Conversations with Tyler

While the modern historical ethos can be obsessed with condescending to the past based on our current value system, Scottish-born historian Niall Ferguson has aimed to set himself apart with his willingness to examine the past in its own context. The result is some wildly unpopular opinions such as "The British Empire was good, actually" and several wildly popular books, such as his latest Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe. Niall joined Tyler to discuss the difference between English and Scottish pessimism, his surprise encounter with Sean Connery, what James Bond and Doctor Who have in common, how religion fosters the cultural imagination to produce doomsday scenarios, which side of the Glorious Revolution he would have been on, the extraordinary historical trajectory of Scotland from the 17th century through the 18th century, why historians seem to have an excessive occupation with leadership, what he learned from R.G. Collingwood and A.J.P. Taylor, why American bands could never quite get punk music right, Tocqueville's insights on liberalism, the unfortunate iconoclasm of John Maynard Keynes, the dystopian novel he finds most plausible, what he learned about right and left populism on his latest trip to Latin America, the importance of intellectual succession and building institutions, what he'll do next, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded June 18th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Niall on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox. Thumbnail photo credit: Zoe Law

Alexander the Grate has spent 40 years – more than half of his life – living on the streets (and heating grates) of Washington, DC. He prefers the label NFA (No Fixed Address) rather than "homeless," since in his view we're all a little bit homeless: even millionaires are just one catastrophe away from losing their mansions. It's a life that certainly comes with many challenges, but that hasn't stopped him from enjoying the immense cultural riches of the capital: he and his friends have probably attended more lectures, foreign films, concerts, talks, and tours at local museums than many of its wealthiest denizens. The result is a perspective as unique as the city itself. Alexander joined Tyler to discuss the little-recognized issue of "toilet insecurity," how COVID-19 affected his lifestyle, the hierarchy of local shelters, the origins of the cootie game, the difference between being NFA in DC versus other cities, how networking helped him navigate life as a new NFA, how the Capitol Hill Freebie Finders Fellowship got started, why he loves school field trip season, his most memorable freebie food experience, the reason he isn't enthusiastic about a Universal Basic Income, the economic sword of Damocles he sees hanging over America, how local development is changing DC, his design for a better community shelter, and more. Special thanks to James Deutsch for helping to arrange this interview. Read his profile of Alexander the Grate here. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 4th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Richard Prum really cares about birds. Growing up in rural Vermont, he didn't know anyone else interested in birding his own age. The experience taught him to rely on his own sense of curiosity and importance when deciding what questions and interests are worth studying. As a result, he has pursued many different paths of research in avian biology — such as behavioral evolution, where feathers come from, sexual selection and mate choice — many of which have led to deep implications in the field. In 2017, Tyler agreed with several prominent outlets that Prum's book The Evolution of Beauty was one of the best books of the year, writing that it "offers an excellent and clearly written treatment of the particulars of avian evolution, signaling theory, and aesthetics, bringing together some disparate areas very effectively." Richard joined Tyler to discuss the infidelity of Australian birds, the debate on the origins of avian flight, how the lack of a penis explains why birds are so beautiful, why albatrosses can afford to take so many years to develop before mating, the game theory of ornithology, how flowers advertise themselves like a can of Coke, how modern technology is revolutionizing bird watching, why he's pro-bird feeders yet anti- outdoor cats, how scarcity predicts territoriality in birds, his favorite bird artist, how Oilbirds got their name, how falcons and cormorants hunt and fish with humans, whether birds exhibit a G factor, why birds have regional accents, whether puffins will perish, why he's not excited about the idea of trying to bring back passenger pigeons, the "dumb question" that marks a talented perspective ornithologist, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded May 20th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox. Thumbnail photo credit: Russell Kaye

What can studying the lives of philosophers tell us about how to organize and interpret our own lives? Elijah Millgram is a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah whose research focuses on the theory of rationality. His latest book, John Stuart Mill and The Meaning of Life, analyzes the relationship between the ideas of the famous theorist and their impacts on Mill's life. His forthcoming book examines the life and work of Frederich Nietzsche through a similar lens, combining philosophical analysis and biography. Elijah joined Tyler to discuss Newcomb's paradox, the reason he doesn't have an opinion about everything, the philosophy of Dave Barry, style and simulation theory, why philosophers aren't often consulted about current events, his best stories from TA-ing for Robert Nozick, the sociological correlates of knowing formal logic, the question of whether people are more interested in truth or being interesting, philosophical cycles, what makes Nietzsche important today, the role that meaning can play in a person's personality and life, Mill on Bentham, the idea of true philosophy as dialogue, the extent to which modern philosophers are truly philosophical, why he views aesthetics as critical to philosophy, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded May 11th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Tyler describes Oxford professor and theoretical physicist David Deutsch as a "maximum philosopher of freedom" with no rival. A pioneer in the field of quantum computing, Deutsch subscribes to the multiple-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. He is also adamant that the universe (or multiverse) is not incomprehensible – believing that the multiverse and human beings within it have maximum freedom. He joined Tyler to discuss the importance of these principles for understanding the nature of reality and our place in it. They discuss the metaphysics of Star Trek transporters, how we can know the laws of physics for the multiverse, what geological strata can illustrate to us about the nature of "splitting" universes, why the "Everett universe" is a misnomer, the factors that differentiate humans from all other species, why he believes the universe is comprehensible – but can never be understood fully, the paradoxes of self-reference, the importance of interference experiments, the sociological reasons more physicists don't believe in the Everett interpretation, the effects of the influences of positivism and instrumentalism on generations of physicists, the strengths and weaknesses of Karl Popper, his answer to whether we're living in a simulation, what William Godwin got right about institutions, the potential of an AI slave rebellion, what libertarians largely get wrong about their political project, what alien observers might notice as being special about our planet, the major defect of his preferred electoral system, why what Western science needs most is diversity, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 27th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow David on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

