Podcasts by EconTalk at GMU
EconTalk is an award-winning weekly talk show about economics in daily life. Featured guests include renowned economics professors, Nobel Prize winners, and exciting speakers on all kinds of topical matters related to economic thought. Host Russ Roberts, of the Library of Economics and Liberty and George Mason U., draws you in with lively guests and creative repartee. Topics include health care, business cycles, economic growth, free trade, education, finance, politics, sports, book reviews, and the curiosities of everyday decision-making. Look for related readings and the complete archive of previous shows at EconTalk.org, where you can also comment on the podcasts and ask questions.
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Friedman on Capitalism and Freedom from 2022-03-04T01:33:43.739822
Russ Roberts talks to Milton Friedman about the radical ideas he put forward almost 50 years ago in Capitalism and Freedom. Listen to the most influential economist of the past 50 years discuss the...
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Munger on Price Gouging from 2022-03-04T01:33:43.738277
Mike Munger of Duke University recounts the harrowing (and fascinating) experience of being in the path of a hurricane and the economic forces that were set in motion as a result. One of the most i...
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Calvo on the Crisis, Money, and Macro from 2013-10-21T06:30
Guillermo Calvo of Columbia University and the National Bureau of Economic Research talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the nature of macroeconomic crises and what we have learned or should...
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Winston on Transportation from 2013-10-14T06:30
Cliff Winston of the Brookings Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his recent article in the Journal of Economic Literature on the U.S. transportation system. Winston argues tha...
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Oster on Pregnancy, Causation, and Expecting Better from 2013-10-07T06:30
Emily Oster of the University of Chicago and author of Expecting Better talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about her book on pregnancy and the challenges of decision-making under uncertainty. Os...
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Tyler Cowen on Inequality, the Future, and Average is Over from 2013-09-30T06:30
Tyler Cowen of George Mason University and blogger at Marginal Revolution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his latest book, Average is Over. Cowen takes a provocative look at how the gro...
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David Epstein on the Sports Gene from 2013-09-23T06:30
David Epstein, writer for ProPublica and author of The Sports Gene, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the book. Epstein discusses a number of the ideas in the book including what we have ...
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David Laidler on Money from 2013-09-16T06:30
David Laidler of the University of Western Ontario talks about money and monetary policy with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Laidler sketches the monetarist approach to the Great Depression and the Gr...
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Taleb on Skin in the Game from 2013-09-09T06:30
Nassim Taleb of NYU-Poly talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his recent paper (with Constantine Sandis) on the morality and effectiveness of "skin in the game." When decision makers have sk...
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Capitalism, Government, and the Good Society from 2013-09-04T06:30
On April 10, 2013, Liberty Fund and Butler University sponsored a symposium, "Capitalism, Government, and the Good Society." The evening began with solo presentations by the three participants--Mic...
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Munger on Milk from 2013-09-02T06:30
Mike Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about why milk is in the back of the grocery store. Michael Pollan and others argue that milk is in the back so that customers, ...
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Hanushek on Education and Prosperity from 2013-08-26T06:30
Eric Hanushek of Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his new book, Endangering Prosperity (co-authored with Paul Peterson and Ludger Woessmann). Han...
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Bhagwati on India from 2013-08-19T06:30
Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economy of India based on his book with Arvind Panagariya, Why Growth Matters. Bhagwati argues that the econo...
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Weingast on the Violence Trap from 2013-08-05T06:30
Barry Weingast, the Ward C. Krebs Family Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the r...
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Pindyck on Climate Change from 2013-08-05T06:30
Robert Pindyck of MIT talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the challenges of global warming for policy makers. Pindyck argues that while there is little doubt about the existence of human-ca...
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Narlikar on Fair Trade and Free Trade from 2013-07-29T06:30
Amrita Narlikar of the University of Cambridge talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about fair trade and policy issues related to trade. Narlikar argues--based on a recent article with Dan Kim--th...
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Michael Lind on Libertarianism from 2013-07-22T06:30
Michael Lind of the New American Foundation talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about two recent articles by Lind at Salon.com. In the first article, Lind argues that libertarians are wrong about...
