at Mason)

Has Ross succeeded in convincing Tyler to believe in God — or at least go to church more?

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Andy Weir on the Economics of Sci-Fi and Space (Ep. 31)

The author of The Martian and Artemis joins Tyler Cowen to talk about his unique blending of economics and engineering into hard sci-fi.

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Doug Irwin on US Trade Policy (BONUS)

“I prefer the sprawling mess.”

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Sujatha Gidla on Being an Ant Amongst the Elephants (Ep. 30 - Live)

“My main thing is to be free and intellectually free and free to pursue culture.”

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Steve Teles and Brink Lindsey on The Captured Economy (BONUS)

“We originally had the idea that this podcast was gonna be called Prisoner’s Dilemma.”

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Mary Roach on Disgust, Death, and Danger (Ep. 29 - Live at Mason)

“I’m just balls out with my curiosity.”

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Larry Summers on Macroeconomics, Mentorship, and Avoiding Complacency (Ep. 28 - Live at Mason)

“Working in the White House, that was fine, but being interviewed by Tyler Cowen, that meant I had really arrived.”

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Dave Barry on Humor, Writing, and Life as a Florida Man (Ep. 27)

And why aren’t there jokebooks anymore?

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Dave Rubin on Digital Media, Crowdfunding, and Comedy (BONUS - Live)

Also, what Dave learned from his year abroad in Israel and his pick for the most underrated Star Wars movie.

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Atul Gawande on Priorities, Big and Small (Ep. 26)

Thankfully coming on the podcast was one of them.

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Ben Sasse on the Space between Nebraska and Neverland (Ep. 25 - Live at Mason)

One is home, the other is a dystopian hell.

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Ed Luce on the Retreat of Western Liberalism (BONUS)

Tyler’s first question to him dealt with James II and William of Orange.

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Jill Lepore on Traveling through Time (Ep. 24)

Is time like a line, a stretched out accordion, buried silos, or a flat circle? And how does Doctor Who fit into all this?

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Steve Davies on Theresa May, Brexit, and Europe (BONUS)

The prospects for the European left-wing and the populism underneath it all.

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Raj Chetty on Teachers, Social Mobility, and How to Find Answers to Big Questions (Ep. 23)

The most influential economist in the world reveals his approach to meaningful research.

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Garry Kasparov on AI, Chess, and the Future of Creativity (Ep. 22)

Change is inevitable, says the chess grandmaster, and we should speed up our search for the edge of human potential.

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Patrick Collison has a Few Questions for Tyler (Ep. 21 - Live at Stripe)

The Stripe CEO flips the script for a special Conversations with Tyler.

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Malcolm Gladwell Wants to Make the World Safe for Mediocrity (Ep. 20 - Live at Mason)

“I think that it would be really useful to ban graduates of elite colleges from ever disclosing that they went to an elite college.”

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Rabbi David Wolpe on Leadership, Religion, and Identity (Ep. 19 - Live at Sixth & I)

And does playing chess break the Sabbath?

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Mark Miller on Food as the Ultimate Intellectual Exploration (Ep. 18)

…and the merits of eating your next hamburger upside down.

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Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing, Translation, and Crossing Between Cultures (Ep. 17 - Live at Mason)

“This is one of the things about writing in Italian that people aren’t prepared for: that I don’t pretend anymore.”

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Joseph Henrich on Cultural Evolution, WEIRD Societies, and Life Among Two Strange Tribes (Ep. 16 - Live at Mason)

To anthropologist Joseph Henrich, intelligence is overrated. Cultural evolution is what really sets our species apart.

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Fuchsia Dunlop on Chinese Food, Culture, and Travel (Ep. 15)

China’s had a foodie culture for centuries. No one understands this better than Fuchsia Dunlop, one of Tyler Cowen’s favorite writers.

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Steven Pinker on Language, Reason, and the Future of Violence (Ep. 14 - Live at Mason)

Steven Pinker believes deeply in the power of reason to understand the world and ourselves. But can he convince Tyler?

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Ezra Klein on Media, Politics, and Models of the World (Ep. 13)

Vox.com’s editor-in-chief chats with Tyler Cowen about biases in digital media, politics, the morality of meat eating, and more.

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Margalit Fox on Life, Death, and the Best Job in Journalism (Ep. 12)

Margalit Fox has penned over 1,200 obituaries for the New York Times. Read to discover what she’s learned along the way.

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Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters (Ep. 11)

One of the world’s most prolific book reviewers talks to Tyler Cowen about how and why we should read fiction — particularly from abroad.

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Cass Sunstein on Judicial Minimalism, the Supreme Court, and Star Wars (Ep. 10 - Live at Mason)

On Star Wars, judicial minimalism, Bob Dylan, nudging, the Supreme Court, James Joyce, Hayek, and the merits of a ‘banned products store.’

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Camille Paglia on Her Lifestyle of Observation and Lamb Vindaloo (Ep. 9 - Live at Mason)

On David Bowie, lamb vindaloo, her lifestyle of observation, why writers need real jobs, Star Wars, Harold Bloom, Amelia Earhart, and more.

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Jonathan Haidt on Morality, Politics, and Intellectual Diversity on Campus (Ep. 8)

Jonathan and Tyler discuss morality, politics, disgust, free speech on campus, LSD, and antiparsimonialism.

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Nate Silver on the Supreme Court and the Underrated Stat for Finding Good Food (Ep. 7 - Live at Mason)

On data, forecasting, My Bloody Valentine, gambling, Donald Trump, vacation advice, Supreme Court picks, and the wisdom of Björk.

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Jazz, Fighting Bruce Lee, Growing Up in Harlem, and Basketball (Ep. 6 - Live at Mason)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on segregation, Islam, Harlem vs. LA, Earl Manigault, and jazz.

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Cliff Asness on Marvel vs. DC and Why Never to Share a Gym with Cirque du Soleil (Ep. 5 - Live at Mason)

Tyler and investment strategist Cliff Asness discuss momentum and value investing strategies, and disagreeing with Eugene Fama.

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Dani Rodrik on Premature Deindustrialization and Why the World is Second Best, at Best (Ep. 4 - Live at Mason)

On premature deindustrialization, the world’s trilemmas, the political economy of John le Carré, RCTs, Orhan Pamuk, and more.

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Luigi Zingales on Italy, Google and Conglomeration, and Donald Trump (Ep. 3 - Live at Mason)

Tyler and Luigi talk Donald Trump, Antonio Gramsci, Google, and Luchino Visconti.

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Jeffrey Sachs on Charter Cities and How to Reform Graduate Economics Education (Ep. 2 - Live at Mason)

Tyler and Jeffrey on the resource curse, Paul Krugman, premature deindustrialization, the middle income trap, and Sach’s favorite novel.

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Peter Thiel on Stagnation, Innovation, and What Not To Name Your Company (Ep. 1 - Live at Mason)

On stagnation, the Bible, company names, chess, favorite TV shows, and the “Straussian Christ.”

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