As a Canadian economist who once served as the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney has had many occasions to reflect on the importance of values. Whether it's ingratiating himself as a public servant in a foreign country, managing a central bank, or addressing climate change, he's seen the power of shared objectives and the importance of value alignment in addressing critical and complex problems. As the global economy attempts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Carney has published these lessons in a new book, Values: Building a Better World for All. In this special bonus episode, Mark joined Tyler to discuss why he went into economics instead of marine biology, the temperamental differences between ice hockey goalies and central bankers, why it's important that central bankers plan for failure, what he learned from his father's work with indigenous Canadians, how growing up near Alberta's tar sands made him understand the power of the market, the biggest misconception people have about Goldman Sachs, how he established trust as a public servant in a foreign country, his advice for public speaking, why he prefers to speak early during large meetings, the validity of liquidity trap theories, the changes he'd make to the federal reserve governance structure, the greatest challenge of running a central bank, potential regulatory strategies for central bank digital currencies, how decentralized finance (DeFi) should be regulated, how central banks should address potential risks caused by climate change, what went wrong with Canada's response to COVID-19, why there seems to be little populism in Canada, the future of the Toronto Raptors, where to find the best food in Canada, the best Clash album, the causes of the UK productivity slowdown, the most surprising thing he learned while writing his new book, his predictions for the future global economy post- COVID, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded May 21st, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Mark on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox. Photo credit: Toby Madden

Gifted young Argentines tend to leave home to "make it in America" and never look back, but after earning a degree from Harvard, writing a book about the Spanish Civil War, and living in the United States for 12 years, Pierpaolo Barbieri has returned to Argentina. And he's bringing foreign capital and talented expats with him. Pierpaolo's FinTech startup Ualá works to bring universal banking to a Latin American market in which huge swaths of the population are still stuck using cash for everything. By giving the working classes power over their own money, he hopes to produce greater prosperity and social mobility in his home country and beyond. Pierpaolo joined Tyler to discuss why the Mexican banking system only serves 30 percent of Mexicans, which country will be the first to go cashless, the implications of a digital yuan, whether Miami will overtake São Paolo as the tech center of Latin America, how he hopes to make Ualá the Facebook of FinTech, Argentina's bipolar fiscal policy, his transition from historian to startup founder, the novels of Michel Houellebecq, Nazi economic policy, why you can find amazing and cheap pasta in Argentina, why Jorge Luis Borges might be his favorite philosopher, the advice he'd give to his 18-year-old self, his friendship with Niall Ferguson, the political legacy of the Spanish Civil War, why he stopped sending emails from bed, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 12th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Pierpaolo on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Daniel Carpenter is one of the world's leading experts on regulation and the foremost expert on the US Food and Drug Administration. A professor of Government at Harvard University, he's conducted extensive research on regulation and government organizations, as well as on the development of political institutions in the United States. His latest book Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, details the crucial role petitions played in expanding the franchise and shaping modern America. Daniel joined Tyler to discuss how to reform the hiring and firing practices for public employees, what the history of the postal service can teach us about internet regulation, the problem with the term "institutional capture", what the FDA got right and wrong regarding COVID-19 vaccines, how nationalism is affecting vaccine rollout, why vaccinating the young is crucial for herd immunity, the drawbacks of a "Good Housekeeping" model of the FDA, how black box drug labels sometimes change behavior for the worse, the institutional variables of foreign drug trials and manufacturing, the pivotal role petitions played during the 19th century women's rights movement, the French Canadian petition that changed history, why political scientists should study Native Americans, the benefits of fly fishing, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 1st, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

A self-professed nerd, the young Shadi Bartsch could be found awake late at night, reading Latin under the covers of her bed by flashlight. Now a professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, Dr. Bartsch is one of the best-known classicists in America and recently published her own translation of Virgil's Aeneid. Widely regarded for her writing on Seneca, Lucan, and Persius, her next book focuses on Chinese interpretations of classic literature and their influence on political thought in China. Shadi joined Tyler to discuss reading the classics as someone who is half-Persian, the difference between Homer and Virgil's underworlds, the reasons so many women are redefining Virgil's Aeneid, the best way to learn Latin, why you must be in a room with a native speaker to learn Mandarin, the question of Seneca's hypocrisy, what it means to "wave the wand of Hermes", why Lucan begins his epic The Civil War with "fake news", the line from Henry Purcell's aria that moves her to tears, her biggest takeaway from being the daughter of an accomplished UN economist, the ancient text she's most hopeful that new technology will help us discover, the appeal of Strauss to some contemporary Chinese intellectuals, the reasons some consider the history of Athens a better allegory for America than that of Rome, the Thucydides Trap, the magical "presentness" of ancient history she's found in Italy and Jerusalem, her forthcoming book Plato Goes to China, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 16th, 2022 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Shadi on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Before he was California Poet Laureate or leading the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia marketed Jell-O. Possessing both a Stanford MBA and a Harvard MA, he combined his creativity and facility with numbers to climb the corporate ladder at General Foods to the second highest rung before abruptly quitting to become a poet and writer. That unique professional experience and a lifelong "hunger for beauty" have made him into what Tyler calls an "information billionaire," or someone who can answer all of Tyler's questions. In his new memoir, Dana describes the six people who sent him on this unlikely journey. In this conversation, Dana and Tyler discuss his latest book and more, including how he transformed several businesses as a corporate executive, why going to business school made him a better poet, the only two obscene topics left in American poetry, why narrative is necessary for coping with life's hardships, how Virgil influenced Catholic traditions, what Augustus understood about the cultural power of art, the reasons most libretti are so bad, the optimism of the Beach Boys, the best art museum you've never heard of, the Jungianism of Star Trek, his favorite Tolstoy work, depictions of Catholicism in American pop culture, what he finds fascinating about Houellebecq, why we stopped building cathedrals, how he was able to effectively lead the National Endowment for the Arts, the aesthetic differences between him and his brother Ted, his advice for young people who want to cultivate their minds, and what he wants to learn next. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded February 18th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Dana on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

