Conversations with Tyler

How do you survive seven years in solitary confinement? The gift of literacy is what saved Shaka Senghor. Reading, journaling, academic study, and writing books was a way to structure and survive an inhumane, mentally toxic environment. And after 19 years in total behind bars, he was finally able to apply that gift and create employment for himself as a writer and organizational leader upon rejoining society. Shaka joined Tyler to discuss his book Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison, what it was like to return to society not knowing the difference between the internet and a Word document, entrepreneurialism and humor in prison, the unexpected challenges formerly incarcerated people face upon release, his ideas for helping Detroit, what he connects with in Eastern philosophy, how he's celebrating the upcoming anniversary of his tenth year of freedom, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 31st, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Shaka on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Three years after her first appearance, Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop joins Tyler to celebrate the release of her latest cookbook and talk all things food and China. This time the conversation was held over a special homestyle meal at Mama Chang, the newest restaurant from Chef Peter and Lisa Chang. Together with their daughter Lydia Chang, Fuchsia selected a menu to share with Tyler and a group of friends from the DC food scene. Each dish inspired new avenues for discussion, including the trendiness of 'Chinese' cauliflower, why hot pot is overrated, what Western food China has recently perfected, first experiences with Sichuan peppercorns, whether ma la will take over the world, why Michelin inspectors underrate Chinese cuisine, what to serve a Westerner for a Chinese dessert, and much more. Joining Tyler, Fuchsia, and Lydia around the table were Chef Pichet Ong, Chef Seng Luangrath, David Hagedorn, Stefanie Gans, Rivka Friedman, Natasha Cowen, and Yana Chernyak. Special thanks to Peter, Lisa, Lydia and all the staff at Mama Chang for the wonderful meal. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 27th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Fuchsia 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 Ted Gioia, music is a form of cloud storage for preserving human culture. And the real cultural conflict, he insists, is not between "high brow" and "low brow" music, but between the innovative and the formulaic. Imitation and repetition deaden musical culture—and he should know, since he listens to 3 hours of new music per day and over 1,000 newly released recordings in a year. His latest book covers the evolution of music from its origins in hunter-gatherer societies, to ancient Greece, to jazz, to its role in modern-day political protests such as those in Hong Kong. He joined Tyler to discuss the history and industry of music, including the reasons AI will never create the perfect songs, the strange relationship between outbreaks of disease and innovation, how the shift from record companies to Silicon Valley transformed incentive structures within the industry–and why that's cause for concern, the vocal polyphony of Pygmy music, Bob Dylan's Nobel prize, why input is underrated, his advice to aspiring music writers, the unsung female innovators of music history, how the Blues anticipated the sexual revolution, what Rene Girard's mimetic theory can tell us about noisy restaurants, the reason he calls Sinatra the "Derrida of pop singing," how to cultivate an excellent music taste, and why he loves Side B of Abbey Road. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 23rd, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Ted 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 one concept most valuable for understanding the news today might be Henry Farrell's theory of weaponized interdependence. Whether it's China's influence over the NBA, the US ban of Huawei, or whether social media should be regulated on a global scale, Henry Farrell has played a key role articulating how global economic networks can enable state coercion. Tyler and Henry discuss these issues and more, including what a big tech breakup would mean for security and privacy, why political economics suggests Facebook's Oversight Board won't work, what Italy might reveal about China's future, his family connection to Joyce, his undying affection for My Bloody Valentine, why Philip K. Dick would have reveled in QAnon, why Twitter seems left-wing, and being a first generation academic blogger. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 7th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Henry on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Ben Westhoff has written some of Tyler's favorite books on everything from dive bars to the evolution of American rap music to how fentanyl is driving the opioid epidemic. So how does he get it done? Not from the outside in, by finding exotic experiences as he originally thought. Instead he found that it comes from the inside out: eating right, exercising, getting sleep, and journaling. Do those things, Ben says, and you'll be in a much better position to notice the good stories happening all around you. He joined Tyler to discuss those many stories, including the proliferation of synthetic drugs, China's role in the crisis, the merits of legalization versus decriminalization, why St. Louis is underrated, New Jersey hip-hop, how CDs changed rap, what's different about Dr. Dre, whether the entourage is efficient, the social utility of dive bars, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 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.