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Clemens on Aid, Migration, and Poverty from 2013-07-15T06:30
Michael Clemens of the Center for Global Development talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the effects of aid and migration on world poverty. Clemens argues that the effects of aid are positi...
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Morris Fiorina on Polarization, Stability, and the State of the Electorate from 2013-07-08T06:30
Morris Fiorina, the Wendt Family Professor of Political Science and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow at Stanford University, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of the American el...
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Munger on Sports, Norms, Rules, and the Code from 2013-07-01T06:30
Michael Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the role of formal rules and informal rules in sports. Many sports restrain violence and retaliation through formal rul...
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Stevenson and Wolfers on Happiness, Growth, and the Reinhart-Rogoff Controversy from 2013-06-24T06:30
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, of the University of Michigan talk with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about their work on the relationship between income and happiness. They argue that there is a...
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Pallotta on Charity and the Culture of the Non-Profit Sector from 2013-06-17T06:30
Dan Pallotta, Chief Humanity Officer of Advertising for Humanity and author of Uncharitable talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his book. Pallotta argues that charities are dee...
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Schneier on Power, the Internet, and Security from 2013-06-10T06:30
Bruce Schneier, author and security guru, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about power and the internet. Schneier argues that the internet enhances the power of the powerless but it also enhan...
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Kling on the Three Languages of Politics from 2013-06-03T06:30
Arnold Kling, author of The Three Languages of Politics, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in the book. Kling argues that Progressives, Conservatives, and Libertarians each have...
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Jim Manzi on the Oregon Medicaid Study, Experimental Evidence, and Causality from 2013-05-27T06:30
Jim Manzi, founder and chair of Applied Predictive Technologies, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and author of Uncontrolled, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the Oregon Medicai...
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Epstein on the Constitution from 2013-05-20T06:30
Richard Epstein of New York University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the U.S. Constitution. Topics covered in this wide-ranging conversati...
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Frakt on Medicaid and the Oregon Medicaid Study from 2013-05-13T06:30
Austin Frakt of Boston University and blogger at The Incidental Economist talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Medicaid and the recent results released from the Oregon Medicaid study, a rand...
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Bernstein on Communication, Power and the Masters of the Word from 2013-05-06T06:30
William Bernstein talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his latest book, Masters of the Word. Bernstein traces the history of language, writing, and communication and its impact on freedom. T...
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Galbraith on Inequality from 2013-04-29T06:30
James Galbraith of the University of Texas and author of Inequality and Instability talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about inequality. Galbraith argues that much of the mainstream analysis of ...
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Glaeser on Cities from 2013-04-22T06:30
Edward Glaeser of Harvard University and author of The Triumph of Cities talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about American cities. The conversation begins with a discussion of the history of Det...
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Sachs on the Crisis, the Recovery, and the Future from 2013-04-15T06:30
Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University and author of The Price of Civilization talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of the American economy. Sachs sees the current malaise as a chron...
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Topol on the Creative Destruction of Medicine from 2013-04-01T06:30
Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Institute and the author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his book. Topics discussed include "evid...
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Sumner on Money, Business Cycles, and Monetary Policy from 2013-03-25T06:30
Scott Sumner of Bentley University and blogger at The Money Illusion talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the basics of money, monetary policy, and the Fed. After a discussion of some of the...
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Burgin on Hayek, Friedman, and the Great Persuasion from 2013-03-18T06:30
Angus Burgin of Johns Hopkins University and the author of The Great Persuasion talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the idea in his book--the return of free market economics in the aftermat...
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Searls on the Intention Economy from 2013-03-11T06:30
Doc Searls, author of The Intention Economy and head of Project VRM at Harvard University's Berkman Center talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the how the relationship between buyers and se...
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Leigh Steinberg on Sports, Agents, and Athletes from 2013-03-04T06:30
Leigh Steinberg, legendary sports agent, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his career as a sports agent. He discusses the challenges of building a clientele, how sports agents spend their...