What can new technology tell us about our ancient past? Archaeologist and remote sensing expert Sarah Parcak has used satellite imagery to discover over a dozen potential pyramids and thousands of tombs from ancient Egypt. A professor of anthropology and founding director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Sarah's work combines technology, historical study, and cultural anthropology to advance discoveries about the past while navigating the political and ethical dilemmas that plague excavation work today. She joined Tyler to discuss what caused the Bronze Age Collapse, how well we understand the level of ancient technologies, what archaeologists may learn from the discovery of more than a hundred coffins at the site of Saqqara, how far the Vikings really traveled, why conservation should be as much of a priority as excavation, the economics of looting networks, the inherently political nature of archaeology, Indiana Jones versus The Dig, her favorite contemporary bluegrass artists, the best archaeological sites to visit around the world, the merits of tools like Google Earth and Lidar, the long list of skills needed to be a modern archaeologist, which countries produce the best amateur space archaeologists, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded February 25th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Sarah on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

What unites John Cochrane the finance economist and "grumpy" policy blogger with John Cochrane the accomplished glider pilot? For John, the answer is that each derives from the same habit of mind which seeks to reduce things down to a few fundamental principles and a simple logical structure. And thus, piloting a glider can be understood as an application of optimal portfolio theory, and all of monetary policy can be made to fit within the structure of a single equation. John joined Tyler to apply that habit of mind to a number of puzzles, including why real interest rates don't equalize across countries, what explains why high trading volumes and active management persist in finance, how the pandemic has affected his opinion of habit formation theories, his fiscal theory of price level and inflation, the danger of a US sovereign debt crisis, why he thinks Bitcoin will eventually die, his idea for health-status insurance, becoming a national gliding champion, how a Renaissance historian for a father and a book translator for a mother shaped him intellectually, what's causing the leftward drift in economics, the need to increase competition among universities, how he became libertarian, the benefits of blogging, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded January 4th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow John on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Patricia Fara is a historian of science at Cambridge University and well-known for her writings on women in science. Her forthcoming book, Life After Gravity: Isaac Newton's London Career, details the life of the titan of the so-called Scientific Revolution after his famous (though perhaps mythological) discovery under the apple tree. Her work emphasizes science as a long, continuous process composed of incremental contributions–in which women throughout history have taken a crucial part–rather than the sole province of a few monolithic innovators. Patricia joined Tyler to discuss why Newton left Cambridge to run The Royal Mint, why he was so productive during the Great Plague, why the "Scientific Revolution" should instead be understood as a gradual process, what the Antikythera device tells us about science in the ancient world, the influence of Erasmus Darwin on his grandson, why more people should know Dorothy Hodgkin, how George Eliot inspired her to commit unhistoric acts, why she opposes any kind of sex-segregated schooling, her early experience in a startup, what modern students of science can learn from studying Renaissance art, the reasons she considers Madame Lavoisier to be the greatest female science illustrator, the unusual work habit brought to her attention by house guests, the book of caricatures she'd like to write next, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded January 15th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Brian Armstrong first recognized the potential of cryptocurrencies after witnessing firsthand the tragic consequences of hyperinflation in Argentina. Coinbase, the company he co-founded, aims to provide the primary financial accounts for the crypto economy. Their success in accomplishing this, he says, is due as much to their innovative approach to regulation as it is anything technological. Brian joined Tyler to discuss how he prevents Coinbase from being run by its lawyers, the value of having a mission statement, what a world with many more crypto billionaires would look like, why the volatility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is more feature than bug, the potential for scalability in Ethereum 2.0, his best guess on the real identity of Satoshi, the biggest obstacle facing new charter cities, the meta rules he'd institute for new Martian colony, the importance of bridging the gap between academics and entrepreneurs, the future of crypto regulation, the benefits of stablecoin for the unbanked, his strongest and weakest interpersonal skill, what he hopes to learn from composing electronic music, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded January 14th, 2022 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Brian on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Benjamin Friedman has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, whose accomplishments include writing 150 papers, producing more than dozen books, and teaching Tyler Cowen graduate macroeconomics at Harvard in 1985. In his latest book, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Ben argues that contrary to the popular belief that Western economic ideas are a secular product of the Enlightenment, instead they are the result of hotly debated theological questions within the English-speaking Protestant world of thinkers like Adam Smith and David Hume. Ben joined Tyler to discuss the connection between religious belief and support for markets, what drives varying cultural commitments to capitalism, why the rate of growth is key to sustaining liberal values, why Paul Volcker is underrated, how coming from Kentucky influences his thinking, why annuities don't work better, America's debt and fiscal sustainability, his critiques of nominal GDP targeting, why he wouldn't change the governance of the Fed, how he maintains his motivation to keep learning, his next big project on artificial intelligence, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded December 4th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

