EconTalk

David Deutsch on the Pattern

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A world-class physicist makes a shocking claim: across 2,500 years and every kind of society, there has been a recurring moral exception carved out ju...

Free Will Is Real (with Kevin Mitchell)

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are we truly characters with agency, or are we just playing out our programming in the great video game of life? Contrary to those in his field who cl...

Colonialism, Slavery, and Foreign Aid (with William Easterly)

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

 Can the promise of economic progress ever justify conquest, coercion, and control over other people’s lives? Economist William Easterly joins Econ...

The Perfect Tuba: How Band, Grit, and Community Build a Better Life (with Sam Quinones)

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and author Sam Quinones talks about his newest book, The Perfect Tuba: Forging Fulfillment from the Brass Horn, Band, and Hard Work with E...

The Status Game (with Will Storr)

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Will Storr talks about his book The Status Game with EconTalk host Russ Roberts, exploring how our deep need for respect and recognition shapes our b...

The Wonder of the Emergent Mind (with Gaurav Suri)

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How is your brain like an ant colony? They both use simple parts following simple rules which allows the whole to be so much more than the sum of the ...

Shampoo, Property Rights, and Civilization (with Anthony Gill)

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why is it okay to take the little shampoo bottles in hotels home with you but not the towels? And what stops people from taking the towels? Listen as...

Primal Intelligence (with Angus Fletcher)

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What do Shakespeare, Hollywood storytelling, and military special operations have in common? They all excel at inventing new plans, or improvising whe...

A Mind-Blowing Way of Looking at Math (with David Bessis)

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if math isn't about grinding through equations, but about training your intuition and changing how your brain works? Mathematician and author Dav...

Twenty Years of Freakonomics (with Stephen Dubner)

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Quantitative, contrarian, and nuanced: these are the hallmarks of the Freakonomics approach. Hear journalist and podcaster Stephen Dubner speak with E...

The Magic of Tokyo (with Joe McReynolds)

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What drives the seeming relentless dynamism of Tokyo? Is there something special about Japanese culture? Joe McReynolds, co-author of Emergent Tokyo,...

The Invisible Hierarchies that Rule Our World (with Toby Stuart)

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Status isn't fixed; it's transferred and "bestowed," shaping who gets resources, attention, and opportunity. So argues author Toby Stuart of UC Berkel...

Eating with Intelligence (with Julia Belluz)

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Losing weight should be simple: eat less, exercise more. But according to author and health journalist Julia Belluz, it's complicated. Listen as Bellu...

Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why are Super Bowl ads so good for launching certain kinds of new products? Why do we all drive on the same side of the road? And why, despit...

How Did America Build the Arsenal of Democracy? (with Brian Potter)

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

American manufacturing of aircraft during WWII dwarfed that of its enemies. By the end of the war, an American assembly line was producing a B-24 bomb...

How Teams Succeed (with Colin Fisher)

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What makes some groups thrive while others crash and burn? According to organizational-behavior scholar Colin Fisher, the real villains are rarely ind...

Humans Are Overrated (with Christine Webb)

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are humans the most intelligent species, or just the most arrogant? NYU primatologist Christine Webb, author of The Arrogant Ape, believes tha...

Hemingway, Love, and War (with David Wyatt)

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What can Ernest Hemingway teach us today about the morality of war, the eternal and transient nature of love, and how to write a masterpiece? Listen a...

Tim Ferriss on Tim Ferriss (and much much more)

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cold plunges. Exogenous ketones. Pu-erh tea--but hold the breakfast: it's all par for the morning routine, at least if you're entrepreneur, self-exper...

Learning to Think Like Someone Else (with David Marquet)

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Former submarine commander David Marquet joins EconTalk's Russ Roberts to explore how distancing--thinking like someone else, somewhere else, or som...

Let Me Be Forgotten (with Lowry Pressly)

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What do we lose when every moment is recorded, every action scrutinized, and every past mistake preserved? Philosopher and author Lowry Pressly joins ...

Read Like a Champion (with Doug Lemov)

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Many students graduate high school today without having read a book cover to cover. Many students struggle to learn to read at all. How did this happe...

James Marriott on Reading

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is long form reading a dying pastime? Journalist and cultural critic James Marriott joins EconTalk's Russ Roberts to defend the increasingly quaint ac...

How to Walk the World (with Chris Arnade)

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Skip the Mona Lisa when you visit Paris. Don't tour the Coliseum in Rome. Walk, don’t hurry. Chris Arnade speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts ab...

What Is Capitalism? (with Mike Munger)

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What is capitalism, really? Drawing on Adam Smith, Douglass North, and his own experience as a teacher and economist, economist Michael Munger of Duke...