Markets, Alain Bertaud likes to say, are like gravity: they exist everywhere. But while urban planners are quite good at taking gravity into account, they tend to ignore market forces entirely in their designs, resulting in city development that too often fails to address the needs of their residents. Following the release of his recent book, Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities, Alain joined Tyler in New York City for a discussion of the politics affecting urban centers, his advice to Robert Moses, whether the YIMBY movement can win, why he loves messy cities, what he got wrong about Shenzhen, why the Moscow subway is so wonderful, whether cities can move, favorite movies about cities, the region of the world most likely to start a charter city, how to reform the World Bank, his top three NYC planning reforms, why Central Park is the perfect size, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 9th, 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.

A former war correspondent and UN ambassador, Samantha Power has had her share of tough assignments. But writing a memoir about it all is also a daunting prospect. The format itself is a challenge: how do you convince the reader you're worth spending time with? How do you paint a relatable portrait without oversharing and losing your dignity? For Samantha the answer was settling upon a purpose for her memoir and ruthlessly cutting out everything not in service of that. Tyler and Samantha discuss that purpose and more, including what she learned as an Irish immigrant, the personality traits of good diplomats (and war correspondents), relations with China, why democracy is so rare in the Middle East, the truth about Richard Holbrooke, what factors mitigate against humanitarian intervention, her favorite memoir, how to get NATO members to spend more on defense, and whether baseball games are too long. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded July 30th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Samantha 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 graduate student, Hollis Robbins helped Henry Louis Gates, Jr. unravel a mystery about the provenance of a mid-19th century book. Robbins helped date the book by discovering allusions to popular literature of that period — her focus at the time. The realization that this perspective would bring valuable insight to other 19th century African American literature prompted her to make that her specialty. Now a dean at Sonoma Sate University, Robbins joined Tyler to discuss 19th-century life and literature and more, including why the 1840s were a turning point in US history, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Calvinism, whether 12 Years a Slave and Django Unchained are appropriate portraits of slavery, the best argument for reparations, how prepaid postage changed America, the second best Herman Melville book, why Ayn Rand and Margaret Mitchell are ignored by English departments, growing up the daughter of a tech entrepreneur, and why teachers should be like quarterbacks. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 21st, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Hollis 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 sort of country would compel you to flee it, draw you back ten years later, then force you away yet again after two decades? M. Gessen knows the answer all too well, having dedicated their career to writing and reporting about Russian society from both within and outside their native country. A true polymath, Gessen's wide-ranging books and articles cover mathematics, history, human rights, counterterrorism, and much more. They joined Tyler in New York City to answer his many questions about Russia: why was Soviet mathematics so good? What was it like meeting with Putin? Why is Russian friendship so intense? Are Russian women as strong as the stereotype suggests — and why do they all have the same few names? Is Russia more hostile to LGBT rights than other autocracies? Why did Garry Kasparov fail to make a dent in Russian politics? What did The Americans get right that Chernobyl missed? And what's a good place to eat Russian food in Manhattan? Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 19th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow M. Gessen on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Born to a Ghanaian father and British mother, Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up splitting time between both countries — and lecturing in many more — before eventually settling in America, where he now teaches philosophy at New York University. This, along with a family scattered across half-a-dozen countries, establishes him as a true cosmopolitan, a label Appiah readily accepts. Yet he insists it is nonetheless possible to be a cosmopolitan patriot, rooted in a place, while having obligations and interests that transcend one's national identity. He joins Tyler to discuss this worldly perspective and more, including whether Africa will secularize, Ghanian fallibilism, teaching Jodie Foster, whether museums should repatriate collections, Karl Popper, Lee Kuan Yew, which country has the best jollof rice, the value of writing an ethical advice column, E.T. Mensah, Paul Simon, the experience of reading 173 novels to judge the Man Booker prize, and what he's learned farming sheep in New Jersey. We're coming to New York City! Join us for a live podcast recording with Alain Bertaud on September 9th. To learn more and register for the event, click here. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 12th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Kwame on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

