Tag: EconTalk

Tyler Cowen on Talent

EconTalk | 15 August 2022 | 1h 01m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Tyler Cowen about his book Talent, co-authored with Daniel Gross. Discusses how (and how not) to identify the talented. Explains why, for high-level positions, unstructured interviews are important, why stamina is usually preferable to grit, and why credentials are largely a relic of the past.

Gerd Gigerenzer on How to Stay Smart in a Smart World

EconTalk | 1 August 2022 | 1h 08m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Gerd Gigerenzer about his book How to Stay Smart in a Smart World: Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms. Explains why computers aren’t nearly as smart as we think; argues that when it comes to life-and-death decisions, we’ll always need real, not artificial, brains; and suggests that human beings need to get smarter in order to avoid being manipulated by people who use AI for their own ends.

Vinay Prasad on the Pandemic

EconTalk | 18 July 2022 | 1h 27m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Vinay Prasad about what we learned and didn’t learn from covid so far and how we should handle a future pandemic. Considers whether the risk of myocarditis is greater than the vaccination benefit for a healthy male teen; whether natural immunity is better than vaccination; and whether we were right to mask children.

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan on Immigration Then and Now

EconTalk | 4 July 2022 | 1h 13m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan about their book Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success. Discusses the data sources and analysis they used to show that today’s immigrants and their children are surprisingly similar to yesterday’s. New immigrants take decades to catch up economically, but their kids on average thrive economically and have higher rates of upward mobility than American-born kids.

Matti Friedman on Leonard Cohen and the Yom Kippur War

EconTalk | 6 June 2022 | 1h 09m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Matti Friedman about his book Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai. Explains how songwriter Lenny Cohen and Israel were transformed in the crucible of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Tamar Haspel on First-Hand Food

EconTalk | 28 February 2022 | 1h 04m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Tamar Haspel about her book To Boldly Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure, and Dinner in Your Own Backyard. Discusses what she learned from her quest to eat at least one thing she’d grown, caught, or killed every day. Reflects on the joy of learning and acquiring new skills to solve problems.

Luca Dellanna on Compulsion, Self-deception, and the Brain

EconTalk | 21 February 2022 | 1h 17m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Luca Dellanna about his book The Control Heuristic: The Nature of Human Behavior. Argues that the gatekeeper in our brain decides which thoughts to action based on the expected emotional outcome.

This is very insightful on human behavior. It reminds me of the episode with Robin Hanson about The Elephant in the Brain.