The Joe Walker Podcast

Latest Episodes:

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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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