Conversations with Tyler
Tyler Cowen engages today’s deepest thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. New conversations every other Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chris Dixon on Blockchains, AI, and the Future of the Internet
04/23/2025
Chris Dixon on Blockchains, AI, and the Future of the Internet
Chris Dixon believes we're at a pivotal inflection point in the internet's evolution. As a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and author of Read Write Own, Chris believes the current internet, dominated by large platforms like YouTube and Spotify, has strayed far from its decentralized roots. He argues that the next era—powered by blockchain technology—can restore autonomy to creators, lower barriers for innovation, and shift economic power back to the network's edges. Tyler and Chris discuss the economics of platform dominance, how blockchains merge protocol-based social benefits with corporate-style competitive advantages, the rise of stablecoins as a viable blockchain-based application, whether Bitcoin or AI-created currencies will dominate machine-to-machine payments, why Stack Overflow could be the first of many casualties in an AI-driven web, venture capital’s vulnerability to AI disruption, whether open-source AI could preserve national sovereignty, NFTs as digital property rights system for AIs, how Kant’s synthetic a priori, Kripke’s modal logic, and Heidegger’s Dasein sneak into Dixon’s term‑sheet thinking, and much more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded March 26th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Ian Leslie on McCartney, Lennon, and the Greatest Creative Partnership of All Time
04/16/2025
Ian Leslie on McCartney, Lennon, and the Greatest Creative Partnership of All Time
It’s Beatles day! In this deep dive into one of music's most legendary partnerships, Ian Leslie and Tyler unpack the complex relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Leslie, whose book John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs examines this creative pairing, reveals how their contrasting personalities—John's intuitive, sometimes chaotic approach and Paul's methodical perfectionism—created a unique creative alchemy that neither could fully replicate after the Beatles split. They explore John's immediate songwriting brilliance versus Paul's gradual development, debate when the Beatles truly became the Beatles, dissect their best and worst covers, examine the nuances of their collaborative composition process, consider their many musical influences, challenge the sentiment in "Yesterday," evaluate unreleased tracks and post-Beatles reunions, contemplate what went wrong between John and Paul in 1969, assess their solo careers and collaborations with others, compare underrated McCartney and Lennon albums, and ultimately extract broader lessons about creative partnerships. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded March 4th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credits: Chris Floyd
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Jennifer Pahlka on Reforming Government
04/09/2025
Jennifer Pahlka on Reforming Government
Jennifer Pahlka believes America's bureaucratic dysfunction is deeply rooted in outdated processes and misaligned incentives. As the founder of Code for America and co-founder of the United States Digital Service, she has witnessed firsthand how government struggles to adapt to the digital age, often trapped in rigid procedures and disconnected from the real-world impact of its policies. Disruption is clearly needed, she says—but can it be done in a way that avoids the chaos of DOGE? Tyler and Jennifer discuss all this and more, including why Congress has become increasingly passive, how she’d go about reforming government programs, whether there should be less accountability in government, how AGI will change things, whether the US should have public-sector unions, what Singapore's effectiveness reveals about the trade-offs of technocratic governance, how AI might fundamentally transform national sovereignty, what her experience in the gaming industry taught her about reimagining systems, which American states are the best-governed, the best fictional depictions of bureaucracy, how she’d improve New York City’s governance, her current work at the Niskanen Center, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded March 4th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! The British remake of Ikiru referenced in today's podcast is: Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Sheilagh Ogilvie on Epidemics, Guilds, and the Persistence of Bad Institutions
04/02/2025
Sheilagh Ogilvie on Epidemics, Guilds, and the Persistence of Bad Institutions