"The world of innovation is very much one of toggling between survival and then thriving," says Noubar Afeyan. Co-founder of Moderna and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, the biomedical innovator, philanthropist, and entrepreneur credits his successes to his "paranoid optimism" shaped by his experiences as an Armenian-American. Exceptional achievements like the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine, he believes, aren't usually unpredictable but rather the result of systematic processes that include embracing unreasonable propositions and even unreasonable people. He joined Tyler to discuss which aspect of entrepreneurship is hardest to teach, his predictions on the future of gene editing and CRISPR technology, why the pharmaceutical field can't be winner takes all, why "basic research" is a poor term, the secret to Boston's culture of innovation, the potential of plant biotech, why Montreal is (still) a special place to him, how his classical pianist mother influenced his musical tastes, his discussion-based approach to ethical dilemmas, how thinking future-backward shapes his approach to business and philanthropy, the blessing and curse of Lebanese optimism, the importance of creating a culture where people can say things that are wrong, what we can all learn by being an American by choice, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded January 6th, 2021 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Noubar on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Want to support the show? Visit conversationswithtyler.com/donate. On this special year-in-review episode, producer Jeff Holmes sat down with Tyler to talk about the most popular—and most underrated—episodes, Tyler's personal highlight of the year, how well state capacity libertarianism has fared, a new food rule for ordering well during the pandemic, how his production function changed this year, why he got sick of pickles, when he thinks the next face-to-face recording will be, the first thing he'll do post vaccine, an update on his next book, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded December 1st, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Want to support the show? Visit conversationswithtyler.com/donate. Growing up in a working-class city in New Jersey, John Brennan's father was an Irish immigrant who always impressed upon his children how grateful they should be to be American citizens. That deeply-instilled patriotism and the sense of right and wrong emphasized by his Catholic upbringing would lead John first to become an intelligence officer and then eventually Director of the CIA. His new memoir, which Tyler found substantive on every page, recounts that career journey. John joined Tyler to discuss what working in intelligence taught him about people's motivations, how his Catholic upbringing prepared him for working in intelligence, the similarities between working at the CIA and entering the priesthood, his ability to synthetize information from disparate sources, his assessment on the possibility of alien life, the efficacy of personality tests and polygraphs, why CIA agents are so punctual, how the CIA plans to remain a competitive recruiter for top talent, the challenges that spouses and family members of intelligence workers face, the impact of modern technology on spycraft, why he doesn't support the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, his favorite parts of Cairo, the pros and cons of the recent Middle Eastern peace deal brokered by Jared Kushner, the reasons he thinks we should leverage American culture more abroad, JFK conspiracy theories, why there seemed to be much less foreign interference in the 2020 election than experts predicted, what John le Carré got right about being a spy, why most spies aren't like James Bond, what he would change about FISA courts, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded November 16th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow John on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

After reading Zach Carter's intellectual biography of Keynes earlier this year, Tyler declared that the book would qualify "without reservation" as one of the best of the year. Tyler's assessment proved common, as the book would soon become a New York Times bestseller and later be declared one of the ten best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. In the book, Carter not only traces Keynes' intellectual achievements throughout his lifetime, but also shows how those ideas have lasted long after him, making him one of the most influential economists who's ever lived. Zach joined Tyler to discuss what Keynes got right – and wrong – about the Treaty of Versailles, how working in the India Office influenced his economic thinking, the seemingly strange paradox of his "liberal imperialism," the elusive central message of The General Theory, the true extent of Keynes' interest in eugenics, why he had a conservative streak, why Zach loves Samuel Delaney's novel Nova, whether Bretton Woods was doomed to fail, the Enlightenment intuitions behind early defenses of the gold standard, what's changed since Zach became a father, his next project, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded October 29th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Zach on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Jimmy Wales used to joke that choosing to build Wikipedia on a non-profit, non-advertising model was either the best or worst decision he ever made—but he doesn't joke about that anymore. "If you think about advertising-driven social media…it's driven them in many cases to prioritize agitation and argumentation in a negative sense over education and learning and thoughtfulness." In his now ceremonial role, Jimmy spends a lot of time thinking about how to structure incentives so that the Wikipedia community stays aligned on values and focused on building an ever-improving encyclopedia. Jimmy joined Tyler to discuss what happens when content moderation goes wrong, why certain articles are inherently biased, the threat that repealing section 230 poses to Wikipedia, whether he believes in Conquest's Law, the difference between "paid editing" and "paid advocacy editing," how Wikipedia handles alternative accounts, the right to be forgotten, his unusual education in Huntsville, Alabama, why Ayn Rand is under- and over-rated, the continual struggle to balance good rules and procedures against impenetrable bureaucracy, how Wikipedia is responding to mobile use, his attempt to build a non-toxic social media platform, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded October 21st, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Jimmy on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Edwidge Danticat left Haiti when she was 12, she says, but Haiti never left her. At 14 she began writing stories about the people and culture she loved, and now is an internationally acclaimed novelist and short story writer as well a MacArthur Genius Fellow. Rather than holding herself out as an expert or sociologist on Haiti, she seeks to treat her characters and culture with nuance and show the beauty and complexity of the place she calls home. She joined Tyler to discuss the reasons Haitian identity and culture will likely persist in America, the vibrant Haitian art scenes, why Haiti has the best food in the Caribbean, how radio is remaining central to Haitian politics, why teaching in Creole would improve Haitian schools, what's special about the painted tap-taps, how tourism influenced Haitian art, working with Jonathan Demme, how the CDC destroyed the Haitian tourism industry, her perspective on the Black Lives Matter movement, why she writes better at night, the hard lessons of Haiti's political history, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded September 18th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Michael Kremer is best known for his academic work researching global poverty, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2019 along with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. Less known is that he is also the founder of five non-profits and in the process of creating a sixth. And Kremer doesn't see anything unusual about embodying the dual archetypes of economist and founder. "I think there's a lot of relationship between the experimental method and the things that are needed to help found organizations," he explains. Michael joined Tyler to discuss the intellectual challenge of founding organizations, applying methods from behavioral economics to design better programs, how advanced market commitments could lower pharmaceutical costs for consumers while still incentivizing R&D, the ongoing cycle of experimentation every innovator understands, the political economy of public health initiatives, the importance of designing institutions to increase technological change, the production function of new technologies, incentivizing educational achievement, The Odyssey as a tale of comparative development, why he recently transitioned to University of Chicago, what researchers can learn from venture capitalists, his current work addressing COVID-19, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded September 9th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Audrey Tang began reading classical works like the Shūjīng and Tao Te Ching at the age of 5 and learned the programming language Perl at the age of 12. Now, the autodidact and self-described "conservative anarchist" is a software engineer and the first non-binary digital minister of Taiwan. Their work focuses on how social and digital technologies can foster empathy, democracy, and human progress. Audrey joined Tyler to discuss how Taiwan approached regulating Chinese tech companies, the inherent extraterritoriality of data norms, how Finnegans Wake has influenced their approach to technology, the benefits of radical transparency in communication, why they appreciate the laziness of Perl, using "humor over rumor" to combat online disinformation, why Taiwan views democracy as a set of social technologies, how their politics have been influenced by Taiwan's indigenous communities and their oral culture, what Chinese literature teaches about change, how they view Confucianism as a Daoist, how they would improve Taiwanese education, why they view mistakes in the American experiment as inevitable – but not insurmountable, the role of civic tech in Taiwan's pandemic response, the most important remnants of Japanese influence remaining in Taiwan, why they love Magic: The Gathering, the transculturalism that makes Taiwan particularly open and accepting of LGBT lifestyles, growing up with parents who were journalists, how being transgender makes them more empathetic, the ways American values still underpin the internet, what they learned from previous Occupy movements, why translation, rotation, and scaling are important skills for becoming a better thinker, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded September 24th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Audrey on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