If you want to speculate on the development of tech, no one has a better brain to pick than Neal Stephenson. Across more than a dozen books, he's created vast story worlds driven by futuristic technologies that have both prophesied and even provoked real-world progress in crypto, social networks, and the creation of the web itself. Though Stephenson insists he's more often wrong than right, his technical sharpness has even led to a half-joking suggestion that he might be Satoshi Nakamoto, the shadowy creator of bitcoin. His latest novel, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, involves a more literal sort of brain-picking, exploring what might happen when digitized brains can find a second existence in a virtual afterlife. So what's the implicit theology of a simulated world? Might we be living in one, and does it even matter? Stephenson joins Tyler to discuss the book and more, including the future of physical surveillance, how clothing will evolve, the kind of freedom you could expect on a Mars colony, whether today's media fragmentation is trending us towards dystopia, why the Apollo moon landings were communism's greatest triumph, whether we're in a permanent secular innovation starvation, Leibniz as a philosopher, Dickens and Heinlein as writers, and what storytelling has to do with giving good driving directions. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 14th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Neal on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Going back and forth between Canada and Japan during his childhood sparked Eric Kaufmann's interest in the question of identity. As a foreigner in an international school, he encountered young individuals from at least 60 other countries, and this made him think more about national identity and how people affiliate and interact with one another. Now as an academic, he explores how demographic changes — most notably caused by ethnic migration and assimilation — are the key to understanding Brexit, Trump, and pretty much every major issue du jour. Kauffman's latest book Whiteshift, which examines how declining white ethnic majorities will respond to these changes, is on Tyler's list as one of the best books of the year. The two discuss the book and more, including Orangeism in Northern Ireland, Switzerland's secret for stability, what Tocqueville got most wrong about America, predictions on Brexit's final form, why Portugal seems immune to populism, how Notre Dame should be rebuilt, whether the Amish — or Mormons — will take over the world, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded May 28th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Eric 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 became the Adam Smith of Googlenomics, Hal Varian spent decades as an academic economist, writing influential papers, a popular book about the information economy, and several textbooks that are still taught today. So how has his nearly twenty years in the business world affected what he'd write and teach now? Is learning Shephard's lemma really that important anymore? Tyler asks Hal these questions and more: why aren't there more second-priced auctions — or prediction markets? How have the economics of sales changed with the internet? In what ways did his hiring criteria change between academia and business? What could we learn from the sack of Rome? When should economists avoid looking at the literature? How are we always eking out victory in the war on spam? And what are people least likely to understand about Google? Fear not — Hal has an answer for it all. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded May 10th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Hal 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 are the virtues of forgiveness? Are we subject to being manipulated by data? Why do people struggle with prayer? What really motivates us? How has the volunteer army system changed the incentives for war? These are just some of the questions that keep Russ Roberts going as he constantly analyzes the world and revisits his own biases through thirteen years of conversations on EconTalk. Russ made his way to the Mercatus studio to talk with Tyler about these ideas and more. The pair examines where classical liberalism has gone wrong, if dropping out of college is overrated, and what people are missing from the Bible. Tyler questions Russ on Hayek, behavioral economics, and his favorite EconTalk conversation. Ever the host, Russ also throws in a couple questions to Tyler. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded May 7th, 2019 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.

Ezekiel Emanuel is a reflection of his upbringing: a doctor for a father who loved to travel, a mother interested in policy and community activism, and all the competition and friendship that comes with growing up closely with two brothers. Put those together and you wouldn't be surprised that the result is someone who has worked at both the highest levels of, medicine, policy and academia — though the intense interest in jam might surprise you. Do we overrate the importance of doctors? What's the importance of IQ versus EQ in the practice of medicine? What is the prospect for venture capital in biotech? How should medical training be changed? Why does he think the conventional wisdom about a problem tends to be wrong? Would immortality be boring? What would happen if we let parents genetically engineer their kids? Tyler questions Emanuel on these topics and more, including the smartest thing his parents did while raising him, whether we have right to medical self-defense, healthcare in low- versus high-trust institutions, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 19th, 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 is Karl Ove Knausgård's struggle, exactly? The answer is simple: achieving total freedom in his writing. "It's a space where I can be free in every sense, where I can say whatever, go wherever I want to. And for me, literature is almost the only place you could think that that is a possibility." Knausgård's literary freedom paves the way for this conversation with Tyler, which starts with a discussion of mimesis and ends with an explanation of why we live in the world of Munch's The Scream. Along the way there is much more, including what he learned from reading Ingmar Bergman's workbooks, the worst thing about living in London, how having children increased his productivity, whether he sees himself in a pietistic tradition, thoughts on Bible stories, angels, Knut Hamsun, Elena Ferrante, the best short story ("Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"), the best poet (Paul Celan), the best movie (Scenes from a Marriage), and what his punctual arrival says about his attachment to bourgeois values. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded March 15th, 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.

