Tag: Politics

Michael Munger on Crony Capitalism

EconTalk | 25 February 2019 | 1h 10m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Michael Munger, co-author of The Road to Crony Capitalism. Debates whether capitalism is unstable and inevitably leads to crony capitalism. Includes an eloquent explanation of why the 2008 bailouts have undermined faith in capitalism.

Irish Questions

Analysis | 25 February 2019 | 0h 28m | Listen Later | iTunes
Edward Stourton sets out the long history of Irish political, social, cultural and economic issues influencing and shaping UK politics. Covers the Acts of Union in 1800, the Catholic Emancipation in the 1820s, the 1840s Irish potato famine, Catholic clerical education, the campaign for Home Rule leading ultimately to the War of Irish Independence in the twentieth century and the bloody establishment of the Irish Free State, as well as the Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Considers what lessons these episodes may hold for today’s Westminster politicians and how to imagine the Anglo-Irish future.

Roger McNamee: Every Tech Billionaire’s Mentor

The James Altucher Show | 14 February 2019 | 0h 54m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Roger McNamee, founding partner of venture capital firm Elevation Partners and author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. Anecdotes and perspective on tech startups based on mentoring Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Insights about Facebook and the 2016 election and the way Facebook and Google gather data to manipulate our attention to their ends.

Robert Sapolsky on the Toxic Intersection of Poverty and Stress

The Ezra Klein Show | 25 January 2019 | 1h 21m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with neuroscientist and primatologist Robert Sapolsky based on his book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. Principally about how the stress of poverty affects people’s minds but also covers whether free will is a myth, why he believes the prison system is incompatible with modern neuroscience, and inferences about politics from studying baboons.

The Most Ambitious Thing Humans Have Ever Attempted

Freakonomics Radio | 26 April 2018 | 0h 51m | Listen Later 
Conversation with Atul Gawande, cancer surgeon, public-health researcher, and best-selling author. The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country, with so-so outcomes. Discusses Gawande’s simple ideas for treating a painfully complex system.

Frances Lee on Why Bipartisanship is Irrational

The Ezra Klein Show | 21 January 2019 | 1h 03m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with political scientist Frances Lee, author of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign. Suggests that the bipartisanship required structurally by America’s governance arrangements is irrational when there is not a long-term majority party.

Robert Caro on the Art of Political Power

Intelligence Squared | 30 October 2015 | 1h 11m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with Robert Caro, covering the highlights of his biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, perhaps the most highly regarded works of political biography.

What the West Got Wrong About China

The Daily | 4 December 2018 | 0h 20m | Listen Later  | iTunes
The West was certain that China would not pull off its economic experiment. That certainty came from a set of assumptions about how societies function and political freedoms emerge: that economic freedom required political freedom and that the internet would undermine party authority. But those assumptions proved wrong — and China became stronger than ever.