The Deceptive Power of Maps (with Paulina Rowinska)

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How can the state of Colorado have nearly 700 sides? Why is a country's coastline as long as you want it to be? And how is it that your UPS driver has...

How to Be a Super Ager (with Eric Topol)

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if we could delay--or even prevent--Alzheimer's, cancer, and heart disease? What if much of what you know about aging is wrong? Listen as cardiol...

Leon Kass on the Wisdom of Rousseau

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Does technology liberate us or enslave us? How do our social interactions affect our sense of self and our emotional health? Listen as author and mas...

Two Cheers for Libertarianism and Econ 101 (with Noah Smith)

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Economist Noah Smith was so focused on libertarianism's theoretical flaws, he overlooked its political importance. Trump's tariff policy opened his ey...

EconTalk #1000 (with Russ Roberts)

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In honor of EconTalk's 1,000th episode, host Russ Roberts reflects on his long, strange journey from pioneer of the podcast format to weekly interview...

Nature vs. Nurture (with Paul Bloom)

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How much of our success or failure is written in our genes? How much is under our control? Is it nature or nurture or is that dichotomy too simplistic...

Inside the Mysterious World of Credit Cards (with Patrick McKenzie)

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick McKenzie explains to EconTalk's Russ Roberts how credit cards work, who makes money from them and how, and gives his take on whether cash cust...

The Past and Present of Privacy and Public Life (with Tiffany Jenkins)

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A paradox of our time is our willingness to bare all to strangers while worrying about who exactly is watching us online and anywhere else. Listen as ...

The Economics of Tariffs and Trade (with Doug Irwin)

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is the United States victimized by trade? What causes trade deficits? Are higher tariffs a good idea? Can manufacturing jobs return to the United Stat...

The Past and Future of AI (with Dwarkesh Patel)

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dwarkesh Patel interviewed the most influential thinkers and leaders in the world of AI and chronicled the history of AI up to now in his book, The ...

Why Christianity Needs to Help Save Democracy (with Jonathan Rauch)

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How does a nice Jewish boy who is also a gay atheist have the chutzpah to lecture Christianity on its obligations to democracy? Listen to author Jonat...

Rational and Religious (with Ross Douthat)

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How can we explain the world's underlying order? How does consciousness emerge? And why do people from such different cultures have such similar near-...

The Music and Magic of John and Paul (with Ian Leslie)

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the heart of the success of the Beatles was the creative chemistry and volatile friendship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Listen as author...

Do All Creatures, Great and Small, and Made From Silicon, Have Rights? (with Jeff Sebo)

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Should monkeys have the same rights as humans? What about elephants, ants, or invertebrates? NYU philosopher Jeff Sebo makes the case for expanding ...

Bird Brains, Bird Sex, and All Kinds of Beauty (with Matt Ridley)

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bright colors, long tails, and dances of seduction: they may hurt a bird's chances of survival in the wild, but they seem to increase the chances of r...

How Better Feedback Can Revolutionize Education (with Daisy Christodoulou)

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Feedback on exams and papers--grades and comments--should be more than an assessment. It should point the way to improvement. So argues educational co...

Will Guidara on Unreasonable Hospitality

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What can the restaurant business teach us about leadership and management? Listen as Will Guidara, the former owner of Eleven Madison Park, explains t...

The Unusual World of Israeli Democracy (with Rachel Gur)

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East but it seems a lot more alien and chaotic than many of the older democracies of the West. Hear Rachel ...

The Struggle That Shaped the Middle East (with James Barr)

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Until the end of WWI, the Middle East as we know it didn't exist. No Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, or Iraq. Instead, there was the Ottoman Empire, w...

Who Won the Socialist Calculation Debate (with Peter Boettke)

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For more than a century, some economists have insisted that central planning can outperform markets. Economists like Mises, Hayek, and Friedman disag...

Minimalists and Hoarders (with Michael Easter)

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we buy stuff we don't need? Maybe for the same reason that some people can't stand stuff at all. Listen as author Michael Easter speaks with ...

Coase, the Rules of the Game, and the Costs of Perfection (with Daisy Christodoulou)

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Surely perfection is better than imperfection. But applying technology to improve decision-making can backfire. Listen as ed-tech innovator Daisy Chr...

Why AI Is Good for Humans (with Reid Hoffman)

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Should we worry about the human future in a world of AI? Reid Hoffman is unafraid and even optimistic. He argues that the brave new world that awaits ...

Weep, Shudder, Die: The Secret of Opera Revealed (with Dana Gioia)

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How can opera, with words we rarely understand, make us cry? Why does opera, filled with melodrama, move us? Listen as poet and librettist Dana Gioia ...

Will DOGE and Musk Make a Difference? (with Michael Munger)

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can Musk use DOGE to reduce the size and power of the bureaucracy and big government? Michael Munger of Duke University thinks not, but EconTalk's ...

