The Joe Walker Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Judith Brett — How a Benthamite Political Culture Shaped Australia's Electoral System [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE] Mar 14, 2025

Show notes

Australia stands alone among English-speaking democracies with its compulsory, preferential voting system. But why?

This episode is the fourth instalment of my Australian policy series. It was recorded in Melbourne on March 6, 2025.

I speak with Judith Brett—Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University and author of the canonical history of Australia's electoral system, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage—about how Australia became an electoral trailblazer.

We trace the accidental adoption of near-universal manhood suffrage in the 1850s, the political calculations that led to compulsory voting and preferential voting, and why bureaucratic efficiency is so deeply woven into our electoral culture.

Along the way, we explore how Benthamite thinking and low taxation in the colonial era combined to create a voting system that is unique among English-speaking democracies.

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Richard Holden & Steven Hamilton — How Australia Gets It Done [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE] Mar 04, 2025

Show notes

This episode is the third of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Sydney on February 5, 2025.

We explore the concept of state capacity—the ability of governments to achieve their policy goals—and ask why Australia outperforms almost every other country in the world in this domain.

For the conversation, I'm joined by two of Australia's great public policy economists.

Richard Holden is professor of economics at UNSW Business School and president of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Steven Hamilton is assistant professor of economics at The George Washington University in Washington DC, and a former Australian Treasury official.

If you’d like to attend an upcoming salon, you can get tickets here.

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Andrew Leigh — Inequality and Egalitarianism [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE] Feb 14, 2025

Show notes

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 [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE] Jan 31, 2025

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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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