Andrew Leigh — Inequality and Egalitarianism [Australian Policy Series] Feb 14, 2025

This episode is the second of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Sydney on January 29, 2025.

What is the relationship between economic equality and egalitarianism in the cultural sense? Where does Australia's egalitarian tradition come from? Are we too egalitarian? Is economic inequality increasing? What's been driving it? And does it even matter?

We sit down with Andrew Leigh to discuss these questions and more.

Dr. Andrew Leigh MP is Australia’s Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, and Treasury, and Assistant Minister for Employment. An economist by training, he was previously Professor of Economics at the Australian National University and earned his PhD from Harvard. The main theme of his academic research has been inequality.

If you’d like to attend an upcoming salon, you can get tickets here: https://josephnoelwalker.com/events/

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Abul Rizvi — Inside Immigration Policy [Australian Policy Series] Jan 31, 2025

This episode is the first of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Melbourne on January 23, 2025.

In this salon, we go deep into Australia's immigration policy with Abul Rizvi, former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration. Abul managed Australia’s migration program from 1995 to 2007 and played a crucial role in the 2001 policy changes that massively increased the intake of skilled migrants—most notably by expanding pathways for overseas students.

If you’d like to attend an upcoming salon, you can get tickets here: https://josephnoelwalker.com/events/

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Behind the Scenes of My Interview Research Process — Andy Matuschak Crashes My Crib Jan 25, 2025

This episode is a little different: I’m the one being interviewed—and my interlocutor is Andy Matuschak, an independent applied researcher focused on "tools for thought" (ways to augment human intelligence). Andy founded and led Khan Academy’s Research and Development Lab, and prior to that, he was a senior engineer at Apple where he helped build iOS. I first discovered Andy’s work in 2021, and it was a game changer for me and the podcast. We spoke on the show in 2022.

In 2024, I recorded some podcast interviews in the US, and had the pleasure of hanging out with Andy while I was in San Francisco.

In October, Andy dropped by my place in SF to go behind the scenes of my podcast research process and interview me while I prepared for a conversation with Larry Summers. This is an unvarnished, unfiltered look at my tech stack and how I prepare for my interviews. I'm very grateful to Andy for suggesting the idea and for so thoughtfully drawing out my current strategies, tactics and tools.

I support Andy's research. If you'd like to do so too, go here.

If you'd like to access my interview research notes for podcast interviews, you can support to access here.

Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTI69kKeaC4

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Eugene Fama — For Whom Is The Market Efficient? Dec 31, 2024

Eugene Fama is a 2013 Nobel laureate in economic sciences, and is widely recognised as the "father of modern finance." He is currently the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago.

Full transcript available at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/eugene-fama-156/

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Outlining My Live Events in 2025 Dec 29, 2024

To get tickets, email joe@jnwpod.com

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Richard Butler — Nuclear Diplomacy at the End of History Nov 29, 2024

Richard Butler AC is a retired Australian diplomat. He served as Australia's first Ambassador for Disarmament (1983-1988), Australian Ambassador to the United Nations (1992-1997), and Chair of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to inspect Iraq for weapons of mass destruction (1997-1999). He also served as Chair of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Earlier in his career, he was Chief of Staff to Leader of the Opposition, and former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam (1975-1977).

Butler played a crucial role in both the permanent extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995 and the adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996. His work helped establish the framework through which we still manage nuclear weapons risks today.

This is his first ever podcast interview.

Full transcript and research materials available here: https://josephnoelwalker.com/richard-butler-160/

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Larry Summers — AGI and the Next Industrial Revolution Oct 21, 2024

Larry Summers is a former US Treasury Secretary (1999-2001), Chief Economist at the World Bank (1991-1993), and Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama (2009-2010). He also served as President of Harvard University (2001-2006).

Currently, he is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University, and he sits on the board of directors at OpenAI, one of the fastest-growing companies in history.

Full transcript and video available at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/larry-summers-159/

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Nassim Taleb — Meditations on Extremistan Sep 19, 2024

Nassim Taleb is trader, researcher and essayist. He is the author of the Incerto, a multi-volume philosophical and practical meditation on uncertainty.

Full transcript available at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/nassim-taleb-158/

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Robert Boyd & Peter Richerson — How Ice Age Climate Chaos Made Humans Cultural Animals Aug 13, 2024

Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson are anthropologists based in America. Their partnership was central to the development of Dual-Inheritance Theory, a framework that applies Darwinian evolution to culture and explains how genes and culture have intertwined to shape our species.

This is their first ever joint interview.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/boyd-and-richerson/

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Lucy Turnbull — Urbanism, YIMBYism, and Solutions to Australia's Housing Crisis (Bonus Live Episode) May 30, 2024

Lucy Turnbull is an urbanist, businesswoman and philanthropist.

She was the first female Lord Mayor of Sydney, from 2003-4.

From 2015-20, she was the inaugural Chief Commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission, tasked with delivering strategic planning for the whole of metropolitan Sydney.

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Bryan Caplan — The Economics of Housing Abundance May 13, 2024

Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. A bestselling author, his books include The Case Against Education, Open Borders, and Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Deregulation.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/bryan-caplan-155

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2023 Retrospective — A Listener Interviews Me Dec 29, 2023

In this special episode, the tables are turned as I'm interviewed by a listener of the show, DJ Thornton from Sydney. We reflect on the progress of the show in 2023, what I learned from this year's guests, and what's in store for 2024.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com

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David Deutsch & Steven Pinker (First Ever Public Dialogue) — AGI, P(Doom), & The Enemies of Progress Dec 19, 2023

At a time when the Enlightenment is under attack from without and within, I bring together two of the most thoughtful defenders of progress and reason, for their first ever public dialogue.

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. I think of him as providing the strongest empirical defence of the Enlightenment (as seen in his book Enlightenment Now).

David Deutsch is a British physicist at the University of Oxford, and the father of quantum computing. I think of him as having produced the most compelling first principles defence of the Enlightenment (as seen in his book The Beginning of Infinity).

Full transcript available at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/153-deutsch-pinker-dialogue.

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Shruti Rajagopalan — On Spotting Talent, And Making Sense of Rising India Nov 28, 2023

Shruti Rajagopalan is an Indian-American economist. She leads the Indian political economy research program and Emergent Ventures India at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She also hosts the Ideas of India podcast.

