Darwin Comes to Town

Quirks & Quarks | 26 October 2018 | 0h 16m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Menno Schilthuizen about his book “Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution.” Backgrounds examples of very rapid evolution as animals and plants adapt rapidly to expanding cities.

Ten things girls need most

RNZ: It Takes A Village | 5 April 2017 | 0h 25m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with psychologist, parent educator and writer Steve Biddulph about his book “10 Things Girls Need Most.” Argues that girlhood has become more lonely, pressured and unkind at the same time that adults are less available to support their daughters.

Claude Shannon and Information Theory

Hidden Forces | 11 June 2018 | 0h 57m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Jimmy Soni, author of “A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age.” Provides an accessible introduction to the key ideas in information theory, packaged into the story of Shannon’s life.

Andrea Wulf – The Invention of Nature

Channel History Hit | 26 February 2017 | 1h 10m | Listen Later 
Speech by Andrea Wulf about the ideas and adventures of scientist Alexander von Humboldt, the subject of her book “The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science”, which won the 2015 Costa and Royal Society Prize.

Anne Applebaum: Red Famine

Spectator Books | 21 September 2017 | 0h 24m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Anne Applebaum, author of “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine”, which marshalls the evidence that the 1930s famine in Ukraine was intentional.

Is the Protestant Work Ethic Real?

Freakonomics Radio | 6 July 2018 | 0h 40m | Listen Later  | iTunes
In the early 20th century, Max Weber argued that Protestantism created wealth. Finally, there are data to appraise whether he was right. All it took were some missionary experiments in the Philippines and a clever map-matching trick that goes back to 16th-century Germany.

Housing Affordability: Top-Down Design and Spontaneous Order

The Success Project – Development Research Institute | 12 January 2016 | 0h 26m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Alain Bertaud discussing how solutions to creating more affordable housing can arise spontaneously and independent of top-down government planning. Sets out what cities that rely less on planning teach us about the right role for government in improving housing affordability and development overall.

James Robinson on Why Nations Fail

Social Science Bites | 3 December 2018 | 0h 18m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with James Robinson, co-author of “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.” Considers and refutes traditional explanations for the inequality between rich and poor countries. Makes the case for inclusive institutions being critical to creating economic success.