Sheilagh Ogilvie has spent decades examining the institutional structures that shaped European economic history, challenging conventional wisdom about everything from guilds to marriage patterns. In her conversation with Tyler, she reveals how studying pandemic responses from the Black Death to COVID-19 provides a unique lens for understanding deeper truths about institutional effectiveness and social constraints. Tyler and Sheilagh discuss the economic impacts of historical pandemics, the "happy story" of the Black Death and why it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, the history of variolation and how entrepreneurs created vaccination franchises in 18th-century England, why local communities typically managed epidemics better than central authorities, the dastardly nature of medieval guilds, the European marriage pattern and its disputed contribution to economic growth, when sustained economic growth truly began in England, why the Dutch Republic stagnated despite its early success, whether she agrees with Greg Clark's social mobility hypothesis, her experience and conducting "anthropological fieldwork" on English social customs, the communitarian norms she encountered while living in Germany, her upcoming research project on European serfdom, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded February 27th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Ezra Klein on the Abundance Agenda
03/19/2025
Ezra Klein on the Abundance Agenda
What happens when a liberal thinker shifts his attention from polarization to economic abundance? Ezra Klein’s new book with Derek Thompson, Abundance, argues for an agenda of increased housing, infrastructure, clean energy, and innovation. But does abundance clash with polarization—or offer a way through it? In this conversation, Ezra and Tyler discuss how the abundance agenda interacts with political polarization, whether it's is an elite-driven movement, where Ezra favors NIMBYism, the geographic distribution of US cities, an abundance-driven approach to health care, what to do about fertility decline, how the U.S. federal government might prepare for AGI, whether mass layoffs in government are justified, Ezra's recommended travel destinations, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded March 7th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: (c) Lucas Foglia
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Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe
03/05/2025
Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe
Carl Zimmer is one of the finest science communicators of our time, having spent decades writing about biology, evolution, and heredity. His latest (and 16th) book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, explores something even more fundamental—how the very air around us is teeming with life, from pollen to pathogens to microbes floating miles above the Earth. He joins Tyler to discuss why it took scientists so long to accept airborne disease transmission and more, including why 19th-century doctors thought hay fever was a neurosis, why it took so long for the WHO and CDC to acknowledge COVID-19 was airborne, whether ultraviolet lamps can save us from the next pandemic, how effective masking is, the best theory on the anthrax mailings, how the U.S. military stunted aerobiology, the chance of extraterrestrial life in our solar system, what Lee Cronin’s “assembly theory” could mean for defining life itself, the use of genetic information to inform decision-making, the strangeness of the Flynn effect, what Carl learned about politics from growing up as the son of a New Jersey congressman, and much more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded January 15th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: Mistina Hanscom
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Gregory Clark on Social Mobility, Migration, and Assortative Mating (Live at Mercatus)
02/19/2025
Gregory Clark on Social Mobility, Migration, and Assortative Mating (Live at Mercatus)
How much of your life’s trajectory was set in motion centuries ago? Gregory Clark has spent decades studying social mobility, and his findings suggest that where you land in society is far more predictable than we like to think. Using historical data, surname analysis, and migration patterns, Clark argues that social mobility rates have remained largely unchanged for 300 years—even across radically different political and economic systems. He and Tyler discuss why we should care about relative mobility vs growing the size of the pie, how physical mobility does and doesn’t matter, why England was a meritocracy by 1700, how assortative mating affects economic and social progress, why India industrialized so late, a new potential explanation why Britain’s economic performance has been lukewarm since WWI, Malthusian societies then and now, whether a “hereditarian” stance favors large-scale redistribution or a free-market approach, the dynamics of assimilation within Europe and the role of negative selection in certain migrations, the challenge of accurately measuring living standards, the neighborhood-versus-family debate over what drives mobility, whether we need datasets larger than humanity itself to decode the genetics of social outcomes, and much more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded February 5th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: Chris Williams, Zoeica Images
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Ross Douthat on Why Religion Makes More Sense Than You Think
02/05/2025
Ross Douthat on Why Religion Makes More Sense Than You Think