Margaret Atwood defines the Canadian sense of humor as "a bit Scottish," and in this live conversation with Tyler, she loves to let her own comedic sensibilities shine. In addition to many other thoughts about Canada — it's big after all — she and Tyler discuss Twitter, biotechnology, Biblical history, her families of patents, poetry, literature, movies, and feminism. Is it coincidence that Atwood started The Handmaid's Tale in West Berlin during 1984? Does she believe in ghosts? Is the Western commitment to free speech waning? How does she stay so productive? Why is she against picking favorites? Atwood provides insight to these questions and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 9th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Margaret on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Ed Boyden builds the tools and technologies that help researchers think about and treat the brain, an organ we still know surprisingly little about. When it comes to how our brains make decisions, form emotions, and exhibit consciousness, there is still a lot we can learn. But just as fascinating as the tools Boyden and his team build is the way in which they build them. Boyden employs a number of methods to design more useful tools, such as thinking backwards from the problem, hiring eclectic talent, practicing a particular type of meditation, waking long before dawn, or just trying the opposite of what's already been attempted. Would emulating the brain require emulating the entire body? Is consciousness fundamental to the universe, or is it actually just an illusion? Does a certain disharmony in thought lead to creativity? Why don't people feel comfortable talking about their brains? And why is it so hard for us to be empathetic with one another? Listen to this engaging and brain-stimulating conversation with Tyler to hear his perspective. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded February 5th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Ed 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 a recent Twitter thread, Emily Wilson listed some of the difficulties of translating Homer into English. Among them: "There aren't enough onomatopoeic words for very loud chaotic noises" (#2 on the list), "It's very hard to come up with enough ways to describe intense desire to act that don't connote modern psychology" (#5), and "There is no common English word of four syllables or fewer connoting 'person particularly favored by Zeus due to high social status, and by the way this is a very normal ordinary word which is not drawing any special attention to itself whatsoever, beyond generic heroizing.'" (#7). Using Twitter this way is part of her effort to explain literary translation. What do translators do all day? Why can the same sentence turn out so differently depending on the translator? Why did she get stuck translating the Iliad immediately after producing a beloved translation of the Odyssey? She and Tyler discuss these questions and more, including why Silicon Valley loves Stoicism, whether Plato made Socrates sound smarter than he was, the future of classics education, the effect of AI on translation, how to make academia more friendly to women, whether she'd choose to 'overlive', and the importance of having a big Ikea desk and a huge orange cat. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded March 7th, 2019 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.

Raghuram Rajan thinks a lot about how to empower individuals, both at the community and international level. In his new book, Rajan draws upon experience both as an academic and policymaker to break down how the three pillars of society — the state, markets, and communities — interact with each other, and argues that we're currently balancing this complex relationship wrong. How much has the U.S. actually fixed the financial system? Does India have the best food in the world? Why does China struggle to maintain a strong relationship with allies? Why are people trading close-knit communities for isolating cities? And what types of institutions are we missing in our social structure? Listen to Rajan's thorough conversation with Tyler to dive into these questions and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded February 26th, 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.

Founders aren't superheroes, says Sam Altman.They may play extreme sports, respond to emails within seconds, and start billion-dollar companies, but they are rarely the product of extraordinary circumstance. In fact, they tend to be solidly upper-middle class, reasonably smart, and with loving parents. So would Sam fund Peter Parker? What about Bruce Wayne? Tyler and Sam discuss these burning questions and more, including what's wrong with San Francisco, Napoleon's underrated skill, nuclear energy, the greatest invention of the Industrial Revolution, his rant against coworking spaces, UBI and AGI, risk and regret, optimism and beauty, and why venture capitalists don't have superpowers either. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 28th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Sam on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Jordan Peterson joins Tyler to discuss collecting Soviet propaganda, why he's so drawn to Jung, what the Exodus story can teach us about current events, his marriage and fame, what the Intellectual Dark Web gets wrong, immigration in America and Canada, his tendency towards depression, Tinder's revolutionary nature, the lessons from The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, fixing universities, the skills needed to become a good educator, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 27th, 2019 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Jordan 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: Gage Skidmore

How did religious freedom emerge — and why did it arrive so late? In their forthcoming book, fellow Mason economists Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama argue that while most focus on the role of liberal ideas in establishing religious freedom, it was instead institutional changes — and the growth of state capacity in particular — that played the decisive role. In their conversation with Tyler, Johnson and Koyama discuss the 'long road to religious freedom' and more, including the link between bad weather and Jewish persecution, why China evolved into such a large political unit, whether the Black Death proves Paul Romer wrong, scapegoating, usury prohibitions in history, and the economic impact of volcanic eruptions. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 17th, 2019 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.