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Varoufakis on Valve, Spontaneous Order, and the European Crisis from 2013-02-25T06:30
Yanis Varoufakis of the University of Athens, the University of Texas, and former economist-in-residence at Valve Software talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the unusual structure of the w...
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Glenn Reynolds on Politics, the Constitution, and Technology from 2013-02-18T06:30
Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee and blogger at Instapundit talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the political malaise in America, whether it could lead to a Constitutional Conv...
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Cathy O'Neil on Wall St and Occupy Wall Street from 2013-02-11T06:30
Cathy O'Neil, data scientist and blogger at mathbabe.org, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about her journey from Wall Street to Occupy Wall Street. She talks about her experiences on Wall Str...
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Seidman on the Constitution from 2013-02-04T06:30
Louis Michael Seidman of Georgetown University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the United States Constitution. Seidman argues that the we should ignore the Constitution in designing pub...
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Boettke on Living Economics from 2013-01-28T06:30
Peter Boettke of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book, Living Economics. Boettke argues for embracing the tradition of Smith and Hayek in both teaching and r...
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Kelly on the Future, Productivity, and the Quality of Life from 2013-01-21T06:30
Kevin Kelly talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about measuring productivity in the internet age and recent claims that the U.S. economy has entered a prolonged period of stagnation. Then the con...
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Esther Dyson on the Attention Economy and the Quantification of Everything from 2013-01-14T06:30
Esther Dyson talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the market for attention and how technology has changed, how much we pay attention to others, and vice versa. Along the way Dyson reminisces...
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Jerven on Measuring African Poverty and Progress from 2013-01-07T06:30
Morten Jerven of Simon Fraser University, author of Poor Numbers, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the quality of data coming out of Africa on income, growth, and population. Jerven argu...
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Pettit on the Prison Population, Survey Data and African-American Progress from 2012-12-31T06:30
Becky Pettit of the University of Washington and author of Invisible Men talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the growth of the prison population in the United States in recent decades. Pett...
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Lisa Turner on Organic Farming from 2012-12-24T06:30
Lisa Turner of Laughing Stock Farm talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about life as a small organic farmer. She describes her working day, the challenges of farming, the role of the U.S. Departm...
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Boudreaux on Reading Hayek from 2012-12-17T06:30
Don Boudreaux of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the work of F. A. Hayek, particularly his writings on philosophy and political economy. Boudreaux provides an au...
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Chris Anderson on Makers and Manufacturing from 2012-12-10T06:30
Chris Anderson, author of Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his new book--the story of how technology is transforming the manufacturing business. An...
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Mulligan on Redistribution, Unemployment, and the Labor Market from 2012-12-03T06:30
Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago and the author of The Redistribution Recession, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in the book. Mulligan argues that increases in the ...
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Angell on Big Pharma from 2012-11-26T06:30
Marcia Angell of Harvard Medical School and the author of The Truth About the Drug Companies talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the impact of pharmaceutical companies on academic research,...
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Cochrane on Health Care from 2012-11-19T06:30
John Cochrane of the University of Chicago and Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how existing regulations distort the market for health care. Coch...
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Munger on John Locke, Prices, and Hurricane Sandy from 2012-11-12T06:30
Mike Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the gas shortage following Hurricane Sandy and John Locke's view of the just price. Drawing on a short, obscure essay of L...
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Joshua Rauh on Public Pensions from 2012-11-05T06:30
Joshua Rauh, Professor of Finance at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about t...
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Hanke on Hyperinflation, Monetary Policy, and Debt from 2012-10-29T06:30
Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins and the Cato Institute talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about hyperinflation and the U.S. fiscal situation. Hanke argues that despite the seemingly aggressive poli...
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Rodden on the Geography of Voting from 2012-10-22T06:30
Jonathan Rodden, political science professor at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the geography of voting. The main focus is on the...
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Kling on Education and the Internet from 2012-10-15T06:30
Arnold Kling, economist and teacher, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about recent technological innovations in education and Kling's forecast for their impact on learning and how they might a...
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Garett Jones on Fisher, Debt, and Deflation from 2012-10-08T06:30
Garett Jones of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas of Irving Fisher on debt and deflation. In a book, Booms and Depressions and in a 1933 Econometrica art...
