Conversations with Tyler

Last year, Tyler asked his readers "What Is the Strongest Argument for the Existence of God?" and followed up a few days later with a post outlining why he doesn't believe in God. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat accepted the implicit challenge, responding to the second post in dialogic form and arguing that theism warrants further consideration. This in-person dialogue starts along similar lines, covering Douthat's views on religion and theology, but then moves on to more earth-bound concerns, such as his stance on cats, The Wire vs The Sopranos, why Watership Down is the best modern novel for understanding politics, eating tofu before it was cool, journalism as a trade, why he's open to weird ideas, the importance of Sam's Club Republicans, the specter of a Buterlian Jihad, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 11th, 2018 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.

Before writing a single word of his new book Artemis, Andy Weir worked out the economics of a lunar colony. Without the economics, how could the story hew to the hard sci-fi style Weir cornered the market on with The Martian? And, more importantly, how else can Tyler find out much a Cantonese meal would run him on the moon? In addition to these important questions of lunar economics, Andy and Tyler talk about the technophobic trend in science fiction, private space efforts, seasteading, cryptocurrencies, the value of a human life, the outdated Outer Space Treaty, stories based on rebellion vs. cooperation, Heinlein, Asimov, Weir's favorite episode of Star Trek, and the formula for finding someone else when stranded on a lonely planet. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded November 15th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Andy 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 thinks Douglas Irwin has just released the best history of American trade policy ever written. So for this conversation Tyler went easy on Doug, asking softball questions like: Have tariffs ever driven growth? What trade exceptions should there be for national security, or cultural reasons? In an era of low tariffs, what margins matter most for trade liberalization? Do investor arbitration panels override national sovereignty? And, what's the connection between free trade and world peace? They also discuss the revolution as America's Brexit, why NAFTA is an 'effing great' trade agreement, Jagdish Bhagwati's key influence on Doug, the protectionist bent of the Boston Tea Party, the future of the WTO, Trump, China, the Chicago School, and what's rotten in the state of New Hampshire. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 5th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Doug on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Sujatha Gidla was an untouchable in India, but moved to the United States at the age of 26 and is now the first Indian woman to be employed as a conductor on the New York City Subway. In her memoir Ants Among Elephants, she explores the antiquities of her mother, her uncles, and other members of her family against modern India's landscape. Through this book she redeemed the value of her family's memories, understanding her family's stories were not those of shame, but did reveal to the world the truth of India and its caste system. During her conversation with Tyler, they discuss the nature and persistence of caste, gender issues in India, her New York City lifestyle, religion, living in America versus living in India, Bob Dylan and Dalit music, American identity politics, the nature of Marxism, and why she left her job at the Bank of New York to become a New York City Subway conductor. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 25th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Sujatha 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 happens when a liberal and a libertarian get together? In the case of Steve Teles and Brink Lindsey, they write a book. And then Tyler separates them for a podcast interview about that book, prisoner's dilemma style. How much inequality is due to bad policy? Is executive compensation to blame? How about higher education? And what's the implicit theory of governance in Bojack Horseman? Tyler wants to know—and so do you. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded October 23rd, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Brink on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Legal writing was never Mary Roach's thing. She describes that short-lived stint as an inscrutable "bringing forth of multisyllabic words." Instead, she's forged a career by letting curiosity lead the way. The result has been a series of successful books — Grunt, Gulp, Spook, Stiff, and Bonk among them— that all reveal a specific sense of nonsensibility (and love for monosyllabic titles). She joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation covering the full range of her curiosity, including fear, acclimating to grossness, chatting with the dead, freezing one's head, why bedpans can kill you, sex robots, Freud, thinking like an astronaut, the proper way to eat a fry, and why there's a Medicare reimbursement code for maggots. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded September 27th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Mary 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 economist, President Emeritus at Harvard University, and former Treasury Secretary joins Tyler to discuss innovation in higher education, Herman Melville, the Fed, Mexico, Russia, China, the Larry Summers production function, philanthropy and Larry's table tennis adventure in the summer Jewish Olympics. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded September 6th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Larry 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 most know him first as a humor columnist, Dave Barry's career has spanned many forms of media, including books, movies, TV, and music. Driving this relentless output, says Barry, is the constant worry he'll find himself stuck in a rut — or worse — no longer funny. And do we even need professional comedians in an age where so many funny amateurs are readily available online? Tyler and Dave discuss all these topics and more, including the weirdness of Peter Pan, what makes Florida special, how it felt to teach Roger McQuinn a lick on the guitar, and why business writing is so terrible. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 21st, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Dave on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Today many YouTube channels have more influence than traditional TV shows. This fact is not lost on Dave Rubin, who started his talk show career in traditional media, but soon decided to strike out on his own. He now hosts The Rubin Report, which has half a million subscribers on YouTube and is financially backed by its fans on Patreon. But the most important indicator of influence? All but one of Tyler's law and literature class had heard of Dave before this taping. Recorded live at an event a few months ago, Dave and Tyler's conversation covers all this and more, including what Dave learned from his year abroad in Israel and his pick for the most underrated Star Wars movie. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 25th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Dave 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 surgeon, researcher, and celebrated writer joined Tyler for a conversation on why Watson will never diagnose your illness, what George Church's narcolepsy teaches us about CRISPR, what's missing in medical education, Michael Crichton's cultural influence, Knausgård versus Ferrante, indie music, and the thing that makes Gawande "bawl like a baby." Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 12th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Atul 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 US senator and former college president joined Tyler for a conversation on adolescence, adulthood, driving for Uber, loving Luther, hate-reading Rousseau, the decline of small towns, backpacking across Europe, America's peculiar fondness for age-segregation, and why his latest book contains so little sex. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded June 14th, 2017 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.