for the Boston Listener Meet Up For Ross Douthat, phenomena like UFO sightings and the simulation hypothesis don't challenge religious belief—they demonstrate how difficult it is to escape religious questions entirely. His new book, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious makes the case for religious faith in an age of apparent disenchantment. In his third appearance on Conversations with Tyler, Ross joined Tyler to discuss what getting routed by Christopher Hitchens taught him about religious debate, why the simulation hypothesis resembles ancient Gnostic religion, what Mexican folk Catholicism reveals about spiritual intermediaries, his evolving views on papal authority in the Francis era, what UFO sightings might tell us about supernatural reality, why he's less apocalyptic than Peter Thiel about the Antichrist, and why he's publishing a fantasy novel on Substack before AI potentially transforms creative writing. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded January 16th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: Abigail Douthat ©
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Joe Boyd on the Birth of Rock, World Music, and Being There for Everything
01/22/2025
Joe Boyd on the Birth of Rock, World Music, and Being There for Everything
for the Boston Listener Meet Up Joe Boyd was there when Dylan went electric, when Pink Floyd was born, and when Paul Simon brought Graceland to the world. But far from being just another music industry insider, Boyd has spent decades exploring how the world's musical traditions connect and transform each other. His new book And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, is seventeen years in the making, and is in Tyler’s words “the most substantive, complete, thorough, and well-informed book on world music ever written.” From producing Albanian folk recordings to discovering the hidden links between Mississippi Delta blues and Indian classical music, Boyd's journey reveals how musical innovation often emerges when traditions collide. He joins Tyler to discuss why Zulu music became politically charged in South Africa, what makes Albanian choral music distinct from Bulgarian polyphony, what it was like producing Toots and the Maytals, his role in the famous "Dueling Banjos" scene in Deliverance, his work with Stanley Kubrick on A Clockwork Orange, his experiences with Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, how he shaped R.E.M.'s sound on Fables of the Reconstruction, what really happened when Dylan went electric at Newport, how the Beatles integrated Indian music, what makes the Kinshasa guitar sound impossible to replicate, and how he maintains his collection of 6,000 vinyl LPs and 30,000 CDs, what he’ll do next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded December 27th, 2024. Help keep the show ad free by today! Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Scott Sumner on Monetary Rules, Blooming Late, and the Death of Cinema
01/08/2025
Scott Sumner on Monetary Rules, Blooming Late, and the Death of Cinema
Scott Sumner didn't follow the typical path to economic influence. He nearly lost his teaching job before tenure, did his best research after most academics slow down, and found his largest audience through blogging in his 50s and 60s, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Yet this unconventional journey led him to become one of the most influential monetary thinkers of the past two decades. Scott joins Tyler to discuss what reading Depression-era newspapers revealed about Hitler's rise, when fiat currency became viable, why Sweden escaped the worst of the 1930s crash, whether bimetallism ever made sense, where he'd time-travel to witness economic history, what 1920s Hollywood movies get wrong about their era, how he developed his famous maxim "never reason from a price change," whether the Fed can ever truly follow policy rules like NGDP targeting, if Congress shapes monetary policy more than we think, the relationship between real and nominal shocks, his favorite Hitchcock movies, why Taiwan's 90s cinema was so special, how Ozu gets better with age, whether we'll ever see another Bach or Beethoven, how he ended up at the University of Chicago, what it means to be a late bloomer in academia, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded December 27th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Conversations with Tyler 2024 Retrospective
12/25/2024
Conversations with Tyler 2024 Retrospective
On this special year-in-review episode, Tyler and producer Jeff Holmes look back on the past year in the show and more, including covering the most popular and underrated episodes, fielding listener questions, reviewing Tyler’s pop culture picks from 2014, mulling over ideas for what to name CWT fans, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded December 17th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Paula Byrne on Thomas Hardy’s Women, Jane Austen’s Humor, and Evelyn Waugh’s Warmth
12/11/2024
Paula Byrne on Thomas Hardy’s Women, Jane Austen’s Humor, and Evelyn Waugh’s Warmth