To Alex Ross, good music critics must be well-rounded and have command of neighboring cultural areas. "When you're writing about opera, you're writing about literature as well as music, you're writing about staging, theater ideas, as well as music," says the veteran music journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker. His most recent book, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, explores the complicated legacy of Wagner, as well as how music shapes and is shaped by its cultural context. Alex joined Tyler to discuss the book, what gets lost in the training of modern opera singers, the effect of recording technology on orchestras, why he doesn't have "guilty pleasures," how we should approach Wagner today, the irony behind most uses of "Ride of the Valkyries" in cinema, his favorite Orson Welles film, his predictions for concert attendance after COVID-19, why artistic life in Europe will likely recover faster than in America, Rothko's influence on composer Morton Feldman, his contender for the greatest pop album ever made, how his Harvard dissertation on James Joyce prepared him for a career writing about music, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded August 20th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Matt Yglesias joined Tyler for a wide-ranging conversation on his vision for a bigger, less politically polarized America outlined in his new book One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger. They discussed why it's easier to grow Tokyo than New York City, the governance issues of increasing urban populations, what Tyler got right about pro-immigration arguments, how to respond to declining fertility rates, why he'd be happy to see more people going to church (even though he's not religious), why liberals and conservatives should take marriage incentive programs more seriously, what larger families would mean for feminism, why people should read Robert Nozick, whether the YIMBY movement will be weakened by COVID-19, how New York City will bounce back, why he's long on Minneapolis, how to address constitutional ruptures, how to attract more competent people to state and local governments, what he's learned growing up in a family full of economists, his mother's wisdom about visual design and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded August 21st, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Matt on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Note: This conversation was recorded in January 2020. Tyler credits Jason Furman's intellectual breadth, real-world experience, and emphasis on policy for making him the best economist in the world. Furman, despite not initially being interested in public policy, ultimately served as the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama thanks to a call from Joe Stiglitz while still in grad school. His perspective is as idiosyncratic as his career trajectory, seeing the world of economic policy as a series of complex tradeoffs rather than something reducible to oversimplified political slogans. Jason joined Tyler for a wide-ranging conversation on how monopolies affect investment patterns, his top three recommendations to improve American productivity, why he's skeptical of place-based development policies, what some pro-immigration arguments get wrong, why he's more concerned about companies like Facebook and Google than he is Walmart and Amazon, the merits of a human rights approach to privacy, whether the EU treats tech companies fairly, having Matt Damon as a college roommate, the future of fintech, his highest objective when teaching economics, what he learned from coauthoring a paper with someone who disagrees with him, why he's a prolific Goodreads reviewer, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 16th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Jason on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

What might the electrification of factories teach us about how quickly we'll adapt to remote work? What gives American companies an edge over their competitors on the international stage? What value do management consultants really provide? Stanford professor Nick Bloom's research studies how management practices, productivity techniques, and uncertainty shape outcomes across companies and countries. He joined Tyler for a conversation about which areas of science are making progress, the factors that have made research more expensive, why government should invest more in R&D, how lean management transformed manufacturing, how India's congested legal system inhibits economic development, the effects of technology on Scottish football hooliganism, why firms thrive in China, how weak legal systems incentivize nepotism, why he's not worried about the effects of remote work on American productivity (in the short-term), the drawbacks of elite graduate programs, how his first "academic love" shapes his work today, the benefits of working with co-authors, why he prefers periodicals and podcasts to reading books, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded July 13th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Nick on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Nathan Nunn's work history includes automotive stores, a freight company, a paint factory, a ski hill, photography, book publishing, private tutoring, and more. Having grown up in a lower-income Canadian family, he recognizes the importance of having multiple pathways to climb the socioeconomic ladder. Now, as a development economist at Harvard, his research investigates how things like history, culture and contract enforcement shape the development paths of nations. Nathan joined Tyler for a conversation about which African countries a theory of persistence would lead him to bet on, why so many Africans live in harder to settle areas, his predictions for the effects of Chinese development on East Africa, why genetic distance is a strong predictor of bilateral income differences and trade, the pleasant surprises of visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, the role of the Catholic Church in the development of the West, why Canadian football is underrated, the unique commutes of Ottawans, the lack of Canadian brands, what's missing from most economic graduate programs, the benefits of studying economics outside of the United States, how the plow shaped gender roles in the societies that used it, the cultural values behind South Korea's success, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded July 10th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Nathan on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Explaining 10 percent of something is not usually cause for celebration. And yet when it comes to economic development, where so many factors are in play—institutions, culture, geography, to name a few—it's impressive indeed. And that's just what Melissa Dell has accomplished in her pathbreaking work. From the impact of the Mexican Revolution to the different development paths of northern and southern Vietnam, her work exploits what are often accidents of history—whether a Peruvian village was just inside or outside a mine's catchment area, for example—to explain persistent differences in outcomes. Her work has earned numerous plaudits, including the John Bates Clark Medal earlier this year. On the 100th episode of Conversations with Tyler, Melissa joined Tyler to discuss what's behind Vietnam's economic performance, why persistence isn't predictive, the benefits and drawbacks of state capacity, the differing economic legacies of forced labor in Indonesia and Peru, whether people like her should still be called a Rhodes scholar, if SATs are useful, the joys of long-distance running, why higher temps are bad for economic growth, how her grandmother cultivated her curiosity, her next project looking to unlock huge historical datasets, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded July 30th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Melissa on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