Edward Luce has a new book out about the rising crisis in Western liberalism, so naturally Tyler's first question to him dealt with James II and William of Orange. #gloriousrevolution In this bonus audio recorded at a Mercatus event last week, Tyler and Edward discuss the ideas in his book and more, including future paths of liberalism, whether the current populism is an Anglo-American phenomenon or not, Modi's India, whether Kubrick, Hitchcock, and John Lennon are overrated or underrated, and what it's like to write speeches for Larry Summers. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded June 13th, 2017 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.

Is time like a line, a stretched out accordion, buried silos, or a flat circle? We concoct many ways to think about the relationship between the present and the past, but according to Jill Lepore one constant endures: "When you're writing history, you're always using your imagination." The historian and New Yorker writer joins Tyler for a conversation on the Tea Party, Mary Pickford, Dickens in America, growing up watching TV (the horror), Steve Bannon's 19th century visage, the importance of friendship, the subversiveness of Stuart Little, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 8th, 2017 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 UK is holding a big election on June 8, so today we're bringing you some bonus audio on that topic featuring Tyler and Steve Davies of the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs. They talk about how the general election could shape the terms of Brexit, how much further the EU and even the UK will splinter, the prospects for the European left-wing, and the populism underneath it all. Note: this was recorded at event in late April shortly after May called for the snap election in June. Got it? Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 22nd, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Steve 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 high school teacher once told Raj Chetty he'd some day serve on the Federal Reserve Board. At the the time Raj thought the comment was silly, since he was busy working in the laboratory on staining techniques for electron microscopy and was set to become a biomedical scientist. About a decade later, however, and Chetty would become one of the youngest tenured economics professors at Harvard and would soon win both a John Bates Clark medal and a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. Now at Stanford, he's one of the most-cited economists in the world. Raj's conversation with Tyler spans that well-cited body of work and more, including social mobility, the value-add of kindergarten teachers, why corporations pay dividends, his love of Piano Guys, the most underrated US state, and why okra may have been the secret of his success. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded March 25th, 2017 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 chess grandmaster, political activist, and author joins Tyler for a conversation on artificial intelligence, Russia, Putin, how education must change, favorite cities for chess, the most likely challenger to Magnus Carlsen, Tolstoy v. Dostoevsky, the benefits of pressure for performance, and why we should speed up our search for new frontiers and challenges. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded April 29th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Garry 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 few months ago, Tyler asked Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, to be on the show. Patrick agreed, but only under the condition that the be the one to do the interviewing. Thus, what follows is the conversation Patrick wanted to have with Tyler, not the one you wanted to have. Happily Patrick stayed true to the spirit of Conversations with Tyler, and their dialogue covers a wide range of topics including the the benefits of diverse monocultures, the state of macroeconomics, Donald Trump, the amazing economics faculty at GMU, Peter Thiel, Brian Eno, Thomas Schelling, why Twitter is underrated, and — most pressing of all — why Marginal Revolution is so strange looking. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded January 25th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Patrick 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: JD Lasica