As a writer of profiles, Larissa MacFarquhar is granted the privilege of listening to, learning from, and sharing the stories of extraordinary thinkers like Derik Parfit, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Mantel, and Paul Krugman. And she's often drawn to write about the individual thinking behind extreme altruism, dementia care, and whether to stay in a small town. Motivating her is a desire to place readers inside someone's head: to see what they see and to think how they think. In their dialogue, Larissa and Tyler discuss the thinking and thinkers behind her profiles, essays, and books, including notions of moral luck, exit vs voice, the prose of Kenneth Tynan, why altruistic heroes are mainly found in genre fiction, why she avoids describing physical appearances in her writing, the circumstances that push humans to live more extraordinary lives, what today has in common with the 1890s, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded December 17th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Larissa 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 she ever studied them as an academic, Rebecca Kukla was fascinated by cities. Growing up in the middle of Toronto, she spent her days walking the city and noticing the way people and place interact. That fascination stayed with her, and motion, embodiment, and place has become a subtle through line in both her professional philosophy and personal interests. In her conversation with Tyler, Kukla speaks about the impossibility of speaking as a woman, curse words, gender representation and "guru culture" in philosophy departments, what she learned while living in Bogota and Johannesburg, what's interesting in the works of Hegel, Foucault, and Rousseau, why boxing is good for the mind, how she finds good food, whether polyamory can scale, and much more. We're coming to San Francisco! Join us for a live podcast recording with Sam Altman on January 28th. To learn more and register for the event, click here. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded November 16th, 2018 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.

If you enjoy Conversation with Tyler, consider making a year-end donation at ConversationsWithTyler.com/donate. All gifts will support the show's production, including future live podcast recordings like this one. You might be surprised by what occupies Daniel Kahneman's thoughts. "You seem to think that I think of bias all the time," he tells Tyler. "I really don't think of bias that much." These days, noise might be the concept most on Kahneman's mind. A forthcoming book, coauthored with Cass Sunstein and "a brilliant Frenchman you haven't heard of" is about how random variability affects our decision-making. And while we've spent a lot of time studying how bias causes error in judgment, Kahneman says, we aren't thinking nearly enough about the problem of noise. In November, Kahneman joined Tyler for a live conversation about bias, noise and more, including happiness, memory, the replication crisis in psychology, advice to CEOs about improving decision-making, superforecasters, the influence of Freud, working in a second language, the value of intuition, and why he can't help you win arguments with a spouse. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded November 12th, 2018 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.

Throughout his career, Paul Romer has enjoyed sampling and sifting through an ever-growing body of knowledge. He sometimes jokingly refers to himself as a random idea generator, relying on others to filter out the bad ones so his contributions are good. Not a bad strategy, as it turns out, for starting a successful business and winning a Nobel Prize. Just before accepting that Prize, he joined Tyler for a conversation spanning one filtered set of those ideas, including the best policies for growth and innovation, his new thinking on the trilemma facing migration, how to rework higher education, general-purpose technologies, unlocking the power of reading for all kids, fixes for the English language, what economics misses about the 'inside of the head,' whether he's a Jane Jacobs or Gouverneur Morris type, what Kanban taught him about management, his recent sampling of Pierce's semiotics, Clarence White vs. Gram Parsons, his favorite Hot Tuna song, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded November 14th, 2018 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.