For Annie Duke, the poker table is a perfect laboratory to study human decision-making — including her own. "It really exposes you to the way that you're thinking," she says, "how hard it is to avoid decision traps, even when you're perfectly well aware that those decision traps exist. And how easy it is for like your mind to slip into those traps." She's spent a lot of time studying human cognition at the poker table and off it — her best-known academic article is about psycholinguistics and her forthcoming book is titled How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices. Annie joined Tyler to explore how payoffs aren't always monetary, the benefits and costs of probabilistic thinking, the "magical thinking" behind why people buy fire insurance but usually don't get prenups, the psychology behind betting on shark migrations, how her most famous linguistics paper took on Steven Pinker, how public policy would change if only the top 500 poker players voted, why she wasn't surprised to lose Celebrity Apprentice to Joan Rivers, whether Trump has a tell, the number one trait of top poker players, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded June 24th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Annie on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Long before becoming a legal scholar focused on police reform, Rachel Harmon studied engineering at MIT and graduate philosophy at LSE. "You could call it a random walk," she says, "or you could say that I'm really interested in the structure of things." But despite her experience and training, even she can't identify a single point of leverage that can radically reform the complicated system of policing in America. "We have been struggling with balancing the harms and benefits of policing since we started contemporary departments, so I don't think that we're going to suddenly fix this by flipping one lever." She joined Tyler to discuss the best ideas for improving policing, including why good data on policing is so hard to come by, why body cams are not a panacea, the benefits and costs of consolidating police departments, why more female cops won't necessarily reduce the use of force, how federal programs can sometimes misfire, where changing police selection criteria would and wouldn't help, whether some policing could be replaced by social workers, the sobering frequency of sexual assaults by police, how a national accreditation system might improve police conduct, what reformers can learn from Camden and elsewhere, and more. They close by discussing the future of law schools, what she learned clerking under Guido Calabresi and Stephen Breyer, why she's drawn to kickboxing and triathlons, and what two things she looks for in a young legal scholar. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded June 8th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Rachel on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Ashley Mears is a former fashion model turned academic sociologist, and her book Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit is one of Tyler's favorites of the year. The book, the result of eighteen months of field research, describes how young women exchange "bodily capital" for free drinks and access to glamorous events, boosting the status of the big-spending men they accompany. Ashley joined Tyler to discuss her book and experience as a model, including the economics of bottle service, which kinds of men seek the club experience (and which can't get in), why Tyler is right to be suspicious of restaurants filled with beautiful women, why club music is so loud, the surprising reason party girls don't want to be paid, what it's like to be scouted, why fashion models don't smile, the truths contained in Zoolander, how her own beauty and glamour have influenced her academic career, how Barbara Ehrenreich inspired her work, her unique tip for staying focused while writing, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded May 8th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Paul Romer makes his second appearance to discuss the failings of economics, how his mass testing plan for COVID-19 would work, what aspects of epidemiology concern him, how the FDA is slowing a better response, his ideas for reopening schools and Major League Baseball, where he agrees with Weyl's test plan, why charter cities need a new name, what went wrong with Honduras, the development trajectory for sub-Saharan Africa, how he'd reform the World Bank, the underrated benefits of a culture of science, his heartening takeaway about human nature from his experience at Burning Man, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded May 13th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Paul on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Adam Tooze is best known for his highly-regarded books on the economic history of Nazi Germany, the remaking of the global economic and political order starting in World War I, and his account of how the economic effects of the 2008 financial crisis rippled across the globe for a decade to follow. Recently, he's become an influential voice on Twitter documenting the pandemic-induced strain on the world's financial systems. Adam joined Tyler to discuss the historically unusual decision to have a high-cost lockdown during a pandemic, why he believes in a swoosh-shaped recovery, portents of financial crises in China and the West, which emerging economies are currently most at risk, what Keynes got wrong about the Treaty of Versailles, why the Weimar Republic failed, whether Hitler was a Keynesian, the political and economic prospects of various EU members, his trick to writing a lot, how Twitter encourages him to read more, what he taught executives at BP, his advice for visiting Germany, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 16th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Adam on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Glen Weyl is an economist, researcher, and founder of RadicalXChange. He recently co-authored a paper that sets forth an ambitious strategy to respond to the crisis and mitigate long-term damage to the economy through a regime of testing, tracing, and supported isolation. In his estimation the benefit-cost ratio is ten to one, with costs equal to about one month of continued freeze in place. Tyler invited Glen to discuss the plan, including how it'd overcome obstacles to scaling up testing and tracing, what other countries got right and wrong in their responses, the unusual reason why he's bothered by price gouging on PPE supplies, where his plan differs with Paul Romer's, and more. They also discuss academia's responsibility to inform public discourse, how he'd apply his ideas on mechanism design to reform tenure and admissions, his unique intellectual journey from socialism to libertarianism and beyond, the common element that attracts him to both the movie Memento and Don McLean's "American Pie," what talent he looks for in young economists, the struggle to straddle the divide between academia and politics, the benefits and drawbacks of rollerblading to class, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 20th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Glen on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Accuracy is only one of the things we want from forecasters, says Philip Tetlock, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction. People also look to forecasters for ideological assurance, entertainment, and to minimize regret–such as that caused by not taking a global pandemic seriously enough. The best forecasters aren't just intelligent, but fox-like integrative thinkers capable of navigating values that are conflicting or in tension. He joined Tyler to discuss whether the world as a whole is becoming harder to predict, whether Goldman Sachs traders can beat forecasters, what inferences we can draw from analyzing the speech of politicians, the importance of interdisciplinary teams, the qualities he looks for in leaders, the reasons he's skeptical machine learning will outcompete his research team, the year he thinks the ascent of the West became inevitable, how research on counterfactuals can be applied to modern debates, why people with second cultures tend to make better forecasters, how to become more fox-like, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 26th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Philip on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