Full transcript available at: jnwpod.com

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Raghuram Rajan — Debt, Monetary Policy, and Unintended Consequences Nov 01, 2023

What were the deep causes of the global financial crisis and great recession? Has unconventional monetary policy in the wake of the crisis done more harm than good? And should monetary policy target financial stability?

I discuss these questions and more with Indian economist and Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Raghuram Rajan.

Raghuram Rajan was chief economist at the IMF from 2003 to 2006, and from 2013 to 2016 he was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. As RBI Governor, he notably introduced India's inflation-targeting scheme, among many other achievements.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/151-raghuram-rajan

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Peter Singer — Moral Truths and Moral Secrets Sep 19, 2023

Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He is widely regarded as the world's most influential living philosopher.

Full transcript available at: jnwpod.com

Episode recorded on 26 April 2023.

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Peter Turchin — Why Societies Fall Apart (And Why the US May Be Next) Aug 30, 2023

Peter Turchin is a complexity scientist and one of the founders of cliodynamics — a new, cross-disciplinary field that applies mathematics and big data to test historical theories.

Full transcript available at: jnwpod.com.

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Stephen Wolfram — Constructing the Computational Paradigm Aug 16, 2023

Stephen Wolfram is a physicist, computer scientist and businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, the creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha, and the author of A New Kind of Science.

Full transcript available at: jnwpod.com.

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Katalin Karikó — Forging the mRNA Revolution Aug 01, 2023

Katalin Karikó is a Hungarian-American biochemist. She is one of the inventors of mRNA technology.

Full transcript available at: thejspod.com.

Episode recorded on 15 February 2023.

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Richard Rhodes — The Making of the Atomic Bomb Jul 25, 2023

Richard Rhodes is an American historian and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

Full transcript available at: thejspod.com

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Ken Henry — An Economic Odyssey May 09, 2023

Dr Ken Henry is an Australian economist who served as Secretary of Australia's Treasury from 2001 to 2011. He was instrumental in helping Australia avoid recession during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis — Australia was the only major advanced economy to do so.

Full transcript available at: thejspod.com

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Palmer Luckey — Science (Non)fiction Apr 25, 2023

Palmer Luckey is an American tech entrepreneur and billionaire. He has founded two companies: Oculus VR (acquired by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014), and Anduril (recently valued at $8.5 billion). He has been described as the real-life Tony Stark.

Full transcript available at: www.thejspod.com

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Daniel Kahneman — Dyads, And Other Mysteries Apr 13, 2023

Daniel Kahneman is widely regarded as the most influential psychologist alive. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics (2002) for his work on judgment and decision-making under uncertainty, much of it done jointly with his late collaborator Amos Tversky. He is the author of the bestselling books Thinking, Fast and Slow and Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (written with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein).

Full transcript available at: thejspod.com

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Talent Is That Which Is Scarce — Tyler Cowen Dec 31, 2022

In the long run, talent allocation is almost everything. But as a society, we're not actually very good at it. The question of how to reliably match people with jobs they are well suited for is one of the big unsolved problems of our times.

Joe catches up with return guest Tyler Cowen to discuss the art of identifying talent. Tyler is a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the podcast Conversations with Tyler. He is also the co-author of a new book, Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World.

Full transcript available at: thejspod.com

Episode recorded: 18 May 2022.

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Intellectual Exoskeletons — Andy Matuschak Dec 23, 2022

From language and writing to the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, computers and Adobe Photoshop, our species has a history of inventing tools for augmenting our own intelligence. But what comes next?

Andy Matuschak is a developer and designer. He helped build iOS at Apple, founded and led Khan Academy's R&D lab, and now works as an independent researcher investigating 'tools for thought' — that is, technologies that can transform human cognition and creativity.

Full episode transcript available at: thejspod.com

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Rationality And Its Opposite — Steven Pinker Dec 14, 2022

How rational are we? How can a species smart enough to set foot on the moon also be prone to conspiracy theories that the moon landing was fake? Joe speaks with Steven Pinker to discuss rationality — and its opposite.

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, an elected to the National Academy of Sciences and one of Time‘s 100 Most Influential People.

Full episode transcript available at: thejspod.com

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Against Bayesianism — David Deutsch Apr 24, 2022

Bayesianism, the doctrine that it's always rational to represent our beliefs in terms of probabilities, dominates the intellectual world, from decision theory to the philosophy of science. But does it make sense to quantify our beliefs about such ineffable things as scientific theories or the future? And what separates empty prophecy from legitimate prediction?

David Deutsch is a British physicist at the University of Oxford, and is widely regarded as the father of quantum computing. He is the author of The Fabric of Reality (1997) and The Beginning of Infinity (2011).

Full episode transcript available at: thejspod.com

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The Lessons Of Afghanistan — William Dalrymple Sep 05, 2021

William Dalrymple is an acclaimed historian and writer.

Show notes available at: josephnoelwalker.com/138-afghanistan

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The Race That Stopped The Nation — Richard Holden & Steven Hamilton Aug 30, 2021

Richard Holden is Professor of Economics at UNSW. Steven Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Economics at The George Washington University.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/holden-hamilton

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Ergodicity — Ole Peters Aug 23, 2021

Ole Peters is a physicist and a Fellow at the London Mathematical Laboratory.

Show notes available at: josephnoelwalker.com/136-ergodicity

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The Tyranny Of Merit — Michael Sandel Jun 22, 2021

Michael Sandel teaches political philosophy at Harvard University, where he is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory. His course “Justice” is the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and on television and has been viewed by tens of millions of people around the world.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/michael-sandel

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The Spectre Of Havoc — Graham Allison Jun 14, 2021

Graham Allison is an American political scientist and the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government Harvard University.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/graham-allison

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A General Theory Of Catastrophe — Niall Ferguson Jun 06, 2021

Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians. He is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is the author of sixteen books, including most recently Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/niall-ferguson

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Policy In An Age Of Politics — John Hewson May 24, 2021

John Hewson is a former Australian politician and was leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 1994.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/john-hewson

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A Practical Guide To Coping With Uncertainty — John Kay May 17, 2021

John Kay is one of Britain's leading economists.

