Chicago Booth Review Podcast

Should billionaires pay higher fines than the rest of us? Does remote work kill productivity? Is insider trading always bad? The Chicago Booth Review Podcast addresses the big questions in business, policy, and markets with insights from the world’s leading academic researchers. It’s groundbreaking research—explained in a clear and straightforward way.

What makes welfare recipients invest in their kids’ human capital? 11/19/2025

What makes welfare recipients invest in their kids’ human capital? Critics of social welfare programs often talk about how payments can disincentivize work. But is that always the case? Chicago Booth’s Rebecca Dizon Ross talks about her research on how parents of disabled children think about the social safety net and investing in their kids’ human capital. Could giving them better information help shape their thinking and behavior? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/39008975

How much does a CEO really matter? 11/12/2025

How much does a CEO really matter? It’s a cliché for organizations to say that their people are their most important asset, but how important is the person at the top? Can we measure the impact of a CEO or a manager? Chicago Booth’s Mike Gibbs gives us a survey of economic research on leadership and management. How much of a difference does a good leader make? And why do “manager-types” so often struggle when they get promoted to leadership roles? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/39001710

Why economics is not about numbers 11/05/2025

Why economics is not about numbers Economics is all around us. At least, that’s what Chicago Booth’s Ram Shivakumar believes, and he’s on a mission to demonstrate that economics is not about numbers or theoretical models, but is at play in many everyday decisions, like whether to order a pizza, where to buy it from and what toppings to get. If economics isn’t about numbers, what is it about? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38911995

You Might Also Like: Markets for Pollution, from Shocked 11/04/2025

You Might Also Like: Markets for Pollution, from Shocked A warmer world is here. Now what? Listen to Shocked, from the University of Chicago’s Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, and hear journalist Amy Harder and economist Michael Greenstone share new ways of thinking about climate change and cutting-edge solutions: /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38894830

Does choosing your friends make you happier? 10/29/2025

Does choosing your friends make you happier? In the west, we are more likely to choose our friends and dropping them is relatively easily done. In other cultures, people tend to stick with the same social network for their whole lives. But does the ability to choose and to drop your friends make you happier? Chicago Booth’s Thomas Talhelm tells us about his research on social circles and happiness. Why do friendships endure more in Japan than in the US? Who’s happier? And how important is happiness anyway? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38819090

Does collaboration really produce better ideas? 10/22/2025

Does collaboration really produce better ideas? Most companies talks about the importance of innovation and collaboration, but the connection tends to be more of a hunch than a demonstrable fact. So can we measure whether collaboration really produces better ideas? Chicago Booth’s Mike Gibbs talks about his research on social networks and innovation. Does having a bigger network make you more likely to come up with new and better ideas? And how has remote work affected networking and innovation? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38740935

Apart from the paycheck, why do we work? 10/15/2025

Apart from the paycheck, why do we work? Would you work if you weren’t being paid for it? Social media is full of people criticizing companies for exploiting interns and prospective hires by underpaying or not paying them. Is that a universal feeling, or does it reflect western values and attitudes that aren’t replicated elsewhere in the world? Chicago Booth’s Thomas Talhelm talks about his research on what motivates people around the world to work. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38581780

Why are home prices so high? 10/08/2025

Why are home prices so high? The median home price in the US in 1970 was approximately $23,400, less than 2.5 times the median family income at the time of about $9,870. By last year, the median home price was more than $400,000, about 5 times the median family income of about $80,000. No surprise that people are warning about a housing affordability crisis. To what extent is that driven by the increasing cost of building homes? Chicago Booth’s Chad Syverson talks about his research on the weak link between building costs and home prices. What’s really behind the price increases in residential real estate? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38501515

Are AI interviews better? 10/01/2025

Are AI interviews better? Have you had an AI job interview? Would you prefer to be interviewed by AI than by a human? And how would you expect AI interviewers to perform compared to their human counterparts? Chicago Booth’s Brian Jabarian talks about his research on AI interviews. Will they make human-to-human job interviews a thing of the past? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38394735

Should we pay people to walk? 09/24/2025

Should we pay people to walk? One way health policymakers can get people to exercise more is to pay them. But should we pay greater amounts to people who exercise more, and smaller sums to those who do less? Rebecca Dizon Ross tells us about her research on personalizing incentive payments to try to encourage exercise. Does getting people to choose their own exercise targets and financial compensation encourage them to walk more? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38330400