Journalist, author, and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell joins Tyler for a conversation on Joyce Gladwell, Caribbean identity, satire as a weapon, Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden, Harvard's under-theorized endowment, why early childhood intervention is overrated, long-distance running, and Malcolm's happy risk-averse career going from one "fur-lined rat hole to the next." Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded February 27th, 2017 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Malcolm 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 bonus episode, Editor-in-chief of Reason Katherine Mangu-Ward interviews Tyler about *The Complacent Class.* Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an answer Katherine describes as #PeakTyler. Follow Katherine on Twitter Follow Tyler on Twitter More CWT goodness: Facebook Twitter Instagram Email

Named one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of our time, Rabbi David Wolpe joins Tyler in a conversation on flawed leaders, Jewish identity in the modern world, the many portrayals of David, what's missing in rabbinical training, playing chess on the Sabbath, Srugim, Hasidic philosophy, living in Israel and of course, the durability of creation. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. 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.

Mark Miller is often called the founder of modern southwestern cuisine, but his unique anthropological approach to food has led him to explore cuisines in over 100 countries around the world. He joins Tyler for a conversation on all that he's learned along the way, including his pick for the most underrated chili pepper, palate coaching, the best food cities in Asia, Mexico, and Europe, the problems with sous-vide, mezcal versus tequila, the decline of food brands, why Michelin guide is overrated, how to do fast food well, and why the next hipster food trend should be about corn. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 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.

Author, teacher, and translator Jhumpa Lahiri joins Tyler for a conversation on identity, Rhode Island, writing as problem solving, reading across languages, the badness of book covers, Elena Ferrante, Bengali culture, the magic of Calcutta, Italian authors, Indian classical music, architectural influences, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 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.

To anthropologist Joseph Henrich, intelligence is overrated. Social learning, and its ability to influence biological evolution over time, is what really sets our species apart. He joined Tyler for a conversation on his work on cultural evolution, as well as his life among different tribes (academic and otherwise), Star Trek, big gods, small gods, China's missing industrial revolution, the merits of coconut milk, the Flynn effect, American exceptionalism, and why he wants to travel in time to 6th-century Kent. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Joe 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 centuries, China has treated its cuisine with a reverence and delight that is only just starting to emerge with Western "foodie" culture. No one understands this better than Fuchsia Dunlop, who has spent her career learning about the fantastic diversity in Chinese food, and who is one of Tyler's favorite writers on any subject. She joined Tyler over dinner at one of his favorite restaurants in DC to talk about all aspects of how to truly enjoy Chinese food, including where to visit, how to order, the few key ingredients to keep in your pantry, her favorite Chinese dishes, what Chinese chefs think about Western food, and why you should really learn to love sea cucumbers. For this conversation, Tyler was also joined by Ezra Klein, past CWT guest and editor-in-chief of Vox.com, chef and super-taster Mark Miller, journalist Megan McArdle, and Eva Summer, a graduate student from Shandong province. Their comments can be found in the Q&A near the end of the chat. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 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.

Steven Pinker has spent an entire academic career thinking deeply about language, cognition, and human nature. Driving it all, he says, is an Enlightenment belief that the world is intelligible, science can progress, and through rational inquiry we can better understand ourselves. He recently joined Tyler for a conversation not only on the power of reason, but also the economics of irrational verbs, whether violence will continue to decline, behavioral economics, existential threats, the merits of aerobic exercise, photography, group selection, Fermi's paradox, Noam Chomsky, universal grammar, free will, the Ed Sullivan show, and why people underrate the passive (or so it is thought). Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Steven on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Ezra Klein, editor-in-chief of Vox.com, joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on biases in digital media, the morality of meat-eating, how working for large organizations has changed his worldview, the psychographics of CEOs, what's missing in public discourse, the most underrated member of the Obama administration, and why you should never follow his lead on what's good culture. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. 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. Note: This podcast is also being released to listeners of The Ezra Klein Show. We encourage CWT listeners to check out his show if you haven't already. Special thanks also to Panoply for lending us production help for this podcast.

