Category: Society

Michael Muthukrishna: A Theory of Everyone

The Dissenter | 25 September 2023 | 1h 40m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Michael Muthukrishna about his book A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going. Discusses the premise of the book; the four laws of life: energy, innovation, cooperation, and evolution; how cooperation expands in human societies, and what distinguishes us from other animals; intelligence and IQ, and the collective brain and the idea of “genius”; the importance of institutions and cultural norms, and the role of ideas; multiculturalism, and how to solve the “paradox of diversity”; our current energy ceiling, and the problems that derive from it and how to solve them; and the challenges of studying human behavior cross-culturally.

It’s finally here! Michael Muthkrishna launches what will surely be the most important book this year in conversation with Matthew Syed at the London School of Economics, 28 September at 6:30 pm. You can watch remotely or afterwards on LSE’s YouTube channel.

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When Did Marriage Become a Luxury Good?

Freakonomics Radio | 21 September 2023 | 1h 02m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Melissa Kearney about her book The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind. Describes the problem of changing marriage patterns and the benefits of growing up in a two-parent household – and argues that it’s time for liberals to face these facts.

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The Future of Talking: A Discussion with Shane O’Mara

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones | 26 August 2023 | 0h 41m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Shane O Mara about his book Talking Heads: the New Science of How Conversation Shapes our Worlds. Discusses the purpose of conversation, both for the individual and for society; what happens in our brains as we converse, and the role of conversation in creating communities.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Anna Funder: How George Orwell Wrote His Wife Out of His Story

Saturday Morning | 4 August 2023 | 0h 52m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Anna Funder about her book Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life. Describes her work blending forensic research, fiction, life writing and criticism to put George Orwell’s wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, back into his story. Discusses Eileen’s contributions to Orwell’s life and work.

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Mindbending Experiments: How Drugs Shaped Modern Science

History Extra | 17 April 2023 | 0h 33m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Mike Jay about his book Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind. Discusses formative experiments in drug taking from the 19C when cannabis, cocaine and heroin were widely available over the counter at the local chemist. Respected scientists and doctors tested out laughing gas and chloroform on their friends at dinner parties, while philosophers and artists dabbled in drug use to try and unlock different states of consciousness and even access the spirit world.

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