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Robert Skidelsky on Money, the Good Life, and How Much is Enough from 2012-10-01T06:30
Robert Skidelsky, noted biographer of John Maynard Keynes and author (with his son Edward) of the recently published How Much is Enough, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about materialism, gro...
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Frank and Roberts on Infrastructure from 2012-09-24T06:30
Robert Frank of Cornell University and EconTalk host Russ Roberts debate the merits of a large increase of infrastructure spending. In the summer of 2012, Frank and Roberts were interviewed by Alex...
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Paul Tough on How Children Succeed from 2012-09-17T06:30
Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about why children succeed and fail in school and beyond school. He argues that conscientiousness--a mixture of sel...
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Nosek on Truth, Science, and Academic Incentives from 2012-09-10T06:30
Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how incentives in academic life create a tension between truth-seeking and professional advancement. Nosek argu...
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Barofsky on Bailouts from 2012-09-03T06:30
Neil Barofsky, author of Bailout and the former Special Inspector General for the TARP program, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book and the government bailouts by the Bush and Obam...
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Roger Noll on the Economics of Sports from 2012-08-27T06:30
Roger Noll of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of sports. Noll discusses the economic effects of stadium subsidies, the labor market for athletes, the b...
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Ohanian on the Great Recession and the Labor Market from 2012-08-20T06:30
Lee Ohanian of UCLA talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the recession, the recovery, and the state of labor market. Ohanian describes the unusual aspects of this recession and recovery in t...
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Frisby on Tax Reform from 2012-08-13T06:30
Tammy Frisby of Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the likelihood of U.S. tax reform in the near future. Frisby reviews the changes in tax policy o...
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Ober on the Ancient Greek Economy from 2012-08-06T06:30
Josiah Ober of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economy of ancient Greece, particularly Athens. Ober notes that the standard view of ancient Greece is that it was...
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Scott Atlas on American Health Care from 2012-07-30T06:30
Scott Atlas, Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and author of In Excellent Health, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the U.S. health care system. Atlas argues that ...
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Brady on the 2012 US Election from 2012-07-23T06:30
David Brady, Professor of Political Science and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts abo...
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Taubes on Why We Get Fat from 2012-07-16T06:30
Gary Taubes, author of Why We Get Fat, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about why we get fat and the nature of evidence in a complex system. The current mainstream view is that we get fat beca...
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Stiglitz on Inequality from 2012-07-09T06:30
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his recent book, The Price of Inequality. Stiglitz argues that the American economy is...
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Zingales on Capitalism and Crony Capitalism from 2012-07-02T06:30
Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago and author of A Capitalism for the People talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his book. Zingales argues that the financial sector ha...
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Manzi on Knowledge, Policy, and Uncontrolled from 2012-06-18T06:30
Jim Manzi, author of Uncontrolled, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the reliability of science and the ideas in his book. Manzi argues that unlike science, which can produce useful resul...
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Jonah Lehrer on Creativity and Imagine from 2012-06-11T06:30
Jonah Lehrer, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Imagine: How Creativity Works, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the science of creativity. They discuss focusing vs. ignoring ...
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Yong on Science, Replication, and Journalism from 2012-06-04T06:30
Ed Yong, science writer and blogger at "Not Exactly Rocket Science" at Discover Magazine, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the challenges of science and science journalism. Yong was rece...
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Bruce Bueno de Mesquita on Democracies and Dictatorships from 2007-02-12T06:15
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of NYU and Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks about the incentives facing dictators and democratic leaders. Both have to face competition from rivals. Both try t...
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Milton Friedman on Money from 2006-08-28T07:30
Russ Roberts talks with Milton Friedman about his research and views on inflation, the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, and what the future holds.
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Milton Friedman on Money from 2006-08-28T07:30
Russ Roberts talks with Milton Friedman about his research and views on inflation, the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, and what the future holds.
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Milton Friedman on Money from 2006-08-28T07:30
Russ Roberts talks with Milton Friedman about his research and views on inflation, the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, and what the future holds.
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