Is John Nye the finest polymath in the George Mason economics department? Raised in the Philippines and taught to be a well-rounded Catholic gentleman, John Nye learned the importance of a rigorous education from a young age. Indeed, according to Tyler he may very well be the best educated among his colleagues, having studied physics and literature as an undergraduate before earning a master's and PhD in economics. And his education continues, as he's now hard at work mastering his fourth language. On this episode of Conversations with Tyler, Nye explains why it took longer for the French to urbanize than the British, the origins of the myth of free-trade Britain, why Vertigo is one of the greatest movies of all time, why John Stuart Mill is overrated, raising kids in a bilingual household, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 30th, 2018 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 son of an economist, Eric Schmidt eschewed his father's profession, first studying architecture before settling on computer science and eventually earning a PhD. Now one of the most influential technology executives in the world, he still however credits his interest in network economies and platforms for a large part of his success. In this live event hosted by Village Global in San Francisco, Tyler questioned Schmidt about underused management strategies, what Google learned after interviewing one job candidate sixteen times, his opinion on early vs. late Picasso, the best reform in corporate governance, why we might see a bifurcation of the Internet, what technology will explode in the the next 10 years, the most underrated media source, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded September 21st, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Eric on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Not only is Ben Thompson's Stratechery frequently mentioned on MR, but such is Tyler's fandom that the newsletter even made its way onto the reading list for one of his PhD courses. Ben's based in Taiwan, so when he recently visited DC, Tyler quickly took advantage of the chance for an in-person dialogue. In this conversation they talk about the business side of tech and more, including whether tech titans are good at PR, whether conglomerate synergies exist, Amazon's foray into health care, why anyone needs an Apple Watch or an Alexa, growing up in small-town Wisconsin, his pragmatic book-reading style, whether MBAs are overrated, the prospects for the Milwaukee Bucks, NBA rule changes, the future of the tech industries in China and India, and why Taiwanese breakfast is the best breakfast. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 15th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Ben 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 this special episode, Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours has the super-sized conversation he wants to have with Tyler about Stubborn Attachments. In addition to a deep examination of the ideas in the book, the conversation ranges far and wide across Tyler's thinking, including why we won't leave the galaxy, the unresolvable clash between the claims of culture and nature, and what Tyrone would have to say about the book, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 21st, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow 80,000 Hours 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 winning the Nobel, Paul Krugman found himself at the "end of ambition," with no more achievements left to unlock. That could be a depressing place, but Krugman avoids complacency by doing what he's always done: following his curiosity and working intensely at whatever grabs him most strongly. Tyler sat down with Krugman at his office in New York to discuss what's grabbing him at the moment, including antitrust, Supreme Court term limits, the best ways to fight inequality, why he's a YIMBY, inflation targets, congestion taxes, trade (both global and interstellar), his favorite living science fiction writer, immigration policy, how to write well for a smart audience, new directions for economic research, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 25th, 2018 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.

Political scientist Bruno Maçães has built a career out of crossing the globe teaching, advising, writing, and talking to people. His recent book, born out of a six-month journey across Eurasia, is one of Tyler's favorites. So how does it feel to face Tyler's rat-a-tat curiosity about your life's work? For Bruno, the experience was "like you are a politician under attack and your portfolio is the whole of physical and metaphysical reality." Listen to this episode to discover how well Bruno defended that expansive portfolio, including what's missing from liberalism, Obama's conceptual foreign policy mistake, what economists are most wrong about, how to fall in love with Djibouti, stagnation in Europe, the diversity of Central Asia, Hitchcock's perfect movie, China as an ever-growing global force, the book everyone under 25 should read, the creativity of Washington, D.C versus Silicon Valley, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 3rd, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Bruno on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Michele Gelfand is professor of psychology at the University of Maryland and author of the just-released Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World. In her conversation with Tyler, Michele unpacks the concept of tight and loose cultures and more, including which variable best explains tightness, the problem with norms, whether Silicon Valley has an honor culture, the importance of theory and history in guiding research, what Donald Trump gets wrong about negotiation, why MBAs underrate management, the need to develop cultural IQ, and why mentorship should last a lifetime. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded August 31st, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Michele on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Claire Lehmann is the founding editor of Quillette, an online magazine dedicated to free thought and open inquiry. Founded in 2015, the magazine has already developed a large and growing readership that values Quillette's promise to treat all ideas with respect, even those that may be politically incorrect. As an Australian, Claire tells Tyler she doesn't think she could have started the magazine in America. Even in risk-loving San Fransisco, where this conversation took place, people are too afraid to speak their minds. "You celebrate entrepreneurs and courage in making money and that kind of thing, but there is a general timidity when it comes to expressing one's honest views about things," she tells Tyler. "I find that surprising, and particularly among people who are risk-taking in all sorts of other domains." She and Tyler explore her ideas about the stifling effect of political correctness and more, including why its dominant form may come from the political right, how higher education got screwed up, strands of thought favored by the Internet and Youtube, overrated and underrated Australian cities, Aussie blokes, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded July 19th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Claire 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 Pollan has long been fascinated by nature and the ways we connect and clash with it, with decades of writing covering food, farming, cooking, and architecture. Pollan's latest fascination? Our widespread and ancient desire to use nature to change our consciousness. He joins Tyler to discuss his research and experience with psychedelics, including what kinds of people most benefit from them, what it can teach us about profundity, how it can change your personality and political views, the importance of culture in shaping the experience, the proper way to integrate it into mainstream practice, and - most importantly of all - whether it's any fun. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded July 20th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Michael on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Perhaps no one else in the world more appreciates the challenges facing a better understanding of autism than Michelle Dawson. An autistic herself, she began researching her condition after experiencing discrimination at her job. "Because I had to address these legal issues and questions," she tells Tyler, "I did actually look at the autism literature, and suddenly I had information I could really work with. Suddenly there it was, this information that I was supposed to be too stupid to work with." And so she continued reading papers - lots and lots of papers - and is now an influential researcher in her own right. For Michelle, the best way to understand autism is to think of it as atypical information processing. Autistic brains function differently, and these highly varied divergences lead to biases and misunderstanding among typical thinkers, including autism researchers. In her conversation with Tyler, she outlines the current thinking on autism, including her ideas about cognitive versatility and optionality, hyperlexia and other autistic strengths, why different tests yield wildly different measures of IQ among autistics, her 'massive bias' against segregating autistics, how autistic memory is different, why sometimes a triangle is just a freaking triangle, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded July 9th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Michelle on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

