EconTalk

By: Russ Roberts
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  • Summary

  • EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious is an award-winning weekly podcast hosted by Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford's Hoover Institution. The eclectic guest list includes authors, doctors, psychologists, historians, philosophers, economists, and more. Learn how the health care system really works, the serenity that comes from humility, the challenge of interpreting data, how potato chips are made, what it's like to run an upscale Manhattan restaurant, what caused the 2008 financial crisis, the nature of consciousness, and more. EconTalk has been taking the Monday out of Mondays since 2006. All 900+ episodes are available in the archive. Go to EconTalk.org for transcripts, related resources, and comments.
    Copyright 2006-2025
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Education Philosophy Science Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • Coase, the Rules of the Game, and the Costs of Perfection (with Daisy Christodoulou)

    Coase, the Rules of the Game, and the Costs of Perfection (with Daisy Christodoulou)
    Feb 3 2025

    Surely perfection is better than imperfection. But applying technology to improve decision-making can backfire. Listen as ed-tech innovator Daisy Christodoulou and EconTalk's Russ Roberts talk about the costs of seeking perfection when technology is used to improve refereeing in sports. They also talk about ways to embrace imperfection and how the economist Ronald Coase can help us understand the power of the rules of the game, both in sports and in life.
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Why AI Is Good for Humans (with Reid Hoffman)

    Why AI Is Good for Humans (with Reid Hoffman)
    Jan 27 2025

    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 is going to be great for humanity. Listen as he talks about his book Superagency with EconTalk's Russ Roberts and argues that the future is bright not just for AI, but for the people who remake the world using it.
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • Weep, Shudder, Die: The Secret of Opera Revealed (with Dana Gioia)

    Weep, Shudder, Die: The Secret of Opera Revealed (with Dana Gioia)
    Jan 20 2025

    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 explains to EconTalk's Russ Roberts why words matter more than we think, in both opera and on Broadway.
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    1 hr and 19 mins

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