The Dissenter | 7 August 2023 | 1h 39m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Tibor Rutar about his book Rational Choice and Democratic Government: A Sociological Approach. Discusses the rise and spread of democracy, the recent “democratic recession”, the 2008 economic crisis; rational choice theory, self-interest, and incentives; how much we should worry about average voters being uninformed; how market failure and government failure occur; where public choice analyses fail; whether democracy contributes to peace; and whether we should expect liberal-democratic capitalist societies to be more successful than authoritarian state-capitalist societies.
Category: Politics
The City That Sold Itself To Wall Street
Cautionary Tales | 1 September 2023 | 0h 38m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
First tells the cautionary tale, from Henry Grabar’s book, Paved Paradise, of what went wrong when the Chicago City Council leased its parking meters to Morgan Stanley. Then finishes with an interview with Grabar about the wider lessons on why parking is such an emotive issue for so many people.
Nicholas Hoover Wilson on Modernity’s Corruption
Asian Review of Books | 17 August 2023 | 0h 45m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Nicholas Hoover Wilson about his book Modernity’s Corruption: Empire and Morality in the Making of British India. Uses East India Company rule in India, and Robert Clive’s behaviour in particular, to examine how society’s view of corruption changed–from something governed by one’s situation, to a behaviour that violates a universal code of ethics.
The Rise and Fall of the East, Yasheng Huang
Rocking Our Priors | 29 August 2023 | 1h 00m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Yasheng Huang about his book The Rise and Fall of the East: Examination, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology. Discusses why the Chinese Communist Party is so resilient, how the keju imperial examinations shaped Chinese autocracy and culture, and what South Korea tells us about growth, democratisation and culture.
The Conversations with Tyler interview is also worth listening to.
How Rich Neighborhoods Excluded the Poor ft. Richard Kahlenberg
The New Liberal Podcast | 15 August 2023 | 0h ??m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Richard Kahlenberg about his book Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism, and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See. Discusses how ‘snob zoning’ was used to create a class-based discrimination system that replaced race-based discrimination, the benefits of having more class-integrated neighborhoods, and the most important political obstacles to overcome in order to build more housing.
Clive James on Cultural Amnesia, Totalitarianism, and his Remarkable Career
Writers and Company | 28 August 2022 | 0h 52m | Listen Later
2008 interview with Clive James about his book Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts. Discusses his life and work, many of the greatest thinkers and their lessons that we keep having to relearn, and the need for humanist values.
Ronan Farrow on the Rule of Elon Musk
The Political Scene | The New Yorker | 23 August 2023 | 0h 32m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Ronan Farrow about his New Yorker article Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule. Discusses how Musk has become an essential yet unofficial part of American governance, holding the keys to the green transition, the space race, and even the war in Ukraine. The reason for this, Farrow explains, is not Musk’s outrageous personality; it’s the structures of neoliberal capitalism that allowed a person like Musk to ascend.
For the record, I think Musk deserves more appreciation than criticism.
5 Easy Ways to Save the World – Bjorn Lomborg
TRIGGERnometry | 2 July 2023 | 1h 07m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Bjorn Lomborg about his book Best Things First: The 12 most efficient solutions for the world’s poorest and our global SDG promises. Discusses effective solutions to the world’s greatest challenges and how they can be implemented in a relatively inexpensive manner.