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Is Science Reaching Its Limits? — John Horgan May 10, 2021

John Horgan is a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. He was senior writer at Scientific American from 1986-1997 and is the author of the bestselling book The End of Science.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/horgan

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Marvellous Melbourne And Australia's Darkest Depression — Graeme Davison May 04, 2021

Graeme Davison is Australia's most eminent urban historian.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/graeme-davison

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A Forgotten Genius — Cheryl Misak Apr 28, 2021

Cheryl Misak is a Canadian philosopher and the author of Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/misak

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Progress And Planet — Malcolm Turnbull Apr 12, 2021

Malcolm Turnbull was the 29th Prime Minister of Australia.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/malcolm-turnbull

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The Craft Of Comedy And The Art Of A Lasting Partnership — Andy Lee Mar 28, 2021

Andy Lee is one half of iconic Australian comedy duo Hamish & Andy.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/andy-lee

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The Reign Of Keynes, Part II — Lord Robert Skidelsky Mar 22, 2021

Robert Skidelsky, FBA is a British economic historian. He is the author of a three-volume award-winning biography of British economist John Maynard Keynes.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/skidelsky

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Recollections Of A Wild Man In The Wings — Noam Chomsky Mar 17, 2021

Noam Chomsky is the father of modern linguistics and one of the most cited scholars in modern history. He is also one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world, having written more than 150 books.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/chomsky

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There Is Such A Thing As Society — Sir Paul Collier Mar 08, 2021

Sir Paul Collier is a British development economist. He is currently a professor of economics at the University of Oxford and was the Director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank between 1998 and 2003. Paul has authored numerous books, including The Bottom Billion, The Plundered Planet, and The Future of Capitalism. His latest book, co-authored with John Kay, is Greed is Dead: Politics After Individualism.

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The Reign Of Keynes, Part I — Zach Carter Feb 28, 2021

Zach Carter is a senior reporter at The Huffington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy and the Life of John Maynard Keynes.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/zach-carter

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The Doyen Of Behavioural Genetics On Untangling Nature And Nurture — Robert Plomin Feb 22, 2021

Robert Plomin is one of the world's leading behavioural geneticists. He is currently MRC Research Professor in Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

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The Republic Is In Peril — Jack A. Goldstone Feb 16, 2021

Jack A. Goldstone is an American sociologist and is widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on the subject of revolutions.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/jack-goldstone

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Hard-Earned Lessons From A Maverick Who Made It — Mark Cuban Feb 08, 2021

Mark Cuban is an American billionaire investor, entrepreneur and TV personality.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/mark-cuban

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The Wisdom Of Frank Wilczek Jan 31, 2021

Frank Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 and is considered one of the world’s most eminent theoretical physicists.

Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/frank-wilczek

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The Moral Causes And Consequences Of Economic Growth — Benjamin M. Friedman Jan 24, 2021

Benjamin M. Friedman is widely recognised as one of the world's leading macroeconomists. He is currently the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University.

Read the full transcript at: josephnoelwalker.com/ben-friedman

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The Indiana Jones Of Anthropology On The Origins Of Western Psychology — Joe Henrich Jan 18, 2021

Joe Henrich is Professor and Chair of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is the author of The Secret of Our Success and The Weirdest People in the World.

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Deaths Of Despair And The Future Of Capitalism — Angus Deaton Jan 11, 2021

Sir Angus Deaton is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and coauthor of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.

Read the full transcript at: josephnoelwalker.com/deaton

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On Ayn Rand, Cooperation, And Successful Societies - David Sloan Wilson Dec 31, 2020

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist.

Read the full transcript at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/atlashugged

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What I Learned In 2020 - John Hempton Dec 21, 2020

John Hempton is co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at Bronte Capital.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow John: Blog | Twitter
'Approaches to Studying Policy Representation', paper by David Broockman
'Indebted Demand', paper by Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and Amir Sufi

Topics discussed

Lessons from past market cycles. 4:51
Astarra-Trio. 10:43
Retail investors: Welcome to the party. 24:14
When John met Jim (Simons). 28:13
Can you predict market tops? 33:00
Are there any good reasons for believing this time really is different? 40:37
The Dunning-Kruger effect is everywhere. 52:18
A behavioural model of the coronavirus. 55:45
The illusion of the political centre. 1:10:19
How inequality may be distorting monetary policy, and vice versa. 1:23:00
SPAC attack. 1:26:03
The puzzle of Middleby. 1:31:15
Bull masturbating. 1:33:01
2020: a year of puzzles. 1:42:30

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Rational Minds Part 5: Heuristics Make Us Smart - Gerd Gigerenzer Dec 21, 2020

Gerd Gigerenzer is a German psychologist and director emeritus of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

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Rational Minds Part 4: The Blind Leading The Blind - David Hirshleifer Dec 20, 2020

David Hirshleifer is a professor of finance and currently holds the Merage chair in Business Growth at the University of California.

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Rational Minds Part 3: Rethinking Bubbles - Vernon Smith Dec 19, 2020

Vernon Smith won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. This is his second appearance on the show.

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Rational Minds Part 2: The Myth Of Tulip Mania - Anne Goldgar Dec 17, 2020

Anne Goldgar is an historian and holds the Van Hunnick Chair in European History at the University of Southern California Dornsife.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow Anne: Website | Twitter
Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden, by Anne Goldgar

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Rational Minds Part 1: A Nation Of Gamblers - Ed Glaeser Dec 15, 2020

Ed Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow Ed: Website
'A Nation Of Gamblers: Real Estate Speculation And American History', 2013 Ely Lecture by Ed Glaeser
One Hundred Years Of Land Values In Chicago, by Homer Hoyt
The Land Boomers, by Michael Cannon
'25 years of housing trends' report by Aussie Home Loans

Topics discussed

A potted history of real estate speculation in the United States. 8:51
How would Ed describe the Great Convulsion of the 2000s to an alien observer? 13:40
Why is real estate well-suited to being a speculative asset? 16:04
If speculators aren't crazy, what are they? 17:00
Was the Great Convulsion primarily driven by credit availability? 20:44
What would a good Bayesian have thought in response to the 2000s housing market in the US? 22:23
Radical uncertainty and its implications for rationality in the context of housing markets. 24:06
Are extrapolative beliefs rational? 26:22
Are housing bubbles irrational? 29:51

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The Roaring Twenties And The Birth Of Consumer Credit - Martha Olney Dec 07, 2020