The ‘Professor of Uncertainty’ on AI 09/17/2025

The ‘Professor of Uncertainty’ on AI AI is untrustworthy. It hallucinates, making up information or extrapolating by itself. That might make it frustrating to use, but could it prove more of a feature than a bug? Chicago Booth’s Veronika Ročková uses statistical methods that exploit the randomness in AI responses to improve medical diagnoses, and even to classify galaxies more efficiently. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38252135

Can virtual reality increase empathy? 09/10/2025

Can virtual reality increase empathy? Technology is typically thought of as driving humans apart. But could it be used to promote a sense of empathy with others? Chicago Booth’s Alex Imas tells us about an experiment he ran using an immersive virtual-reality installation. Virtual reality, Imas reckons, could be used to help us relate to other people in real life. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/38146315

Is self-awareness always a good thing? 09/03/2025

Is self-awareness always a good thing? We typically think of self-awareness as being a good thing. But if someone behaves badly and is aware that they’re behaving badly, is that worse than if they’re blissfully unaware? Chicago Booth’s Shereen Chaudhry has conducted research into the effects of self-awareness. When should we express self-awareness, and when should we convey that we weren’t as self-aware as we should have been? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37965330

Do all loans have “a pound of flesh” clause? 08/27/2025

Do all loans have “a pound of flesh” clause? Almost all companies borrow money – some of secured by assets they own, other debts unsecured. But is that distinction meaningful in the real world? Chicago Booth’s Raghuram Rajan talks about his research into corporate debt. In the past century, the amount of unsecured debt has soared. What’s the significance of that, and is it really unsecured? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37965345

What investors look for in a startup pitch 08/20/2025

What investors look for in a startup pitch What do startup founders need to do to get venture capitalists to invest? Do VCs invest in the right team, or the right idea? Do they invest where they can add value, or do they try to pick new businesses that are going to be winners from the start? Chicago Booth’s Steve Kaplan has surveyed venture capitalists to find out what they look for in startups, and he has a framework he uses to advise both founders and funders on how to pick winning companies. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37882065

Why students lie about using AI 08/13/2025

Why students lie about using AI When students are asked if they use AI to do their work, many say they don’t. But when they’re asked if other students re using AI, many more say that they do. Should we conclude that they’re not being honest about their own AI use? Chicago Booth’s Alex Imas has conducted research on students and AI. Why is using AI such a taboo? And how should schools and colleges respond to its inevitable creep? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37792465

Why is apologizing so hard? 08/06/2025

Why is apologizing so hard? It’s hard to say sorry, and it can be even harder to say sorry without following it up with whatever the other person did wrong. Why are apologies so hard? Chicago Booth’s Shereen Chaudhry has conducted research into the strategy of apologizing and blaming. Why do we care so much about others accepting their share of the blame? And when we know that we’ve done wrong, what’s holding us back from apologizing? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37697750

Trumponomics: How robust are America’s institutions? 07/30/2025

Trumponomics: How robust are America’s institutions? The Trump administration has gutted central government, lashed out at the Federal Reserve, and is attempting to dismantle the international trading order. Can America’s institutions survive? We hear from Chicago Booth’s Raghuram Rajan about the role of institutions in political economy. Are we seeing a reversal of fortunes, in which the US is looking more and more like a caricature of a poor country with poorly regarded institutions, growing inequality and a looming sovereign debt crisis? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37604145

Decoding the signals in private equity reports 07/23/2025

Decoding the signals in private equity reports Private equity investments are typically locked up for many years, which means investors don’t know at any point in time how much their stakes are worth. Should they take at face value the valuations that PE firms provide? Chicago Booth’s Steve Kaplan has detected patterns in private equity valuation reports that reveal whether the company will be sold at a premium, and when that exit might happen. So how can investors get a better sense of when and how big their payoffs will be? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37515160

Should we pay coal miners to go to college? 07/16/2025

Should we pay coal miners to go to college? In recent decades, many manufacturing workers in developed economies have lost their jobs, replaced by robots or cheaper imports. One option is to try to get those jobs back. Another is to retrain them to acquire skills that are in demand. But does it really make sense to send displaced manual workers to college? Chicago Booth’s Anders Humlum talks about his research on retraining injured workers, which suggests that paying them to go to college reaps big returns. Is the same true for workers who lose their jobs to automation or trade? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37419185

How can we address conflicts of interest in research? 07/09/2025

How can we address conflicts of interest in research? Imagine that you hear about a powerful new miracle drug just discovered. If the scientist who did the research had stock options in the drug maker and stood to make a lot of money if the drug got approved, would that affect how you think about it? Luigi Zingales talks about his research into conflicts of interest in research and what should be done about them. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37335540