What can Thomas Hardy’s tortured marriages teach us about love, obsession, and second chances? In this episode, biographer, novelist, and therapist Paula Byrne examines the intimate connections between life and literature, revealing how Hardy’s relationships with women shaped his portrayals of love and tragedy. Byrne, celebrated for her bestselling biographies of Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh, and Barbara Pym, brings her unique perspective to explore the profound ways personal relationships, cultural history, and creative ambition intersect to shape some of the most enduring works in literary history. Tyler and Paula discuss Virginia Woolf’s surprising impressions of Hardy, why Wessex has lost a sense of its past, what Jude the Obscure reveals about Hardy’s ideas about marriage, why so many Hardy tragedies come in doubles, the best least-read Hardy novels, why Mary Robinson was the most interesting woman of her day, how Georgian theater shaped Jane Austen’s writing, British fastidiousness, Evelyn Waugh’s hidden warmth, Paula’s strange experience with poison pen letters, how American and British couples are different, the mental health crisis among teenagers, the most underrated Beatles songs, the weirdest thing about living in Arizona, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded November 14th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography
12/04/2024
Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography
In his landmark multi-volume biography of Stalin, Stephen Kotkin shows how totalitarian power worked not just through terror from above, but through millions of everyday decisions from below. Currently a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution after 33 years at Princeton, Kotkin brings both deep archival work and personal experience to his understanding of Soviet life, having lived in Magnitogorsk during the 1980s and seen firsthand how power operates in closed societies. Tyler sat down with Stephen to discuss the state of Russian Buddhism today, how shamanism persists in modern Siberia, whether Siberia might ever break away from Russia, what happened to the science city Akademgorodok, why Soviet obsession with cybernetics wasn't just a mistake, what life was really like in 1980s Magnitogorsk, how modernist urban planning failed there, why Prokofiev returned to the USSR in 1936, what Stalin actually understood about artistic genius, how Stalin's Georgian background influenced him (or not), what Michel Foucault taught him about power, why he risked his tenure case to study Japanese, how his wife's work as a curator opened his eyes to Korean folk art, how he's progressing on the next Stalin volume, and much more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded November 13th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Russ Roberts on Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate
11/25/2024
Russ Roberts on Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate
In this crossover episode with EconTalk, Tyler joins Russ Roberts for an in-depth exploration of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, a monumental novel often described as the 20th-century answer to Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Russ and Tyler cover Grossman’s life and the historical context of Life and Fate, its themes of war, totalitarianism, freedom, and fate, the novel’s polyphonic structure and large cast of characters, the parallels between fascism and communism, the idea of “senseless kindness” as a counter to systemic evil, the symbolic importance of motherhood, the psychology of confession and loyalty under totalitarian systems, Grossman’s literary influences including Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dante, and Stendhal, individual resilience and moral compromises, the survival of the novel despite Soviet censorship, artificial intelligence and the dehumanization of systems, the portrayal of scientific discovery and its moral dilemmas, the ethical and emotional tensions in the novel, the anti-fanatical tone and universal humanism of the book, Grossman’s personal life and connections to its themes, and the novel's enduring relevance and complexity. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded November 4th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Neal Stephenson on History, Spycraft, and American-Soviet Parallels
11/13/2024
Neal Stephenson on History, Spycraft, and American-Soviet Parallels
Neal Stephenson’s ability to illuminate complex, future-focused ideas in ways that both provoke thought and spark wonder has established him as one of the most innovative thinkers in literature today. Yet his new novel, Polostan, revisits the Soviet era with a twist, shifting his focus from the speculative technologies of tomorrow to the historical currents of the 1930s. In Neal's second appearance, Tyler asks him why he sometimes shifts from envisioning the future to illustrating the past, the rise of history autodidacts, the implications of leaked secrets from the atomic age to today’s AI, the logistics of faking one’s death, why he still drafts novels in longhand, Soviet idealism among Western intellectuals, which Soviet achievements he admires, the lag in AR development, how LLMs might boost AR, whether social media is increasingly giving way to private group chats, his continuing influence on technologists, why AI-generated art might struggle to connect with readers, the primer from The Diamond Age in light of today’s LLMs, the prospect of AGI becoming an unnoticed background tool, what Neal believes the world really needs more of, what lies ahead in Polostan and the broader “Bomb Light” series, and more Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded October 9th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Christopher Kirchhoff on Military Innovation and the Future of War