Martha Olney is an economist and Teaching Professor in Berkeley's Economics Department.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow Martha: Website | Twitter
Buy Now, Pay Later: Advertising, Credit, and Consumer Durables in the 1920s, by Martha Olney
Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression, by Peter Temin
Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920 – 1940, by Roland Marchand
Traitor to his Class:The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by H. W. Brands
'The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the U.S. Mortgage Default Crisis', paper by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi

Topics discussed

How did Martha become interested in the history of consumer credit? 3:28
The birth of consumer credit. 6:54
How consumer credit companies and advertisers midwifed a change in cultural attitudes regarding borrowing. 16:41
What is the relationship between the increase in inequality and the rise in consumer credit during the 1920s? 31:34
Political elites in the Great Depression versus the Great Recession. 47:35
How did studying the 1920s prepare Martha for the Great Recession? 54:58
If private debt is capitalism's Achilles Heel, what should we do about it? 57:54

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Despair And Indignation Among The American White Working Class - Arlie Hochschild Nov 23, 2020

Arlie Hochschild is one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow Arlie: Website
Strangers In Their Own Land, by Arlie Hochschild
Power, Politics, and People, by C. Wright Mills
'Ayn Rand and Modern Politics', article by David Sloan Wilson
Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, by Anne Case & Angus Deaton

Topics discussed

Arlie's childhood spread across the world. 5:08
How did C. Wright Mills influence Arlie? 8:34
Was sociology an easy career decision for Arlie? 11:20
When did Arlie decide she needed to write Strangers In Their Own Land? 12:54
Why is the Tea Party strongest in the southern states? 16:47
Why does the Tea Party love the atheist Ayn Rand? 25:14
What are 'deep stories'? 34:55
Taking the right's needs seriously. 42:07
Trump's power as an orator. 55:04
If the liberal elite failed to understand the white working class, how did a real estate magnate from Manhattan grock them so quickly? 1:03:10
Trump won 10.1 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016. What does that say about America today? 1:04:57
How can we learn to be more empathetic? 1:06:45

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Back To The Future - Tyler Cowen Nov 04, 2020

Tyler Cowen is an economist and public intellectual par excellence.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Tyler: Website | Twitter | Podcast | Blog
•Stubborn Attachments, by Tyler Cowen
•Ideal Code, Real World, by Brad Hooker
•Utilitarianism and Co-operation, by Donald Regan
•Peter Thiel interview, Conversations with Tyler
•The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen
•The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, by Benjamin Friedman
•Fully Growth, by Dietrich Vollrath
•'The Nobel Prize Isn't What It Used To Be', Bloomberg article by Tyler Cowen
•'Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2020'
•Superintelligence, by Nick Bostrom
•A Tract on Monetary Reform, by John Maynard Keynes
•Indian Currency and Finance, by John Maynard Keynes
•Individualism and Economic Order, by Friedrich Hayek
•The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert Gordon
Topics discussed
•If God is dead, life is absurd and there are no rules, why shouldn't we just commit suicide?
•Why should we care about the distant future?
•Does rule utilitarianism collapse into act utilitarianism?
•How can we make decisions at all without succumbing to moral paralysis and total uncertainty?
•Why isn't the epistemic critique fatal to consequentialism?
•Why didn't Tyler donate the proceeds of Stubborn Attachments to an effective charity?
•What is the Great Stagnation?
•Why was 1973 the breakpoint in western productivity growth?
•Is the Great Stagnation overdetermined?
•What metric would Tyler look at to determine whether the Great Stagnation had ended?
•When did Tyler first become cognisant of the...

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A Labor Intellectual's Plan To Rebraid Our Frayed Social Fabric - Andrew Leigh Oct 19, 2020

Dr Andrew Leigh MP is an economist and Federal Labor parliamentarian.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Andrew: Website | Twitter
•Reconnected, by Andrew Leigh and Nick Terrell
•Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
•Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam
•Disconnected, by Andrew Leigh
Topics discussed
•What has Andrew's experience of the pandemic been like? 7:54
•Andrew's vision for Australian society. 9:40
•What was it like to work under Robert Putnam? 12:27
•What are some of the big lessons Andrew learned from Putnam? 15:00
•What is Andrew's research system? 17:43
•What is 'social capital'? 18:12
•What is the story of the decline of social capital in Australia? 19:24
•Pushing back on the idea of social capital. 21:17
•Andrew's favourite examples of social entrepreneurship in Australia. 29:00
•Has the net effect of the digital world been to connect or disconnect us? 31:38
•Why are some organisations better at building social capital than others? 35:07
•How does Andrew think about religion? 36:40
•How can we increase social capital by using systems or design thinking? 41:37
•What impactful community organisation is no one building? 44:05

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Frauds And Visionaries - Bethany McLean Oct 12, 2020

Bethany McLean is an investigative journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Bethany: Website | Twitter
•The Smartest Guys in the Room, by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
•'Is Enron Overpriced?', Bethany's March 5, 2001, article for Fortune
•'What Caused Enron?: A Capsule Social and Economic History of the 1990's', article by John Coffee
•Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou
•The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse, by Marriane Jennings
•Spy The Lie, by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd and Don Tennant
•Saudi America, by Bethany McLean
•The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis
Topics discussed
•How did Bethany become a journalist? 4:13
•How did Enron come to be Enron? 6:30
•How did Bethany see through Enron when most others were beguiled by it? 8:33
•What was the reaction to Bethany's original article expressing skepticism about Enron? 11:35
•Why was Enron an example of 'legal fraud'? 13:34
•How to spot the "dogs" dressed up as "ducks". 16:20
•What were the ultimate causes of Enron's collapse? 19:43
•How did so many smart people at Enron become so corrupted? 30:06
•Bethany's book recommendations. 32:42
•The fine line between frauds and visionaries. 34:56
•Self-deception. 41:56
•If Elizabeth Holmes succeeded, would the end have justified her means? 45:23
•Elon Musk. 46:54
•The truth about fracking. 55:14
•How does Bethany stay organised as a journalist? 57:17
•How does Bethany put questions to her sources? 58:36
•Balancing accuracy with narrative flair. 59:35
•Which factors help Bethany decide which facts to include in a story and which to omit from it? 1:05:40
•How to construct an effective narrative. 1:11:46
•What business model could scale up investigative journalism? 1:17:54
•How does democracy survive the eroding of journalism's traditional business model? 1:24:04

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The Rise And Fall Of Monetary Policy - Ian Macfarlane Oct 04, 2020