When Tyler requested an interview with novelist Emily St. John Mandel, he didn't expect that reality would have in some ways become an eerie mirror of her latest books. And Emily didn't expect that it'd be boosting sales: "Why would anybody in their right mind want to read Station Eleven during a pandemic?" she wondered to Tyler. Her reaction was pure bafflement until she found herself renting Contagion and thought about why. "There's just such a longing in times of uncertainty to see how it ends." Narratives, especially familiar ones, soothe us. It's fitting then that her latest book has been suggested as "the perfect novel for your survival bunker." She joined Tyler to discuss The Glass Hotel, including why more white-collar criminals don't flee before arrest, the Post Secret postcard that haunts her most, the best places to hide from the Russian mob, the Canadian equivalent of the "Florida Man", whether trophy wives are happy, how to slow down time, why she disagrees with Kafka on reading, the safest place to be during a global pandemic, how to get away with faking your own death, how A Canticle for Leibowitz influenced her writing, the permeability of moral borders, what surprised her about experiencing a real pandemic, how her background in contemporary dance makes her a better writer, adapting The Glass Hotel for a miniseries, her contrarian take on Frozen II, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 27th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Emily on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

For Ross Douthat, decadence isn't necessarily a moral judgement, but a technical label for a state that societies tend to enter—and one that is perhaps much more normal than the dynamism Americans have come to take for granted. In his new book, he outlines the cultural, economic, political, and demographic trends that threaten to leave us to wallow in a state of civilizational stagnation for years to come, and fuel further discontent and derangement with it. On his second appearance on Conversations with Tyler, Ross joined Tyler to discuss why he sees Kanye as a force for anti-decadence, the innovative antiquarianism of the late Sir Roger Scruton, the mediocrity of modern architecture, why it's no coincidence that Michel Houellebecq comes from France, his predictions for the future trajectory of American decadence – and what could throw us off of it, the question of men's role in modernity, why he feels Christianity must embrace a kind of futurist optimism, what he sees as the influence of the "Thielian ethos" on conservatism, the plausibility of ghosts and alien UFOs, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded February 25th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Ross on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Tyler and Russ Roberts joined forces for a special livestreamed conversation on COVID-19, including how both are adjusting to social isolation, private versus public responses to the pandemic, the challenge of reforming scrambled organization capital, the implications for Trump's reelection, appropriate fiscal and monetary responses, bailouts, innovation prizes, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 18th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Russ on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

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: John McWhorter. A prominent academic linguist, he's also highly regarded for his podcast and popular writings across countless books and articles where often displays a deep knowledge in topics beyond his academic training. John joined Tyler to discuss why he thinks that colloquial Indonesian should be the world's universal language, the barbaric circumstances that gave rise to Creole languages, the reason Mandarin won't overtake English as the lingua franca, how the Vikings shaped modern English, the racial politics of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the decline of American regional accents, why Shakespeare needs an English translation, Harold Arlen vs. Andrew Lloyd Webber, whether reparations for African-Americans is a good idea, how living in Jackson Heights shapes his worldview, what he learned from his mother and father, why good linguistics students enjoy both Russian and Chinese, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded February 17th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow John on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Why is Garett Jones willing to write books about risky topics like the case for reducing democratic accountability? Is it the iconoclastic Mason econ culture? Supportive colleagues like Tyler? Those help, but what ultimately gives Garett peace of mind is that he'll never have to go hungry because he has a broad and deep knowledge of econometric tools. It's a skillset he recommends to all research economists precisely so they can take bigger risks in their careers—or at least be well-prepared to shape policy in an unelected position at a central bank. Garett joined Tyler to discuss his book 10% Less Democracy, including why America shouldn't be run by bondholders, what single reform would most effectively achieve more limited democracy, how markets shape cognitive skills, the three important P's of the repeated prisoner's dilemma, why French cuisine is still underrated, Buchanan vs. Tullock, Larry David vs. Seinfeld, the biggest mistake in Twitter macroeconomics, the biggest challenges facing the Mormon church, what studying to be a sommelier taught him about economics, the Garett Jones vision of America, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 10th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Garett on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

To Tim Harford, mistakes are fascinating. "We often only understand how something works when it breaks," he says, explaining why there's such an emphasis on errors throughout his work. They also tend to make great stories, which can stoke the curiosity necessary to change minds. A former persuasive speaking champion, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire "for services to improving economic understanding," which he's achieved through appearances on the BBC, columns for the Financial Times, several TED Talks and books, and now his latest podcast series Cautionary Tales. Tim joined Tyler to discuss the role of popular economics in a politicized world, the puzzling polarization behind Brexit, why good feedback is necessary (and rare), the limits of fact-checking, the "tremendously British" encouragement he received from Prince Charles, playing poker with Steve Levitt, messiness in music, the underrated aspect of formal debate, whether introverts are better at public speaking, the three things he can't live without, and more. Note: This conversation was recorded in November 2019 and thus took place before the UK's general election in December, which secured Boris Johnson a Conservative majority and ensured the passage of his Brexit deal in January 2020. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded November 11th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Tim on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