Is America’s cultural divide growing? 07/02/2025

Is America’s cultural divide growing? Many of us have a general sense that as a society, we’re not just becoming more polarized politically, but we’re also moving further apart culturally – what we buy, what we watch, how we spend our spare time - these consumer behaviors are also increasingly diverging. Chicago Booth’s Emir Kamenica has studied the cultural divide in America. While his research confirms a widening gap in social attitudes between conservatives and liberals, it also reveals that the culture gap is remarkably stable. How did he arrive at that conclusion, and what does it mean for society? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37256165

If the bank won’t lend to you, who will? 06/25/2025

If the bank won’t lend to you, who will? One of the fastest-growing parts of the financial system in the past 15 years has been private credit, that is, lending not by banks but by other financial institutions or funds that don’t take deposits. The sector expanded ten fold between 2009 and 2023, to reach a value of about $2 trillion, according to McKinsey. And McKinsey thinks it has room to continue growing to become a $30 trillion industry. What does this mean for companies, and for the broader US economy? Welcome to the Chicago Booth Review podcast, where we bring you groundbreaking academic research in a clear and straightforward way. I’m Hal Weitzman, and today, I’m talking with Chicago Booth’s Amir Sufi about the rise of private capital. Is it better or worse for borrowers? Should we be worried about systemic risk? And why aren’t banks lending as they used to? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37137615

Why AI isn’t boosting the economy 06/18/2025

Why AI isn’t boosting the economy Employees are increasingly using AI, and their employers are increasingly encouraging them to do so. Companies are building their own chatbots, and training their staff in how best to use the technology. You might think this would be feeding through into corporate profits and boosting the economy. So why isn’t it? We hear from Chicago Booth’s Anders Humlum, whose research documents the paltry effects AI is having on company earnings and economic growth /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/37045860

How to negotiate home prices 06/11/2025

How to negotiate home prices Moving home is one of the most stressful things you’ll do in life, but negotiating to buy a home has to be up there. Chicago Booth’s George Wu teaches negotiation to MBAs. What techniques does he recommend to reduce the stress and improve the success when it comes to getting a deal over the price of a home? /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/36948215

Low-cost ways to tackle America’s murder rate 06/04/2025

Low-cost ways to tackle America’s murder rate The US murder rate is around 5 per 100,000 people, lower than a recent COVID-era spike, but nonetheless much higher than most other developed countries. Many Americans have concluded that either they need a gun to protect themselves, or that the problem is too big to address. In our second episode with Jens Ludwig, author of Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, he outlines some small and cheap interventions that could make a big difference in how we tackle homicides. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/36843055

What the Right and Left get wrong about gun violence 05/28/2025

What the Right and Left get wrong about gun violence The United States has more guns than people, and one of the world’s highest rates of gun homicide. What’s really driving America’s appalling murder rate? Is it bad people, poverty, or something else? Jens Ludwig, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, and Director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, talks to us about his new book, Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence. Ludwig thinks America’s failure to tackle gun violence stem from a fundamental misunderstanding about what causes it in the first place. This is the first of two episodes with Ludwig about his book. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/36736605

The data on sex, marriage, and happiness 05/21/2025

The data on sex, marriage, and happiness Married people are happier than the unmarried, on average. Those who are married and having regular sex are even happier. And over time, the difference between the happiness of the married and the unmarried is growing. So what do the statistics tell us about sex, marriage, and happiness? Chicago Booth’s Sam Peltzman talks about his research into happiness and marriage. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/36645935

Why nonprofits should be more like corporations 05/14/2025

Why nonprofits should be more like corporations Most nonprofits depend on donations. But should they be acting more like companies, and focus on raising revenue instead? Chicago Booth’s Rob Gertner thinks philanthropy might not be the best way to achieve a social goal. He talks about his research into social enterprises—organizations that have a social goal, but achieve it in part by charging money for goods and services. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/36554090

Are customers more important than revenue? 05/07/2025

Are customers more important than revenue? Many of us have so many subscriptions that we’ve lost track of them all. Companies also increasingly have subscriptions for services such as software and cloud computing. As customers, they’re the source of a lot of value to providers. Chicago Booth’s Amir Sufi says this “customer capital” accounts for a lot of the differences in how companies are valued between industries. And it might even have overturned what has been a cardinal rule of business: that revenue is more important than acquiring and maintaining customers. /episode/index/show/thebigquestion/id/36456640

Chicago Booth Review Podcast

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