Ian Macfarlane was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1996 to 2006.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Ian: Website
•The Deficit Myth, by Stephanie Kelton
•Macroeconomics, by William Mitchell, L. Randall Ray and Martin Watts
•'Indebted Demand', paper by Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and Amir Sufi
Topics discussed
•Monetary policy. 4:44
•Modern Monetary Theory. 42:07
•Secular Stagnation and Indebted Demand. 1:11:10

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An Ode To The Uncorrelated Thinker - Eric Weinstein Sep 28, 2020

Eric Weinstein is a mathematician and the Managing Director of Thiel Capital.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Eric: Website | Twitter
•The Three Languages of Politics, by Arnold Kling
•'Opinions and Social Pressure', paper by Solomon Asch

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Housing Bubble Week Epilogue: Not All Bubbles Are Created Equal - Vernon Smith Sep 27, 2020

Vernon Smith won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. Show notes Selected links •Follow Vernon: Website •Rethinking Housing Bubbles, by Vernon Smith and Steven Gjerstad •'Debt Deflation: Theory and Evidence', address by Mervyn King •'Is the 2007 US Sub-Prime Financial Crisis So Different? An International •Historical Comparison', paper by Rogoff and Reinhart •'Global Household Leverage, House Prices, and Consumption', FRBSF Economic Letter by Reuven Glick and Kevin Lansing •'Dealing With Household Debt', chapter by the IMF •'The great mortgaging: housing finance, crises and business cycles', paper by Jorda, Schularick and Taylor •'Leveraged bubbles', paper by Jorda, Schularick and Taylor •'Housing and the Economy', 2019 speech by Guy Debelle •'Bubbles, Crashes, and Endogenous Expectations in Experimental Spot Asset Markets', paper by Vernon Smith, Gerry Suchanek and Arlington Williams •A Life of Experimental Economics, Volume I, by Vernon Smith •The example scenario of pessimists and optimists buying 100 identical houses is from House of Debt, by Amir Sufi and Atif Mian •'The Leverage Cycle', paper by John Geanakoplos •'Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment', paper by Brad Barber and Terry Odean •The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki •'The Clinton Housing Bubble', WSJ article by Vernon Smith •''We're heartbroken': home in same family for 93 years passes in', 2018 The Daily Telegraph article •'Why are we so worried about household debt?',

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The Meaning Of Human Existence, And The Search For Alien Life - Avi Loeb Sep 23, 2020

Avi Loeb is Chair of Harvard's Astronomy Department.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Avi: Website
•The Myth Of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
•The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn
•'The End of Spacetime', public lecture by Nima Arkani-Hamed
•Rendezvouz With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
•'Glowing Auras and "Black Money": The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program', NYT article (16/12/17)
•'2 Navy Airmen and an Object That "Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen", NYT article (16/12/17)
Topics discussed
•Avi's childhood growing up on a farm in Israel, and journey into academia. 5:16
•Avi's romance with philosophy, Satre, and Camus. 10:11
•When in their careers should scientists court risk? 15:24
•Albert Camus and The Myth Of Sisyphus. 21:10
•How does alien intelligence change the meaning of human existence? 24:50
•If there was no other intelligent life in the universe, would that make a god more likely? 34:51
•How far off is technology for 3D printing of...humans? 40:49
•What are the a priori odds of other intelligent life in the universe -- and how do we calculate them? 42:49
•Why is it so quiet out there? 47:25
•Space archaeology. 52:33
•Is space-time a doomed concept? 1:04:14
•How do we verify what happens beyond the event horizon of a black hole? 1:12:08
•The multiverse: bullshit or not? 1:17:25
•What could spacefaring aliens teach us about physics? 1:30:00
•'Oumuamua -- a possible interstellar spacecraft lurking in our solar system. 1:31:45
•The Pentagon UFO releases. 1:43:47
•Hostile aliens. 1:46:00
•The advantages of generalism. 1:54:43
•The meaning of life (42). 2:01:21

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Of Viruses And Vaccines - Peter Doherty Sep 20, 2020

Peter Doherty is an immunologist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Peter: Website | Twitter
•'I'm 79, I won the Nobel Prize and I don't give a s---', AFR profile of Peter Doherty
•Pandemics: What Everyone Needs To Know, by Peter Doherty
•The (in)famous Imperial College paper
Topics discussed
•Has Peter always not given a shit? 7:32
•Peter's odd high school experience. 9:00
•How the media report on science. 12:30
•What is the difference between a virus and a bacterium? 15:08
•How does a new coronavirus come into existence? 17:47
•What is Peter's area of expertise and what does he know about pandemics? 22:57
•What has the coronavirus pandemic taught us about the usefulness of epidemiological models? 25:20
•The politicization of lockdowns. 35:57
•The origins of America and Australia's cultural differences. 47:33
•Social media and political polarisation. 57:05
•In weathering the pandemic relatively well, was Australia lucky or were the epidemiological models too pessimistic? 59:56
•Can we just lockdown the vulnerable segment of the population, rather than the whole population? 1:03:52
•Is Peter optimistic about keeping a lid on the virus until a vaccine arrives? 1:08:25
•What do governments need to learn from the pandemic to be better prepared for the next one? 1:16:00

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The Housing Supply Myth - Cameron Murray & Ian Mulheirn Aug 13, 2020

Cameron Murray is a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney's Henry Halloran Trust. Ian Mulheirn is Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Tony Blair Institute.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Cameron Murray: Website | Twitter
•Follow Ian Mulheirn: Website | Twitter
•Tackling the UK housing crisis: is supply the answer?', 2019 report by Ian Mulheirn
•'Innovative Approaches to Reducing the Costs of Home Ownership', 2003 report by Joye and Caplin
•'The Australian Housing Supply Myth', 2019 paper by Cameron Murray
•'The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply', paper by Albert Saiz
Topics discussed
•Why isn't a lack of supply the primary cause of high house prices? 14:40
•The role of interest rates. 18:46
•The tangled web of causality behind house prices. 36:42
•Narratives in housing markets: are they exogenous shocks or post hoc rationalisations? 41:40
•Where did the housing supply narrative come from? 46:41
•How would the UK government prop up its housing market if fundamentals deteriorated? 1:04:52
•Arguments in support of the housing supply myth. 1:05:48
•What makes for an intellectually defensible forecast of house prices? 1:29:17