Understanding the Settler Colonialism Movement (with Adam Kirsch)

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Under settler colonialism, you're either a settler or indigenous and the sin of the founding of America, Australia, and Israel, for example, is not ju...

The Power of Nuance: Lessons for Public Health (with Emily Oster)

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Public health officials should tell the truth, even when it's complicated. Even when some people might misunderstand. Otherwise, says economist Emily ...

Fixing Sick Cities (with Alain Bertaud)

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why are European cities charming and American cities often so charmless? Simple, says urbanist Alain Bertaud: most American cities are zoned for singl...

Is This War With Lebanon Different? (with Matti Friedman)

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is Israel's war with Lebanon going to end differently from past attempts to secure Israel's northern border? Journalist Matti Friedman, who recounted ...

Why Industrial Policy Is (Almost) Always a Bad Idea (with Scott Sumner)

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tariffs are in the air. Will they help or hurt Americans? Listen as economist Scott Sumner makes the case against tariffs and various other forms of g...

Translating Life and Fate (with Robert Chandler)

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does it take to translate a 900-page Russian novel written before the fall of the Soviet Union? For Robert Chandler it meant living in a seaside ...

Tyler Cowen on Life and Fate

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Life and Fate might be the greatest novel of the 20th century or maybe ever. Tyler Cowen talks about this sprawling masterpiece and its author, Vasily...

Terrorism, Israel, and Dreams of Peace (with Haviv Rettig Gur)

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last 30 years, the Israeli public has moved to the right on the question of how to deal with the Palestinians. Why did this happen? How has t...

Who Needs Miracles? On Nature and the Miraculous (with Alan Lightman)

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How can we cultivate a sense of awe in our lives? Easy, says physicist and author Alan Lightman: Pay more attention. When we take the time to examine ...

Give Away a Kidney? Are You Crazy? (with filmmaker Penny Lane)

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After filmmaker Penny Lane decided to donate a kidney to a stranger, it took three years and a complex, often infuriating, sometimes terrifying proces...

Susan Cain on Bittersweet and the Happiness of Melancholy

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we like sad music or that poignant feeling that comes from attending a funeral? Author Susan Cain talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about h...

Why Housing Is Artificially Expensive and What Can Be Done About It (with Bryan Caplan)

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Housing is artificially expensive. Bryan Caplan of George Mason University and the author of Build, Baby, Build talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts ab...

Misinformation and the Three Languages of Politics (with Arnold Kling)

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How big a problem is misinformation for a democracy? How do we arrive at the truth? Listen as economist and author Arnold Kling talks with EconTalk's...

Reclaiming Tribalism (with Michael Morris)

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is tribalism destroying democracy? According to cultural psychologist Michael Morris of Columbia University, just the opposite may be the case. As he ...

The Underrated Bruno Leoni (with Michael Munger)

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Friedrich Hayek credited Bruno Leoni with shaping his ideas on laws and legislation. James Buchanan said that Leoni identified problems that led to hi...

The Mysterious World of Owls (with Jennifer Ackerman)

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An owl will eat a rabbit whole, but owls can't digest the fur or the bones. So how do they survive? Why do their eyes face forward rather than to the ...

What Modern Medicine Gets Wrong (with Marty Makary)

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Marty Makary talks about his book Blind Spots with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Makary argues that the medical establishment too...

Is Israel Winning the War in Gaza? (with Andrew Fox)

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

British Army major and Sandhurst lecturer Andrew Fox recently spent a week with the Israel Defense Forces including a day inside Gaza. He was struck b...

The Problems of Boys and Men in Today's America (with Richard Reeves)

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many boys and men in America are doing worse than girls and women in education while struggling with a culture that struggles to define what masculini...

Chaos and Complexity Economics (with J. Doyne Farmer)

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Physicist J. Doyne Farmer wants a new kind of economics that takes account of what we've learned from chaos theory and that builds more accurate model...

What's Happening Inside Your Doctor's Head and Heart (with Adam Cifu)

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Physician Adam Cifu keeps a binder of every patient of his who has passed away. Every once in a while, he opens it and remembers the lives of his pas...

How Do You Capture the Tragedy of War? (with Sabin Howard)

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A soldier goes off to war. Damaged in combat, he returns home, forever changed. Master sculptor Sabin Howard captures this tragic and powerful journey...

The Ever-Present Challenge of Escaping Poverty (with Noah Smith)

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The universe, points out economist Noah Smith, is always trying to kill us, whether through asteroids hurtling through space or our every-few-hours hu...

Sam Harris on Jew-Hatred, Radical Islam, and the West

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Neuroscientist and author Sam Harris of the podcast Making Sense talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about rising Jew-hatred in the West and what Harri...