In his new book, Ezra Klein argues that polarization in America has become centered on partisan political identities, which has subsumed virtually every form of identity, be it where we live, what team we root for, the church we attend, or any other. This stacked form of polarization thus carries much more weight and is activated by a wider range of conflicts than before. But is polarization really such a pressing concern? If it's all merged into one form of identity politics then aren't we just polarizing more efficiently? Over what percentage of GDP are we more polarized today versus in the past? Tyler posed these questions to Ezra and more, including thoughts on Silicon Valley's intellectual culture, his disagreement with Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory, the limits of telecommuting, how becoming a father made him less conservative, his post-kid production function, why Manhattan is overrated, the "cosmic embarrassment" of California's governance, why he loved Marriage Story, the future of the BBC and PBS, what he learned in Pakistan, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded December 27th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Ezra on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

When Reid Hoffman creates a handle for some new network or system, his usual choice is "Quixotic." At an early age, his love of tabletop games inspired him to think of life as a heroic journey, where people come together in order to accomplish lofty things. This framing also prompted him to consider the rules and systems that guide society—and how you might improve them by identifying key points of leverage. At first, he thought he'd become an academic and work with ideas as one of those Archimedean levers. But he ended up focusing on technology instead, helping to build PayPal, LinkedIn, and now many other ventures as an investor at Greylock Partners. But he still thinks ideas are important and tries to employ a "full toolset" when trying to shift systems. Reid joined Tyler to talk about all these leverage points and more, including the Silicon Valley cultural meme he most disagrees with, how Wittgenstein influenced the design of LinkedIn, mystical atheism, what it was like being on Firing Line, why he's never said anything outrageous, how he and Peter Thiel interpret The Tempest differently, the most misunderstood thing about friendship, how to improve talent certification, what's needed from science fiction, and his three new ideas for board games. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded November 2nd, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Reid on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

This bonus episode features audio from the Holberg Debate in Bergen, Norway between Tyler and Slavoj Žižek held on December 7, 2019. They discuss the reasons Slavoj (still) considers himself a Communist, why he calls The Handmaid's Tale "nostalgia for the present," what he likes about Greta Thunberg, what Marx got right about the commodification of beliefs, his concerns about ecology and surveillance in communist states like China today, the reasons academia should maintain its 'useless character,' his beginnings as a Heideggerian, why he is distrustful of liberal optimism, the "Fukuyama dilemma" we face, the importance of "empty manners," and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded December 7th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Want to support future conversations? Visit conversationswithtyler.com/donate. Long before Abhijit Banerjee won the 2019 economics Nobel with Michael Kremer and Esther Duflo, he was a fellow graduate student at Harvard with Tyler. For Tyler, Abhijit is one of the brightest economic minds he's ever met, and "a brilliant theorist who decided the future was with empirical work." But according to Abhijit, theory and practice go hand in hand: the real benefit of a randomized control trial isn't getting unbiased estimates, he says, but in testing hypotheses borne out of theory. Abhijit joined Tyler to discuss his unique approach to economics, including thoughts on premature deindustrialization, the intrinsic weakness of any charter city, where the best classical Indian music is being made today, why he prefers making Indian sweets to French sweets, the influence of English intellectual life in India, the history behind Bengali leftism, the best Indian regional cuisine, why experimental economics is underrated, the reforms he'd make to traditional graduate economics training, how his mother's passion inspires his research, how many consumer loyalty programs he's joined, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded December 2nd, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Want to support future conversations? Visit conversationswithtyler.com/donate. For this special retrospective episode, producer Jeff Holmes sat down with Tyler to discuss the past year in conversations and more, including who was most challenging guest to prep for, the most popular—and the most underrated—conversation, a test of Tyler's knowledge called "Name That Production Function," listener questions from Twitter, how Tyler has boosted his productivity in the past year, and whether his book and movie picks from 2009 still hold up. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded December 11th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Want to support future conversations? Visit conversationswithtyler.com/donate. Esther Duflo's advice to students? Spend time in the field. "It's only through this exposure that you can learn how wrong most of your intuitions are and preconceptions are," she explains. For Duflo, it was time spent in the Soviet Union on the brink of collapse. While there she saw how Jeff Sachs used the tools of economics to advise policymakers on matters of crucial importance. To her it seemed like the best job in the world—and she began to pursue it in earnest. Now it is she who is advising governments on how best to reduce poverty, having co-founded one of the leading policy research centers in the world. That work, together with that of frequent collaborators Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer, has now been honored with the Nobel Prize. She joined Tyler to discuss that work, including how coaching increases the effectiveness of cash transfers, why she cautions against falling in love with growth rates, what France gets right about child-rearing, the management philosophy behind her success building J-PAL, how she briefly became the face of an anti-Soviet revolution, the under-looked reasons behind the decline of geographic mobility in the United States, what rock climbing can teach us about being a good empirical economist, her daily musical move from Bach to Bob Dylan, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded November 12th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

What determines the economic, social, and political trajectories of nations? Why were settlers in colonies like Jamestown and Australia able to escape the extractive systems desired by their British masters, while colonial subjects in Barbados and Jamaica were not? In his latest book, Daron Acemoglu elevates the power of institutions over theories centering on human capital, culture, or geography. Institutions help strike the balance of power in the constant struggle between state and society, creating a 'narrow corridor' through which liberty and prosperity is achieved. Daron joined Tyler for a conversation about drivers of economic growth, the economic causes and effects of democratization, how Germanic tribes introduced "bottom-up politics" to the Roman empire, the institutional reasons that China's state capacity and control has increased with its wealth, his predictions for the future of liberty in his birth country of Turkey, the biggest challenges currently facing the Middle East, what we can learn from the example of Lagos, why publishing in the "top five" is overrated, tips on motivating graduate students, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 25th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Daron on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Over the past year Mark Zuckerberg has held a series of interviews themed around technology and society. This conversation with Tyler and Patrick is the last in that series, and covers why they think the study of progress is so important, including how it could affect biomedical research, the founding of new universities and foundations, building things fast, housing and healthcare affordability, the next four years of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded November 22nd, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Patrick on Twitter Follow Mark on Facebook Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.