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Inside Humanity's Infinite Improbability Drive - Matt Ridley Aug 10, 2020

Matt Ridley is an author, journalist, biologist, and businessman. His books have sold over a million copies.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Matt Ridley: Website | Twitter
•How Innovation Works, by Matt Ridley
•The Origins of Virtue, by Matt Ridley
•Zero to One, by Peter Thiel
•Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin
•The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
•'The Use of Knowledge in Society', essay by Friedrich Hayek
•Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou
•The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen
•The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert Gordon
Topics discussed
•When did Matt first come to understand the disturbing notion of selfish gene theory? 8:55
•How did Matt, a biologist, become so interested in innovation? 16:20
•The infinite improbability drive. 20:30
•What's the difference between innovation and invention? 24:05
•What do most people (wrongly) believe about how innovation works? 25:48
•Why innovation relies on collaboration. 33:53
•Innovation is the child of freedom. But what amount or types of freedom are sufficient to underpin innovation? 40:35
•Why does innovation thrive in fragmented political systems? 46:39
•Does unfettered economic freedom tend irresistibly towards monopolies? 50:37
•Antitrust enforcement: have we been doing enough? 1:02:44
•The relationship between uncertainty and innovation. 1:05:58
•Frauds and visionaries. 1:14:20
•Uncertainty and economics. 1:15:26
•Are we in the midst of a Great Stagnation? 1:26:40
•Can we escape stagnation? 1:40:30

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Radical Uncertainty - Mervyn King Aug 08, 2020

Mervyn King was Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Mervyn King: Website
•Radical Uncertainty, by Mervyn King and John Kay
•The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, by John Maynard Keynes
•'Debt deflation: Theory and evidence', paper by Mervyn King
•The End of Alchemy, by Mervyn King
•Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, by Don Watson
•The Poverty of Historicism, by Karl Popper
•Obliquity, by John Kay
•'Truth and Probability', essay by Frank Ramsey
•Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers, by Cheryl Misak
Topics discussed
•Why did Mervyn choose to study economics at Cambridge? 11:06
•Keynes' General Theory. 17:41
•Debt-deflation. 23:58
•When Mervyn met Ben. 29:20
•Was Mervyn caught off guard by the Global Financial Crisis? 31:40
•Does stability lead to instability? 38:18
•The stability heuristic. 41:43
•What is radical uncertainty? 49:54
•How technology creates radical uncertainty. 1:04:57
•Why has the economics profession overlooked radical uncertainty -- and when did this blindspot begin? 1:13:10
•Narratives. 1:25:18
•What does it mean to be rational? 1:31:21
•Speculative bubbles. 1:40:25

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The Doyen Of Economics Podcasting On Death, Lockdown, And The Art Of Socratic Dialogue - Russ Roberts Jul 22, 2020

Russ Roberts is an economist and the host of EconTalk.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Russ Roberts: Website | Twitter
•EconTalk
•Macroeconomic Patterns and Stories, by Ed Leamer
•Fooled By Randomness, by Nassim Taleb
•Systemic Risk of Pandemic Via Novel Pathogens -- Coronavirus', paper by Joe Norman, Yaneer Bar-Yam, and Nassim Taleb
•'To philosophize is to learn how to die', essay by Montaigne
•How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, by Russ Roberts
Topics discussed
•When and how did EconTalk begin? 8:55
•Has interviewing over 750 people made Russ a better or more effective person? 13:59
•How to really understand an idea. 32:00
•What has Russ learned from Nassim Taleb? 35:43
•The Precautionary Principle. 42:03
•The lockdown dilemma. 48:38
•The Precautionary Principle again. 1:11:52
•Is Russ afraid of death? 1:18:49
•What has Russ done to improve his craft as an interviewer? 1:27:18
•Where was Russ born and what did his parents do? 1:48:21
•Why did Russ study economics? 1:49:52
•Narrative economics. 1:51:13
•Who are the most important economists for non-economists to know? 1:57:12
•How does Russ think about what he does? 2:02:31
•Vipassana meditation. 2:06:26
•When would Russ recommend economics as an undergraduate degree? 2:17:18
•Adam Smith's distinction between being loved and being lovely. 2:21:14

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The Life and Times of a Thoroughly liberal Prime Minister - Malcolm Turnbull Apr 24, 2020

Malcolm Turnbull was Australia's 29th Prime Minister.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Malcolm Turnbull: Website | Twitter
•A Bigger Picture, by Malcolm Turnbull
•Malcolm's speech at the 2010 Deakin Lectures
•Malcolm's speech at the 2010 BZE Stationary Energy Plan launch
•'Condolence on the Death of Robert Hughes', 2012 speech by Malcolm Turnbull
•Malcolm's 2015 speech challenging Tony Abbott's leadership
•The Fiery Chariot, by Lucille Iremonger
•Reflections on the Revolution in France, by Edmund Burke
•The Case for Conservatism, by Quintin Hogg
•The Reluctant Republic, by Malcolm Turnbull
•Fighting For the Republic, by Malcolm Turnbull
•Constitutional Advancement in a Frozen Continent: Essays in honour of George Winterton
•'An Alternative Republic Proposal', Anne Twomey's 2015 article in the ALJ
•Skin in the Game, by Nassim Taleb
•Antifragile, by Nassim Taleb
Topics discussed
•Which of Malcolm's speeches is he most proud of? 9:52
•Malcolm's childhood. 12:51
•Burkean Conservatism. 20:20
•How do governments know when they're reforming too quickly or too slowly? 26:11
•Resolving the core tension in the Australian Republican Movement. 42:59
•Same-sex marriage. 48:48
•The Minority Rule. 52:19
•Is the Liberal Party philosophically tenable? 59:35
•How does Malcolm assess prospective tech investments? 1:04:24
•Malcolm's intellectual shift on China. 1:07:19
•Malcolm's struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts. 1:11:42
•Antifragility. 1:15:48

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How To Put The Economy Into A Coma - Chris Edmond & Steve Hamilton Apr 01, 2020

Chris Edmond and Steve Hamilton are Australian economists.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Chris Edmond: Website | Twitter
•Follow Steve Hamilton: Website | Twitter
•'A Rush Back to 'Normal' Would Be the Blunder of the Century', WIRED's interview of Larry Summers
•'Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand', Imperial College London paper by Neil Ferguson et al
•'How the recession we have to have can be sharp but short', The Australian Financial Review article by Steve Hamilton and Stan Veuger
•'Coronavirus: payroll subsidy will save the economy', The Australian article by Chris Edmond and Bruce Preston
Topics discussed
•What happens to an economy when non-essential workers are told to stay home? 9:22
•The false choice between health and economic outcomes. 20:53
•How long do lockdowns need to last? 36:39
•Are Australia's lockdowns hard enough? 43:46
•What does pandemic-appropriate fiscal stimulus look like? 46:29
•Is this the end of surplus fetishism? 59:45
•JobKeeper. 1:06:44
•Will Australia see further rounds of stimulus? 1:19:21
•Is the financial economy healthy? 1:22:33
•Which one piece of advice would Steve and Chris give to the Australian Government? 1:26:26

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The Price Of Uncertainty - Chris Joye Mar 26, 2020

Chris Joye is Founder and Co-Chief Investments Officer at Coolabah Capital Investments. He is also a Contributing Editor with The...