10/30/2024
Christopher Kirchhoff on Military Innovation and the Future of War
Christopher Kirchhoff is an expert in emerging technology who founded the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley office. He’s led teams for President Obama, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and CEO of Google. He’s worked in worlds as far apart as weapons development and philanthropy. His pioneering efforts to link Silicon Valley technology and startups to Washington has made him responsible for $70 billion in technology acquisition by the Department of Defense. He’s penned many landmark reports, and he is the author of Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Future of War. Tyler and Christopher cover the ascendancy of drone warfare and how it will affect tactics both off and on the battlefield, the sobering prospect of hypersonic weapons and how they will shift the balance of power, EMP attacks, AI as the new arms race (and who's winning), the completely different technology ecosystem of an iPhone vs. an F-35, why we shouldn't nationalize AI labs, the problem with security clearances, why the major defense contractors lost their dynamism, how to overcome the “Valley of Death” in defense acquisition, the lack of executive authority in government, how Unit X began, the most effective type of government commission, what he'll learn next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded July 23rd, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Musa al-Gharbi on Elite Wokeness, Islam, and Social Movements
10/16/2024
Musa al-Gharbi on Elite Wokeness, Islam, and Social Movements
Subscribe to Pluralist Points on , , or Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and assistant professor at Stony Brook University whose research explores how people think about, talk about, and produce shared knowledge about race, inequality, social movements, extremism, policing, and other social phenomena. His new book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, examines the rise and fall of wokeness among America’s elites and explores the underlying social forces at play. Tyler and Musa explore the rise and fall of the "Great Awokening" and more, including how elite overproduction fuels social movements, why wokeness tends to fizzle out, whether future waves of wokeness will ratchet up in intensity, why neuroticism seems to be higher on the political Left, how a great awokening would manifest in a Muslim society, Black Muslims and the Nation of Islam, why Musa left Catholicism, who the greatest sociologist of Islam is, Muslim immigration and assimilation in Europe, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded September 19th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Tom Tugendhat on Modernizing the UK and Political Reform
10/09/2024
Tom Tugendhat on Modernizing the UK and Political Reform
Tom Tugendhat has served as a Member of Parliament since 2015, holding roles such as Security Minister and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Before entering Parliament, Tom served in in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also worked for the Foreign Office, helped establish the National Security Council of Afghanistan, and served as military assistant and principal adviser to the Chief of the Defense Staff. Tyler and Tom examine the evolving landscape of governance and leadership in the UK today, touching on the challenges of managing London under the UK’s centralized system, why England remains economically unbalanced, his most controversial view on London's architecture, whether YIMBYism in England can succeed, the unique politics and history of Kent, whether the system of private schools needs reform, his pick for the greatest unselected prime minister, whether Brexit revealed a defect in the parliamentary system, whether the House of Lords should be abolished, why the British monarchy continues to captivate the world, devolution in Scotland and Northern Ireland, how learning Arabic in Yemen affected his life trajectory, his read on the Middle East and Russia, the Tom Tugendhat production function, his pitch for why a talented young person should work in the British Civil Service, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded October 9th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit:
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Kyla Scanlon on Communicating Economic Ideas through Social Media
10/02/2024
Kyla Scanlon on Communicating Economic Ideas through Social Media