The stereotypical obituary is a formulaic recitation of facts — dry, boring, and without craft. But Margalit Fox has shown the genre can produce some of the most memorable and moving stories in journalism. Exploiting its "pure narrative arc," Fox has penned over 1,200 obituaries, covering well-known and obscure subjects with equal aplomb. In her conversation with Tyler Cowen, Fox reveals not only the process for writing an obituary, but her thoughts on life, death, storytelling, puzzle-solving, her favorite cellist, and how it came to be that an economist sang opera 86 times at the Met. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Margalit 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 Orthofer, one of the world's most prolific book reviewers, joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on — what else? — books. Read to discover why Michael believes everyone should read more fiction, how we should choose books, why American popular literature is overrated, what he thinks about authors like Herman Melville, Fyoder Dostoevsky, Goethe, J.K. Rowling, Arno Schmidt, and many others, his recommendations for the best sites for readers, why studying literature at college was such a big disappointment, how much book covers matter, and why his opinion will never be the final word. Check out the reader Q&A here and the Strand shopping video here. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. 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.

Cass Sunstein joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on judicial minimalism, Bob Dylan's best album, the metaphysics of nudging, Byatt's Possession, the ideal size of the Supreme Court, Hayek, why people should choose their own path, the benefits of a banned products store, James Joyce, and, oh yeah, Star Wars. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Cass on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Camille Paglia joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on the brilliance of Bowie, lamb vindaloo, her lifestyle of observation, why writers need real jobs, Star Wars, Harold Bloom, Amelia Earhart, Edmund Spenser, Brazil, why she is most definitely not a cultural conservative, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 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.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on morality, politics, disgust, how to maintain free speech on campus, the enriching effects of LSD, antiparsimonialism, and why economists set all the interesting variables to zero. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Jonathan on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Nate Silver joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on data, forecasting, My Bloody Valentine, the social value of gambling, Donald Trump and the presidential field, vacation advice, Supreme Court picks, the wisdom of Björk, and the most underrated statistic for finding good food. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Nate on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation on segregation, Islam, Harlem vs. LA, Earl Manigault, jazz, fighting Bruce Lee, Kareem's conservatism, dancing with Thelonious Monk, and why no one today can shoot a skyhook. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Kareem 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 investment strategist Cliff Asness discuss momentum and value investing strategies, disagreeing with Eugene Fama, Marvel vs. DC, the inscrutability of risk, high frequency trading, the economics of Ayn Rand, bubble logic, and why never to share a gym with Cirque du Soleil. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 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 and Dani Rodrik discuss premature deindustrialization, the world's trilemmas, the political economy of John le Carré, what's so special about manufacturing, Orhan Pamuk, RCTs, and why the world is second best at best. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Dani 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 the third event of this series, Tyler and Luigi Zingales discuss Italy, Donald Trump, Antonio Gramsci, Google and conglomeration, Luchino Visconti, Starbucks, and the surprisingly high productivity of Italian cafés. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 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 Cowen and Jeffrey Sachs discuss the resource curse, why Russia failed and Poland succeeded, charter cities, Sach's China optimism, JFK, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, whether Africa will be able to overcome the middle income trap, Paul Krugman, Sach's favorite novel, premature deindustrialization, and how to reform graduate economics education. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Jeff on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Peter Thiel and Tyler Cowen, both New York Times bestselling authors, are among today's top global thought leaders and influential innovators. Listen as these two engage in a serious dialogue on the ideas and policies that will shape the future of innovation and progress in the coming years and decades. Peter Thiel is among the most impressive innovators of the past two decades. As co-founder of Paypal and seed-funder for Facebook, Thiel has been instrumental in the conception and growth of some of today's most entrepreneurial and innovative companies. In his latest best-selling book, Zero to One, Thiel explains how to build a better future by capitalizing on innovation. A staunch optimist, he maintains that progress can be achieved anywhere the human mind is able to think creatively. Thiel describes how entrepreneurial thinking leads to innovation, which builds something new and moves the mark from zero to one. Note: Due to a technical malfunction, the audio quality briefly drops from 11:15 - 13:30. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Peter on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.