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How An Italian Town Conquered Coronavirus - Andrea Crisanti Mar 25, 2020

Andrea Crisanti is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Padua. He is part of the research team that eradicated coronavirus in Vo, a town in northern Italy.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Andrea: Website
•Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus dashboard
•Data on testing by country
•Marc Lipsitch's 18 March STAT article
Topics discussed
•The Italian crisis. 8:22
•Why has Lombardy become an epicentre of coronavirus? 9:50
•How does the situation in Veneto compare to that in Lombardy? 11:06
•How did Andrea become involved in the Vo experiment? 11:51
•What is the process for identifying infection people in Veneto? 17:20
•What is the R0 for asymptomatic people? 20:25
•What is the strategy employed at Vo? 24:32
•Is there still time for Australia and the US to implement the strategy used at Vo? 25:21
•Does the Vo strategy need to be implemented in full in order to be successful? 28:05
•Why have some Asian countries been better at controlling the virus than Western countries? 28:47
•Is the Vo strategy scalable? 29:43
•How should we think about the prospects of future waves of the virus? 30:34

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A (New) Darwinian Left - Peter Singer (Live in Melbourne) Mar 18, 2020

Peter Singer is the world's most influential living philosopher.

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In The Foothills Of A Pandemic - Yaneer Bar-Yam Mar 09, 2020

Yaneer Bar-Yam is a physicist and the founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Yaneer: Website | Twitter
•Endcoronavirus.org
•Dynamics of Complex Systems, by Yaneer Bar-Yam
•Making Things Work, by Yaneer Bar-Yam
•'Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)', research by Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie
•Powers of Ten YouTube video
•'An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications', 2019 paper by Alexander Siegenfeld and Yaneer Bar-Yam
•'The Architecture of Complexity', 1962 paper by Herbert Simon
•'Science and Complexity', 1948 paper by Warren Weaver
•'More is Different', 1972 paper by Phil Anderson
•Scale, by Geoffrey West
•Johns Hopkins University coronavirus interactive map
•'Systemic Risk of Pandemic via Novel Pathogens -- Coronavirus: Note', January 2020 note by Nassim Taleb, Yaneer Bar-Yam, and Joe Norman
•The Square And The Tower, by Niall Ferguson
•'Long-range interaction and evolutionary stability in a predator-prey system', 2006 paper by Erik Rauch and Yaneer Bar-Yam
•'Transition to Extinction', 2016 article by Yaneer Bar-Yam
•'Nonpharmaceutical Interventions Implemented by US Cities During the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic', 2007 paper by Howard Markel et al
•'Strategies for mitigating an influenza pandemic', 2006 paper by Neil Ferguson et al
•Join the fellowship of the doers: necsivolunteers@gmail.com
Topics discussed
•Yaneer's background and parents. 11:39
•Powers of Ten. 12:06
•Highlights from Yaneer's time as an MIT student. 15:29
•The role of chance in our lives. 21:28
•What is "complexity"? 25:42
•Complex systems. 30:23
•Emergence. 37:06
•Phase transitions. 44:26
•Self-organization. 49:48
•Universality. 55:12
•Applying complex systems science to the Arab Spring. 1:03:13
•Taking stock of the coronavirus epidemic. 1:12:47
•What is the current best estimate for th...

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Coronavirus, Covert Influence, And Cold War II - Kevin Rudd Feb 20, 2020

Kevin Rudd was Australia's 26th Prime Minister and is the President of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow Kevin: Website | Twitter
•Mike Pence's Hudson Institute Speech (October 4, 2018)
•'The Sources of Soviet Conduct', 1947 article by "X" (George Kennan)
•Henry Kissinger's talk at Bloomberg's New Economy Forum (November 21, 2019)
•'Chinese Communist Party Influence at Australian Universities', lecture by Clive Hamilton
•'High Tide? Populism in Power, 1990 - 2020', report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
•'Going to Extremes: Politics after Financial Crises, 1870 - 2014', paper by Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick, and Christoph Trebesch
•'The Complacent Country', article by Kevin Rudd
Topics discussed
•Wuhan. 3:56
•What has the coronavirus revealed about the limits of the CCP's competence? 4:30
•Is the CCP underreporting coronavirus figures, as it did for SARS figures in 2003? 6:57
•Are China and the US in a new cold war? 8:44
•Would a new cold war have any hidden upsides? 11:56
•Chinese influence in Australian universities. 13:51
•How should Australia deal with Chinese influence? 17:58
•Cross-cultural communication between China and the West. 23:40
•How does the Left reformulate itself in the face of electoral defeats around the world? 27:51

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The Evolution Of A Renegade - David Sloan Wilson Feb 17, 2020

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist.
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by Freelancer.com and by Blinkist. You can find the Blinkist deal exclusive to listeners of this podcast at www.blinkist.com/swagman.
Show notes
Selected links
•Follow David: Website | Twitter
•The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
•River Out Of Eden, by Richard Dawkins
•The Descent Of Man, by Charles Darwin
•Animal Dispersion In Relation To Social Behavior, by Vero Wynne-Edwards
•Adaptation And Natural Selection, by George C Williams
•'Reintroducing Group Selection to the Human Behavioral Sciences', 1994 paper by David Sloan Wilson & Eliot Sober
•The Meaning Of Human Existence, by E O Wilson
•'Gender and Politics Among Anthropologists in the Units of Selection Debate', 2014 survey by Yaworsky, Horowitz & Kickham
•The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson
•Sociobiology, by E O Wilson
•Governing The Commons, by Elinor Ostrom
•Animal Species And Evolution, by Ernst Mayr
•Simpson's paradox
•'The False Allure of Group Selection', Steven Pinker's Edge.org article
•'Understanding and Sharing Intentions: The Origins of Cultural Cognition', 2005 article by Mike Tomasello et al
•Dave's conversation with Jonathan Birch
•Darwin's Cathedral, by David Sloan...