Kyla Scanlon has made it her personal mission to bring economics education to a larger audience through social media. She publishes daily content across TikTok, YouTube, Substack, LinkedIn and more, explaining what is happening in the economy and why it is happening. Tyler calls her first book In This Economy? How Money & Markets Really Work a “good and bracing shock to those who have trained their memories on some weighted average of the more distant past.” Tyler and Kyla dive into the modern state of economics education and a whole range of topics like if fantasy world building can help you understand economics, what she learned trading options at 16, why she opted for a state school over the Ivy League, lessons from selling 38 cars over summer break, introversion as an ingredient for social media success, if she believes in any conspiracy theories, Instagram scrolling vs TikTok scrolling, the decline of print culture, why people are seeking out cults, modern nihilism, how perspective can help with optimism, the death of celebrity and the rise of influencers, why econ education has gone backward, improving mainstream media, YIMBYism and real estate, nuclear pragmatism versus utopian geothermalists, investing advice for young people, why she thinks about the Great Depression more than Rome, creating the next Free to Choose, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded July 8th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: Rachel Woolf
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Tobi Lütke on Creating Shopify for Americans as a German in Canada
09/18/2024
Tobi Lütke on Creating Shopify for Americans as a German in Canada
Tobi Lütke is the CEO and co-founder of Shopify. 20 years ago, he was just a German coder who emigrated to Canada to launch some ecommerce platform with another German. Now he’s the world-renowned thought and tech leader who has revolutionized online shopping for billions. He’s also the creator of many open-source libraries like Liquid, Active Merchant, and the Typo weblog engine. Tyler and Tobi hop from Germany to Canada to America to discuss a range of topics like how outsiders make good coders, learning in meetings by saying wrong things, having one-on-ones with your kids, the positives of venting, German craftsmanship vs. American agility, why German schooling made him miserable, why there aren’t more German tech giants, untranslatable words, the dividing line of between Northern and Southern Germany, why other countries shouldn’t compare themselves to the US, Canada’s lack of exports and brands, ice skating to work in Ottawa, how VR and AI will change retailing, why he expects to be “terribly embarrassed” when looking back at companies in the 2020s, why The Lean Startup is bad for retailers, how fantasy novels teach business principles, what he's learning next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded July 23rd, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Philip Ball on the Interplay of Science, Society, and the Quest for Understanding
09/04/2024
Philip Ball on the Interplay of Science, Society, and the Quest for Understanding
Philip Ball is an award-winning science writer who has penned over 30 books on a dizzying variety of subjects. Holding degrees in chemistry from Oxford and physics from the University of Bristol, Ball's multidisciplinary background underpins his versatility. As a former editor at Nature for two decades and a regular contributor to a range of publications and broadcast outlets, Ball's work exemplifies the rare combination of scientific depth and accessibility, cementing his reputation as a premier science communicator. Tyler and Philip discuss how well scientists have stood up to power historically, the problematic pressures scientists feel within academia today, artificial wombs and the fertility crisis, the price of invisibility, the terrifying nature of outer space and Gothic cathedrals, the role Christianity played in the Scientific Revolution, what current myths may stick around forever, whether cells can be thought of as doing computation, the limitations of The Selfish Gene, whether the free energy principle can be usefully applied, the problem of microplastics gathering in testicles and other places, progress in science, his favorite science fiction, how to follow in his footsteps, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded May 22nd, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Nate Silver on Risk-takers, Politicians, and Poker Players
08/21/2024
Nate Silver on Risk-takers, Politicians, and Poker Players
In his second appearance, Nate Silver joins the show to cover the intersections of predictions, politics, and poker with Tyler. They tackle how coin flips solve status quo bias, gambling’s origins in divination, what kinds of betting Nate would ban, why he’s been limited on several of the New York sports betting sites, how game theory changed poker tournaments, whether poker players make for good employees, running and leaving FiveThirtyEight, why funky batting stances have disappeared, AI’s impact on sports analytics, the most underrated NBA statistic, Sam Bankman-Fried’s place in “the River,” the trait effective altruists need to develop, the stupidest risks Tyler and Nate would take, prediction markets, how many monumental political decisions have been done under the influence of drugs, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded July 22nd, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust
