Conversations with Tyler
Mercatus Center at George Mason University · Conversations with Tyler
Show overview
Conversations with Tyler has been publishing since 2015, and across the 11 years since has built a catalogue of 304 episodes, alongside 13 trailers or bonus episodes. That works out to roughly 310 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 53 min and 1h 5m — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. It is catalogued as a EN-language Education show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 2 days ago, with 27 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2025, with 36 episodes published.
From the publisher
Tyler Cowen engages today's deepest thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. New conversations every other Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Latest Episodes
View all 304 episodesLiaquat Ahamed on Financial Crises, Gold, and the Lessons of 1873
Luis Garicano on Spain, Europe, and the Future of Work
Gita Gopinath on Trade, Currencies, and Economic Transformation
Annie Lowrey on the Time Tax, Fraud, and Rationing by Paperwork
Jared Diamond on Leaders, Luck, and Irreplaceability
Michael Moritz on Origin Stories, Exile, and Obsessive Curiosity
Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire, Catholicism, and the Age of Social Contagion
Daron Acemoglu on Liberalism, Automation, and the Educated Elite
Julia Ioffe on Russian Women, Missing Men, and the Roots of Autocracy
Andrew Graham-Dixon on Vermeer, a Forgotten Sect, and Underrated Artists
Chase Koch on Principles, Music, and Overcoming Entropy
Joel Mokyr on Clans, Corporations, and a Culture of Growth
Joanne Paul on Thomas More and the Tudor World
Dave Baszucki on Roblox, Teen Entrepreneurs, and the Future of Play
Katja Hoyer on Weimar, the GDR, and the German Character
Toby Wilkinson on Ptolemaic Egypt and the First Great Commercial Civilization
Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography
Craig Newmark on Institutional Maintenance, Giving Away Control, and the Internet We Were Promised (Live at 92NY)
Kim Bowes on the Economic Lives of Rome's Ninety Percent
Ep 274Arthur Brooks on Reinvention, Religion, and the Science of Happiness
Click here to find Tyler's new generative book, The Marginal Revolution: Rise and Decline, and the Pending AI Revolution! Arthur Brooks reckons he's on the fourth leg of a spiral-shaped career: French horn player, economist, president of the American Enterprise Institute, and now Harvard professor and evangelist for the science of happiness. His new book, The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness, argues that happiness isn't a feeling but a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning — the macronutrients of happiness, he calls them — and that most of us are gorging on the wrong ones. Tyler, naturally, wants to know: what's the marginal value of a book on happiness, and what does spiral number five look like? Along the way, Tyler and Arthur cover how scarcity makes savoring possible and why knowing you'll die young sharpens the mind, what twin studies tell us about the genetics of well-being and why that's not actually depressing, the four habits of the genuinely happy, the placebo theory of happiness books, curiosity as an evolved positive emotion, the optimal degree of self-deception, why Arthur chose Catholicism rather than Orthodoxy, what the research says about accepting death, how he became an economist via correspondence school, AI's effect on think tanks, the future of classical music, whether Trumpism or Reaganism is the equilibrium state of American conservatism, whether his views on immigration have changed, what he and Oprah actually agree on, which president from his lifetime he most admires, Barcelona versus Madrid, what 60-year-olds are especially good at, why he's reading Josef Pieper, how he'll face death, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel. Recorded March 19th, 2026. This episode was made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation. Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Arthur on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: [email protected] Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:10 - The Macronutrients of Happiness 00:07:54 - What Happiness Books are Worth 00:12:28 - The Habits of the Happiest People 00:14:27 - Why the Young Reject Happiness Advice 00:17:35 - Curiosity's Role in Happiness 00:20:22 - Self-Deception 00:22:04 - Facing Death 00:25:44 - Choosing a Religion 00:28:41 - Immigration 00:30:27 - The American Right Wing 00:33:55 - AI's Role in Happiness 00:37:12 - What Drives Generosity 00:38:37 - Oprah's Political Views 00:40:16 - Which Political Leaders Arthur Admires 00:41:59 - The Best French Horn Players 00:43:40 - Arthur's Spiral of Careers 00:48:20 - The Future of Think Tanks 00:49:50 - The Future of Classical Music 00:51:27 - Living in Spain 00:55:34 - Age and Peak Performance 00:56:12 - What Arthur Will Do Next 00:59:14 - Outro Image Credit: Jenny Sherman