The History of Bell Labs With Jon Gertner

FourWeekMBA | 2 March 2023 | 1h 00m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Jon Gertner about his book The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation. Discusses the history of Bell Labs, digging into the factors responsible for its role as an incubator of innovation and birthplace of many influential technologies.

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Why ‘Progress’ is Bad for Women – Mary Harrington

TRIGGERnometry | 6 March 2023 | 1h 12m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Mary Harrington about her book Feminism against Progress. Argues that social progress for women has been driven by market needs rather than the moral case for equality, that technology is curbing the effects of physical sex differences, that feminism has been captured by well-off white-collar women, and warns of the negative effects for most women of the commodification of women’s bodies, pornography, hormonal birth control, and the removal of social protections for women.

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Ezra Klein on Supply-Side Progressivism

“Upstream” with Erik Torenberg | 7 April 2023 | 1h 27m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Ezra Klein discussing the intellectual movement of supply-side liberalism, what Silicon Valley misunderstands about politics, the abundance agenda, immigration and free trade, institutional distrust, polarisation, and more.

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Tibor Rutar – Capitalism for Realists

Ideas Having Sex | 13 March 2023 | 1h 15m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Tibor Rutar about his book Capitalism for Realists: Virtues and Vices of the Modern Economy. Analyzes the costs and benefits of capitalism using a straightforward and empirical framework, evaluating key arguments for the causes of the Industrial Revolution along the way.

See also The Dissenter interview.

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Omer Moav on the Emergence of the State

EconTalk | 6 March 2023 | 1h 02m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Omer Moav about his paper The Origin of the State: Land Productivity or Appropriability?, co-authored with Joram Mayshar and Luigi Pascali. Argues that it wasn’t farming but the farming of storable crops (but not others) that led to hierarchy and the State. Also discusses why it’s important to understand the past and the challenges of confirming or refuting theories about history.

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Progress, Petroleum, and the Future with Brad Harris

Narratives w/Will Jarvis | 23 August 2021 | 0h 52m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Brad Harris discussing the story of the industrial revolution and how petroleum has been important for the development of humanity.

Brad Harris used to publish one of my favourite podcasts, Context with Brad Harris, which considered the historical forces behind humanity’s progress.

 

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Combining Science and Technology for Growth feat. Joel Mokyr

unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc | 24 February 2023 | 1h 03m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Joel Mokyr about his book A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy. Discusses how science and technology evolved in ways that reinforced each other; the connections between the industrial and scientific revolutions and between scientific discovery and technological adaptation; the decline of the guilds in England and the subsequent diffusion of English artisans and mechanics across Europe; and more.

 

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Edward Conard – From Capitalism To Talentism

unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc | 30 January 2023 | 1h 05m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Edward Conard about the reasons why the US is producing a lot more innovation than other parts of the world. Backgrounds the economy changing from capital-intensive manufacturing to knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven fields that increase demand for high skilled workers. Discusses ways to increase wages for middle and working classes. Draws from his books The Upside of Inequality and Unintended Consequences.

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