08/07/2024
Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust
Paul Bloom is a renowned psychologist and writer specializing in moral psychology, particularly how moral thoughts and actions develop in children. But his interests and books explore a wide range of topics, including the science of pleasure, the morality of empathy, dehumanization, immoral vs moral punishments, and our feelings about animals and robots. Bloom is a professor at the University of Toronto and previously taught at Yale for over 20 years. Together Paul and Tyler explore whether psychologists understand day-to-day human behavior any better than normal folk, how babies can tell if you’re a jerk, at what age children have the capacity to believe in God, why the trend in religion is toward monotheism, the morality of getting paid to strangle cats, whether disgust should be built into LLMs, the possibilities of AI therapists, the best test for a theory of mind, why people overestimate Paul’s (and Tyler’s) intelligence, why flattery is undersupplied, why we should train flattery and tax empathy, Carl Jung, Big Five personality theory, Principles of Psychology by William James, the social psychology of the Hebrew Bible, his most successful unusual work habit, what he’ll work on next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded May 13th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Alan Taylor on Revolutionary Ironies and the Continental Civil War
07/24/2024
Alan Taylor on Revolutionary Ironies and the Continental Civil War
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor is Tyler’s pick for one of the greatest living historians. His many books cover the early American Republic, American westward expansion, the War of 1812, Virginian slavery, Thomas Jefferson, the revolutionary settlements in Maine, and more. He’s currently the Thomas Jefferson Chair of History at the University of Virginia. Tyler and Taylor take a walking tour of early history through North America covering the decisions, and ripples of those decisions, that shaped revolution and independence, including why Canada didn’t join the American revolution, why America in turn never conquered Canada, American’s early obsession with the collapse of the Republic, how democratic the Jacksonians were, Texas/Mexico tensions over escaped African American slaves, America’s refusal to recognize Cuban independence, how many American Tories went north post-revolution, Napoleon III’s war with Mexico, why the US Government considered attacking Canada after the Civil War, and much more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded May 9th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: (c) Dan Addison UVA University Communications
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Brian Winter on Brazil, Argentina, and the Future of Latin America
07/10/2024
Brian Winter on Brazil, Argentina, and the Future of Latin America
It’s not just the churrasco that made him fall in love with Brazil. Brian Winter has been studying and writing about Latin America for over 20 years. He’s been tracking the struggles and triumphs of the region as it’s dealt with decades of coups, violence, and shifting economics. His work offers a nuanced perspective on Latin America's persistent challenges and remarkable resilience. Together Brian and Tyler discuss the politics and economics of nearly every country from the equator down. They cover the future of migration into Brazil, what it’s doing right in agriculture, the cultural shift in race politics, crime in Rio and São Paulo, the effectiveness and future consequences of Bukele’s police state in El Salvador, the economic growth of Columbia despite continued violence, the prevalence of startups and psychoanalysis in Argentina, Uruguay’s reduction in poverty levels, the beautiful ugliness of Sao Paulo, where Brian will explore next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded April 15th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Joseph Stiglitz on Pioneering Economic Theories, Policy Challenges, and His Intellectual Legacy
06/26/2024
Joseph Stiglitz on Pioneering Economic Theories, Policy Challenges, and His Intellectual Legacy
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz joined Tyler for a discussion that weaves through Joe’s career and key contributions, including what he learned from giving an 8-lecture in Japan, how being a debater influenced his intellectual development, why he tried to abolish fraternities at Amherst, how studying Kenyan sharecropping led to one of his most influential papers, what he thinks today of Georgism and the YIMBY movement, why he was too right-wing for Cambridge, why he left Gary, Indiana, his current views on high trading volumes and liquidity, the biggest difference between him and Paul Krugman, what working in Washington, DC taught him about hierarchies, what he’ll do next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded April 22nd, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Velina Tchakarova on China, Russia, and the Future of Geopolitics
06/12/2024
Velina Tchakarova on China, Russia, and the Future of Geopolitics