At the intersection of programming, economics, cryptography, distributed systems, information theory, and math, you will find Vitalik Buterin, who has managed to synthesize insights across those fields into successful, real-world applications like Ethereum, which aims to decentralize the Internet. Tyler sat down with Vitalik to discuss the many things he's thinking about and working on, including the nascent field of cryptoeconomics, the best analogy for understanding the blockchain, his desire for more social science fiction, why belief in progress is our most useful delusion, best places to visit in time and space, how he picks up languages, why centralization's not all bad, the best ways to value crypto assets, whether P = NP, and much more. Do you have a world-changing idea like Vitalik? The Mercatus Center is launching a new fellowship and grant program called Emergent Ventures to support transformational thinkers and doers. Listen to Tyler talk about the new project on the latest Mercatus Policy Download. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 25th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Vitalik on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Travel writer Juan Pablo Villarino had visited 90 countries before making the trek to exotic Arlington, Virginia for this chat with Tyler. Amazingly enough, this recording marked his first trip to the mainland United States, which is now the 91st country in an ever-expanding list. The world's best hitchhiker talks with Tyler about the joys of connecting with people, why it's so hard to avoid stereotypes (including of hitchhikers), how stamp collecting guides his trips, the darkest secrets of people he's gotten rides from, traveling and writing books with his wife, the cause of violence in the Americas, finding the emotional heart of a journey, where he's going next, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded May 4th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Juan on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Elisa New believes anyone can have fun reading a poem. And that if you really want to have a blast, you shouldn't limit poetry to silent, solitary reading - why not sing, recite, or perform it as has been the case for most of its history? The Harvard English professor and host of Poetry in America recently sat down with Tyler to discuss poets, poems, and more, including Walt Whitman's city walks, Emily Dickinson's visual art, T.S. Eliot's privilege, Robert Frost's radicalism, Willa Cather's wisdom, poetry's new platforms, the elasticity of English, the payoffs of Puritanism, and what it was like reading poetry with Shaquille O'Neal. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded May 8th, 2018 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.

For two hours every morning, David Brooks crawls around his living room floor, organizing piles of research. Then, the piles become paragraphs, the paragraphs become columns or chapters, and the process - which he calls "writing" - is complete. After that he might go out and see some people. A lunch, say, with his friend Tyler. And the two will discuss the things they're thinking, writing, and learning about. And David will feel rejuvenated, for he is a social animal (as are we all). Then one day David will be asked by Tyler to come on his show, and perform this act publicly. To talk about his love for Bruce Springsteen, being a modern-day Whig, his "religious bisexuality," covenants vs. contracts, today's answer to the "Fallows Question," why failure is overrated, community and loneliness, the upside of being invaded by Canada, and much more. And though he will be intimidated, David will oblige, and the result is here for you to enjoy. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded May 14th, 2018 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.