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The Intellectual Wild South - Eric Weinstein Jan 30, 2020

Eric Weinstein is a mathematician and the Managing Director of Thiel Capital.

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The Silent Hero Of The Australian Economy - Ian Macfarlane Jan 15, 2020

Ian Macfarlane was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1996 to 2006. He is the author of The Search For Stability and Ten...

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The Modern Empiricist Proving Old Wisdom On Household Debt And Recession - Amir Sufi Dec 19, 2019

Amir Sufi is the Bruce Lindsay Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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How To Build A Future More Like Star Trek Than Terminator - Andrew Leigh Nov 18, 2019

Dr Andrew Leigh MP is a member of the Australian federal parliament. He is currently Labor's Shadow Assistant...

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The Untold Tale Of How One Ruthless Company Subjugated A Subcontinent - William Dalrymple Nov 04, 2019

William Dalrymple is an acclaimed historian and travel writer. He lives nine months of the year on a...

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On Radical Uncertainty, "Phantastic Objects", And Blowing Bubbles - David Tuckett Oct 16, 2019

David Tuckett is a psychoanalyst, Professor, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty at...

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Lifting The Veil On Sydney's Crime And Skulduggery - Kate McClymont Sep 30, 2019

Kate McClymont is Australia's most awarded journalist. An investigative reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald, she is famous...

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Markets And The Madness Of Crowds - Robert Shiller Sep 07, 2019

Robert J. Shiller is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and one of the 2013 recipients of...

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The Dogged Journalist Who (May Have) Pricked A Property Bubble - Adele Ferguson Aug 09, 2019

Adele Ferguson is an award-winning investigative journalist best known for her work exposing misconduct and fraud in the...

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The World According To A Maverick, Beach-Biding Stock Picker - John Hempton Jul 08, 2019

John Hempton is a renowned short seller and the Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Australian-based hedge fund...

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Xi Loves Us, Xi Loves Us Not? - Kevin Rudd Jun 14, 2019

This is an episode about a rising superpower (China) and its ruler (Xi Jinping). It's also a conversation...

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Housing Bubble Week Finale: It's The Housing Cycle, Stupid! - Ed Leamer May 23, 2019

This episode is about why housing busts cause recessions. Few understand their nexus better than Ed Leamer. Ed...

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Housing Bubble Week: Getting Things Done In Western Sydney - John Hempton May 20, 2019

The logic is inevitable: credit is as much a feature of housing bubbles as the moon is of...

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Housing Bubble Week: A Philosophy Of Bubbles - Timo Henckel May 19, 2019

Bubbles are everywhere today — or so we're told. But what are they really? I speak with behavioural...

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Housing Bubble Week: Speculation And Unchartered Waters - Chris Joye May 16, 2019

Chris Joye manages $3 billion as the Co-Chief Investment Officer at Australian fixed-income manager Coolabah Capital Investments, and...

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Housing Bubble Week: Housing Bubbles As Availability Cascades - Timur Kuran May 15, 2019

Timur Kuran is a Turkish American economist.

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Housing Bubble Week: Lessons From Amsterdam's 'Gentlemen's Canal' - Piet Eichholtz May 14, 2019

We all know that real estate is the best long-term investment for capital gains...

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Housing Bubble Week: Can We Predict Housing Bubbles? - Dean Baker May 13, 2019

I speak with Dean Baker, US economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research...

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'Housing Bubble Week' & Joe's Speech To Mensa May 12, 2019

I announce 'Housing Bubble Week' and share a speech I gave in Sydney in September 2018.

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Doing Good Better - Will MacAskill Apr 30, 2019

Will MacAskill is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Oxford.

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The Evolution Of Bret Weinstein Apr 02, 2019

Bret Weinstein came to public prominence as the professor at the centre of the 2017 Evergreen State College...

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The Three Big Lies Poisoning Young Minds - Jonathan Haidt Dec 13, 2018

This is a conversation with renowned moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

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On Recessions - Andrew Charlton Dec 06, 2018

Andrew Charlton is a Rhodes Scholar, economist, author and former prime ministerial adviser.

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Elephants In The Room - Jonathan Tepper Dec 03, 2018

Which US and Australian industries are the most concentrated? How did Standard Oil inspire the Nazis? Why are...

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When The Sky Fell In - Kevin Rudd Oct 25, 2018

Joe speaks with the 26th Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd. Kevin led Australia from December 2007 to...

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The Man Who Defied Europe - Yanis Varoufakis Jul 26, 2018

Joe speaks with former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the man who defied Europe to save Greece -...

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Where Venture Capital Meets Social Purpose - May Samali Jun 14, 2018

Critical technological and societal changes of the last century have been spearheaded by entrepreneurs and the investors who...

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A Short Story Of Everything - David Christian Jun 07, 2018

The universe is 13.8 billion years old and humans have existed for only 200,000 years. If that time...

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The Art/Science Of A High Impact Career - Rob Wiblin Jun 02, 2018

Most people want to help others with their career, but what's the best way to do that? Become...

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The Brave Cookie Monster - Brendan Eich May 29, 2018

Brendan Eich is widely regarded as a 'Father of the Web'. He is the creator of JavaScript and...

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The Legendary, Fraud-Sniffing Short Seller - Marc Cohodes May 24, 2018

For thirty-seven years, Marc Cohodes has bet big money against bad companies. Due to his success, he is...

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My Friend Richard, And Theories Of The Universe - Leonard Susskind May 17, 2018

Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch professor of Theoretical physics at Stanford University. He is widely regarded as...

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The Shape Of Probability - Harry Crane May 14, 2018

Harry Crane is a scholar who specialises in statistics and probability. He is currently a professor of statistics...

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How Peter Thiel Destroyed Gawker - Ryan Holiday May 03, 2018

In 2016, a Florida court delivered an astounding $140 million verdict against Gawker media for publishing a sex...

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