Take our You could try playing out the four-dimensional chess game of how the global order will shift in the next 10-15 years for yourself, or you could hire Velina Tchakarova. Founder of the consultancy FACE, Velina is a geopolitical strategist guiding businesses and organizations to anticipate the outcomes of global conflicts, shifting alliances, and bleeding edge technologies on the world stage. In a globe-trotting conversation, Tyler and Velina start in the Balkans and then head to Russia, China, North Korea, and finally circle back to Putin’s interest in the Baltics. She gives her take on whether the Balkan Wars still matter today, the future of Bulgarian nationalism, what predicts which Eastern European countries will remain closer to Russia, why China will not attack Taiwan, Putin’s next move after Ukraine, where a nuclear weapon is most likely to be used next, how she sources intel, her unique approach to scenario-planning, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded May 20th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Michael Nielsen on Collaboration, Quantum Computing, and Civilization's Fragility
05/29/2024
Michael Nielsen on Collaboration, Quantum Computing, and Civilization's Fragility
Take our Michael Nielsen is a scientist who helped pioneer quantum computing and the modern open science movement. He's worked at Y Combinator, co-authored on scientific progress with Patrick Collison, and is a prolific writer, reader, commentator, and mentor. He joined Tyler to discuss why the universe is so beautiful to human eyes (but not ears), how to find good collaborators, the influence of Simone Weil, where Olaf Stapledon's understand of the social word went wrong, potential applications of quantum computing, the (rising) status of linear algebra, what makes for physicists who age well, finding young mentors, why some scientific fields have pre-print platforms and others don't, how so many crummy journals survive, the threat of cheap nukes, the many unknowns of Mars colonization, techniques for paying closer attention, what you learn when visiting the USS Midway, why he changed his mind about Emergent Ventures, why he didn't join OpenAI in 2015, what he'll learn next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded March 24th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts .
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Benjamin Moser on the Dutch Masters, Brazil, and Cultural Icons
05/15/2024
Benjamin Moser on the Dutch Masters, Brazil, and Cultural Icons
Take our Benjamin Moser is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer celebrated for his in-depth studies of literary and cultural figures such as Susan Sontag and Clarice Lispector. His latest book, which details a twenty-year love affair with the Dutch masters, is one of Tyler's favorite books on art criticism ever. Benjamin joined Tyler to discuss why Vermeer was almost forgotten, how Rembrandt was so productive, what auctions of the old masters reveals about current approaches to painting, why Dutch art hangs best in houses, what makes the Kunstmuseum in the Hague so special, why Dutch students won't read older books, Benjamin's favorite Dutch movie, the tensions within Dutch social tolerance, the joys of living in Utrecht, why Latin Americans make for harder interview subjects, whether Brasilia works as a city, why modernism persisted in Brazil, how to appreciate Clarice Lispector, Susan Sontag's (waning) influence, V.S. Naipaul’s mentorship, Houston's intellectual culture, what he's learning next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded February 15th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: Philippe Quaisse
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Coleman Hughes on Colorblindness, Jazz, and Identity
05/01/2024
Coleman Hughes on Colorblindness, Jazz, and Identity
Coleman Hughes believes we should strive to ignore race both in public policy and in our private lives. But when it comes to personal identity and expression, how feasible is this to achieve? And are there any other individual traits we should also seek to ignore? Coleman and Tyler explore the implications of colorblindness, including whether jazz would've been created in a color-blind society, how easy it is to disentangle race and culture, whether we should also try to be 'autism-blind', and Coleman's personal experience with lookism and ageism. They also discuss what Coleman’s learned from J.J. Johnson, the hardest thing about performing the trombone, playing sets in the Charles Mingus Big Band as a teenager, whether Billy Joel is any good, what reservations he has about his conservative fans, why the Beastie Boys are overrated, what he's learned from Noam Dworman, why Interstellar is Chris Nolan's masterpiece, the Coleman Hughes production function, why political debate is so toxic, what he'll do next, and more. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Recorded March 6th, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on and Follow on X Follow on X Join our Email us: Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts . Photo Credit: Evan Mann
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