Though what Taleb was really after was a discussion with Bryan Caplan (which starts at 51:50), the philosopher, mathematician, and author most recently of *Skin in the Game* also generously agreed to a conversation with Tyler. They discuss the ancient Phoenicians and Greco-Roman heritage of Lebanon, philology, genetics, the blockchain, driverless cars, the advantages of Twitter fights, how to think about religion, fancy food vs. Auntie Anne's pretzels, autodidactism, The Desert of the Tartar, why Taleb refused to give a book tour, inverse role models, why math isn't just a young man's game, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Click here for the full transcript where Bryan Caplan interviews Nassim. Recorded May 2nd, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Nassim on Twitter Follow Bryan on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

"No single paper is that good", says Bryan Caplan. To really understand a topic, you need to read the entire literature in the field. And to do the kind of scholarship Bryan's work requires, you need to cover multiple fields. Only that way can you assemble a wide variety of evidence into useful knowledge. But few scholars ever even try to reach the enlightened interdisciplinary plane. So how does he do it? Tyler explores Bryan's approach, including how to avoid the autodidact's curse, why his favorite philosopher happens to be a former classmate, what Tolstoy has that science fiction lacks, the idea trap, most useful wrong beliefs, effective altruism, Larry David, what most economics papers miss about the return to education, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 17th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Bryan 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 Balaji Srinivasan sat down for his conversation with Tyler he was the CEO of Earn.com. Today he is the CTO at Coinbase, which acquired his company in the intervening weeks (congrats Balaji!). But while his job title has changed, his passion remains the same: harnessing the power of the blockchain to launch a new generation of entrepreneurs, businesses, and entire markets. Balaji talks with Tyler about the potential of the blockchain and beyond, including how firewalls may become the new immigration policy tool, why drones are still underrated, the future of news and academia, what the Silicon Valley opener reveals about how America views the tech industry, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 2nd, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Balaji on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Is a written dialogue the best way to learn from philosopher Agnes Callard? If so, what does that say about philosophy? Is Plato's Symposium about love or mere intoxication? If good people lived forever, would they be less bored than the bad people? Should we fear death? Is parenting undertheorized? Must philosophy rely on refutation? Should we read the classics? Is Jordan Peterson's moralizing good? Should we take Socrates at his word? Is Hamlet a Cartesian? Are we all either Beethoven or Mozart people? How do we get ourselves to care about things we don't yet care about? To what should we aspire to? Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded March 22nd, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Agnes on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Martina Navratilova is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. No one has won more matches than her thanks to an astonishing 87 percent win rate in a long and dominant career. In their conversation, she and Tyler cover her illustrious tennis career, her experience defecting from Czechoslovakia and later becoming a dual citizen, the wage gap in tennis competition and commentary, gender stereotypes in sports, her work regimen and training schedule, technological progress in tennis, her need for speed, journaling and constant self-improvement, some of her most shocking realizations about American life, the best way to see East Africa, her struggle to get her children to put the dishes in the dishwasher, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded March 19th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Martina on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Chris Blattman's made his career as a development economist by finding a place he likes and finding a reason to live there. Not a bad strategy considering the impact of the work he's done in Liberia, Uganda, and most recently, Colombia. He joins Tyler to talk about what he's learned from his work there, including the efficacy of cash transfers, the spread of violence and conflict, factory jobs as a social safety net, Botswana's underappreciated growth miracle, Battlestar Galactica, standing desks, how to write papers with your spouse, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded February 8th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Chris on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

If intros aren't about introductions, then what's this here for? Is not including one a countersignal? Either way, you'll enjoy this conversation — and that says a lot about you. This episode was recorded live at Mason for econ grad students. If you're interested in learning economics with great professors like Robin and Tyler, check out these fellowships. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded February 6th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Robin on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Is Matt Levine a modern-day Horace? Like Matt, Horace has a preoccupation with wealth and the law. There's a playful humor as he segues from topic to topic. An ability to read Latin. And many of Horace's letters are about the length of a Bloomberg View column. QED, says Tyler. So Matt, the Latin teacher turned lawyer turned investment banker turned finance writer, recently joined Tyler for a conversation on Horace and more, including cryptocurrencies, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nabakov, New York, Uber, financial regulation, market volatility, M&A, whether finance is nerdy, and why panic is central to the Matt Levine production function. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. 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.

At the beginning of their conversation, Tyler dubs Charles C. Mann a tlamatini, or 'he who knows things.' And oh, the things he knows, effortlessly weaving together, history, anthropology, economics, and a half-dozen other disciplines into enthralling writing. And the latest book, *The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World*, is no exception, which Tyler calls one of the best overall frameworks for thinking about environmentalism and the limits to growth. In the course of their chat, Tyler and Charles cover pollution, why the environmental impact of beef might be overstated, what fixed factor might ultimately constrain growth (and if there is one), Jared Diamond and Bjorn Lomberg, the underrated political genius of Cortes, his top tip for appreciating Robert Frost, and why Andrew Jackson didn't have to be such a jerk. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 18th, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Charles on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.