Conversations with Tyler Archives

Jared Diamond – Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings

(When) Do Leaders Matter?

Interview with Jared Diamond about his book Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Matter? Argues that few leaders are truly irreplaceable over the long run, with external factors like geography and environmental conditions often being more decisive than individual charisma – for example, the impact of weather on Genghis Khan’s success, or the lack of centralisation in Papua New Guinea. Explores leadership across politics, business, and sport, emphasising the need for a charismatic founder, an organiser, and a general in religious movements. Highlights the importance of direct, face-to-face communication for effective leadership and negotiation skills.

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Julia Ioffe – Motherland

A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy

Interview with Julia Ioffe about her book Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy. Explores Russia’s unique historical trajectory for women, from the radical pre-Bolshevik intelligentsia to early legalisation of abortion. Explains how post-WWII demographics and Stalinist policies shaped a hyper-competent superwoman archetype, yet created a society with low expectations for men. Delves into how these ingrained gender roles – including the ritual of giving flowers – contribute to contemporary Russian authoritarianism and nationalism.

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You will enjoy this all the more with the context that Tyler Cowen is married to a woman from Russia. See also The Brian Lehrer Show episode.

Joel Mokyr – Two Paths to Prosperity

Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000

Interview with Joel Mokyr about his book Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000, co-authored with Avner Greif and Guido Tabellini. Argues that Europe’s divergence from China stems from differing social organisations: European corporations versus Chinese clans for local public goods. The Catholic Church weakened extended families in Europe, fostering non-kin cooperation like universities and guilds. Conversely, China’s imperial bureaucracy leveraged local clans. This cultural shift led to Europe’s embrace of intellectual property rights and a concept of progress, driving technological advancement. The “Industrial Enlightenment” – applying scientific knowledge for material betterment – propelled Europe, contrasting with China’s technological stagnation after 1400.

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See also the episode with Guido Tabellini.

Arthur Brooks – The Meaning of Your Life

Conversations with Tyler | 1 April 2026 | 0h 59m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Arthur Brooks about his book The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. Argues that happiness isn’t a feeling but a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning – the macronutrients of happiness – and that most of us are gorging on the wrong ones.

See also episodes about other Arthur Brooks books.

Joe Studwell on Africa, Asia, and What Development Actually Requires

Conversations with Tyler | 18 February 2026 | 0h 53m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Joe Studwell about his book How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Developmental Frontier. Explores whether population density actually solves development, which African countries are likely to achieve stable growth, whether Africa has a manufacturing future, why state infrastructure projects decay while farmer-led irrigation thrives, what progress looks like in education and public health, whether charter cities or special economic zones can work, how permanent Africa’s colonial borders really are, what Japan and South Korea will do about depopulation, why industrial policy worked in East Asia but failed in India and Brazil, and what went wrong in Thailand.

See also the Works in Progress book review.

Diarmaid MacCulloch on Christianity, Sex, and Unsettling Settled Facts

Conversations with Tyler | 21 January 2026 | 0h 59m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Diarmaid MacCulloch about his book Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity. Discusses whether monotheism correlates with monogamy, Christianity’s early instinct towards egalitarianism, what the Eucharistic revolution reveals about the cathedral building boom, the role of Mary in Christianity and Islam, where Michel Foucault went wrong on sexuality, the significance of the clerical family replacing the celibate monk, why Elizabeth I – not Henry VIII – mattered most for the English Reformation, why English Renaissance music began so brilliantly but then needed to start importing Germans, whether Christianity needs hell to survive, and more.

Dan Wang on What China and America Can Learn from Each Other

Conversations with Tyler | 3 December 2025 | 1h 32m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Dan Wang about his book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future. Discusses his thesis that the US is a nation of lawyers while China is a nation of engineers. Argues America’s lawyerly focus causes broken infrastructure, suggesting the US become 20% more engineering-minded. Conversely, China’s engineering mindset, coupled with oppressive state power, stifles creativity, and recommends China be 50% more lawyerly to establish liberal constraints. Also covers US-China competition, infrastructure buildouts, China’s lack of democratization, and regional culture debates like Shanghai versus Beijing.

Jonny Steinberg – Winnie and Nelson

Conversations with Tyler | 28 October 2025 | 0h 55m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Jonny Steinberg about his book Winnie and Nelson and his other books on South Africa. Discusses why South African police only feel comfortable responding to domestic violence calls, how to fix policing, the ghettoization of crime, how prison gangs regulate behavior through century-old rituals, how apartheid led to mass incarceration and how it manifested in prisons, why Nelson Mandela never really knew his wife Winnie and the many masks they each wore, what went wrong with the ANC, why the judiciary maintained its independence but not its quality, the art scene in Johannesburg, how COVID gave statism a new lease on life, his forthcoming biography of Cecil Rhodes, why English families weren’t foolish to move to Rhodesia in the 1920s, where to take an ideal two-week trip around South Africa, and more.

See also the interview with Jonny Steinberg about Winnie and Nelson on The Clement Manyathela Show.