Does Parenting Make You a Better Person? (with Erik Hoel)

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Does parenting make you a better person? Can it improve your life? Neuroscientist Erik Hoel makes the self-interested case for parenting arguing that ...

Lessons from Lincoln, Then and Now (with Diana Schaub)

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What lessons can we take from the speeches of Abraham Lincoln for today's turbulent times? How did those speeches move the nation in Lincoln's day? Li...

Reading, Writing, and Fighting (with Mark Helprin)

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For many men, surviving the test of battle intensifies the joy of being alive. A provocative claim, perhaps, but to novelist Mark Helprin, simply a fa...

Is Israel Occupying the West Bank? (with Eugene Kontorovich)

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

To international law expert Eugene Kontorovich of George Mason University, all the arguments that make Israel out to be an occupying force collapse un...

René Girard, Mimesis, and Conflict (with Cynthia Haven)

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you're always imitating others or aspiring to be something else, what's left of the "authentic" you? According to the French philosopher René Gira...

Does Market Failure Justify Government Intervention? (with Michael Munger)

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Economics students are often taught that government should intervene when there is market failure. But what about government failure? Should we expect...

How the Constitution Can Bring Us Together (with Yuval Levin)

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can a document unify a nation? Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute and author of American Covenant argues that the Constitution unified ...

Injustice and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (with Dwayne Betts)

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When poet, lawyer, and MacArthur Fellow Dwayne Betts was imprisoned for nine years at the age of 16 for carjacking, he only wept twice. One of those t...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Covid Vaccine (with Vinay Prasad)

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Covid vaccine saved many lives but so many mistakes were made in how public health officials discussed it, implemented it, and assessed its effect...

Purpose, Pleasure, and Meaning in a World Without Work (with Nicholas Bostrom)

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you didn't have to work to enjoy material abundance, would you do it anyway? If an algorithm or a pill could achieve better results, would you both...

Glenn Loury Tells All

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Economist and social critic Glenn Loury talks about his memoir, Late Admissions, with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. In a wide-ranging and blunt conversatio...

Living with the Constitution (with A.J. Jacobs)

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to live Constitutionally in the year 2024? For a start, it means getting off social media. It also means swapping a quill pen for yo...

The Top EconTalk Conversations of 2023 (with Russ Roberts)

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The favorite EconTalk episodes for host Russ Roberts are when he and his guest have an unusually powerful connection such as his recent episode with C...

Seeking Immortality (with Paul Bloom)

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Would an AI simulation of your dead loved one be a blessing or an abomination? And if you knew that after your own death, your loved ones would...

When Prediction Is Not Enough (with Teppo Felin)

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If the Wright Brothers could have used AI to guide their decision making, it's almost certain they would never have gotten off the ground. That's bec...

Rituals Without Religion (with Michael Norton)

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While religion may play less of a role in many people's lives, rituals--the lifeblood of religion--remain central to the human experience. Listen as M...

A User's Guide to Our Emotional Thermostat (with Adam Mastroianni)

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can you be too happy? Psychologist Adam Mastroianni talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about our emotional control systems, which seem to work at brin...

What Does "Unbiased" Mean in the Digital World? (with Megan McArdle)

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen as Megan McArdle and EconTalk's Russ Roberts use Google's new AI entrant Gemini as the starting point for a discussion about the future of our ...

Voices from Gaza (with Ahmed Alkhatib)

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib spent much of his childhood in Gaza before becoming an American citizen. He has lost dozens of family members and both his child...

Living with Exponential Change (with Azeem Azhar)

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The world of today would seem alien to someone living 30 years ago: people seduced by their screens in private and public and now AI blurring the line...

How to Avoid Lying With Statistics (with Jeremy Weber)

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's often a gap between the textbook treatment of statistics and the cookbook treatment--how to cook up the numbers when you're in the kitchen of ...

The Secrets of Great Conversation (with Charles Duhigg)

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When EconTalk's Russ Roberts sat down with Charles Duhigg to talk about his new book on the art of conversation, Supercommunicators, Roberts tried to ...

A Lively Debate on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (with Robert Wright)

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and author Robert Wright invited EconTalk's Russ Roberts to his podcast, NonZero, to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, knowing that...

Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (with Hillel Cohen)

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How far back should you go to understand the current moment in the relationship between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors and the attack of October...

Should Israel Depend on the US? (with Michael Oren)

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, American aid to Israel has sent a strategic message: the greatest superpower in the world stands behind the Jewish state. But does it rea...

What Palestinians Are Thinking (with Dahlia Scheindlin)

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pollster and political scientist Dahlia Scheindlin has worked extensively with public opinion polls of both Palestinians and Israelis. Listen as she ...