Stephen Kotkin on Solzhenitsyn

EconTalk | 14 January 2019 | 1h 00m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with historian and author Stephen Kotkin about the historical significance of the life and work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Also has insights on Russia, Stalin and the role of culture in politics.

Daniel Kahneman on Cutting Through the Noise

Conversations with Tyler | 19 December 2018 | 1h 09m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Daniel Kahneman about bias, noise, happiness, memory, the replication crisis in psychology, advice to CEOs about improving decision-making, superforecasters, the influence of Freud, working in a second language, the value of intuition, and why he can’t help you win arguments with a spouse.

All In

Planet Money | 9 January 2019 | 0h 20m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Tells the story of a big payday for a losing poker player to background the way professional poker players stake each other and trade stakes in each others’ winnings.

Marc Levinson On “An Extraordinary Time”

Reader’s Corner | 20 October 2017 | 0h 29m | Listen Later 
Interview with Marc Levinson about the ideas in An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy. Disentangles the secular forces behind the transition from rapid post-war economic growth to the much slower growth thereafter.

Using Mental Models to Make Better Decisions

The Art of Manliness | 7 January 2019 | 0h 59m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Shane Parrish of Farnam Street about his overarching decision making philosophy. Explains what mental models are, why they’re a powerful tool to make better decisions, why you should focus on being consistently not stupid instead of trying to be consistently brilliant, and tactics you can use to make better decisions.

Why the West Rules – For Now, by Ian Morris

Context with Brad Harris | 9 January 2019 | 1h 31m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Distils the ideas in Why the West Rules – For Now by Ian Morris. Suggests that the interactions of human biology, sociology, and geography reveal a fundamental pattern in history that lets us answer historical questions like why the West rules for now, and what will happen next.

Why Mathematics is at the Heart of Life

RNZ: Jesse Mulligan | 6 June 2017 | 0h 24m | Listen Later 
Interview with Geoffrey West, author of Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies. West explains that the basic mathematical laws of physics governing growth in the physical world apply equally to biological, political and corporate organisms.

Hard Words: Why Aren’t Our Kids Being Taught to Read?

Educate | 10 September 2018 | 0h 52m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Scientific research has demonstrated that phonics is critical to teaching children how to read. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.