Conversations with Tyler | 23 August 2023 | 0h 58m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen on the 20th anniversary of Marginal Revolution. Discusses MR’s legacy, including the golden age of blogging in the mid-2000s, the decline of independent blogs and the rise of social media, the robust community—and even marriage—forged through MR, favorite commenters, how MR catalyzed separate real-world pandemic responses by each of them, what’s happened to Tyrone, whether the site’s popularity has tempted them into self-censoring, and more.
Tag: Conversations with Tyler
Paul Graham on Ambition, Art, and Evaluating Talent
Conversations with Tyler | 9 August 2023 | 0h 55m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Paul Graham discussing what areas of talent judgment his wife is better at, whether young founders have gotten rarer, whether he still takes a dim view of solo founders, how to 2x ambition in the developed world, on the minute past which a Y Combinator interviewer is unlikely to change their mind, what YC learned after rejecting companies, how he got over his fear of flying, Florentine history, why almost all good artists are underrated, what’s gone wrong in art, why new homes and neighborhoods are ugly, why he wants to visit the Dark Ages, why he’s optimistic about Britain and San Fransisco, the challenges of regulating AI, whether we’re underinvesting in high-cost interruption activities, walking, soundproofing, fame, and more.
Reid Hoffman on the Possibilities of AI
Conversations with Tyler | 28 June 2023 | 1h 01m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Reid Hoffman about his book Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI. Discusses the optimal liability regime for LLMs, autonomous money-making bots, regulating AI, how AI will affect the media ecosystem and the communication of ideas, whether AI’s future will be open-source or proprietary, what he’d ask a dolphin, how higher education will change, and more.
Peter Singer on Utilitarianism, Influence, and Controversial Ideas
Conversations with Tyler | 7 June 2023 | 0h 52m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Peter Singer discussing utilitarianism, the meat-eater problem, why he might side with aliens over humans, at what margins he would police nature, the utilitarian approach to secularism and abortion, the Journal of Controversial Ideas, Effective Altruism, Derek Parfit, to what extent we should respect the wishes of the dead, why professional philosophy is so boring, how to enjoy our lives, and more. Draws from his book Animal Liberation Now: The Definitive Classic Renewed.
Jess Wade on Chiral Materials, Open Knowledge, and Representation in STEM
Conversations with Tyler | 5 April 2023 | 0h 56m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Jessica Wade discussing gender stereotypes in science, ways to encourage women in science, her work editing Wikipedia entries and how Wikipedia should be improved, how she’d improve science funding, her work on chiral materials and its near-term applications, whether writing a kid’s science book should be rewarded in academia, and more.
The episode mentions her kid’s science book, Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small, which sounds like a good buy for the young people in your life.
Ashoka Mody on India is Broken
Top Traders Unplugged | 22 March 2023 | 1h 04m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Ashoka Mody about his book India is Broken: A People Betrayed, Independence to Today. Argues that there are two Indias, a successful, highly skilled and educated elite and a billion-plus population that remains very poor. Suggests that this dangerous equilibrium is maintained by a close link between the government, big business and, in some cases, organized crime. This association produces projects that attract capital and headlines but leaves an employment deficit of over 100 million jobs.
Brad DeLong on Intellectual and Technical Progress
Conversations with Tyler | 2 February 2023 | 0h 47m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Brad DeLong about his book Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century. Discusses what can really be gleaned from the fragmentary economics statistics of the late 19th century, the remarkable changes that occurred from 1870–1920, the astonishing flourishing of German universities in the 19th century, why investment banking allowed America and Germany to pull ahead of Britain economically, what enabled the Royal Society to become a force for progress, what Keynes got wrong, what Hayek got right, whether the middle-income trap persists, and more.
Katherine Rundell on the Art of Words
Conversations with Tyler | 11 January 2023 | 0h 53m | Listen Later |
Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Katherine Rundell about her book Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. Discusses how she became obsessed with John Donne, the power of memorizing poetry, the political implications of suicide in the 17th century, the new evidence of Donne’s faith, the contagious intensity of thought in 17th-century British life, the effect of the plague on the national consciousness, the brutality of boys’ schooling, and more.